LAST WORD

What a lot of exciting sights we have seen and a lot of really nice people we have met over the past five and a half months on the road. People ask how we are going to settle down when we get back home next week and the answer to that question is “I don’t know”. It has been an amazing trip and surpassed all our expectations. We have a family Christmas to look forward to and some catching up with friends and then we will start planning our next trip which will start about April next year and will take us up the centre of this huge and vast country to Darwin and across the top right hand side to Cairns and up to Cooktown. It will be a totally different trip to this one but one we are looking forward to immensely.

After our stay in Tamworth we moved onto Dubbo and rather than taking the main highway we decided to take the secondary route. The roads took us through lots of farming country and some very old country towns. Australia is full of similar towns, all with closed shops, very old pubs, a church and little else. An emu crossed the road right in front of us on this trip. It just ran out of the bushes on one side of the road and into the bush on the other side. We have seen so many different types of farming and planting. In this part of the country farmers are planting canola for cooking oil. I thought it was mustard initially but it is a much brighter colour than mustard. There were acres and acres of it and the brilliant yellow of it can be seen for miles. Very spectacular.

Dubbo is home of the Western Plains Zoo, an open plan safari zoo, where you can either drive around it, cycle or walk. We decided to drive as that allowed us to go around a couple of times and stop off at feeding times. One ticket allows you entry for 2 days but as we were there just after opening and stayed for about 6 hours, we managed to cram everything in. It was a great day and it was just like being in a safari park. We saw giraffes, lions, zebras, hippos, rhinos, monkeys, cheetahs, huge tortoises, koalas etc. all in their natural habitat. The highlight for me was watching the hippos being fed. They are huge animals that walk very slowly and we were told that they can run up to 35kmh but I wouldn’t be hanging around to see.

Narrandera was our next stop, another old town, but with beautiful old homes, trees and gardens. It is on the Murrumbidgee River so would have been a stop over for boats on the river. We have seen so many lovely old buildings, some better than others, but most of them are still in use, especially old pubs. I think the oldest we have seen was 1887. Because of the earthquakes and it’s being a much younger country, NZ doesn’t have so many old buildings, which is such a shame as there is so much history attached to them.

We then moved on to Cobram which is on the Victorian side of the Murray River. The skies got blacker and blacker as we drove and we saw the most amazing lightning show. We’d never seen anything like it. Part of this trip took us through the Murray-Darling Basin which is one of the most drought affected parts of Australia. Narrandera was lovely and green as water from the Murrumbidgee is used for irrigation in that area but the land between the Murrumbidgee and the Murray is just parched. There is no stock, no fences, just mile after mile of dust covered soil. Farmers here would give anything to have a quarter of NZ’s rainfall. We kept waiting for the rain to come from these dark clouds but we didn’t get rain, we got a dust storm! It was amazing, so dark and stormy in the middle of the day. We had rain that night at Cobram but it was red rain from all the dust the day before. You can imagine what sort of mess that left on the car and van. The Murray River is a very long river and there are hundreds of lovely beaches all along it, especially around Cobram and Tocumwal. We saw lots of vans and tents just camped on the side of the river as it was school holidays.

While in Cobram we visited Chrysties Farm and Car Antiques. I thought it would be a real blokey place but it was just great. This guy has old Holdens, Zephyrs and even a Nash Metropolitan. Most of them are restored but he has as many again just rusting away outside. He has a couple of old caravans and one of them was built in 1940s and it even has a bath under one of the seats. Unbelievable! Goodness knows how long it took to heat the water, if they did, as they only had a small kerosene cooker. He was such an interesting guy to talk to and has a story to tell about most of his cars.

Even though Melbourne has the most serious water problems of all the main cities, the countryside in this part of Victoria looks much greener and fruitful than we have seen for a long time. We have seen lots of fruit trees around Shepparton and the Murray River and we have had some lovely strawberries on our travels. There is no doubt the drought has had a very negative effect on farming in this part of the world, some parts have had no decent rain for 12 years and some dams are only 11% full. In Shepparton they are only allowed to use 4% of their normal water allowance. I don’t think Kapiti has much to worry about!

While in Shepparton we played on a very nice gold course and on the way home we saw our one and only snake. It was quite a big one and was on the road. It looked as if it was being attacked by a magpie.

We have now moved in with Stephen, Sarah and the boys for a few days and then it is home for us. It will be good to get back to Nicola, Adrian and the girls and all our friends again. As I said earlier the whole trip has been amazing and the best thing is that Jim and I are still speaking to each other! Some things that will stick in our minds about Oz are the dreadful state of NSW roads; the P plate drivers who hoon every-where and the bureaucratic nonsense that exists between the different states. We will miss the wonderful birdlife and their early morning chorus; the great weather ( and this was considered one of the worst winters on record) and our very comfortable caravan. The Prado has performed really well too and got us safely over 13,000 kms. Most of all we miss the wonderful friends we have met and made over the past 6 months. Some are from NZ and doing the same things as we are doing and lots of Australians who have made us so welcome. To all those who have shared a wine or two and swapped other traveller tales late in the afternoon and often into the early evening, thank you all so much and we hope we can catch up with you in the future.
We look forward to bringing you all our news on our next trip.

To follow our next trip in 2009 go to the following site:-
http://2009marshalls-trip.blogspot.com/

REAL AUSTRALIA COUNTRY

Sadly, we are now in the last month of the first of our Australian trips. The time is now flying and we will be back in NZ before we know it. It will then be time to start planning trip number 2.

Our week in Maryborough was rather disappointing in some ways and great in others. The best part was seeing some friends from Waikanae, Jenny & Warren Harding. Jenny and I play golf together and she and Warren own an apartment in Alexander Headlands on the Sunshine Coast. They drove up to Maryborough for a night and we had a great time catching up on all the news, going out for lunch and dinner and sharing a few drinks. The rain set in the morning they arrived and lasted for 3 days but that didn’t hold us back. We had driven through Maryborough 11 years ago and we really loved all the old houses and buildings and always wanted to come back for a longer look so we booked in for a week. The whole area was a disappointment as most of the houses are in bad stages of disrepair and the city centre was looking very tired. We went on a very interesting walking tour and learnt that the Mary River, which runs through the city, has had some huge floods over the years with the highest being over 4 metres. This was high enough to cover both the huge bridges that cross the river in the city centre. There are plans to dam this river to provide water for Brisbane City but the locals want none of it and there notices all along the Bruce Highway condemning the idea. It will be interesting to see who wins this one, as there is such a desperate shortage of water here.

The author of “Mary Poppins”, P.L. Travers was born in Maryborough and it is thought that certain characteristics of the area were included in her books. There is a statue of Mary Poppins in the centre of Maryborough.

