Family and friends in Australia

We set off on Nov 2nd for 2 weeks in Australia. It was quite a social time as we waited at the airport as friends Bev and Graeme Miller were heading over to do a cruise from Sydney to the Melbourne Cup and Gavin (old vineyard employee) was heading up to Auckland for the V8s. After a good break in the Auckland Koru Club, we boarded the plane. My goodness what a difference from Singapore airlines! So comfortable. I watched Nothing like a Dame with Judi Dench and her acting buddies, while Duncan watched a few old episodes of Friends. 

It was very hot when we arrived, and there was a slight delay as Duncan picked up his golf clubs and then his carryon luggage. We had arranged a private transfer as the last train for Newcastle had already left. Owen was our driver, and we were now snarled up in Friday rush hour traffic. Owen was a great talker and shared his wisdom on a lot of topics from the Rabboitohs to the state of the nation. Eventually it took us 3 1/2 hours, although it was suppose to take us just less than 2 and we finally made it to Burke St about 7pm. Just time to get the kids fed and into bed.

Next morning I was up early to play with the kids and by 9am we were along to watch Theo play soccer. It is a fantastic set-up for the kids - Simon seemed to have to take charge by default. You can see Theo just about to receive the ball and score a goal. He scored two. They had two games, and  won one (even though his team is not all that talented) and lost one

 

 Back home for lunch and then we got ready to go to Bar Beach. The weather was ferociously hot, but the water was quite cold.

 Back home and sort out dinner for us and the kids while Jackie and Simon headed out to hit the town.

Sunday: Another early start and then we went for a walk along the waterfront of Newcastle. There was a constant stream of ships coming in to pick up coal, and although many houses have solar power in some areas there is not enough water to create hydro so coal is the back-up.

 They were setting up for V8 racing here in a few weeks - Simon was wondering about the merits of taking Theo.

Looking across the harbour

 Then we went to Foghorn brewery for lunch

 Once we were home again we had a game of backyard soccer - Theo's rules. And after dinner we had a game of 500 - Theo's rules (and Oh, that temptation to pick up kitty!!)

Monday morning and Theo was off to school at 9.20am while Duncan and Simon went out to play golf as Simon had taken a day off. Duncan came back exhausted as it was hot, the course was hilly and they carried their bags rather than get a cart.

Newlambton Primary

 The girls walked up to Newlambton for lunch and after kofta, wraps, dips and veges for tea we had another session of 500. Surprisingly for us - being November 5th, there were no fireworks. They have long been outlawed in Australia.

Tuesday: We packed up the Hyundai I30 rental car which is very good. We managed to get the directions working through google Maps on my phone, and it took us through Newcastle to the Pacific Highway. We stopped at Bulahdelah for morning tea - very small town, but Duncan recommends the coffee. The driving is very easy on the highway - almost too easy and we can see how easy it would be to lose focus. We had a late lunch in Port Macquarie and found a TAB to put our bets on.

View from the motel over the Harbour.

This guy - Mr Barton - drew up the founding documents for the Australian Commonwealth. Behind is the old pub where we watched the Melbourne Cup

To fill in time before the race we walked up the foreshore where all the huge boulders of the breakwater have been painted in hundreds of different ways.

Quite a big Lizard

Hi Mickey!

A kiwi entry

It stretches on for miles.

The units in the camping ground looked good

Duncan was the only one in the bar at Beach House to get up and rush to the bar after the race. Although we spent $35 on both our bets he made $176!

We had a simple Italian meal for dinner, and  breakfast next morning in the El Paso Motel restaurant - basic, but adequate and FREE! We loved Port Macquarie and went on a little tour around the very fragmented  coastline. It is on the Hastings River estuary and has posh marinas and quaint little baches.

