In Deep Down Under

More from the Eastern Coast...

2007-10-01T19:28:00.000-07:00

The theme of this Shindig was the letter "S"

I wish I was in that right now!!

Just on the other side of that point is Sydney, 3 million people, you can't see it in the photo but it's big and scary!

This was Scotts head, my favorite place to surf so far, no one was there, it was a point break at about 4-6 feet and I could position myself in the same spot everytime and just wait for the sets of 3-5 swells to roll in. This is my board "Lucy" a 7'5" long 19 1/4' wide made in New Castle by John Scolley, a family man...

This is Byron Bay, imagine Bend or Ashland, OR, and replace the mountains and rivers with an epic point break and 40 mile long beach break. lot's of organic farmers and hippy style people with the soul of surfers running through the whole town. It was epic and I think that I fell in love.... I got beat up trying to get out past the breakers, and beat up tryin to catch the waves that were pretty difficult to read, but the ones that I caught and took in were unreal. the smallest was around three feet and the biggest were about 8-9 feet that day...

this creek is red because of minerals for decomposing vegitation apparently.

testing out the waterproofness...

this is a dune lake in the GSNP its color was like tea because of minerals from fallin vegitation.

we took more of hike and found some amazing plant life... this vine around the tree was called the strangler vine.

an Australian wild turkey also called a 'forest farmer'

this is a gigantic sand blow created by the wind and had the softest finest sand I have ever seen! We were at Rainbow beach tryin to get to Fraser Island but it didn't work out because of time frame, it's a big island, so we hung around Rainbow Beach area checking out areas of the Great Sandy National Park. All these photos are from the GSNP...

7am on Bribie Island. The island off in the distance is a National Park, I can't remember the name of the island. there are no roads on it and the only people are park rangers.

click on the photo and try and zoom in on the second breaking wave, there's a little shredder comin in on the wave.

"Take me home Gary I'm done!"

It's been a lil while and alota adventure!Cheers Team!

2007-09-30T01:08:00.000-07:00

no shoes no problem, they don't care either...

Aussy has big trees too!

This was the greatest pub I have been to in Australia! The best beer at least. 7 different brews and really nice people, the name is 'Pub with no beer' because sometimes the ingrediants and brewing process can't keep up with the local drinkers.

this was our home for 3000km (chelsea, I think yours is a lil more humble and alot more character..xo)

Kookaburra sittin in the ol gum tree...

This is what it looked like from our window in the mornings

Cresent Head

Cresent Head

Yellow Crested Cockatoos

Emily making music in a Tree...

2007-09-12T04:10:00.000-07:00

About twenty mintutes from Albury

Look closely...

Emily playing the Dij

Hello.

I can't remember the name of this bird.

This park is really close to my house and the Maurey River runs through it.

Sunset from my backyard.

This was for a house party, that was actually a fund raiser for the eco adventure club. The people who invested money actually made back fifty bucks.

mmmm mmmmmm......

These are new faculty buildings also made from pressed earth. On the roof are solar panels.

2007-09-12T03:13:00.000-07:00

Tree planting at the Thurgoona campus.

Hill's Hoist is awesome. Who needs a dryer?

I don't know what else to say about a backyard other than cool beans.

My humble home...

Wagga Wetlands Photos

2007-09-12T02:57:00.000-07:00

Ukalyps oil on the water at the Wagga Wetlands.

The Vintara Vineyard. All the buildings on the property were made of pressed earth, or dirt (clay) from the property that was mixed with a bit of cement. Michael says it's just as strong but cheaper and more efficiant since they had to clear out some dirt for the building of the property anyway.

2007-09-12T02:05:00.000-07:00

beautiful sight eh, the tap at the counter was connected directly to the brewing system so no kegs are needed and the pipe that goes from the brewing system to the tap is chilled so it's all fresh as possible and apparently an easier system for cleaning.

For one of my subjects we evaluated the interpretive tour that the brewer Michael gave us. Bintara Brewery Rutherglen

2007-08-29T06:30:00.000-07:00

Sven

Peter

2007-08-29T06:24:00.000-07:00

Albury's foot bridge over the RR tracks and highway

this is Ewn with a fire stick and the moon in the corner

2007-08-29T06:18:00.000-07:00

2007-08-29T06:13:00.000-07:00

bye Bill (after us 5 students and Boyd the other field officer, left the island, Bill had the island to himself for a couple days)

2007-08-29T06:09:00.000-07:00

2007-08-29T06:03:00.000-07:00

2007-08-29T05:56:00.000-07:00

2007-08-29T05:53:00.000-07:00

2007-08-29T05:46:00.000-07:00

Claire and I were really tired one day so she sat on a rock and threw the little lamandras to me...lazy lamandra misile launching...

