friday 16 October

refreshed and recharged after a swim in the welly pool, Hayden and Hawk are like a couple of dolphins, wonderful to watch.
But back to Victoria...
noticed error in last post...the pianist referred to is David Helfgott..oops.
-had quick looks at Wilson's Promontory, Wonthaggi, discovered old port at Port Albert and took time to walk and explore. At this point we have regularly covered between 200 and 300 kms a day, so sometimes it is actually hard to find time for a decent walk. To this end, we even take opportunities to walk by collecting water from taps, taking rubbish to campsite bins, plus a nice stroll to the ablution block; its all exercise!
We reached Phillip Island and found a really beautiful camp site, owned and run by seasoned campers, so it had some really useful features, such as sensor lights around the grounds, which come on when they are needed and go off so you are not kept awake by bright lights, lots of hooks in the shower cubicles and beside the wash basins, (everyone has hangup washbags these days) a large enclosed campers kitchen with everything including washing up liquid, huge lounge area with sofas and a gigantic LCD tv, where, being on our own, we were able to watch ABC instead of commercial rubbish.
we had a drive around Ph.Island and due to inclement weather we decided to do an indoor thing so went to the chocolate factory.
i have never been to one before, and I have to say, it was a WHIZZ! Make your own choc bar in a fantastical machine, see the miniature village made of choc, the liquid choc fall, the 1 ton block of choc, besides being very informative about the production of same. And with lots of school kids, it was extra entertaining, as you can imagine.
Since being in NSW and Victoria we have really enjoyed the towns and villages being so comparatively close to each other, mostly 10 to 15 kms. Its true what they say about WA, its a long way between beers!
Also we have noticed the high density of cows and sheep per paddock, whereas in WA its a case of paddocks per animal! Here, the fences are serious, while in WA after a few kms out of Perth metro area, they hardly bother with them.
-The road trains in Queensland are maximum 75mtrs in length, whereas here they are just trucks.

John and I have been having a lot of fun scoring points off each other for doing silly age-related things, such as leaving the keys in the van door and going off walking, putting things away and then blaming each other for not putting them away properly, then finding them in a completely different place, leaving an empty kettle on the hob; not reading the map properly and taking wrong turns; too many to mention but John is way ahead at the moment because of a silly thing I did, but later...

Did I mention I hired a flute for the trip? I can play quite a few tunes now, Happy Birthday, Calon Lan, Gwyneth Gwyn, Rhagfyr, Mozart's clarinet concerto K622 3rd movement, opening 6 bars! But only in C major, i am struggling to apply fingers to keys for notes outside said scale. As usual, "could do better, needs more practice". Ah well..

We finally got to Melbourne and found Maureen's place quite easily, had a lovely reunion with her, talked until wee hours, caught up on gossip and families, it was terrific, haven't seen her since 1995. We had such fun (and a few traumas!)together in Manhattan all those years ago, and our lives are now completely different, but the bond is still strong. We even phoned a mutual friend in NY and had a good chat. M is a mental health social worker and loves her work, and makes time to pursue her love of art, photography and her growing family of nieces, nephews, and their kids, all the issue of her 4 brothers, who all live in the melbourne area.
M had to work so we had brunch in her local cafe where they all wanted to know about Rita and our trip, then caught train into city and explored Melb. on foot, had a tram ride, went to imax 3D cinema, museum, art gallery and Federation square, then met M for dinner in Carlton, the old Italian area, quite an experience and great food.
Melbourne is an old grey city and has a grey/brown river and a lot of grey sky...not for us.
When it came time to leave, with M promising to see us in WA in Feb, we set off a nearby suburb to visit Kathy's old flat mate Sarah and her husband Rob and their daughter Niamh. Niamh is 1/4 malaysian thru Sarah and is a pretty child, and it was her 2nd birthday, with family party, so we scored a hit there. We were made very welcome and given 3 offers to leave Rita in their drives while we went to NZ, but we had already made a motel booking, so had to decline. But we will stay with Sarah and Rob on our return.

Nice motel, lift to airport in morning, left Rita in respite, good flight, then sunny Christchurch, which I later learned is the Swing Capital of NZ, so there you go! Collected our van next morning and found we had been given an upgrade (frequent flyers with Pacific Horizon). Typical me, I almost declined it because in the van we booked I knew exactly where everything was and where to stow things, plus easy pull-out bed, plus a waist height fridge, which the upgrade didn't have. In the event, it was a nice van, but the fridge and bed were a pain and not enough storage, too many fancy bits of kitchen equipment. It was very easy to drive, which is so important on NZ roads, with all their bends, mountain slopes, steep drop-offs and so on. Somewhere in the past I have seen a speed limit sign which says 25kph on a tight bend. Underneath it said "you have been warned" and I now apply this principal to Tasmanian and NZ roads. NZ has so many 100kph speed limit signs which are a complete waste of taxpayers money, because they are immediately followed by 65, 55, 45, 35, etc.