Our next stop was Toowoomba, a city of nearly 100,000 people at the top of the Great Dividing Range and 700 metres above sea level. We had left Maryborough with temperatures in the mid 20s but we were bought back to reality in Toowoomba where it was only 14! Toowoomba is the only city in Queensland where they have 4 distinct seasons. It is also known as the “Garden City”. It was easy to see why with most homemakers taking great pride in their gardens and the city itself also boasts 14 parks. Blossom was everywhere and azaleas and bougainvillea were all in full bloom. As the city is sited on a mountain range there are some beautiful views to be had from lookouts and parks all around the city. We were there for Father’s Day and walked around the city centre looking for a coffee and lunch. Everything was shut and so were all the shopping malls and plazas. In most cities in Queensland, except for beach resorts etc, the shops shut at mid-day on Saturdays and are closed on Sundays. We just take it for granted that we can shop over weekends and it takes a while to get used to not being able to do so.

Some of you will remember “Dad & Dave” serials on the radio. The author of these, who went under the name of Steele Rudd, lived in an area on the outskirts of Toowoomba called Nobby. We drove out there one day and what an experience it was. It was like going back 100 years. There is an old pub in Nobby where photos of Steele Rudd; the people who played the main radio parts in Dad & Dave and other historical identities are all over the walls. The pub serves lunch and dinner every day and most days they put through about 180 lunches. The pub is a favourite stop over for tour buses and travellers. They also have a bush poet. It was a great place to visit.

We wanted to get inland as far as we could on our trip back to Melbourne so our next stop was at Goondawindi. This little town of 4,500 people is on the Queensland – NSW border and has 6 highways leading into it. As a result it is a very busy stopover point for caravanners. We stayed here for 2 nights and both nights there would have been at least 70 – 80 vans staying overnight. The park owners organised a fish BBQ for all guests with a country and western band and a bush fire with billy tea. It was a great night with everyone mixing in and even the possums came out and joined in. We have a great photo of a mother possum with her baby on her back. Possums are protected in Australia and they are not infected with TB like they are in NZ.

Tamworth was our next stop and we took a short cut to get there. The road was sealed and no worse than some of the main highways, but we were so glad we had taken this route when we came across something we had never seen before. We thought it was a huge piece of farm machinery on the road coming toward us but it was a camel drawn caravan. There were 3 camels pulling the van and this old guy with his dog sitting on the front with a trailer behind the van loaded to the hilt. He wouldn’t stop for a photo but at the speed he was going, it wasn’t too difficult to get one.

Tamworth is the country and western capital of Australia and there are reminders of this everywhere. We went to see “Walk a Country Mile” at the information centre. This is designed to tell the story of Australian Country Music with interactive displays and documentaries. It was most interesting and bought back some great memories.

My next blog will probably be the last one and will come from Melbourne where we hope to arrive in about 2 weeks.

END OF COASTAL WATERS

We are now heading inland and leaving behind the lovely coastal waters of Australia. Over the past 4 months we have never been more that a few kilometres from the sea but now we are moving into unknown territory with cooler days and nights, camp fires and hopefully some damper. Fellow travellers have told us that we won’t experience the real Australia until we sit around a campfire, eating damper and listening to bush poets. It will definitely be something different for us. We have a month’s travelling till we return to Melbourne in readiness for our trip home on 9th October.

We spent a week in Bargara, which is a small beach town just out of Bundaberg. Bundaberg is famous for its rum and ginger beer and it is also in the centre of sugar cane country. There is just mile after mile of sugar cane and we were there in the midst of the cutting season. Mechanisation has altered this industry immensely over time and now it is almost a year long season with plantings taking place as soon as the cane is cut and the field ploughed. My photo was taken from a lookout on top of an extinct volcano in Bargara overlooking the sugar cane paddocks. You can see all the different colours with some paddocks already ploughed, some still covered with the cuttings, some with new plants and some cane still waiting to be cut. Some cane cuttings are still carried in small train wagons with railway lines running through the paddocks on a narrow gauge line but most of it is now carried to the refinery by trucks. The cane is now cut by machinery and mechanically loaded onto either the truck or wagon with only 2 people needed for the whole operation. Years ago it was all done manually and then the leaves were all burnt off before being loaded onto the wagons. There is not so much burning off now and the machines do the whole operation in one hundredth of the time it took to do manually. It is a huge industry in these parts with bulk storage facilities and ports to move it all overseas.

Boyne Island, a suburb of Gladstone, was our next stop. We were going to stay at the town of 1770 but we had some bad reports of the only camp in the area so decided to give it a miss. We will call in there for a look on our way back south. Gladstone is a city of 34,000 people but the industry in this place is amazing. Its port is one of Australia’s busiest with coal and alumina exports. There are 2 aluminium refineries, one aluminium smelter, a coal-fired power station that supplies all the power for the smelter and refineries, a cement production company and two coal terminals. There are six wharf centres with 15 berths and there are plans for this amount to double in the next 2 years. There is a desperate shortage of qualified tradespeople in this area as most of the younger ones are going into the mining industry. With the growth of mineral wealth in Australia it is no wonder the whole country is prospering.

The Olympics are now over and Australia can now return to normal. There was live TV coverage of all the events that Australians were entered and of the team’s return to Australia with all the politicians and their hangers on making congratulatory speeches. The civic welcome homes still have to come yet in each state. There is a very strong nationalistic attitude and pride among Australians and most of our fellow caravanners from Oz fly the national flag from their vans. I definitely intend to bring back a NZ flag with me next year.

I mentioned in one of my earlier blogs about the walkways that most towns have. These walkways are usually through a park that runs alongside the sea or river. This means that in most places there is a green belt along the sea front where there are playgrounds, car parks and always lots of toilets. Some of the walkways have exercycles, walking machines, rowing machines etc. on them for public use and some also have every 200 – 500 metres marked out so you know exactly how far you have walked or cycled. A great idea when you are timing yourself.

A most peculiar thing we have noticed lately is the large number of policemen we are meeting on our travels. Some retired and some serving; we have met them in clubs; at the bank and in caravan parks; and they range from Assistant Commissioners to Constables. This has become quite a joke with Jim & I and when we arrived in Boyne Island, Jim went and spoke to the neighbours as usual. When he came back he said “Guess what?” I said, “He’s a retired cop”. He was and not only that but his other neighbour was one also. We don’t search them out but they are everywhere.

We have had quite a few games of golf on our travels and we are really glad we bought our clubs with us. Usually it is only 9 holes and some of the courses have left a bit to be desired but some have been just fantastic. Last week we played at a little place just out of Bundaberg called Innes Park where the Innes Park Country Club and Tavern had an 18 hole course. It was a lovely day, the course was really dry and the balls went for miles, exactly the sort of course I like. We enjoyed it so much we decided to do the 18 holes. Boy, we were stuffed when we finished but it was a great game. It was a very long course with 2 of the par fives nearly ½ km. long. I think we’ll stick to 9 holes from now on though.

We went for a drive down to the towns of 1770 and Agnes Water. It is certainly a beautiful area with lovely long sandy beaches and blue seas. The road into this area has only been sealed over the past few years and now the growth is amazing. New apartment blocks are shooting up all along the hills with lovely sea views. We checked out the caravan park and we are glad we gave it a miss as the sites are so small and everyone is very crammed in.

We are now in Maryborough on our way back south. The weather has been just great for the past month or so and this morning the temperature at 7.15am was 19.9C! We have friends from Waikanae coming up to see us this week so I just hope those temperatures stay high.

We are now finding it difficult finding camps with wireless internet so my updates may not be so regular from now on. I will endeavour to try and do it every 3 weeks at least.

HERVEY BAY WHALE WATCHING

We have been in Torquay, Hervey Bay for 2 weeks and that is the longest we have stayed anywhere on this trip but the weather and the beach frontage was just too good to move on from. We have sat on the beach most days with our books and umbrella and just soaked up the atmosphere. I even managed a swim in the sea last week. Not bad for someone who usually only has one swim a year and then it has to be very hot. They call Hervey Bay “Wide Bay” and it’s easy to see why. It is a huge bay facing north and flanked by Fraser Island on the eastern side and the northern coast on the other. The sea is more like a lake as it is so calm with just little breakers and the water is crystal clear. The Hervey Bay area is very tourist orientated and there are about 12 caravan parks in the bay. This is the area where the humpback whales migrate to from the Antarctic every year to have their calves and mate. They return to the southern waters about October. We are lucky enough to be here for this amazing sight this year and we went whale watching last week. It has to be the highlight of our trip so far. We left Hervey Bay about 9am and the boat took about half an hour to find a spot just north of Fraser Island where we found our first pod of whales. They usually congregate in groups of 2 or 3 and they love playing to an audience, just like dolphins. We saw these huge creatures lift their whole bodies out of the water; slap their pectoral fins and tails and “blow”. There were 57 people on our trip and everyone had cameras and videos clicking away. We got some great photos but always just missed them breaching (when their bodies are completely out of the water) by a matter of seconds. We have the memories though. We probably saw about a dozen whales at different times so it was a very good day. Whale watching is big business for Hervey Bay and so are trips to Fraser Island. We had done that a few years ago so it can wait again till another day. Fraser Island is a huge sand island and is World Heritage listed. It covers 184,000 hectares and has dunes that reach 240 metres in height. Driving your own 4WD on Fraser Island is really popular and also tours in 4WD buses. Last Sunday there was a head on collision between a 4WD and a tourist bus on the beach of Fraser Island with 10 people injured. There were helicopters picking up the injured and ferrying them to hospital on the mainland. A few people have said it was an accident just waiting to happen as some drivers ignore the normal road rules on the island and wear no seat belts and speed.

It was good to see the All Blacks redeem themselves a couple of weeks ago. We were in Mooloolaba for the first Bledisloe Cup match and as I had bought a Silver Fern All Black flag with me from NZ, we very cockily hoisted it on the afternoon of the game amidst some very smart comments from our Aussie neighbours. After the terrible result we snuck out early the next morning and pulled it down but the neighbours could hardly contain their glee. We were in Noosa for the second test so decided we wouldn’t bother hoisting the flag this time (I know we didn’t show much faith in our team) and we watched it at a club. There were far more kiwis there than Aussies so it was a good night.

We all know that Australia is a sport mad nation but the Olympic coverage has totally taken over the country. We only see NZers if they are competing against Ozzies. Mind you Australia is doing quite well so far, especially in the pool. I have even found myself cheering for them.

You all know how Jim loves second hand shops and bargains. We went to a little country town called Cooroy inland from Noosa and there we saw the oddest second hand shop we have ever seen. Most of the stock was outside including mattresses, lawnmowers and furniture and it had been there for some considerable time I can tell you. Jim found a bread maker, the same as we have at home, and it was filthy dirty and covered in dust. He got it for $10, which was half the asking price and was so proud of himself. He didn’t even know if it went but he was happy. We took it home and he scrubbed and polished it up and then that night he made his first loaf of bread. He wanted us to wake up to the smell of freshly baked bread. We forgot that when we make it at home it is in the kitchen with the door shut, so when the dough mixing process started at 3am and sounded as if the whole machine was going to explode, I was ready to turn it off before we woke the whole camp. It eventually stopped after about half an hour but that was the last time we made bread overnight. We now make it during the day. It has turned out to be quite a good little buy and makes beautiful bread and buns.

Petrol is still at $1.47 in Hervey Bay but yesterday we went down to Tin Can Bay and got fuel at Gympie on the way home. Gympie is on the State Highway and with our Woolworths docket we got it for $1.31 a litre. That’s the cheapest we have paid for ages. It should start coming down now as the price per barrel has dropped quite a bit.

Beer and spirits are a lot more expensive in Australia than NZ and the spirits are in smaller bottles. Bargains can be found in the wine department though. We have been buying cleanskins in both red and white wines for only $24 per dozen, that’s only $2 a bottle and it’s very good wine. There are lots of NZ wines over here but they are usually much more expensive. You can’t buy wines in the supermarkets like at home, only at bottle stores which are usually next door to the supermarket and owned by them as well.

We only have 2 more weeks before we turn inland for the return trip to Melbourne via the inland route. We are staying at Bargara which is on the coast from Bundaberg for a week and then it’s onto Seventeen Seventy for a week. Hope the sun stays shining.

CYCLONIC CONDITIONS

In my last blog I mentioned we were in for “cyclonic conditions”. Well we now know what they are and how! The weather in Cotton Tree deteriorated and then the storm struck. We had 5 metre swells on the beach and very heavy rain for 3 days. The photo of the trawler was taken 3 days after the height of the storm. This boat was washed up on the beach at Mooloolaba on the Tuesday night and it couldn’t be removed till the following Sunday due to the high seas. It was an amazing sight and all within walking distance of the main street. It had grounded in the storm and one of the crewmen was washed overboard. He is still missing. Erica & Bill didn’t see the Sunshine Coast at its best at all. It was great catching up with them though and we shared many laughs and bottles of wine. We were sorry to move on from Cotton Tree because it is such a lovely area and the weather didn’t do it justice during our stay.

