Something Tu valu!

Hah! I received a mysterious package in the mail. From Australia, with a fairly significant customs duty to pay. I had not ordered anything from Australia, but I just had to pay up and find out what this was. It could be a marsupial. I've always wanted my own wombat. Unfortunately, the package contained no such thing. On the contrary, it was something to put in a pouch. Please welcome the new one dollar coin of Tuvalu, as seen from its royal side:

On the back it looks like this:

And this is where I enter the picture. When I was in Tasmania a couple of years ago, I took this photograph:

Behind the beautiful Dove Lake you see Cradle Mountain. I visited here when I hike The Overland Track, a super 100 kilometer trail that took me more or less from the north to the south of Tasmania. You still can't see the connection between me and the coin, you say? Well, take a look at this:

Do you see? My photo is on a Tuvalu monetary item! For reasons I shall never understand, the designer of this coin must have felt pretty sure that I would sooner or later discover that they have borrowed the peak of a mountain from one of 1700 photos I took while in Tasmania. Let me just be clear about this: I just took the photo. I did not build the mountain first. Oh well. Funny stuff. Despite the customs payable, it was really nice of the antipodeans to send me a silver coin as payment for my part of the job of bringing this coin to the world. It may sound like a small pay, but let me remind you of the mess that was unleashed upon the world for the price of just 30 silver coins! Which is just 29 silver coins more than I have now received. I'm quite pleased. And soon my Morocco photos are done. I promise!