Term 2

 Letter No. 235

Dear all,

Katie worked at Brisbane Boys’ College for three weeks in April, organising the annual Careers Conference. This is the third year she has worked on this project. She had not fully recovered from her hernia surgery and couldn’t actually drive during her first week at work, so had to get lifts or taxis. The conference went well however and afterwards there were a lot of hints about a more permanent position at BBC. We will see what happens.

We had a great dinner at Three Girls Skipping in Graceville on 21 April to say goodbye to our friend Alf who was finally going back to work in Hong Kong after an extended period back in Australia. He had been recuperating after a knee operation following a skiing accident. Actually it was more of a walking accident as he had slipped in the snow at Whistler and tore all the muscles off his knee cap!

Matt and Jessie were both busy on Anzac Day as usual. Matthew had been asked back to play in the BBC band as they are a little short of French horns now he has left. He marched with them in the ceremony at Jindalee then marched in the main Brisbane parade in the city again with the Pipe Band. At the same time Jessica was at the Graceville memorial service representing her school.

Term two is the STAGE Dance competition season and the first Eisteddfod was at Ipswich on 28 April. Katie went on the bus with the girls and I left work slightly early and went to watch. They got a Highly Commended award for one of the dances which was pleasing.

At the weekend Jessie had a stall selling candles at a Twilight Market at Moggill State School. It was a nice market with lovely people running it but there were not very many people there to buy things so sales were a little disappointing. However, they have invited Jessie back to their next market in August and offered her a free stall, so that is some compensation. Jessie is still raising money for her Antipodeans trip and is only half way to her target, so she has to keep at it.

On 2 May we had a fabulous seafood lunch with our friends the Malins at their house on the river. There were six couples there, and they had set up gazebos right on the riverbank. We all chipped in for a huge seafood lunch with heaps of oysters, prawns, calamari, salmon etc. Lunch finished about 7:30pm when the kids all started ringing their parents asking what was for dinner. As we had been drinking wine since midday the answer was sadly (for the kids), not much!

The next weekend was Mother’s Day. Katie announced that she wanted to see the movie Eddie the Eagle in the afternoon and then have dinner out in Graceville. The movie was really great and very uplifting and featured Hugh Jackman (who Jessie has met and sang on stage with). We had a great dinner afterwards at the Italian restaurant just down the road.

For the following weekend we had been invited to a Day at the Doomben Races for Ian Busch’s 50^th birthday party. We caught the train to the city and then a taxi out to the racetrack. Ian had invited everyone to join him for the day in a fully catered trackside marquee and he picked up the bar tab. It was a really great day and a very nice idea for a party. We caught up with lots of Uni friends I hadn’t seen for a few years, had a lovely lunch, Katie had lots of champagne and we didn’t lose much money on the races. Actually I had made a $6 profit by the end of the afternoon. I was not betting big!

That Sunday Jessie and her friend Elise did another market together. This time it was the Milton Market and they shared a stall, with Elise selling cupcakes and Jessica candles. I went and set them up at 6am and picked them up again at midday. I think Jessie had more fun doing it with her friend than by herself, but sadly she didn’t sell too many candles this time either.

That afternoon two backpackers arrived from the UK to stay with us. It was Tori Rose (the daughter of our UK friends Sarah & Jonathan Rose) and her friend India. Katie and Matt took them up to Mt Coot-tha for views of the city and drinks before coming home for a home-cooked lasagne. After dinner we all ended up watching the Eurovision Song contest Finals (Matt is a Eurovision tragic)! The girls were on a three-month backpacking trip, working their way from New Zealand, up the west coast of Australia and then Indonesia, Bali, Singapore and Malaysia. We had thought up an itinerary for them for the five days they were with us, to show them the best sights of Brisbane and introduce them to our favourite haunts. The girls were very sweet and stuck to the itinerary religiously. They seemed to enjoy staying in our Studio and having some home comforts. It was so nice having them with us; it brought back a lot of Hale memories and we caught up on the latest news.

While the girls were staying Matthew had his driving test. Luckily he passed on his first attempt! We went out to Miku to celebrate with Tori and India. We met them at the Regatta Hotel for a drink and then drove back to Graceville. Afterwards Matt drove the girls home while Katie and I walked. We were a little concerned when we made it home before them. He had taken them for a little drive down to the river to look at the view. His first drive as a P-plater!

The next night was the UQ Law Society presentation where Matthew was being officially presented with his Merit Scholarship. There was a cocktail reception beforehand and canapes and drinks afterwards. The ceremony was only about an hour or so, a nice length. Afterwards I had a good chat with the Vice-Chancellor of the University about a project I had bid on a few weeks ago. It was good to get the low-down on when it would be proceeding. Meanwhile Katie took Tori & India to the Hundred Acre Bar for a few drinks to celebrate their last night with us.

Matt and a couple of friends entered the University of Queensland Mooting Competition and were pleased to make it through the preliminary rounds and into the semi-finals on 20 May! Mooting is like legal debating in a courtroom setting in teams of three. They have been competing for a number of weeks on weekends and evenings and spent lots of time researching legal issues on their nights off. The finals were going to be in the Brisbane Law Courts but sadly they did not get through. They were beaten by some of their friends so it wasn’t too bad. There are over 200 law students in Matt’s year so it was not bad getting into the final twelve.

We went to a party in Mortlake Road on 21 May for our friend Nat Dawes’s birthday. Her husband Tom used to work at AECOM with me but left late last year to work elsewhere. It was a nice party and it was good to catch up with them as we hadn’t seen them for six months or so. Always handy to go to a party in our street so it is only a short stagger home.

The next day Katie and I went to the Greek Paniyiri Festival in Musgrave Park. We had been talking about going for years but it had always clashed with something. Unfortunately the kids both decided they were far too busy studying to come so it was just the two of us. We had a nice time watching the Greek dancing and eating far too much Greek food.

The time had finally come to order a new car. The new car will be Katie’s and Matt will be driving her old one for a while, until it is time for Jessie to get her L-plates. Katie spent a lot of time looking at SUVs but eventually ordered a new Toyota RAV4 on 2 June. She really wanted a manual and we were astounded to learn that more than 90% of new cars in Australia are automatic. New manual cars are actually quite hard to find and usually only come in the most basic models here because everyone wants automatics. Apparently lots of new learners now only get an automatic license (Matt got a manual one), which we also found surprising, as so many cars in Europe and the UK are manuals.  Katie was in a real dilemma as she wanted a manual but not a basic model. Toyota was the only one that made manuals in more than the base model so it was a no-brainer. The car is on order and will arrive in the middle of July.

