Blog

By Jo

We’ve been in Sydney a week now and it still hasnt stopped raining and apparently it isnt going to stop for months. Meanwhile NZ is in drought and still hasnt rained since we left.

We finally put a deposit on a car yesterday. We have been car hunting all week. We couldnt decide between a campervan or a car, so we decided on a 4WD. We should be able to pick it up on Monday if the pink/green/blue/yellow/purple and turquoise slips all go to plan.

We can then deck out the van and head up to Queensland which is the sunshine state. Unlike NSW (No Sun Whatsoever) state.

Other than car hunting, we went sightseeing on Tuesday. We saw the harbour bridge and opera house, but my foot was a bit sore for walking still, so we didnt do much else. We’ll head in again next week.

We are hoping brother John will take us up the Blue mountains tomorrow if he’s feeling better. He’s had a sinus infection all week.

These birds come and visit us at my brother Johns place in Sydney.

There are cockys too

and a kookaburra comes to visit in the evening, but he’s a bit shy.

By Mike:

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, not unless you give up work to go touring and your work mates get you a meal voucher for your leaving gift.

I gave up work to go touring NZ and Australia.

The meal voucher was for Tables on the River in Hamilton, NZ. Although booked for 21st December, Jo and I eventually made it to the restaurant on January 31st, the day before we left for Aussie.

After getting our hairs cut we went into Hamilton to find the restaurant. This we did fairly easily as it is almost next door to the casino.

Although the restaurant is called Tables on the River it is in fact set back slightly, having a footpath and trees between itself and the river. Although we had glipses of the river from our table.

As always we had to have a bottle of wine with the meal. Jo gets her drink first.

I couldn’t decide which meal to have so I opted for the Chefs selection of tasters.

and Jo opted for the fish

So thank you all at Getronics for a lovely meal.

Now we’re off to the casino.

We arrived in Sydney today and its bloody raining! we just spent 6 weeks in NZ and had about 5 mins of rain the whole time, so its a bit of a novelty to see rain. (I thought NZ was sposed to be the rainy climate)

We are going car hunting tomorrow. Dont really have clue what to buy but will have a look and see what our money will get us here.

My toe still hasnt healed. I gashed it on a rock while snorkelling last weekend and its still a bit sore and I cant wear shoes. So I’m kinda glad for the crap weather to give it more chance to heal.

Apart from that, we are both pretty buggered after a 4.30am start this morning.

We just got back from a couple of days in Hamilton. Mike wanted to buy a shortie wetsuit and Rebel sports had a 25% off sale.

He tried on a medium sized wetsuit. “Its a bit tight”, he squeaked. He then tried on an extra large one. “Its a bit loose”, he said. So I gave him another one to try. “This one fits just right”, he said while admiring his butt in the mirror.

I looked at the tag and cracked up laughing. It was a ladies wetsuit! He bought it anyway.

Other that that, cyclone Fuma is coming and the rain is a welcome relief from the hot hot weather we have been having.

Poor Mum and Dad are away playing golf in this cyclone, so we are left looking after the house. Hope we don’t lose the roof.

By Mike

A few years ago when I took a week off work to do my motor cycle training and test my kids thought I was going through a mid life crisis.

Then when Jo and I brought a kayak, my kids thought I was crazy.

When we then brought a sail board, they knew I was bonkers.

And when I gave up work to tour New Zealand and Australia they were going to get me committed.

Well they should have, because now at the age of 54 I am over coming my fear of the sea and learning to snorkel. The first attempts weren’t too good although I was only in a few feet of water. I should really have breathed through that pipe thing instead of my nose.

But having made that mistake I soon learnt and haven’t done it since.

I am getting better at each attempt. I suppose the next thing I need to do is to learn how to swim!!

We went camping at Simpson’s beach for a couple of days over the weekend with my friend Robyn and her entire family. Our families used to go camping together when Robyn and I were kids. It was just like the old days, except 30 years later and the kids are the next generation.

They had a cool set up. Chris had his converted bus;

Robyn’s parents had their caravan with the cookers and banquet tables in the middle.

And the tents around the edge. Here’s our little tent next to our messy car.

They even had the facilities to bake a cheesecake for Peters birthday.

There was no power or toilet facilities so we made do with a solar shower tent and a portapotti tent. A bit like our parties at
Putney (except the toilet was emptied regulary so it didnt overflow!)

We went out in the boat fishing and caught loads of undersized snapper. Look at this pathetic thing that Mike caught!

I caught a Gurnard (a very pretty fish with wings that flys) and this was the only thing worth eating.

The second lot that went out caught 10 Kowhai (not fair). We smoked them and we ate them for dinner. YUM.

On Monday we drove up to Matarangi to play around in the surf. I tried the surf ski out on bigger waves but they were a bit dumpy. It was good for boogie boarding though.

Amigene said she had spotted sharks there last week, so I was on the lookout. We did see something black in the water, so the odds were is was a shark as there were 40 spotted the day before. pretty scary.

We all had a go in Chris’s land yacht, which he built for $600. The bought ones are $4000. It was loads of fun and a great way to see the beach.

There are more photos at:

Simpsons Beach

Matarangi

Yikes! 40 sharks were spotted at a beach we were swimming at on Monday! We were also swimming there on new years day. Amigene, my niece has a holiday house there and she spotted some last week. Think I will steer clear from that beach from now on.

Shark Traffic Jam

A big corgette from Mums and Dads garden. There is no shortage of fresh veg and salad here.

Mike and Dad doing some man bonding after collecting pipis and cockles on the low tide. They are supposed to be cleaning and cooking them!

We are going camping at Simpsons beach tomorrow. It’s supposed to be a good spot for fishing and snorkeling. There’s loads of paua (abolone) and hopefully we might get some crayfish. We’ll also take the surfski in case there’s some waves.

Its been a pretty quiet few days as I’ve been getting over a mild cold.

By Mike

These are not the high society races of Ascot, more the local country meeting of Wincanton that I remember from my childhood.

We set off at 10:00 to allow us some time to do a bit of shopping before meeting Lynda & John at 12:00.

We stopped on the way into Thames to get some roof racks for Jo’s car.

We drove on to Thames arriving just in time to meet with Lynda and John for coffee before going off to the races.

After a few detours, because taking the wrong turnings, we finally made to the race course. The entry fee was $5 each, not a large amount to pay but still too much for some, as previous years entry had been free.

To get to the parking we drove across the race course and parked up, then having to cross the racecourse on foot to get to the stands.

The meeting is not just about the races but it’s about meeting old friends and family that you have not seen for some time.

We were advised on the type of bet to place,a quinella, picking 3 horses and only requiring two to finish in first and second place. Not too difficult ! !

We tried our hand but soon we realised that we didn’t have a clue what we were doing. After losing on the first two races we then discovered the running sheets for the meeting, along with the notes on the horse’s recent performances.

The ones both Jo & I had been backing all seemed to be the ones that had seen better days.

So we decided to leave while we still had some money left and before the big rush at the end of the meeting.