Our next stop was Noosa. There are only 3 camps in the Noosa /Tewantin area so sites are at a premium. We had booked ahead for this one but we were quite disappointed when we arrived as the camp was quite run down but beggars can’t be choosers so we made the most of it. We had considered staying in Noosa for two weeks but we were unable to get an extension. It was raining when we arrived so that probably didn’t help matters but it is amazing how much better things look in the sunshine. We have met some really nice people here and Noosa is such a lovely place. Most days we sit down by the river and “people watch” or go to the yacht club for a drink and a little flutter on the pokies. The yacht club is situated on the river with the most amazing views. One day we climbed up Mt. Timbeerwah which is in a national park and has a lookout over the whole area. On Wednesday we went over on the car ferry to Noosa North Shore and there we let down the pressure on the tyres of the 4WD and drove 44 kms. along the beach toward Rainbow Beach and Fraser Island. It was magical day and the weather was magical also. This was the first time we had driven in fourwheel drive so it was quite an adventure for us. There were lots of 4WDs on the beach and a couple of them were even towing caravans. I don’t think I would like to tow my van through all that sand and salt water.

I don’t know if this got coverage in NZ or not but a 66 year old lady was attacked on the walk way in Noosa National Park on Tuesday. Her attacker was a 22 year old who was either drunk or high on drugs. She is still in an induced coma. We went for a walk along there and it’s hard to imagine a more beautiful place. The blue sea on one side and the forest on the other. We saw a koala having a sleep in a tree right beside the pathway. There were lots of people taking photos and talking but he just ignored them all and carried on sleeping. He was nearly close enough to touch. We were told there are tree snakes and brown snakes in this park but luckily we didn’t see them.

We went up to Eumundi to the markets yesterday. They are huge and are open every Wed. and Saturday. They are very much like the Martinborough Fair. Hundreds of people there and loads of food stalls. We had garlic prawns on skewers. Yummy!!

I’m writing this on Sunday afternoon and we have just come back from having lunch at an old hotel at a lovely spot called Boreen Point by Lake Cootharaba. A very peaceful spot. The lunch was a spit roast of pork and beef with salads and vegetables. We sat outside on a huge verandah with lovely lawns in front of us and just enjoyed the surroundings. A bottle of wine helped of course.

We are moving on tomorrow to Hervey Bay. We are unable to get wireless internet in this area so my blog may be a bit late next time. If the weather stays fine and we like the spot we hope to stay there for 2 weeks. We won’t make Rockhampton but we have decided to just go on north until we have run out of time. We are booked to fly home to NZ on 9th October.

SUNSHINE COAST AND SUNSHINE

We haven’t really moved very far since my last blog; only from Brisbane to Cotton Tree in Mooloolaba with a 12 day break in Dicky Beach, Caloundra. Our campsite in Dicky Beach, which is a northern suburb of Caloundra, was right on the beach. We just walked over a bridge and we were on the sand. It was a lovely beach with walkways along beside it. That is one thing about this country, there are great walkways everywhere and they are very well maintained with seats and lookouts in prominent places and lots of clean toilets. It certainly makes walking a pleasure when you can see blue skies and blue seas. We sat on the beach most days and caught up with our reading and watched the surfers and swimmers. We haven’t ventured into the surf yet but I have got as far as putting my togs on. Lots of you will know this part of Australia really well but for those who don’t, it is a very popular holiday spot for New Zealanders as well as Australians and we have met lots of Kiwis up here. Some of them are doing the same as us and some just over for the annual 2 week holiday.

We drove up into the hinterland one day to the 3 Ms; Maleny, Montville and Mapleton. This is a beautiful drive up into the Blackall Range with fantastic views over the Sunshine Coast and the Glasshouse Mountains. These 3 little towns are full of craft shops, antique shops, cafes, restaurants and bars and the most amazing cuckoo clock shop. They are very busy, especially at the weekends. We visited Lake Barroon where the dam, which supplies all the Sunshine Coat with water, is located. There we saw “Secrets by the Lake” a motel accommodation where all the units are tree houses up high in the rain forest. They looked great. We met a family there who have just returned from a four year trip around the whole of Australia in a huge caravan with a 1 year old baby (when they started the trip) , 2 staffordshire bull terriers, some gold fish and a bird. The now 5 year old is so used to having camp fires, damper and marshmallows, that her parents light one in the back yard for her.

The availability of van sites has not got any better even with the school holidays finishing. We drove up to Maroochydore and Mooloolaba from Caloundra to book into our next stop over and had to visit 6 parks before we could get a decent spot. We heard of one park where people are parked outside at 6.30 in the morning so that they can get a good site. That park doesn’t even bother with bookings. We are now booked up to 4th August.

We are now at Cotton Tree which is on the banks of the Maroochy River and also on the beach. It is a huge park with 453 sites. Cotton Tree is just north of Mooloolaba and Alexander Headland. Again we are only a few metres from the water and the last few nights we have sat out with our bottle of wine and deck chairs on the river bank and watched the sun set. It really is a very tough life!! Erica & Bill Young, friends from Waikanae, arrive up here tomorrow morning for an overnight stay. They are staying in the Gold Coast for a few days after a trip to Singapore and it will be great to catch up with them.

We weren’t too sure what sort of wireless internet coverage we would get while on this holiday but it has been great. Most caravan parks have wireless internet and it is free in some of them. I have had to go to the internet room to get a hot spot in some places but most of the time it works just fine in the caravan. It may be a different story when we start heading back inland though.
The weather has been getting warmer with the nights being round the 12 – 17C mark and the day time temperature in the mid 20s. This may be all changing in the next few days though as the forecast is for “cyclonic conditions” (whatever that means) later in the week. I sincerely hope not as I have got quite used to these summer temperatures in the middle of winter.

We should be up by the Fraser Coast when I do my next blog and hopefully some whale watching.

HALF WAY THROUGH OUR HOLIDAY

We are now mid way through our trip and how the time has flown. It’s hard to believe such a lot has happened in 3 months. We have seen and done so much; had a great family sadness; met some wonderful people and Jim and I are still speaking to each other!!

We are now in Brisbane and tomorrow we move onto Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast. We had planned to go to either Maroochydore or Mooloolaba but all camps in those areas are booked up and we only managed to get the second to last site at Caloundra. There are at least 6 camps in those areas so that gives you some indication of how popular caravanning is at this time of the year. Admittedly it is school holiday time but lots of people aren’t travelling this year because of the high cost of fuel.