We went to a St Aidan’s Rowing Cocktail Party on Sat 4 June, which was being hosted at the house of our friends Kylie and Alf Graham. It was a fundraiser for St Aidan’s rowing support group. Unfortunately the weather prediction was dire all week before. They were predicting huge rains with 100mm of rain the day before the party. The party was intended to be under the stars but Kylie had to hire a marquee and it was lucky they did because the weather bureau got it exactly right. There was torrential rain all Friday and Saturday morning. The rain eased in the afternoon and evening but fortunately the marquee was amazingly waterproof and it was beautifully decorated with flower garlands and countless strings of fairy lights. The party raised nearly $30,000 towards a new boat for the rowing crews, both through the ticket price and an impressive live auction towards the end of the evening. Alf had perhaps had a little too much to drink by then and bought an oar. We had a really great night. I lost Katie at one point during the evening but I decided that she would most likely be chatting to the local celebrity and trying to get him to come to one of her events or donate something. Of course I was right! I found her introducing herself to celebrity chef (Ben O’Donoghue) and suggesting that he did a themed British food night at one of his restaurants! Wait to my next letter to see the outcome of that discussion.J

The next weekend was very busy for Jessica. She had a STAGE Dance Eisteddfod on the Friday night (one of their dances came third). I drove out after work and Katie took the car home and straight off to her friend Tee Tait’s 50^th birthday drinks. I stayed to the end of the competition and came home with Jessie with our friend Helen Brodie and a few other girls. The next morning I dropped Jessie at Australian Girls’ Choir at 7:45am for all day rehearsals and then two Winter Showcase concerts later that day. They had a matinee in the afternoon and an evening performance at 7pm which we went to.

On the Sunday morning Jessie headed off to a Travel Simulation Day for her Antipodeans Abroad trip. She was out all day with her group of girls racing around the city completing various challenges. Sadly her group only managed to properly finish one of the four tasks, which doesn’t bode well for their organisation during their trip to Vietnam in December! That evening we had Gary and Helen and another couple Gary and Shelly over for dinner with kids. Katie did a delicious pulled pork early doors dinner and a cheesecake, which all went down well.

Gary and Helen have a Chinese exchange student living with them and they are going to Europe for three weeks over the school holidays. Candice is staying with us for ten of those days. She is not allowed to stay longer than ten days as only Katie has a Blue card approving her to work with children. I do not have one, although I do have elevated Defence Security Clearance which includes far far more checks than the Blue card does! Term two was over on Friday 17 June and Candice came to stay. We had a nice weekend with a spot of shopping, out to dinner on Saturday night and went ice skating on Sunday. Matt couldn’t join us as he had Uni exams all week and was studying. We had another weekend of torrential rain. On Sunday afternoon our rain gauge said 115mm (just that day). I suspect we had more, as when it rains really hard the rain gauge can’t keep up. The pool overflowed again and the whole backyard was underwater as the drains kept clogging up with leaves. There was over a foot of water in the gully at the end of the road.

On 22^nd June Katie went for a job interview as Events Coordinator at Brisbane Boys’ College. Katie knew the two people who interviewed her very well as she has spent the last four years organising events at BBC either as a volunteer or as a contract staff member! Apparently they had over sixty applicants and they were planning a second round of interviews after which Katie would have to meet the Headmaster (who she already knows well)! The following week Katie was called back for second interview but was told that she was the preferred candidate and offered the job right away. She starts on 19 July.

That Saturday night my sister Lisa and her girls came for dinner for Andrew’s birthday. Andrew got caught up at work in Northern NSW and didn’t actually make it, but we had a nice dinner in his honour and gave Lisa his present to take home. The next day we went to Manly Markets to sell candles again. Jessie had a great day and made over $200 to add to her fundraising total.

During the school holidays we went for a long weekend in Byron Bay with a group of past BBC parents and kids. We had a great house with three separate self-contained apartments which slept 16 people. The kids had one apartment and the adults had two. We had a lovely attic bedroom on the second floor. We did lots of long walks along the beach. Jessica was a little confronted though when we walked through an unofficial nudist beach one day! Over the next two days we walked up to the lighthouse (the most easterly point of the Australian mainland), spent a morning at the Byron craft markets (a huge hippie enclave), hit the Byron Bay shops and had evening barbeques at the apartments and watched DVDs. On the last night we went for dinner in town – the kids went to one restaurant and the adults went to another. Matt and I even had a swim at Wategos beach. It was a little brisk but not too bad for the middle of winter! We drove back stopping for lunch at Cabarita Beach on the way.

Cheers

Derek, Katie, Matthew, Jessica and Molly.      

Outback Camping and Fishing

 Letter No. 234

Dear all,

The weekend after we got back from Straddie we went to our friends the Tods for drinks and dinner. They had been at Straddie with us but somehow missed out on hosting a Sundowners drinks party so they felt they needed to when we all got back! We also had the family over for an Easter lunch on 2^nd April, also to celebrate Mum and Dad’s birthdays. We had a fab family seafood lunch by the pool.

Jessica went off to Melbourne on 4^th April with the Australian Girls’ Choir. It was a week-long music camp with girls from around Australia. I dropped her off at the airport before work on the Monday and then picked her up again on the Friday evening. She had a great week but said it was fairly intense with exercises every morning at 6.30am followed by singing rehearsal sessions until the minute they went to bed!

Katie was still in a bit of pain after the emergency appendix removal and ended up going back to the doctor. She had another ultrasound, which revealed an Inguinal Hernia. It transpired that she had probably not actually needed her appendix out, but there was a bit of a grey area drawn over that issue (by the surgeon). Katie felt that if you have to have an organ removed by mistake, the appendix is probably the best one… and at least she will never have problems with her appendix now. J

So on Monday 11^th April, Katie went to the Wesley Hospital for a second round of surgery to repair the hernia with a tiny plastic implant. It was day surgery this time, so I dropped her at the hospital at 6am and was told to collect her at noon. However, this didn’t go according to plan as Katie had a bad reaction to the drugs they had given her this time round and couldn’t wake up. After six hours in the recovery room, the hospital decided they would have to admit her for the night. I arrived at 4pm just after she had been moved to a ward, but she was barely awake. Her respiration went down to four breaths per minute, which is very shallow. It was quite alarming actually, watching her very slow breathing and waiting for each breath, praying she would! The nurses kept trying to wake her up and were a bit alarmed so they called an EMT (emergency medical team) who fussed over her for about half an hour doing tests and hooked her up to various machines. Eventually they decided not to give her any more drugs as her blood oxygen levels were ok and anything they gave her would just counteract the pain medication.

After a couple of hours Katie sparked up a bit, so I went home and got her things for another stay in hospital. We expected that she would be released the next day but the next morning the anaesthetist gave her more pain medication and knocked her out for the whole day again, with the same respiratory problems. The nurses thought that it was the combined impact of having a second round of anaesthetic drugs only two weeks after the first one and she had to stay another night in hospital. She was finally discharged on Wednesday afternoon with a massive bag of drugs, which she mostly refused to take. 

