Liuba and I took a boat trip in Tenerife to go see Pilot Whales in the wild. Such majestic beasts.
Tag: Animals
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Penguins in Oamaru
Melissa and I went to see some Baby Blue penguins at the Oamaru colony. Unfortunately it was nearly impossible to get a good photo due to the crappy lighting but below is the best I managed.
In the absence of good photos, we drew some penguins instead 🙂
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Dougs
Krissi’s plucky little dog Dougs kept me well entertained over the new years period. He even outpaced the humans whilst mountain biking up a steep hill!
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Cycle touring in/near Oslo
It seems people are fascinated about where I end up on my weekends, so here are some snaps from a couple of weeks ago. I ended up somewhat lost during a cycling trip as I forgot my phone so had no Google maps, I had an awful map which barely showed any detail and I forgot my compass to boot, so kept losing my bearings. I eventually ended up sitting beside an awesome lake called Nøklevannet; I didn’t take any photos whilst there because there were girls bouncing around in bikini’s everywhere and so I didn’t want to look like the creepy guy taking photos of them (plus I was too busy staring at boobs to take photos). It ended up being a 40 km round trip, including lots of detours attempting to find something interesting. Next time I will take a good map, compass, phone and figure out where the heck I’m going first 🙂
Oslo sure does get some beautiful weather despite what the locals may say. 
Ducks chilling out beside Luktvannet 
I accidentally stumbled across this small lake called Skraperudtjem during my travels. There are beautiful little lakes like this hidden all over the area. 
A view from above Skraperudtjem -
Aquarium in Tromsø
The weather turned to poo in Tromsø, so Harriet and I headed to the local aquarium to entertain ourselves for the afternoon.
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Bob Skywalker
We have a new member of our office. His name is Bob Skywalker.
Bob Skywalker hanging out with Harry Ponsonby 
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Birdies in the snow
Apparently snow is edible! These pigeons were pulling out all sorts of edible delights from within the snow pack. And here I was thinking it was nothing but water!
And a bonus photo of a duck 🙂
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Chilling out in Singapore
I’m currently blobbing out at Changi airport in Singapore en route to Norway. This is definitely the most pleasant short-term stopover I’ve ever experienced. The whole airport is just “nice”. Lots of shops, lots of good food, lots of pleasant little indoor garden areas, good transport around the terminals (and between them) and not overly busy.
My only problem is that I have a swollen hand, I assume because of some sort of insect bite last night. It was swelling up before leaving New Zealand and has got somewhat worse en route. Thankfully they don’t require prescriptions for medicines here it seems, so I was able to just rock on into one of the airport pharmacies and grab some hydrocortisone cream to treat it. Hopefully that will do the trick shortly, otherwise I’m going to be arriving in Oslo with a fat persons hand!
Chilling out with my Chromebook at Changi airport in Singapore. 
My fat hand! I'm guessing this was caused by an insect bite of some sort. 
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Big ass insect!
Chris Laing spotted this giant flying insect whilst we were walking along the Matukituki track in Mount Aspiring National Park. It was around 10 – 12 cm long. I assume it’s a Dragonfly but am not sure – if you can confirm or provide more information about it, please leave a comment below!
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Shingon Buddhist temple
During our stopover in Japan, Vicki and I headed to the Shingon Buddhist temple in Narita city.
According to Wikipedia:
This temple is one of the most well known in the Kant region of Japan and is only surpassed in visitors during the O-shogatsu period (lit: New year period) by the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo. The temple grounds are composed of a main gate, a steep stairwell and the main buildings (including a couple of five-story pagodas), and a garden area with large pond. A very small zoo is also within the temple grounds.
One of the many temples at the Shingon Buddhist temple. 
Cute turtle. There were hundreds of these all over the place. 
Garden area at the Shingon Buddhist temple 
Statues at the Shingon Buddhist temple 
Nice view from behind one of the temples
