Last weekend was a long weekend in the NSW state Australia so Sanna and I booked a holiday away somewhere hot and tropicial but not international so it was cheaper. Sanna was up in Brisbane for work for the late part of the week so I flew up on Friday night to meet up with her in Noosa just 1 hours drive South West to the coast.

In the morning we left our hotel in Noosa and drove to Fraser island which is 1 hours drive north. Fraser island is famous for being made totally of sand. There is no rock on the island at all, all the plants and tree’s roots hold the island together to stop it from falling apart and washing into the sea.

 

As soon as we got there we went for a walk to a lovely lake, it was very hot near to the 30’s, coming out of winter this felt really hot to us.

 

 

 

There were some huge sand dunes like small deserts patched around the island. This long stretch fo sand led to a beautiful lagoon.

 

 

 

The lagoon was just truely beautiful, one side huge sands and the other a forest of tree’s.

 

 

 

 lovely photo I took as we walked away from the lagoon in the middle of the desert looking back.

 

 

 

 

A little bit of paradise all around

 

 

 

 

Surveying the path beyond

 

 

 

Here are some of the locals pushing their truck through one of the deep sand channels. Unfortunatly this channel was one of the main routes across the island so they had to use it and everyone was getting stuck, very funny to watch.

 

 

A major landmark of Fraser Island is the shipwreck of the S.S. Maheno. The S.S. Maheno was originally built in 1905 in Scotland as a luxury passenger ship for trans-Tasman crossings. 

 

 

The wreck was very interesting to wander around, time had eroded it very well, it was once a very large ship.

 

 

 

We spotted a dingo whilst driving along the beach, they were very common at around 2000 on the island at their peak, but there were a few attacks on humans and so the government made a huge issue of it and they were culled down to now a figure of just 200.

 

 

Day 1 was over and We started day 2 after breakfast with a short 20 minute flight over the island and the sea to spot some marine wildlife.

 

 

 

Look there’s the lagoon we walked to and had a swim in on day 1, looks just as beautiful form up here.

 

 

 

 

These plants are called Antler ferms and they are plant parasites that stick to the tree from a seed carried on the wind. They grow in this shape collecting any leaves or small bugs that drop from the tree and consume it for food. If you look carefully you’ll even see it has legs!

 

 

 

 

What out killer dingos about!

 

 

 

 

The only way to get about the island is via a series of sandy tracks through the middle of the island. These are VERY rough and play havoc with the suspension of the 4WD’s as you drive about the island.

 

 

I had good fun sitting up the front of the 4WD tour bus talking to the driver as we were drivng down the bumpy dirt tracks.

 

 

 

Driving along the beach for endless kilometres, the beach is the fastest way to get around the island as opposed to driving on the inland tracks.

 

 

 

On the third day we left Fraser Island and drove an hour South to the coast front town of Noosa. We deceided to hire bikes for the day to explore the coast and town.

 

 

 

On the cliffs walk we spotted a some dolphins.

 

 

 

This is a view of Noosa from a lookout we cycled up to.

 

 

A lovely holiday, very relaxing and felt worlds away from Sydney and was really good fun 🙂

Hi yah all,
Sanna and I made longish road trip out into the countryside past the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney. We covered 660km’s in 2 days, I drove 550km’s of that and was great fun getting a good distance run in the car. We were battered by wind and rainstorms as winter in Sydney is starting to say its goodbyes and the car stood up well and got us home warm and safely.
I met up with Ben from the Lotus Elise’s forum on-line who arranged some cheap accommodation, when I say cheap it wasn’t rubbish, far from it, it was a 2 floor, sleeps 5-6, really nice huge apartment (huge by Sydney standards) for half price. He arranged for me to have secure parking underground for the car for the night too. He had a lovely Yellow Elise 111S model. 5 years difference between his Lotus Elise and mine but from the outside you just wouldn’t know. It’s a tribute to cars design when they don’t change it or change very little over the years, just like the Porsche 911, refined for over 20 years now.

Bathurst is famous for its racetrack being the biggest and most famous in all of Australia’s motor racing history. Although its hours and hours drive from Sydney and days drive from anywhere else, people drive there in their 1000’s during the V8 Supercars race season known as the Bathurst 1000.
Here we took to the track as normally it is a 2 way public road limited to 60kph. The police check the straights for speeding but never the twisty upper ‘mountain’ section where we had some fun.



