Last weekend we went to Lamington National Park again, however just camped at the normal camp sites no hike-in camping. We went the long way to get there so we could detour past Allora and see if the Sunflowers were in season for Bec. They weren’t really but there was one field at the racecourse. We went to O’Reilly’s last time so would have been good to go to the Binna Burra end instead, but Darcy told us of the Treetop Walk.

Following on from the last post, here are the things that were on my old list that I hadn’t achieved, plus a few more to make it up to an even 40. I don’t expect to achieve all of them in the next year, but would like to try and hit around 15. I certainly don’t plan on going to Egypt in the current political climate for example. Fly in a helicopter Fly in a hot air balloon Go Skydiving Go Wakeboarding/Waterskiing Go Kitesurfing Play a full 18 holes of golf (instead of 9) Surf and snowboard in one day Go a day each without sight, hearing and speech Write a song Perform in a band at a pub or busk for change Learn to play “Bella” on guitar (Travis Picking Pattern) Learn circular breathing Do a 26 things photo contest Learn to unicycle Become fluent in another language Solve a Rubix Cube Learn how to pick a lock Eat a widgety grub Eat the coat of arms (Emu and Kangaroo) Go on a pub crawl Read a book a fortnight Cut my own hair Paint a self-portrait Write a short story Write a letter to my future grandchildren Keep a daily diary for 1 year Paddle out to Mother McGregor or Ironpot Island Go on a sailing trip camping on islands Watch a rocket launch See a Solar Eclipse See a game of State of Origin live Go on a surfing holiday Climb an active volcano 4x4 Trip to Cape York Go to The Kimberley See the pyramids of Giza See the aurora Write an app Ride down the range and back Do Parkrun in under 25min

And one more item that was on my 101 Things list from Switzerland: Travel to at least 15 different countries. I thought it was worth having it’s own post to list them all. New Zealand Switzerland France Germany Liechtenstein Italy Vatican City Czech Republic Vietnam Fiji Japan If you count layovers then I have hit the 15(but I’m not). Thailand (Bangkok Airport) Austria (Train Station) China (Hong Kong Airport) Singapore (Airport) Uptype: post date: New countries added (now more than 15).

While I was living in Switzerland I attempted to put together a list of 101 Things in 1001 Days. The goal was to publish it on the Tales from Turgi blog and cross them off in blog posts, but I never finalised my list of 101 things. Since I was travelling lots I kept on thinking of new better ideas, and was crossing off old ones. I actually tried to make one earlier then that for the 1001 day period of 07 Jul 2009 to 24 Dec 2011, but couldn’t think of 101 things I thought were worthy.

Last weekend we went down to the Granite Belt area again, this time camping and prepared for the hike up Pyramid Rock. Last time was just before winter, we didn’t prepare for it and Rachael was wearing jeans, so she didn’t make it to the top. There was severe weather warnings forecast for the weekend, but when we left Saturday lunch time the skies were clear and it looked like while there was some big storms closer to the coast we should just get some patchy rain.

Since we spent Christmas in Toowoomba this year, Rachael wanted to head to the beach for New Years. Given we tried booking about a day before, almost everywhere at Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast were booked, and so we decided to stay inland a bit at Murwillumbah YHA. The area around there was great and there was awesome views from the deck of the Tweed River and Mt Warning. On the drive down we stopped around the Palm Beach area and it was busy as.

Here are my votes for this year. Jarryd James - Do You Remember Marcus Marr & Chet Faker- The Trouble With Us Florence And The Machine - Delilah Tame Impala - The Less I Know The Better Rubens, The - Hoops Kita Alexander - My Own Way Meg Mac - Never Be Gang Of Youths - Magnolia Ratatat - Cream On Chrome Vance Joy - Fire And The Flood Also from the initial short list:

We flew out from Christchurch and so got a rental car to drive from Queenstown, staying the night at Tekapo. Lake Pukaki was as awesome as I remembered it, and we stopped and got out to skip some stones. Lake Tekapo itself seemed less appealing for some reason, it seemed like the water level was lower maybe. The snow tubing was still there though, so that was fun. Last time I went to New Zealand we didn’t see much of Christchurch besides the airport, so I was keen to see the city.

We did a day bust tour from Queenstown to Milford Sound, which is part of Fiordland National Park and world heritage listed for a reason, as it was incredible. Milford Sound is pretty close to Queenstown, but because of the mountains, it’s big roundabout 4 hour drive. The drive to Te Anau was okay, lots of mountains and sheep but nothing too out of the ordinary to the rest of NZ.

So we finally were able to go on our 2nd ski holiday now that Rachael got the bug in Japan, this time to New Zealand. We flew into Queenstown for a night, and then mum and dad met us later in Wanaka the next day. Rachael was impressed from the get go but the first day was a bit of a miserable rainy day and not as good as last time I was there.