It was all a bit of a worry as I was going on a week-long camping and fishing trip departing the next day. Katie insisted that I go anyway and assured me she would be OK even though she couldn’t drive or do much. She spent several days on the sofa and managed quite well with the help of all of our lovely friends. My sister Lisa was a fantastic help and brought a cooked dinner every night for a week, while Katie’s friends Helen, Carolyn, Wings, Kylie and Leona drove the kids around and called in with groceries.

Derek’s Outback Camping and Fishing Trip

Day 1 On Thursday 14 April I set off an Outback Camping and Fishing trip with my mate Tony Malins and two of his friends Pete and Steve. We met at Tony's house about 1pm and drove to Redcliffe where he keeps his light plane. I was a little surprised to find he has two planes - a four-seater Cessna and a two-seater ultralight. The ultralight looked very unsafe so I was glad we were not flying in that. A bit of stuffing around ensued because the mechanic who had serviced the plane at the weekend had left something switched on and the battery was dead. An hour and $1000 later and we had a new battery, filled up the tank with $466 worth of aviation fuel and were on our way just before 4pm. We were flying to Cracow that evening. It was 368km flying and took a little over an hour.

When we got to Cracow we had to ring the farmer whose landing strip we were using and he came out and chased his cows off the runway ten minutes before we landed, then set up an electric fence around the plane and gave us a lift into town. We were staying the night at the Cracow Hotel. It was a very interesting pub with all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff written on and hanging off every conceivable surface, including the ceilings. It was fascinating just wandering around looking at it all. The pub is owned by Fred Brophy who runs the last touring boxing troupe in Australia. They are banned from most states except Queensland and the Northern Territory. They basically tour around outback rodeos and beat up drunks who think they can fight and charge people to watch. There was lots of boxing memorabilia on the walls. We had a few beers and a steak dinner and watched the rugby. Pete had just flown in from Hong Kong and Steve from Honolulu so they were both jet-lagged. We had a reasonably early night and were in bed by 10pm.

Day 2 The next morning I went for a run at 5:30am. Cracow was a boom goldmining town in the 1910s. It used to be much larger but there were many vacant lots and most of the houses that remained had For Sale signs on them. It appeared that the For Sale signs stayed up until the house fell down and the house was demolished. The row of about six shops next to the pub were all abandoned and falling down. Cracow was the type of place where you would wonder why anyone would want to live there but it was quite sad that no one did! There is still a bit of mining there and exploration for gold, with a large mining camp just outside of town, but apparently the miners do not integrate with the locals at all. We had breakfast in the pub and I ate more bacon than I had ever eaten in my life. The plate of food was so big I initially thought it was for all four of us! By 8:30am we were in the plane again.

It was a 658km flight to Longreach and took less than three hours. We landed and bought another $379 aviation fuel, as we wouldn’t be able to get any for a few stops. There was a bit of concern for a while as Tony could not find the fuel card to pay for about ten minutes, but eventually we found it on the floor of the plane where it had fallen out of his pocket. We looked at the Qantas museum which was right next to the airport and gave an interesting history of the start of the airline and the early days of flying from the 1920s. We had a nice lunch before it was time to set off for our next destination – the annual Julia Creek Dirt ‘n’ Dust Festival.

It was 415km and we arrived at Julia Creek just after 4pm. It is an unmanned airport and there were a few other planes parked there but no sign of life. We grabbed our bag and tents and walked down the road hoping to hitch a lift into town. It was about 1km before we got down the driveway to the airport and we ended up walking another 2km to town, heading for the Festival site. Not one car passed us going in the right direction. The first building we came to was a motel with a vacancy sign. We couldn't believe our luck as we had previously heard that all accommodation was sold out and camping was the only option. Sadly it was just that the "NO" lights were broken; there were definitely NO vacancies. The owner took pity on us and said it was still a long walk but if we left our stuff with him, and went to the nearby pub for a few beers he would drive us over later. An offer that we couldn’t refuse.

Two beers later he picked us up and dropped us and all our gear at the Julia Creek campsite. There was plenty of Dirt and Dust and also flies which were driving us all mad in no time. We had my pop-up tents so we were set up and ready to go back to town in ten minutes. Luckily there was a shuttle bus every few minutes to the festival site. There was a good Country & Western singer on but not many people there so we went to the pub for dinner. I had a piece of barramundi which was clearly cut from the side of a whale. It defeated me! The service was very slow as the place was heaving and we got through two bottles of wine while we were waiting!

A short walk back to the festival for another singer - Western & Country this time – then we had a few Bundies, a little jig in the Dust in front of the stage and it was time for the headline event for the evening: "Australia's Best Butt Competition". Sadly you had to be wearing jeans to enter so I couldn't compete. I was really devastated. It was great fun actually. There were lots of girls there in denim shorts and cowboy boots who would have beaten all of the actual competitors, but they mustn't have got the memo about the jeans rule either. A heavy rock band came on after that which I quite liked but was not to the general crowd’s taste and it started to thin out, so we called it a night. While we were waiting for a bus, two girls wrestled on the bushes of the central median strip for about ten minutes. It was friendlyish and quite amusing. We all sang songs on the bus back to the campground which was fun.

Day 3 We didn't get much sleep as the campground was huge and there were lots of good ole boys and girls drinking and yahooing all night. It started to rain about 3am. It hasn't rained in Julia Creek since 2008, so it was a bit of a surprise to everyone. It was also surprising how many leaks our tent had - one right over my face wherever I put my head! I had intended to go for a run in the morning but the Dirt and Dust had turned into Mud and More Mud so I just went for a shower instead. Poor Tony had left his shoes outside overnight and they were soaked, along with most of our clothes from the drips inside the tent! The darn flies got up with the sun and were driving us mad again.

As we had no camping equipment apart from tents and sleeping stuff we walked into town to look for coffee. There were a group of ladies doing bacon and egg muffins in the Main Street on a BBQ. They promised us they would be better than McDonald’s and it was no contest. They were fantastic. We wandered up and down the six shops in the Main Street and I invested in an attractive fly net to go over your hat down to your neck to keep the flies off your face. We sat outside the coffee shop for about two hours wearing our fly nets. There was a brilliant singer entertaining the huge crowd of spectators for the Dirt and Dust triathlon that was taking place that morning. There must have been 50 people in the street watching. Shortly after we finished our first coffee, the first triathletes came past. Eventually we went into the public library and chatted to the librarians for a little relief from the flies and the heat.

