The Sydney Harbor Bridge.

Manly Beach. There were a fair number of folks surfing.

Our first wildlife- an Australian Water Dragon hanging out along the beach path.

Our second wildlife. A Brush Turkey.

Seaside swimming pool.

Gelato shaped like the Opera House.

What a great name for a gelato store 😜

Another Australian Water Dragon.

Interesting flora.

Jessee’s first Koala sighting.

Evening view from our Airbnb looking across to Hobart and Mt. Wellington.

Early morning view.

The oldest stone bridge in Australia from 1823.

It crosses the coal river.

One of many vineyards we passed. Leaves showing the fall colors.

Lark distillery tasting room.

Distilling equipment.

Jessee helping himself to a wee sample on the tour.

The Lark brand logo wall mural.

The Kangaroos are free range. Visitors get a bag of food and can feed them by hand if they’re interested.They also liked to be scratched. Don’t attempt this with Kangaroos in the wild!

Enjoy lounging in the afternoon sun.

Waiting for the real feeding (video).

This is a video.. Tap on it a couple times to get it to play.

Next are Tasmanian Devils. Cute but not to be hand fed or scratched if you like your fingers to stay on your hand.

Yes, those are fangs…

Native possums…

Too sunny out!

Birds…

Tawny Frogmouths, they look a bit like owls but aren’t.

Emu

Fred, the 111 year old Cockatiel

And Wombats!!!!!

Almost 2 year old Beanie brought out from napping for us to feed.

Video of Beanie being woken up.

Video of Luring her out for some treats and scratches.

Cute overload!!!!!

Looking north along the spit.

Looking south along the spit, down the steps from the overlook.

Glassy water.

Almost looks tropical.

A round wallaby in a beach car park.

A creative vending setup!

Roadside art.

Seems like a good deal.

The source next to the sign.

Nicely painted bus stop and little free library.

A black swan and still water.

The ferry

Where the ferry docked

The tired welcoming committee

This wombat is less tired, very busy eating grass.The island looks like its been mowed thanks to these guys

.

Wombat poo does indeed appear to be square-ish.

Wallaby!

Jessee noted they look a bit like giant mice.

Kangaroos!

A pink legged, day glow beaked goose.

Eucalyptus forest.

Dew on a spider web.

Rugged coast.

A great lunch spot

Seaweed floating in surreal colored water.

Eaglehawk Neck area with a lot of surfing happening.

Looking down on a section of an area called the Tesselated Rocks They are a unique geological formation resulting in the rocks forming what looks like tiles.

Some have sunken cracks.

Some have sunken middles.

They look a bit like rice fields.

There were big kelp beds just beyond the rocks.

A nearby arch.

Eucalyptus bark.I wish I could include the fragrance. It smells so nice.

Tall eucalyptus.

Port Arthur penal colony buildings.

Barracks

The view from one of the guard towers.

Lane of trees on the prison property. It’s hard to reconcile how beautiful the area is with the hardship experienced here.

Mossy fence posts.

One way to get to the museum is by a 25 minute ferry ride from downtown Hobart. The ferries are owned and operated by the museum, called the MONA Romas.

View from the ferry (which has tiger benches) to the museum starting point through a tunnel or up 99 steps.

Museum entry.

There are many tunnels on all the levels connecting different sections.

A video of the inside a room of what feels to me like the inside of an oyster. Super similar to a Meow Wolf space.

A piece called Water Lillies. I mostly \240didn’t try to take photos of the art. It was just too overwhelming.

An installation by Ai Weiwei the well known Chinese artist.

The exterior architecture and integrated art spaces were impressive!

Also fun. This is a kids play area structure.

Tall tree ferns

Very very tall eucalyptus trees

Three tiered Russel Falls

Horseshoe Falls

The top of Russel falls reflecting some sunshine.

A parrot!

So many mushrooms!

A beautiful boardwalk walk to Pine Lake in the central plateau where it’s possible to see Pencil Pines, a remanent from the super continent Gondwana. They are only found in fairly remote areas of Tasmania now.

Pine lake with the Pencil Pines.

This is Cataract Park in Launceston at a pausing point on a long gorge. Lots of nice walking trails here.

Looking up the gorge.

Pano of the gorge.

A wallaby in the woods in the park.

