30 Years of Greatness......

The day after Boxing day was Kelley's birthday and I had to hurriedly finish the lemon meringue birthday cupcakes before we left for a night at Werribee open range zoo. We met friends Dave and Allison for lunch on the lawns of Werribee mansion and enjoyed a good picnic. Kelley and I stayed at the hotel out there and had a wander around the mansion and the grounds the next day.

The Werribee mansion



The early owners were clearly keen hunters



Kelley in the 'sculpture park' you can see them but in the background are giraffes, rhinos and zebras in the open range zoo.

Boxing Day Test

After a momentary panic on Christmas Eve, lack of sleep, and continued edginess on Christmas Day, I finally found the tickets for the cricket and we set off. We were there early to meet Josh and to see Ricky Ponting win the toss and bat. We were sitting near the front and close to the notorious Bay 13. To spice things up further, we were directly behind a particularly rowdy bunch of Pakistani supporters.



It was quite a slow day, Pakistan bombed a few chances and both Australian openers were dismissed in the 90's which was rather amusing, particularly the Shane Watson run out. Ricky Ponting made a quick 50 to liven things up and Australia finished well on top at the end of the day (and would go on to win comfortably).

Although it was only mid 20's, it was still hot enough to get sun burnt and the drunk crowd to get boisterous. They kept us entertained with chants, beer snakes, a 'streaker' who was absolutely pathetic, and the odd abusive racial slur (it wouldn't be Australia without it....) With about an hour to go there were people getting escorted out by security on a regular basis so we moved upstairs to find a quieter spot, which we did find but we were still entertained by idiots, including one who decided it was an appropriate time for a haka. That was rather embarrassing.



Nonetheless, it was a super day at the cricket and experience well worth repeating.

Cycling World Cup

It was the first time I'd been to live indoor track cycling and it was really impressive. There was a full programme of finals, and a wide selection of events, including time trials, pursuits, points race, scratch race and the keirin. Australia pipped Great Britain in the final of the men's team pursuit and the crowd loved it, but the highlight of our night was the men's scratch race where NZer Tom Scully rode brilliantly to win gold.

Woman's points race, which was also really good to watch



NZ men's team pursuit who smashed the Dutch in the race for bronze



The half time entertainment was another highlight with the history of cycling on display, including the hobby horse, the first 'bike' ever made, with no pedals.



Penny Farthing



And a selection of others, inlcluding a pedal driven tricycle

Hobart

A quick weekend trip to Hobart to visit Katie and Alastair was never going to be as enjoyable as I'd hoped when I got landed with 20 hours of pre reading to do before a course on the following Monday. Nevertheless, we visited the markets, a beer festival, wandered the waterfront and all around the gardens. It was a nice quiet weekend.

Salamanca markets, easy to fill in a few hours here



Salamanca Square and fountain.



Harbour, looking out to the Derwent river



Henry Jones art hotel

Melbourne and Surrounds

A few snaps from some day trips around and about:

First, a few days with Jenny and Lawrence which included the following:

A trip to the races at Yarra Glen, on Cox Plate day (they play the city races on a big screen)



Looking out over the city from the Shrine of Remembrance



The scariest ride at Luna Park



Looking towards Melbourne from the North east



Then, on the first weekend of November when the mercury flowed over 35 degrees, a trip out to Maroondah reservoir, one of Melbourne's water sources. Its fair to say we struggled in the heat and didn't do much but we are getting better.



On Melbourne Cup day, a public holiday, we went with Josh and Jody for a flying visit to Geelong and on to Queenscliff.



Geelong has a variety of these 'human poles' along the waterfront.

Shedfest

Shedfest involved jumping on a bus and cruising around some vineyards in the Yarra Valley. It was very relaxed, very low key and altogether rather pleasant.



Weather was perfect



But a few grey clouds appeared near the end of the day

Home again - Akaroa and another wedding...

We were back again, this time for the Bernie Pye and Dougal Innes wedding at Terrace Downs near the Rakia Gorge but before we got there we had a couple of days to fill in. Neither of us had been to Akaroa so we took our super cheap rental, weaved our way over the hills and parked up for a day and a half. It was clearly off season as there were hardly any people around but Akaroa was a nice spot and I liked the French influence but was very disappointed with their 'French' bakery. Luckily for us, we got very unseasonal weather and it was a great day for a walk up the hill, but not right to the top, it was very windy.

At Purple Peak Saddle.



A great view of the Akaroa harbour



The track back down



We headed back inland for the wedding which was a very grand affair. Unfortunately it was still very windy but at least it was warm.

Rakia river bridge.



The day after the wedding was a big driving day, all the way home. To make it a bit more interesting, we decided to go over the Danseys Pass which was a real goat track and only achievable thanks to the sustenance gained from a huge ice cream at the Kurow dairy. The rental bomb made it up and over unscathed.

Looking up the road to the pass.



We had a day and a half at home, Kelley's parents and sister Shanon came up for the day before another long drive back to Christchurch and early Monday morning flight back.

