Greetings from Sydney, mates. This place is great. I’ve done the walk around town, wandered over the bridge, and taken the obligatory zillion photos of the opera house. I bought a didgeridoo from a neat lil gallery (not a shitty souvenir shop) and I love it. Very cool: a small tree hollowed out by termites, and fixed up by an aborigine artisan. I can make some neat sounds with it, but nothing resembling music yet….and the whole circular breathing thing just baffles me…
I’ve been here a few days & parked in Kings Cross, which is Sydney’s red light district. Some great people watching in this area… and a pretty neat club across the street. I’m staying at “the Funk House”, which is quite fun, and full of backpackers from all around the world. The other day I went to the Blue Mountains with Dan, my Canadian roomate. We hiked and saw the “Three Sisters”.
Tomorrow I head to Cairns, at which point I’ll hit various SCUBA attractions as my bus my way down to Byron Bay….
Well, today’s my last day in Queenstown… what a great place. I was fortunate enough to show up during the winter festival, and last night was Mardi Gras… Multiple stages with musical performances, performers and street vendors everywhere, and so many people it made navigating the streets difficult. sweet.
Holy crap, skydiving RULES!!!!! You jump outta the plane, and it’s just unreal! Once your brain gets past the “holy shit I’m 12,000 feet in the air and falling fast” part, it’s all about pure thrill of flying and an AMAZING view. We jumped near “The Remarkables”, a mountain range that is very unique as it spans true north/south. (Minas Tirith for you LOTR fans) just awesome… wow… gotta do that again sometime…
Later that night I met some very friendly Aussies and regaled them with stories of falling from great heights, and showed them the video I took while doing so. Then the rest o the night was all about drinkin with the brits I met at my hostal.
Yesterday I flew into Queenstown, which is much cooler than Aukland. (Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with Aukland, but it’s just another big city)… Queenstown is a nice ski town on the south island, surrounded by snow covered mountains. (Absolutely gorgeous sight to fly into)
Today I took a trip into Milford Sound and it was quite rainy but really beautiful anyway. Middle Earth is pretty nice…
“When do I turn purple?!” -quote from a dude at the world bar who was alternating between giggling and muttering to himself before he blurted out said line and left…
After 16 or so hours in the air, I’m finally in New Zealand! Passed right over June 24th… left the 23rd and landed the 25th… funky… Not the most comfortable flight, but I’m here now…
I made this Maya animation about a hamster’s adventures on a distant planet for an animation class at Carnegie Mellon in 2002. Continue reading Hamsters in Space→
Zutroy is a little video I did several years back as an excuse to try combining greenscreening and claymation. Unfortunately I underestimated the amount of frames I’d need to animate for Zutroy’s movements in the greenscreen segments, so when I stretched out the timing to fit, he became pretty slow & choppy. That and my little “rap” is just absurd. Apolgies for the cheese.
