Category: Photos

Cutie cuties

/ Renae / 2 Comments

So just because I can, I would like to show off my gorgeous Godson and his super-cute new baby brother. Hubs took these photos while we were visiting Brizzie a couple of weekends ago and I can’t stop looking at them!!!

Mmmmmm…. babies….. Alex was 1 month old when we went to visit, and just so damn cute.

 Liam acting all serious in between giggle-fits! How gorgeous is my Godson!?

It was so easy looking after Alex! I really don’t know what all the fuss is about. 
(Ha ha ha ha ha ha! I’m sure I’ll find out soon enough!!)

It was so nice hanging out with the boys and Mama and Papa as well. We had a cruisey morning with only a little bit of spew and poop, and LOTS of baby cuddles and toddler giggles. Thanks guys! T’was so much fun!

An explanation

/ Renae / 1 Comment

So I promised I’d explain these photos, so here goes. Hubs likes free stuff – who doesn’t!? – and he likes to help people out – what a man! – so when he saw an advertisement at uni by 2 photographers starting out, asking for volunteers to pose for couple photos, he jumped at the chance to volunteer our services. And I was happy to oblige. 2 hours posing for photos and smooching with Hubs? Where do I sign!? In return for our time, we have been emailed 8 photos that have been “touched up” (as if we need any “work” done) to look nice an professional. Pretty sweet deal huh!?

The 2 gentlemen who were our paparazzi for the afternoon are getting into the wedding photography industry, so they just wanted some couples to practice on. I think they did a mighty fine job! Although, with subjects like us…. well…. you know….

We were given instructions such as:

“Look lovingly into each other’s eyes.” Easy.
“Hubs, give Wifey a little kiss….. Uh Hubs, you can stop now…. HUBS!!!” hee hee! Gross!!!
“Here’s a water fountain. Do something spontaneous.” After I splashed Hubs with water and he tried to get me back, I think the photographer regretted that instruction…

Another one of my favourites:

It was a fun afternoon and really, quite easy “work”. I don’t know what all these super models complain about. I mean really.

Gone Fishin’

/ Renae / Leave a comment

A couple of weekends ago, we organised for a group of us to go on a fishing charter with Hubs’ Uncle Wayne. Uncle Wayne and Aunty Alida have been running this business for years (decades??) and we have been meaning to go on a charter with Wayne since we got here. So we FINALLY got around to setting a date aside. My friend Beth was visiting for the weekend, so I tentatively invited her along. I say tentatively, as the last time Beth and I went on a fishing charter, we spent most of the 4 hours hanging over the side of the boat, providing burley for the rest of the fishermen/women. But we weren’t perturbed by our last experience (I’m not sure how!), even after receiving a call from Wayne in the morning saying it was a bit rough out on the water that day. We thought “let’s just do it!!” and so we rendezvoused with the group at 12:45pm and set off.

It was such a beautiful day – bright blue sunshine! – but it was quite windy, so Wayne headed for more sheltered waters, and we cast our lines and waited. We didn’t have to wait long before we got some bites, and Beth caught the fist fish of the day – a pink snapper, or “pinkie” as they call them. Though, she wasn’t so impressed with getting up close and personal!

It wasn’t big enough to keep, so off it went, back in the drink. She did however catch the only “keeper” for the day a bit later on – a nice little flathead that we all had a little taste of for dinner that night. I had had lots of bites and my line felt quite heavy, but it wasn’t putting up a fight. I thought I might have myself either a log-fish or a crab. I was wrong!

Yes, that’s right folks. I caught myself a star fish. A first for me!! Hee hee. Quite a few of us were catching fish, but none of them were big enough to keep 🙁

Hubs and his catch

Wifey, convinced she’d caught the same fish as Hubs

Luke and Grae, catching… ummm….. not much at all! 🙂

Uncle Wayne cooking up a storm for us on the BBQ
Beer + Friends + Fishing = Awesomeness!

Melbourne really turned on some great weather for us, and thanks to travel sickness tablets, ginger tablets and ginger beer, Bethie and I didn’t provide any burley for the trip. Hooray! We’re so glad we managed this before moving out to Wang. Something else to cross off our “to do” list!

