While we were in Zimbabwe, we had a special surprise while on a beach. A group of local villagers came down to give us a fun show & dance. It’s always a golden opportunity for photos… I’m sure they thought we were a little weird, taking so many photos of something they do all the time, but I’m used to people thinking I’m a little weird.
I’ve been lucky enough to take Ethan to Japan twice… I’m glad he has fallen in love with the country as much as I have! When we were in Osaka, we got into a pretty extreme street fight, since these kinds of things happen a lot in Japan. Unfortunately, Ethan lost the fight because I was too busy taking photos. I feel kind of bad about that, but he’ll always live on in my memory.
When we stayed on Waiheke for a few days, we ended up heading over to try out a few different wineries. I don’t have a perfect memory, but I seem to remember this beach was the home to Man o’ War wineries. I didn’t know what was over on the other side of the dock, so I launched the quad to swing it around and get a sense of the whole coastline.
I ended up at this rather unique place in New Zealand, so I thought it would be a fun place to make a mini tutorial for you. If you’re a Passport Sunday member then you’ll get to see the making-of.
I jumped across for you… Oh, what a thing to do… ‘Cause you were all yellow…
This area of New Zealand is about exactly halfway between Queenstown and Te Anau. What a cool spot, eh? You pass a little “Scientific Research Area,” which I thought sounded a bit mysterious and Area 51ish. So, I happened to park the truck to get out to pee, and I ended up walking into the bush to see this. At first, I thought it was all yellow because thousands of people were doing what I was doing, but that is not the case. And no, did not pee in this stuff… I went over to some dead bushes or something to make them, perhaps, more dead.
It looks like this lion is just kind of naturally angry. I suppose that is some sort of a natural selection trait. Lions that look super friendly and happy may be easily slain by other lions. However, I wonder if animals that look happier (like dolphins and dogs) are actually the ones surviving more because humans think they look more cute and affable, so we kill less of them.
Out on the island of Koh Samui, pretty much everyone seemed to have a boat, and pretty much everyone had a perfect upper body from moving the boat around all day. I thought, man, it might be fun to move here for a year and just get in super good shape and enjoy the island life. I can actually see the appeal of moving here for a while!
Who knew that Toronto had this medieval style castle? Well, I guess if you live in Toronto you know it… being a castlephile, I did a little research ahead of time and decided to come out here at night when all the lights come on. While there, I also discovered they host castle dinners on some nights… had I done more research, I definitely would have partaken in that medieval feast!
These hotels are always nice, and the Chinese sometimes take them to the next level of palatial. This is not even a ballroom or anything. It’s just one of a ton of different hallways… I’m amazed at the level of decor and quality in these places. It reminds me a bit of Versailles in a way. I got one of the ladies from the hotel to walk down the shiny floor to give it a little more personality.
We found a beautiful tree in Botswana where we decided to have a picnic in the wild while we waited on elephants. We didn’t know if they would actually come by, but, lo and behold, they did. There must have been about 50 of them, a collection of a few families. They would walk a while, get a drink, take a bath, and get back in the convoy. Fun fact you may not know… what is a grouping of elephants called? A memory. Maybe one of the greatest names of a group of animals ever.
Here is the epic 360 version of Machine Elf 37 – String Theory. You can watch on YouTube and aim the camera in any direction. If you have a fast connection, and a powerful system I recommend choosing the 8K version. Enjoy, and for an even cooler experience, check out all of the Machine Elf creations in VR via the TRIPP app!
In the middle of the worldwide Covidparty, with NZ opening up, I took off on an epic road trip to discover new parts of New Zealand. It was my first time up along the east coast of the north island, and most of it is not quite accessible by road. But, everything is accessible by drone which is great. Besides, it’s a lot easier to get the drone up and around rather than my body. My drone allows my body to relax in its natural state: laziness… on this day however I did drag myself up a hill and it was absolutely worthwhile!
