cruising time

Traveller

2011-04-29T19:55:00.010+12:00

It has been such a long time since iI was here last and this is not good.
Since i have been travelling I have seen and felt lots of places.

This is the list:
Dubai/Sharjah
Tanzania
Kenya
Canary Islands
Germany (nrth)
Paris
Amsterdam
Poland
Egypt
Germany (sth)

And soon I embark on the walk of a lifetime.
I am going to go on the "Camino de Frances"
This is a walk across the north of Spain from the French town of Pied a Port to Santiago de Compestella in the west of Spain. this journey will take me 30 days and I will cover 800 km's.
If I walk at a steady pace I should be able to cover 25 km's per day. I need to do this to get through it in 30 days.

At present I am in Ingolstadt. The Audi town in Bavaria (sth Germany).

A nice little town of which I have walked around most of the old town. Very old with heaps of history. Something in New Zealand that we lack.(a History of more than 250 years).

I will be back this way again...soon...I hope

Lastday in Dubai. Sharjah actually

2010-10-15T21:50:00.015+13:00

So this is the last day in Sharjah and then I am off to Kenya.

Walked around town for a while then caught a abra (water taxi)
to see the other side of the creek .

This is me in the abra. A very cool way to see the area.

This building is the court house for Sharjah. They even
have a Execution room. I like these people.

Me, no kidding, in front of the court. Only visiting lol.
The sun is very bright even though the air is full of haze

Although UAE ia Arab the population of Sharjah is 85% imports, Pakis, Indians.

Got an abra to the gold souq of which I was not impressed. Lots (600) shops all selling the same stuff from china and India. even the gold shops all looked the same.

Walked back to the hotel and got a voucher to have a swim at the beach. It seems the beaches are all in front of the hotels and to get access to them you need to go thru the hotel ...and pay. 10drs for the taxi and 20drs for the swim then another taxi to get back to my hotel.

3pm saw us getting into four wheel dives to go to a Bedouin camp thingy.

About 40kms from Sharjah into the dessert and toward Oman we drive off the road and into the dessert. Yeehah.

On the way we had to slow down for some camels amazing just wandering across the road. We crossed the road with them so as to get better photos

This is a block of coral which is used to fill the gaps in the concrete/motor they use to rebuild some of the old buildings in the Heritage area.

It was gr8.

This is me on the pipe. It is a very relaxing smoke and very smooth. Gives you a euphoric feeling and leaves you a little light headed. mmmm

Shesha and henna and camel ride and belly dancing and whirling dervishes and food. Then more euphoric shesha. You boys at home would love these things.

These are the folk who were in my Landcruiser.
A group of students traveling home from the Uk after their study year was over

Thats me for now

Will keep you posted.

Some interesting stuff

2010-10-12T14:49:00.009+13:00

It seems that not everyone has a sattelite dish so they share one between many. most of the high rise in Sharjah is residential, as you can see beloww there are alot of them around, in fact my hoetl looks out onto one and there are heaps of them. Like urban sprawl in Timaru these guys go up not out.

These are the sights of human invasion. We are like a virus, we flock to a place for work and overwhelm it until we live like this.
We are very spoilt in Timaru.
When I look at these I begin to apreciate what we/I/You have.
I meet guy from the Emerates Photography Society who said that our country is the paradise left on the planet. When I see the way these people live I can fully understand where he is coming from.

This is my Hotel. 2 Star and it only costs me US$35 (128drs) per night. Nice ish?

This is the footpath outside the hotel. I needs repair. Fine to walk on if you keep looking at your feet. I think they ran out of money to finish the job. It is next to a big square, Rolla Sq. It is empty but fo a few trees and a monument thing of sorts in the middle and there is only one way in and that is, ironicall, on the other side from my hotel. however I did some getting through the fence and over it.

So, as wee shift in time.
Welcome to Dubai. The first thing you see and the aircon os going and.... you are grateful for it.

Travelators are great at getting to the end of a long walk very quickly. Unless you get a group of people who are just standing on it. Duh the idea is to walk not stand.

These elavtors are automatic and rise and fall on a time frame. No buttons, just wait, walk in, wait, and the n walk out again. And incredibly smooth and quiet. Amazing. The whole terminal is amazingly huge and glamorous, extravigant.

Well the world outside is now truely underway and it is now light. 6.30am Tuesday 12/10/10.
I have been up an hour or os after being woken by the praying muslim. He has a lot of mega speakers right outside my room and he knows where the volume switch is. Sometimes it is a very beautiful but at 5am (for a westerner) it is a little anoying.
Bollywood on the tele. very funny. A step back in tv.
Im off today on the mission to get in and out of Dubai by bus without getting lost.
I am actually in another Emirate called Sharjah. Much bigger than Dubai and not as rich. More cultural and Not alot of tourists.
For all the girls out there. There are heaps of men about. I have not seen many women about. Will keep you all posted.
(maybe the women work and the men try to look good on the street)mmmmmmm

The trip has begun

2010-10-12T03:11:00.005+13:00

Its like the end of an era.
Walking to the galows.
The end
Tears and joy, so many mixed emotions. After all I have done in my life, Now I am embarking on an epic journey, all be it, that had started a log time ago. had to fight off an strong erge to cry as I said goodbye. But then i have been pretty emotional over the last few months.
Goodbyes are all done.
Its raining in Chch. Bags are Booked on the plane and am now enjoying wedges and coffee.
Slept on the way up, wasnt really much company for Mickey. Surprised at how tired I was over the last few days
Goodbye NZ. Not quite. Got stuck at customs. Apparrantly Rawlieghs is classed as a dangerous substance, along with 'hand cream', 'toothpaste'. Rawlieghs is a national icon, not to mention a firm aid in my arsonal against germs and bugs.
Sydney here I come. 37000 feet and 2.45 hrs in the air.Have photographed the 'Rolly' dog. She is not complaining about the travel arrangements she has. Warm dry and dark so she can sleep.When I first sat down I had no ons next to me but I have aquired a guy of unknown origins and an Irish Blonde(lol) cant remember her name . He gave up his seat for a family to be together an hers was wet on take off. She said it was already wet but flying can do that to you. Yeah right. Who am I to argue.
The safety movie is spoken and writen in arabic, mmmmmmmm. ahh an English version. Very good we do rule the world.
Lift off at 5.12pm 10/10/10 No view, nice wing but. Boeing 777-200
The crew are splendi and are able to speak a whole range of 8 different languages.
There are 81 movies to choose from and they are just the new ones listed, Thousands of songs from all over the world and they are in subtitles of 12 different languages also.
Dinner on the plane was great. I had the salmon, cheescake and the white wine. I asked for a glass and she gave me the bottle. Yeehah, my kind of service.
I did watch a movie. Toy Story 3
Landing in Sydney at 8pm NZ. Cool, ... there are cameras mounted around the outside of the plane that allow you to see; from the tail section; under the belly; and off the nose of the plane so you can watch the landing. mmmmmmmmmmm
Well there is a bit of a wait in Sydney.3hrs All loaded and ready to go again. The plane is packed, liks sheep in a stock truk. I would say there must be 80% full.
61k is again a window seat but this time i am on a Airbus 380-800. The belly camera is giving us a view of two guys sitting "waiting for something amazing i guess". I wonder if he knows he is being watched. If he did would he work (harder).?
40000feet, 593mph, 26 carew and 7603miles to go.
This time however I am not privilaged to have a spunky irish blonde next to me but a very black man and his wife,.....abd he fuking snores. He must be the only one on the plane who does. I walked around in the night and you know wht? He is!!!!
Oh Well only 15 hours to go: Closer to Dubai...
The night has been uneventful and the sun has been chasing us around the globe for 14 hours now and we are going to get there before it does. Naa na na na na.We landed 40 minutes ahead of schedule.Outside it is still dark, there is a haze ocer the city and it is 30 degrees already and its only 6am.
A little aprehesive of what the day will hold but will rise to the occassion and go it alone, so to speak. 11.45 in Sydney, 12.45 in NZ. Have a nice day. Still very hard to comprehend that I am so far away from you all.
Monday 11/10/10 After much wandering around the airport I decided to catch a taxi to Al Sharq Hotel. Bad thing to do. The taxi cost me a small fortune. 25 ds to get in, 20 for the airport charge, and the 38 ds for ehte ride. I felt fleeced. he even had to check where to go. Timaru taxis are the way to go.lol
The Al Sharq was the cheapest Hotel omline and the reviews not too bad. They seem very nice. The room is adequit but it is a very long way from town and the traffic is diabolical. 4-5 cars perfamily the driver said.
Went for a walk at 10.30 and the heat hurts my eyes. It is not glarry but hot, crickey..

