House with a View...

Here are several photos taken from the balcony of our home in Lysterfield over the years...quite spectacular I'm sure you'll agree:





Lysterfield, VIC on a clear day

One of my favourite photograhic subjects: Sunsets

Another gorgeous sunset!

Catching the sun

Speechless...

Investment Property

Just after arriving in Australia in 2002 my parents bought a piece of land in the development known as the Sandhurst Club. They weren't required to start building for a while, so the land just sat there for a couple of years. However, in early 2005 building commenced and was completed (finally) in late 2005. Here are some pictures of the house from the early stages and the completed building:





Framing (with Mom, Dad and Kay in front)













Almost ready for roof and bricks!














The finished product







The garden followed not soon after, but according to the tennants (thanks to the drought), the turf that we had bought and laied out at the property is dying...but it will grow back won't it?!? Not with Tall Fescue apparently...ah well, what can we do? The tennant has taken to throwing the used bath water out over the balcony to water the lawn...pretty funny but also quite a clever idea!

Destination: New Zealand

I know I've mentioned our week-long trip to New Zealand in a previous post, so I won't re-hash it again. However, I will add some extra pictures of things that I found interesting:






The girls water-side in Rotorua














Zorbing















Dad & Kay on the Agrojet

Volcanic Mud

Mom & Dad also found a WIMPY but it was nothing like those back home.

Little Zac

On the 3rd of March 2005 something very interesting happened. My sister bought a puppy. Up to this point my parents had been adament that we would never have a dog in Melbourne and would never consider having "an inside dog." So imagine my surprise when I came home from work that day to find this little thing sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor next to my sister:

And so began the story of having a dog inside the house. He was too little to leave outside, and even once he was fully grown, he had grown on us so much that the thought of leaving him outside was just incomprehensible. By then Zac was used to sleeping on the beds or on the couch and having lots of human contact! Zac was born on the 26th December 2004 - the day the Asian Tsunami struck. This means that we have no trouble remembering Zac's birthday. Here's a picture of Zac now almost "all grown up."

He turns two this year...boy how time flies!

Christmas 2004

Christmas 2004 was a pretty full on Christmas for our family. We had my Uncle David and Aunt Claire out from South Africa and I had invited my Kenyan friend King'ori to spend Christmas with us as his parents and brother were not in Australia for Christmas. I met King'ori on my first day of orientation for the international students at Monash University. I remember walking up the stairs towards the lecture halls, seeing a black person and immediately gravitating towards him...the odds were pretty high that he was from Africa, just like me. Anyway, I digress.

So yes, Christmas 2004 was a full one (and I don't just mean a full house) and Christmas morning there were heaps of presents under the tree. Present opening (with the ensuing wrapping tsunami) was to be followed by a big Christmas lunch later on in the afternoon, also at our house.

My other aunt and uncle along with my cousins were joining us for lunch which would normally lead to an afternoon of catching up and talking, or watching a movie. I think we did both on this occasion.

As is usually the case, Christmas Day was really hot. We still can't figure out why we 'must' make a hot Christmas lunch when it's 37 degrees outside and climbing. Thank goodness for air-conditioning though :)


My aunt Claire's 28th birthday followed on the 8th of January 2005. It was nice to be able to share it with her and I believe my sister made her a cake and we bought special candles to help her celebrate her big day.

Destination Fiji: More Photos

I thought I would also include some photos of our stay that didn't make it into the previous post.






The Restaurant at the resort













The "Dining Hall" & Bar on Mala Mala Island














Taking in the sunset from the restaurant

View from outside our apartment

Some of the local flora

Destination: Fiji

In December of 2004 our family had the opportunity to use some of our global timeshare points. It was decided that we should holiday for a week in Fiji. The dates were set and on the 5th December we headed off from Melbourne to Brisbane and then caught a flight from Brisbane to Nadi in Fiji. The flight from Brisbane to Fiji took 3 hours and thanks to the time zones we ended up in Fiji around 8pm. Being in the Fiji airport was terrible. It felt like we were back in Africa and we had all sorts of weirdos watching us. It was seriously unnerving. We eventually ended up getting a taxi with a "crazy" indian taxi driver to our hotel. On our drive to the hotel we had to cross train tracks. There was no level crossing and no boom gates and said "loco" driver kept driving for the tracks even though there was a train coming straight for us. He didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with crossing the tracks relatively slowing with a train barreling down on us. If we had been 2 seconds slower we all would have been toast. We all let the taxi driver have it and told him he was crazy for doing what he did. It was all wasted on him though. Suffice to say, we were happy to get out of the car and as far away from him as possible.

