Blog Archives: Travel
Brisbane Ekka
Vegetable art and a vegetable man Yesterday I attended the Ekka, which is Australian for “exhibition”, in particular the Brisbane Exhibition, the annual agricultural show. I believe it’s similar to the CNE (“The Ex”) in Toronto, although I’ve never been to The Ex so I can’t say for certain.
The Ekka is… odd. It’s a big deal in town — and indeed wherever it is as the show travels around the country — as there will be a public holiday one of the days that the show is in town.
Champion bananas at the Australian Banana Championship For a city boy like me, the agricultural aspects are quirky but cute. There are competitions for everything you can imagine, agriculturally. The picture at the start of the blog is of a vegetable art display (it didn’t win the competition, but I thought it was good). There are horse competitions, cattle (before) competitions, cattle (after) competitions (for “before” and “after” pictures, see the gallery), banana competitions, chicken competitions, and many others.
Wood-chopping contest There was also a wood-chopping competition. It featured a variety of events — pairs crosscut sawing, the 300mm underhand, the tree climb, and so on — with apparently $65,000 in prizes up for grabs.
A newborn lamb stretching his legs There were also lots of cute barnyard animals on display: sheep, goats, ducklings, chickens, and puppies (I wanted to take one home with me!). There were also newborn lambs, just a few hours old, and already learning how their legs worked. The little fella in the picture at right was born earlier in the day, as far as I know.
And of course no fair or exhibition would be complete without terribly unhealthy deep fried dough and other tasty treats. I was disappointed that I couldn’t find any funnel cakes, but we did have some warm jam-filled donuts. The Ekka returns every year, but perhaps I will skip it next year, unless of course I have trained for the wood-chopping competition. Think I can chop through a 300mm log in less than 19 chops?
Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands
Looking across to Whitsunday Island (Getting caught up on old blog entries…) Over Easter, I went up to Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Coast for the long weekend. The Whitsunday Islands are a beautiful chain of islands just off the shore a few hundred kilometres north of Brisbane. They are also very expensive, so I stayed in Airlie Beach on the shore, a much cheaper alternative to rooms starting at $300 per night on the islands. I had planned to go to Airlie Beach a few weeks earlier, but they had a bit of a typhoon and most of the area was under 10 feet of water, so I postponed a few weeks.
Our lunch break on South Molle Island On Good Friday, I went kayaking in the sea around the coast. Apparently even though I’ve only been kayaking a few times, I’m apparently an experienced kayaker, or at least my canoeing experience makes me a relatively experienced kayaker compared to your average tourist. We had a few island stops. 
Butterfly at a flower We had lunch on one of the islands, South Molle Island, with some spare time on the beach after lunch. Rather than lounging around, I set out with my camera for a bit of hiking in the hills of the island, and came across fields and paths filled with butterflies. They seemed to enjoy posing for my pictures.
Me scuba diving at Luncheon Bay, Hook Island, Queensland One of the main purposes of the trip was to do a bit of scuba diving. I got my PADI Open Water Diver certification in February and this was my first dive since the course. While the Great Barrier Reef does stretch as far south as we were, it is quite a bit further out from the coast than it is further north. 
Blue water above the reefs at Luncheon Bay I assumed that the boat I was on, entitled “ReefJet”, would go out to the Great Barrier Reef, but in fact it did not, which was a bit of a disappointment. We ended up going to a place called Luncheon Bay on Hook Island (Yar!) which has a reef just off the island. I still got a good dive in and got to practice my skills, and, as always, I enjoyed swimming with schools of fish.
Sand dunes on Whitehaven Beach Our last stop before heading back to shore was Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island, considered one of the most beautiful beaches in Australia, although the day we were there the weather was cloudy and the beach was not very photogenic. Apparently the sand from that beach is quite pure (98% silica) and was used in the construction of the Hubble Space Telescope.
The rest of the weekend was quiet and relaxing. I took a bus way out of town to go to church on Easter Sunday. (While the church was packed for Easter, the church and community were a bit underwhelming: the “choir” was a tape player.) And mostly I just read, having found a nice used bookstore in town. Sadly, I succumbed to a book every tourist is required by law to read at least once on vacation: The Da Vinci Code. Mildly entertaining, but no masterpiece.
I even managed to fit all my scuba gear back in my suitcase — and relatively dry too — to get back home.
More pictures from the trip are available in 2010′s Australia gallery.
Visit to Sydney
Me in Sydney Earlier this week I was in Sydney for 15th Australasian Conference on Information Security and Privacy, where I had two papers being presented: One-time-password-authenticated key exchange (joint work with Kenny Paterson, Royal Holloway, University of London) and Predicate-based key exchange (joint work with James Birkett, Queensland University of Technology).
Sydney Opera House on Bennelong Point After the conference was done on Wednesday, I spent the afternoon wandering around downtown Sydney. It was drizzling rain early in the afternoon, but that cleared up and it was a lovely day. The Sydney Opera House was of course a prime subject for photography. The best view of it was from one of the pylon lookouts on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, which provided the viewpoint for the picture at right as well as the following two panorama shots.
