DAY 1
I arrived in Hobart at 7:15 am on January 28th and conveniently picked up my "sporty" 6 speed 
Nissan Tiida 10 steps from of the airport doors. After having double checked the hire car for 
any nicks and scratches that were missing from the rental form I made my way to my hostel 
in Hobart. This was the very first hostel I have ever stayed in, so I was pretty excited. It fit the 
description of a regular hostel, large common room, messy kitchen, rooms everywhere and 
people from all 4 corners of the World coming and going. Luck must have been on my side 
because the very next building on the street was a fantastic health food store, I was in my 
glory. 

I had pre-booked all of my accommodations around a vague itinerary that I wasted no time in 
starting. I drove south to the Hastings Caves, a 40 m deep cave packed with stalactites, 
stalagmites, columns and the rare glow worm. This was very impressive and was well worth 
the trip. I went on a 45 minute guided tour and met an American that had bought some land 
in Tasmania and was currently building a home. 

On the way back to Hobart a made the necessary visit to Mount Wellington that towers above 
the Tasmanian capital. The wind was surprisingly calm at the summit and there were almost 
no tourists at the top. The summit gives you a bird's eye view of the entire town of Hobart.

DAY 2
The second day was spent on the Tasman Peninsula, east of Hobart visiting historic Port Arthur. 
The penal settlement of Port Arthur is on the agenda of practically every visitor to Tasmania. 
The guided tour and quick boat tour around the harbour served as a perfect introduction to 
Port Arthur's gloomy history. Some of the worst inmates wore masks 24 hours a day and were 
only allowed to see one face the whole week, the priest's during mass. One cunning prisoner 
even wore the skin of a dead kangaroo and tried hopping himself to freedom. He had fooled 
everyone including the line of vicious dogs that were the last obstacle. The soldiers guarding 
the line of dogs decided that they were hungry and started shooting at the appetising roo 
hopping past their dogs. The prisoner quickly threw the kangaroo hide to the ground and 
began yelling and flailing his arms to show the guards that he actually wasn't a kangaroo! 
In a stroke of luck no bullets had hit the prisoner and he was quickly re-apprehended and 
sentenced to 175 lashings for his stunt.

On the way back to Hobart I stopped at the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park to witness the 
feeding of 3 very hungry devils. The devils at this park were born in captivity and they also 
perform research on the terrible Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumour Disease. They used to use road 
kill for the bulk of the devils' diet, but have since stopped because this practice can spread the 
disease to those in captivity. Devils only live for 5 or 6 years and those being fed were nearing 
the end of their life span, but were not showing signs of wisdom or fatigue. The tree devils 
would all fight for one piece of meat even if there were 2 other nice and juicy steaks on the 
ground just waiting to be eaten. 

DAY 3
I left the Hobart Hostel early and made my way north to my next home away from home in 
Swansea. I chose to stay in Swansea because it is adjacent to the magnificent Freycinet National 
Park. The park's main attraction, Wineglass Bay, is guaranteed to be pictured on any visitors 
guide for Tasmania. I had noticed that the day was warming up quite nicely, but I was shocked 
to hear that it was the hottest day in recorded Tasmanian history. The staff at the park told 
me that they had witnessed the thermometer hit 47 degrees. The official maximum for the day 
was 41.5 degrees celcius. I was adequately warned that I should not try and complete the walk 
that I had planned on doing until the heat subsided. Since I didn't have enough time to return 
to the park in a few days I had to settle with the Wineglass Bay Lookout, a 1.5 hour return 
hike. I wanted to climb up to the top of Mount Amos which would have been closer to 3 hours 
return, but probably would have melted on the way up. I had heard on the local radio that 
the state of Victoria had lost 26 elderly people to the heat wave that had hit a large part of 
south-east Australia. 

Before doing the hike I explored some of the other interesting places in the park. I 
particularly enjoyed swimming in Honeymoon Bay and think that the water was probably 
among the warmest in Tasmania. It was absolutely wonderful. 

My second hostel was the polar opposite of the previous one. It was absolutely spotless, but 
lacked that busy, friendly hostel feel. 

