Family visit

Back in September my sister and her family came to visit.


Claire teaching her cousin to read.

Since we had some time to kill, it was decided (not by me) that we would go for a harbour cruise to look at the navy 100 year review. It was rather crowded in sydney but we eventually made it to the wharf after a quick stop in the museum of contemporary art to see some dirt in large steel containers and what every else passes for art these days. I guess you get what you pay for and the museum is free. After that it was just an hour and a half of chaotic queing in the hot sand and we were off on the cruise just a mere hour after it was meant to leave.


Hoards of peasant teaming on the steps.


Rusty boat


One of Australia's many non-operational underwater tubes.


Unimpressed


Way more impressed with some seaweed.

Wandering in the trees

Claire and I went for another walk/picnic along the Benowie walking track.

As always there was plenty to see, both flora and fauna.




Isopogon anethifolius


Lewin's Honeyeater


White-naped Honeyeater

Getting fatter

A much enlarged baby at 2 and a bit months old. Thought I would try out the tripod I got for my birthday as well, the photo is still blurry though showing that tripods don't help that much when the subject is moving.

Froggy

This little bloke was hopping across the lawn the other day. There are also some tiny brown frogs around from time to time but I have not managed to get a decent photo of them yet. The blue tongue has also been back a few times which is nice, and sadly so has the possum to eat my vegetables which is not so good.


Litoria phyllochroa

Disgusting creatures

A friend of the family chainsawed up the stump of the tree that was remaining. That just left some rather large sections to be split up. One of the sections was comprised of two trunks which had become fused together as the tree grew. When I split this it was strangely full of massive leeches that were hibernating there. At the time I thought I had managed to dodge all of the vile creatures but one of them must have been attached to my shoe and when I put it on again a few days later and then spent a day gardening I did not notice it. However later that night I was reading a book to Claire and lying on top of her bed and when I got off there was a monstrous leech that was bloated with my blood.


Technique leaves a little to be desired.


It was at least as long as your forearm if my memory of the horrid thing remains intact.

Alexander

Another financial burden has appeared.

This one was a little heavier at least but still over 1.5 kg lighter than his cousin whom is nearly a month younger.

Animals in the garden

The garden is slowly getting better and the weeds are being eradicated although it will be along time until they are all gone. There is plenty of wildlife still but I need to get some more bushy shrubs into provide some more habitat now that most of the weeds that were the previous groundcover has been eradicated.


A Kookaburra on a Acacia implexa.


A pretty good sized huntsman on some Livistona australis.


A blue-tongue in some weeds.

Ow

The mother in law dropped her on the bath. Luckily she has a hard head so did not break any bones.

Iain and Emily's wedding

It was the only day of really good weather on the entire trip and luckily it was also the day of the wedding. It started off with a beautiful frosty morning and with it being autumn Arrowtown was looking its best.



The church was also very nice, I was most impressed with the two very large redwoods out the front of it.





The wedding itself was very good and the bride and groom did a great job remembering their vows. The reception was also a top notch affair as it was in millbrook resort.

Ben Lomond

The day after going over sugarloaf pass, Gemma was in town and up for a walk. I was undecided on what to do, but since I was in Queenstown and had not done a lot of walks in the area as I had always considered it an overcrowded, tourist riddled hellhole, though it might be time to try some of them out. One of the longer day walks there id the trip up to the summit of Ben Lomond and since the start of the track was right next to Gemmas hotel we decided to give that a go. I was soon regreeting it though as the track initially goes through a lot of really ugly douglas fir forest. It then opens out on to a very well worn track above the forest, but since sheep are grased on this land in the summer it is also pretty ugly. There were also quite a fer goats around to add to the ugliness. To make things worse it was cold with a lot of low cloud and we could not see anything, and I was starting to worry that I would be wasting Gemmas only free day in NZ by taking her on a horrifically ugly walk. Luckily though a bit higher up we broke through the clouds and were greeted with a lovely vista of mountains, which made it all worthwhile. It is so much nicer when you are on the top of the mountain with cloud below you and all you can see is other peaks sticking out.


Speargrass, a plant that lives up to it's name.


Schist


Above the clouds.


Bit chillier than Sydney, a lot prettier too.


The summit was a nice place to have lunch.


A friendly guest on top of the summit.




Filthy animals


Filthy trees