Some of my other hobbies have included
Bushwalking/Camping. Mostly in the Wattagan Mountains less than an hours drive from Newcastle, Id go there with some workmates, did that about 10 to 15 years ago
Hang gliding. (gaa_ian, I see you used to fly too) Started that about 1989, and got to Intermediate pilot rating, mostly flying the coastal sites of Newcastle though have flown off Middle and North brother mountains. Intersting flights include low cloud enveloping me above Mereweather, seeing my shadow like a black shaft through the cloud, alas I carried no camera, another was flying from Scenic Hill to Dudley, about 10 kms along the coast, a fairly rare event. havent flown for a while now, the federation membership fees that covered rego/insurance was getting a bit steep, also I dont own a car now. Still got my glider (Airborne blade race) though. Ive logged about 250 hours all up.
Mountain bike riding. That started when workmates convinced me to go on a few rides, I was hooked. I rode all the tracks around my area, did a lot of on road as well, bascically I rode everywhere. Did two Sydney to Wollongong rides, and a number of other 80 to 100km organized rides. One day on spur of moment I got up early,and from my place rode around Lake Maquarie. Increasing traffic puts me off riding nowdays.
Electric model plane flying. Got a few planes over time, they run on rechargeble batteries, endurance up to 15 mins. Latest ones are an Aerobird and a bigger Aerobird extreme, both of which Ive had so high I could barely resolve them, I couldnt afford to look away of Id lose the plane. Ive even had them in cloud that would be several thousand feet high. One flight was fun, the local magpies so hated my planes they started attacking even ebfore Id launched one. So one day, using a high performance battery pack, when magpie attacked Id go full throttle, it would give chace till it got tired, it would try and rest on a lightpole, but Id turn around and dive bomb it, it would immediately give chase again. Aster 3 goes at that, it was so tired and hot it sat on the light, wings open, panting. It was so funny to see
Stunt kite flying. Ive got a pretty fast flying stunt kite. One day I nearly did a Ben Franklin. Thunder rumbled, seeming not that close, strings were damp from the damp grass when I launched the kite, all of a sudden I felt a tingle and heard a faint zapping sound. I landed the kite, thought it must be imagination, launched it again, but the same thing happened. So I landed and packed it up, 10 mins later a hell of a storm broke, so there you go.
Model rocketry. My old mate Jeff (Theodog) got me into it, we had some fun days on Kooragang Island (sadly now fenced off). I used 1 and 2 stage rockets, one of which went off course and parachuted perfectly down....into the Hunter River!
So thats my hobbies.
Scott