We had a great time in Southport on the Gold Coast. We met up with some people who we’d met in Ballina and they had another 4 friends they’d met through going to the same spot for the last few years. It reminded us of our days at Foxton Beach with drinks every night before dinner, everyone picking on each other in a jocular way; loads of laughs and no one able to get a word in edgeways. We went out for $5 and $8 lunches at local bowling and league clubs and a special night and dinner out just before we left. We were threatened with all sorts of practical jokes, either to us, or the van, before we left on Monday morning and I don’t think Jim was too sure what to expect, but we managed to get away unscathed. We hadn’t been to Surfers for over 18 years so we noticed quite a few changes but some things never change; the traffic is as bad as ever or worse; the shops are still full of t-shirts and bikinis; they are still building more and more malls and apartments are still growing taller and taller. We played some golf and went to Sea World where we hadn’t been to for over 21 years. Last time we were there all we wanted to do was to go on the roller coaster, flume rides etc. but this time we were more interested in the shows. We must be getting older. We had a lovely day there watching the dolphins, seals and polar bears. The best part was a 4D movie we saw on the warming of the planet. I know it was all an illusion but I screamed my head off as snakes, bears, crocodiles, monkeys and storms bore down on me. The weather was just the best in Surfers and temperatures were in the mid 20s. This at the same time NZ is having snow and freezing temperatures.

On to Brisbane next and although we had been there for day trips over the years, we had never stayed there. Our camp was only 4 kms. from the centre of the city so we just used public transport all the time. Brisbane is a very pretty city with lots of green parks and a lovely river where we had a day cruise. We drove up to Mount Coot-tha to the look out and then went for a walk around the Botanical Gardens. It was very peaceful and the Japanese Garden was lovely. The photo doesn’t do it justice. South Bank where the Expo was held in 1988 was very busy with cafes and ferries going to and fro. We travelled up to Nudgee Beach and Sandgate on the northern side of Brisbane where we saw some lovely old Queenslander houses with some beautiful gardens.

I have mentioned before how we meet up with people and then move on like ships passing in the night but sometimes we meet the same ones further on in our travels and this happened when we drove into the camp in Brisbane. The couple we met in Stockton drove in to the park in front of us. This was the guy who is a magician and it was great to catch up with then. It’s nice to see some familiar faces occasionally. We had planned to go for a drive up to Mount Coot-tha with them but the rain set in so we spent the afternoon playing Trivial Pursuits, the Australian version. Lots of laughs. We also went to the Broncos Club for dinner on the night of the final State of Origin. The atmosphere was great, Almost like being there.

As I said, on to Caloundra tomorrow and some more beaches with holiday atmosphere and crowds of swimmers and hopefully some more friends to catch up with.

WARMER WEATHER AT LAST

This entry contains a few firsts. I wore shorts for the first time on this holiday in Coffs Harbour. I had my hair cut by someone, other than my regular hairdresser in Raumati, for the first time in 25 years and we have had 4 days without rain for the first time in 3 weeks!

Coffs Harbour has been one of the nicest places we have stayed in on this trip. It had a real holiday atmosphere there and the caravan park was top notch. We walked to the top of Muttonbird Island where muttonbirds nest for 9 months of the year and on the way a blue tongued lizard crossed the walkway in front of us. It was about 1 ½ feet long and was like a small pre historic animal. It was in no hurry to get out of our way but I was glad I had a chance to see it up close. There is a lovely golf course at Bellingen, a small town about 30 kms. inland from Coffs Harbour. The brochure said no booking was necessary so off we set on a beautiful sunny day. When we got there we found a tournament was under way with about 80 participants and we couldn’t tee off for another 5 hours. We gave golf a miss and walked around this little historic town, some of the buildings dating back to 1827. The locals seemed to be mostly hippies or alternative life stylers and the shops sold all things organic, even children’s clothing. Things were very expensive. It was a very interesting place.

We met lots of caravanners in Coffs Harbour from Victoria and South Australia who come to Coffs Harbour every year for 3 months from the beginning of June to escape the winter. Some of them have been coming there for over 20 years. The roads are very busy now with dozens of vans moving north and as usual the Pacific Highway had very rough surfaces.

Our next stop was Ballina. We knew there had been a lot of rain on this coast over the past few weeks but we were very surprised by the amount of water lying in the paddocks between Coffs Harbour and Ballina. There is definitely no water shortage in this area, but there are still drought conditions in inland NSW. We were going to go to Byron Bay but there is a shortage of van spaces there and with space at a premium, they charge premium prices so we decided to stay in Ballina instead and go to Byron Bay for a day trip. Up to now, we haven’t bothered booking ahead as we have always got into the place of our choice. However, things are getting busier now and we had to try 3 van parks before finding a space in Ballina. Another lesson learnt. We walked to the end of the break water in Ballina one day and saw whales out at sea but a pod of dolphins came really close in and then came up the river playing in the waves. It was a great sight.

We went to a lovely golf course in a little place called Tevern, near Ballina. The grounds and settings were beautiful with lots of bird sounds. I have included pictures of the golf course together with the whales at Byron Bay.

We were going to go for a walk in a rain forest just down the road from us but a notice as we entered caused me to have second thoughts. The sign read “ Beware. There are snakes in this area. Do not disturb them as they enjoy the sun”. I’m afraid the walk in the rain forest just lost all its appeal after that and I decided I would leave the snakes to their sun bathing on their own.

We had our day in Byron Bay and it was a magical day. The weather was just the best; blue skies, no clouds, no wind and a temperature of 23C. There was a storm in Byron Bay in 2005 and it caused a part of the roadway and walking track to the Lighthouse to be washed away. Three years later this has still not been repaired due to cost blowouts; arguments between local councils, state government and federal government and planning disputes. Doesn’t that sound just like NZ? We decided to park our car down by the beach and walk along the beach and up the coast walkway to the lighthouse. We saw 3 pods of whales going past on their way north and one lot was only about 200 metres below us. They really turned on a show for the crowds who were lining the walkway. We spent nearly an hour watching them This was the shortest day of the year and lots of people were swimming in the sea. We had a wander around the shops later and they were all having sales. I needed some new shorts as I have lost some weight since being on the road and managed to get 2 pairs and a t shirt for just over $25. I was very pleased with my purchases! We finished the day with drinks at an old pub right on the beachfront in the sun.

We have now moved into sugar cane growing area. The last time we were here about 18 years ago we never saw sugar cane further south than probably Maryborough so I don’t know if it is a sign of climate warming or if sugar is a more profit making venture.

We are often finding strange things here that are quite different to the way things are done in NZ. One thing we noticed in NSW is there are speed cameras all along the Pacific Highway but for some reason, drivers have to be told where they are. There will be a sign telling drivers there are speed cameras in NSW; then about 500 metres down the road another sign telling them there are speed cameras in that area, then after another 500 metres another sign beside the speed camera. It may be that Aussies take a while to work things out for themselves or that civil libertarians wanted the signs put up so no one’s civil rights would be upset.

A sign of what the drought has done to this country was on TV last week. Instead of schools wanting computers, new classrooms etc. like they do in NZ, Australian schools want water tanks. A contest is being held to find schools that need the water tanks and these are being donated by the TV channel.

