sonny photos

Fossicking for Kangaroos and hopping gold at Hill End :-)

So after Orange, we arrived on dark at little historical town, Hill End ( gets dark at 5:30 here in winter now, crazy ) Next morning and the scene outside our bedroom, frost everywhere. We stayed upstairs in Hosie's old grocery store beautiful day coming up, but a cold one As it was dark when we arrived, I go for a little morning stroll before breakfast, and look what I spot on the block of land across from Hosie's
some kangaroos grazing in the morning sun trying to get closer to one of them relatively tame for a wild kangaroo church service couple more, probably enjoying the warm sun rays as much as I am Hey ! No fighting outside church


party's over off they hop big old pine tree where a church used to be, in its hey day, Hill End had some 52 pubs ( licensed and non licensed ),now only one left & well over a dozen churches and from memory, a population of up to 8000 at one stage, now just under a 100 remain After breakfast we drive up to one of the look outs,Beaufoy ( named after a local 1870's photographer ) and this is what it was all about Hawks Hill, see all the gravel on the side, there were about 20 mines along there and in the middle of that hill is where one of Australia's largest nuggets was found some 50 meters underground weighing in at close to 300kg, strike it rich the end of Hawk Hill and at the bottom of the photo, a still operating mine quite a lot of small alluvial gold is still found around these parts, so best we have a go to we got our pans and some one optimistically thought we would each need one of these jars to collect our small pieces we would find...for sure we gave it a go, but involved getting our hands wet and dirty ( dirty was not a problem ) but th water was ice cold, I think we might have to come back on a warmer day, say early autumn :-) all (cold ) hands on deck even though all is bushy, you can tell there was once a thriving community out here, judging by this old orchard
amazing blue sky day today finding lots of old artifacts, but.... after spending well over an hour here, still nothing in these little jars
we leave empty (cold) handed driving down the blue mountains, back to Sydney
"There's gold in them hills"

:-)

Duntryleague , Orange

After our bush walk in Lithgow, we planned to have the most amazing vegetarian dinner in Orange, about 50 km west of Bathurst ( sorry no photos - Jacqui will do a post of the dinner soon ) We discovered it about 3-4 years ago on our way to Dubbo zoo. Bodhi Garden in Orange it's called, and I'm guessing they are Tibetan, such a variety of dishes, all vegetarian and still some taste like chicken dishes and others like beef, very yummy. So when in Orange next, visit Bodhi Garden for a healthy meal. Speaking of Orange always wondered why it was called Orange, as there it is not an Orange growing district, so why the name.
It was first called Black Man's Swamp, after John Blackman who was guide, employed by Captain Percy. Then later on in the 1820's , surveyor Sir Thomas Mitchell, who served in the Peninsula war as a aides des camps to the Duke of Wellington alongside, Prince William from Holland royal House Of Orange. So Thomas Mitchell named it after his dutch friend who went on to become the King of Holland.
Aniiiiiiiiiiiway, we stayed at the Duntry League historic house, always nice to stay somewhere like this as opposed to the sterile motels. Beautiful place just on the outskirts of Orange on a golf course. I've seen building before like this, but did not realize that those posts are solid cast iron, I just always thought it was a hard wood. So these iron posts were cast in Sydney and then shipped out ( some 290km ) to the country, back in the day, amazing stuff beautiful tiled floor, all individual pieces too, these are not tiles with a pattern, they pieces to make a pattern outside out room for the night ( yes, they did have an actual bathroom and we did not do it old school ) view from our room in the morning, they had a family room that we all fit in love me a good old iron lace verandah would look nicer in summer ( the barren trees ) inside After breakfast, see-ing as we are in wine country we visit some of the local vienyards Spring flowers are up early on one of the vineyards they had a little animal farm, Belle managed to touch one of the newborn lambs, only a few days old. Now drive of to Hill End.