DAY 4
My next stop would be the Bay of Fires, a few hours north of Swansea. The coastline at 
this conservation area is lined with white sand beaches and broken up by a number small 
rocky coves. The area gets its name from the brightly coloured lichen seemingly spray 
painted  over most of the rocks. I swear to god that I didn't buy my new backpack 
specifically to match the colour of this lichen. 

Driving inland from the coast towards Launceston, I stopped in at St. Columba falls. This 
90 m waterfall is nicely nestled in a rainforest valley with gigantic Soft Tree ferns. One 
very interesting part about this walk is that you get to see a few of these ferns with 
sassafras trees growing from them.

My hostel in Launceston was in prime location and was directly above a restaurant and bar. 
So far this sounds very good, but that is short lived. The place was overrun by thousands 
of ants literally everywhere. They were in the bathroom, all over the kitchen and 
eventually in my food containers. 

After having stayed in a measly few hostels I have already come up with a basic rule. The 
friendliness of the occupants of a hostel is inversely proportional to its cleanliness. At 
this hostel I met a middle aged British man who had previously worked on building robotic 
arms for AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicle) that were used by my employer. 

Before hitting the hay (in this case, a living bed of ants) I made a quick visit to 
Launceston's gorge. This is a wonderful gem a few minutes from down-town. It boasts 
a gorge complete with a suspension bridge, a chairlift, a swimming pool and peacocks. 
It was a very busy place because the day had also been unusually warm.

DAY 5
This day's adventures were by far the most awe inspiring of the whole trip. I headed west, 
away from Launceston in the Tamar Valley towards Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair National 
Park. Back in Canada when you accidentally hit something on the road you feel bad, 
but not too bad because it might just be a boring porcupine or crow. On the way to the 
park I hit this beautifully coloured green bird, needless to say I felt bad! 

Cradle Mountain is the beginning of the Overland Track, a 65 km or 6 day trek through the 
national park. This is by far the most famous hike in Tasmania. You can do this on your 
own for a fee of $ 150 or you can travel on a tour with all of the comforts of home for a couple 
thousand dollars. The all inclusive trip includes 3 course meals and hot showers every night.

I did a hike that was the beginning of the Overland Track called Marion's Lookout. It took 
less than 2 hours, but is said to be the toughest section of the full trail. On the way up the 
mountain I stumbled upon a snake. I was previously told that there are only 3 types of 
snakes in Tasmania and that all of them are poisonous. It could have been either the Whip, 
Tigger or Copperhead Snake. Needless to say, after the snake retreated in the bushes I 
made a mad dash past where I had seen it. At the lookout you get an excellent view of 
Cradle Mountain and  the surrounding glacial lakes.  This hike should not be skipped if 
you are ever to visit Tasmania.

After removing my sweat soaked clothing I drove straight to Queenstown and relaxed for the 
rest of the night. I took advantage of the laundry facilities and washed the dirty clothing 
I had stuffed in the car and then went to bed early.

DAY 6
I awoke the next morning to a dreary and rainy day. I figured I was only a 45 minute drive 
from the western coast of Tasmania so I took a quick drive to Strahan. After spending a 
few minutes checking out the local wharf I headed inland for the long drive back to Hobart. 
I stopped about halfway to Hobart at a museum called The Wall. This is a collection of hand 
carved pieces by one man. The art depicts the hard workers of the rugged forests of 
Tasmania and the native species like the Tasmanian Devil and the extinct Tasmanian Tiger. 
It was great that I got to see this after having learned a little about the Tasmanian history. 

I then did a short hike in the southern end of Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair National Park. 
The trail made its way through the platypus' natural habitat, but I was unsuccessful in 
seeing one (oh well, next time). 

After a long drive I finally made it back to Hobart and checked in to my last hostel. This place 
was huge with enough room for 160 people. As I walked into the hostel I bumped into a man 
that I had previously met at the hostel in Launceston.

DAY 7
Since I had to catch a flight in late afternoon I decided to just walk around Hobart for my last 
day. After buying a few souvenir books and a few things from an outdoors store I made 
my way towards the airport and organised my things back into my bags and flew back to 
Melbourne.

