Welcoming 2013 !!

Seeing out 2012 and welcoming 2013. We went to the Broadbeach fireworks display, one of the many fireworks displays on the Gold Coast last night. Not nearly as spectacular as Sydney or Melbourne, but beautiful just the same (and LOT less people and traffic to deal with!).

These are two of the 250-odd shots that I took - I get a little over-excited sometimes :)

Pacific Moon

This is a night shot that I attempted of the moon rising over the pacific ocean, as seen from Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast. Even though the moon was almost full it was still quite dark and resulted in a shutter speed of about 10 seconds, so the sea and clouds appear to be a little blurred. I'll try it again at some time with a higher ISO setting, but here is my first attempt in the mean time.

Eureka!

You may have noticed a few pictures that I posted lately that were taken from the Eureka Tower in Melbourne. Here are two pictures of the tower itself, and a few interesting facts below that I got from Wikipedia.

Interestingly enough, the windows on the top ten floors are plated with 24 carat gold, as can be seen in my picture that I posted here.

556 apartments

13 lifts travelling up to 9m/sec

52,000 sq m of windows

3680 stairs

110,000 tonnes of concrete

5000 tonnes of reinforced steel

Building weighs 200,000 tonnes

The Summit Levels (floors 82 to 87) contain only one apartment per floor: each apartment had an original price tag of A$7 million just for the empty space; purchasers were required to fit out the apartment at additional cost.

The highest floors of the tower house an observation deck (level 88), restaurant (level 89), communications room and balcony (90) and water tanks (90 and 91). A system of pumps constantly moves water between the two 300,000  Litre tanks to counteract wind-induced oscillations.

Mr. and Mrs. Roo

I came across a few kangaroos when I dropped my daughter off at work early this morning. She was very nervous with me lurking around (the kangaroo that is, not my daughter). I wanted to get another shot with her in bright sunlight, but she hopped off just as the sun came out, so this one will have to do. :)

After they hopped off into the bush they turned around to take another look at the intruder that interrupted their breakfast. I got the feeling they would have said "WHO GOES THERE?!"

Beautiful Nature

A stunning little flower on the second last day of 2012. To me it speaks of joy and peace.

Enjoy  :)

Dining Amongst The Lights

Lighting The Skies

Green Trees

Two rows of trees beautifully lit up along St Kilda Road in Melbourne

Keep Leet !!

Now really! Is it THAT difficult?

I saw this when I entered the under cover parking area of the Biggera Waters shopping centre.

Ships At Sea

Laying anchored while night enfolds the world...