We spent the first night at a "4-star" hotel in Nadi which was really more like a 2 star but unfortunately there aren't many fancy hotels in Nadi itself. My sister and I shared a room and my parents shared a room away from us. My Dad wasn't happy about not having all 4 of us in the same room, but it all turned out okay.

The following morning we took a taxi from Nadi to Denarau island...about a 20 minute drive from Nadi airport which is where we spent the rest of our stay. We stayed at the Trendwest Resort on Denarau Island...a short walk down the beach from the Sheraton Villas. Our resort had the biggest pool in the area, even had a swim-up bar which my sister used a couple of times for the sheer heck of it. Fiji was seriously hot and as a result we spent a lot of time in the water or in the apartment with the a/c on. We got to do a lot of relaxing and lazing around. When we weren't lazing around we were taking in some water sports, getting massages or going to Mala Mala island where we spent a day.

Every night at our resort they would have a torch lighting ceremony where resort staff members would involve the children staying at the resort to help them light the torches throughout the resort. One night we even got to watch National Secuity on a large screen out in the fresh air beside the pool...that was fun!

All in all our time in Fiji was fantastic. We got lots of sun and I relaxed completely for the first time in a long while. I got burnt early in our stay, but it turned a nice golden born by the time we left. We headed back to Melbourne on Sunday night and landed in Melbourne a little after 11pm. My uncle picked us up from the airport and we ended up getting home just after midnight. Unfortunately for me though, I had to be up 6 hours later to go to work on the Monday morning for work!

Stanley Park & Farewell

My stay in Vancouver went faster than I thought it would and before I knew it we were back in Vancouver with just a few days to go before I headed back to Melbourne. Those last few days were spent spending time with Jocelyn as time allowed and tying up some loose ends. One of those loose ends was going back to Stanley Park. I had been there 11 years prior and wanted to see it again before I left.

Some other "bits and pieces included going with Jocelyn to the UBC Campus for a ride around. Another was a trip back in to downtown Vancouver to pick up some last minute gifts for my family.

My second last night in Vancouver I took Jocelyn and her parents out for a thank you dinner at a place with Pizza in the name...I can't recall.

I headed back for home on the 30 July 2004 and was sad to say good-bye to Joss knowing it might be a while before I saw her again. I arrived back in Melbourne on 1 August 2004 and started the job hunt.

Headed for Osoyoos

So, like I said in the previous post, we only spent one day in Jasper. After a night around the firepit, we woke at 9am and broke camp and were ready to leave by 10am. Joss and I got pretty good at setting up and breaking up camp...pretty impressive considering that the first time we had to pitch the thing was in the dark back in Scotch Creek.

On our way out we got to see the cutest site...a black bear on the side of the road. We stopped to have a look, but didn't dare get out of the car. However, I still managed to get a pretty good shot of the bear:

We left Jasper and took Highway 16 and then Highway 5 to avoid having to go back down through the entire length of the park. It was WAY quicker. We were back over the B.C. line a little after and hour after leaving Jasper. To break up our drive we stopped at a rest stop and bought sausage rolls for lunch. We then headed towards Kelowna and arrived around 5:30pm. We went to the Orchard Park Mall where we walked around for a bit. Inevitably though we got hungry and so headed over to White Spot for dinner. While we were at White Spot Joss and I decided we would spend 2 days in Osoyoos instead of 1 before heading back to Vancouver. Before heading out though we stopped at a Christian Bookshop and I managed to indulge in some reading material for our 2 day "rest."

We got to Osoyoos around 9:30pm and ended up at campsite 204. However, our car was rather large, so we had to move one spot over to 203 to allow for easier parking. We set up camp and then went and showered. Speaking of showers though...ugh <shudder> the facilities were seriously limited. I ended up having a splash shower and didn't get to wash my face. With all those people and so few showers, you can just imagine how yucky it was. That first night was really hot - very different from our nights in the Rockies.

Woke up the following morning feeling like I'd been hit by a train...just too tired to move. I did manage to pull myself together and at 10am we headed into town to buy milk for breakfast the next morning. We then went back to camp and took our chairs, blanket, books and water and walked across the road to the "beach" on Lake Osoyoos. After a relaxing spell on the lake we had lunch at our site and then retreated to the shady area between the car and tent to get away from the sun.