All in all, Tasmania was one of the most naturally beautiful places I've ever seen. I would 
recommend to anyone who likes the outdoors to visit Tasmania. If I knew what I know now, 
I would rather have stayed another 2 or 3 days. So, 9 or 10 days would let you see the 
highlights of most parts of the state. If you are more adventurous and want to do some of the 
more challenging hikes you will obviously need a bit more time.


To see more pictures from my trip go to both:

Tasmania Vol. 1
and
Tasmania Vol. 2

Happy Holidays to everyone! This whole being in the Southern Hemisphere thing is really messing with my internal clock. Christmas is only 4 days away but yet its summer. I suppose not being around family also makes it a bit different too. I've got a little replacement family here though. I'll be spending Christmas and Boxing Day with our friends from the UK and Australia. Us foreigners plan on showing the Australians what a Christmas feast should be like.

For most of the year here it is near impossible to find a full turkey. But as Christmas approaches the grocery stores start displaying the turkeys. A traditional Australian Christmas diner includes things like prawns and other seafood on the BBQ and maybe even an after diner dip in the Indian Ocean. Who can really blame them when December in Perth looks like this:

The temperature last weekend hit 38.4 degrees mid-afternoon. We spent most of the morning alternating between laying on our beach towels and swimming just so that we didn't succumb to a heat stroke. I ended up going to the gym later on to get away from the intense heat. The temperature here can reach the mid-40's most likely in January or February. 

Mom and dad are planning on coming over to visit in February-March 2009. That's only in less than 2 months. They found pretty good flights at about $ 1,900 each return. They plan to arrive in mid-February and leave in early March. January and February are the hottest months of the year so I hope they don't melt when they get here. We plan on doing a trip to the south of Western Australia to places like Margaret River and Augusta.

I also bought a new camera a few weeks ago. Its a Canon IXUS 801S. What I was looking for was a small, relatively cheap point and shoot that can also record video with sound. It takes videos at 640 by 480 at ~30 fps. I am quite impressed actually. I've tried to make a small video and post it on YouTube, but still have to find a good program that converts from AVI to MPEG-4 with MP3 audio (if anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear). My first semi-passable attempt is up on my newly created YouTube account. I am still searching for a good video conversion program so I'll probably replace the video that's up there with a better one once I find one.

I've previously posted some boring pictures of screen captures and even a graph (what was I thinking??). I figured that if I continued I'd most likely loose some of my audience. So this post has more interesting pictures, enjoy!

I am now all by my lonesome at the apartment. Nick and Genna are off working on jobs. Nick is currently relaxing and filling the role of Crocodile Dundee in Darwin because of problems with the vessel. Genna is in the vibrant metropolis of Two Rocks (I'm actually being facetious, there are less than 2,000 people there) also experiencing some technical difficulties with the equipment.

I figure I'd add some color to the walls of the apartment and printed some pictures that I had taken from around home on the plotter at work. I got them mounted on a styrofoam backing. As you can see, I haven't put them up on the walls yet.

On the 19th of October, Eloise, Andrew and I went on a road trip south of Perth to a beautiful seaside city called Bunbury. The city finds its home in between a stretch of sand dunes and an interesting beach with black column like basalt rocks. The view from the tower in Bunbury lets you get a glimpse of Cape Naturaliste to the south along with a panorama of the entire city.

One of the reasons I wanted to go to Bunbury was to see a group of mangroves. There is a short trail with boardwalks that winds its way through the small white mangrove forest. I had never seen mangroves before, so I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity.  They are interesting plants to say the least. Their root system is quite unique. There were quite a few small species of fish swimming around the mangroves.

Leaving Bunbury we headed back north towards Perth, but took the inland route. I wanted to stop and see a massive King Jarrah Eucalyptus tree just outside of Harvey. This tree is 600 years old and is an amazing 10 m around at its base. On the way we were fortunate enough that Andrew spotted a Goanna Lizard on the side of the road. We tried to get a hold of it, but it ran into thick brush and then climbed up a tree.

This weekend was the Red Bull Air Race in Perth. The planes go around a track made up of air filled pylons at speeds of 370 km/h even hitting up to 12 gs. A bunch of us went to Kings Park, which is in my opinion, is one of the nicest places in the Perth area on its own. Kings Park gives you an amazing view of Downtown Perth and the Swan River, where the race is held.

