thomasland

2006-05-24T22:10:00.000-07:00

Jackie Chan owns a fitness gym in Kowloon.
One of the many stars on the Avenue of Stars along the Kowloon waterfront.
Bruce Lee statue on the Avenue of Stars.

2006-05-24T22:04:00.000-07:00

Temple Street night market in Kowloon. Alot of junk for very cheap, but there are certainly treasures to be found as well.
Street signage at night in Kowloon.
These fish were so fresh they were actually flopping around on the table!

2006-05-24T21:56:00.000-07:00

A typical afternoon street in Hong Kong.
A freeway through Hong Kong Island.

2006-05-24T21:47:00.000-07:00

I had a 3 day stop-over in Hong Kong , while there I took the ferry out to Lantau Island to see a monastery and the world's largest outdoor seated Buddha.

2006-05-24T21:38:00.000-07:00

After getting back from Australia I spent a week doing some volunteer work on a strawbale house, it was some very basic living but the food was really good and it was nice to walk in the surrounding hills.

For my final few days in New Zealand I did some hiking in the South Island's Abel-Tasman Park. Very beautiful indeed with plenty of shoreline and beach.

2006-05-24T21:24:00.000-07:00

Just 3 hours bus ride from Canberra is Sydney, and the main purpose for my trip to Australia... to see the Opera House. I took alot photos of the building and bought a small paper model of it. The roof tiles were alot smaller than I thought they would be. I made sure to bring my jogging gear so I could go for a run along the Sydney seawall towards the Opera House.
One morning was also spent on Manley beach enjoying the sun and watching people surf.

2006-05-24T21:13:00.000-07:00

I made a quick trip to Australia where I spent a couple days in the capital city of Canberra. I went to see the facilities at the Australian Institute of Sport and had to take a pic of one their olympic track bikes, unfortunately their velodrome was in Adelaide. I also had a look at the government buildings. And also the national museum which was quite colourful and unique.

2006-05-24T21:05:00.000-07:00

My landlord in Christchurch is a bit of an Indian motorcyle enthusiast, he owns about 12 of them. He can also be seen as an extra in the movie "The World's Fastest Indian", he's one of the guys pushing Anthony Hopkin's bike in the beach racing scene.

2006-04-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

On the way back from the west coast I spent some time hiking in the wet weather of Arthur's Pass. Lots of little water falls and great tracks with big views. It's easy to see why Peter Jackson decided to film LOTR in New Zealand.

2006-04-21T21:30:00.000-07:00

While in Franz Josef I explored a man-made tunnel. I only went about 60m in as there was water and didn't need soaked footwear for the rest of my weekend. I'm not sure how far it went but I couldn't see the end. The top photo is looking towards the entrance from about halfway in.

2006-04-21T21:21:00.000-07:00

For Easter weekend I took the scenic Tranz-Alpine train out to the west coast. I spent a day at Franz Josef checking out the glacier and hiking on the trails. The top photo is a typical west coast hiking trail, very lush with ferns and plenty of moss.

2006-04-21T21:16:00.000-07:00

I relaxed at Akaroa a couple weekends ago, only about an hour southwest of Christchurch. A very nice place, all the street names in the town are french.

2006-03-30T20:10:00.000-08:00

I went to the Antartic Center here in Christchurch last Saturday. They had an antarctic storm room with a constant temperature of -5 celsius and a simulated 25 kph windchill factor and real snow. Probably pretty exciting for people who haven't been to Canada in winter.

2006-03-30T19:48:00.000-08:00

I made a trip to Hanmer Springs the weekend before last where I did some mountain-biking, only crashed once. I also went through a maze called "The Lost Temple", the third picture shows the "water challenge". I went through it without getting wet the first time but I decided to go through it a second time backwards and got soaked.

2006-03-11T19:04:00.000-08:00

The view out of my room in Linwood house. I can climb out of the window...
... and onto this small wood wooden platform/balcony to sit and read in the sun.

The main staircase seen from the second floor.

2006-03-10T20:17:00.000-08:00

Thomas Only! How am I supposed to fit through that tiny door? A cat door at a hostel for a cat named Thomas.

2006-03-04T17:25:00.000-08:00

Linwood House: the huge, very old and very interesting house I'm living in here in Christchurch. There are about 12 other people living in it, it has 3 full bathrooms, 3 kitchens, and 2 livingrooms (one with a pool table). The red roof you see in the upper right is part of the back half of it, the front main part was built in 1857 and the back half was completed in the 1890's. Below is a pic of the inside of the entry hallway.

The bike I bought for about 100$ cdn to commute to work on, the Shimano 105 brakes on it are probably worth more than the rest of the bike. The frame has no decals on it so I have no idea what brand it is.

2006-03-04T17:22:00.000-08:00

Allison at the base of the Skytower in Auckland just a few hours before she went to the airport to fly back home to Vancouver.