A female Peacock in the park. Definitely an import but seemingly thriving.

There were a couple dozen of these guys wandering around the park. They’re beautiful.

Cute mural in a city park.

The Tamar River that runs through town.

Kangaroo Paw plants.

Almost the whole trail was on boardwalk.

Looking back through marsh to Launceston.

Tamar Island in the distance.

Picnic area on the Island.

So many reeds.

Us on a bridge.

Tide is out.

Swampy area with tall skinny trees.

Fun reflections.

White faced heron.

Swamp hen.

Black Swan.

Superb Fairy Wren - what a great name!

Video of Ducks looking for food and making tracks.

Videos of Pandemelons in the grass.

Sunset view from dinner.

Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake.

Crystal clear water.

Pano

Ice on a pond.

The trail was mostly boardwalk and some gravel sections.

Orange lichen

Pebble beach

Pandani plant

They look like truffula trees from Dr. Seuss.

One of two Fagus trees with leaves remaining. They are the only native Tasmanian tree that turns colors in the fall. I thought we had missed the window but there were a couple holdouts.

The water was so clear and brown from minerals in the soil.

Button grass reflection.

The foggy view early this morning.

More Pandani plants.

Gorgeous hiking.

Many types of trees.

A moss stream in the rainforest.

So much moss.

Mushrooms!

This is as much of Cradle Mountain as we saw today.

Several Wombat sightings. So dang cute!

Lichen.

A pink robin.

Mossy rainforest.

Black cockatoo mural.

The walk started in a swamp.

Luckily we didn’t run into any of these guys.

We did see flocks of parrots.

And lots of Pandemelons (smalller than Wallabies).

This one wasn’t too bothered by us.

Some fun flora.

First view of the ocean.

Panorama looking back at the swampy area, the beach and the forest in between.

Looking back at swamp.

Pano of the beach. It was extensive and we were the only people in it.

There were so many beautiful shells.

Quite a few seemingly stranded starfish.

Seaweed.

And coral.

The sunset was beautiful.

Headed back over the dunes.

Back through the swamp.

And forest reflecting the sun.

There were dozens of Wallabies mowing the lawn near the car park.

Final bit of sunset light.

Lots of fern trees outside the entry’s to both caves.

The first cave is called King Solomon’s cave.

The guide jokingly called these formations bacon slices. They are semi transparent and light from behind shines through to different degrees.

This space was the most sparkly

The second cave is called Marakoopa cave.

Caves are fascinating!

Explanation for the sculpture below in the restaurant where we had lunch.

Mural in Bicheno of the small penguins that live in the area.

This is part of a series of beaches called the Friendly Beaches in Freycinet National Park.

Trees and the sunset.

A wallaby who was not bothered by us at all.

Sunset at a beach in Bicheno.

A wombat we came across on our way back from the beach. It was not interested in socializing.

A great name for a thrift store in Bicheno.

Our first walk of the day to Wineglass bay lookout.

There are monumentally huge boulders in this area.

With interesting color patterns.

Beautiful eucalyptus color patterns.

A creative chaise lounge bench along the path.

Looking down at wineglass bay. The trail to the lookout had around 400 stair steps. The trail to the bay had 1000+ stair steps. We opted for the lookout 😜.

A fun camper van at the trailhead.

The second walk was to one of the prettiest coves I’ve ever seen. I could have stayed here for hours. It’s called Honeymoon bay.

This bird was enjoying the view at the cove as well, balanced on one leg no less!

The last walk was to a lighthouse in the park.

These islands are called the nuggets. They are popular for a variety of nesting birds. No predators or snakes apparently.

Last view of the park coast before departing.

This is my favorite. It looks like the sheep from Wallace and Grommet.

Why use a regular cone when you can substitute a banana!

Some Launceston architecture.

We visited the Du Cane brewery a few times. It was exactly what a brewery opened by an REI employee would be like. they not only sold beer and great pizza but also national park passes and fishing licenses.

Note all the old packs behind the tap lineup.

This was a giant wall mural of hikes within a couple hours of Launceston along with ratings for difficulty and QR codes to the All Trails description.

A popular sticker here turned into a wall mural.

There were a number of bird focused building or electrical box murals throughout town.

A pretty sky on our flight out of Launceston to Melbourne.