It is kind of hard to see, but there is an aircraft at the far left of the picture above. It is doing an upside-down roll.

Before I start writing about the fun things that I've been doing lately I'd like to complain about something just for a minute. As I am sure you know, there is something funny (not really that funny) going on with the World's economy at the moment. Last week at work, the manager of my company called a meeting with all staff. He spoke for about 15 minutes reassuring us that Fugro is in great shape economically and will easily endure through the current events. He made sure that we all knew that Fugro will be keeping all of its staff. Since there has been a downfall in investments, some of our clients may not be as ready to spent money in the next little while. Our office has large contracts that span months and even years. This means that we will certainly have enough work to do to get us through this tough time. For example, we have a contract with WA's governmental agency called Landgate that is responsible for the land and property information for the entire state (half of Australia). We are contracted to collect aerial photography of the entire state.

If you take a look at the graph below you will notice a trend, it's going down! This graph shows how much one Australian Dollar is worth in Canadian currency. I moved to Australia in July, and at that time both dollars were almost at par. I've got loans in Canada that I really should be paying off, so I plan on sending money back home to lower my dept. In July everything was fine for sending money home, but now you can see that I am loosing almost 25% of the amount that I send home. I've got my fingers crossed that this will soon change.

Now back to the fun stuff! A few weekends ago we visited a beautiful vacation getaway island 45 minutes from Perth. The people of Perth are so very lucky to have this gem in their backyard. The satellite image below shows you the Australian mainland to the right and Rottnest Island to the left. All of the light colored water is sand bottom and you can also see quite a bit of reef in the area. The River flowing past Perth and into the Indian Ocean is the Swan River. My office is next to the red dot with "Perth".

The earliest ferry to the island departs the marina at 8:30 am and the latest back to Perth leaves from Rottnest at 4:30 pm. Nick and I decided to make the most of the money spent and took both of those trips to maximize the time spent on the island. The rest of the crew (the UK people and Genna) came on the the 10:30 am ferry and met us there.

One thing that everyone will tell you is that Rottnest Island is home to the Quokka, a rare marsupial that can only be found in the South-West of Western Australia. They look like huge rats to be honest. We stumbled upon one about 15 minutes after arriving on the island. The photo to the right gives you an idea of how big these creatures are.

Automobiles are not allowed on the island so the most popular way to get around is by bicycle. All of the roads are as big as the one shown in the picture above. The scenery all around the island is breathtaking. Little coves and white sand beaches line the island's coast.

We took an amazing trip to Lancelin during the last weekend of August. Lancelin is a small town about an hour and a half north of Perth. We had heard that there was some good sand boarding on the dunes just outside of Lancelin. Here is a Google Earth image of Lancelin. You can easily see that the dunes are quite massive with a length of about 7 km. 

We rented sand boards from a local store for 2 hours for a mere 10 dollars. The sand at Lancelin is very much different from the sand at Scarborough beach. I would guess that the sand is made up of mainly powdered shells as opposed to bits of rock, so it is much softer and finer. The dunes are divided into 2 sections, one for off road vehicles and one for walking and boarding. There were ATVs motorcycles, SUVs and even some cars with lift kits roaming around the dunes. The boards are just like snow boards except they are smaller and you aren't clipped in. It actually isn't all that bad once you get used to it. To make it easier you have to make a nice little track and then you might be able to make it all the way down without ending up head over heals. 

The housing market in Perth is extremely tight and expensive. Houses that would go for maybe $ 200,000 in Fredericton, NB, would go for at least $ 500,000 here. We spent a few days looking around Scarborough for our new home. We finally decided on a house at 1/21 Wheatcroft Street in Scarborough. We lodged an application at the real estate agent knowing that there were 2 previous applications and were amazingly approved within about 2 hours. Since all three of us are engineers working for a reputable company, they obviously thought that we would be able to make the payments without fault. Even though we were approved quickly, we were only able to move in over a week later.

Nick, Genna and my new place is a three bedroom, one bath single storey unit. The rent payments are $ 390 per week. Split into three that is an alright price for a fully furnished apartment close to the beach. I was very lucky that the move to the new place was very short, only a 2 minute drive. The Google Earth picture to the left shows you just how close we are from the beach.

