the doings of james ahern

New Zealand Family Trip - 1/8 - Perth Airport to Lake Pukaki

2012-02-01T13:16:00.000+08:00

My family and I went on what was to be one of our last family holidays ever from the 7th til the 23rd of December, 2011. We spent 16 days in New Zealand, a place where none of us had been before. We had some ideas of where to go by consulting family friends and such, but it was still a big leap none-the-less. We hired a camper van and drove around the south island for the most part, soaking in the beauty and serenity and missing our loved ones back home.

I have divided the trip up into eight parts; 2 days each in the hope of not boring you with one, two or four giant posts. Each post contains about 40 to 100 photos, both from my familys camera and my own, so its hopefully pretty tolerable. I have also included a map indicating our travelled path. Alllllllllrighty then, hope you enjoy your trip through our trip!!

the following post will cover the red path and airport shindigs

if you havent met my family personally or virtually yet, then here they are;
my dad denis, my mum janine, my brother joesph and sister molly. and the skateboards mine

after being dropped off by my girlfriend we flew from perth to sydney

then from sydney to christchurch

jet lag will make you look like a blowfish

the first exciting bits of NZ were seen from the planes window

that was accumulating ice gems

sea of cloud

we hit up the taxi cab to take us to our hotel room in christchurch

we rocked up and were greeted by man-eating bumble bees

after settling into our lodge, we walked up the street to the botanical gardens. mole nearly threw up...

mole and jo went to check out some trees

we spotted big foot

here is the rose garden

where you can see many different types of roses

and have a board which tells you what they are and where to find them

mmmmmmmmmmmm... rosessss.....

whats the time dark cloudy day?

yeah, let's get. read my mind

tree climbers

photo of a photo

tree huggers

FINCH!

cupped hand of stigmas amungst other things

the boundary river

earthquakes will make buildings unstable

we came back to the hotel flat which was already a mess

dad went for a shop and bought me back a longy, which then put my weary head to bed

the next day we went to go pick up our transport for the trip; a campervan

we chilled whilst the parents sorted out how to work the thing

so we hit the road and tried to obide by the new road rules we just learned - dont hit livestock...

our first lunch stop

table and chairs proved very useful

on the road we spied a POI (point of interest), so we stopped

we found a river where joesph proceeded to act like gollum

some nice sedimentary geology

after some photos we crossed a bridge for a toilet stop

this was josephs first time using a public toilet. he wore his slippers..

shame

the driver of the moving house

we hit the road in search for our next POI. The clouds were slowly creeping over the hills

and we arrived to Lake Tekapo

photo of a photo

mole

den

molly and mum argued continuously about these flowers.
were they holly hocks or lupins? molly won with lupins in the end many days later.

went around a corner to go spy a famous church

brother sister mumma blister

the church with a flying joseph

dog sculpture

we hit the road toward our sleeping destination

gps said we were off the beaten track

we got to our spot and back our van up to get a view out the back window

sheesh, lucky we didnt back up further or we'd finish our trip a little sooner than expected

camping spot #1

Lake Pukaki

me and jo went for a walk

the other campers

you better look where you are boy, be careful..

ahhp, told ya so

setting sun

rock towers gave us ideas for the next morning

dinner perched on a cliff. good start to the first day in our wheely house

J'aime Fazackerley's goodbye miniramp party

2012-01-24T14:06:00.011+08:00

Just last week, our good friend J'aime Fazackerley headed off the brisbane to try out a new job filming skateboarding - which is pretty awesome in itself. To knock off his long stay in Perth he had a farewell BBQ and miniramp session at his house. What a legend. Here is the day..

some good larking went down at white granite this day of sun

we hit up the bottle-o, the kernel and hope street for a glass of rum and ginger ale

we then taxidermist it to J'aimes place where there was already a heated session going down

harry potter clark was hitting the extension with ease

j'aime and kennaz

gwyn, trees and RDDDD!!!!

