Category: Trips
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Camping at Tumbledown Nature Refuge
We had experienced our most stressful travelling day before arriving at Tumbledown Nature Refuge. One of the kids was feverish and unhappy, and a vital part had fallen off our rented camper trailer while driving over the Main Range, which meant that we had to frantically find an RV supply store for a replacement so…
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Up north
Some scattered memories from our recent holiday: Edward and I left a chilly winter morning in Brisbane, and arrived to warm sunny weather in Cairns. Mum picked us up from Cairns airport in a borrowed car. “The air conditioning doesn’t work,” she said. “I mean, you can test it, but I turned it on and…
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Pink berries
I was watching Edward busily gathering up pink berries scattered over our friend’s garden, as he muttered about them being “tiny ‘matoes”, and asked our host if they were safe to eat. “Oh yeah, the lilly pilly berries. I think they’re actually deadly poisonous,” he told me laconically, watching his own children play with them.…
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On the South Island
In preparation for our holiday in Wanaka, I ordered several sticker books from the Usborne sticker book range on such varied themes as dinosaurs, trucks and farm animals, and I recommend them heartily as plane entertainment aids for two year olds. “Where do you think this dinosaur should go, Ted?” Edward considered the matter with…
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Moments
Some of my favourite moments from our recent trip to NZ’s South Island: 1. Queenstown would not be my usual favourite holiday spot – it’s so touristy, and my preferred kind of travel is out of tourist season. Hanging out with crowds of other tourists is not my idea of a good time. But Queenstown…
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In zid
Things I’m loving about New Zealand: – the amount of farmland, and the sheer number of sheep I have seen grazing in fields, in the snow, and on seemingly sheer mountainsides. I love sheep. I am going to move here and run a sheep farm. With other people doing all the hard work – I’ll…
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On the beach
It was fairly overcast when we went across to Stradbroke Island a couple of weeks ago, but there were odd rays of sunshine that broke through the cloud cover. We took advantage of a relatively clear late afternoon, and walked down to sit on some rocks by the beach, drinking red wine and smoking a…
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In the distance
We were driving second, which meant we watched our friends’ four wheel drive sliding crazily along the muddy track before we followed them. It didn’t fill me with confidence. I don’t think I particularly enjoyed clinging on in the passenger seat as we drove through some particularly steep and muddy sections – I mean, it’s…
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On the dirt
We went driving in the truck this morning, up Shaws Pocket Road, which I had read a bit about online. If you look at the road on maps, you can see that it narrows down and continues through past a quarry to somewhere in Ormeau. After reading various forums online, I’m still not sure whether…
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Long weekends
We stayed in Stanthorpe over the long weekend, and did a walk in Girraween National Park to Castle Rock – it’s about a 5k return walk, with the most fantastic views up at the top of the rock. It was overcast and freezing, as we were trying to fit our walk before the forecast rain,…
o frabjous day! 