Travelling Tassie IV

/ Renae / Leave a comment

We noticed how close Launceston was to Swansea and decided to “pop in” on the way back to Hobart. We said our goodbyes to Lesla and Mike…

(Not the best photo, but you can see how close they are to the water!) and were on our way. It was suggested that we head to Cataract Gorge, so armed with a map we drove through the beautiful town of Launceston. And beautiful it was! I love that all the houses are different colours (same as Hobart!) and the Autumn leaves really set it off! We parked the car near the gorge and started our walk.

Did I mention is was cold? I mean, the locals were wearing light clothing, but I had 4 layers on. Chilly!!! It was a very pretty walk though, and we started warming up quite quickly.

When we got to “the end” it was like we’d stepped on to a movie set, hidden away from everything! There was a swimming pool, a restaurant, a cafe, a bar, a chair lift, a suspension bridge and a park. It was really amazing! And wouldn’t you know it, I don’t have any photos of it on my memory stick. I’ll have to see what I have at home! It really was gorgeous! There are 2 ways of returning to the start – the high road or the low road 🙂 We had taken the low road there, which was the easy route, and we had planned to take the high road home which was more of a hike, but I was just too knackered. We got back to the car and started our journey back to Hobart.

We arrived back at the B&B and this time we were booked into a room at the back of the building, with our own ensuite! Gorgeous! And oh so quiet (sssshhhh sssshhh). We returned the car with no additional costs (woo hoo!) and caught the last quarter of a Carlton vs Geelong game at the pub. Then we used our last $19 to buy some dinner (noodles/rice at a cute little Asian take away joint) and it was back to the B&B for a night in.

What a great trip! We had such a lovely time and really enjoyed the ease of getting around Tassie. Hubs wants to do a Cradle Mountain hike one of these days, and it’s definitely a place I’d love to come back to. I’m so glad we were able to visit while still living in Melbourne. The next trip on the list? Back to Brissie for a weekend at the end of May. Hope to see some of you then!

Here’s what I was talking about when I mentioned the different coloured houses in Hobart. Just beautiful!

Travelling Tassie III

/ Renae / Leave a comment

We were up bright and early (well, we weren’t very bright and it wasn’t that early) for a walk around Freycinet National Park on the Sunday. We arrived armed with a map, water, snacks and brand new sunnies (I was struggling without them!!) and of course Hubs’ camera! We decided on the Wineglass Bay and Hazards Beach circuit which was 11km and supposedly 5 hours. Hubs was really keen to do Mt Amos as well, but we weren’t sure we’d fit it in. I suggested we try and push ourselves through the first walk and then decide after that.

We started off around 11am and I gotta say, the first 1.5km was hard going! The weather was incredible and within about 15 minutes, both Hubs and I had removed our thermals, which we had to carry around for the rest of the walk! (It was 8 degrees that morning!!!) We got to the top of the lookout and had a great view of Wineglass Bay.

No, that is not a cardboard cut out of our silhouettes! Hubs wanted to lighten it but I got impatient and wanted to blog before he got around to it! 🙂 Now, there are a couple of different stories about how Wineglass Bay got it’s name – one is that it is shaped like a wineglass, but the other is that there were 2 whale slaughter stations situated at the beginning of the bay, and that all the blood from the whales would come in and “fill up” the bay and look like a glass full of red wine. Gross.

We trekked on (downhill!) to the bay and it was just as beautiful at the bottom.

It seemed pretty damn chilly, what, with the close proximity to Antarctica!!, but that didn’t stop some crazy people from going swimming! We left them to it and cut across on the track to Hazards beach which was just as stunning.