As I took Ben around in my car to see the difference 5 years of design improvements can make to a car, Sanna drove his car, she said it was VERY nosey, which it was as it was fitted with a special exhaust from Europe, made mine sound like a Mini Metro with its standard exhaust!

In Big W (that’s Woolworths in the UK) we found Sanna’s model of the family, her niece Basima, she did some modelling for big W and is in all their stores and in the catalogue too, good on her, but I think the one of the left is cute’r 

The last highlight was that Ben who I had never met in person before said that he found out that the new Porsche GT3 RS is my current dream car and being his family is in the picture/art business he framed up a lovely photo for me for a surprise and gave it to me as a present, I was really chuffed!

Our holiday to Europe and Austria was for 8 days skiing for Sanna and snowboarding for me along with the parents and our good Austrian friends the Mosbuger family.
Here we are in the lovely soft snow, we arrive in the tiny village where we were staying in a valley called Donnasbach

Ahhh lovely snowy walks in the snowy countryside

Sanna and I inside the parents hut warming up and just about to start breakfast before we goto the slopes.

Some Austrian salami and smoked ham, some of the meats they have for breakfast.

Some nice faces being pulled:
Vici Mosburger

Sanna

and mum

Franz Mosburger in the huts kitchen, cooking up a Austrian Feast like he always does well

Dad having a paddy cos he spilt Red wine on his tablecloth

Mr Alex Mosberger

The Mosburgers getting off the main chairlift of Donnasbach, Vici, Alex and Bridgete

Everybody having lunch together at the top of the mountain in a alcoholic hut

Looking down to the small Donnasbach vald village from halfway up the mountain

Sanna having some fun in the deep snow as we explored off-piste into a valley making our way through the tree’s down the valley.

I found this hunters lookout whilst exploring off-piste in a valley. I climbed up to have a good look around to see where we were. It was all made of just roughly cut down tree’s and some nails

The dreaded (well for dad) night time sleigh ride. Right at the bottom on the really fast bit Dad came off the back, hit the back of his head knocking him for six. He spent the following 2 days in Schladming’s hospital.

These are the huts that we stayed at in the village. We kept warm with log fires from the -5 to -10 that was outside at night.

and our snow covered cars that we would often find covered in a fresh layer of snow from overnight.

A nice close-up of some of the fresh morning snow and ice on the branches of a tree.

We visited poor dad in hospital where he was for 2 days the doctors wouldn’t let him leave. He had a sign over his bed for 24 hours to say NO FOOD, haha that was hard work for Dad 🙂

Nearer the end of the trip we went the massive Austrian ski resort of Schladming. These are the 4 turbo Gondolas that go really quickly from near the bottom to the top of the main mountain. On the left you can see in the distance down below the old town of Schladming.

Yummy lunchtime food up the mountain, this was baked potatoes with bits of chicken breast in spices with sourcream and garlic and chives sauce yummy.

We shared for pudding a local dessert made up of thick cooked pancakes chopped up and covered in icing sugar with a bowl of stewed plum that you dip it in, really nice!

The big hut at the top of Schladming, one of the biggest I’ve found before, the outside balcony was huge and had a super cheesy live bad playing all kinds of weird and cheesy versions of pop songs, we heard ‘Bob Sinclar – Love Generation’ Austrian cheesy style.

The steepest and hardest piste we found all 8 days skiing. It was a very steep Black that ended a long Red run and it was covered in just ice. Austrians were going everywhere into barriers and fences it was so funny but we both managed to get down without a single fall. This was right at the end of the last day of skiing.

I was only in England for 1 day as I was passing from Hong Kong onto Austria but I tracked down Dom, Rich W & Leo in the pub, yes Dom still needs a hair cut.

