flixr GEEK!mind

Finally I upgraded my wordpress installation and changed to a better Photo Album, so check it out under photos.

And here my latest panorama of Edinburgh…

Yeah, Scotland it is!! A bit colder here than in Hawaii…. but it’s a really cool city, very enjoyable (if it is not raining like right now, was sunny 30min ago though…).

This also means I’m back at Uni studying for my Honours degree. Soon I’ll have some geekish information about my cool Honours Project online, hopefully…..

Anyway, for now just some impressions from here:

No, I’m not dead!!! I’ve just been really bad at keeping my blog up to date, so here it goes finally…. a little bit about my 10 days in awesome Kauai with Jeff.

Probably one of my best trips ever! Hiking along the coast, to waterfalls, through a swamp or out on a steep ridge…. camping on the beach…. just amazing! The best part was our kayak trip along the Na Pali coast, it’s simply breathtaking and soooo much fun!

As always you can find more pictures on flickr or on the photos page….

We had 3 stunning days while hiking and camping inside the Haleakala crater. The landscape there is so diverse… from gray to red lava rock to Silverswords (that only grow in the Haleakala crater) to lush green grass and trees.

Ah, see for your self:

As always you can find more pictures on flickr (like some high res stitched panoramas). But luckily we also had Steffen as a great photographer with us, he has a pretty awesome gallery of our trip.

But hey… if you still haven’t had enough, there is more to come: Frank’s gallery, Reto’s gallery and Denise’s gallery.

Unfortunately it was cloudy every night so we could not observe the crater during full moon. But we were a great hiking group at I would really like to go again, maybe even hike down the other side and camp near some waterfalls. But currently I’m out kiteboarding every day….

in Maui: between scuba diving, kiteboarding and snorkeling we relax at a nice waterfall or chill with cool people from all over the world at the beach around a bonfire. It’s a really hard life!

A bunch of cool people (including me) did the Commando hike, probably the most fun hike I’ve ever done. It starts with going up a very small stream, through and over lianes up a nice small waterfall and then through a long natural lava tube. Some parts you have to swim… And as the grand finale (after some more small waterfalls and swimming) we jumped the 12m (45 feet) waterfall. WOOOHOOOO! Gallery: Commando hike

We also went on a tour to Hana… it’s a beautiful windy road along the coast. Ah, just look at the pictures yourself: Gallery: Road to Hana

Next we’ll go up to 3000m to experience what it would be like to be on the moon. After a nearly 20km hike up the Haleakala vulcano we’ll be camping at around zero degrees celcius and wander around the crater at night during full moon. After an amazing sunrise with the clouds below us illuminated by all the rainbow colors we’ll spend the second night in a cabin up there. It’s going to be sooo awesome!!

Enough for now… I have a very urgent appointment in a hammock with a masseuse

Arrived in beautiful Maui… now it’s time to kiteboard, dive, hike, snorkel and soak up the sun.

We spent 2 nights in Honolulu near Waikiki beach and then took the ferry to Maui.

British Columbia rocks! I arrived in Van City one week ago meet up again with my buddy Stefan. We had a really cool time so far. Vancouver is a great city, we stayed and meet lots of other cool people. For example just after 20 min in Vancouver I meet a really nice guy in the bus and he invited us to come and stay at his place in Roberts Creek on the lower Sunshine Coast. So we headed up there and went kajaking, hiking and just enjoyed their hospitality. At the moment we are couchsurfing again, which is always great!!! I always want to stay longer…. it’s so enjoyable.

Here some pictures, you can find all pictures on flickr or on the photos page.

Now we’re off to Vancouver Island… taking the ferry to Victoria and then hitchhiking to Tofino. At least that’s the plan if the weather stays as sunny as it is at the moment.

Here just some pictures of my five days in Singapore.

Yes, I’m still alive… as I said before I’m just busy playing with robots during the week and doing all kinds of outdoor stuff on the weekends. Just have a look at some of my pictures (flickr or photos page)and you’ll get an idea of what I’ve been up to.

Over Easter we (some friends from the Robotics Lab and I) rented a 4WD Toyota LandCruiser to explore Fraser Island. It’s a 150km long sand island and supposedly holds more sand than the Sahara!

There are also some very beautiful lakes on Fraser:

It was a really great trip and 4WD driving in the sand is a lot of fun!

Now I have to get back to my patient… he is a manic-depressive robot. I thought about naming him Marvin, but somehow that name is to tame for a terminator.

Anyway…. I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves