Tim's Birthday on the Gold Coast

This weekend we headed to the Gold Coast to celebrate Tim's birthday! Nancy got cool cocktails and was pleased...

Nancy & Zamboni

Nancy demonstrated how Zamboni is a close match to her Parisian Cat Pin!

Te Papa

Today, my last day in Wellington, was spent with Duncan Babbage having great food and seeing Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand...

Museum Hotel

Was really nervous about my keynote address today, but it all went well in the end (did a slideology-type presentation which was quite popular with the crowd!) The Museum Hotel where I am staying is GORGEOUS and it also has helped with both my cold (lots of great tea and honey) and excellent food (and pretty amazing cocktails - Fiona and Chris seemed to enjoy the Hippopotamus Restaurant and Bar as well...)

Conference Dinner

The conference dinner at Dragons restaurant included a floor show by several very lively dragons!

Crazy! Now off to New Zealand!

Armed with a bit of a cold, I flew to Wellington today to give a keynote at the NZ Gerontology conference later this week. Luckily Janet Leathem was free to pick me up at the airport and feed me a nice Italian dinner! Yum!

Cool Art from Darwin

I got some amazing art in Darwin, which was one of the things on my agenda. I bought a great didgeridoo with birds and fish on it and a beautiful painting in Humpty Doo, and also a great carved bird from the Tiwi Islands north of Darwin. They are now next to our great wall hanging from Kashmir, bought in Singapore over the summer. I also got a great pearl bracelet in Darwin...

Great Beachside Dinner

Spent the morning at yet MORE markets, then the afternoon included a very QUICK trip to Humpty Doo, where I bought some great Aboriginal art (painting and didgeridoo).








Today was the last day of the conference, and after catching the last sessions Annette and I had a great dinner at a restaurant overlooking Cullen Bay. We both had the mud crabs (outrageously good and HUGE!) and Annette scored the dessert of the evening - a great little pavlova...

Northern Territory Wildlife Park

I had an absolutely WONDERFUL day at the Wildlife Park of the Northern Territory - one of the bestif not the best wildlife park I've ever been to. The free flight bird show featured many cool owls and eagles - I have my photo with a wedge-tailed eagle, who was HUGE!

Conference Dinner on Mindal Beach

After a day of presenting papers at the conference I thoroughly enjoyed the conference dinner, which was held at the famous Mindal Beach Markets. The event was catered by the various food stallholders from Thailand, Indonesia etc., and the atmosphere was amazing!