Giant worms and little penguins

The title is somewhat misleading as there are no photos of either giant earthworms or little penguins, but they were certainly the purpose of the trip. Following a tip in the Bill Bryson book 'Down Under', we set off for 'Wildlife Wonderland', the main attraction being the Gippsland giant earthworms, the largest earthworms in the world that can grow up to 3m long. Wildlife Wonderland wasn't very popular, we almost had the run of the place but it was really good. Almost all the animals were very friendly, we scratched a dingos ears through the cage, made friends with some hungry kangaroos, chatted to Sam the cockatoo and teased a lively wombat through the glass.

Sleepy koalas



Evil looking snake



Hungry roos...



...that were quite content



As for the worms, they didn't have any live ones and even if they did we probably wouldn't have seen them. They had a couple of preserved specimens in long test tubes which were rather disgusting but the highlight of the worms display was the repeating video of the live capture of a giant worm - pretty invigorating stuff.

We continued on to Philip Island and there was plenty for us to do. We went for a walk after lunch along the coast and up to the highest point on the island.

From the highest point, looking down the Island.



The Peninsula



Following a quick stop at the local chocolate factory, we cruised past the Grand Prix circuit on the way to the 'Nobbies' - a popular spot for seagulls and seals.



Then it was time to head to the penguins. We were a bit slow down to the beach and got a poor viewing spot but it didn't matter as seats soon became available as penguins came in. Although penguin numbers weren't high (about 500, it gets up to about 1,500 in summer) it was still very popular and there were thousands of people. The penguins are tiny, they grow to about 30cm tall and they can trek up to 1km inland to their burrows. They were quite noisy and aggressive if they mistakenly tried to take someone else's burrow. It was well worth seeing but just seemed to be over too soon.

Rail Trail to Warburton

The forecast for the weekend was excellent and a good opportunity to get out and about. Kelley had heard about a rail trail from Lilydale (last station on our line) to Warburton in the Yarra Valley. We set off on a sunny Saturday morning but our planning wasn't so flash, the trains weren't running so we had to ride to the next station, not too far away.

The start of the Trail was quite difficult to find but once we were on it, the riding was good and the surface was excellent.



We took it pretty easy, we later found out we'd been on a slight uphill for the first hour and we were grateful for a couple of short stops and some sustenance.



Woori Yallock bakery - superb steak and cracked pepper pies.



We arrived at Warburton early afternoon and checked in to the Alpine Retreat, an old hotel that hadn't changed in any way for about 50 years. Warburton was a sleepy little town with a main street containing trendy cafes and some craft shops and not much else. A nice setting though, next to a river between the hills.

Warburton main street.



We had some fish and chips for lunch, said hello to the local ass (below)and just wandered about.



After some deliberation (concentrating on whether the Ashes would be on downstairs) we ventured down to the bar for dinner and were treated to a great night - a tremendous feast, Australia smashing England in the cricket and some interesting conversation where we learnt the following points:

- there was no water in Ballarat Lake (repeated several times)
- if we'd driven up, we'd have time to walk up the mountain
- we should get a cat, or a dog - it would put some love into our hearts

We were up and away early on Sunday and powered back along the Trail to be home by lunch time, 100km of riding done over the last 2 days, a good start to hopefully plenty more trips in the summer.

Yarra Bend Park

Situated right near the CBD, Yarra Bend Park is a welcome retreat from the busy streets. It is very popular with walkers, runners and cyclists so we went to check it out. It was easy to fill in a few hours wandering up and down the river, we even stumbled on a flash farmer's market.

Kayakers on the Yarra





Dwight Falls, not exactly huge



Fruit bats, now these were huge, and there were hundreds of them.

Brent and Julia's wedding

Our first trip back was for Brent and Julia's wedding. It was a rather rushed trip but it was great to catch up with so many friends and family while we were back. Even though it seems that Melbourne isn't far away, it still took a full day (after an early start) to get all the way to Invercargill.

The wedding itself more than justified the trip back, it was very well done. The ceremony was in the Wyndham Presbyterian church and it was packed. The reception was at Ascot Park in Invercargill.



Unfortunately, my photos were terrible, the one above was about the best of them.

We also caught up with Barry and Liz briefly as they kindly provided accommodation for us on the night of the wedding, complete with complementary mints on our pillows and cheese rolls for morning tea.

I managed to get home for a day and a half and following snow on Saturday night, the road reopened on Sunday afternoon so Juliet and Kevin could take me back to town. We stayed with Shanon and Martin and had Monday morning updating ourselves with the happenings in Dunedin before busing to Christchurch for my 5th different accommodation in as many nights before catching the early flight back on Tuesday morning.

Brighton Beach

We had a great weekend with Josh and Jody at their new flat near the beach. The weather wasn't great for the weekend, and the pub wasn't even showing the Ashes but Sunday morning was nice and we walked along the beach to the famous Brighton beach huts.



We'll definitely be back when the weather is warmer.