mushie and RD pulling faces. the only poison is not seeing you in so long RD. highlight.

potter fs blunting

the best and cheapest beanie on chocolates head

someone made a hole in the mini, so rory came to the rescue with some scrap metal work

hot metal shards

team fix-it

j'aime with the duct

adam o(llie)

fs feeble by steve

BIG L with a rockn roll - this was a highlight of the night

robbie absolutely shredded the shitze through the mini (and so did matt reilly), but i only have a picture of him doing a bs carve and a picture of matt in a crazy hawaiin tee...

oh yeah, potter killed as usual. bs smith stall

fs 5-0 indy in............

j'aime set up the projector to watch the new Perth vid Figure 8, but it didnt recognise the format the video was in. so we watched skylarking instead.

and played a skateboarding video game

end of the night came to a close so we headed home.

i went back to hope street with pidge where we watched a few more videos and hit the sac in the early hours of the morning

Fifty Odd Arty Photos

2012-01-11T12:24:00.015+08:00

close ups, plants, buildings and things i think look cool...

first day of having my new camera

chicken leg

vegetation

drinking on the job

the old backyard

yeah we drank in the old house

put on aids' fisheye

talking on the phone while driving

powerstation

champagne breakfast

sam knest

broseph

redfern

lawn and bec

prickly paws cactus

a different cactus

out to breakfast

double

by william hog an

strewth in the city

accident

drying shoes

lollypops and cigarettes

not real lawnbowls

2012-01-03T14:53:00.016+08:00

A while ago I booked this thing on a deals website - 10 friends to play bowls with a free drink for $30. That was too irresistable to pass up so I bought it. We tried getting alot of us together to go play, but things just didnt seem to work out for us too good..
The first night we rocked up it turned out that there was a function on, so we couldnt even enter to the place. The second time we went we booked it un advance, but it rained on us, so the green were covered and we played darts and pool instead. The last time we went only 5 people showed up and we all had to peace out early so we didnt even get an actual game in. Anyways, here how it went..

our first time bowling in june and this is as far as we got

our second time bowling and the grass was wet so our free beers, pools and darts were sunk

artsy shit

benmneb

rex throwing a dart

follow-thru swan

robbie forced throw

gabby on fire

she got the first and only bulls eye

with her favourite dart...

thats right, its yours

girls a chillin'

sorry i got you cascade light bec

rex eager to get his dart throw on

nukka and brooksy

we went back to brooksys house for a little yahn

as these guys got their food, i went back to redfern and made a mega drunk beefburger

the third time we went we actually played a little bowls, but did not get a game in or many people involved...

beer and cigarettes

after exam smile

well i say!!

nice owner of the bowls club helped us out with choosing bowls and getting to come to grips with the game

brooksy coming to grips with two big balls

gabby lesson

what'd'ya say there mr. ball?

my lesson

brooksy lesson

our lessons went well until the sun went down

it was night time for a bit before we got to have a shot ourselves

rebecca had to go to front of house leaving us one less

my best effort

changing sides

beer ball brooksy

robbie charming his bowl into colliding with the white that lay next to his foot

well, see ya! then the night was over

Marc's 21 Amazing Race

2012-01-03T13:12:00.012+08:00

Marc Waugh is a very good friend of mine from university. He has just finished honours and turned 21. Off on a good start. We went to his Birthday and night, playing an Amazing race during the day and a lawnbowls boogy in Kalamanda at night. Unfortunately my battery cut out as the night kicked in, so all I have are race photos. Enjoy, we did some pretty cool stuff.

Bec and I arrived late on the scene after a long night and hungover McDo breakfast. We were put with the last people to jet off from Marcs in Swan View who were conveniently Marcs Sister Charis, her boyfriend Rhys and Marcs cousin, Sophie. There were conveniently enough spaces in the car too, so we were off with our first clue.

stop 1 destination: down the road to where marcs grandfolk were rested. when was the tunnel built? i dunno. down the gravel road on a bike or two, find the tunnel, find the age, come back. When was the tunnel built? 1895. Next clue. Good. Thanks for the drink see ya!