Our trip to Hong Kong for 4 days was a stopover on our way to Austria for our skiing and snowboarding holiday. Sanna and I had never been to Kong Kong before, the closest example to a city like this was Singapore so we were eager to see in which ways it was different.
Here we are crazy Hong Kong, The mist is not low cloud that day but pollution, it’s thick pollution all the time with this haze all over the city

We arrived off the plane and we went for a walk around the harbour and Star Walk which is a tribute to all of Hong Kong and China’s film star’s. Here’s Bruce Lee and Bruce Hasan

Here is my favourite martial artist Jackie Chan’s spot

The view from our hotel on Kimberly St in Kowloon, signs hanging over every street, how big do they need them! 🙂

Crazy streets but still Western influences

Instead of metal scaffolding they use bamboo! It is cheap, plentiful and bends nicely into shape. Even the most modern buildings skyscrapers e.t.c they still sue bamboo

Some lovely meat hanging on the side of the street, lovely!

One of the many large skyscrapers, this one caught my attention as it made me think of Lego pieces stuck it.

A good shot of Hong Kong city looking down from Victoria peak which is the highest part of the island. You get to it from a short but VERY steep tram ride up the hill to the peak

This is Repulse bay on the South side of Hong Kong Island. It is totally artificial, all the sand has been laid here to make a large beach that in the Summer is I heard very very busy.

A nice photo of Sanna at Repulse bay

This looks very much we are in Hong Kong now huh, lots of buddas and temples on the shoreline

Old in front and modern behind

Ah and where you have temples and buddas you have Joss sticks of course!

The bring of longevity at Repulse bay. They say if you walk over this your life is made longer by 3 days. They didn’t say if you could keep walking over it though 🙂

Murray house in Stanley on the South East side of Honk Kong island. Interesting story about this house, I’ll let wikipedia explain:

Once a government building in Central, it was dismantled in 1982 to make way for new buildings. The facade was stored in a warehouse after the building was dismantled, and the facade was rebuilt in Stanley in 1998. It was open to the public in 1999. It houses several restaurants and the Hong Kong Maritime Museum (see below). When it was rebuilt, the ink used to label the pieces had washed off, and when they had finished constructing the building, they had six columns left over. These columns now stand outside the building.

Day 3 we visited the remote Fishing village of Tai O. Most of the houses are built on stilts over the water.

You could buy as much dried

and fresh fish you could ever want, yum!

a very poor village this place was, this was the main street with all the houses backing onto it.

A large temple complex where the largest budda in China is on top of a hill, this is the view from the budda on the hill down to the temples below

The largest budda in China!

and the largest pick ‘n’ mix selection in the gift shop too

Joss sticks the size of missiles!

Back in central Hong Kong, how could people live like this I really don’t know

We met up for a night with Sanna’s old friend Alvin who she met in Southampton England when she doing her degree there.

More yummy looking food on the side of the road, at least this lot is cooked, but with its heads on

The tallest building in all of Honk Kong, for now of course

Just like the people in the city, the turtles in the park are all fighting for space.

Im quite happy with this waterfall shot I got the exposure just right here

Hong Kongs famous trams. The only double decker trams in the world.

Alvin, Sanna and me take a walk along the waterfront of the island, Alvin joins us from work, he’s a funds trader in the city.

The lovely dark Green Rolls Royce, specially customised for the 5 star hotel Peninsular in Hong Kong. They are made in my home town of Chichester, 2 are owned by the hotel to pick up there most distinguished guests from the airport.

Afternoon tea for two, this was the best tea and cakes I’ve ever had I have to say

Inside the beautiful hotel Peninsular Hong Kong

2007, Chinese year of the pig you know 😉

Our final night and meal with Alvin. He took us to a place that only locals would go to, it was a very interesting meal, we were the only non Chinese there and I think probably ever would be I guess.

Here are all the photos from our weeks holiday to NZ’s south island. I have never been to NZ before and Sanna had only been to the North island when she was a much younger with her mum so we were really excited. A week to the snow, in a really peaceful location, the perfect way to unwind from work for a week 🙂
The drive down from Christown to Wanaka in the South island. It was a 6 hour drive in our little Red Ford Focus which was not a bad little car at all to drive.

One of the beautiful lakes one the drive down

Horay this is what we came to NZ for, skiing!!!!!! oh and some boarding 🙂

This is the ski resort called Cadrona and the locals call it flat white, you can see why.

Sanna looking like a dork

and me looking like a dork too

After a hard days boarding I found that Chilli beer warmed me back up again.