Side view of Sydney Opera House at night I then took the Manly ferry across the harbour to the seaside town of Manly, where I wandered around and watched cool surfers in the cold water. Coming back across the harbour on the ferry, it was dark, and the city was beautifully lit up. 
Sydney Harbour Bridge at night I spent some time taking long exposure night pictures, some of which came out very well, I think, before heading off to dinner at a fantastic little Italian restaurant with a line-up out the door. And then back to the airport for my flight back to Brisbane.
The rest of my pictures from Sydney are available in my Sydney gallery.
Vancouver 2010 wrap-up
Me with the Olympic cauldron I suppose I should say a little about how I ended up going to the Olympics in Vancouver. Since Vancouver was first awarded the Games back in 2003 — which incidentally happened while I was visiting the nearby city of Seattle — I had wanted to go. I had even told my friend Scott, when I found out that he was moving to Vancouver, to reserve a place for me on his couch in February 2010. Last year, when VANOC announced the ticket lottery, I put in requests for about 8 events, but alas only won one ticket. I decided that one ticket was not reason enough to fly across the ocean to Vancouver, sold the ticket on VANOC’s resale website, and that was that.
Flames lighting the crowd at one of Robson Square's nightly fireworks celebrations Fast forward to February 2010. I spent the first weekend of the Games camped out on the couch, watching the Opening Ceremonies and waiting for Canada to win its first gold. I watched speed skating and ski jumping and checked out pictures from friends in Vancouver on Facebook. It looked fantastic. And then Monday evening I had the spontaneous thought: “well, I could just go”. 
The Olympic countdown clock, counting up The genie was out of the bottle. I looked up flights and checked the availability of event tickets. An hour later (when the Eastern timezone was awake) I ran the idea past a couple friends and my parents to see if I was crazy. Another half hour later, my flights were booked, event tickets purchased, and accommodations arranged. It was hard to sleep that night as I was so excited. The clock was ticking.
Me with the crowds on Granville Street Over the last two weeks, I’ve written about my time in Whistler and the various events I attended. It’s fitting to close with a little bit about what Vancouver was like.
During the first week of the Games, I heard and read a lot about how Vancouverites were embracing the Games, and how everyone was enjoying themselves so much. When you encounter a story in the news, it’s hard to know whether it’s something that reporters are blowing out of proportion — something that the average person on the street wouldn’t even notice — or whether it truly is like that on the ground.
Flames lighting the crowd at one of Robson Square's nightly fireworks celebrations Let me tell you, downtown Vancouver was crazy during the Olympics. The centre of the insanity was the intersection of Granville and Robson streets. Both of those streets were closed to traffic throughout the Olympics, and Robson Square, one block north of that intersection, was a major outdoor gathering point. Each night during the Games, there were fireworks at Robson Square, and I met up with fellow Waterloo alum Ian to see the show one night.
Crowds celebrating the last night of the Olympics on Granville Street I ended up downtown a few nights, including the night that Canada defeated Russia in hockey and the last night of the Games after the Closing Ceremony, the day that Canada was gold in men’s hockey. As you can see the streets were packed! Filled with a lot of young people dressed in Canadian hockey jerseys or Team Canada clothes, wanting to do nothing more than high five everyone in sight. 
Hockey fans on Granville Street The last night I was downtown there were a few spontaneous rounds of O Canada to be heard while walking up and down the street. The only experience I can even remotely compare it to is being in Ottawa for Canada Day, except this was every night for two weeks in February. It was truly incredible and one of my favourite memories from the Games.
Was it the patriotic expression of a newly confident Canada emerging on the world stage as the newspapers were debating? During my life, I think Canadians have always been great fans of the Olympics and the Canadian team — the prevalence of maple-leaf-covered Roots and now Hudson’s Bay clothing being just one example — and this was just the next step. From what I read about at Dundas Square in Toronto and the constant interest from friends across Canada on Facebook, it seems the excitement stretched far beyond Vancouver, across the entire country.
The last big Olympic experience I had was flying out of Vancouver airport on the day after the Closing Ceremony, the busiest day in the history of Vancouver airport, with 39,000 people departing. While I wasn’t expecting chaos — they made a big deal out of being prepared for this — I was at least expecting a bit of a crowd. But I guess my flight, at 11:45pm, was too late for much excitement. When I arrived (4.5 hours early, as recommended), there was no line up for check-in, no line up at the Olympic souvenir shop, no line up at security; it was a run-of-the-mill quiet Monday evening at a medium-sized airport. How disappointing!
Me with Dutch gold medallist speed skater Sven Kramer at Vancouver airport As it turns out, I had forgotten to bring the card that gave me access to one of the lounges at the airport, so once I got through security I wandered the terminal a bit to see what was going on. There were still some athletes there waiting for flights, including a few folks from Great Britain and a sea of orange jackets from the Netherlands. As I went over to Tim Horton’s to get my last Tim’s hot chocolate for some time, I recognized one of the Dutch athletes (who was the only one not in orange): Sven Kramer, presently the best long track speed skater and gold medallist in the men’s 5000m. I watched him (on TV) win gold during the first day of the Games. He kindly indulged my request to take a picture with him. It was a great way to end my trip to Vancouver.
