Almost a Tourist again

Saturday, we three girls went for a drive. First stop was Arthur's Seat.


Part way up the hill to Arthur's Seat are a couple of lookouts. The above is looking South


I am still experimenting with the camera. For this shot I put it on manual focus with a wide aperture.


Hopefully, I can photo shop Arthur to sit beside me on this seat.



We went across to Flinders with the aim of getting some custard square (vanilla slice) from the shop that was in the Guinness book of records for the largest - Brandt had a piece from there in 2012. Unfortunately, the shop is under new management and NO vanilla slice to be found.
So the next stop was Cape Schanck. The photo above is of part of the track we walked.


And the above photo is a reminder of the steps that I was tricked into walking down in 2012.


After church on Sunday (following lunch at a place called "Buckleys Chance"), we took a short bus ride to Fort Nepean at the tip of the Mornington Peninsula.


The view across Port Phillip Bay.



A walk through some tunnels


The ruins of a gun


Many visitors walk around the grounds


I M continually impressed with the beauty of the coastline here.











The above is a photo of a photo showing Fort Nepean as it is today.








We finished the day with a quick visit to beach 16. Above is Cheryl's photo of Lizard Rock. It is much better than the one I took from the beach in 2012.



And of course the obligatory sunset to finish the day.

Rye

Time to catch up with Grey Nomad friends who, for various reasons, are not on the road but taking time out in Rye. We spent Christmas 2012 with them and our paths crossed a couple of times in 2013





It took a couple of days, but the two little dogs seem to remember us, giving Brandt the "good morning" ritual.

Cheryl and I walked along the cliffs nearby








And then across to the other coast to Bay of Islands (not to be confused with the Bay of Islands in NZ or on the Great Ocean Road)














Another day we visited other beaches/bays




After the terrible storms of late the sand has been blown ashore. I guess that the concrete pads used to be at ground level?


This part of the Mornington Peninsula has many old Teatrees.


A view across Port Phillip Bay


Then around to Back Beach at Sorrento


Brandt, in the meantime continues to keep working on making sure the van and vehicle are ready for us to "hit the road"

The van did need a small scrub







The anode (in the water heater) needed to be checked AND replaced - the replacement is on the left. The one on the right used to look like the one on the left.




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The heater

Brrrr it's cold here in Melbourne. The diesel heater bought through eBay had arrived the week before us. First job........install the heater




The tank is attached to a bracket


Then both attached to a spare wheel bracket. It fits nicely in the gap between the spare wheel and the back of the caravan.



And it will fit nicely into the vacant space between the pot drawer and wheel arch.



So a hole is drilled into the floor.




Brandt spent a lot of time under the van. I believe there was not much room for fitting and tightening nuts and bolts.


A plate was attached to the floor


And the heater attached to the plate.


There was a place for all of the above bits ( and no stray part left over!)



Then a hole into the van's living space - for the heated air to, in turn, heat us.



Oh yes, unusually, the installation instructions were often consulted. - too important a job to get wrong!


And finally, the outlet has its cap on.
I can report that it doesn't take long for the van to be heated. We are lovely and warm no matter what the outside temperature.

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Eighteen months of waiting

As stated previously, our stay in NZ was meant to be three or four months. Circumstances dictated that we were here until July 2015.
So what have we been up to during that time?

It was hard to keep Brandt in relaxing mode while waiting for his Achilles' tendon to heal. (In fact by the time the plaster cast came off the base needed a retread). There was no question of us being offered the cast as a memento, it went straight into the bin!

Then he was on to cutting down trees on Donna's boundary and in general clearing the yard. - he even climbed on to the roof tho fix the chimney pot.

Then there was the wedding. That involved many trips to the venue to help with the preparation of the grounds. And it was a lovely day.

Also with the Achilles' tendon predicted to take a long time to heal properly Brandt decided to set the ball in motion to get his Dupuytrens Contracture seen to. That finally happened on June 8th, so now we are looking for and to our return to the Grey Nomad lifestyle.


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Second grandchild arrives

At 6:40 am on February 20 Donna gave birth to a healthy boy. Big sister was a little late for school that day as we spent an hour or so at the hospital.








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NZ stay extended

Shortly after arriving back in NZ Brandt almost fully ruptured his archilles tendon. We were still in Auckland staying with Donna and Richard in Titirangi which is a hilly suburb. My niece was coming to visit and couldn't locate the driveway so Brandt rushed up the steep drive to show her the entrance. Part way up he felt a sharp pain in his ankle. After a couple of weeks he went to A&E and was given some anti inflammatories. When they were about to run out and there being no improvement we went back. This time a more experienced doctor ordered a scan which showed the severity of the problem. So it was into plaster for him for 8 weeks followed by the wearing of an orthotic shoe plus physiotherapy. We were told that it could take up to 18 months to be fully healed. With this in mind we decided the most sensible thing to do was to postpone our return to Oz.

Early in the year I had a couple of biopsies taken from my leg. For some reason an insect bite (while in the Kimberley region) turned into a wart like lump. This happened while I was working at Halls Creek in the 1970s and again last year at Broome. Both at the same place on my leg. The biopsies gave a clear result.

Donna couldn't resist compiling a composite photo of us






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The final few weeks....

While staying at Gisborne we helped with the renovation of a rental property. Brandt painted the interior walls. I helped a little in the gardens.
One weekend we met up with Grey nomad friends at St Kilda beach. We used the garmin (GPS) to direct us. One problem was that it was difficult to know which turn off to take at a spaghetti junction. I know that on the way home we took a wrong turn, but got there in the end.
It was the first fine day for a while and lots of people seemed to have decided to visit the beach too.


We made another day trip to Greens Lake and said our good byes to the nomads there.


Then on Thursday 28th November we flew back to NZ


We will be here in NZ until sometime in April, when we will return to Melbourne ready for another 6 or 7 months of travelling around.
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