Jeremy and Karen's Travelogue Down Under

If you ever have the chance to spend the middle two weeks of March in the South Pacific, take it. Karen and I traveled to Australia and New Zealand and had a wonderful time. This is Enttec "News"-worthy because it was primarily a business trip. We flew down there to work, but it's hard not to be swept up in the beauty of the scenery, so you'll read about the official reason but bask in the reflected glow of the natural and man-made wonders too, if you scroll down.

Our first stop was Auckland. This was not all business, we had a bit more of a chance to play tourists than our stay in Melbourne would allow us later on. We were hosted in Auckland by LightFactory's developer, Martin Searancke, who used the opportunity of our visit to show me all kinds of great things he's built into LF 2.3. We got tours of various theaters and of the Selecon factory, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves taking in the lovely local scenery.

New Zealand is known for its delicious local dairy products. Our hosts introduced us to a NZ favorite, "Hokey Pokey" ice cream--vanilla with delicious honey-flavored nuggets. There are cafes on practically every corner that satisfied Karen's daily craving for triple espresso mochas; and most of them were local, not worldwide chains (we won't name names, but it rhymes with nunchucks.)

We went to see a "sheep show," where, to Karen's amusement, the sheep farmer corralled me into helping to shear a sheep.

One of the cooler looking buildings in Auckland is their Sky Tower, which appears in the background of this group shot of Martin and his wife Helen, with us, at Victoria Garden Market. There, among other places, we spent time shopping for local products, such as sheepskin, possum wool, "Manuka" (tea tree) honey, and Paua shell jewelry, to bring home as souvenirs.

We promptly went up from there into the tower itself and got a picture looking back down at the market from a few hundred meters above. The tower surrounded by green above Karen's elbow here is the tower I had my back to in the picture above.



The Civic Theater is a beautiful venue that forms part of a triad of theaters which make up the big leagues in Auckland for performers. It has elephants as a principal decorative motif and a beautifully lit lobby. We didn't see a show there, unfortunately, as time was short.

Melbourne & Sydney

Afterwards, we spent a week in Melbourne, getting down to business. I wish I could tell you about all the cool stuff our R&D team showed me that they're working on, but all in good time. It was really great to catch up with our counterparts in Australia, to meet new additions to our staff, and to collaborate face to face with them. And we were in the same time zone for a change!

One thing of special interest to me was to check out the way our production line has been beefed up since the last time I was there. I could tell you but showing you is more effective. See a video of what our assembly line can do here

Of course, a lot of my time was dedicated to preparing for USITT. Our staff helped dream up giveaway items to promote our brand name there, better techniques to display what we do, and much more. Maybe you stopped by our booth and saw the keychains, designed by our own Delphine Moreau? If you missed them there, we'll have more of them to hand out at other shows in the future, so you'll get your chance.


On our last day in Melbourne, we did get to go out and see some nature with an old friend of Karen's and his wife. This is from our picnic at the Organ Pipes National Park.

Then we flew to Sydney and saw a lot of great stuff there too. Less of it was business-related, so we'll show you two and send you on your way.