On this Monday, I departed the beautiful but isolated town of Queenstown New Zealand located on the South Island in the Southern Alps made famous by the Lord of the Rings movie. On the day of my departure a huge Antarctic storm blew in with very cold air, high winds, and snow. All flights were canceled and hundreds of stranded passengers opted for a 9 hour bus ride to Christchurch to possibly get a flight out. Even major motorway over a mountain pass was closed due to snow. I rolled the dice and held out hope a smaller propeller plane could make it in and get out. Well one small plane did make it and I got out although it was a very rough and white knuckle flight.
Yesterday I traveled from Sydney in the rain to the Blue Mountains. What a beautiful place even in the rain. Did I mention bad weather and weird things follow me when traveling? I had the great fortune to 4WD into the back areas of the Blue Mountains and see wild kangaroos, wallabies, cockatoos, and more. I also visited the Featherdale Wildlife park where I was for some reason beat up by a teenager gray kangaroo. I am not sure what sparked it but he would not let me leave the compound gate. He would rear back on his tail and kick me with his two large feet. Of course I was videotaping during the attack and will possibly post the video segment later when I get back home next week.
Well tomorrow I head for Perth to harass Steve Johnson, not really to harass but I just wanted to meet Steve after many years of email conversations. He dared me to come to Perth so I took up the challenge.
My New Zealand and Australia Trip Photo Gallery is being updated all the time.
Vespa Beta 1 was released last week! The answer to which image was created by Vespa. It was the left one that was created in an early alpha version of Vespa and the right image was hand drawn. Most who guessed got it wrong which is a good sign for the suitability of the output even at the very early stages of the products development.