2006-03-04T17:12:00.000-08:00

One of the city trams operating in Christchurch, Allison bought a very nice print of a similar tram by a local artist. The Chrisrchurch Art Gallery is in the background, probably my favourite NZ gallery so far.
A wire suspended "3D" metal sculpture in Christchurch's Arts District.
Historic Christ's College.
One of the heavily modified Massey Ferguson tractors that Sir Edmund Hillary used on an expedition across Antartica

2006-03-04T17:04:00.000-08:00

Millions of Crunchie chocolate bars at the Dunedin Cadbury Chocolate Factory, I probably ate a little too much chocolate that day.
Allison standing on a historic street in Oamaru.
Trying to find penguins in Oamaru, unfortunately we didn't see any.
The unique sphere-shaped boulders at Moeraki

2006-03-04T16:55:00.000-08:00

Allison stepped in something at Peter's Farm Hostel by Ranfurley.
An interesting shoe covered fence close to Ranfurley, the shoes covered almost a 1km stretch of fence.
Sheep running away from Allison.
The small Nissan March we drove around in on the South Island, it was good on gas but it was a challenge getting it up hills.

2006-03-04T16:48:00.000-08:00

Above: Me in front of Mt. Cook.
Below: Allison posing in front of the rather dirty looking glacier behind Mt. Cook.

View of the tourist town of Queenstown from the top of the Gondala.

2006-03-04T16:37:00.000-08:00

A Holden station wagon completely covered in tin roofing and Allison checking out the rooftop art installation at the Te Papa museum in Wellington. A must see museum for anyone traveling to NZ, we spent 4hrs there!
View of Wellington from the top of the Tram and relaxing in a hammock at the Wellington YHA.

2006-03-04T16:31:00.000-08:00

The art deco streets of Napier and feeding time at the Napier Aquarium (the big dark fish in the lower right is a ray).

2006-03-04T16:25:00.000-08:00

Above: Maori dancers performing the aggressive looking Haka war dance.
Below: More of Maori performance we saw in Rotorua.

Thermal mudpools and geyser in Rotorua

2006-01-31T22:03:00.000-08:00

New Plymouth had a festival of lights in the very beautiful Pukekura Park.
The constantly changing lights and shape of the fountain in the park.
There was a "sleeping giant" complete with sound effects.

2006-01-31T21:46:00.000-08:00

Pics from this weekend's trip to New Plymouth

Mt. Taranaki, 2500 m tall, (the mountain that doubled as Mt. Fuji in The Last Samurai)

A quarter of the way up.Almost half way up, looking back down the trail.

Standing at the top of Mt. Taranaki. I've done much longer day hikes but this was probably the hardest. The inside of the cone was full of snow. 3 1/2 hours to the top and only 2 hours to get back down.

2006-01-21T12:26:00.000-08:00

Some shots from my daytrip to Waiheke Island yesterday. Enjoyed the beautiful clear waters and 5 hrs of hiking in the jungle-like forests.

2006-01-17T20:12:00.000-08:00

Some of the great views on one of the many islands during a stop on my sailing trip.

The boat I was sailing on.

2006-01-17T20:01:00.000-08:00

Sailing on Gungha II in the Bay of Islands.

2006-01-17T19:52:00.000-08:00

Posing in front of Haruru Falls

Maoris paddling a Waka

A little bit closer to home on Mt. Bledisloe

The hostel I stayed at while in Paihia in the Bay of Islands 4 hrs north of Auckland this past weekend.

2006-01-17T19:28:00.000-08:00

This uncoils and...

... turns into this, a New Zealand silver fern.

2006-01-17T19:19:00.000-08:00

Piha Beach north of Auckland

View of Auckland from the top of Mt. Rangitoto

2006-01-17T19:15:00.000-08:00

Some more outdoor art in Auckland.

2006-01-17T19:04:00.000-08:00

These pics were taken at an Eco-farm called Rainbow Valley Farm http://www.rainbowvalleyfarm.co.nz/. The 4th image is of the back of the fireplace, when the fire is lit all the tile on the back heats up and can retain the heat for a long time after the fire goes out.

2006-01-17T17:56:00.000-08:00

Some pics from my visit to the Auckland Museum.

2006-01-17T17:23:00.000-08:00

Some photos from around Auckland. The first one is an interesting sculpture near the Viaduct. Second one is a big creepy mechanical Santa on Queen St., the finger moves and the one eye winks. Photo #3 is the Auckland Museum. Next photo is from a marker on top of Mt. Eden, I'm a long way from home. And the last photo in this series is the Skytower, you can see it from most places around the city.

2006-01-17T00:44:00.000-08:00

Above are some pics of the house I stayed in while volunteering at an organic farm called The Sanctuary near Warkworth 1.5 hrs north of Auckland. They had a pool table and a hot tub, not exactly roughing it. The house in the 4th pic is where I'm living here in Auckland.

2006-01-17T00:40:00.000-08:00

A view of downtown Auckland from the top of Mt. Eden (an extinct volcano) about 5 blocks from the house I'm living in.

Welcome to Thomasland!

2006-01-17T00:33:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, I've created this blog since so many having been asking to see photos of my ongoing adventures here in New Zealand.

Enjoy,
-Thomas