7 July 2010

The Gallery: Holidays


The theme for the Sticky Fingers Gallery this week is holidays.

Holidays, you say? I remember those. Holidays were those jolly things we did before we had children!

The photographs I have chosen are from our last holiday, which was also our honeymoon. We went to the South Island of New Zealand and New South Wales and Queensland in Austrralia. 

Here are a few highlights:


Wildlife spotting at Oamaru, NZ.





Lake Pukaki with Mount Cook in the distance, NZ.





The Church of the Good Shepherd at Lake Tekapo, NZ.




Sydney Harbour Bridge, Australia. I used to be able to see this from my office window. *sigh*




Sydney Opera House. My favourite building in the world.





Flying foxes in Sydney Botanical Gardens.




Sunset at Tambourine Mountain, Australia.




Finally a personal highlight, although not a great photograph. We stayed at Tangalooma on Moreton Island in Australia. Form there we took an eco boat tour and saw dolphins, a hammerhead shark and numerous other sea-life. Then something amazing happened, we found a pod of 54 dugongs (like manatees). They are beautiful, gentle, endangered creatures and quite possibly my favourite animal. It was incredible to see them in the wild. That evening we hand-fed wild dolphins that swim up to the beach at Tangalooma. That was pretty cool too.



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26 comments:

  1. What amazing photos....I would love to visit there one day. I have a 'thing' about sea life. :0)

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  2. Really beautiful photographs, I especially like the sunset, I loved my short time in NZ, Australia has never been on my list but I think you may have persuaded me :-)

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  3. Wow your photos are amazing., they look very professional! Must have been a truely wonderful holiday with so many fantastic memories :-)

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  4. I've never been to that area of the world and the more I see pix like yours the more desperate I am to go! What an amazing honeymoon you must have had. x

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  5. That bridge photo is just beautiful! Fantastic photos Sandy! :) x

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  6. I want to go to OZ, never been. It's on my to do, to do list.Come after my to do list lol!

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  7. Gorgeous photos, they really made me smile. The colours are fantastic, THAT blue!!! I would love to see dugongs, how fab!

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  8. Wow that is some memory to have! Truth be told, once you do starting holidaying with your children - be it in a tent, in a hotel or in a posh villa - you will have the greatest time and the most wonderful memories.
    Lots and lots of happy times to come x

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  9. My brother lives in NZ so we are hoping to visit. Photos are fab but those dugongs! How honoured you were!

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  10. Great pictures. This week's gallery is going to leave me with a bucket list as long as my left leg (or right leg; they're both the same).

    :-)

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  11. I envy you - I have never made it to Australia. And with little L still being so little, I don't think we are going to go there soon.

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  12. i love the sunset over tambourine mountain picture - beautiful colours

    manatees are my second favourite animals in the world - i've seen them in captivity but never in the wild - it must be an amazing experience

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  13. La la la, we're going there! Exciting to look at your pictures.

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  14. these photos are INCREDIBLE!!

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  15. They are like postacards they are so perfect. Amazing photos, well done. The first one made me laugh :D Jen

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  16. Amazing wonderful photos, they really capture the spirit of Australia. Must have been amazing to se the manatees, only ever seen them at seaworld.

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  17. Oh. Wow. Speechless.

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  18. Woah, that's one helluva holiday and definitely a pre-kids one.

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  19. *sigh* you've turned on my "dream" switch.....LOVED the photos. What beautiful memories!

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  20. Wow...just wow! It's simply beautiful!

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  21. Such wonderful photos, what an amazing honeymoon! Would love to take hubby to both, they are his dream destinations (I went to Oz in my very distant very carefree days!and I've heard so much about NZ too)x

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  22. Ohhh, my lovely Australia, you are making me all sad. I love that continent, my second home, spent 5 wonderful years there ;)

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  23. Wow Sandy - amazing iumages, from what sounds like a fab holiday

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  24. How completely amazing! We were just in Australia for Christmas and most of January. Sydney was awesome! xx

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  25. Thank you all for the lovely comments.

    It was hard to take a bad photograph with all that amazing scenery around.

    We took 75 photographs of the Opera House alone. Silly really as I lived in Sydney for a year and could see it every day.

    I love Oz and NZ and would thoroughly recommend both for a long holiday.

    The dugongs blew us away though.

    Tara, thank you, you've really made me think that it would be worth as the hassle to take the boys on holiday so that we can make some new memories as a family x

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