Cofts Harbour for Lunch

Wednesday 7th November: Grafton. It is now 41 degrees so I have sent Duncan out to hunt for a restaurant - he likes the heat.
After touring around Port Macquarie we join up onto the Pacific Highway again. After a less than satisfactory coffee at Kelmsey we head into Coffs Harbour for lunch. We had thought we would  have lunch by the beach but the dune restoration program means that there are no beach views - but lunch was lovely fresh bruschetta and tomatoes. We walked through the wooded area to the beach - the sea was rough and a storm was forecast. We could see the plethora of masts in at Coffs "Harbour" - but no boats out sailing today.
It was a short push on to Grafton where we are staying in the Abbey Motel - rather pretentious as it is next to a church. Grafton has just finished it's Jacaranda festival, but the trees are still putting on a wonderful show against the leaden grey skies.

Drifts of Jacaranda trees.

Grafton Bridge - the old version

The railway track has two widths of rail as NSW and Queensland used to run their trains on different widths! You can just see the cranes starting to build the new bridge.

Duncan has returned from his excursion - with good wine, but not a restaurant for tea. We walk up to a local Indian through heavy hot raindrops.  It an old Queenslander with broad verandahs, Ionic Greek pillars, Victorian Dado a picture of the Taj Mahal and a Bollywood movie on screen. Excellent food.

Grafton is a charming town, with its curbing around the roundabouts painted lilac - or should that be Jacaranda Blue? In Queensland they are trying to ban jacarandas as they are not natives!
Thursday:
We had a little drive around Grafton and set off with our first stop being MacLean - a town with a Scottish heritage. By now we had found out that my google maps weren't working, and we had no Sat Nav. We attempted to get it fixed, but I believe the computer services were as old fashioned as the rest of the town

Gum-nut tea cosy! Little store flooded with a group of elderly yoga ladies, which had Duncan a bit on edge!

All lamp-posts dressed in kilts!

The instructions to April and Gregs seemed quite straightforward, so  we pushed on up the Gold Coast. The roads are undergoing major work here. We only get lost  on Tallai Rd which is in the block that their house is on. April is still away at the Community Law office where she volunteers, and Greg gives us a cuppa and the grand tour - they have done heaps of work in the gardens - the property is quite large but a few decades old.

April, Greg and Cooby - dog inherited when kids left home.

Quite a bit of wine later, we trundled off to bed and  awoke to a leisurely breakfast and after a quick trip to Robina town centre to look at (and buy) togs and Sketchers we he set off for Brisbane. We managed to have fixed maps, but no directions and were surprised how easy it was to get to Robin and Chris's.
We go and visit Monty - the new addition to the family, Hannah and Jim's baby at 3 weeks old.  He is a bit spotty, but very alert and well muscled. Robin has got me an appointment with her doctor to aspirate my seroma. She doesn't seem to have much experience at doing this, and although she draws off a massive 520mls, she manages to spray the serum all over the place as she is emptying the syringe.
Dawn and Jerry Brady (Nick's inlaws) join us for a beautiful slow roasted shoulder and some excellent wine.

Breakfast on Saturday morning

On Saturday we head up to Maleny where Nick and Michelle live - unfortunately they are not there as they had to go and see an elderly relative, but we see their block of land, Michelle's business - Sow n Sow which distributes seeds - often as part of a birthday card present. Robin and Chris have a caravan up there too. Still some thought to go into what they will do with the land. It is in the Sunshine Coast Hinterland near the Glasshouse Mountains.
Phoebe and her fiance Shannon join us for lunch at Maleny. They are living in Rob and Chris's next project at Yaroomba. At present they are putting in a swimming pool so it is a bit messy. We had discussed that we might travel down there, but I am still a bit tired after yesterday's doctors visit.
After a bit of a rest we are ready to go to Il Posto, and Italian restaurant for dinner. Very pleasant sitting outside - but it gets dark very early as they have no daylight saving in Queensland.
Sunday morning is quite cloudy but we head down to South bank for a leisurely stroll.

This is an very intriguing sculpture by Michael Parekowhai. It is called The World Turns. Just on the other side of the elephant's head is a local native rat sculpture (small), just going about its business, while all around the big stuff is trying to change - not always for the better!!