We arrived in the Gold Coast today and we are staying at a lovely park right on the broad water at Southport opposite the Mirage resort and Sea World. We intend staying here for at least a week, depending on the weather. We met some fellow caravanners in Ballina who we got on with very well and they are staying here also. I can see a few happy hours and drinking sessions over the next few days. We are getting quite tanned and with another 8 – 10 weeks to go before we leave the coast and start heading back inland we’ll have a head start on our tans for the NZ summer.

SAD TIMES AND LOTS OF RAIN

The last few weeks have been a very sad time for us. My sister Colleen who had suffered from bad health for a long time was admitted to hospital in Christchurch on Saturday 24th May with respiratory complications and pneumonia and passed away peacefully on Sunday 1st June. She will be sorely missed by all of us.

Our good weather has left us. There has been a big depression on the northern coast of Queensland and over the past few weeks it has slowly worked its way down to NSW leaving floods and high seas in its wake. Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast have had flooding and lots of road closures all along the coast and now Sydney has had heavy rain also, enough to say that some of the water restrictions will be lifted this weekend. I know that the rain was desperately needed but it would have been nicer to get it in small doses. The winds have been gale force and it was so bad the other night that we got up in the middle of the night to take down the awning that was moving so much that the van was shaking really badly. We haven’t seen sun for over a week so to show you what it is like in a caravan; when it has rained for umpteen days and we have limited clothes. I have attached the photo of “Wet Wash Day” We put the clothesline up, attached them to the cupboard doors and turned on the air conditioning. Voila! our own drying room. It was nearly dry when we got back from shopping. The joys of caravanning!

We had some preconceived ideas of some of the places we were going to visit, and how wrong we were with Newcastle. We had driven down the main street a few years ago and now that the Pacific Highway bypasses it, most tourists give it miss. We decided to stay at Stockton Beach, which is on the opposite side of the Hunter River from Newcastle but accessible by ferry. Newcastle is a very busy industrial city with up to 5 coal freighters a day leaving for China. These huge carriers went right by our camp so it was a very interesting sight. We counted 22 freighters sitting off the coast one day just waiting their turn to come into port. It is just on a year ago that he freighter “Pasha Bolker” came ashore on the beach at Newcastle. The earthquake in 1989 ruined a lot of the shops and these have been rebuilt with lots of cafes and bars down by the river. There are loads of walkways with fantastic views.

It was then on to Port Stephens, another preconceived idea out the window. We had called into what we thought was Port Stephens in 1990 but there were just sand dunes and it was blowing a gale so we weren’t getting too excited about going back. We stayed at Anna Bay this time and there are lots of beautiful beaches and homes in the Port at Nelson Bay and Salamander Bay. We climbed up to the top of Tomaree Head, 164 metres. It was pretty tough going at times but worth it at the top. This is the time of the year that the whales make their way north to mate in the Whitsundays and we saw a group just off the coast. Luckily we had the binoculars so we had a great view.
The beach photo is of Fingal Bay in Port Stephens. This is the beach where the “Where The Bloody Hell Are You?” ad was filmed. It certainly is a beautiful spot.

Our next stop was Forster / Tuncurry a twin town centre on the Wallis Lake. This is where the weather decided to go to the pack so we didn’t get much of a chance to see it at it’s best. My favourite memory of Forster is the huge waves that hit the beaches during the king tides that we had during the storms. We stood up on the cliffs and watched loads of surfers having the time of their lives riding what were probably some of the biggest waves they had ever seen.

We then moved to Port Macquarie. A lovely beach resort, but with the king tides, high winds and storms, we decided to just stay put and ride out the storms. There is fantastic growth in this area and with lots of apartments, canals and housing developments, there is no shortage of work. We visited a koala hospital to watch the koalas being fed. I wasn’t too keen to see any sick animals but the really sick were in intensive care and unable to have visitors so it wasn’t too upsetting. These koalas are ones that been hit by motor vehicles or burnt in bush fires and, as they get stressed very easily, they get urinary infections that turn to Chlamydia. Most of them only stay for a few months and are then returned to the area in which they were found, as they are very territorial. There were one or two there with eye infections and another had arthritis. These koalas are too old to be returned to the wild, some are 20 years old, so they have a great life in their own little compound with occasional visits from other koalas in the area and some have successfully mated and we saw 2 baby koalas who have been born in captivity. It was a very interesting afternoon.

The roads in NSW are a national disgrace. Pacific Highway, which is the main highway between Sydney and Brisbane, is just full of potholes and corrugations, some of which have just been roughly patched over and cause all sorts of humps and bumps. We took a socalled tourist route into Forster and it was like a donkey track. One part of the main highway is made of concrete so you get all these bumps as you go over the joints. At one stage the road, which looked relatively new, caused the bonnet to vibrate badly. It was very off putting. I will never complain about the NZ roads again! One noticeable thing on the road between Port Stephens and Forster was the tubular crossings placed high across the highway between the eucalyptus trees. These are for koalas and possums to save them from crossing the four lane roadway. I just hope they have told the koalas and possums about them!

We had a game of golf in Anna Bay at a course called “The Palms” A very upmarket name and the course looked top of the range also. How mistaken we were. The course was totally water sodden and the balls just got bogged down when they hit the ground. The score was unmentionable and when we got home we had to wash clubs, shoes and our legs to remove all the mud. It wasn’t the best day out.

We have met some very friendly people on our trip and while we were in Stockton a group of 6 of us went out for dinner to a club. One of the guys was a magician so he put on a real show for us. Lots of card tricks which had all of us fooled. My grand children would have loved it but so did the adults.

In some ways Australia is way behind NZ. There was a big announcement on the news last week that soon Australians will be able to have pin numbers on their credit cards instead of having to sign the receipt all the time and now Australian shops may soon be able to open on weekends and holidays! At the moment they have to make special applications to do this. All malls open most of the time but on the Sunday we had in Sydney a lot of the shops were shut.

After a couple of very hard weeks we are waiting for the weather to clear and move onto Coffs Harbour and the Gold Coast where my next blog will come from.

South NSW Coast to Central NSW Coast

We have now been away from NZ for over 5 weeks and have covered over 3,000 kms. It’s amazing where the time goes when we are having so much fun!

We loved our time in Bateman’s Bay and we were really sorry to leave there. We did manage a feed of prawns though. We found a great little fish shop on a side street, recommended by a fellow camper. He let us sample prawns with his homemade vodka sauce. No kidding, it was great. We bought about 2 dozen prawns and his sauce and we had a great meal.