Clue 2 destination: A lake in Maylands

it was pretty chilled driving actually, not much speeding, some missed directions, but it worked out nicely. Thanks Rhys

Near the Jetty was marcs dad. We were told to paddle out to the buoy, and using the rope you had to measure how deep the water was. Rhys and Charis were staight onto it.

quick in...

you call this water?

quick measure
quick next clue.
Bye Mr Waugh. Thanks for the drinks!

Clue 3 destination: the bell tower in the city where it seems everyones name is except mine. wah.

Team Noname?

Clue 4 destination: The diver statue in the river on mounts bay road, near the city.
We had to high five that guy.

Rhys likes getting wet. Quick sequence:

working the bicepts, tricepts and monocepts

double high five! (no extra points)

little bit of statue lovin'

high, i like your boat! the motor too!

side flop

power swim back to land

Clue 5 destination: Synergy Park, Kings Park, find the butterfly catcher (Sophies mum) by cell phone so she can give you a net. Then find marcs uncle (who is dressed as a butterfly) in the big driving range of a thing and catch him for your next clue

posed catching (i was too slow)

catch and greets

cast of the catching

yeah, but we set him free. NOT after breaking his wings..

Clue 6 destination: Trigg Beach; find Marcs Mum (Clue gave us a pixelated picture of her).
This would have been inpossible if not we had her daughter with us. Thanks Charis.

Task was to bury two of our team mates, then pose with funny photos of them. So Charis and Sophie were willingly buried.

Rhys gave birth. And Sophie was my second head. But i couldnt mange to snap a flick. I heard we were legit though.

Clue 7 (final) destination: Fremantle Circus School. We rocked up to find these girls who were just about to go do a street festival performance when one of them said, 'No we have to stay, it's funny cuz they (us) can't do it.' Real funny clown girl.

We were tested at different skill that mean different things that i can't remember
backwards walk balance on a bigblack energy drink can.

ride the bike of being stupid. he didnt get humiliated though.

i ate shit on the balance beam, but succesfully.

sophie jugled napkins like she never had done before

Bec balanced a spinning plate and did a slow motion rolly polly without having it fall off.

and we made some smiling totem poles

on the way home we went to complete a task that would take off an hour of our journey. Find a gold ball from Burswood golf course and bring it back. Well it was a long hot walk down there but we found one in the reeds! there it is, up in the sky!

well, obviously

and then we went back to marcs house for our points to be gathered, take some showers and to get ready for the 50's swinging party. But first we had a dip and a feed in the lake to cool down

and as i said my battery only caught two of the same group, but at least it had marc in it.
and no, we didnt win, we came 6th. or something like that. somewhere you'd expect a Team Noname would place i guess. At least we placed before the team that did everytask naked (dont forget the court cast is next month guys..).

Thanks to Marc and the whole of Marcs family for putting up with everything during the day and putting up everything for the night. It was a great day, but i think id get so tired doing a legit amazing race. imagine the jetlags youd get..

North West Coast Post

2012-01-03T04:40:00.036+08:00

After exams my girlfriend and I decided to go up north for a few days to get out of the city and get our road trip on. We went from Perth up to Kalbarri and back again, covering over 1500km in the red rocket. Here are the photos; some beautiful scenery, some natural water dippings and some smashed tooth hill billy action..

car suited for two

on the road north

hoped not to run into any of these

217 km later and we arrived in cervantes

sunset at the beach

we ate the this cafe

typical seaside meal

these guys were not on the menu

camp site location #1

these guys had it sussed

i can see this house is protected from rogue ships

we hit up the pinnacles which was close by - here inside the visitors centre

here in the pinnacle dessert

rebecca

james and lithofied willy

the car track

monsterous

triple junction

another dick

on the road again

oh shit...