Travel Time

2010-07-26T18:13:00.004+12:00

Time is very imaterial if taken as somthing that is not relevant. ?
Future never happens ....as tomorrow never comes and you cant go back and change yesterday.
Never mind.
Today is all we have and even today is not as it seems.
We really only have ...NOW.
This moment in time.
This now.
That is why it is called the "present".
A gift... for now.
Enjoy.

Bus trip to Auckland good. Very uneventfull.
Tha bus was very compfy and was a gr8 ride up.
Had my wrinkles (what rinkles?) touched up by a young lady in the Manukau mall and now I look younger again.
Lagged after the bus trip didnt help/
Nice
Dinner at keith & hiltons' place.
Gr8 guys.
Love them heaps.
Flying high tomorrow and bak in Timas.
mmm

New start

2010-07-22T23:22:00.003+12:00

Well today has certainly been an eventfull one.

Got up, as you do when finished sleeping....or had I ??

Yes

Looked for a shop to recharge my phone. Doh left the charger at my sons in cambridge.done.

Bought a cool book from BROWSERS in hamilton from a nice young , knowledgable expectant grandma or should I say Nana.
More like a Nana I think. To young in the head & body & mind & attitude for grandma statis. No offence to grandmas as some I am sure are very young.

Nice . . . . . . . . . .

AND........

She agrred to have coffee with me. It was great. (she paid)

She is a famous sculpter who works in concrete and clay. I cant wait to be invited or invite myself to see some of her work and even get something I like for myself for my collection.

I am Too now a pop. Again am too young to be a grandad so Poppa/pop will do just fine thanks.
And as you can see she is soooo cute. mmmm. Arn't they marvellous things that we as mere humans can create. Wow

Why is it that there are some in the world who are so intent in distroying life and lives as well. they take sides in a dispute without knowing the facts or even really knowing their enemy before they pick up the guns and start killing, wounding and maiming. Killing is the easy way out for those but the wounding and the maiming lingers and can cause the most devastating of wounds .
It is their problem and not mine and I can only hope that I / we stay truthful to ourselves and keep it real.
Darkness cannot live in the light.
I suppose one day we will all be held accountable for our actions.
I hope I can learn to not judge as i have in the past (forgive me) and continue to see the good in all and focus on that and then they will seem to be human and fragile as I and my new born grand daughter. Then we might all get along. Love rules.

Such a cute wee baby girl. I so proud and proud of them too, dad and mum. very good guys, well done. MMMMMMMMMMMM

Forever Young

What??? Gay????

2009-04-26T17:39:00.003+12:00

What makes a guy gay.
recently I was privileged to be asked to go to a 50th birthday with a mate. He had not met these people for 35 years.
New experiences all round I think!

So here we are .
Two well to do guys from Timaru who not only look different; but behave and talk differently from the locals.

He short fat artisty look and me poncy Auckland cafe scene.
I am sure we looked gay to the southlanders we were going to party with???!!!

X Traction

2008-11-30T11:32:00.010+13:00

They say that some tyres need more grip to enable better extraction from the shit the driver has found himself in.
Why do we put ourselves in so much shit.
It seems that this is the way that life seems to dish it all out.
Most of us, go on admit it, seem to go from one pile of shit directly to another instead of getting away from the bad stuff and moving on to the good better stuff.
The better stuff. i hear you say.
Well some may say that is is sometimes hard to differentiate the difference in its early stages and before you know this is a bad one the shit is already lapping at the door.
The photo is of a boot on a hotrod falcon.
I wonder what was being extracted by the look on her face the feelings developed from loving some one.???
Pass???

To Extract = pull out by force
remove
derive
Extraction = something extracted such as a thistle or a passage from a book.

A tooth ow
The emotions of a close loss

Our last day in Brisbane

2008-07-02T20:49:00.001+12:00

We arrived in Brisbane at about 6am after an overnight flight from Perth. We were on a mission, so went to get our hire car and asked the fastest way to Mount Cootha. The hire guy reckoned we'd be up there just after sunrise, but by some amazing fluke we had green lights all the way. We shot through the centre of Brisbane which was busy even at that hour. We took a wrong turn but just as we realised this there was another sign for Mt Cootha and we got up there just before sunrise.

There was a German couple cuddling in the sunrise and a woman also watching, along with several birds. It was beautiful, even if we did miss the bird's dawn chorus. We had brekky at the cafe, and there were a couple of business groups having coffee at the time. Seems like a nice rendezvous.

Afterwards, we killed a bit of time in the Botanic Gardens at the foot of Mt Cootha. We also discovered that this is where the main TV channel are found. At 9pm we made our way to the Lone Pine Koala Park.

This is a great place for families. The entry fee is reasonable and if you go on the river cruise it's not much more to cruise and spend an hour and a half at the sanctuary. They have different shows on at different times of day. We saw most things (wombats, kangaroos, echidna, birds) and I had my photo taken cuddling with a koala. So cute. I want one!

Dave decided to get his photo taken with a crocodile, thinking it would be a Steve Irwin pose on top of a croc. Alas, the croc was a baby, about 30cm long with its sharp little mouth taped shut as even a baby can bite your finger off.

After travelling overnight from Perth, we were really shagged so we drove through Brisbane which is also beautiful, but has more construction going on than Perth. We drove beside the river and crossed the bridge to South Bank. This is a great place for families.

At South Bank there is every type of food place to fit your taste buds and your pocket. There are galleries and shops. Streets beach is a man made sand beach beside the river with depths from 0.5m - 1.8m. There are life guards and everything.

Dave was falling asleep, so lay down on a grassy bank while I explored. It was school holidays and for $5 per half hour your kid could be taught circus tricks at the Flipside Circus, while parents did their own thing. The City Cat (river bus) seemed to run regularly from the city.

We had lunch at Amici's, by the river. We had just sat down when we noticed a large lizard under the chair. I lay down to photograph it, and the waiter arrived and said, "I knew you were tired, but..." He told us that there are two lizards. Charlie, the other one, is three times as big and begs like a dog. We had the female, who came running for scraps of ham and chicken and eventually lay down beside us like a replete pup, sunning herself on the deck. Good food and service here by the way. A really nice place to spend a few hours. This was midwinter and it was in the low 20s and people were swimming and sunbathing. What more could you want?

