December 26 - 28

On the way back to Rye after Christmas we called in to see the sand sculptures at Frankston. The theme was "under the sea". The sculptures are amazing:








Note the detail of the rivets on the submarine (above) and the buildings (below)








Back at Rye Brian and Cheryl decided to take us to a place called the Gorge. The last part is a climb over a fairly steep sand dune. Brian helped Cheryl to the top by pulling her




I scrambled to the top by crawling.
However the views were worth the trouble.








The next part of our journey sees us meeting up with fellow kiwis and taking a scenic route from Melbourne to Adelaide.

Merry Christmas

So the next thing to get fixed on the vehicle was the ABS. The folk at Shepparton had decided that the computer needed replacing, so it was a bit of a relief when the Pakenham auto electrician said that the front left sensor was at fault. (we thought that Shepparton had ruled that out). So once again we made a trip from Rye to Pakenham, had breakfast in a local cafe and waited for the phone call to say all was repaired. After a two hour breakfast we picked up our repaired vehicle and decided to head back to Rye down the East coast of the peninsular instead of the regular route.
Lunch stop was at Flinders. We found a quiet cafe down a side street.....and found that they were in the Guiness Book of Records for the largest custard square a.k.a. Vanilla Slice, so of course Brandt just had to have a piece.








No he didn't finish it, we had to get a doggy bag.

Next stop was at Cape Schank.
Got out of the car and went for a "small" walk


When told "we needn't go all the way down" I agreed to go partway.


But seemed to get lured further and further down


I did not go ALL the way down, but nearly (I decided that the last flight of steps was one flight too many).
While waiting for Brandt to come back up I noticed this warning





The rock to the left of the cliff is known as "pulpit rock"
So began what I thought would be an agonizing return to the top. I (and Brandt too) was amazed at how easily I walked back up. I've decided that it was a result of climbing in and out of the caravan many times a day!

In Shepparton there is a shop called "Cheap as Chips" that is where we bought our Christmas decorations and solar lights. The lights come on of their own accord when the natural light fades.
The tinsel came in at least five meter lengths





One day we decided to be tourists and went to the Boneo Maze and Wetlands








They also had an area that contained what we found to be difficult puzzles


Does this sum it up?


Not to be beaten, Cheryl took photos of this puzzle plus a photo of the solution (at last check, she is still working on it).

Next stop was a place called Arthurs Seat, where we had coffee. This is a great lookout over towards Melbourne city (apparently on a nice clear day the city skyline is visible from here).



We came to Melbourne to house sit for four days. We drove up the West coast of the peninsular, stopping for lunch at Brighton.





I was taken by the variation in colour between sea and sky.


We return to Rye on Boxing Day.

So this is wishing my "followers" and my readers a very blessed Christmas and a wonderful new year.

On to Melbourne

After three weeks at Greens Lake (the longest time we have spent in one place) we moved on. The ABS light still showing but $480 spent and the diagnosis not complete. Not far down the road ALL the lights came on. After careful thought, it was decided that we continue to the caravan park in Bendigo where we could put the battery on the charger overnight and then limp in to Melbourne. Brandt decided to make excellent use of the Anderson plug. He connected all four batteries and we set off. It was a lovely sunny day, which meant that the solar panels on top of the van were putting current into the batteries that were helping to keep us going so we were "solar powered" (good thinking!) The result was that we got to Berwick on the far side of Melbourne with no problems. However I did notice that the e-tag for the toll roads beeped more often than I would have liked. On the other hand it was a much easier passage across Melbourne than we had when we were here in 1990!
First thing Monday morning we took the car to a garage recommended by our friend and fellow grey nomad, Brian. The diagnosis was that the alternator installed in June was damaged beyond repair. We are all left wondering why.


So now we are at Rye on the Mornington Peninsular and will be here until after Christmas.
We are staying with Brian and Cheryl. It was a tight squeeze but we got the van in





Went for a walk along beach number 16 last night.





Here is a collage Cheryl made from photos she took yesterday.

Greens Lake

The lazy, restful days continue. Tuesday I went in to Shepparton with a fellow kiwi grey nomad as she wanted to buy a digital camera and thought I may know a bit about what she wanted. The result is that we have been experimenting with what our cameras can do. One evening I went for a walk and got some good reflections shots off the lake.