About 11:30am when it was only the tail end of the "athletes" coming in we decided to go to the pub for lunch. We had meat pies and salad and a few beers before heading over to the Julia Creek horse races for the afternoon. We timed it perfectly, arriving just in time to grab another beer and settle down to watch the judging of the ladies Fashions on the Field. There were five races in all and I donated a little money to the bookies but not too much. Somehow we switched to red wine in the course of the afternoon and we were a little tired and emotional by the time the races finished, but had to push on as there was nothing to do back at the campsite in the hot tents. We forced ourselves back to the pub for a nicer bottle of red before walking back to the main festival arena. There were lots of very messy people in town by now, mainly young girls, which added to the entertainment!

In the arena we watched the PBR - Professional Bull Riding. It was great but they were on for a long time without a break. We had moved on to rum and coke by this time and also had dinner of steak sandwiches in the stands. There was a bog snorkelling competition at the interval of the bull riding which was quite funny. The competitors had to snorkel the muddy bog and then run down to the arena and roll in the sand all the way to the finish line. We watched the band for a short while before being one of the first to leave after our long hard day. We were in bed by midnight. About 2am all the yahoos came back but they must have been tired as well as the camp was totally quiet by 3am.

Days 4 & 5 We were up and packed pretty early and wondering how to manage the 3km back to the airport. Just as we walked out of the campground and started to hitchhike, the first car that drove past was a lovely girl who had been working at the event all weekend taking surveys from all the visitors to Julia Creek. We were one of the first groups to do the survey on Friday and our group had the first ever international visitor to Julia Creek for the festival (Tony's mate Pete from Hong Kong). We had bumped into her all weekend and said hi, so we knew each other well and she kindly drove us and all the gear to the airport. After thirty minutes of packing and checking the plane we were off again for the 453km to Sweers Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

We landed at Sweers Island about 11:30am and the owners came out to pick us up from the airstrip and took us to the resort. Tony and I shared a functional little cabin with air conditioning and close to the shower blocks. It felt very luxurious after our camping experience. The restaurant was nearby as well. We had morning tea in lieu of breakfast and our first coffee of the day which we badly needed. This rolled into lunch. The resort was fully catered and the cook Jane pulled together a fantastic lunch. We went for a quick refreshing swim as it was too early to fish. We were a little surprised when a dugong popped up less than 10m away after we had been in the water for a few minutes. It seemed interested in us and kept swimming closer and closer. There were also at least two huge turtles bobbing around. The owner said he had only seen one croc in 29 years, but it was a big one. He did joke that he had only seen it last week, which made us nervous for a while, but fortunately that turned out to have been five years ago. There were LOTS of big fish jumping out of the water so we didn't go in too deep.

At 3pm we got some bait, basic instructions on where to go and how to drive the boat and we were off. We had a brilliant afternoon. I caught a parrot fish about 55cm long (the biggest catch of the day) and a 40cm coral trout. Tony and Steve caught similar fish and Tony also caught a huge barracuda. He was a bit girly about getting the hook out of its mouth but it did have big teeth! We then got a lesson in how to fillet and skin the fish and pack them in the freezer with our names on. Just as we were about to leave I put the last fish in the freezer and caught my hand in the fan blade that was spinning inside the freezer compartment. I received quite a nasty gash so had to have it bandaged. The others put all the fish guts in the water and apparently four of five big sharks immediately came up to fight over the scraps.

After showers we had JFC (Jane's Fried Chicken) for dinner, a nice chat to the other two groups of guests and were in bed by 9:30pm. It was bliss to sleep in a bed with air conditioning.

The next morning we were up early for a hearty breakfast and on to the water to fish by 8am. We didn't have such good luck this time and I was the only one to come back with a fish. None of the other groups had better luck. However the main excitement of the day was that I caught a shark! It was a black tip reef shark about 1.5m long. It was thrashing around next to the boat and we were all panicking about what we were going to do with it. We decided to lift it out of the water for a photo opportunity but as I did the fishing line snapped and it was gone in a flash.

We went back in and had a nice morning tea, a few beers, delicious home cooked lunch and a swim later and we were ready to start fishing again. What a life!

In the afternoon Pete finally caught a fish. He had been out twice and caught nothing. He was getting a bit of a ribbing about it. He did the best of the afternoon but I caught another lovely big parrot fish and a coral trout. We gutted and scaled them, had showers, chucked our fish gutty clothes in the washer and it was time for dinner.

Days 6 & 7  We got up at 5:30am and packed up and went down to the freezer on the beach to get our fish. We packed it all up inside a cool bag with heaps of ice which will apparently keep the fish frozen for 48 hours. We had a quick breakfast and were airborne by 8:00am. It was 205km to Normanton where we stopped to pick up another $506 in fuel (aviation fuel is expensive!) and then we were quickly off again heading for Charters Towers. It was 607km and we arrived in time for lunch. We caught a taxi into town and went to the Enterprise Hotel for lunch. Surprisingly, it turned out that Peter had a friend who lived in Charters Towers and commuted to Hong Kong two weeks on and two weeks off. He was free and met us for lunch. The pub was frantically busy and it turned out they were having a wake, so it took ages. After lunch, Pete’s mate grabbed his car and took us on a quick driving tour. Charters Towers is a lovely old town with some nice historic buildings. We learned that the population is 10,000 and that 63% are on some sort of government benefits or the dole!

We then went back to the airport for a bit more fuel and a 268km trip to Airlie Beach. We caught a taxi to a hotel in the centre of town. We went for a stroll along the harbour front and a lash-up seafood dinner. It was the first time I had been to Airlie Beach. I had always imagined that it would be a hippy backpacker place like Byron Bay, but it was quite upmarket. We were all impressed. We perhaps stayed for one drink too many, so felt a little sluggish in the morning. We had a quick breakfast and were back at the airport for a 10:00am departure to Emu Park where we stopped for lunch in a pub overlooking the ocean. Our final leg was back to the plane and back to Brisbane and home by 6pm.

A fun week! Cheers

Derek, Katie, Matthew, Jessica and Molly.

Cracow pub.

Ready for take off and passengers already asleep.

Walking to Julia Creek.

The crowds at the music festival.

The crowds at the Triathlon.

The crowds at the Julia Creek Races.

Fashions on the field.

Cracow main street shops.

Cracow pub.

Our ride to the airstrip.

The best butts!

The gulf.

The good life a Sweers Island.

Fuelling the plane.

One of my fish.

Term 1 - Australia Day to Easter

 Letter No. 233

Dear all,

It was a big week for Matthew when we got back from New Zealand. On Weds 13^th January he got a call from The University of Queensland telling him that he had been awarded a Merit Scholarship for Leadership and Academic Achievement, conditional on him getting an offer. The award covers all of the university fees for his first year. He was so excited to get the award and phoned Katie and I immediately. It was great to hear how excited he was and he even thanked us for nagging him into submitting the scholarship application.