Lithgow glow worm tunnel

straight off the plane and out to the country we go, this time to Lithgow, the track in the national park to the glow worm tunnel, which is actually an old railway tunnel from back in the mining days
So arrived yesterday, and today in the country, love it. But sadly we were out Lithgow way for a funeral, but as it was school holidays, we turned it into a little trip for the kids as well. The dark space in the middle of those ferns is the entrance to the tunnel, its a big tunnel ( big enough for a train )it has just become very overgrown with these lush ferns leading to the entrance inside the tunnel, and yes, we saw lots and lots of glow worms, but just could not capture it on camera. I t was pretty spectacular that's 3 kids, one with a tiny torch, and the other two lit up, but alas, no glow worms captured light at the other end of the tunnel

again, very lush on the other side, feels like we arrived in the " lost Land "

Jacqui and Evan tunred back to the car, while the girls and I continue on exploring very lush out here walking along the track, so much dampness in the air ,even though it is a blue sky day. Would be nice to come back one day on a hot summer day crossing little creek on a tree branch the entrance to the tunnel on our return journey
the girls at the entrance

at the entrance still but this time, me inside looking out after 5 min in the dark, we arrived back at the start of the tunnel made it. Lithgow's Glow worm tunnel, well worth a visit, bring a torch, but not a big powerfull one, small one will do, let your eyes adjust to the darkness, and you will see thouands of glow worms

Kerel Leemans Birthday party in the woods

After all that male fashion modelling stuff in Paris and Milan, I decided to skip the rest of the shows after the amazing Lanvin show ( finish on a high note I say ) and see-ing as Hedi Slimane will be doing his own backstage photos, I opted instead to drive back early to Belgium, just in time to get to Kerel's birthday party
Billy in front of the fire. I got there in time for the camp fire
Lucky Kerel was allowed to have 5 of his mates over for a sleep over, camping out in the woods near the camp fire gezellig Being the person I am, I naturally took over fire duties and turned the camp fire into a fire that would last a little longer into the night. And damn, look how black I look, compared to the kids around the fire, I'm like the balck fella from the bush to these guys hehehe Birthday boy with one of his mates and sister


now imagine if you are 9-10 years old, how fun does this look



roarin' fire

way at the back of the garden, as it got darker, a special visit
and their friend, how cute

Maldives

ok, so I know have 6 days of footage of photos from our surfing trip to the Maldives.
But with no real internet on the boat and instead having to use the limited bandwidth to upload photos for Tommy Hilfiger, it did not leave me with much time to keep this blog updated ( ooops, sorry )

And now it is Paris men's fashion week, finished Milan already.
So my dear friends, I will put Maldives onhold for a second as there are a lot of you fashion fiends out there keen for some boys in clothes, as opposed to pics of me surfing in the Maldives

but I just can't resist putting this pic up Chris Page from MAgic Seaweed took of me surfing, just look at that backdrop !!
Thanks Jonathan for the loan of the fins by the way
:-)

 

Kindergarden visit in Fiji

Jacqui has been wanting to visit a kindergarden in Fiji for a while, so this trip we made it happen, along with the kids and some gifts we brought with us, we visit the kindy just outside of the resort a little dance for the "white lady "
Jacqui loving it with the help of India, Belle & Evan, Jacqui teaches the children one of the songs she teaches at Palm Beach Kindy she must be thinking who is this bearded guy with the camera
Happy Chaps with their new toys

the scene outside of kindy

No Updates

Yes
I know

no posts for a while

why is this

 

well, I been doing a lot of manual work, chopping down trees, cutting up all the trunks, mulching all the branches. Then doing some cementing and removing old tiles, getting a surf in still here and there, but basically when I had a chance to sit behind the computer it is to do work, checking emails, planning some productions ( exciting one coming up ) booking tickets, more emails, etc...
So then to sit down and do some blog posts when stomach is craving for food and body aching for a lie down, well, you know what happens, blog goes on hold

sorry about that

 

:-)

 

 

After the party there is always the fun back at the hotel room

 

I thought I'd never find this again, yeay for internet

See if you can spot me :-)

hahaha, had so much doing this on the day. It was the cat from the Australian Olympic team, so was an awesome day sailing. and got paid for it, but damn it, now that I remember, I reckon I got ripped off, 450 bucks minus agency fees hahaha.

Waking up in New York day 1

and it is snowing, not a lot, but again, far cry from the 44 degrees when I left Jacqui and kids on the beach in Avalon better rug up