Eventually, we made our way to the airport. It was like another world. We were too tired to blog, so drank coffee until boarding. We left Brisbane at about 20 degrees, and several hours later, as we were about to land in Christchurch, the pilot announced that it was -1 in Christchurch, NZ. Everyone cheered and yelled, "I'm home!" It got to -4 that night.

We got home at 2am and the kids woke us at 7am. We decided to give them the day off seeing as they hadn't seen us for ages and we spent the morning presenting gifts, showing photos and videos, until it was time to take Heather's folks to the airport. They had flown down from the North Island to look after the kids. Still can't find the cheese grater!

Last day in Perth

2008-06-30T01:47:00.005+12:00

Well,put it down to travelling too far in too short a space of time, but we really stuffed up last night. After sitting in the airport for 2 hours, we finally went to check in about 11pm and they told us we were a day early. Couldn’t believe it. Both of us had checked the flight times but neither had noticed the day was wrong. We had it in our heads that we were travelling home to NZ late on Sunday night. Wrong! We’d handed in our rental car so went to get it back and discovered that we’d handed it in a day early too, so somewhere along the line we’d gone astray.

So another day in Perth. We tried to change tickets and go to Brisbane seeing as we were ready, but weren’t allowed.

Today was sunnier and warmer. We spent a couple of hours in the local art galleries, which was great. We have nothing like that variety in our small town. Saw some amazing pieces of work and a lot of contemporary aboriginal art, as well as a very odd movie in PICA. Anyone living in Perth, go upstairs in PICA and watch Marco’s movie. I still can’t work out whether it was supposed to be tongue in cheek, but it will stay with you. Lol.

King’s Park was inviting in the sun and although we had several downpours, it didn’t seem to stop people from sailing and jet skiing. There were loads of people in King’s Park. We took in the day time view over the city and climbed the DNA tower, modelled on the helix of DNA.

We took the Fremantle road to see if we could tour the submarine featured earlier, at the Maritime museum, but the tour was full. The E-shed markets were on, but there were a waste of time – all imported Asian trinkets. It’s a shame they don’t do a local craft market.

As the sun had come out, we went back to Cottesloe Beach to take a look. There were kids as young as 8 on surfboards or boogy boards, as well as adults. We travelled north for a look at Hillary’s harbour and wathced the sun go down, and then went as far as the Marmion highway goes before turning round and finding dinner at Joondalup.

The signposts are strange here. One minute the road is numbered, the next it has a name and if you didn’t know it had a name you start to wonder if you’re on the wrong road. I have no sense of direction, but Dave is usually pretty good. However, several times we ended up on the right road going in the wrong direction, or turned off because the directions had vanished when we were on the right road all the time. We are just getting used to it after several days.

Now we are back at the airport and this time we are going to Brisbane.

Random Photos again

2008-06-30T00:45:00.003+12:00

This was coffee and cake at Rockingham.

A large flock of galas at at Point Kennedy in the newish housing estate.

This is the lookout at Bunbury. Quite high and very windy. It is on a hill just down the road from our Resort stay. There are some great views from the top of it.

This is a very yukky beach at Busselton which is normally renown for its beautiful beaches. There had and still was a huge swell which had made the beach this way so all was forgiven for the disgrace it presented to us. The pier in the back ground is 1.8 kms long and at the end is an underwater viewing room to see the fish. It was closed due to the bad weather. there is also good diving and snorkeling under the pier.

This is the beach at Warnboro Sound. Very long and good for dogs and motor bikes.GumNuts
Dr Suess would be proud. These grass trees are everywhere.
Waiting for the train.

Perth from the gardens at night.
Kangaroos in traffic.

Day 9

2008-06-29T01:15:00.003+12:00

No rain this morning, but it was very windy. We went to the top of the Bunbury Lighthouse and nearly got blown off. Bunbury is a nice little town with beaches, a marina and a dophin discovery centre where dolphins usually come in each day. It has a reasonable town centre with most things, a lovely cafe strip by the beach and a popualtion of about 50,000. Looked good to us, but again it was a shame not to see it in nice weather.We decided to drive to Busselton, where Dave had once applied for a job. Stopped off in Dalyellup because some people on a pommy website live there. We were really taken with it. It's beautifully laid out, with houses of all price ranges. I love the fact that they've left bits of forest in between the houses, and the houses have to have double garages which means they don't appear so crammed in. There's a nice beach, although I hadn't realised there is a high sand dune area. The display homes weren't open so we just drove around the streets. There's an attractive lake in the middle of the town and a small shopping centre but it's only about 10 minutes from Bunbury and 20 from Bussleton. We hadn't realised there are a couple of mines within about 30 minutes drive which is where some of the people work.
On to Bussleton, where it was blowing a gale, which meant that the underwater observatory at the end of the pier was closed. the pier is about 1km long and you can fish, dive and snorkel around it. there's an old fashioned amusement park and cafes and a couple of art galleries. We saw a flock of cockatoos on a playing field, so Dave made a nuisance of himself with them.

On the way back up north we took a different route, through Brunswick junction and met some ex-pat Poms who have set up a woodturning studio and produce some beautiful furniture. We drove through dairy country up to Armadale, Kelmscott etc in the South East of Perth and then as we had time, we drove through the Swan Valley. It's really pretty through here and we wished we had more time to explore, but it was getting dark and we are on the plane back to Brisbane tonight. We found our way to King's Park and drove through in the dark. The lights are beautiful at night from this high vantage point and plenty of other people had the same idea, despite the frequent downpours of rain.

We headed back into Perth city, parked the car and spent an hour wandering the streets. Of course, most of the shops were closed and there didn't seem to be that many people about but the cafes, restaurants and bars were full. We saw one guy settling down in a doorway with a sleeping bag, but there didn't seem to be any trouble about. After several days we are just getting used to finding our way about Perth, and managed to take a different route to the airport without getting lost.

Just one more day to go in sunny Brisbane. Nothing more to do but explore the city and hug koalas.

Day 8 south we go

2008-06-29T00:27:00.004+12:00

Woke to a miserable day, raining with thunder storms threatened. The sea had calmed a bit and I can now see that on a nice day the north beaches must be nice to swim in - the surfers were having a hard time catching a wave in the morning - but it was not the inviting turquoise sea and sun drenched sand you associate with Perth. It's a shame we haven't seen that.

We drove south to Rockingham and had a look round there. The kwinana oil refinery is a bit of a blot on the landscape, but by the time you get to Rockingham the beaches are nice and the place looks fine. Shoalwater bay is lovely! You could spend a long time exploring penguin island and the surrounds by boat or kayak.(Sorry no photos of Shoalwater bay)

We drove on to Warnbro and Port Kennedy. There are some lovely estates and most of the streets look OK, but some are less cared for than others. The St Michel estates look nice, although quite a way back from the beach. The beach is perhaps not as nice as I thought, but again it was a horrible day so hard to judge.

We looked at a couple of art galleries on the way down and deviated from the road to visit a winery at Cape Bouvard, close to Australind. It is beautiful bush out there, it would be a lovely place for a B & B. We had some not very nice wine served by a rather unhappy lady, who told us kangaroos were vermin that knock down fences and green parakeets should be popped off because they destroy grapes and dig up the lawn. She may be right, but we didn't think it was very good customer service when talking to tourists.Down by the estuary, we saw some Thrombocites which are living organisms that grow.