We took our shoes off and enjoyed the feeling of the sand between our toes. I actually felt the water, and to my surprise it wasn’t as freezing as I was expecting! The last part of the track was through the bush and over rocks and through trees and all sorts of fun things! I really like those sort of hike/walks. Especially with the glorious weather – you can see from the photos how stunning it was! We got back to the start at around 3:30pm and with the light fading fast (no more daylight savings!!) we decided against Mt Amos. Hubs was a bit disappointed, but was getting a bit sore, and I was absolutely stuffed, so we just headed back to the car. After taking some photos of a Wallaby:

We had cooled down by this stage and it was freezing! So on went the thermals again, and we returned to Swansea via another bay and a lighthouse. All lovely sights to see! We arrived “home” around 6pm, exhausted (and chilly!) after another great day out.

Travelling Tassie II

/ Renae / Leave a comment

On the Saturday (24th April) we headed to the Salamanca Markets for a little look-see.

It was quite busy and we slowly made our way around the whole place. I gotta tell you, it’s pretty depressing walking around markets for 2-3 hours, knowing you don’t really have any spending money!! The usual suspects were there (jams, cards, clothes, jewellery) but Hubs and I were quite taken with the wood carvings and the leather goods, respectively. The weather was quite okay – a bit windy which blew the autumn leaves up in the air which was so gorgeous. We then hopped into the car and started heading up to Swansea.

On the way, we had to stop at Orford for this amazing view:

The clouds were completely covering those mountains when we first got there, but by the time Hubs set the camera up, it was starting to clear. Very pretty none-the-less! We arrived at Swansea around 3pm and caught up with Lesla (a relative, but too hard to explain how we’re related!!) over a cup of tea and some ANZAC bikkies – it was the ANZAC day long weekend after all! It was such a beatiful afternoon that Lesla took us for a walk along the beach – practically on her doorstep!

It really was very pleasant! We got home a bit before dark and settled in for an evening BBQ (cooked outside, eaten inside – it wasn’t that warm!) Mike and Lesla gave us some info about Freycenet National Park – our destination for the following day, and after watching a bit of the footy, we headed to bed for a nice, warm, cozy night sleep.

Travelling Tas

/ Renae / Leave a comment

A couple of weekends ago, Hubs and I ventured over the Bass Strait to Hobart and beyond. We arrived around 9pm on the Thursday night and were picked up by the shuttle and taken straight to our B&B. Unfortunately, the room we had was right on Macquarie st – the main one-way street into the city, so from about 2am onwards, the trucks rolling in ensured that I had a poor night sleep, and in turn, so did Hubs. Oh well. We got up (grumbling) around 8:30, had some brekky, and went to pick up our hire car. We were given a map of the Huonville area, and we made our way out to the Tahune Airwalk – a must see when you visit Hobart!

The trip there was half the fun! The roads were lovely and the scenery just gorgeous. We drove along the Huon River which was certainly a sight to behold. It actually reminded me of the Hawkesbury River, but on a much smaller scale. We stopped in at Huonville for some snacks and supplies, and also in Crabtree to check out the local shops – both delightful little towns!

We arrived at the airwalk and paid for entry. The place is run by Forestry Tasmania, and is set in the Tahune Forest Reserve. Although a bit pricey, ($46 for both of us), it was a lovely way to spend a few hours and take some happy snaps! (We did the Airwalk and the Swinging Bridges Circuit.)

 Hubs on the Airwalk
Wifey throwing a coin onto the stump…
…and missing… 3 times!!!
Wifey braving the counterlever. Man than thing moves a LOT!
(my thoughts at the time: “Hurry up and take the picture before all those people come and join me!!!!!!!!!!”)
The obligatory Hubs and Wifey shot
One of the suspension bridges. Not very scary – very cool indeed!
Hubs, as usual, took some beautiful photos and is experimenting more and more with his camera, lenses, lighting and panoramas. There are too many to feature here, but I will certainly be putting more up later on. We left the airwalk around 2pm (after an iced chocolate and sausage rolls!) and headed up the very steep road to Mt Wellington. We could feel the air getting colder, but nothing, and I mean nothing could have prepared me for the icy cold wind we encountered at the top. Oh. My. Gosh. I was NOT HAPPY!
Shocking photo, but I had to show you the pain I was in!!!! What this photo doesn’t show was how much Hubs was laughing at me!! It felt like about 5 degrees! I told asked Hubs to go and take some photos while I took shelter so we could get the hell out of there! A photo of Hobart and the Derwent River.
We drove through some fog/cloud on the way down and headed back to our B&B. After dropping the car off, we walked down to Constitution Dock for some fish ‘n chips – it was Friday after all! We picked a pontoon (after too-ing and fro-ing about 5 times!), ordered our dinner, and sat on one of the piers to eat. A great end to a great first day in Tassie!

