Hey Shaun, thanks for the welcome! Yeah my brother in law and his fiancee went on a vacation to Tasmania a few years ago and really loved it there and that's why they decided to get married there. I saw their pictures and it looks really nice. The wedding will actually be in Hobart but I think we'll be renting a car to explore the island. It's only about 2 hour drive from top to bottom isn't it? If so I'm sure we'll make it to Port Arthur. Hopefully we will make it to Melbourne at some point Shaun, would be cool to meet up. I'll keep you posted as the month progresses.
Oh, and any chance maybe you can help identify this spider I found on the carpet this morning.

Aren't the redbacks the ones that live under the seat in the dunnies?

Yeah it was actually not in the bedroom. (wheww!) It was in the kitchen near the patio door so hopefully it had just entered and didn't get a chance to raise a family inside!
 
granpab wrote:Geeesh! Kinda gives a whole new meaning to watch your a$$ eh?
 
Shaun, we're just getting over the jet lag and seeing all the family thing so hopefully we can start planning some road trips. That is of course if we don't get murdered by snakes and/or spiders along the way. Everyday is a brush with death here it seems, I don't know how you guys can live this way! Just kidding!
 
Did a bit of videoing the other day. I haven't had the chance to use the camera much outdoors yet other than the little bit of experimenting I did before I left home. I'm trying to get a good handle on the ND filter and aperature setting combination and making good progress with it. So anyway we went to this park the other day and shot the usual ducks and birds and stuff, when all of a sudden we came across this burned out car in the middle of the park. Apparently it had been stolen and set on fire and left in the park. Not a funny situation at all......until I took a closer look and had to chuckle just a little. The last picture says it all.

I googled after reading your comment granpa b. As far as the top ten creatures go there were definitely a few from here in there with the salt water croc being the most notable. As far as the snakes go however, the top 6 out of ten deadliest are here. The big one to worry about in these parts is the brown snake. I guess they get to be about 1 to 2 meters long and can be quite agrresive. I even read about how sometimes they will chase you and strike repeatedly, and they are fast and their venom parylizes you among other things. Word here is that if you get bitten by a redback spider and go to the doctor they will probably tell you to go home and put some ice on it unless you are a child or elderly. But if you get bitten by a brown snake you may very well have enjoyed your final day, especially if you are alone or far away from a hospital. Don't have to worry about it this time of the year but in the ocean you have box jellyfish, bluering octopus, stonefish, and of course the great white sharks which can apparently sense a droplet of blood from a cut you got from shaving that fateful morning from many miles away! Then there's the inland taipan (#1 deadliest snake in the world), funnel web spiders (huge black and hairy), poisonous centipedes, and scorpions. I'm reading all this and all of of sudden the small tuft of hair I have on my back, which I'm not proud of, and my shirt decide to rub each other the wrong way, and the next thing you know I'm jumping three feet in the air doing a freaky something's on me dance! And my relatives have the nerve to laugh!

Yes, I've met a couple of huntsmans (huntsmen?) - most impressive size.  The first time, my host (family, 3rd/4th generation Aussie) had been telling me about them the night before and was rather dismissive of them; one turned up in his car the next day, though, and it was a different story!

Saw another spider just outside the patio door tonight. It took a little while to identify it and a bit of a relief that it's a timid spider with a low level of toxicity. It's an orb weaver spider and since it was dark when it appeared, I found it very difficult to focus for a decent shot of it. So, I resorted to wikipedia for this one. [media]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Orb_weaver_black_bckgrnd03_crop.jpg[/media]

Some frame grabs from Largs beach today. It was a strangely beautiful evening tonight in that the sun was out although there were lots of dark clouds in the sky. You can see this in particular in the grab where I'm on the jetti (spelling?) facing back towards the shore. The sun is illuminating everything in golden light yet there are dark clouds in the sky. Very interesting effect I thought.