Thanks Tasmania!!!! What a beautiful place.

The Central Business District from a path along the Yarra river.

There are many super unique buildings.

Giant bees.

There is a lot of street art! More than anywhere else we’ve been. Going from the largest to smallest so far…

The largest building mural in the Southern hemisphere apparently right across the street from where we’re staying in a neighborhood called Collingwood.

This is called Princess.

This was painted by a street artist who is deaf.

Urban mushroom

The smallest street art so far, and the sweetest.

We took a walking tour today and finished up in the Chinatown area which had some fun lighting.

Central Melbourne from Brighton beach.

The Brighton boxes.

Both Melbourne and Brighton boxes.

Small shells that Jessee found along the beach.

Warming up from the chilly beach walk.

More colorful boxes, but ones you can live in! Melbourne has some very uniquely designed apartment buildings.

I’m not typically a huge cactus fan (too many run ins with them in New Mexico as a kid) but I really liked a lot of the specimens they had.

These furry ones are from Peru.

Barrel cactus babies.

These palm fruit look like chandeliers.

Fern gully.

The bark of a Mexican Cypress. It was gorgeous, the tallest tree in the whole garden.

Lots of succulents.

Downtown peeking out above the garden.

This is the finish line at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix course.

This is the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) stadium. Cricket is a big deal in commonwealth countries and the MCG \240is one of its premier stadiums seating over 100k for cricket and Australian football.

The cricket pitch was receiving radiant heat therapy since it’s winter here in the southern hemisphere.

Taking questions from the press at the MCG.

Note the street sign name in the upper left AC/DC was founded in Australia and played in a club just down the lane frequently.

This stencil is of a real person in Melbourne, “Carrot Man”. He carries a giant carrot around town with him.

This and the next are 2 Banksy pieces done over 20 years ago. He did over 30 when he was here but all the others have been stolen or painted over.

Our guide created this piece.

And also this piece.

This is a giant piece of black paper with cutouts pasted on the lighter paint behind.

This artist creates can person figures using only found objects, aka trash.

Thi s artist has space invader figures all over the world including the international space station. There’s an app where people can log the pieces they find to collect them all.

I love this maybe 6 inch piece at the base of a column.

A bejeweled storm trooper helmet. Apparently there were many of these put up but all have been taken. This is the last one.

A big part of street art is impermanence and the artists being okay with whatever happens to pieces put out there. Some pieces are left where they were created for decades. Some are gone in a matter of minutes. It’s so interesting!

These two statues of mythological figures Gog and Magog ring the bells they are holding at the start of every hour.

Not a laneway but a lovely green wall.

And of course, there is more art around every corner.

More space invaders.

More can creations.

Murals so big they require videos instead of photos.

A tree stump in Fitzroy Park carved wits fairy figures by a local children’s book author. It’s fun to see Koalas and Kangaroos in place of things like deer and squirrels.

The mosaic floors are gorgeous.

Lots of skylights.

This is the main reading room in the State Library which has a copy of every book ever published in Australia!

Fun balconies.

A Lego model of the library which is actually several joined separate buildings.

An animatronic clock that opens at the top of every hour and plays Waltzing Matilda.

One of my favorite laneways lined with plants that the residents maintain.

It’s also home to a fair amount of art. Sticker and otherwise.

Other laneway murals…

We went on a walk along the Yarra River and came across these striking mushrooms.

Some of them had what I’m guessing is mold, but it was so beautiful. Like a golden hairy aura.

Jessee with a raspberry Lamington from Victoria Market. Yum!

It’s a giant stadium used for Australian football, cricket and concerts.

Entry into the stadium of one of the teams.

There are 4 goalposts instead of 2 with teams getting different points depending on which posts the ball is kicked through.

We started in Port Campbell. This is the beach there.

There has to be a good story behind not allowing cats at the beach….

Lots of changing weather from rain to sun and back again.

Very dramatic coast near Port Campbell.

An interesting grass bloom.

Close up.

Sunset over the 12 Apostles formations.

That is a cantilevered viewing platform looking at the 12 Apostles.

So far we haven’t seen any spaghetti noodles but we’ll keep our eyes out…

This is an area called the Grotto.

This is called London Bridge.

This is called Loch Ard Gorge.

A video panorama.

Plant life.