We then moved onto Nowra where we based ourselves so we could explore Jervis Bay and the Shoalhaven area. If anyone hasn’t been down to this part of Australia, please think about it. The beaches are just the best with the whitest sand that goes on for miles. We had our first meal of oysters here at Greenwell Point. They were cultivated oysters and about half the size of the Bluff ones, but very, very tasty. The lady opened them for us so they were really fresh and every now and again she would pass us one each to sample. Not having tasted an oyster for a couple of years, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven! $10 for 2 dozen.

The Australian Navy has a base at Jervis Bay and it is closed to the public but it can be seen from across the bay from a little place called Hyams Beach. We had gone there for a paddle and as we were leaving we saw a helicopter circling above the base so decided to watch and see where it landed. To our surprise it started heading out to sea at a very low height. There was a little pleasure craft that had obviously come too close for the Navy’s liking and the helicopter started herding it towards the open seas. It was flying very low and stirring up quite a wake with its rotors. It was a sight to behold. Obviously the Aussie Navy has a bit more money to spend than the NZ Navy in that they can send up a chopper to push a little boat around. I don’t know why they didn’t put out a frigate!

Our next stop was a little beach just north of Wollongong called Bulli Beach, pronounced “Bulleye” not “Bullee” as we pronounced it a couple of times. Just north of here they have built a huge bridge called the Sea Cliff Bridge. It is an amazing feat of engineering. It has been built out from the cliffs over the sea and if the greenies would allow it, this could solve the Centennial Highway problem on the Kapit Coast. We parked the car and walked over it. There are huge cliffs along this coast and rock falls had caused road closures over the years and while this bridge was being built a huge rock fall caused the normal road to be closed for 2 years.

Car problems with the cd stacker and a leaking radiator caused us to stay in Sydney for repairs. Thank goodness it is still under warranty from Toyota. We just set the GPS and it was simple to find our way. I can’t bear to think of the aggro that would have been caused without it. We stayed in Lane Cove National Park which is on the northern side of Sydney. Every night we had a nocturnal visitor to the caravan roof. We were told there were kangaroos in the park and I know they can jump but I think this animal was a bit light footed for a roo. It was possibly a possum but there was no way I was getting out of bed to see what kept him practising his tap dancing on our roof every night! I still love Sydney and our visit there bought back so many happy memories of staying with Stephen, Sarah and the boys when they lived there.

We had a really funny experience during our visit out to Fairfield to pick up the car. While we were waiting we decided to pay a visit to the local RSL Club, purely for observational purposes of course. Now Fairfield is in a fairly run down area with quite a high crime rate so it came as quite a shock to us to see that the RSL was very upmarket with lovely groomed lawns and gardens and the hostesses all dressed in black suits, even down to black gloves. The interior was all glitzy with water features in the foyer but the pokies room was a real surprise. It was very busy and this was on a Monday about mid-day. There were about 10 or 12 women dressed in black lace tights and high heels; short red fitted waistcoats with tails and little top hats acting as hostesses. A bit like Hefner’s bunny girls. We found a seat and sat down to play and donate our funds to the RSL and tried not to let the racket going on around us deter us from our mission. Every now and then the compere would call out “ Yaa dee yaa dee yaa dee” and people would rush over and get a whole list of numbers. We weren’t doing that well but then we won some free games and over came one of the hostesses with a list of numbers for us. We then went into a draw for $200 . Needless to say we didn’t win that but what a laugh it all was.

We then headed for the Central Coast of NSW; Toowoon Bay and Newcastle. Here our lovely weather decided to desert us for a while. We had just put up the awning, ground sheet etc. at Toowoon Bay when the proprietor came over to say there were 2 storms on the way, one from Sydney and one off the sea. Needless to say, we then had to pull everything down again. I’m glad we did as we had some very strong winds and heavy rain. I know that NSW is in drought conditions but they are certainly not on this coast. The beaches are quite rocky here but it is very spectacular when the wind gets up with the sea spray flying everywhere.

In my last newsletter I mentioned the grocery prices in Oz. Well there is an enquiry going on into the monopoly and they have found that groceries in NSW are 30% higher than they should be. I could have told them that without the trouble of an enquiry. Australia has just had its first budget under the new Labour Govt. and they haven’t pleased the pensioners at all with nothing for them. I am so glad to see that Aunty Helen and her cohorts have kept us oldies in mind when they delivered the NZ one this week.

We will be heading further north in the next few days and by the time of my next epistle we should be either in Queensland or getting close to it and maybe some more settled weather.

On The Road At Last

Wednesday 30th April dawned cool and cloudy but we didn’t mind as we were finally on our way. We had a lovely evening on the previous Saturday going out for a Thai meal with Sarah, Stephen and the boys and said goodbye to them on the Tuesday night so we were set to go.

To assist with our driving through Melbourne we paid fees to enable us to use the toll road and with the GPS it was a piece of cake. Everything went smoothly and it was well over 60 kms. before we left the motorway and moved onto a single lane road. We had intended to stay at Moe but not much to see there so carried on to Bairnsdale at the entrance to the Gippsland Lakes. Our camp was by the Mitchell River and the autumn colours were just beautiful. We intend to keep up our walking as much as possible so went for a 5 ½ km walk along the river. The bird life is so different to what we are used to and we came across hundreds of bats hanging in trees. They make a funny chattering noise. Locals told us there weren’t near as many as there were earlier on as when the weather gets cooler, they move onto warmer climates. They fly off together every evening at dusk making quite a sight.

We had our first game of golf at Bairnsdale. It was a lovely 9 hole course with fantastic views over the lakes. Everyone has to carry a bucket of sand to repair divets as the ground is so dry. Jim beat me by 4 strokes but it’s early days yet as I have to get used to these different clubs.

We went on day trips to Lakes Entrance and Paynesvile where we went on a ferry over to Raymond Island. This island has lovely walks through natural bush and we were told there were koalas there, although one local was a bit sceptical. We were so lucky. We found a group of them sitting up trees sleeping or sunning themselves and we got really close to one which had come down the tree to get some fresh leaves. Of course we had left the camera in the car. Lesson number one is now take the camera everywhere. We had stayed at Lakes Entrance about 8 years ago but couldn’t believe the growth in the area. Lots of new multi storeyed apartments all along the waterfront and there are 25 camping grounds there! Some of them charge $75 for a power site over the Christmas period! That’s very expensive. On our way back from Lakes Entrance we called at a little town called Nowa Nowa which has nothing much going for it at all really but Jim saw a little shed selling “collectables” so we had to stop. It was the funniest place I have been to. It was beside a camping ground which would have been around in the thirties or forties I think. The toilets were ”long drops” and the caravans there had definitely seen better days. The lady in the collectables shop was a local who had decided to sell all her “treasures”. There were a couple of locals in the shop and one of the lads was looking for something for his mother. He found a ceramic bed warmer which had to be filled with hot water and then put down the bed to warm it up. He didn’t know what it was but thought his mother would like it. I would love to have seen his mother’s face this morning when she opened his gift.