The next day the university offers were published on the QTAC website. It took Matt over 40 minutes to log in, but he finally discovered that he had been offered his first preference which was an Arts-Law dual degree at The University of Queensland. His Arts degree will involve a major in Mandarin Chinese and a minor in International Relations, as well as the Law Degree. It is very comprehensive and will take 5½ years to complete. We are very proud of him as he had worked so very hard to get what he wanted.

The last week of the holidays passed with quiet days and a few dinners with friends and family. On 19^th January we drove to my Mum and Dad’s for dinner. It was mainly so Matthew could get some night driving experience for his Driving Licence. He still needs another five hours of night driving before he can sit his driving test. The trip was slightly delayed by a small incident in the driveway where Matthew managed to reverse Katie’s car into the wheelie bin and break off one of the mirrors. After applying tie wire and duct tape we were on our way again, a little later than we had expected. We had a nice dinner with Mum and Dad and saw their new puppy and got home again by 10:00pm.

On Thurs 21^st January Jessica was at a sleepover so we went to Miku, the Japanese restaurant where Matt works, for dinner with the Malins and the Suggs. We had a lovely meal with Matthew waiting on us and then back to our house for port and liquers afterwards. A couple of days later we went to Brookfield for an early Australia Day celebration. There were games for the kids, food stalls, a band and of course the bar. My sister Lisa and family came along and we had a nice catch up after our holiday in New Zealand.

We had a huge day on January 26^th which is Australia Day, with two Citizenship Ceremonies and two parties to attend. Jess and I had to get out early to get her to City Hall by 7:00am as she was singing in a citizenship ceremony with the Australian Girls’ Choir, then Katie headed off to a different citizenship ceremony to see our friend Wings Malins receive her citizenship certificate. Katie was meant to be at the same ceremony but due to her visa stuff up last year she will need to wait a little longer before she becomes a true blue Ozzie. I picked Jessie up a bit later, Katie arrived home and we did a fast change before heading off to the Brodie’s Australia Day party. Katie had baked mini quiches as a contribution, as well as lamingtons for the Lamington competition. It was a fantastic party as Helen and Gary’s house overlooks the river. They had two speedboats and the kids had a huge time tubing and swimming in the river. Everyone had to dress Australian of course, so I wore my Australian rugby jersey while Katie wore a short, bright blue sparkly Australian Flag dress. This got her quite a few compliments. We had a game of cricket beside the river – Monarchists vs Republicans. Katie naturally signed me up immediately on the Monarchist team. Each team needed to have children and women. One of the neighbour’s dogs kept chasing the ball and almost got taken out by the bat a few times, so we needed a few balls to keep the game going. Actually the dog was one of the better fielders, but played on both teams and wouldn’t throw the ball back to the wickets! Over the fence was six runs, into the river was minus six runs. It was actually raining fairly steadily through most of the game but it was a lot of fun. There were a few teenage boys who dominated the game though and one of whom caught me out after only a few runs off a huge hit, just short of a six. Sadly the final score was 88 to the Republicans and 49 to the Monarchists. During the game Matthew got picked up by some of his friends and went off to another party a few suburbs away. Then it was on to the judging of the Lamington baking competition and Katie was astonished to be proclaimed the winner, despite being the only non-Australian entrant!

It was a really brilliant party, but we had to head home for a 30-minute lie down before setting off to the Malins’ Australia Day party to celebrate Wings’ citizenship. Katie had baked a fabulous Pavlova in advance which just needed to be assembled before setting off to their house at the end of the street. Again, a lovely party overlooking a different stretch of the river. All of Katie’s dog walking group (WAGS) who are some of our closest friends were there so it was a lovely afternoon and evening. During the course of the party Jessie arrived and left and Matt arrived back from his earlier party; lucky we only have two kids to keep track of. We meant to get home a bit earlier but did not leave until around 9pm by which time we were both a little tired and emotional! It was a fab day but we really needed another public holiday to recover from the public holiday!

Jessica was back to school the next day, for her first day of Year 10. Luckily she had sensibly gone home early from the party to get ready for school. The next day Matthew and Katie and I went back to Brisbane Boys’ College for the last time as parents. Matthew was being honoured in a special Scholars Assembly for boys who received OP 1 or 2 (Overall Position) in their final exams, followed by morning tea with the Headmaster. We were very proud.

Jessie’s school term kicked off in usual busy style and her STAGE school dance troupe was particularly active right from the start of term, with auditions, extra training sessions and a “Welcome to STAGE” Evening. Jessie had been delighted not only to get in to STAGE but also to be selected for the Senior section which is usually only Year 11 and 12 girls. This means she will be in five dance routines this year with 4½ hours dance training per week. Jessica was also elected Form Captain by her peers. They all had to rate everyone who wanted to run on a variety of leadership traits and she was very pleased to win.

On 7^th February Jessica was at a dance rehearsal so the three of us went out to the Corner Store Café for a huge brekkie. That evening we went to a fabulous Chinese New Year dinner at our friends Shelley & Gary. There were four other families and everyone took a contribution and it was a lovely Chinese banquet which brought back memories of Hong Kong.

It seemed a long time before Matthew started at Uni and in the meantime he worked a large number of shifts at Miku each week. Finally it was University O-week on the week starting 22^nd February Matt went to few orientation lectures and then to the Market day on the Wednesday. He signed up for Amnesty International, the UQ Law Society and the Mooting Club. The Uni Semester actually started the following week, which was Jessie’s school week 6. He is doing three law subjects and one Chinese subject. He only has 14 contact hours at Uni but seems to spend the rest of the week either studying or working. He has two nights with late lectures and works every other evening so we almost never see him. By the time he gets home from work I am usually asleep on the sofa!

On 27^th February it was St Aidan’s Trivia Night. The theme was Books so our table went as The Great Gatsby which was fairly easy to dress up as. We had a nice table of Year 10 parents and were quite pleased to finish 5^th out of 18 teams. The next weekend was St Aidan’s Open Day. Katie had to be there early to set up the Stage Support Group stall, which looked very colourful and attracted lots of attention with a humungous TV screen. Jessie had to be at school from 9am to show prospective parents around the school. STAGE was also doing the first performance of their dances for this year so I came back in to watch. They were very good and it was nice to hear all of Jessie’s friends cheering her when she was the centrepiece of a very complex lift above all the rest of the girls.