500km on the odometer and we arrived in geraldton

the skate park at least

met some skater kids at another skate park

and they got a free board which they were psyched on

camp site location #2

checked out the third and final skate park in Geraldton

having fun until...

a frontside noseslide didnt go quite to plan

guess its off to the hospital we go

completed a sudoku in the waiting line

zombie
doc told me i couldn't get my face wet, i had to keep it clean and i coulnd't eat anything hot. devo

the geraldton camp site had a massive bouncy ball

it was quite fun

here i am sitting on the wall going to pick some fruits

do your thing

fat lip

red dot

we check out the lighthouse before leaving

town hall

picked up this catch from an op shop. the hat, not the girl..

my country driving face

opportunity shopping in northampton

shadow of christ

shop cat

cat box

did not get used

just weird

backpackers of christ

i think they want us to know they have a lot of beer in there

barren lands

eventually getting into kalbarri

this parrot couldn't believe his eyes!

712 km through and we get to our northern-ous destination
camp site location #3

we checked out the views from mushroom rock that evening

self timed picture

balancing bec

fat-lipped fella

cooling down the snaggers

risotto dinner

morning call. damn loud ladybugs

we went to the gorges kalbarri was famous for

red glow

ancient waterways

natures window

we picked a rock to stand on

damn woman! dont fall off... (she nearly did)

the great monitor lizard showing itself off to my camera lens

z-bend

we were running out of pertrol, so we went back to town (and to the skatepark) and lost our towels

need somewhere to cry?

we re-filled our tank and went out to a river that you could easily walk down to

you call this a gorge!?

we were the only people there - pretty amazing

hobo in the water

cant get much scarier than this

self timed photo

we left the gorge before dark to find this awkwardly growing tree

pikelets breakfast

getting cool in the sun

on the way back south we stopped off at some scenic cliff sites. this one seemed goo enough to go down and potentially swim at

hello sediments and structures

bec in for a dip

alright rock question: what are those white dots? weathering features or... oh? you dont care..

coastal cliffs

was almost the final resting place for my camera lens

926 km past and we left the ocean and were bound for home

have i seen this road before??

went to geraldton and saw its famous sideways tree. looks pretty uncomfortable...
we also went back to our old campsite to use the pool, kitchen, toilets and trampoline before nearly getting caught. lucky duckies..

on the road to jurien bay

1273 km past and we found ourselves at the skate park - once again

the locals thought it was pretty dodgy

but ive seen worse

kicks on kicks

sunset on the beach - probably the nicest beach we'd been to at the point

bec lost her sunnies here. extra devo

silhouette

jetty action

setting sun

i think we went to the bottle-o twice that night. celebrating near the tent in our unpowered candle-lit site with our makeshift table and foldy chairs.

on the menu; soggy salt and pepper squid, yummm

camp site location #4

we went for a swim and met a sting ray who wasn't. the council came in their heavy duty machinery and took the poor guy away - in the back of their truck

celebrating not being washed up with an ice coffee

bec could be a truck driver

passing the sand dunes in bushland - not weird

stopped off at lancelin in the way back home. and yeah, we went to the skatepark too

and last but not least we went to two rocks, where the only thing we did was go into the old theme park.

we found a dugong but no old skateable dolphin enclosure

1555 km on the odometer and 5 days later we found ourselves back in Fremantle, exhausted, sunburned and longing to sleep on a decent matress. It was a great time we had, one that we'll remember, and i cant wait to do another like it again soon. But fuck knocking your tooth in half, that sucks.