Winery tour – Day 2

/ Renae / Leave a comment

After a very restful night, a sleep in, bacon and eggs for brekky, and a read of the newspaper about the storm that had hit Melbourne the day before, we set off for Day 2. (I had actually received a couple of texts from friends late in the afternoon asking “are you okay??” and I was like “we’re just on a wine tour dude. We’re fine!” It wasn’t til we got to Sorrento that we heard about the storm and all the damage it did!!) Our first point of call was The Cups Estate, and what an absolute gem that was! We left the camera in the car so I don’t have any photos, but their fortified pinot was incredible. We HAD to buy a bottle (or 2!)

Next we headed towards Arthurs Seat, stopping at The Morning Sun Vinyard. This place was a bit ho-hum. The service wasn’t great and the most popular wines (the had a Pinot and Guwerzt) weren’t on tasting. So we left with a photo instead!

And then it was off to Vidoni Estate which had some rather nice wines. I think we picked a couple up there as well. Nathan was still looking for a good pinot, and it turns out the first one we’d tried at Hickinbotham had been the best by far! So we decided we had to swing by on the way home. But that was later on…

We then started to get a bit hungry so we were on the look out for some foooood. We stopped in at Myrtaceae (again, cos it was there) and they had some special wine tasting glasses:

They only put in wine to fill the neck of the glass, and tell you to give it a smell, and you can’t smell much at all. Then, you roll the glass…..

… give it another whiff, and the smells explode in your nostrils! Clearly, the same outcome can be achieved by just swishing the wine around the glass yourself, but the novelty was fun. And the wines were quite lovely! Still hungry though…

We checked our map and found a place that was recommended by another friend of ours, who used to be a winemaker in the Yarra Valley, so we made our way there. It was REALLY packed and when we asked for a seat in the restaurant, I had a look at the prices of the meals and just couldn’t do it. Meals were between $30-$40 each and wines were about $12 a glass. Nate had a look and said the only thing he’d be keen on was the duck, and the waitress had told us they’d run out of duck. I’m sure the food would have been amazing, but we just could NOT justify that sort of spending, so we made some excuse and excused ourselves, and just tried the wines instead. Which were lovely! (I can’t quite recall, but I think it was Dromana Estate.)

We were getting REALLY hungry at this stage, so we decided to pop in to a bakery and grabbed some pies. There was a duck pie on the menu so Nate settled on that, I grabbed a beef and burgundy and Hubs ordered a steak pie. Mine was really quite delicious and Hubs was raving about his. Nathan was a little disappointed though. As we were almost all finished, I had a bite of Hubs’ and told him that he got Nate’s pie as there was no WAY that was steak. Hee hee. Poor Nate didn’t get his duck after all.

We went to a couple more after this and ended at Darling Park Winery which was really sweet. It was getting late and we had to get back to Hickinbotham for the pinot so we started off home. We arrived around 6:30pm and realised how bad the previous night’s storm actually was. There was debris EVERYwhere. I’m kinda glad we weren’t around, but also a little disappointed we missed the action! Thankfull though, our roof didn’t leak, which it often does.

We headed out to watch Hurt Locker (it was the night of the Academy Awards and we had no idea of it’s success. We thought it was totally awesome) and then headed to Papa Gino’s (of course) for dinner and the Hickinbotham Pinot.

The verdict? One of the BEST wines I’ve ever had in my life. Seriously amazing. It actually didn’t taste much like a Pinot to me, but the flavours and smells hit me in the face like a Samboy Chip. I just couldn’t get enough (although I only had 1 glass) and really wish we’d bought a bottle! Oh well.

It capped off a great weekend of wine-tasting and shennanigans! Next stop? Wangaratta Wine and Jazz festival! Wanna come?