Those of you who have just completed the bike trail will be interested to know that there is a bike trail in the Gippsland Lakes called “ The East Gippsland Bike Trail” It looks relatively easy and crosses the main highway at different intervals. You can also ride horses and walk it. It is in a lovely area so you can plan your next trip to this one.

We then moved onto Mallacoota which is on a beautiful inlet nearly on the border of Victoria and NSW. Stephen and family had stayed there last Christmas and loved it so we decided to give it a go. I am so glad we did as the place is well worth the 23km drive off the main road. We had a waterfront camp site with pelicans and swans right on our door step. It is a very popular fishing spot and one of our fellow campers caught too many salmon for his own use so shared them around. He even cleaned and filleted them for us. Fantastic. Went on a couple of bush walks there and saw another koala and a lyre bird. We are becoming quite nature lovers. Haven’t seen any nasty creepy crawlies as yet though.

We are now at Bateman’s Bay on the NSW south coast. It’s a lovely beach resort with lots of boats and fishing. Oysters are the main catch here and though we haven’t sampled them yet they are a hell of a lot cheaper than the Bluff ones; only $10 for 2 dozen, not $2 each! They won’t taste as good though I’m sure.

Supermarket shopping in Oz is not as good as in NZ. There are only 2 real competitors so not much competition at all and the quality and quantity of goods leaves a bit to be desired. Fruit and veges presentation is better at fruiterers shops and every town has it’s own butchery and fish shop where the products are just tops. Markets are everywhere so it is much cheaper to get fruit and veges there.

The price of petrol is still on the up and up and we are now paying $1.54 per litre but I hear that it has hit the $2 mark at home. Can’t see any sign of it falling although it is usually a couple of cents cheaper here during the week.

Caravanning is a bit different here compared to NZ. The caravan sites all have their own drainage and town water pressure and some sites have en suites. Most vans have air conditioning and electric brakes which work quite well. The vans are very well made with lots of storage space. New vans are now coming out with washing machines as well as showers and toilets. We have met a few people who are carrying washing machines with them in their 4WD and then plug them in when they get to their site. One kept hers in the awning. At $3 a wash so far and more expensive in the outback I suppose it would pay for itself after a couple of months. We had some fun and games learning to put the awning up and down. It looked so simple when the guy showed us when we bought it but not so easy on our own. However, with some help from fellow campers, we have now mastered it and it’s a piece of cake. People are so friendly and helpful and last night we shared a lovely restaurant meal with a couple from Dubbo.

We are now moving closer to Sydney and at this stage have not made a decision as to whether we will stay at Lane Cove or drive straight through and bypass Sydney totally. The thought of driving through Sydney traffic with the caravan behind doesn’t excite us too much so we will have to wait and see. You will find out what we did and where we are in our next blog from further up the NSW coast.

Wellington - Melbourne

16th April 2008. Departure date at last. Sad to say goodbye to Nicola, Adrian, Brodie and Kaley but we have a big adventure ahead of us.

A bit of nervousness at the airport due the large amount of luggage; 3 large suitcases and 2 sets of golf clubs to be checked through plus 2 pull along trolley cases; 1 computer and 2 hand bags to be carried on. It was quite a feat getting everything organised but no excess baggage fees so Jim was happy! Stephen met us and it was great to catch up with him, Sarah, Oliver and Nicky again having not seen them for over a year.

Down to business first thing the next morning with a visit to the bank to activate our account etc. an then off to pick up the 4WD Prado. Very impressed but there are a few things we have to get done to it; window tinting; alarm; wiring for van fridge etc. so a few days needed to get these things done.

Picking up the caravan was next on the list. Very happy with our choice and then “We went shopping” Did we what! We went to a shop called IKEA that had just everything we needed to furnish and outfit the caravan. It is the most amazing place I have ever been to and we had a great day. Our trolley was just loaded by the time we left. We then had to buy the electrical appliances so Harvey Norman happily had a sale and TV, DVD player, iron, toaster, jug etc. were loaded into the car. The neighbours must have had a field day watching the comings and goings. We certainly filled the rubbish bin that day with all the packaging, wrapping etc.

We were very tired that night and too tired to really appreciate the fact that we were spending the first night in our new van. We are staying at a Big 4 camp about 10 minutes away from Stephen’s. Lots of vans still moving around and the big difference we have noticed here compared to NZ is that at home there are many more camper vans than caravans on the roads, here it is the complete opposite. We have only seen a couple of campers here and the sites are all big with lots of rooms for cars as well, not like at home where the camping grounds are really only geared for campers now.

We haven’t even made the CBD for shopping yet but after being in more malls than I care to remember we are totally shopped out. Never want to see another shop for ages.

Stephen and family have taken us out and about and last weekend we went up to the Dandenongs for a picnic and then a look around the area. Loads of lovely little craft and antique shops and lovely autumn tints in the bush. It was very busy up there with cafes and restaurants doing a roaring trade. Yesterday we went to watch Oliver play rugby. He is captain of his team this year and they had a great win so that was a great way to start the season.

Melbourne has been covered in a smoke haze for about a week. There has been burning off up in the Dandenongs and with no wind the smoke just hangs around. The only visible sign we had for the first few days was the haze but about last Thursday we could also smell the smoke and on Thursday evening the sunset was amazing with the sun looking like a big red ball. The one day I didn’t have my camera with me. We have had some rain now and it has blown away the haze. Melbourne is in drought conditions and the rain has been welcomed by the locals, we don’t want too much of it though.

If all goes according to plan we hope to be on the road to Moe on Wednesday 30th April and then the real adventure begins. My next instalment should be from the coast somewhere between Melbourne and Sydney.

Getting Started

2008 at last! This is the year we are off on our first of 3 (we hope) six month sojourns around Australia in a caravan and 4WD. We have bought a 2003 Roma 17ft caravan already and Jim has spent ages looking at Prado 4WDs on the net so he will have a really good idea of prices and values when we arrive in Melbourne on Wednesday 16th April. We have already sent a carton of winter clothes, dishes and cutlery over to Stephen's to save costs on excess baggage. We plan to spend about 2 weeks in Melbourne setting up the van,buying the vehicle, arranging banking etc. and then we hope to hit the road out of Melbourne, heading for Moe about the 1st May.
At the moment back here there are lots of things to finalise before we leave so it is now in countdown mode. Our next entry should be from Melbourne when we have everything sorted, packed and before we say "Goodbye" to our Australian family of Stephen, Sarah, Oliver and Nicky.