In Christchurch we made time to do a tourist tram ride and walk in the lovely botanical Gardens, then hit the road for Akaroa, which is a tiny French town on the flooded crater of an ancient extinct volcan which forms the Banks Peninsular off Christchurch.
We had been there 5 years ago and were glad to see it again. Had a sail on the crater lake, out to the Heads, took photos of French influence, they still have French street names, speak French and have an annual French festival, which we had just missed! Beautiful sunny weather, so we spent 2 days there, especially as we found the Little River Hotel with its huge sign saying "motorhomes welcome' and discovered that we could camp free in their back garden, which was up a steep bank and commanding views over a lovely green river valley. They just hoped we would refresh ourselves within, which of course we did. Considering it costs between $25 and $35 per night in a CVPark, this is a great idea. they seemed to take a liking to us because the meals we were served were enormous; Johns steak egg and chips came with 3 eggs. We met lovely local people and had great chats about local issues, which is always interesting.

We managed to make contact with Wayne near Timaru, south pf Chch, a pal we had met 5 years ago while camping by a lake. He loves fishing and presented us with 2 trout for breakfast that time. Since then we have been email pals. We spent the night at their place; they have been converting a bach (a basic NZ fishing shack) into their permanent home and were apologetic about the ongoing work, but it was so interesting for us to see. They have children and grandies nearby, and Wayne also has a magnificent motorbike and does huge challenging things like, the Southern Cross race, in which you have to ride your bike to the N,S,E and W- ernmost points of NZ, and all within 3 days. Judith said he spent 11 hrs a day in the saddle and was still driving it after he got home and collapsed into bed. He also wore a set of $600 tyres out in that week! Some guy. We did enjoy their hospitality plus we had never actually met Judith. They are so generous , saying any family and friend of ours was welcome there.

We took there advice and did a diversion to Lake Tekapo where they have hot outdoor springs, partly natural so they say. i was determined that at max 2.5degC I wasn't taking my clothes of for anyone, but when we got there, well, it just had to be done, so in we went! 3 pool, 41, 39 and 36degC, all of them gorgeous with lakeside views and snow all around. Wot a larf. Spent several hours there.

From there it was a pleasant but rainy ride north and west. I was concerned about Arthurs Pass through the mountains, snow was forecast and sure enough it arrived. On the day we were due to go thru the Pass it had been closed during the night but was now open, and i can tell you, it was a really rare treat to go thru that magnificent Pass in fresh Spring snow, still snowing at times. I made a snowball and a snowman, we saw kids(still on hols from school) sliding down banks on anything they could find, bits of wood, plastic bags and so on. Wow, great fun. We stopped at a lookout and were amazed to have our first and completely unexpected sighting of the kea parrot, the only alpine parrot in the world, right at our feet. We swept on our way, amid snowy scenes, heater full blast and Johnny Coppin singing Winding Stair on the CD.

By this time we were needing to keep an eye on the kms and the date because I had booked us on the Tuesday 2.15 ferry from Picton.
We found a beaut lakeside campsite, Lake Brunner, near Inchbonnie, revisited the longest swingbridge in NZ/?the world, checked an historic coal mine site, pressed on and took 3 tries to find our next free camp; after 2 dead ends in private farm yards we took a lookout road and swept up to the top of Hope Saddle with 360deg views of snowy peaks, and just the one grassy site just big enough for us, plus no "no camping" signs. Sometimes we just laugh, it is so extraordinary the places you can find and spend the night for no cost. There was even a spotless public toilet. No CVPark can compare.
-Lots of quirky NZ arty things along the way; letterboxes, garden figures, a doll festivall, home made campervans, no end of it. Even a school bus stop is individualised. They are very good at it and must put real time and effort into it.

Our last night was again near a pub and in a streamside layby, very welcome after a day of steep u bends, drop offs, no barriers, melting snows. A local in the pub implored us to stay on his property with full use of shower, toilet, kitchen, etc, but we declined. John warned him that we were strangers and might just be serial axe murderers!

Hawk has woken up so I'll take a break!