Later we caved and jumped in the car and went for a drive around just to stay cool with the A/C. We also stopped at a cute little ice-cream shop where we took some time out to taste and enjoy a little cold dessert. We headed back for Vancouver the following morning at 9am.

Jasper National Park

After the sights of Banff, we headed north to the town of Jasper - 236km away. Our last night in Banff turned out to be freezing, so we had to lean heavily on our double-baggin tactics to keep warm. Though we left Banff at 9am, we didn't reach the Whistler's Campground in Jasper till around 3pm. The reason for this is that the speed limit in the park is only 90km an hour! Talk about frustrating! Seeing as we were forced to go "slow," we stopped at several places to take more photos...with material like this, one just has to (see above)!

One of our stops took us on a meandering yet killer detour to Peyto Lake (see below). Hiking to a lake should be leisurely...not the cause of a coronary! I must admit that the view was worth it, however, after that my legs were pretty much shot!

On the way to Jasper one drives the Columbia Icefields Parkway...and by ice fields, they mean ice fields. We stopped at the gift shop/food shop at Saskatchewan Crossing (hope I got that right) for lunch. However, the most amazing sights were taken in at the Athabasca Glacier in the Columbia Icefields. So, we parked in the parking lot and "hiked" up to the glacier itself. What was cool about the whole set up was that you could actually walk on the glacier - all the way to the top if you so wished. However, there are all these warnings of the potential of falling into crevasses. They also tell you (right before you get to the glacier) that the last 3 rescue attempts at the Athabasca Glacier had failed. Talk about scary stuff.

Anyway, by the time we got to the glacier I was freaked out. No way was I going to attempt to scale the thing. I stood on it long enough to have my photo taken and that was that! Here's the evidence to prove that I did in fact stand on the glacier:
After having my photo taken I got off that thing quicker than you can say: "Athabasca Glacier!" Jocelyn, however, was way braver than I was and even straddled several crevasses in order to get better shots of them. I kept telling her that I wasn't coming after her if she fell in...some friend huh?

So, after all the excitement of the glacier, we were then able to drive the rest of the way to Jasper. Just outside Jasper though there were tons of cars on the side of the road and that can mean only one thing: they've spotted bears! We stopped and got out of the car to have a look (bears were far off on the other side of the road and we were satisfied that there were enough potential "meals" in front of us to placate them).

Eventually we made it to our campground. We set up camp and then headed into Jasper itself to take a look around. We had originally planned to be there for 2 days, but we got through all the shops in that afternoon, so we planned to head back towards Vancouver the following morning. Ended up having dinner at some restaurant called the "Alpine" something or other. We met a family of ex-South Africans who had just come from a South African festival held in Canmore (west of Edmonton) called KANASIE. That's an Afrikaans truncation for Canada and Nation...I think. After dinner we headed over to Maligne Canyon and saw some awesome waterfalls. The final photo of us in Jasper was taken while I was updating the travel diary that has served as the source for this blog. Jocelyn had just built her first fire and was going over some study material.

(Turns out my disk with Jocelyn's photos on it is scratched to pieces. It's not reading in any of our PC's. Will have to get said photo from Jocelyn and then upload it. Your patience is appreciated!)

Lake Louise & Moraine Lake

Day 12 of my trip to Canada led Jocelyn and I to some of the most amazing scenes I have ever had the privilege of laying my eyes on. From our campsite we headed out to Lake Louise - 57km from Banff. I was quite intrigued that they would name a lake, Louise. And given that that the second half of my first name is Louise, it was definitely worth a look. However, it took us much longer than expected to get there because of all the stops we made to take in the glory! We even stopped to take a look at some magnificent falls. Can't remember the name, but it was gorgeous nonetheless (see right).

We eventually got to Lake Louise and it had turned overcast. This did not diminish the beauty of the lake one bit. The photos I took while there do not do the setting justice. There is a hotel that has rooms facing the lake. It must have been amazing to wake up in the mornings and see this outside your window (and yes, that's a glacier at the top!):

After taking in the lake, we headed into the town of Lake Louise for lunch.
After a lunch-stop it was on to Moraine Lake (named for the glacial sediment deposits called "moraine" that causes that gorgeous colour). As we neared Moraine Lake we saw all these cars parked on the sides of the roads. So, we assumed that there were no parkings any further up than where we were. As it turns out, we ended up parking a 15 minute walk from the lake. Not funny when it's cold and overcast. The sun did eventually make a reappearance as we took a trail to get to a higher spot from which to view the lake. The view was sensational!