The following day I went to A Day on the Green with my mate John Haughton. We arrived at 1pm and had lunch before the first band started. We saw Rat Cat, Died Pretty, Sunny Boys, Violent Femmes and Hoodoo Gurus. A fantastic line up! I had never seen Violent Femmes before and they were brilliant, if slightly odd. Just before the Hoodoo Gurus started I had just got some dinner and was walking back to my seat when it started to spit rain. I thought I could make it back to my seat, put down my food and get my rain poncho before it got too heavy. However before I had walked 20 metres it had turned into a torrential downpour. By the time I had found somewhere to put down my dinner where it wouldn’t get stepped on and worked out how to open my rain poncho I was drenched through. I walked back to my seat but by the time I had got there, the rain stopped! The Hoodoo Gurus rushed to start so people didn’t leave. They were brilliant as usual. It was a great day only slightly dampened by the rain.

On Tuesday 8^th March Katie went to an International Women’s Day lunch with Helen in the Brisbane Club. The speaker was Dr Catherine Ball who is an ex-AECOM employee. She is an expert on unmanned aerial surveillance vehicles and is a brilliant speaker. Katie really enjoyed the afternoon.

Later that week there was a Y10 Parents Dinner at a restaurant in Indooroopilly called Nantucket. The restaurant is owned by the parents of one of the girls in Jessica’s grade. We had a very nice dinner with a table of the parents of Jessie’s group of friends. All of the conversation that evening revolved around the recent suspension of eight girls in the grade, for posting some very inappropriate content on social media, some of it in school uniform. It had only just happened that week and none of the parents of the suspended girls came. There are a couple of real troublemakers in Jessica’s grade and most parents said they hoped they would be expelled next time they break the rules, as they regularly do.  I agreed!

On 12^th March we went to for dinner at the Toowong Bowls Club with a group of ex-BBC parents. Some of the boys are 18 now and it was a little weird seeing them standing at the bar ordering beers! The next day Katie and I went to play tennis in the morning and then to the movies in the afternoon to see The Lady in the Van. It was a true and heart-warming movie about a lady who lived in a van in the driveway of Alan Bennett, a famous British playwright.

Jessica did the 4km Melanoma March on Sunday 20^th March. I picked up two of her friends and four dogs. Molly was very uncertain about there being so many other dogs in her car. She sat in the front, with the others in the back seat and one in the luggage compartment. I dropped them off in the city and it was funny watching them set off with a tangle of dog leads and dogs. I was amazed they made it home again without losing one of them!

On Monday 21^st March Katie went for drinks at the Regatta Hotel with some friends but came home with a stabbing pain on the side of her stomach. It kept her awake all night. She did manage to play a bit of tennis on Tuesday morning as well but then was in agony for hours until I made her a doctor’s appointment for 4pm Tuesday afternoon. After a short consultation the doctor diagnosed suspected appendicitis and told her to go straight to hospital! She dropped the car home and caught a taxi to the Wesley Hospital emergency department while I drove there from work. After an ultrasound they said she would have to have her appendix removed first thing Wednesday morning. I went home and fed the kids and came back with Katie’s essentials for an overnight stay. They finally found her a bed around midnight and she was booked in for surgery at 7am.

Naturally the timing was terrible. Matt was escorting his friend Candice to her School Formal that evening and Katie had been going to pick up the corsage, take him to Pre-formal drinks at 4pm and then drive Matt & Candice to and from the City that night. It was Jessie’s last day of term and she was going to a sleepover. Unfortunately I couldn’t help as I had a big meeting in Wide Bay which is a military base four hours’ drive north of Brisbane. The meeting had been arranged for weeks and there were defence people flying in from all over Australia so I just couldn’t cancel. I set off at 5.30am, talked to Katie while I was driving but there was very poor phone reception on the base so I couldn’t be contacted up there. Meanwhile Katie spent hours texting friends from her hospital bed arranging lifts for Jessie, lifts for Matt and Candice and the flowers to be delivered. Lucky we have so many great friends. Things were further complicated when Matt managed to lock himself out of the house in the morning and had to get a train to the hospital to collect Katie’s house keys before she went into surgery. Her surgery was delayed and she eventually went in at noon and was back in her room by 3pm, just in time to see Carolyn Biddle who had arrived for a visit. Katie was so pleased to have a visitor. I eventually arrived at the hospital just in time to eat Katie’s hospital dinner. The day still wasn’t over as I had to pick Matt & Candice up from the Formal at 10.30pm. They had had a great time but I was somewhat relieved that they decided not to go on to the Post Formal.

We were booked on the ferry to Stradbroke Island the next day (Thursday) where we were staying at Andrew’s family apartment. A few of our friends were also going to be in Straddie and all the ferries were totally booked up for the Easter weekend, so Katie was determined not to miss the ferry. I took the morning off work and Katie texted me a food shopping list and a car packing list and I raced around and followed instructions. Katie was waiting for the doctor to come and discharge her but he took so long that she announced to the nurses that she couldn’t wait and would have to discharge herself as she had a ferry to catch. The nurses were horrified and a few minutes later the doctor arrived and discharged her properly with a huge bag of painkillers. I picked Katie shortly afterwards and we swerved home so that Jessie could pack Katie’s clothes for her and we were off. We picked Matt up straight after his uni lecture and made it to the ferry with minutes to spare, Katie still in her long white compression stockings looking like a hospital escapee.

The next day the kids and I went to the beach and Katie stayed at the apartment and rested. The other four families arrived during the course of the next day and most of them were staying in the same Whalewatch apartment block. We invited them all over for Sundowners at 5pm and Katie held court from her armchair with a glass of champagne in hand (medicinal purposes). We had nice drinks and nibbles before everyone left about 7:30pm. That was the recipe for the next few days – beach with all five families in the morning, lunch at our own apartments, back to the beach every afternoon for touch football, Sundowners drinks and nibbles at someone’s apartment, dinner in by ourselves or dinner out with everyone. Katie spent most of her time at the apartment but was quite happy as it has lovely sea views and was the perfect place to recuperate. We were there for six nights in all; it was a fab holiday and a lovely Easter weekend.

Cheers

Derek, Katie, Matthew, Jessica and Molly.

Australia Day!

Australia Day!

Scholars Assembly

Last Day at BBC.

A Day on the Green with John.

Quiz Evening

Quiz Evening - The Great Gatsby.

Matthew and Candice

A sick Katie.

Straddie

Straddie 2.

Straddie 3.

New Zealand Part 2

 Letter No. 232

Dear all,

NEW ZEALAND’S NORTH ISLAND – Rotorua, Taupo & Wellington

We left Hamilton on Tues 5^th January and drove to Rotorua. Our first stop was Hell’s Gate, a highly active thermal area which has a fantastic thermal spa. You hop into a large pool of hot mud and smear it all over your body and then sit on the edge of the pool in the sun to let it dry on your skin. You can only stay in the mud pool for 20 minutes as it is so warm.  Next you rinse off and then gradually move through a series of other pools gradually getting cooler and clearer. The mud bath and hot springs were great and we all thought our skin felt much softer afterwards, probably because the outer layers were removed by the acidic waters! It was a fun morning, despite the constant smell of sulphur dioxide gas in the air which pervades much of the region around Rotorua. We ate lunch at the cafe before driving to our apartment.