Just outside Australind, we drove along a coastal road with mostly small farms and saw masses of kangaroos grazing in paddocks near the road. In one paddock we counted about 60. Obviously these people didn't mind them, because they had a watch for kangaroos sign on their driveway, but I can see that if you had stock they could be a nuisance. Sixty kangaroos could eat a lot of grass. To us they are just fascinating. We got lots of video footage of them feeding, scratching and a couple fighting.We stayed the night in Bunbury at the Lighthouse Resort - very good rooms with views over the city and the sea for a very reasonable fee. Finally we had a serious lightning storm and I slept right through it.

Day 7 Perth

2008-06-26T21:40:00.008+12:00

Today we went on a cruise from Perth to Fremantle. This is a view of Perth as we were leaving. It wasn't much of a day - it felt about 14, but the weather man just said it was 10, so that's unusually cold for Perth. Tomorrow is supposed to be 19 with possible thunderstorms.
Fremantle is very cosmopolitan. There are cafes where you can eat any sort of food you like (Italian, Indian, Turkish, Chinese, Lebanese), the genuine article, not an Australianised version. It's a nice town and we had a walk around and found this didgeridoo shop. You can have free lessons!

This was a maritime museum, featuring submarine that you can walk through, and a whole lot of stuff people have found on ship wrecks.
We drove to Perth (getting used to this now), parked in a parking building for $15 for the whole day. Perth is a beautiful town. It's clean and pretty and easy to walk around. You feel very safe and relaxed. We did a little shopping before going to "Freo" on the ferry.
Park by the old courthouse.
The bell tower. Awesome, no? And yes, it does have a bell that goes off to mark the hour.

Sculptures in the city.
Our motel with North Beach beyond.
Perth City from Riverside Drive.

Lovely friendly city. It seemed everybody was having a sale on something. Tomorrow we're going to go south for a look at the southern coastal suburbs. We'll probably stay in Mandurah.

Day 6

2008-06-26T11:55:00.005+12:00

We had used up all our perishable food from the camper, except for a couple of oranges picked on the side of the road in Mary Valley. Dave thought there wouldn't be a problem taking them interstate so shoved them in the luggage. But as we landed in Perth, there was someone asking us to give up any fruit or nuts(AU$2000 fine), so we confessed that we had some in a suitcase. After the plane was empty she brought her sniffer dog (a beagle (girl)) in to the terminal and went round bags. She came over to us and we thought the fruit was in Dave's case but it turned out to be in mine and the dog plunged her nose in and started inhaling noisily. Wish I'd thought to get the camera out. We might get a photo of her in action on the way back.

Well, we arrived at the accommodation we had booked to find that it was not at all of the standard it appeared on the website and they had booked us into a twin room, rather than a double. Dave was in no frame to accept that, so we got a refund and booked out with no idea of where the accommodation was. So the first lesson on doing a reccy is that you should print out a map of the suburbs that interest you and mark a couple of houses you like from the real estate sites, so you can check how the areas measure up. The second lesson is that you should have a plan B, or take an accomodation guide. Eventually, (1.30am)(tired and grumpy and lagged) we found a hotel open on City Beach and booked in. In the light of day there were other options, but at night the street lighting out of the city is quite poor and it's hard to find your way around if you don't know where you're going. We were surprised at how little traffic there was around between 11pm and 1.30am. That was a bonus as doing a u turn on a major road was becoming a habit.

In the light of day, Perth is neat and clean. The parks look cared for and the suburbs are trimmed and paved. The beaches are here. In the north they are mostly surf beaches and in the evenings from City beach to North beach the water is packed with surfers and the beach walkways are busy with walkers, joggers and skateboarders from about 4pm.
yeah standing in the Indian ocean. Its not as warm as I expected. But maybe its that I am getting old and am starting to feel it more.Nice Expensive housing. Lots around the 700,000 - 1,000,000 mark.
We went up to Quinn's Rocks looked around that area and Clarkson, Merriwa. All very nice, but the thing I liked about Brisbane is that they only seem to clear what bush they need for the new subdivisions and leave tracts of bush around, which means you still get the birds and it breaks up the new look. In Perth, the new subdivisions seem to be pretty much leveled. We dropped into Mindarie to have a look at the show homes. A nice way to spend an afternoon if you have a spare million.

Dave had a job interview in Joondalup (june-dar-lup), so we went to Joondalup shopping centre for lunch. It's massive with new stages planned for later this year. We're starting to find our way round, after getting on to the motorway in the wrong direction a couple of times. The traffic's not too bad if it's not rush hour.

Today we're looking around a bit more and hopefully doing a cruise on the river later and looking round the city and King's Park.The end of another beaut day. In Perth you can get home and have dinner and wine every night and watch the sun set in the west. You cant do that in Brisbane.

So far, doing comparisons, I think I'd like to "move Hervey Bay and its beaches", to within 30 minutes of either Brisbane or Perth. HB's beaches and also those of Redcliffe/Scarborough in Brisbane, are calm and get deep slowly so are ideal for kids to use kayaks, paddle on surf boards, learn to sailboats etc and jet ski. The surf beaches may be more exciting but also more dangerous and there is less a child can do safely. Still it's all very pretty here and we'll hopefully post some more photos of the city tonight.

More Random Photos

2008-06-24T20:52:00.005+12:00

Please check all posts and reply to any questions we have.

The pool at the camp ground in Hervey Bay.
Liquid morning tea. Heather had XXXX Gold, Dad had Stella
A resort on the beach at Hervey BayTorquay Beach. Warm water . Totally swimable.
The Urangan Bowling Club. Huge and copletely covered. Bowls in all weathers.
Flowers

Day 5 -Tin Can Bay

2008-06-24T20:46:00.005+12:00

The fancy painted loos at Rainbow beach. The loos in Oz are very clean and tidy, so far, much better than NZ.
Fishing in the Coral Sea at Rainbow beach

More shifting sand at Rainbow beach
The lake in the gardens
If you look carefully you will see the head of a turtle in the water. We saw about 6 of them all coming towards us, for a feed I suppose.

Another early night and an early start (5am). Don’t know why we cant sleep late. Too much to do I suppose.

Breakfast of scrambled eggs and cheese and ham (trying to use up the rest of our food) and then off to see the reason we came here in the first place - the dolphins.

We waled the 1k walk down to the boat ramp and there already was a crowd and the lady was raving about the dolphins and all their history.

It started when one dolphin was attacked by a shark and found badly mauled near the boat ramp. It was patched up and fed while it stayed in shallow waters until it was better. Once it was well, it swam off but paid daily visits and brought others with it. Mystique is the only one that will accept fish from anyone. A young dolphin they call Harmony, comes in but is just learning to trust enough to take fish from one of the wardens, while its mother hangs about in the bay and waits till it’s over. The scarring on them is through dolphin fights and there are sharks in the bay that rough them up a bit.

I wasn’t so sure I liked the idea of encouraging dolphins to hand feed until she told us that it is only about 10% of what they eat during the day, and if they come back on the same day they don’t get fed again, so they never become dependent.

Standing in line with all the other tourists waiting to feed the dolphins.

It was pretty cool to get so close to them. You can swim out to meet them if you like, but after hearing about the Tiger Sharks in the bay, I don’t think I’d be a starter. I like the fact that they only charge a gold coin donation, as some of the resorts charge a fortune.