Scarborough is a backpackers paradise and I am told that it is an amazing spot in the summer. A lot of people from Fugro Surveys live in Scarborough and are just a 10 or 20 minute walk from our place. There is a main bus route that follows Scarborough Beach Road which is just a minutes walk from our new place.

Last Sunday, Andrea, Andy, Nick and I took a drive around the outskirts of Perth. Andrea and Andy are two Irish friends that work with Nick and Genna at Fugro Surveys. We stopped at a vineyard and bought some local wine. I had never really seen a grape plant up close before. They remind me of bonsai trees and are very frail and weathered. We were told that most plants are grafted and come from the USA. We took a drive through the John Forrest National Park and ended up stumbling upon a bunch of kangaroos at the Mundaring Weir (I had visited this place a few weeks earlier and thought it would be a good place to bring them).

Recently, my grand mother passed away. She had been feeling a bit ill this past summer (Northern Hemisphere Summer) and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and given 2 days to 2 weeks to live. Even though nothing could be done, I felt very helpless being on the opposite side of the world. I wrote a letter, sent it and actually had it read to her a few hours before she took her last breath. She left us surrounded by her children and grand-children. Here is a picture of most of the grand-children that could make it back to Pubnico to be with family (picture from Mirelle).

You will me missed.

This past week I wrote a theory test for a motorcycle license. I can now ride with an instructor or someone who has held a license for more that 4 years. I will be taking lessons from a local instructor soon. After I do the riding test I will only be able to ride a motorcycle with an engine size of 250cc or less for a years time. I've always thought of getting my motorcycle license, but thought it would be kind of a waste since I would only be able to use it for half the year. Since it never snows here, I can actually ride all year except for the days in winter when it is pouring down.

I am also extremely excited that one of my favorite bands called Candlebox have actually come out with a new CD after not releasing one for a decade. The new CD is named "Into the Sun" if anyone is interested in getting yourself a copy.

I figured I should share a few observations that I've made since being in Australia:

• There is no such thing as beans in a can with molasses (only tomato sauce).
• Australians never say "crickey!", but say "bloody" a lot. You can thank Steve Irwin for the whole "crickey" expression. Bloody is used similarly to when we use "like".
• Australians use "recon" for "think".
• Every Australian doesn't surf.
• There are practically no houses with central heating. This makes for some cold mornings in the dead of winter.
• "G'day Mate" is used a lot.
• They say "ta" and "no worries" for "thank you".

Magically, the constant rain has stopped and the beach weather is upon us. It was 24 degrees a few weekends ago and about 17 degrees this weekend. At least I'll be eased into the balmy 40 degree days! As you can see from the picture above, the skies have cleared and the beaches are filling up.

I got the chance to go to Jandakot Airport where the Fugro hangar is. It is said that this airport is the busiest airport in Australia in terms of takeoffs and landings. The pictures below are of Fugro's planes that are used in aerial photography or LiDAR. Most of their Aircraft are around 25 years old. Looks like Cessna had stopped producing these smaller aircraft about 25 years ago due to problems with product liability. Fugro is looking at buying a couple newer aircraft now that they are being produced again.

Fugro Spatial Solutions has both analog and digital aerial cameras. The next images are of the analog Leica RC30. These things are huge and the lens weighs upwards of 60 lbs. The picture to the right is the camera's viewfinder.

The million dollar LiDAR system was installed in the rental (VH-VEC). The sensor head is where the laser pulses are transmitted from. The ALS50 also has a 16 megapixel digital camera, so it not only samples the surface elevation, but also takes mid-quality images. 

Genna and Nick, my two friends from UNB arrived on the 23rd of August. I was quite excited to see them. Since then we have found an apartment just next to where I am currently at. It's a 5 minute walk to the beach and is next to Scarborough Beach Road where the bus passes regularly. I met quite a few new Fugro Surveys employees that work with Genna and Nick. It seems Fugro recently employed most of Scotland.

We will be moving into our new place by next weekend so I'll have pictures up within a week.