Sanna tried it and she called me a bastard haha, I didnt make her try it 😉

This little baby is the HOTTEST chilli sauce i’ve had in my LIFE! Im a big fan of chilli sauces but this stuff is just pain in a bottle! When I got back to Sydney I ordered a bottle ASAP from www.deathsauce.com.au. They even say you have to sign a disclaimer because of the damage with misuse it could do before they will compete the order hahaha, oh it hurts!

Sanna back on the slopes

The lake in Wanaka. Wanaka sits on the edge of a huge and very cold lake. The middle of the lake is hundreds of meters deep, some of the deepest lakes in the world are in the area.

Hairy cows or as the Scottish say ‘hairy coo’s’ doubt there that cuddley though

On the 3rd day it was raining on and off so we deceided to visit Queenstown which is the only city in the South of the South island of NZ. This was a pretty little stream that runs under most of the city. They say city but it really was tiny and hardly many people around either.

Quite funny to find a statue of a Kiwi with a sheep there as every aussie takes the mick out of Kiwi’s and there love of sheep and here they have a whole statue of a man with a sheep 🙂

The main Mall! and its heaving with people!!

The same stream again in the center of the city, the whole climate, tree’s e.t.c remind me so much of north Wales.

Sanna being friendly to the locals

Ah the happy couple in Queenstown. As you can see its the smallest city i’ve ever seen. All the buildings are nestled aroudn whatever flattish land they can build on. At the top of the peak on the left is where the famous sport Bungy was invented. Mr A J Hackett threw himself off the peak with some rubber attached to his legs years ago and invented the sport. Now in Queenstown there are about 3 bungy sites to choose from and tourists doing it all the time.

I think this is quite a good photo of Sanna, I took it with her not knowing it was coming I just shoved the camera in her face, bang hehe

Me taking a leak in the park, takes strong muscles to do that 🙂

You can see from looking down on some of the hills where some of the landscapes from the Lord of the Rings was filmed in this area. It looks like Bilbo Baggin’s could jump out from one of the hills in the distance.

Day 4 and we went over to Treble Cone ski resort which is aimed more to intermediates and advanced with only 2 Green (beginner) runs on the mountain. This sign marks the beginning of the very long and windy gravel track up to the ski resort at the top of the mountain. Very different from skiing in europe where the village is just below the pistes.

After a few runs to explore the mountain we caught a chair lift to the highest we could get to, then walked the last couple of hundred meters vertical which took 20 minutes up to the summit at 2100 meters. We carried all our equipment up with us so we skied/boarded from the summit down the side of the mountain back to the pistes below.

Amazing views from the summit looking down on other mountains.

A big lump of chocolate in the valley. Later in the week we walk all over this and find in the middle of it a lake called Diamond lake

Day 5 and we went back to Cadronna ski resort for the ‘Cadronna Coke Cola games’ bascally lots of ski and snowboard races and competitions over 3 days with lots of CRAZY people jumping motorbikes and skimobiles in the snow, the skimobiles jumping were pretty impressive.

Sanna wants this dog to be a Proplan fed doggie but it definatly says Hills science diet on his tummy badge.

These are actally parrots! they are the only alpine parrots in the world and live in the snowy mountains in the south island. TYhere called kee-har’s I seem to remember as thats meant to be what they sound like

and they pull absolutly everything to bits! foam padding, windscreen wipers, anything manmade they can get there beaks into. They do a lot of damage to peoples cars sometimes.

This was the beginning of our walk up and around Diamond lake on our last day, the landscape was beautiful it was a nice change after 5 days of solid sking and boarding although there were some really steep climbs involved.

This is Diamond lake and it was so dark a mystical looking, it was also freezing!

Absolutely stunning scenery from the top of this walk!

Just before we went to get on the plane to head back to Australia we went on the famous Shotover Jet boat, flying down the Shotover river in just 10 cm of water depth, it was so fast! Have a look at the website here at http://www.shotoverjet.com/ for some photos and video of it! So this is Sanna looking kinda alright in her ‘spray suit’

and me looking like a dork in mine. We really needed them though as you get soaked. Jee’s it’s scary when you go down the canyons only cm’s away from the rocks! I was kinda shouting and Sanna was just laughing, a perfect way to end the holiday 🙂

a 4 hour flight later and were back in good old Sydney, ah home sweet home.