I’m so glad I went to Vancouver and Whistler for the Olympics. It was one of the best experiences of my life!
Getting to Sochi in 2014 may be a bit more difficult than Vancouver, though. But London’s conveniently accessible from anywhere on the planet, isn’t it?
Biathlon
Cecilia and I at biathlon Yesterday I attended the women’s 4x6km biathlon relay at the Whistler Olympic Park with the Cotton family.
Canadian skiier practice shooting In the biathlon relay, there are 19 teams, each composed of four people. Each person does a 6km relay leg: 2km skiing, a shooting round lying prone on the ground, 2km skiing, a shooting round standing up, another 2km skiing, and then a transition to the next skier. In the shooting round, they have 5 bullets and have to hit 5 targets. 
The carnage in the transition area They also have an additional 3 bullets in case they miss some of the targets, but they have to reload those bullets manually. Finally, if they still haven’t hit all the targets, they have to do a penalty loop.
Russian fans cheering on their winning team As with the ski jumping event I attended the day before, the Canadians and Americans were the lowest ranked teams heading into the competition. At the top of the field were the Russians, Germans, and French. The German and Russian fans were out in full force, wildly waving their flags. Our team did decently, considering we’re not a northern European powerhouse: the Canadian women improved from their rank, finishing in 15, three spots above their rank, and two spots ahead of the Americans.
Canadian and American skiiers embracing after a tough ski The Russians won the race (and their fans were happy about that, let me tell you!). The French had been in the lead but then had a bad shooting round and had to take two penalty laps. Remarkably, the French fought their way back from ninth place back up to second in an amazing recovery from their penalty laps.
Today I leave Whistler and head down to Vancouver to enjoy a few more events and the closing ceremonies.
Turn Airport Off
Turn Airport Off This always amuses me whenever I’m travelling and using my computer in an airport. (For non-Apple users, “AirPort” is what Apple calls wireless networking.)
Kayaking in Milford Sound
Fog-covered mountains on the way to Milford Sound The day after taking a cruise on Doubtful Sound in New Zealand with my parents, I went on a guided kayaking tour on Milford Sound, another fjord in New Zealand’s Fiordland National Park.
Kayaks on the island where we stopped for lunch Besides seeing it differently because I was kayaking, Milford is quite different from Doubtful. If you take a look back at my pictures from Doubtful Sound, it’s wide open with fairly gently sloping mountains. Milford, on the other hand, is much more closed in, narrower, with steeper mountains that dive straight into the water.
Sunlit mountains lining Milford Sound I think what amazed me most about both Doubtful Sound and Milford Sound — indeed, of all that I saw in Fjordland — was mountains with water all around. 
Clouds hiding Milford Sound It was quite a departure the mountains that I’m used to as a Canadian (and that I’m seeing on the television a lot right now).
Doubtful Sound
Doubtful Sound, viewed from atop the Wilmot Pass Te Anau is the gateway to Fiordland, a mountainous region on the west coast of the south island of New Zealand which features many fjords opening onto the Pacific Ocean.
The Stebila Family on Doubtful Sound My parents and I took a day cruise on Doubtful Sound, one of the largest fjords in the area. It’s very remote: we took an hour boat ride across a first lake (Lake Manapouri) and then a bus through a mountain pass (Wilmot Pass) to reach the sound.
Looking down Crooked Arm Doubtful Sound features mountains diving right into the water and continuing to the bottom several hundred metres below. The fjords were gouged out by glaciers in the last ice age; the tops of the glaciers reached nearly to the tops of the mountains. When the glaciers melted, sea level rose to the point that it’s at now.
The remains of tree slides Except in the rare steepest parts, the lower parts of the mountains are covered with greenery of all types. You’ll see the occasional scar on the side of the mountain, however, as in the picture at left. These are the result of occasional avalanches — but of trees, not of rocks or snow. 
Revegetation after a tree slide When an earthquake happens, sometimes the trees will lose their footing on the very steep slopes and just centimetres of topsoil, and come careening down the mountain into the water. At left, the remains of a tree avalanche from the last year or two. At right, growth in another area about 10-20 years after a tree avalanche.
Seals and waves Out at the end of Doubtful Sound, as it meets the Tasman Sea in the Pacific Ocean, we came across a little island that’s home to a bunch of seals. They happily ignored us and kept on enjoying the rare sun in an area with more than 200 days of rain annually totally 7.6m of rain.
Manapouri power station at West Arm On the way back, we stopped in at the Manapouri power station. This hydroelectric station supplies more than 10% of New Zealand’s hydroelectric power, and most of the station’s output goes to a single aluminum smelter. The Manapouri power station was also the reason the Wilmot Pass was built: the machinery came in by boat through Doubtful Sound and then along the Wilmot Pass. 
Interior of Manapouri Power Station To reach the machine room where power is generated, we had to take a 2km gently spiralling access tunnel 193m underground. Water falls straight down from Lake Manapouri, spins the turbines, and then travels a few more kilometres horizontally to exit into Doubtful Sound. An impressive bit of engineering to say the least!