The camping ground.

Tin Can Bay is quite a pretty place. You can hire a boat or do dolphin charters, or hire a houseboat and take off for a couple of days. But I’m guessing that most people come initially for the dolphins.

We had coffee at Barnacles cafe and now we’re off to Brisbane. When we come back from Perth we have 12 hours in Brisbane before our flight home, so have decided to hire a car and be tourists that day. Today we’re making our way back and trying to take in some of the places we missed on our first day.

As we aren’t considering moving to the Sunshine coast we decided to leave it out this trip. We have to return our camper before 4pm, so just decided to skip it. It will have to wait for another trip. The Bruce highway is brilliant, mostly straight and in places you’re allowed to travel at 110kph. Makes you wonder why they bother putting Watch for kangaroo signs on it, though, as you wouldn’t have a hope of avoiding one.

We got off the m’way at North Lakes and did some leisurely shopping in their great shopping mall. Then we drove down through Murrumba Downs, then Petrie, Lawnton, Strathpine etc all of which look nice and back to drop off our camper. We had a few problems with the camper, meaning we had to stay mostly in camping grounds, but it was worth it to have the freedom to go where we wanted.

Brisbane light from the domestic terminal and all the people waiting around the departure lounge. Virgin Blue seem to do the most business because at the other end of the lounge, which goes on a long way, it is relatively empty.

Now we’re at the airport waiting to go to Perth tonight – a 5 ½ hour flight at night. Perth is 2 hours behind Brisbane, and we get there quite late, pick up a rental car and drive to our lodgings. Will let you know more tomorrow as we have internet where we are staying

Monday contd

2008-06-24T20:21:00.004+12:00

Impressions of Hervey Bay
The Man who hates sharks has set up this shark info center.

The Hervey Bay Caravan Park is wonderful. The manager was so friendly and helpful. When she learned that we were trying to keep a blog of our journey she gave us a 24 hour wireless internet pass for $10, which meant that we could sit in our camper and sort photos, write and post it all. She also showed us the golden orb spider (about 3 inches) which spins a golden thread and wraps its babies in a gold cradle. She told us they have 4 or 5 snakes on site which eat bugs but don’t harm humans. Sadly we didn’t see them. Apparently they don’t like this cold 20 degree weather and get sleepy.

Heather on the dishes roster.

Hervey Bay Motor camp or one of them and our camper.

It was sad leaving Hervey Bay, not knowing whether we’ll be back, and having made so many imaginary friends on the internet. Hervey Bay is lovely. I didn’t find one area that I thought was awful although, like everywhere, there are some streets that aren’t that flash. Most areas are lovely. The people are friendly and there is lots to do and the weather is great, considering it’s mid-winter. I only wish we’d been tourists and had the time to do the evening champagne dolphin cruise, or go to Fraser Island.

Today we tried to film the bats hanging upside down on their trees, but they were a bit far away. We paddled at Torquay beach.

It was still early morning, so a bit cool but not skin-numbing cold. There were people fishing and pelicans sitting on the beach.

The sand squeaks under your feet and the water was not warm, but pleasant enough to swim if you weren’t a wuss like me. We visited the local art gallery – the lady was a kiwi. Lol. We kind of like Torquay and Urangan and parts of Eli Waters, but Dave still has a soft spot for Toogoom.

Something for the dog...

In the afternoon Dave went visiting job contacts, but is still a bit worried about the availablility of decent jobs and pay. Small town Queensland is not that different to small town NZ on the wage front, but there is the bonus of warm weather all year round. We have lots of thinking to do.

The female of the species "Golden Orb" is the large on and the little guy in the background is the male. She will eat him when she wants to. Her web is a beautiful golden color.

On the way out we went to Maryborough where Dave had more job contacts. I’m sure there are people who love Maryborough. It’s an historical town with a few nice buildings, but to us it was a jaded old hag that needs to lie down. One of Dave’s contacts said there is no way he’d employ him unless he lived in Maryborough, because Hervey Bay people get sick of commuting half an hour. After being there, the only thing that would induce me to work there would be the fact that I could go home to Hervey Bay at the end of the day, and Dave feels the same. It is a depressing dump.

We decided to go to Tin Can Bay for the night because a couple of dolphins come in to feed at 8am each morning. Not too far away is Rainbow Beach, where there are colourful sands caused by mineral deposits. It is a really long drive to reach this place and when you get there the friggin sand blow is miles away, whereas I thought it would be at the bottom of the beach steps. However, I didn’t research this one very well. You can hire a 4WD, or ponies, or most cool of all, you can hire a camel train, if you check what time they leave! And I tell you it is a bloody long beach and you would be glad of a camel under you.

What amazed us was how many people live in Rainbow Beach, Cooloola Cove and Tin Can Bay, which are in the middle of nowhere. There are new housing estates and industry and Cooloola Cove has a Woolworths! The are also selling house and land packages! What do these people do? Where do they work? The locals say it’s tourism but I don’t think that accounts for so much expansion.

We walked the pretty sands and the next minute a truck as big as a rubbbish truck comes roaring up the beach – still not sure what he was doing, but it was impressive. We found short cut to Tin Can Bay, arriving just before dark. The cockatoos were flying round making a racket and we have parked in what looks like a gorgeous place. Time to explore tomorrow. Lots of fruit bats here too. Millions, or should I say minions?

Feeling a bit jaded, we decided to see if we could eat out. Went to The Black Cockatoo, but it was closed for Monday, and although the owner was there he was unfriendly and unhelpful. The owner of the Kingfisher Caravan park, however, was a gem.

Monday 23 June, 2008

2008-06-23T07:55:00.002+12:00

Thank you for the use of your computer Adam as where we are staying has wireless internet and we can do all this from the comfort of our camper. This is being written after being up for a couple of hours at 4 am. Last night we missed videoing the fruit bats that live in Hervey Bay's botanical gardens, as it was almost dark when they finally decided to move. I had ideas that I was going to catch them coming home, but although they've been making a racket since about 4am,I must've missed the return trip. It's about 6am now, just getting light and quite cold at the moment.

We'll try to get koala pictures for Kate either on Tuesday or when we come back over to Brisbane from Perth. All going well tonight we'll make our way to Tin Can Bay tonight (about one hour south) to see the dolphins in the morning, and check out the Rainbow beach, before heading down the Sunshine coast and back to Brisbane. Don't know if we'll be anywhere with internet to finish this tonight, but we'll update you as soon as we can.

Some pretty flowers

2008-06-23T07:47:00.002+12:00

There are some amazing flowers and plants here. very tropo.

The spiders are really big. This guy was on the side of the track back up from the beach and is about 9cm including his legs.

This is a large Banyan on the Esplanade at Hervey bay. The little boy had just finished peeing on it.

Day Three

2008-06-22T22:28:00.006+12:00

Last nite we stayed at Toogoom (tooggum). We ended up her because David was driving in the dark and this was a place that was mentioned north of Dundowran beach to stay at without being told to move on.

We made dinner and then went down to the pub. Yes, there was a restaurant/bar - Goodys on the beach. As we drove in, on the north end of Toogoom, we thought this was a tiny settlement and couldn't believe there'd be enough to sustain a bar & a cafe called The Salty Squid. In NZ a nip is 15mls, so whenever we order spirits we order a double. We went into Goodys and ordered a double whiskey and a double rum and coke and the bar maid said that would be $19.80. We nearly fell over, but as we tasted it we realised it was incredibly strong. The aussie nip, bless 'em is 30ml! So the price for a single would've been cheaper than NZ at $4.50.

