Cambridge

After a day catching up with Gus, Jamie and Zac in London, I took a train to Cambridge to meet Kelley after her few days in Warsaw.  I arrived Thursday night and only had a day there to look around while Kelley worked.  I hired a bike and had a great time looking around. It was a brilliant day but unfortunately it was study time for students with exams coming up so a number of the colleges were closed to visitors.  I managed to get in for a look around a few though and I was more interested in just riding around the town in the sunshine with the thousands of other cyclists.

Kings College and Chapel

River Cam

Punters on the Cam

Kelley's hotel was pretty cool, an old wine cellar with funny shaped rooms.  Kelley's opened up onto a lobby / bathroom with a big bath, then through to the bedroom with a little TV room behind it.  Very unusual.

Kelley's hotel, an old wine celler

Queens College (I think...)

Queens College cricket ground

Not the right city, but Coronation St all the same.

Jesus College

Jesus College Quad

Jesus College tennis courts

Jesus College

Struck it lucky in the afternoon as this sign caught my eye.  Fortunately they let me in for a look around.  I could see that Selwyn in Dunedin was modelled on the original.

And then I stumbled on this one

Looks quite familiar, only bigger and older.

Selwyn College

Mathematician's Bridge

Cambridge Streets

Trinity College

King's College Chapel

So I had a great day.  Handed the bike back in at half past 4, Kelley got back from work and we caught the train back to London for the night before flying to Istanbul the next morning.

Easter in NZ

With Easter and Anzac Day close together, we decided to head home for a catch up with everyone.  We managed to get ten days at home but with plenty of people to see, it was still a whirlwind trip.  It was great to catch up with everyone, see a lot of the bottom of the South and eat a lot of roasts.

We flew into Queenstown where Mum, Dad and Shanon met us.  Shanon drove us to Edendale.  The next day we caught up with Ross and Liz and family in Invercargill, then up to stay a night with Hamish and Chantel and go on farm tour number 1.

Kelley with Hamish and Chantel at their new hut.

Inside Hamish and Chantel's hut.

Looking back along the ridge, Hamish and Chantel's farm at The Key.

Towards Te Anau, I think, or maybe more toward Manapouri

Then it was back to Edendale, dinner with Julia and Brent and family, farm tour number 2, catch up with Jill and Jake and family before driving to Mosgiel to stay the night with Juliet and Kev, take Mikayla to the park and enjoy roast number 2 on the trot (beef on the kettle BBQ by Kev).

We were all in Middlemarch for the next night after some mustering for me, some magazines and a sleep for Kelley, some unsuccessful pig hunting and roast number 3.

Bevan holding Edward, Mikayla and Olivia

Kelley and Edward

Olivia watching Mikayla playing with her rocket

The next day we were back out on the hill to do a straggle muster of those we'd left behind the day before.  This time the pigs were back and we managed to four of them, including a 180 pound boar caught by the dogs who took a bit of a battering for their efforts.

Successful pig hunters

Kevin and Bevan

While Bevan mustered along the bottom of the gullies, I took a few photos around and about.  The place looking relatively green, particularly the sprayed and sown ground.

Looking back along the ridge towards the Sisters.

Mulched, sprayed, sown into rye corn and looking nice and green

Towards the Rock and Pillars on the other side of the valley

Towards the Smooth Cone

Bevan and dogs

We were all off to Alexandra the next day and were treated to roast number 4, although this was ham so a bit of variation.  We also got farm tour number 4 by Dad, of the orchard he is working at.  This was probably the best narrated of the farm tours but needed to be, it is quite different for us all.  Above all, it was good to see Dad clearly passionate and enjoying his work.

On to Arrowtown for the final weekend for Katie's birthday.  We had a perfect house right at the end of main street and Arrowtown was looking great at the start of Autumn.

Arrowtown main street

Aerobatics over Arrowtown

Shanon, Katie and Al.

Its no parade without a traction engine.

Again, sad to be leaving when we flew out of Queenstown.  We'll have to be back more often.

Barossa Valley and Adelaide

The Labour Day long weekend provided a great opportunity to get away so we took a couple of extra days off and packed up and took an early flight to Adelaide on Friday morning.  We arrived to a cool, clear morning.  I had taken my bike so after getting out of town I got set up next to a huge rocking horse for a nice ride through to the Barossa valley.

World's biggest rocking horse, Adelaide Hills

We had very nice weather for the whole weekend.  We stayed near Tanunda which was quite central.  We visited a few of the bigger wineries but didn't drink much of their wine, it was nice to just look around.

Turtle at Maggie Beers farm

Maggie Beers lake

Iconic Seppetsfield Road

Kookaburra at Seppeltsfield winery

I had a great ride on one of the days, up over Mengler's Hill (common in the Tour Down Under) and down the Eden Valley all the way to the very German town of Hahndorf.  Kelley followed in the car and it was nice not to have to ride all the way back!

Enjoying a German beer in Hahndorf

We stayed in a great B&B and utilised their BBQ every night and enjoyed the company of their friendly dog.

Dinner time with Lucy the lab.

Enjoying and apple juice.

Evening sky

Sunsets were amazing

More sunsets....

We went for a long walk in the Clare Valley which started off well near a nice winery but then took us away from the main drag and we weren't really sure why.  The flies were quite annoying and we were pleased to get back but disappointed that a boring walk had made us miss afternoon tea at the B&B.  Fortunately it was waiting in our fridge when we got back.

Church in the Clare valley

Underground cellar, Clare valley

Coming back from the Clare valley

We had a couple of days at the end of the trip in Adelaide so we ticked off a visit to the Haigh's chocolate factory, and a visit to the beach.  The city was quite busy as the Fringe festival was on.  We went to a couple of shows and they were a little different, especially the one where a lady laid an egg on stage.....

Fish and chips at the beach

Fringe festival

My birthday weekend

Kelley organised a weekend away for my birthday with Hamish, Gabs and Harvey.  We went to Harcourt, just south of Bendigo.  After a quick stop at a winery / cidery it was direct to where we were staying - it was a great spot but more importantly they had a pool just outside the door so we spent most of our time in it as it was roasting all weekend.  The house had no air conditioning but was very well designed to cope with the heat so it wasn't really an issue.

Hamish surveying the grounds

View from the pool

 

Enjoying the pool

Tennis Season, 2014

The season started for us at Kooyong, at the 'final' between Berdych and Nishakori.  I say 'final' because Nishakori had already been knocked out, by Berdych, then someone else pulled out so it was all a bit of a shambles.  Nonetheless, it was a nice day and we had good seats, closer than you'd get at the Australian Open.  Nishakori won the match which just added to the general casualness of the tournament.

Kooyong final

Berdych serving

 Mum and her friend Elva were here to stay for the middle week of the Australian Open, arriving in 40 degrees and braving their first day in those temperatures.  They handled it extremely well.  After another couple of days and a night session with us, Elva went home and Mum stayed on for another week for a holiday of watching tennis.

Stan serving against Robredo in the 4th round.  He went on to win.

Warwinka v Robredo, night session

Mum and Kelley on Mum's last night in town