After lunch and checking in we went on to Skyline Rotorua. This is a large cable car you can catch up the mountain behind the city. At the top there are lots of activities to do. We all went on the luge which is a little go kart track. You ride down the mountain to the bottom and then get a chairlift back to the top. There were three different tracks and we had to try them all. It was great fun and we could have done it all day. We went back to our apartment for dinner and had another shower to try to get the smell of sulphur out of our skin!

The next morning we drove around to the other side of Lake Rotorua to the Kaituna Falls where Matt, Jessie and I went White Water Rafting. Jessica was fairly concerned and not sure she wanted to go, especially when she heard we would be rafting over a 7-metre waterfall. Apparently this is the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world. We had a 30-minute safety briefing which included details of what to do if you fell out and what to do if the raft capsized and you were trapped under it. By this time Jessica was really freaked out and I thought that she might bail out, but with one last hug for Katie we were in the rafts paddling down the fast flowing river. The rapids were awesome and we were having a great time but were all a little nervous about the huge waterfall downstream. There were quite a few opportunities to get out of the raft and swim alongside which was fun as the water was quite warm. Very soon we were at the top of the waterfall and given last-minute reminders on where to hold on, how to stop crashing heads together and what to do if we capsized. Over we went – the raft was fully vertical down the falls and in an instant we were at the bottom. The raft, with all of us in it, submerged totally to a depth of around 1m before we popped back to the surface. It was a huge thrill. Meanwhile Katie was walking alongside the falls taking photos of us all the way. She said it was a lovely walk along the river and she took some great pictures. All too soon we were back in the minibus then back to the rafting centre to clean off and warm up before going back to our apartment.

In the afternoon we went out to Whakarewarewa Forest to see the Californian giant redwood trees. There was a lovely 1½ hour walk through the forest up to a lookout over Lake Rotorua and back. There are a lot of cycle trails in the area but we decided that a gentle stroll would be a relaxing change after the morning’s high-energy activity. That evening we went to the Mitai Maori Village for a Maori cultural experience. We were picked up from our apartment for a short drive to the village. It was an authentic introduction to Maori culture which left us amazed and in awe. At least that is what it said in the brochure. Actually it was pretty good. There was a short walk in the forest to a stream where Maori warriors paddled a war canoe along the stream wearing traditional dress and singing war cries. There was a full performance highlighting traditional dress, arts, weapons, customs, carvings, tattoos, songs and musical instruments. We also went to see the traditional Hangi feast being extracted from the pit in the ground before we went on to devour a huge meal of roast lamb and chicken. We were a little surprised to see such traditional Maori foods as garlic bread, stuffing, mint sauce, pavlova and chocolate log but it was certainly a feast and we all had a great night. The kids befriended a 27-year-old backpacker from Taiwan and practiced their Mandarin on her all evening, which was an added bonus.

On Thursday 7 January we got up early and drove to Matamata, about an hour away, to Hobbiton, the set for the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies. It is a sheep farm about 10km outside the town. Thirty-nine Hobbit holes were originally built of untreated timber, ply and polystyrene. A large oak tree was cut down and transported to the site to overlook the village. Artificial leaves were imported from Taiwan and over 200,000 leaves were individually wired to the tree by hand!! A mill and a double-arch bridge were also built out of scaffolding, ply and polystyrene. The whole thing was demolished following filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy but was then rebuilt with permanent materials, including a new artificial tree built from steel and silicon, in time for The Hobbit trilogy. This reconstruction took two years and the whole site is now a vast money-making exercise for a once simple farmer. We did a two hour tour which was really fantastic, especially as we had an incredibly enthusiastic and entertaining guide who was passionate about the movies and seemed to know every trivial fact about them. The tour took us around the lovely Hobbit holes, along the winding paths, past the maypole where the kids joined the maypole dance and ended up in the Green Dragon pub for a cider. It was really lovely. Matt and Jessie hadn’t particularly enjoyed the movies, but they loved the tour. The hobbit holes were built at different sizes proportionally so that actors being filmed next to them either looked larger (Gandalf), or smaller (Hobbits). It was very clever. The Green Dragon pub had delicious pies and the décor was really great. We would have liked to stay longer but we only had twenty minutes for photos, drinks and snack. It was really a great morning. We will have to watch the movies again now and see if we can spot the places we have seen.

We went back to Rotorua and had a late lunch at our apartment. In the afternoon we meandered around the town, stopping at the park which was riddled with thermal vents and mud pools. There was even a thermal foot pool so we stopped for a while and soaked our feet in the warm water. That evening we discovered the Eat Street night market which had every possible kind of street food. We then we strolled back to our apartment to watch one of the kids’ Christmas movies on DVD.

We packed up and left Rotorua the next morning, heading for the Wai-o-tapu Thermal Wonderland. The Lady Knox Geyser spouts off at precisely 10:15am every day and shoots water to a height of about 20m for about an hour. The geyser receives a little help in the form of organic soap which allows it to erupt to such a regular timetable. The soap reduces the surface friction of the top layer and causes the spout. It was very powerful and much more impressive than we had expected it to be. We walked around the Wai-o-tapu thermal area, which is a steaming moonscape of collapsed craters, boiling pools of mud, poisonous pools and sulphurous fumaroles. In some places the water temperatures are up to 300 degrees centigrade. There are many different coloured pools including green, orange, purple, red, yellow, white and black. We especially liked a bright green pool called the Devil's Bath. There is a thin layer of poisonous gas over the green water and if birds fly into it they are gassed, fall into the water and are dissolved in a few days by the high acid content. Our other favourite was the Champagne Pool, a 65m diameter pool which is also 65m deep and full of crystal clear boiling water. Vast clouds of warm sulphurous steam envelope you at the viewing areas. It was pretty cool and we could imagine it as the film setting for lots of futuristic movies. There was a 4km walk around all the sites in the park and we did it all. Just as we finished it started to rain so we ate lunch in the car. On our way out of the area we passed the aptly-named Mud Pool which was basically a huge pond of boiling mud.

We drove on to Taupo and found our kitchenette apartment. It was still bucketing down rain when we arrived. Despite this we decided to go to the Spa Thermal Park which had a hot water stream flowing into the Waikato River. It was a short drive and a five minute walk to the river. The kids and I went in and it was lovely. We sat in a pool of very hot water and then jumped into the river to cool down. Katie watched and took photos under her umbrella but ended up getting nearly as wet as we did. We went back to dry off and have showers before heading into the town for dinner. My brother-in-law Andrew had told us of a great place to go for dinner called the Pub ‘n’ Grub. It was much nicer than it sounds and we had a nice dinner.