Then there were the experiments with taking photos of the moon over the water. I am quite proud of the one I took with the camp fire in the foreground.


About midweek we had some boaties come out after work. They provided another opportunity for us to experiment with our cameras.


Seeing as we are here for an extended period of time Brandt put up all the shade cloths that we had bought way back in Caboolture. They cut out UV as well as heat.


The one out front extends our "outdoor area" quite nicely. Unfortunately the wind often blows strongly overnight. A neighbour caught us out one morning putting one shade cloth back up.


Wouldn't be wearing winter PJs these last few mornings. We all thought of starting up our generators after "customary" curfew last night. Air con would have been welcome. We were told the overnight low would be 26 degrees.

I have a couple of snake episodes to report. The first snake was found (dead) in the men's toilets.





The other incident was when a couple driving in saw a snake swimming in the water with its head up in the air. They watched it slither ashore, called out the alert so that someone could watch and see where it went. However as it was an Eastern Brown, one of the most deadliest, the new arrival went and got a metal rod and proceeded to kill it.


You can see where he broke its back. The lighter colour is the underside of the snake.

While we have been here we have had various members of the Grey Nomads forum come to spend time with us. It has been a great sociable time.

A few days ago we had a series of thunder storms cross during the course of the day. Not much rain, but the fork lightening was spectacular. The crackle of the thunder was awesome/frightening/spectacular (actually the thunder report is from Brandt as I missed it. This was the day I went to Shepparton to assist with the camera purchase) he says he stood outside for a while just watching it pass by.

As I write this the wind has got up again and we are expecting storms again.

Why can't it be Christmas every day of the year?

One thing I didn't mention about our time in Tathra is that Irene and I decided that we would have an early Christmas on the Saturday night. She got out some of her decorations and I produced the small Christmas Tree that I'd bought from Big W


Then Last Wednesday we had another "Christmas Dinner" with our Grey Nomad friends here at Greens Lake.
I made a couple of pavs, Brandt made a trifle (and that used up the egg yolks in the custard), we did two meat dishes, one in the camp oven that we have been given and the other meat dish in the dream pot.
16 grey nomads enjoyed their early Christmas. (we even put Christmas music through our CD player and out to the awning through the external speakers we had installed on our way south).








Cheryl and Brian had bought some Christmas Crackers. Michael got some red lips in his..





A good time was had by all.

Into Victoria

From Cooma in the Snowy Mountains, we ventured further South, staying a night in a town named "Howlong" (there have been many jokes, puns etc at the expense of Howlong and also Toolong, which is another town in Oz). The proprietor of the caravan park in Howlong was amazed when she saw the name I had written on our registration form. Her maiden name was Bregmen and she is from Papakura. Of course a discussion ensued in which Bregmen identities were either known or not to both her and Brandt.

From Howlong we made our way via Shepparton to Greens Lake, where other grey nomads have been camped for varying lengths of time. At the writing of this there are 13 of us here. Upon arrival I took a photo through the kitchen window


Brandt has since put the awning out, and the only view through the kitchen window is of the roof of the awning.
The lake is very popular at weekends. One local chap offered rides on his jet ski


A down side here is the amount of bindi burr plant that is in seed. Cheryl decided to assist her dogs when taking them for a walk


Cute eh? We are frequently taking the burrs out of their coats. The socks are to prevent the burrs getting between their toes.

Here is the line up off RVs on the shore line

Snowy Mountains (minus the snow)

Left Tathra on Monday and stayed the night at Cooma. After talking to a couple of fellow travelers decided to stay a second night and take in a drive through the Snowy Mountains, which is the Kosciuszko National Park!


At first we were thinking of turning around and abandoning the idea, but then we noticed the "transit" entry on the board


We were told that the pass that we had meant that we could not get out of the car.......not even for a toilet stop!
However, we detoured for a drive through Thredbo





The road wound its way up the hill between the chalets and eventually back on to the road named Alpine Way.


We were on the highest mountain in Australia, noticed the trees all looked dead but were shooting again from the bottom


We later found out that there had been a massive brushfire through the national park in the 80s, which is why so many trees were dead.

On our return route we drove through Cabramurra, the highest town in Australia


By the way, if we had driven our scenic drive in reverse order, we would not have passed through a "toll booth" for National Parks which means wee would not have known that we should not get out of our car.