After taking the trail back down, we headed back to the car and back towards the town of Banff. I eventually had my lunch at 4:30pm. Jocelyn then wanted to check out the Cave and Basin Hot Springs, so off we went. It was set up kind of like an educational centre with walkways past the springs too. There was even an historical short film on the reason why the town of Banff exists, and how fighting over rights to the springs led to the establishment of Canada's first National Park.

We were quite weary after such a full day so settled in early as the following morning would see us heading even further north - to Jasper.

Canadian Rockies Roadtrip - Banff Continued

We awoke to the pitter patter of little...RAINDROPS our first morning in Banff. It must have been about 5am...and when it rains while you're camping, you hear it...all of it! Jocelyn took off outside to put our camping chairs away and move the 'fly' away from the tent. It started to get really cold, so it required donning a second pair of socks. We both managed to get back to sleep and woke up at 9am. After our morning ritual (breakfast etc) we headed into Banff to satisfy the "inner tourist." We walked the town flat and I managed to buy gifts for my family. We stopped shortly to have lunch at Subway...yes, they "eat fresh" all the way up in Banff! On the way back to our car it started raining, so we headed back to our site to put our chairs under cover. We then headed out on a drive of the Minnewanka Loop (yes, you heard right) and stopped at Minnewanka Lake to take some pictures.

Next stop...Safeway...yes, they have Safeway in Canada. We picked up some groceries and went to a hardware store to pick up some rope for our tarp. When we got back to the campsite it was raining, but not too badly. However, it wasn't long before it started pouring and got really windy. Joss and I pegged down the fly, put the chairs under it and then started digging little trenches to keep the underside of the tent from getting soaked. Despite both of us having worn waterproof jackets, we both ended up soaked through. With the rain came the mozzies, to such an extent that we headed back into town for Citronella candles and garlic butter. We got a little side-tracked on the way to town though, and wih good reason. It's not often you get to see majesty like this on a daily basis:
Back at the site we had garlic butter on bread as a side-dish to our dinner to try and fend off the little fiends. We fared a lot better that night and also helped a single Mom set up her campsite (her 2 pre-teen kids wanted none of it:)). That night we got so cold (even wearing trackies) that we were "forced" to invent the concept of "double-bagging." That's putting yourself inside a sleeping bag, inside another sleeping bag in an attempt to get warm. It's the only thing that worked! The rain kicked in at about 2am, but we managed to sleep through to 9am.

We got up, had brekky, and headed out for a really magnificent day taking in Lake Louise, Moraine Lake and the Cave & Basin Hot Springs (see the next post for more details).

Candian Rockies Roadtrip - Banff

We arrived at Tunnel Mountain Campground in Banff at about 2pm on the 18th July 2004. We were assigned a site and went to check it out. On the way to our site we saw some rather cute natives - and no, I don't mean boys...I mean moose (see below):

Whilst setting up camp, we realised our particular spot was in direct sunlight (not such a wonderful idea in the middle of summer). After a quick jolt back to the entrance of the campground and a quick site change, we ended up in a much shadier spot. We "walked" out stuff over from our previous spot - including the fully pitched tent (with the help of 2 other campers). Check out our site (see below).
On completion of the set up of our site we headed in to Banff to check out the shops. However, once in the town of Banff (short for Banffshire in England) I ended up with a killer headache, and so we headed back to our site. Thankfully the amenties in the Banff National Park were FREE and way neater and cleaner than those in Scotch Creek, and they didn't close...ever! Ah, the things one takes for granted. We had dinner and washed up our dishes. However, we were unable to enjoy our evening as the "restless natives" were out for blood...you guessed it...MOZZIES! Lots of them! We eventually had to run for cover in the tent...however, several swine managed to sneak through the lines of defence and ended up in the tent with us...not fun!

Canadian Rockies Roadtrip - Part One

After 3 glorious days in Whistler Jocelyn and I headed back to Vancouver, excited about the next chapter of our adventure together - a week-long road trip through the Canadian Rockies! After stopping off back at her parents' place, they joined us on the drive over to the car rental place. We ended up hiring a Chevy Monte Carlo - pretty much a 2-door sports car with a massive boot (trunk) - all our camping stuff fitted in (just barely).