It's been a few weeks since my last post. Since then I've lost and then found the work cell phone, bought my own cell phone and inquired about buying a car. Because I am not an Australian citizen I will have to make a 30% down payment on any car that I buy. Looks like my plans of buying a new car will have to change. I am now going to have to wait until September to buy one and will most likely buy a 2002-2005 used car. I am leaning towards a small hatchback Honda or Toyota.

Last Saturday I rode my bike into the Perth CBD and peddled the trail that follows the banks of the Swan River near the CBD. Perth is a great place for people who like to bike to work, the shopping areas or the beach. There are paved trails that connect most places. The whole trip was about 30 km and I was caught by a slight rain shower. It practically rains every day. Most places are quite well drained, but I passed through a lot of flooded trails in South Perth.

Today I tried out my new padded biking shorts in the morning and spent half the day basking under the sun at the beach. The maximum temperature was only 17 degrees but it was still enough to keep me happy. The bottom two pictures were taken tonight at Scarborough Beach. The picture on the left is of the amphitheater and the Rendezvous Observation City Hotel. The hotel can be seen from miles away and is much better than a map for finding my way back home when I'm on my bike.

I've survived my first week at work. On the first and 3rd Friday of every month, the office has a social night after 5 pm with drinks and  pizza. I ate my pizza substitute (Subway roast chicken) and stayed until about 5:30 pm. I took the train and bus back towards my apartment and went to a pub at the beach before going home. I walked in and was quite confused because there were people there, but no lights. There was a power outage in Scarborough that was caused by a wind storm (winds of over 100 km/h were recorded). There were about 27,000 houses without power that night and the next morning.

I had picked up my bike on Thursday night and wanted to try it out this weekend. I tried leaving early on Saturday but noticed that my rear left tire was almost flat. I ended up trading the car at the car rental for an exact same model. I found that the tire had a screw stuck into it and figured it would be smart to check with the rental guys first. I did eventually get to go biking and just went exploring downtown.

On Saturday night I went to a bar near by apartment called the Indi Bar. There was an amazing band playing mostly the blues. I started talking to this man at the bar that was originally from Tasmania. I was wearing a baseball cap at the time and he was telling me to take it off jokingly. Later, he mentioned again that I should be taking off my cap saying that I reminded him of an American. He brought me to a random bunch of people and asked them where they thought I was from. Without hesitation, they said the USA. Lesson 1, do not wear a baseball cap in Australia unless you want to look like a Yankee.

On Sunday, I drove about an hour inland and did a 14 km trail that begins at the Mundaring Weir. This weir holds back the water of a man-made drinking water reservoir. At the beginning of the trail I caught up with a bunch of young guys with 2 utes (utility vehicles) trying to motor up a steep and slippery track. There is quite a bit of sand on the trails and this ends up making you tired a lot quicker than normal. On the way back home in the car I took a different route and went through the Gooseberry Hill National Park. This park offers amazing views of the Swan River Valley and Perth while driving on an extremely twisty road.

After about 26 hours in the air and 7 hours in the airports of New York City and Dubai, I am finally on the other side of the world. I can already tell you that it was well worth the discomfort of the plane's economy seats and the sleep deprivation. My last two flights were in Emirates Airline's Boeing 777 (10 economy seats across) and Airbus A340 (9 economy seats across). I was quite jealous of the people rich enough to enjoy first class seating. When I first entered the Boeing at JFK in New York I was absolutely blown away. They have 15" touch screen monitors, 6" handheld touch screen remotes and you can recline the seats enough so that you almost laying down horizontal! Even economy had 8" touch screens. They had what was called the ICE system (Information, Communication and Entertainment). These are pretty nifty providing you with flight information, news, e-mail, telephone, radio, CDs, and lots of movies and TV shows.

From JFK to Dubai I was sitting next to a Pakistani girl who was working in the United Arab Emirates, and from Dubai to Perth I was next to a Nurse/Midwife from Fremantle (near Perth). They were both very pleasant to talk to.