Redfern Delights

2012-01-02T15:02:00.001+08:00

When I pretty much lived at Redfern house with my girlfriend and her other roommates, we ended up making some pretty decent meals together; some which deserved photos... and some which didnt. but never the less we aquired many before she had to move out, so here they are, from dinner to breakfast. I hope you get hungry.....

sushi making

platter

pizza desert

beardy steve

nachos

no nachos

nachosandwich

beef burgers

mega drunk beef burger

toasting muffins

shotty oreo but whos complaining?

bruschetta

bacon and egg breakfasts

sanga danga

full moon

and the last but not least redfern meal caught on camera; canadian breakfast - french toast with bacon and maple syrup

But the end of a redfern era doesnt stop us making stuff. heres a dinner and a breakfast from just the other day.

making some dough got quite sticky

kneedle

dough ball

the expanded dough ball

beating it up

into pizza bases

pizza #1

pizza #2

pizzas #3 and 4

tasty

and these breakfastes get more and more epic each time we make them...

afterpartyyyyy

2011-12-28T14:10:00.009+08:00

after the geology cocktail evening i walked towards home when i got a call from none other than james rowe telling me that there was a party just down the street. so i hit it up and took some pictures, seeing that i had my camera anyways. here are the gang shots...

the event holder and birthdayer; nat with val

crews a chillin on the sofas

quayde wanting a hand shake but getting blinded instead

mr. osborn

hahhah! live for this photo

something must have been funny

clothes line cubby house

insect bite

toilet gangstars

'i just shat myself' face

'im farting' face

heroin addict face

there were about 20 people with green and red lazers in each hand

lion-esque; dillon

eyes in the back of the head stunt

blue balls....

walked home in the misty foggy night

and spied a piece of art which i thought was a good idea to take a photo of in the early hours of the morning

Woolnough Society: 50th Anniversary Cocktail Evening

2011-12-03T11:03:00.015+08:00

Its been a full on year over at the Woolnough Society; quiz nights, camps, hiatus ect (not that i know much about the organisations of all those). But to top it off and to top off some of our student lives, here are some photos from the last Woolnough event most of us will attend as students forever. Very dramatic...

one huge bitch

the faces alex can make are outrageous

shell bed

team decent

looking more and more like a heroin addict as the day pass by bunyip. you look like an olaf in the photo

brighten up chap!

serial killer

hands full of booze

oh how cuuuuute

woolnough, 2012

ellen and paul

cryer

lindsayyyy!!

hes so handsome

john and tomE

go fetch me my medicine kit!

surrounded by women

james davis

'sluts gotta eat'

cameron ritchie

pole dancing

everyone getting kicked out because of closing

one small bitch

fi getting the treatment

i walked home after this... or did i?

Thanks to everybody who was involved in the Woolnough Society and made things happen, thanks to everyone who was involved in studying rocks this last year and thanks to everyone who made the year what it was. You should all be proud of what youve done these last three years, and enjoy your future times ahead!!

Skate Day in Moora

2011-12-03T08:29:00.011+08:00

early on one month we did a skate clinic/demonstration in a northern country town called Moora. It was bowring, whineray and myself.

we left early in the morning from Leederville HQ

and we had the YMCA van at our disposal..

3 hours on the road

and we were there in a 'flash'

Moora's actual skatepark was actually pretty legit

james photographing some locals

into town to set up

sausage sizzle

and let the skateboard training begin!

topp dogg organised the whole shin-dig
'did you see the prizes?'

was getting chaotic at times

double coaching

she's a nut

ice coffee and muffins on the (topp dogg) house

silent auction for some boards

group shot

packing up. safety warriors

we went inside the shop for a chat and a beer or three

and hit up the road home again

pleasant day had by all. and lucky the rain held out until now

Tungsten Dog Town Photoshoot

2011-12-03T07:41:00.010+08:00

One of the kids who we take for skateboard lessons mum, Jan, was having a article in an international fashion magazine with the theme Dog Town Z Boys. I got asked to help out with a bunch of other people. It sounded like fun to be a model for a day, so here are the results.

getting my 'fro on

watching the doco to get us amped on what we were meant to be doing

heres matt driving the car. first spot we went to and i forgot my board, so we had to go back around and get it from the house.