Upon rising after listening to the dawn chorus and watching the sun rise,(kookaburras, rosellas, magpies - alll taking turns to sing). we walked along the beach. Like a deserted island paradise, apart from the tide being out, and enjoyed the morning sun and greeted some locals coffee-ing at the end of their garden. We walked back along Kingfisher Pde and back to the camper for brecky.
We drove around and realised this is a large booming new estate, and Dave fell in love with it. It's nice, and about 10 minutes from town but I'm not sure the older kids would enjoy the lack of entertainment.(town things but ours rarely leave the TV, playstation or computer. However, it offers cheapish housing, a safe beach and off road fun if you want it.(dirt biking for Elliot, 4wd for Dad, Jet ski for Adam and Swimming and water for all)

Today we explored Hervey Bay. It was cool this morning, but once the sun was up it was around 20 degrees (9.30am) and felt more because there was no breeze. We walked the Urangan pier which is around 860 metres long.

There were loads of people and families fishing. We met Jim (retired at 50) and his son Harry. They moved to HB four years ago from Victoria and absolutely love the all year outdoor living.
Jim has caught a 64kg shark at the end of the pier and there are a couple of gropers that weigh in at 600kg but you are not allowed to keep them, let alone get them on to the pier.

Some of the locals have good balancing skills and can swim well.

Some of Queensland is a bit behind with providing internet access, so we spent a couple of hours in HB downloading our log. Sadly, we were a bit late to ride bikes along the esplanade as we planned, but we took a drive through some suburbs.

We visited Point Vernon, as there's a cheap new estate going up, which we saw online. It didn't quite measure up to expectations, although the right hand side of the point is OK. Somehow, we hadn't realised there was rock all the way round. The houses for sale were mostly on very small sections, although there were a few larger ones available, but they seemed all crammed in and didn't appeal. A bunch of kangaroos came down to the office. Somehow I hadn't expected kangaroos on the point, but there are loads and they hop down the street in the morning.

We liked parts of Eli Waters and viewed some amazing properties at the back of Wondunna. Dave, as a builder, is gobsmacked at what you can get for your money in HB. The houses are fantastic size and quality compared to NZ.

Eventually we got sick of looking at houses and it was getting late so we went to find a camp. I'd heard that the fruit bats now live in the Botanical gardens, so chose a camp close by. While cooking dinner I could hear the din from the gardens and I thought they must stay over the gardens and we wouldn't see them, but just as it was getting dark they filled the sky, screeching and flitting over each other, and disappearing into the sunset like Dracula's children on a feeding expedition. Go Van Helsing...

Tomorrow is another day.

Random Photos

2008-06-22T21:57:00.005+12:00

Hi guys here is a collection of photos of us and stuff.

Mummy waiting to use the loo on the plane. See she is smiling. goodness knows why!!!

This is a shot of Redcliffe from the plane (duh)

A large paddling pool at Redcliffe

Elliot. The heavy rain while driving on the Bruce Highway north

Lookout they are every where,... although we did not see any here. This is in Rothwell just north of Redcliffe.
The rain bow from Burpengary after the storm.

Guess who. This was at Scarborough Beach motor camp on the Redcliffe peninsula.

Two painters inn the morning (9am) at Deception Bay, north of Redcliffe. They are painting the Redcliffe peninsula in front of them.

If you look carefully you can see a Kookaburra in the branches.(in the middle) This was beside the road at Burpengary East.

Worrim Beach on Bribie Island. really nice surf beach.Sign says no nude sunbathing so we had to put clothes on Damn.

Redcliffe beach looking back from the pier.

Self explanitory

Pelicans at Bongaree on Bribie Island. Stopped here for a look and a coffee. A long way off the route north, but worth the diversion. (lol. Oliver)

This is how pineapples are grown. There are heaps of them on the tourist route past Oz zoo.

Day two

2008-06-22T14:48:00.013+12:00

I am now in a much better frame of mind having the battery charged and things seem to be going better now.

Heather’s ramblings

Today we decided to chill out and do what we wanted. Dave likes to tiki tour round streets he doesn’t know, so we decided to do that and ask for directions once we got lost. From Scarborough we drove to Deception Bay. There are all these signs in the suburbs telling you that there are koalas and kangaroos for the next few kilometres. As we drove through the suburb of Rothwell I saw a couple of kangaroo heads poking above the grass on an empty grass area, but there was nowhere to stop, so we kept going.

When we first looked at Deception Bay online we thought it would be a great place to live, but later people told us it was a bit rough. When we first drove in we liked it. The waterfront is beautiful and there are good and bad areas, but there is a large permanent trailer park, and the central part is very run down with narrow streets and unkempt houses very close together. To be fair the area has everything you could want including new gym and sporting facilities, the people are friendly, but not so sure it’s a great family area. We drove through the back and got lost in a beautiful, very expensive area where houses had blocks of land in the bush and stopped to talk to some people. They told us we were in Burpengary East and that somehow we had missed a really big shopping centre yesterday, and we quite liked it there, but it’s not beachside. After that we went bush and Dave will tell you about that.

Sand angels at the pier in Redcliffe

A word about wildlife

We have seen amazing birds. These are every where and are Ibis'. They are so used to humans that they will jump up on your table and eat the

food from your plate if you are not looking. On the ground there are Ibis birds which look really exotic, with long legs and long black beaks, but they are a bloody nuisance at cafes, just like
seagulls.

There are rosellas and parakeets, galahs and other unidentifiable birds we’ve never seen. We’ve seen a number of kookaburras, although we haven’t heard them laugh yet. Today at Bongaree beach on Bribie Isalnd we saw pelicans sitting on the water - beautiful.

Despite the signs, we understand that seeing a koala in the wild is as likely as seeing a kiwi in the wild, especially from a car driving at 100k.

Although we drove all day in bush and grassland we didn’t see a single kangaroo. We were about to conclude that it was all a lie and Australia has no kangaroos, when we arrived at Gympie, and there in the middle of Gympie town, right next to the motorway, on a mown

sports ground we saw two large red roos drinking from a pond. After that we saw a family of smaller grey kangaroos in a paddock and Dave videoed them. They were just staring so he told me to scare them and without thinking I plunged into the long grass at the roadside to scare them. It worked, but I suddenly remembered I was in Australia and there could be snakes in there. Having said that, we haven’t seen one yet.

I have never seen so many pineapples. We even saw a few banana palms, but so much sugar cane it’s unbelievable. We have yet to see a cane toad, but watch this space.

So Dave will tel you about the other stuff.

On the journey north we took, the tourist side road which has been renamed "steve Irwin highway" which runs past Oz zoo. We did not stop. We did stop to climb Mt Beerburrum. Nothing to do with beer though. There is a small town there of about 20 houses and the rail goes into Brisbane 1.25 hours drive away. There was a lookout there which seemed a good idea at the time so we climbed it. The Mt is only 250m high but the walk is 700m and is steeper than 45 degrees in places. The view to die for.

The area around here is due to be flooded (for drinking water) so as we drove though here it was worth a look at a local genuine Queensland heartland town called Mary.
Some very interesting houses.

The security around here is pretty harsh on any intruders.