I was hoping to get to see some of the man made islands or the Burj Al Arab when arriving in Dubai. It was a bit hazy and there was a slight sand storm so I didn't get a chance to see any of them. It is quite ridiculous why anyone would ever want to build a city in the desert (it might have something to do with a few gallons of oil nearby). When we got to the airport it was 8:15 am and the outside temperature was 33 degrees Celsius. When the plane left at about 11:30 am it was 39 degrees and humid. We had to wait on the tarmac for more than an hour and I was getting pretty sticky to say the least.

I was greeted at the airport by Kellianne Meagher, Fugro Spatial Solution's HR manager. After taking the "scenic" route (we actually kind of got lost), we arrived at 34 Edgehill Street in Scarborough. The 2 bedroom (1 bed and bunk beds) apartment is quite nicely laid out and is already furnished.

The next day I tried sleeping, but only got about 3 hours in. I got up and started getting acquainted with my surroundings. Scarborough is a backpackers paradise. Within a 5 minutes walk there is a grocery store, an Internet cafe, a bike store, a surf shop, banks and a piece of Perth's 125 miles of beautiful sand beaches. 

It's winter and yet there are still people surfing. The winters here are characterized by rainy and windy days. On Monday, it was the coldest day in 50 years reaching a bone shilling 0.6 degrees. In mid-day it is usually around 18 degrees.

Today I tried to sleep in again, but ended up getting up around 4:00 am (I'm obviously not accustomed to the 11 hour time difference yet!). I went to the local car rental and ended up getting a white 2 door hatchback Hyundai Accent. The car costs $ 300 per week with 100 km per day. I was understandably nervous about driving on the left side of the road with a car that isn't mine. It is actually a lot easier than I expected. There seems to be a lot less double guessing when there is a lot of traffic because you really don't have a choice as to where you can go without getting creamed. FYI, the dent on the right side of the rear bumper was there before I was given the car.

On the 3rd of July, I finally received notification that my visa had been approved. Within 4 weeks of arrival in Australia I have to go to the Department of Immigration to have my passport stamped. The visa was approved 3 weeks after I had the mandatory chest x-ray. Applying for a 4 year work visa is quite the ordeal. I had to send copies of my degree, birth certificate, driver's license and passport, a police records check, my resume with references and have an x-ray taken.

Yesterday, I was sent my travel itinerary. It is summed up below:

Depart: Halifax NS, CANADA - 06:25 Tuesday (July 8th)
Arrive: New York JFK, NY - 07:29 Tuesday
Flight time: 2hrs 4Mins

Depart: New York JFK, NY - 11:20 Tuesday
Arrive: Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - 08:05 Wednesday
Flight time: 12hrs 45Mins

Depart: Dubai, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - 10:05 Wednesday
Arrive: Perth, AUSTRALIA - 00:55 Thursday
Flight time: 10hrs 50Mins

I'll be in Dubai during daylight hours and I've got my fingers crossed so that I can at least get a glimpse of the immense man made islands off the coast. The three Palm Islands, The World and the Burj Al Arab should be visible just before landing at the airport.

Kellianne, the Human Resources lady at Fugro, has been just wonderful for setting up all of the logistics. She has found temporary (for 2 months) accommodations for me in a suburb of Perth named Scarborough. This suburb is adjacent to the beach and only 14 km from Downtown Perth. In September, Nick Bardsley and Genna Baker are going to be joining me in Perth and we intend to rent another place in Scarborough for the three of us.

The picture above is of the junk that I am bringing with me excluding my clothing. I plan on only bringing one big hockey bag like suitcase and my carry-on. Lets hope I can fit everything.

I'll be posting photos when I get to Perth and succeed in finding an Internet connection.

Welcome to my blog.

In the past used to have a regularly updated personal web page with pictures and stories. Lately, all that I have been using has been Facebook. Everyone doesn't have Facebook and it also lacks the personal touch of a web page or blog. For these reasons I have begun this blog that will feature my experiences in Australia. I am currently waiting for my Australian Work Visa and am very eager to make the big move and begin adapting to the new climate and lifestyle.

As soon as I receive the 457 Visa (Long Stay) I will be moving to Perth, the capital city of the state of Western Australia. I will be working for FUGRO Spatial Solutions as a Geopositioning Specialist. I will be working in the Aerial Survey and Mapping division of the company. My major task is the processing of photography and positioning information (GPS and IMU data).