2007-08-29T05:34:00.000-07:00

2007-08-29T05:24:00.000-07:00

just over 9000 planted in 5days

the crew

2007-08-29T05:20:00.000-07:00

...then we ate

2007-08-29T05:12:00.000-07:00

Bill caught a Drummer....

2007-08-29T04:23:00.000-07:00

I crepped up to my friend the seal while seal friend was sleeping, seal friend was really happy that I interupted the warm sun baking session so seal friend showed me the appreciation

there was only one beach on the island and if you slipped and fell off any other points you might not have ever made it back to the surface because of the surf and steep slippery rock walls....beautiful photo huh

2007-08-29T04:12:00.000-07:00

they spend all there day in the ocean, up to weeks without coming back to the burrow apparently. and they keep the same partner throughout life...

this is a burrow that the peguins make to get their boogy on with their mate in its natural form, underneith some bush, grass or shrub, but they were loosing there natural habitat on lamandras, banksias, ukalip, and others, to the non native kikui grass brought from south africa becuase it is good for cattle graseing, but to think and low to the ground for the worlds smallest peguins.

2007-08-29T04:06:00.000-07:00

coolin off with some tea and musicafter day 4

2007-08-29T04:00:00.000-07:00

a long day and lots of lamandras...

good mornin..

2007-08-29T03:49:00.000-07:00

inside the beam of direction and warning house

tasty...

2007-08-29T03:43:00.000-07:00

mmmmmmmmm...

this stuff smelled gooood.

2007-08-29T03:37:00.000-07:00

cool rock (farkin finger!)

a chunk of our plot

2007-08-29T03:32:00.000-07:00

out the kitchen window...

starting point that monday...

2007-08-29T03:23:00.000-07:00

lamandra, lamandra, lamandra

this is the light house and the building we lived in for a week.

2007-08-29T02:51:00.000-07:00

2007-08-28T21:15:00.000-07:00

look at this nerd! I havn't worn this form of life jacket before and you should of seen me trying to put it on...

2007-08-28T21:10:00.000-07:00

after a six hour drive from Albury to Narooma, we hopped on a boat and headed to Montague island for some tree planting sponsered by the National Parks service. I didn't pay $1 in 6 days...these photos are leaving the main land on the NPWS boat.

2007-08-28T21:02:00.000-07:00

The way the finals were judged was really interesting, a jam session but you had to nominate two jumps at any time to be judged, on my first nominated jump I did a switch zero method air (switch straight air), went HUUUGE and crashed so the rest of the time I just sessioned the jump and finished the night off with some new tricks I'd never tried before that day. After the comp there was all kinds of music and this particular guy had a computer with him that he would record and loop the hand drum, symble, harmonica, piano, and other instruments individually then play it all back in one song and sing and play guitar over the beat he was looping.... really cool. the other photo is a moment of clarity.

2007-08-28T20:57:00.000-07:00

it was snowing hard during the finals, these photos were taken about 20 seconds apart, one with the flash and one with out.

2007-08-28T20:52:00.000-07:00

The snowfields of the Victorian alps, and pre finals hydration... Pre lims were during the day and I qualified for finals being 7or8th going into them.

2007-08-28T20:49:00.000-07:00

6am bus ride to Falls Creek for comp

2007-08-27T07:08:00.000-07:00

Albury's main street 3am...

2007-08-27T07:01:00.000-07:00

Her name is Dale...My name is Courtney (not much else to say)

2007-08-27T06:54:00.000-07:00

The gum tree bark. The megpies that fly around the trees sound like monkeys and it's a really wierd shredding environment.

2007-08-27T06:51:00.000-07:00

This is the coolest chair lift ever because it is free to use.

2007-08-27T06:37:00.000-07:00

Lift tickets suck! back country, aussy mates, and nose snifflers rule!

2007-08-27T05:48:00.000-07:00

I never thought I would be doing this in Australia.

2007-08-27T05:45:00.000-07:00

Me mate Kade and some ghost we brought home from the pub.

2007-08-27T05:43:00.000-07:00

2007-08-27T05:39:00.000-07:00

This one almost looks like some art work from Chris Wu

2007-08-27T05:03:00.000-07:00

Here is some fire twirling from some new friends Alex and Michelle.

2007-08-27T02:52:00.000-07:00

This is Leah... she's my house mate. She's from Melbourne.

2007-08-27T02:42:00.001-07:00

...what's up world...

Long Way From Home...

2007-08-16T05:02:00.000-07:00

It's been about a month. I miss many faces that I know well, none of you can be replaced, ever. I have met some awesome people here in Aus that I want to package up and take home with me, we'll see. The beer here is good but Oregon's is un real... drink a Northwest Brew and think of me because I miss it way too much. I reckin' I've been sittin, studying too much, and not enough time traveling and exploring. Australia is big, and I'm getting restless...

This blog is dedicated to everyone I love and esspecially my brother Seth who is going to be far away from home soon too...

Love and miss all the one's who make me smile.