Beware of the chicken it said on the gate but the dogs were probably more of a worry.

here we are in the land of oz.

2008-06-22T14:28:00.008+12:00

We left Christchurch Airport in a below zero frost at 6am. As we approached Brisbane, the Captain mentioned that Brisbane Airport was closed due to fog. The bizarre thing was that apart from the airport, Brisbane was awash with sunshine. We flew in a circling pattern for an hour, enjoying Moreton Island and the Glasshouse mountains again and again.... This gave Dave another chance for a scotch on the rocks, the second on the flight, while Heather drank all the wine (bubbly too).

Heather under the welcome sign at brizy airport

Romped through customs and border patrol. Heather was delayed as her destination in

Queensland was Brisbane but no address. This caused a laugh as Davids destination was

”mobile camper" which worked a treat. David ran to help Heather with details of the camper

etc... (thats another story)

It was about 23 degrees when we arrived and our jeans were too much. We got a taxi to pick up our camper – later found out he’d robbed us by going the long way round. The guy at the hire company gave us directions to a supermarket. We still haven’t found it.

As we’re coming back through in a few days, and again before we fly home we decided to leave exploring Brisbane until then and headed north. We found our way to the motorway and headed to the Redcliffe peninsula as this is one area we like the look of. For those looking to move it looks a lovely area for families with nice beaches and parks and some really ritzy houses on the waterfront. The natives were friendly, except on the road. They have no patience with a large camper dawdling in front of them and we sparked some road rage. We had a paddle in the sea, Dave couldn’t resist making a sand angel in a newly graded beach. We also talked to a local photographer who had moved from South Africa. Kate street,Redcliffe

We headed out and Heather wanted to explore some of the nearby suburbs. We called in to a display home area in Halpine Lake and then the weather packed in and we had an impressive thunderstorm that lasted about 20 minutes. We tried to call in to North Lakes shopping centre but missed the turn and ended up on the motorway heading north. Once the torrential rain eased we decided to explore some of the suburbs. The annoying thing here is that there are signs telling you to turn right for the town centre, but then you drive and eventually reach the next suburb having never seen the town centre. We did that a few times, through some pretty country around Burpengary (never found the centre) and Narangba (never found the lake).

Stopped to get groceries and discovered the battery was flat so we had no fridge, no lights or anything unless we stayed in a motor camp which we hadn’t planned on. So we drove back to Redcliffe/Scarborough and got the last spot for the night. All is working well now an hopfully will be in the morning or I am going to get relly pisst off.

So now we're on the move again

2008-06-17T22:38:00.004+12:00

Hi there folks . .
. . who I have not yet had the privilege of meeting.
We are embarking on our first overseas trip in 20 years. The last time-move, was when we went to Vanuatu for two weeks.
But thats another story.

This time we have decided to enter into a "reconnaissance mission" to explore, . .
" the final frontier".

AUSTRALIA.

Land of hope and glory, and all that other shit.

But we are on our way, and if you are at all interested, (and we hope your are), then this is where you will need to come.

Brisbane bound we are, and we will be there on Friday, 20 June @ 0705 just in time to have latte and croissants.

Chow for now...

AARRRGGHH

2007-08-27T13:00:00.000+12:00

Does no body read these theings or do they read but not comment. I thought that they were out there to have peolpe to contribute to them and make some sort of comment should, of course a comment be required.

This is a great drop of wine for NZ.
Quality wines at an affordable price.

This photo was taken while we were out at the Shearers Quarters having a spot of lunch.

Great place for kids and there is a small farm yard where they can feed them and have a safe enjoyable time.....that goes for the kids too.

Have a great day

So Today in Politics

2007-08-26T20:06:00.000+12:00

We had the highest temperature in the whole of NZ today.
Small country I know but high it was.
20 degrees C
Wow and it is still the winter , officially.
Watched tae kwon do as the kids of mine fought and danced their way to a new belt.
They have just started so they are only yellow to green tip but boy they were good.
I find it hard to remember what they are supposed to be doing and then on top of that to understand the judge who doesn't speak very much english but pass they did and I was very impressed.
Fighting requires a lot of skill to do it and even more when you get hurt and have to stay there for the round and the match before coming to dad for a luv and a hug but stay she did. She was kicked in the ribs in a free spar and it really hurt. She managed to channel that energy into breaking boards and dad was very proud of her. Well done Laura.
(Laura is not mine but a close friends' daughter)

This is a picture of what the politicking of this country is doing to the people of same.......

Invasion detected

2007-08-22T21:45:00.000+12:00

Its a Chinese invasion. We in NZ are being over run by Chinese. They came here in their droves during the gold rush and again now on mass but not in reality but in the disquise of "overseas goods".

Made in China.

This has got the genuine kiwi on the run and afraid that they maybe killing their offspring in the process. But to buy NZ made is such a huger expense. One lady was quoted as saying she could clothe her four kids in Chinese stuff but for the same money could only clothe one in NZ made stuff.

www.blognetnews.com/pajamas/feed.php?channel=82 this is where I got the image.

Tonite, while out walking around the block with the dog, I wondered whether the Chinese knew about the formaldehyde in the clothes and were trying to poison all the whites in the country and we thoughts why just the whites. Maybe there is something in the formaldehyde that also just kills specifically and then why not the blacks and the yellows and the other colors we have in this great country. We pondered about all the other things that we buy from china or is made there.
Like for example the "glow in the dark garden lites"
Now these could also contain a small web cam that is motion activated and films us when we are out in our gardens, or. . . . . . . . . out walking the dog.

Definitely a theory

of CONSPIRACY. . . . . .

going round and round

2007-08-07T15:43:00.000+12:00

Til you cant get off your feet" (the cars)

Its funny sometimes when you get this song in your head and you just can't shake it.
Mowing the lawns always does it for me.
I remember when I was a boy mowing the lawns I used to sing "Please please don't eat the daisies, don't eat the daisies" but today I had moved forward in time. Today I was singing "frankie goes to hollywood...relax don't do it if you want to get thru relax don't do it if you want to cum..."
There doesn't seem to be anything you can do to get it out.
I think that its not until you become engrossed in something else do you actually finaly get it out and then you come and write about it on the web and you have to drag it back in, kicking and screaming but in it comes, . . . and away you go again.

----BUGGER----

Never mind.

Film recommendations...

Stranger than fiction" is a great movie, about a guy with a womans voice in his head telling him every thing he was doing, only better.

Very cool

Waiting

2007-08-02T09:14:00.000+12:00

Been a while but "I'm back" How many peoples and races have been dismembered from their home land by whatever means?... and you end up with every nation under the sun so why is it that some of them go on and on about the losses they have experienced. The second world war for one, was one that saw a generation of people taken or forced from their land and not have it returned. Some of them grumble and some of them live and some of them fight to have it returned. We in NZ have our own misplaced peoples. The Maori. They are going on about the "fact" that they were forcibly moved or had land taken from them by the white guys back in the 1800's and we as a nation have been paying through the nose for this "injustice" ever since and the monetary cost is outrageous.
Enough already.
Why can't we get on into the future and not look into the past and cry. Get a life.
Anyway, when the maori got here they killed all the moas and burnt the land and killed and ate all the locals so I think they got a pretty good deal from the white guy really.
Lets just live together and make our nation one that the world will be inspired by.

