Tag Archives: boats

MONA, Hobart

I was down in Hobart a couple weeks ago for PyCon AU 2013, a Python programming conference organised by a friend of mine. Whilst I don’t do that much in Python currently, it was just a good excuse to go hang out with a bunch of interesting people and friends for a couple days and to get out of Sydney for a bit.

I’ve been to Hobart before, it’s a nice place for a visit, with a very NZ-like climate and fauna and an interesting mix of small town with a blend of great coffee, bars and distilleries mixed in.

mmm, cool fresh air – just like back home!

Soaking up some fresh air and sun before retreating into a dark room with my laptop for the rest of the day.

This Hobart pub has a better beer selection than most of the places near my home and work in Sydney’s CBD – it’s like being back in New Zealand again!

One of my other big motivators was to go and visit MONA, the Museum of Old and New Art, a massive underground museum created by an eccentric wealthy Tasmanian who has built an amazing collection of contemporary art.

It’s an absolutely stunning collection, worthy enough of making a weekend visit to Hobart purely to check it out. Sadly I only had a couple hours allocated to explore it, but I could have possibly spent a whole day there – particularly with them having a bar in the museum!

I am the data lord!

Is that the source up there?

Where old art and new art meets.

It’s easy to get out there with a short ferry trip from the town, so sit back with a craft beer or go and admire all the street art around the boat whilst it whisks you past Hobart.

Art! And not just me, the stuff on the wall!

Upon arrival, iPod-based guides are handed out, which were actually much more useful than the traditional approach of having everyone crowding around a small plaque on the wall, as it allowed you to select and read in your own space and time.

One of the nice things about MONA is how they manage to not take themselves too seriously, with easter eggs and other playful pokes at themselves around the place.

Love it!

I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to MONA and certainly recommend it as a must-see if you visit Hobart and a worthy contender to be a reason for making a trip to MONA solely for it in particular.

Early Morning Auckland

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My good friend @LGnome was transiting via Auckland and had a day to spend up here to see the sights. Naturally I delivered with one near side-swipe, two cars running a red light right in front of us and congested roads.

I also had to get up early (06:00) to get to the airport, before heading into the CBD to get some decent breakfast and coffee and took a few early morning pics – it’s amazing how much nicer Auckland is earlier in the morning when the roads are dead.

Because Shaky Isles doesn’t seem to open before 08:00 on a Sunday, we went for a wander around Auckland for a bit first and I got a few decent pics with my trusty professional grade photographer setup.

Good morning Mr Sun!

I do like Wynyard Quarter's mix of resturants and industry, get some pretty big ships in there at times.

"Gateway To The Cloud" (punny since the Sky Tower is one of NZ's main network exchanges)

No early morning is complete without coffee from Shaky Isles. :-D

Up in Mt Victoria, not a lot of traffic (car or boat) early Sunday morning.

Sea Shepherd in Wellington

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Whilst wandering along Wellington harbor this week I came across the MY Bob Barker berthed, one of the things I love about Wellington is finding random bits of awesomeness like that.

This is actually the second Sea Shepherd ship I’ve seen IRL, in early 2010 they had the MY Steve Irwin in Wellington and I managed to get some pictures of that then too.

Sea Shepherd is an interesting organization with a background showing that they aren’t afraid to take more extreme actions than just protesting, with past history including ramming whaling ships and contributing towards the sinking of several – reading the fleet history gives a good idea of some of their past exploits.

I can’t stand whalers, they’re ignorantly and blatently killing extremely intelligent creatures and in the case of Japan, they don’t even have the courage to call the hunt and slaughter what it is, instead calling it “research” and miss-using loopholes in multinational treaties.

The politicians, companies and people involved in whale hunting do nothing but bring shame and condemnation on their countries and deserve to end up on the bottom of the ocean, the sooner the better.

Great Ocean Roadtrip

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The weekend before linux.conf.au, I decided to go on a roadtrip with @chrisjrn down south of Melbourne for a roadtrip through the rural areas and along the Great Ocean Road.

I started the trip with a pickup from @chrisjrn from the Melbourne International Airport, after a short stopover at the Virgin lounge for some food, we headed out to drive through Melbourne CBD and along the coast to Sorrento.

My crazy tasmanian driver, @chrisjrn

Melbourne CBD skyline in the distance

Once at Sorrento, we took the Sorrento-Queensclift ferry from Sorrento to Queenscliff with the car, around a 1 hour trip across the main shipping lane into Melbourne.

Yay, I'm on a boat! (Crossing the Melbourne harbour)

Moar Boats!

After getting off the ferry and negoiating deep fried deliciousness from a local takeaway joint (silly aussies not understanding NZder accents), we hit the road and got onto the Great Ocean Rd.

It’s a pretty neat drive with many twists, turns and other interesting bits. The amount of tourist-specific signs is amusing, with always a sign stating “In Australia, we drive on the left” after every major tourist turnoff.

It also appears that every Australian rural town is required to have a carnival on, I must have passed around 20 of them during this trip.

After driving for some time, we started getting our first views of the Australian coast line, shortly followed with a stop off at the Split Point lighthouse, offering expanded views over the coast.

Start of the Ocean View Rd

View along the coast line from Split Point lighthouse

View out into the far distance from Split Point lighthouse

Split Point Lighthouse

Some dreamy looking tourist. Off-camera: hordes of fine ladies swooning nearby.

Me looking dorky by a lighthouse.

Split Point lighthouse plaque

These pillers are littered along the coast and form a major series attraction called the Twelve Apostles further along the road.

As it was getting late in the day (18:00+), we decided to pull in at Lorne and looked for some accommodation. After spending some time looking around, we determined nothing was open or available, before finding a cabin/motel online further along the road, towards Apollo Bay.

Stopped to look for accommodation in Lorne, view from seating area.

We ended up in a cabin up on the hills, with a partial view out over the bay and lots and lots of wildlife around.

Pretty boys came to visit our motel - saw at least 8 at the same time and could hear them running over the roof.

Pretty birdies!

Red birdies!

The next morning we set off to the Twelve Apostles, pillars of sandstone formed by erosion of the clift-face.

I'm Jethro. These are the Twelve Apostles. (or actually 11.5, since one has kind of fallen down now)

I think these huge clifts are to stop the New Zealanders from invading easily.

View platform on exposed clift face that is slowly being worn away... will eventually be an additional apostle.

Awesome signage.

Even moar rocks!

After taking pictures of lots of rocks and my hair moving dreamily in the wind, we headed up to Ballarat for the conference on the rural roads of Victoria.