There are a number of live shows throughout the day at Movie World. One of the new shows is Stunt Driver in which a number of real movie stunt drivers show off their skills to a live audience. The premise of the show is the filming of a chase scene for a movie. The skill of the drivers in the show is absolutely amazing and shows you not everything you see in movies is computer generated.
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Road Trip – Photos 2 – Movie World
The first day of the road trip was spent at Warner Bros. Movie World. This was my first time at a major theme park and it was a fantastic experience. Photos from the Stunt Driver show will come in the next blog post. But here are 28 photos of other parts of the day, and this is only a very small selection of what is on offer.
Read moreRoad Trip – Photos 1 – Surfers Paradise
A friend and I have just spent the past few days on a road trip between Brisbane and Sydney. In total there are over 700 photos from the trip. I don’t have time to put them all online, but over the next few days I will be posting the best photos from each of the days.
To kick things off here are photos from my morning walk at Surfers Paradise.
Read morePhotos: Bring on summer – A day in Manly
I spent this afternoon exploring Manly in Sydney’s North. While the photos show a beautiful day (it was clouding over by the mid afternoon) the temperature was still quite cool. Bring on summer.
Read morePhotos: Wentworth Falls and the Valley of the Waters
Today I had time to spend hiking in the Blue Mountains at Wentworth Falls and the Valley of the Rivers. If you like waterfalls this is waterfall paradise. To add even more drama to the day we had a sudden rain storm come up the valley bringing massive winds and then we lost one of our party for about 15 minutes (they had walked ahead and failed to stop at a track junction).
Read moreA Relaxing Day Out – Pindar Cave Hike
On Sunday I went with the University Outdoor’s Club on a hike to Pindar Cave in the Brisbane Water National Park just south of Gosford.
Overall the walk was not too challenging, it is 14km and we completed the hike in 5 hours 40 minutes which included three stops for morning tea, an extra long lunch, and me being smacked in the eye by a swinging tree branch. With the exception of a 100 vertical metre climb at the start of the track the route is relatively flat and easy going. The only caveat to this is in places the track is very narrow and almost overgrown which just adds to the fun.
Read moreSydney Biennale
Today I went to the 17th Biennale of Sydney. I had planned to go when it opened but I kept on putting it off when I got to the weekend as I was lazy, or the weather was bad or I was busy with other events. But this morning I woke up and instead of being lazy I forced myself down to Circular Quay and onto the ferry to Cockatoo Island.
Arriving at Cockatoo Island on an overcast day brings with it an even greater feeling of mystery. In the past Cockatoo Island has been used as a prison and as a naval shipyard. It is said to have ghosts on it and that is something you can certainly feel in the air as you step onto the land. The exhibitions of the Biennale have been set up within the hundred or so buildings scattered about the island. There is a map in the guidebook of where each piece of art is but there is no set route around the island you are left to your own devices to explore both the art work and the Island.
A lot of the art is audio/visual consisting of short (and some long) films or a combination of sculpture and projected video. The best installation of this type was a circular room with video projected in 360 degrees. In addition to these installations there was also your more traditional modern art consisting of sculpture and a combination of post-modern objects mixed with everyday life.
In addition to Cockatoo Island there are a number of other galleries around the city with installations as part of the Biennale. I got off the ferry back into the city at Shed 2/3 and after that I walked through to the Museum of Contemporary Art. Sometime before the event ends I will need to head through the Opera House and the rest of galleries to see the rest of exhibition.
Read moreVivid Sydney
Last night on the way to watch the All Whites game at Darling Harbour I detoured through the Opera House to see the sails of the building be lit up as part of the Vivid Sydney festival of light.
The different patterns and shapes projected onto the opera house are awesome and poor photos from my cellphone simply don’t do it justice. If you are in Sydney go and check it out.
Four Days in Cairns – Tropical North Queensland
I have just spent the last four days on holiday in Cairns and the surrounding area.
During this time I saw, did, and ate:
- Ate Crocodile, Emu, and Kangaroo
- Ate Crocodile Curry
- Went on the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway over the Barron Gorge to Kuranda
- Bought Mango wine
- Went on the Kuranda Scenic Railway back down the Barron Gorge
- Climbed the Red and Blue Arrow Circuits behind Cairns and saw a wild Wallaby
- Went on On The Wallaby tour into the Tablelands visiting a number of waterfalls, cycling about 15km and canoeing down a river where we saw Spiders, a Tree Kangaroo, Platypus, Turtles, and a whole lot of other cool wildlife.
- Went hunting through a riverbed to find rocks that can be used for face painting.
Byron Bay and Nightcap National Park – 48 hours in Paradise
It is not often I will call a weekend away Paradise, normally awesome, cool, wicked, fun, great, brilliant would suffice but in this case Paradise is the only word that can truly describe just how much fun and enjoyment I had.
I flew to the Gold Coast on Saturday night with a friend, got picked up from the airport and driven the 50km south to Byron. The best thing about Saturday night was the rain, it is still very odd to be living in a country where rain is a rare commodity and when you see it falling you smile.
Sunday was spent hiking in the Nightcap National Park. Initially we were meant to just walk a 7.5km and 4.5 hours on the Minyon Loop Track to the base of the Minyon Falls and back up. Problem was despite stopping for around 30 minutes for lunch we managed to complete the track in two hours.
Rather than waiting 2.5 hours for our transport back to Byron we decided to head up to Rummery Park Camp Ground via Boggy Creek Track. This took an hour and once we had stopped again for food and wildlife spotting we decided to head up a fire break to try and spot Cape Byron and its lighthouse.
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