If we could do it all differently

2007-07-24T22:36:00.000+12:00

Time.
I called this blog Cruising thru time. When I did this I had no idea what I was going to call it but some how we are all cruising to some degree or other.
Time has this wonderful way of getting hold of you and not letting you go. After all we are governed by time in some way or other. Can we move thru time in some way.
Beam me up scotty has a ring all of its own, but not quite moving thru so to speak....

If we could travel thru time without affecting our future self, like if when we caught up to ourselves the two would just blend and you sort of knew what ....

but then didn't.

The Ball

2007-07-21T08:38:00.000+12:00

Last night was Timaru's equivalent of the proms night. There were balls for Africa in the last few weeks. Last night was my sons ball down at the water front. There were people everywhere who turned up to watch the arrival of the guests all dressed up in all sorts of attire. The theme for the night was Moulan Rouge. Some were done up,.. and some done down. It is a huge deal for these kids to go to such a function.
Very stess ful if things don't quite go as planned.
Earings not the right colour, hair not the right colour, etc...

Cars were also a feature of the night. We arrived in a borrowed Roll Royce while others in combi vans, fire engines and even one guy in a shopping trolley.
But all in all they had agreat night and a good after function.
Well my son is now in bed so it must have been OK.

amazing

2007-07-19T22:31:00.000+12:00

Aren't families great!!!!!

Have just purchased a William Shatner CD and have been playing it constantly over the last two days.

The kids all have thier favourites. So that is what we did tonite. player music and sat as a familiy and ate icecreams in the kitchen.

It was real nice.

"yes dear"

2007-07-17T22:34:00.000+12:00

My father always seems to get more right answers as I have gotten older.
"Employ 1 boy get a boy,
Employ 2 boys , get half a boy,
Employ 3 boys, get no boys at all"
Well I reckon four or five of my boys today would barely make the grade as one boy back then.
How right he was.

Lost It,
tonight he did .

Got a text from someone on my phone with the name dad. but because I don't know the number of by heart I do not still know who "dad" is.

Replied of course........
Never heard back.

Probably 'his' wife no doubt.

Thank God its Friday

2007-07-13T17:50:00.000+12:00

Yes folks, in this part of the world our weekend is about to start.
Bummer, I'm working tomorrow but it is still the weekend; and weekend things will no doubt be going on.
Not a lot to talk about at the moment but will keep youi all informed as soon as anything amazing happens.

Don't feed your dog bread. It dries his tummy and he either throws up or his poo is dry and hard to pass

other stuff around

2007-07-11T07:57:00.000+12:00

Found this really cool animation this morning.
There are some really talented people out there.

Relax , enjoy.

Pablo from gunslingers19 and Vimeo.

I relly like this but could find nowhere on pablo's site to comment. So here is the comment.

Comment: Nice

Is there any body out there

2007-07-11T07:37:00.000+12:00

I am all alone in the universe it seems.
No body has responded to my blog.
Am I too impatient?

I know I have only had the blog for three days or so but if an email can go around the world in a flash and be added to by all the recipients then why not add to mine.
Is it boring?
or
Are there just too many out there to respond to?
Boo Hoo

************************************

Rain and more rain. You would have thought we would have had enough rain by now. In the north they are inundated with rain and rising tides and are in a state of emergency. Flooding and mayhem all over.
We more civilized in the south have rain too but only enough to be bloody annoying to people who work outside.
Are we, as a virus race, responsible for the changes in weather or is this a natural recurrence of history. You know, big floods (Noah) and then the big freeze (Ice Age). Maybe we are all doomed.

Murder on my mind

2007-07-09T16:55:00.000+12:00

A while ago a bloke was convicted of killing his ex girlfriend, her kids, and her new lover.
He got life, which means, in this country, 21 years without parole.
He has only served 1 year of his sentence and has been diagnosed as having leukemia. He requires life saving surgery which is a bone marrow transplant. This is going to cost the NZ tax payer NZ$1 million on top of the cost to house and feed this guy for the following 21 years @ 1200 per week = about $1,310,410.

Question: should this guy get the treatment to extend his life or not.

NZ has many people on waiting lists for life saving surgery who are law abiding citizens and some of them will not get it and some will have to find their own money to fund such treatment. This bastard took the lives of four people and was found guilty. Should he get the surgery.

I say no.

By not giving him the surgery he will die earlier and the money we save from that could go towards some one more deserving.
I believe that in killing someone in cold blood violates their rights and therefore the murderer should have all their human rights removed.
Prison should be prison. The removal from society and removal of all their rights and privileges under common law.

It annoys me that my taxes could go toward saving a murders life when he did not pare his victims. Not to mention the victims families.

Prison should be prison. Warmth shelter food.
Where is the death penalty when you need it

End off story...

Afternoons

2007-07-07T21:38:00.000+12:00

This day started really slowly.
It wasn't until after lunch that we got onto it and did something. Kids, dog, wife headed down to the beach but, call it coincidence, callit fate, we went the wrong way and had to take a different route thatn we normally take. This took us down to the wharfs and industrial area by the sea. However going this way was in fact a blessing/goodthing because we were able to look at our new boat. MHNZS Canterbury

The dog got to stay in the car until we had had a wander around. We were not aloud to go on board today as they were about to leave.
So we headed out to the ends of the rock wave barrier to watch it go but it never left. It was now leaving tomorrow.
Tanks of oil and tarrow and petrol are also down in this area saw this was a good topic to get the kids talking about.

So this was my day until I called on a great friend to find she was cutting Debbie's hair.
Cool stayed for a while and walked home in the evening light.
Nice walk too.

"freinds and lovers" Bruce Cockburn

2007-07-06T22:20:00.000+12:00

I was at a friends place and after chatting and being together for a while I got in the car and came home.
I thought about this for a while on that home trip and came to the conclusion that leaving my friends place was like moving from one person to another at a party.
You chat to so'n'so and when you have had enough of them, you move to someone different. Someone who you ;

1. felt more comfortable with
2. liked more
3. thought was more popular
4. owed you money
5. owed money to.

For whatever reason you left the party or person, they could very well be thinking the same or even worse;
"Thank god hes gone now I can ring such'n'such" or " ....

And I came to the conclusion that it was none of the above and yet all of the above. I am freinds with people greatly and really fell comfortable in their presence and I like them.

It was time to see my best friend and lover and partner and confidant and fighter and bitch , "but hey", what the heck I wanted to come to the thing I love the most.

When I work away from home, even for the one night, I count the kms/miles between each town and the towns getting closer to home and I think of the love I have waiting for me at home, (apart from the sex) my soul mate.

"I am the greatest good in your life"
Quote from The Incredibles

Rave rave rave...

The first time

2007-07-06T10:33:00.001+12:00

Well .
There is a first time for everything, and it happens to us all.
This is the first time I have had a post/blog or even a diary, online.
My very first diary was when I was young and it was found and read by my mother.
Shock horror. There are some things a mum should not do and that was/is one of them.
Reading questionable books or mags is another pastime one should keep away from prying eyes.
That stuff is personal and to be shared, if at all, with some one you trust ...
a bit like "the first time" ,... with someone special and trusted.
Never mind thats another story.

The first time we went skating was this year at the new skate ring in Tekapo NZ. Great new facility and hot spa. Will definitely something that will be pursued more.

The weather is great here at the moment. We are in the middle of winter and there is snow on the hills and rain on the coast. Maybe the ski fields will be open soon. YEA

A small dog was our first time addition this year. The youngest kids wanted one. Guess who looks after it now it is not so new?