Great bouganvillea arches - with Duncan, Chris and Robin.

Morning tea was with half a dozen of these guys.

After a quick lunch Robin and Duncan head off for a bit of golf. Chris and I get left to do the chores. I am supervising of course!

Chris has decided to open up a very good Italian Brunello for dinner, and then matches the dinner to the wine

It all lives up to expectation!

Mediterraean vegetables and bacon wrapped steak.

How did Chris get his crumble so crisp????

A week away.

Off on Sunday to Bruce's Memorial service. His son Michael who now lives in Britain spoke. Due to  acrimonious divorce between his first wife Helen and Bruce, Michael revealed that it wasn't until Bruce spent 3 weeks in London for Michael's 40th birthday that he really got to know his father - and found him to be quite intelligent! He also recounted the story about when he went to highschool and the science teacher read the riot act about not fiddling with the gas taps. Michael was pretty rebellious at this time, and promptly blocked up one tap and turned on the other tap and lit it - which caused blow back and did serious damage to the gas system, and narrowly avoided a major disaster.  The principal said - Go and ring your mother. However she was not able to be contacted. Bruce was on duty as a guard at Waikeria Prison, so when the principal said - Go and ring your father. Michael replied - I dont know the number for Waikeria Prison, and I'm not sure I'm allowed to ring him. This sent the staff into clouds of consternation!!

They used video that Jill had taken at Hahei, but unfortunately Liz (I think) thought it would be a good idea to black out everyones faces except for Bruce, which really took the atmosphere away.

After the service we went and had a few drinks and then went on to a Thai place for a meal.

Wren had had a few - hence the look of  consternation on Margaret's face. Wren has turned 75 this year, so not looking to bad!

You will probably have seen the facebook post about Ohingaiti so onto the Wednesday when we pushed on to the Hutt Valley Wellington Camping ground. The other lady from Gisborne was with her husband in a campervan, so Duncan took the car to the Golf Rules course, while I awaited Heather who bussed out. We took for ever to get to the centre of Lower Hutt as the buses were not very reliable. We had lunch at the Dowse and then looked at the exhibitions. They were interesting - some a little bizarre also!

Heather outside the Dowse Art Gallery

On Friday I had a restful morning, but with  a long walk to get the paper. It's not often that a camping ground has no shop closeby. Then Duncan and I successfully negotiated the buses to get into town - mainly by ignoring the bus schedule. We met up with Heather to begin our degustation meal at Noble Rot to celebrate Heather's 70th birthday.

The Amuse Bouche was steak tartare in wilted cabbage leaf.

Picture a bit blurry. Roasted egg plant with a parmesan wafer

Picture a bit dark. Beetroot done several different ways with a  chevre cheese

The fish course which I only had a bit of. Octopus, kingfisher, and dried olive crumb

Main course. Steak with different varieties of mushroom.

All sorts of tastes for dessert.

My only regret was that I didn't photograph the bottles of wine to which they were matched. Each course had the food and the wine explained. Made it back to the camp - it is quite a walk from the bus stop, so we felt fine in the morning - no after effects of too much eating and drinking the night before.
It was very gusty overnight and so it was a little nerve wracking setting off over the Rimutakas but it was OK - a bit slow as we did pull over quite a bit. Duncan said "Lets go to Castlepoint and stay a night!" Somehow our spontaneous trips always seem a disappointment. It was when we started to see a trail of vintage cars that we began to think maybe Castlepoint wasn't the sleepy little seaside hollow that we had envisaged. Indeed, it was pretty crowded and very gusty. After lunch in the caravan we decided to turn back which made it a pretty long day until we got to Hastings golf course where we can stay as they have caravan sights there

At least it was an easy drive home the next day, and straight on to packing up for the next trip - heading to Oz.
Duncan was very pleased to get 85.5% in the golf exam.

Trees, trees, trees

We have had a busy week in the nutfarm, checking the health, retying, taking off stray shoots, making sure that only one trunk comes out of the graft.

