12 apostles & Melbourne botanic garden

Australian wildlife

Of all the animals down under i think the crimson rosella have become my favourite for their beautiful colours ! though they exist in a wide variation of colours the red one is my favourite ! The blue tongued lizard is a fella you don´t want to get too close to ! whereas the huntsman (spider ) is quite harmless unless you´re an insect ! but admitted, they can get quite big ! the size of a male hand ! had one riding with me in the van all the way from melbourne to sydney. Haven´t seen him since so assume he got tired of the company :-P

South Australia

After getting back from New Zealand I spent a few weeks around Mt. Gambier area. One evening i suddenly noticed the light outside having a very distinct orange hue ! Ran out and took a bunch of pictures of the sunset ! never seen anything like it before ! The blue lake is what Mt. Gmbier is famous for, the beach pictures were taken in nearby Robe. Thommo and i went hiking along the rim of an extinct volcano... beautiful view up there ! The last picture was a moon on the rise that had the most fantastic purple and orange colours but before i got the cam it had almost gone into blue and white colours but i think you get an idea of how beautiful it was anyway :-)

New Zealand

Went to New Zealand fo 2 days to break off my trip to Australia ( returning visa rules only allow me to stay 3 months at a time ) What a beautiful place ! Hope to return there next winter ! The pink lake is in South Australia though, as seen under final approach to Adelaide...

Western Australia across the Nularbor to South Australia

Tingle trees grow to more than 70 meters ! A walk on the suspension bridge along the crowns of these trees is highly recommendable and easily worth the $15 invested ! The pink lakes of South Australia appears bubble gum pink when seen from above, not that visible from the shore but still gives an idea ! No one fully knows why the lakes are pink, but scientists believe the colour to come from a dye created by a bacteria that lives in the salt crusts.

Western Australia

A few more pictures from the westcoast. The second picture is of the boat that made Australia internationally known amongst sailsport fans, now on display in Fremantle maritime museeum...
Here´s little info from wikipedia :

Australia II is the Australian 12-metre-class America's Cup challenge racing yacht that was launched in 1982,  and won the 1983 America's Cup for the Royal Perth Yacht Club. Skippered by John Bertrand,
she was the first successful Cup challenger, ending a 132-year tenure (with 26 successful defenses) by the New York Yacht Club.

Third pic : Joe´s fish shack serves the best fish & chips in Freo, and at affordable prices too !

Last one is the end of Busselton jetty, the longest wooden jetty in the southern hemisphere ( almost 2 km )

Northern Territory + Western Australia

Finally found time ( and connection ) to post a few more pictures ! West Australia probably have the most fantastic sunsets & sunrise´s ! Dolphin picture was shot at Monkey Mia....