Canberra

We moved out of Orange on Thursday - and it was still cold and wet - never mind a part from the weather the place was really good - a real out of the reach Aussie Town (City). We went through to Cowra and looked at the Japanese gardens which were lovely and ended up having a little extra excitement for our money when the Cafe there set their fat vats on fire and ended up with the fire brigade up there putting it out - needless to say we didn't bother having morning tea there. We went for a ride up the Road where the old P.O.W camp was and they have rebuilt a guards tower but there was nothing else to see - apparently they are looking at reconstructing it which would be interesting.

We then moved on to Goulburn where Mike use to do some work when he was at Macpro (at the freezing works there). It was another neat town with some amazing old buildings - they are so lucky to have retained so many interesting buildings in such good condition and they are still used today. We went and saw the big marrino sheep which has been moved since Mike last saw it. Once again the weather wasn't being kind to us and it was extremely cold, windy and wet. This has totally blown our impression of Australia being a hot and dry country as in NSW there weather patterns seems exactly the same as NZ. But hey once you have had some cold weather it sure does make you appreciate the nice hot days ah!

After staying Thursday night in Goulburn we moved on to Canberra - it was only an hour down the road so nice short day of travel. What a neat City - so much to see and do. We went up to the Telstra Tower on Friday and had a good look around in the blustering winds and a good hot drink. Also had a quick look around the shopping centre - will have to return to it!
Saturday - we walked to the Farmers Market which is in the same area as the camping ground as we are staying at the Canberra Events Centre (they hold the Summernats here) then we went to the newer of the two Parliment Houses and did the tour around the inside - went for a walk on the grassed roof and all that - very interesting. . During the week we also want to do the War Memorial Museum (which is suppose to be brilliant) they say to allow a whole day to go through it. Mike also wants to look at the huge Science and Technology thing here where they have a lot of interaction type things - sounds like another all day type place ah!. We are planning on heading off on Wednesday but will play it by ear as like I said there is just so much to see here - and hey! to top it off the weather is being real kind to us - sunny - still a bit chilly but we can live with that when there is sun ah!

From here we plan to head towards the South Coast and get back by the ocean. We will work our way up the coast to the out skirts of Sydney - then find a base and use the trains to go into the City - everyone we have spoken to - told us not to try driving in the City as it is pretty hectic - so hey we will take there advise - Mike is very keen to avoid driving in the big cities after his experience in Brisbane ha! ha!

Bathurst/Janolan Caves

Well we have had a fantastic weekend. Yesterday (Saturday) we went for a drive out to the Jonalan Caves which are absolutely stunning. There are all different caves that you can go into but we choose the imperial cave - beautiful. The Road down to the caves is a bit exciting being very steep and 15km bends and they aren't joking when they say 15km. It has the most amazing Hotel when you get to the bottom which wouldn't look out of place in the Swiz Alps or somewhere like that. The entrance to the different caves is cut out of a rock mountain and the road goes through it - really is worth seeing if you get the opportunity. It took us about an hour from Orange and the Road is good even the last bit as long as you take notice of the signage - like it says not suitable for caravans or buses and honestly we can see why.

Today we went to Bathurst!! Fantastic day even if the Holdens really socked it to the Fords! we figure after the hammering they took last year they needed to get some credit back somehow ah! and yep they sure did it at one stage the first 8 placings where all Holdens - and even if there was 2 Holdens to every 1 Ford - they deserved the win - thats about as gracious as I can be ok! We coped the usual Bathurst weather, the heat and sun, the freezing wind and then the rain - as expected but it was a great day! Took the bus up the hill and the atmosphere up there is incredible - some of the camp sites are a hoot on their own without the fact that the view of the racing is brilliant. Mike wants to go in this week and drive around the track as everyone tells you how steep it is - so we will check it out for ourselves. We found getting in and out of Bathurst easier than the speedway in Gisborne - really well worked out traffic flow and control. Mind you we got out pretty quick once it was so obvious the Holdens had it all.

We are in Orange until Thursday, we are then heading off to Cowra - this is where all the Japanese prisoners of war where held captive and there was a huge outbreak of the prisoners. Apparently you can see through the jail and there are some beautiful Japanese gardens etc to acknowledge this history. We will probably stay a night there. Mind you the weather is so cold.... here when you get inland - it matches anything NZ has in winter so we will be making our way back to the coast as soon as. We also want to go to Goulburn after Cowra as Mike did some work there when he was with Macpro and wants to show me the place - then it is on to Canberra (probably stay there a week) and have a good look around that area.