Flowering in the A4. All plants flowering recorded so we can see what goes on to produce nuts.

A lovely straight trunk

Shoots coming off at the graft

Too many shoots coming off  the graft and all bunched in the tie - some serious work needed here.

This one has branched below knee level. Two of the shoots will need to be removed to create one strong trunk - I hate doing all this cutting off of pretty growth

So you can see the people doing the tying have quite a responsibility!

We get quite a lot of debris from our silver birch trees, and even though they remind me of 36 Wylie Street we decided that they were getting quite old and shedding branches in the windy storms. So we got the Tree Surgeons in, the planner, the chainsawyer and the chipping guy. Duncan went out and said "I can see why you don't need 4 guys" The chainsaw man looked perplexed. "Because you're T'ree Fellers"!!! I told Duncan they must hear that joke every day.

Ready to start

Down she goes

Chop her up

Chip it up.

Then the chip was taken to our composting plot.

Lots more light coming in now, and hopefully less mess in the drains.

Romans.

Going to three countries in such a short time frame certainly did help cement the common links between countries in Europe. First of all  the migratory tribes settled down there - The Iberians in Portugal, the Berbers in Morocco, and the Illyrians in Croatia. Then from 5BC to about 1BC the Roman Empire swept all around.

The all encompassing nature of the Roman Empire.

Then the Roman Empire waned, but plenty of evidence that they were there. The ruins at Volubilis, half way between Fes and Meknes in Morocco were some of the most well preserved that we have seen.

Duncan was very taken by the latrines

Lots of different types of columns still standing, showing that this Roman Temple was in Morocco for centuries

The Gate of Diana

A bathing area

The weather was very hot out on this excavation so I spent most of my time in the Museum.

Some of the mosaic work was very beautiful, and showed figures - not typical of Moroccan (or Portuguese) tiling

Plaques of Janus, Neptune and Silenus which surprised me as that is a Greek name. Sileni Wines who we used to grow for used this. A bit like Bacchus.

These amphora had been carefully pieced together. We saw amphora in use in a winery in Croatia below.

Stiles - probably depicting something related to the family and their occupation.

Parts of fallen columns

Rescued statues

After the Roman Empire started to crumble Christianity started to appear in some countries, the Arabs brought Islam to Morocco, and the Turkish Ottoman Empire brought Islam and some Orthodox Christianity to Croatia.

And now I lay me down to rest....

Auckland Airport - before we actually leave!!!

Our bedroom in Porto. Every room had a different theme. Diana had Andy Warhol's Marilyn Munroe.



This is in the Palace of the Duchess of Braganza

Can you see the flap at the head of the bed? First form of central heating.

The fire is on the other side.

Now to the first of our riads - in Meknes. We were greeted with Mint tea - of course!

The walls on the outside have no windows and the roof is generally open above the courtyard.

The ceiling here is material - probably to keep the birds out.

Our room in Palais Didi. The beds are extremely firm. They have a bottom sheet and a duvet - no top sheet. Large thick hard pillows. Unfortunately This room gave me the creeps for some reason. Of course they are centuries old - so who knows what happened here in the past?

This is the ceiling - it is brocade type material. Very beautiful.

Putting our feet up on our boat trip at Bine el Oidane

Up in the mountains where we had our tea ceremony. Duncan couldn't resist - not sure he should have taken the liberty.

Our last place in Morocco was Riad Challa. The ceiling here was open to the sky, but the roof was being transformed into a relaxation area and what possibly looked like a bar!!! (In Morocco!!)

This was on the roof. Getting in and out of this contraption took some doing.

WE were not all that happy with the premium economy on Singapore airlines. Although we had more legroom is was still very cramped and the only loos were right through economy at the back of the plane! It was a full flight over and the staff were rushed off their feet, and we got some grumpy responses from them. Lucky our last leg on the flight home we could upgrade to Business Class

Wine, snacks and a sudoku - what more could you want?