There are a lot of hazards!

So far no snake sightings and I’d like to keep it that way!

Cape Otway lighthouse.

Some unbothered Kangaroos on a walk we took in a Eucalyptus forest where Koala sightings are common.

Yes, our first, and only, Koala sighting so far. Way up in the crook of a tree napping. Not super distinguishable from the tree, but we saw one!

The moon coming out as we left the Koala to finish its nap.

The ferry from Queenscliff (west) to Sorrento (east) across the mouth of the bay that Melbourne sits on.

Turns out there are a lot of beach boxes in Rye on the Mornington Peninsula where we stayed for a night. Not quite as flashy as the ones in Brighton but a great setting between trees and a gorgeous beach.

Some lovely shells on the beach.

We were treated to one of the prettiest sunsets I’ve experienced with really spectacular light.

Kelp beds and beautiful blue water.

Little Oberon Bay.

This is Picnic beach.

This is Whiskey beach.

A video from a bluff above both.

The Darby river.

Bird prints in the sand.

Some flora along the walks.

And some great critters!

A beach wombat.

So hungry!

Kangaroos

Emus!

The video of this kangaroo just watching the emu and scratching its belly is pretty funny.

The first mom with a Joey that we’ve seen.

We walked through some gorgeous eucalyptus forest including the trail through Lilly Pilly gully.

And it’s impossible to go anywhere without seeing murals along the way…

All the mini scenes within the Death Star were amazing.

They had fun ones incorporated from the movie like this one.

And the trash compactor scene.

They also had a cafe with Star Wars themed food, like blue milk.

The entry wall to one of the NGV buildings is made of glass with water flowing down it. It’s a bit mesmerizing.

Video

Looking out from he insidvideoe.

Part of the biggest stained glass ceiling in the world at the NGV.

A fun Yayoi Kasuma sculpture.

One of the exhibits was focused on the history of Kimonos. There were gorgeous examples.

Another exhibit was made up of dozens of Aboriginal tree bark paintings. They are incredibly detailed and tell stories in ways that people outside the culture are unlikely to understand, but are beautiful nonetheless.

Each line is a brushstroke. Amazing!

St. Paul’s church is massive and I didn’t attempt to capture the space but a few details of tiles instead.

Marvel stadium is big and set up for Australian football which uses an oval field.

Goal celebration video.

A couple Mor can-people figures.

A fun pikachu plane we saw in Sydney on our way to New Zealand.

The entrance to the arrival area at the Auckland airport.

The beach down the road from where we’re staying in between rain showers.

A bright mailbox.

We visited an exhibition for a Māori Whare, or building, today that is made from crochet. It’s part of Māori new year celebrations in Auckland. Super impressive and also fun and joyful.

The top of the business district skyline from down the road.

Another fun mailbox.

Tiles on a wall.

New Zealand bird mural.

Utility box mural.

A funny neighborhood vending stand with limes, lemons, grapefruit and golf balls (?????)

There’s a lovely park/reserve around a pathway through the neighborhood. Someone has created fairy homes in a removed part of it.

Close up of the prolific fungus on the tree in the background of the above photo.

We took part in a Weta Workshop experience highlighting the work they do in movies with practical effects like built models and prosthetics. They are best known for all their work on the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies. They had some small and large models on display.

There were also sets from concept films to demonstrate the work they do and how it’s done.

Despite it being winter here here are some things like this Iris blooming.

On a walk at Great Western Springs park we came across an area of the lake that had a lot of eels, plus some Koi and black swans. The eels are native, the other fauna are introduced.

Today we walked to the top of Maungawhau/ Mt. Eden, one of more than 50+ volcanic cones in Auckland. It’s a sacred site for Māori people. It has a beautiful view of the area.

Video of changing colors.

A silly mailbox.

Some common architectural elements of houses here: a spire at the apex of a roof, scrollwork around the eaves, stained glass in the top window panels.

This cat deserved a photo. It was very regal and lion like.

Utility box art.

A giant little free library in a shipping container on the Auckland ward area.

We saw some giant masts and sails on a docked boat and went to check it out. Turned out to be a pretty well known boat!

This is a giant marina with hundreds of boats and the Auckland Harbor Bridge.

Sky Tower and downtown among the masts.

