South Coast NSW

I've just had a relaxing week down the south coast of NSW, the weather has not been the best with alot of rain the first 2 days but we did end up with a good day or 2.

I've been waking up early for sunrise but unfortunately they haven't been amazing but we did have one amazing sunset!

 I really do love the south cost of NSW it's just amazing and nice and relaxing. We stayed at Gerroa 2 hrs from sydney and if anybody is looking for a rental house i can highly recommend Sea west 

http://www.stayz.com.au/accommodation/nsw/south-coast/gerroa/98020

It's a awesome little 3 bedroom house with open plan living rooms and with a great deck over looking 7 mile beach.

We've been busy doing day trips to Jervis bay, Berry, Kangaroo Valley, Fitzroy Falls and eating out at the local cafe's and restaurants. 

Here are few photos from my sunrise and sunsets around Black head Gerroa.

Vivid Sydney 2013

Vivid Sydney Sydney started a week ago and i've already been twice !! Last Saturday night i took my niece's in to watch it again they love the trip into the city to view vivid . Made the mistake of taking them on the first saturday night of vivid and it was packed, it really does draw the crowds .

This year there is a water and light display at Darling Harbour which is pretty cool plus all the usual spots like the Opera house , The MCA and Customs House.Vivid is on for another week and well worth a look just try to go mid week if you can. 

Elsewhere Retreat , Megalong Valley

Wow , What a weekend !! Just spent the weekend up the Blue mountains Had the best weekend which i did not want to end. It's my Birthday this week and we decided to book a place up the mountains , We found a place on 40 acres called Elsewhere Retreat and it did not disappoint . We arrived on Friday afternoon just before sunset, It was great to find a well presented house with 2 fires stacked with wood ready to go.
After the rest of the group arrived we had a great evening around the fire . On saturday we went for a walk to hanging rock for a lovely picnic, luckily it managed to be clear enough with all the back burning going on to enjoy the view.
On sunday it was very hard for all of us to leave , everyone had a great weekend and nobody wanted to leave it was amazing. I would highly recommend Elsewhere Retreat To anyone , Here is a link for anybody that is interested in a fabulous property for a great weekend.

http://www.elsewhereretreat.com.au

Mt Wilson

Had my first trip out to Mt Wilson on the weekend , This time of the year it is full of colour and well worth the visit. Also managed to pick our own Chestnuts at one of the houses up there.

Lee Big Stopper

Morning All,

Well it hasn't  really been a busy week , Ive managed to get a stomach bug and have had a few days off sick. But on the upside is a recent purchase of mine was a Lee Big Stopper to add to my other Lee Filters i Have. 

It's Basically a black piece of glass which you can not see thru but when added into my Filter holder it allows an extra 10 stops. These shots were taken after sunrise the reading thru my camera without the filter was 25secs @ f8 and with the filter the final exposure was 2mins @ f8 allowing the water to look perfectly smooth and all of the boats on the harbour to not be seen.

I'm gonna have some fun with this once i feel better, and the weather clears up !

Pete

New Zealand Moon Rise

For all of you that haven't seen this on my Facebook page,
 Full moon Silhouettes is a realtime video of the moon rising over the Mount Victoria lookout in Wellington, New Zealand. The photographer is Mark Gee a freelance photographer.
Click the link and Check it out !

http://vimeo.com/58385453

Email confirmation

Hi all ,

Just want to make sure that anyone who has entered their email address to receive updates is recieving them. I entered my email address and was then sent a email which i had to click to verify, The only problem was the email was in my junk folder and i had missed it.
So please if if your not recieving updates enter your email again then check your junk mail for a email from feed burner then click to verify, And if you haven't entered your email address yet then go ahead and do it and ill keep you updated with pictures and info.

Thanks Pete

Thailand airport express

Temple of dawn

Smile , Koh Mak Thai Cooking School

Red Curry

Green Curry

Leng keeping a close eye on her students.

Leng teaching us about different Curry's

Green and red curry's

Deep Fried Squid

Red curry paste

One of the best things we did while visiting Thailand was a cooking class while on Koh Mak Island. Smile Cooking School which is run by Leng, teaches intimate classes of four in the comfort of her own home, helping you perfect the most ultimate delicous curry!

Leng taught us how to cook traditional thai dishes, including Pad Thai, Tom Yum Soup and Sticky rice with Mango. Hope these pictures look as good as it tasted!

If anyone is thinking of visiting the Koh Mak Island, I would highly recommend a visit to this school- it's worth it for the Mango sticky rice alone and of course the smiles!!

http://www.smilekohmak.com/contact.aspx

Thailand

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Wat Pho

Have Just arrived back from a week in Thailand, The first few days was lovely and relaxing . We decided to visit Koh Mak Island which is closer to Bangkok and less touristy. To get to Koh Mak we caught a flight to Trad which is about 40 minutes with Bangkok airways, In Trat we stayed in the Rimklong Boutique Hotel which was amazingly clean and they have the best coffe in town! Make sure you find some time to visit the food markets they are amazing, and walk around the small alleyways you could easily spend a day here.

We then caught the ferry over to Koh Mak and made it too Ao Kao white sands resort. Koh Mak is a small laid back island i reccomend hiring a kayak , Also hire a bike and go for a spin around the island if you want to snorkel the pier at Cococape resort isnot to bad. The best thing we did on the island and maybe the whole trip was a Thai Cooking Class , Leng was a great teacher and i highly recommend it and the classes are small. Here is a link for anybody that is interested http://www.smilekohmak.com/welcome.aspx 

Finally we headed back to Bangkok for 2 nights, Wow what a difference that was from sleepy Koh Mak but it was cool . Street food , temples , shopping , crowds it has it all ! You could sit and watch the traffic for hours. We had a hectic day dealing with crowds at the Grand palace and Wat Pho in 30 odd degrees. That night we did a bike trip around Bangkok with Grasshopper Bike tours. http://grasshopperadventures.com/ Again highly reccomended we visited Wat Arun and Wat Pho at night obviously entry to them was closed but walking around them with no crowds was cool and we learnt so much from our guide, We also visited the flower markets and ate some more street food it really was crazy riding on the streets but its amazing amongst all the chaos that drivers have respect on the streets and we survived !

I cant wait to go back and see some more.

National Track Championships

Wow what a busy weekend ! I ran the Sun run yesterday 7km from Dee Why to Manly and this morning the Cole classic ocean swim at Manly . But last night i managed to get along to watch some of the National Track Championships . I haven't been to the Dunc Gray Velodrome since 2004 i'd say and was keen to get back and take my camera . I took my Dad and other relatives which have not been to the Velodrome before, I think they enjoyed themselves while i was busy taking photos. It really is amazing to watch live when you see how close they race and how steep the track is .