We left Vancouver around 3pm and drove 6 and a half hours to Cottonwood Campground in Scotch Creek. Unfortunately we had no prior knowledge of the place, and were informed that the bathrooms were CLOSING at 10:30pm!! So, suffice to say we had to find our camp site, pitch a tent which we had never pitched (in the DARK) and get showered and cleaned up before 10:30pm. Speaking of showers...upon arriving at said showers, we were shocked to find that you had to pay $1 for a 10 minute shower..can you believe it? INSANE! Plus, we had no soap and I had to settle for using my shampoo instead. We were NOT impressed in the least. After that we had to go back to our site and put the 'fly' over the tent and pump up the air mattress - not fun with a foot pump! Anyway, we finally got all the bits and pieces done and decided to go for a walk by torch light. On our way back from the "porta-loos" before bed, we had the unfortunate coincidence of walking past a site full of drunk JERKS! They started talking rather loudly and said some rather crude things (which will never again cross my lips) as we were walking past. Thanks to aforemetioned jerks, it took me ages to get to sleep that night - it was most likely 1am before sleep finally claimed the both of us.

The following morning Jocelyn and I were up at the crack of dawn - literally. We were up so early, we couldn't use the bathrooms because they weren't open yet! However, we were able to improvise and use our container of water from Vancouver to wash up and brush our teeth. We packed up our site and headed out again - this time bound for Banff, another 6 hours away from Scotch Creek. As we crossed the state line into Alberta, we started driving though some of the most amazing scenery I had ever seen.

Amazing, yes? And that's not even the heart of the Canadian Rockies - it's just the "outskirts." Feast your eyes on this (it gives you some idea of just how "small" we really are!)

Whistler Mountain

We reached the top of Whistler Mountain after a 20 minute gondola ride. The gondola ride itself offered some pretty awe-inspiring scenery - but nothing compared to standing atop the mighty Mountain. It was lunch time by then so Joss and I headed to the restaurant to have a bite to eat. When paying for my meal, I discovered that the cashier was Australian, working in Canada during the snow season. Out the back of the restaurant was a viewing deck which enabled us to take in the magnificence of it all whilst enjoying our lunch (see above).

After lunch Joss and I headed out on a seriously up-hill-then-down-hill hike to Harmony Lake. Joss had seen photos of the place and wanted to take some of her own, so I happily obliged. We reached Harmony Lake without much hassle and again captured some of God's amazing handy work on film (digital disk...same thing). Stopping to admire the view is pretty easy when you have a view like this(see below).

Blackcomb Mountain

Our last true "day" at Whistler was by far the most amazing of our stay. We got up early and went to the Village to buy sight-seeing passes for both Blackcomb and Whistler Mountains. We decided to head up Blackcomb first. After 2 sets of chair-lifts, a short bus ride and another chair lift we found ourselves at the very top of Blackcomb where they have the summer glacier skiing. The view was the most breathtaking sight - the closest I've come to being on top of the world - and at 2,284m above sea-level, it sure looks that way!!

We walked around the top of the moutain - which proved to be great material for these photographic fundies, which included checking out the "crazy people" skiing on the glacier and taking photos of them.

Neither of us had ever been so high up, so we decided to grab ourselves a hot chocolate and "warm up" whilst soaking in the view. However, the hot chocolate turned out to be a bad idea...and after scoping out the 3 single "long drop" loos - no way were either of us going to heed the call of nature in the sub-zero temperatures! Suffice to say that our pit-stop at the Rendez-vous Restuarant on our way back down the mountain inspired an interesting song! And no, you'll never get me to sing it!

After coming down off Blackcomb we walked through the Upper Village to the Main Village where we caught a gondola to the top of Whistler...(see next post)

This last photo (below) was taken from the top of Blackcomb lookng down towards Whistler Village. This gives you some idea of just how high up we really were!

Whistler - Part II

It's to be expected that places change. I guess the little girl that remembered Whistler was just hoping she would find something familiar! The only thing that was familiar to me was the Timberline Lodge from our visit back in 1993. And as such I jumped at the opportunity to have my stop at the hotel captured for posterity (Thanks Joss).


Whistler Village was much bigger than I remembered, and there were more shops to visit - which is not such a bad thing:) During our wandering through the shops...Joss got the chance to get up close and personal with a rather friendly looking bear. I also had my photo taken with the bear, but I like her shot better:)

As you can guess, Joss and I spent the day walking and shopping (I did the shopping) and taking in the general splendor of the place. Whistler in summer is still as spectacular as it is in the winter.

So after a lot of traipsing from one side of the Village to another and lunch at Earl's we decided to head back to our hotel. There we spent the better part of the afternoon hiding from the heat and relaxing a little. We took in a movie that night in the hotel's "movie room." It was rather spacious and cool (of course) so neither of us minded a little mind-numbing entertainment.