On Saturday 9^th January we had a sailing trip planned on a boat called The Barbary. I went for an early morning run on Saturday to find the harbour front and departure point. It was overcast and threatening rain but fortunately by the time we’d had breakfast and driven down to the harbour it had turned into a miraculously beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky. The Barbary boat was very impressive. It was a 44ft sailing yacht built in 1905. It had once belonged to Errol Flynn who had won her in a card game. Our half day sail was taking us right out onto Lake Taupo to see the Maori Rock Carvings on a cliff overlooking the lake. It was about an hour’s sail each way and it got quite exciting once we were out of the harbour. We had to stow all the bags below deck and there was a very heavy swell. The kids and I stood right at the bowspit and as the boat went through the swell we would go up about 4m above the water to come crashing back down into water to our knees. It was great fun. The boat got up some fair speed and was right on its side with water lapping over our feet and we were lying almost vertically as she sped through the water. Very exciting.

The rock carvings were very spectacular but I was a little disappointed to find out they had been carved in 1979 by some drunken Maori Art students. There was a huge Maori face, an impressive lizard and a naked women who was supposedly one of their girlfriends! It was pretty good but I had been expecting something really ancient!

We sailed on to a quiet bay around the headland and Matt, Jessie and I went swimming. The water was a crystal clear blue colour but very cold. I was the first in and told everyone that it was quite warm, through gritted teeth, despite the fact I could hardly speak from hypothermia. I even convinced two other people to get in! It was actually quite refreshing but we didn't stay in too long. We had a nice hot chocolate and lay in the sun while we sailed back to port. There were lovely bean bags to lie on all over the deck and the wind had dropped so it was a much more gentle sail on the return leg. A highly recommended morning out in Taupo.

We had a nice picnic lunch on the harbour then a short drive down the river to the Aratiatia Dam. There is a release of water from the dam four times a day and the water level rises spectacularly in the narrow riverbed downstream, creating powerful rapids in which the river rises by about 6 metres in just 10 minutes. We just made it in time for the 2pm release. Afterwards we went on to a Volcanic Activity Centre which showed short films of recent eruptions and earthquakes in New Zealand as well as a simulator showing what the ground motions would have been like in the Christchurch earthquake. It was quite alarming.

Afterwards we viewed the spectacular Huka Falls waterfall and then drove to a nearby activity centre to watch people Bungy jumping and going on a "Big Swing" from a cliff over the river. We decided that we were not at all keen on Bungy jumping but enjoyed watching others do it. We went back to our apartment and had dinner in and a TV evening.

The next day was mainly a driving day as we drove 382km from Taupo to Wellington. It was 382km and took us 5½ hrs, including a lunch stop in Paraparamau Beach with a view of Kapiti Island. On the way we got to 1089 metres above sea level, on the slopes of Mt Ruapehu, which is the tallest mountain in New Zealand at 2797m. There was quite a lot of snow on it despite it being mid-summer and the landscape was very bleak and cold. Mt Ruapehu is the most active volcano on the North Island and we saw quite a bit of smoke coming out of the summit.

We arrived at our apartment by 2:30pm. It was a great location almost in the centre of Wellington. After we dropped the girls off, Matthew and I went to find a car park for the car and stumbled across the lovely beach Oriental Bay where we had a refreshing swim in the very cool water. In the evening we explored the town, having a drink on harbour front at Queens Wharf and then on to Cuba Street for dinner. Cuba Street is a very hip area with bars, restaurants and lots of street art. In fact there is lots of great street art everywhere in Wellington and we really liked it. The city felt much more vibrant and humming than Auckland.

Our last full day in New Zealand was Monday 11^th January.  We strolled a few blocks from our apartment down to the Te Papa Museum of New Zealand. My brother-in-law Chris had told us this was the best thing to do in Wellington and he wasn't wrong. It was a fantastic museum right on the harbour front with wonderful displays of volcanoes, earthquakes, natural history and New Zealand social history including immigration, refugees and Maori History. There was a very interesting exhibit on the Waitangi Treaty between the British and the Maori Chiefs.

We had lunch overlooking the harbour and watched some girls leaping into the sea from a jumping platform. It was about a 10m high platform called The Jump constructed above the harbour front especially for people to leap off. It was very beautifully constructed so it looked like a piece of art as well as being a functional platform. Naturally the kids immediately wanted to do it so we said we would come back later in the day. We then drove a short distance to the New Zealand Parliamentary complex. Three buildings form the complex and the most distinctive of these is the modernist executive office known as the Beehive. It does look exactly like a beehive and it is the architectural symbol of New Zealand, even though it is not great architecture! Next door to the Beehive is the old Parliament House, which was completed in 1922, and next door is a Neolithic Parliamentary Library Complex. We did a one-hour tour of all three buildings.

In the afternoon we drove up to the Mount Victoria Lookout behind our apartment. It had fantastic 360 degree views all around Wellington. The drive up was along some very narrow and winding streets which was an adventure in itself. After we had finished admiring the view we went back to our apartment, grabbed our togs and went back to The Jump. One platform was at about 5m above the water level and the other at 10m. There was a large audience of spectators cheering people on which was a bit intimidating. We had a few practice jumps from the lower platform before doing the taller jump. Jessie was really brave and leapt straight off the top level without a thought. I had to take a moment before the big leap, but I couldn't let her be braver than me! We did quite a few jumps and it was great fun in the end.

Our last day in New Zealand was Tuesday 12^th January. We packed up and checked out of our apartment before going to the Wellington Cable Car which took us high up into the hills overlooking Wellington. There were spectacular views and a tiny museum on the history of the cable car. We spent an hour walking down through the lovely Botanic Gardens and then stopped for lunch in a rather quirky floating boat restaurant overlooking Oriental Bay. We headed on to the airport for our flight back to Brisbane; the end of another terrific touring holiday. 

Cheers,

Derek, Katie, Matthew, Jessica & Molly

On the Highway to Hell.

Arriving at Hell.

Hot and muddy!

They did tell Matthew not to put mud above your mouth!

Cleaning up in the thermal spa.

Speed demon!

Speedier demon!

The speediest Demons.

Looking worried at the white water rafting safety briefing. 

Too late now.

Going.

Going!

Going!!

Gone!

Still alive!

Can we do that again?

After going through the waterfall.

Welcome to Hobbiton.

In the Hobbit Hole.

Just like in the movie.

Hobbits are so small.

In the Green Dragon Pub.

.

Lady Knox Geyser - in the rain.

Boiling sulphur pool.

The Devil's bath.

Sailing.

Titanic moment.

An active volcano.

Jessica's leap of faith.

Flowers.

Waiting for Smaug to awaken.