Venture to Australia

Back from New Zealand

Well I'm back from my trip to New Zealand, but it's going to take me some time to get all the photos up. So in the meantime here's a video montage (9MB) that you can watch of the whole trip featuring the song from a New Zealand band called The Exponents.

posted by Compmouse @ 4/25/2006 11:32:00 AM 6 comments links to this post   

Leaving for New Zealand

Well I'm off on another adventure, this time to New Zealand. I'm hoping to see glaciers and some of the scenery behind the Lord of the Rings movies and perhaps the elusive (and very ugly I hear) weta.

My itinerary is as follows:
April 16
Arrive in Christchurch

April 17
Lake Ohau

April 18
Te Anau

April 19
Queenstown

April 20
Queenstown

April 21
Fox Glacier

April 22
Christchurch

April 23
Arrive back in Brisbane

posted by Compmouse @ 4/15/2006 03:11:00 PM 0 comments links to this post   

Sandgate

Yesterday a bunch of us went to a place called Sandgate which is located a few km northeast of the city. While we were there the Bluewater Festival was going on. There were all sorts of people there with the usual kinds of entertainment you would expect to find at a local festival including a couple of stages for entertainment and kids could ride ponies and camels around for rides.

By the time we got there it was almost lunchtime so we went looking for some food. We ended up at this little booth that the local Rotary club was running and decided to get some German sausages. While we were waiting in line we noticed this...

Yes, that's right, they were using a coffin to keep the drinks... I have no idea why. I can't imagine that this would be a cheaper solution to buying a cooler, nor would be easy to transport to the site. Suggestions anyone?

Anyway, we had lunch on a hill overlooking the pier which was quite nice. Just off to the right (past the edge of this picture) in the distance is Stradbrook Island which I intend to go to in the coming months as a day trip.

Instead of staying at the festival (which was quite small) we decided to go for a walk around the coastline. After walking for about 10 minutes we came across these mudflats which I believe were there because it was low tide. It was odd to see people standing out in the middle of the ocean so far away from the shore yet still standing on land.

I wish there had been more time to explore more of the coastline around Sandgate since it's quite beautiful there. It also got me to thinking how convenient it was that we didn't take a car to get there. Had we not taken public transport we would have had to walk all the way back to where we parked the car instead of just hopping on the train and going straight back.

posted by Compmouse @ 4/15/2006 08:59:00 AM 2 comments links to this post   

Karen's Birthday

That's a licensed Turkish restaurant, as in licensed to sell alcohol. Not licensed by some Turkish council back in Turkey to sell Turkish food. :D

There were about 15 of us that went, all but 3 live at ISV. That's practically the entire population of ISV went, so things were pretty quiet around there. We took up the whole front half of the bus getting to Southbank too!

While we were waiting for our food we got to enjoy some of the live entertainment that is special to this particular restaurant on the Southbank strip of restaurants; live bellydancing (2MB - Requires DivX). Some of the girls were even adventurous enough to try it out (3.1MB - Requires DivX)!

The food was pretty good, I shared an appetizer plate of hommus with Patrick and ordered something called Iskender which was shredded chicken (or you could get lamb) served over Turkish bread with a yogurt sauce.

Among some of the other dishes that people ordered were various kababs (or as Chantal would call them, "Chicken on a Stick!"), and falafals. Mark ordered their specialty diet dish...

Just kidding! The lemons were for Chantal's chicken dish. For dessert Karen got a special treat of chocolate ice cream and baklava shaped in the form of a star.

posted by Compmouse @ 4/08/2006 01:32:00 PM 0 comments links to this post   

Plane Crashes in Coopers Plains

Yesterday at around 10:55am while I was in the city a small airplane crashed in Coopers Plains near my house on Kessels Rd. The plane flew into a field next to the John Tonge Centre missing houses and the busy street below; the pilot died in the crash. Initial investigations suggest that the pilot tried to perform and emergency landing due to the heavy rainfall that was going out at the time.


Article from the Courier Mail

posted by Compmouse @ 4/01/2006 09:52:00 AM 0 comments links to this post