These are bright blooms of the Pohutukawa tree.

Lots of scallop shells on local beaches we’ve visited.

A unique stained glass window.

This is Motukorea, a cinder cone island to the east of downtown.

Looking west towards downtown.

A fun fountain at Mission Bay beach.

Looking back at Auckland from the suburb of Devonport. We took the ferry in the foreground to get here. There are a lot of small ferries that connect downtown with various suburbs and islands.

A very colorful non-native bird along the walk we took up Mt. Victoria in Devonport.

A view of Rangitoto Island which is another volcanic cone and is all a preserve. Takaringa/Mt. Victoria where we took the photo was a military post during WWII. The old vestiges of some military equipment have been painted like mushrooms. 🍄

A 360 degree view from the top.

Sculptures in Devonport.

Fun Grey Lynn neighborhood interactive front yard.

Mire stained glass.

Mural in Ponsoboy neighborhood.

Small act of stickering on the bus.

An impressive installation at the Auckland museum.

This is Jessee in front of a recreation of a Moa, the largest native flightless bird that lived in New Zealand. They were big!!!!

Flowers at one of the glass houses at Winter Gardens.

Pink bananas, apparently from Nepal.

The Britomart Train station ceiling skylight.

Colorful walkways between buildings outside the Britomart station.

Boardwalk along the walk around Orakei Basin.

A Common Coral tree in bloom.

A Puriri tree bloom.

Stairway mural.

Mural along the train tracks.

This video is the view outside our Airbnb window.

Luckily, the rain took a break today and we took a great loop walk to several lovely beaches.

There were a couple interesting plants along the way.

A couple murals…

A bus stop with a lot going on

And some great mailboxes!

We’re enjoying Waiheke so far and looking forward to more walks!

A personal funicular from someone’s parking spot to their home way down below. Pretty amazing!

More fun mailboxes. Probably the most creative mailboxes I’ve come across anywhere in a relatively small place and we’ve only seen a fraction of the island.

Boats waiting for some people…

A poem for the Māori Pou Whenua carvings along one of the trails.

Another carving that is unique and eye catching.

A hobbit door????

I don’t think this bike has been used in a while!

We had to back onto the boat so we were pointed forward when we arrived. Not my favorite maneuver but it went fine.

Helpful reminders and encouragement from the ferry.

Creative door handles at a cafe we stopped at on the drive.

Yard art and murals in Waihi.

A hopeful seagull eying our fish and chips…

Sunset light….

Ocean on the right and protected inlet on the left.

Video view from a lookout.

This is a beautiful little beach called Shelly beach in Bowentown domain.

It’s made up of these white shells.

Video view of beach.

Some local murals.

Video view

View video. That rain is coming for us!

This is Hahei beach just down the road from the cove.

Lots of Avocados and citrus growing here.

A very cool Promnatory on the drive.

A couple fun mailboxes…

Hobbits at heart…

Looking toward the mill and Green Dragon.

Bagend.

It’s a dangerous business going out your front door…

Hobbits like fancy mail boxes too…

The inside

The details are amazing. A tea cozy that looks like a hobbit hole. May I please work here?????

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

A rainbow came out between showers.

The mill where we had lunch.

Looking toward the mill and Green Dragon.

Part of the green dragon.

Green Dragon front door.

Cozy Green Dragon nook.

Jessee enjoying an ale.

The guest book with some well known folks.

A generous hobbit lunch.

The workshop.

The forest transitions from Redwoods to more native flora in areas, especially giant tree ferns.

We also took advantage of the steamy geothermal activity around Rotorua lake and soaked in some hot water during the rainiest part of the day.

River video 1

River video 2

There are two falls depending on rain. It’s been rainy so we got both.

And a rainbow.

Falls video.

There were a lot of beautiful plants including the world’s tallest moss.

And lots of ferns.

And lichen.

This grass looks like truffula trees.

Back in Rotorua there’s a place called Secert Spot that has a dozen or so cedar hot tubs in the fern forest for soaking. They also have what they call Shinny dips that are complementary when paired with food or beverage from their cafe. We shinny dipped 😀.

This is Emerald lake. Algae are the cause of its color.

A hot lake.

Video captures steam a bit better than photos.

Another steam video.

Video

Video

A very hot river!

Video, boiling water springs.