The Rasher of Bacon Janolan Caves

New Castle,Lithgow,Orange

Just an update of what we are up to and where we are at present. We made it as far as Newcastle and stayed in a motor camp called the Stockton Beach Camp which was situated right on the beach front. It was great lovely sandy beach with a couple of big break waters that you could walk out on. They had a rusty old ship that had sunk on the side of it and memorium plaque to all the ships that had been sunk in the harbour - amazing how many were lost. The city itself is set on a hill and really quiet cool - some neat architecture in the buildings. What really amazed me is that we complain how close the houses are built to each other today but it has nothing on the ones from the area when these Cities were born.

On Tuesday we headed towards Sydney then turned off just before entering the City and headed for the Blue Mountains. We had received conflicting thoughts on taking the car and caravan over this range of mountains but hey! it was no sweat to the Falcon (Go the Fords). Some very pretty scenery and lots of apples grown in the area which resulted in heaps of home industries selling home made apple pies etc. Very quaint and country-fied!

We got into Lithgow at about 2.30pm and decided to spend the night here - every one of you Aussie's that have told us the further inland you go the colder it gets - is dead right - man it is freezing here. We had to put a little bit of Kiwi ingenity into place as the pop-top part of the caravan has some permanent vents set into the top of the vinyl with only flyscreen over them. We went down down and bought some of that stiff plastic used to cover chairs then some self sticking valcro and made up something to stop the cold air coming in as it was like a doorway for ice-icles. Seems to have worked alright although I don't know how long the valcro will stick to the vinyl. Lithgow is a far dinkum! mining town - which is cool!

We are now in Orange today which is only about an hour and a half down the road - and set up camp there for a week. We are going to Bathurst on Sunday (here's hoping the Fords win or Mike will be in mourning for week after) and catching up with friends from Fielding on another day so that will be great. Hoping to take them to see the Janolan Caves - which are suppose to be brilliant.

It is great being back to doing whatever takes our fancy on the given day! I honestly don't know how we are ever going to click back into the 8.00 - 5.00 scene when the time comes - but will enjoy it for as long as we can.

Kempsey 2

After spending a fantastic month in New Zealand to catch up and have lots of fun with our family, and to welcome our 2nd precious grand-daughter we flew back to the Gold Coast on September 6th.
Spent a fantastic week catching up with the family and friends on the Gold Coast. It was a great week we went for a ride out to Ipswich which is a lot bigger town than we had expected. While there we visited the Railway Museum which was a great way to spend a morning and very well set out – with interesting interactive displays etc (I wouldn’t trust Mike or my Dad to drive a train after watching them trying to work out how the simulator worked! Scary stuff!!
On Sunday 13th September we headed South, back down to Kempsey, NSW, to manage the Motel for 3 ½ weeks while the owners go on holiday – they are completing a huge trip starting at the Gold Coast (450km), Roma (500km), Longreach (700 km), Mount Isa (649 km), Tennent Creek (661km), Alice Springs (505 km) Ayres Rock, Coober Peady, Port Augusta then decide how to commute back to Kempsey. Such huge distances to travel in a day. We lent them our Tom Tom and one day they said “they turned it on and the instructions were to drive 680km then turn left – that was the only turn they made that day – amazing ah!
About 3 days ago we were caught in the huge dust storm that hit Sydney and Broken Hill – which is crazy considering Kempsey is 4 ½ to 5 hours drive away from Sydney. So we have spent the last couple of days dusting and cleaning up outside – then the damn dust storm came back again today (Saturday 28th September) – so you can guess what we will be up to again tomorrow. The pool and driveway get into a real mess with the high winds blowing everything around.
Mike got a fright the other day when he went to step into the caravan and caught a glimpse of something behind him – it was a large looking lizard type thing as seen in the photo attached. I have been really lucky so far (touch wood) that I haven’t come across anything scary – long may it last! Mind you last night I flicked something off my elbow – not being sure what it was – then next minute Mike jumped up out of Bed and swotted something off his back – Yep! You guest it – A damn cockroach – gee I hate the damn things and we just can’t seem to get away from them ah! That made it jolly hard for us both to get back to sleep – so I can’t imagine what some of the scary critters around here would do to us should they decide to try and share our bed as well – probably be heart attack material!
We finish here at the motel on the 6th of September – so will be heading to Orange on the 7th where we have booked into a camping ground for a week. We will take in the Bathurst Race – which will be neat! Great! to actually be there, rather than just watching it on TV as usual. We will have a look around all the different sights then think about where we go next!

Kemsey Sunset

The main street of Kempsey during Dust storm

The MacLeay river

Mount Tamborine

If around Surfers Paradise it is worth while to visit the tourist shops at Mount Tamborine it is only about 16km,s inland from the Highway and has lots of interesting shops ,like the German Cukoo Clock Nest with hundreds of ornate clocks to veiw and or purchase.
It also has eateries ,and a Fairy shop and even a model car shop for the blokes.
I rcommend a visit but it is a very steep climb and would not recommend towing a caravan up there unless you have a nice grunty vehicle.
Here are the GPS cordinates
S 27.55.303
E153.12.033