gabe drove with us into freo

second spot and matt dropped his beer. devo

getting our costume on

sarah

next spot some mellow hill bomb

one of the french photographer twins

conor

quoi?

hair styling

matt double feeting

and running like a girl

next spot and we found this drinking fountain for really little people

rolling a 'spliiiiff'

and rollin' a rollie

Skating in Kings Square, Fremantle, 2011

2011-12-02T23:20:00.004+08:00

A skateboard demonstration occured in Kings Park in Freo a while back in conjuction with a festival and the city council. Thanks to Ben Bowering, YMCA and Fremantle Council for organising the event..

beautiful wooden ramps - mint condition before today...

parking instructions

barrier fence

whineray

figuring out the best positions for the set up

this is close to the best grizzley beard i have yet to be in the presence of. thanks dangles

music was playing in the background

kids turns; dexter and finn

james hurricane

robbie with some sort of flying manouvre

oh my god! did you see that trick?? nah..

Woolnough Society: Chicken Champagne 2011

2011-12-01T22:06:00.005+08:00

Every year, the Woolnough Geology society of UWA holds a function; Come down at 7.30am and have a barbeque with a few kegs and everyone get drunk on the last day of uni. This one was a good one as most of us would be finishing our final university courses and it was almost time to celebrate...

a very serious matt drinking before hes eaten breakfast

graeme the president

sophie - mrs president..

cameron richie wondering at what time he'll get wet

penguin man. like ice?

breeeeeakfast! thanks 2nd years

the REAL MEN

woolnough is legit now, we got our own stamps!

enjoy your breakfast everybody

lady casually taking her dog for a walk

the gazeebo

tamzens dog jack came along for a beer or three

oh no.. greta sees something in the background...

its alex! every year, you never fail buddy!

'pleesed to meeet youu!'

oi! which way da beach?

'look into my eyes' new trick

cam scaring the swans

alex doesnt mind the wetness

i think this is where he got most satisfaction from though, the president combing his hair

penguin mna forgot he had no face

'too tall i think'

its river water, most of it

having a break

phil cilli

get in there buddy

'woooooooohhhwww!!' toms having none of it

woolnough

well done alex, you've had a good day, and its only 11am!

tom and graeme

bevan beer

kelsey

face painting happened i dont even know when

harry and tomE

harold

i got my quick drunken swan on before departing

everyone got their copy of HIATUS, the take-the-piss annual woolnough magazine

i tried hitting up the lab for a bit of study after, but everyone was so serious

Bunbury Park and Busselton Lark

2011-11-14T23:49:00.012+08:00

Headed down south to Bunbury skate park to do a competition with Hillzeez Surf Shop one weekend. Ders met us there and we stayed at his place that night before heading back the next day...

waiting for robbie to finish his show and breakfast before we can go

got well out of the way of this truck...

ders met us at the park and had a good skate

THE RING

these photos didnt happen in this sequ

there were some rockin' bands. i think i still have their cd in my car. snoises.

the kid won a board for the most thrashed board. his name was christian

lewis rodan was there playing on stage

voodoo met up with us at the park then when the comp was over we headed out to some full pipes

heres voodoo spinning out

and i obviously know what im doing too

jean with a massive fs carve

jean transfer

ders view

robbie figuring out the camera

robbie not feeling his best

had a wander round and there were all kinds of pipes

artwork

we had a sunset skate in bunbury town

healthy dose

chilli con carne nachos for all

ders' gun license

robbies working with children license

taking photos of guns getting pointed

deer hunter superman

axe murderer superman

super arnold

superman timeout

some hungary chookins in the morning

ders provides

and they provide

waking up the men

i got some pretty cactus pictures before we left to go skate

non-cactus

went down to the skate park where matt grew a set

anything to get away from those ants

orange thumb

water and shades where its at on a sunny day!

if you disagree ill give you a thullopin'

business ders

a determining push by robbie, trying to get his secret trick.

we finish with a lovely view of busselton harbour, where no one was attacked by sharks that day