Christophers Comment

Posted by on 20 January 2012 | 1 Comments

Christopher’s Comment for December 2011

A little too much time has elapsed since my last comment written in October. So much has happened it is difficult to know where to start so I have decided to start at the beginning.

It had been our intention to visit our Australian family this coming autumn. However,  when we realised they were not able to be home for Christmas we decided to plan a little trip to Australia in November to see them.  We flew out of Auckland mid November firstly to Uluru where we stayed a couple of nights.  We saw the rock at sunrise which was truly amazing, the red colours accentuated by the rays of the sun making a memorable experience.  The colours of the Centre are truly a sight to behold. Very interesting tours followed around the rock but unfortunately I was not able to climb it although I fronted three times. Each time the weather closed the access track. We were also treated to a beautiful dinner on our last evening under the stars out in the desert. That was also amazing.

 Then we caught a bus to Alice Springs, a surprising 6 hour trip.  I always thought Alice was just down the road.  The town itself was quite sad with a real problem of  alcohol and the indigenous people. However,  we took in some  very interesting tours encompassing the telegraph station, the on air correspondence schools,  the Flying Doctor Service and an out of town trip to Simpsons Gap and the Mc Dougell Range.  Then it was a mid day rush to catch the Ghan train to Adelaide. This was a trip we both wanted to do as we had read so much about it as one of the great train journeys of the world; and we were not disappointed.  It is a trip of a bygone era. We had our own little cabin which was a table and two attached seats  which miraculously folded up to make two bunks.  We had a little cafe a carriage away so we were well catered for. The trip itself is quite slow because it is on a single track with numerous sidings or passing bays. Consequently when a freight train is due (they have priority) the Ghan has to sit in a siding till the freight train goes through.  In daylight hours we know this lasted one time for at least an hour as well as some night time stops. But the scenery from the train is so very Australian,  it was well worth it.

We were a little late arriving in Adelaide and had quite a rush to get to our hotel connection to catch the shuttle to the Murray River for our Murray River Cruise. It was just my luck that I grabbed a taxi whose driver announced while I was breathlessly telling him where we had to be 10 mins ago that he had only started that week and would have to look it up on a map....we somehow made it.

The cruise was very relaxing, very well organised and well just about everything you would expect on a cruise. We were on the river for three  nights and to be honest we were both well and truly ready to be off by then. But that mustn’t take away from the fact we had a superb table with another four  couples that made the trip memorable for us.......so please you guys, don’t take it personally and continue to keep in touch with us. Thanks for the Christmas cards Merle and Peter and Betty and Dfa  -  guess we arn’t cut out to be cruise passengers....

Then back to Adelaide where we,  at last,  had our own rental car and became independent again.  Janet had done a lot of research on her Macdonald relations who had settled in Adelaide in 1879. So we visited cemeteries and libraries to look for headstones and any other information we could ‘dig’ up.  Only partially successful. We also caught up with a couple from Janet’s Kawhia days. Bruce and Mandy own a Dimocks franchise in Rundell Mall, an amazing shop which I would think carried every book ever published.   Adelaide is a lovely city -  easy  to find your way around and it’s obvious to see why Bruce and Mandy settled there and enjoy it so much.

So it’s time to fire up the Toyota Corolla and start the journey on the coast road to stay with the family this trip was all about. Only one navigation era on this road and that was my fault. It just necessitated a free ferry ride instead of driving over a boring bridge on the correct highway! A lovely drive along the coastal highway with overnight stops at Mount  Gambia and Port Fairy and then a surprise arrival at the Warrnambool  Pools to see one little girl having a swimming lesson , one bigger girl swimming and one very watchful father. This was the start of a superb eight  days with James and Amelia and family.  We loved being with them and helping them catch up with odd jobs. They have caught the camping craze. We assisted  in setting  up the camping trailer and sleeping in it for two  nights  including one of thunder, rain and lightening. It was such fun  just being there. We had a belated birthday celebration for a little man and an actual birthday for an older one.  It was surprisingly wet but that didn’t curtail any of our plans. Finally the day came to say our good-byes,  a very early start to be at Melbourne airport by 9. 30 am and the flight home. Another amazing journey completed by these intrepid travellers.

The farm, as always,  was still there when we returned. Hugh had everything under control although we had lost our water skiing thistle sprayer Renee to an injury sustained through skiing. There was still good grass cover,  the majority of the ewes and lambs were on rotations so it all seemed good. We did our pick and wean on  12 December   and sent off 522 prime lambs at a 16.3K average.  In spite of the rain we  managed to get our long woolled ewes shorn (somehow all in the nightpen ) but not the lambs which are only being shorn today as I write this. Our hay which was ready for cutting in late November is still standing but this also may be able to be made this week. So a very wet summer to date which is no good for the holiday makers but puts a smile on all the farmers’  faces. And  I am one of those holiday makers at the moment, but it hasn’t been all bad ......we still got our walks in, played tennis and swam and we are heading home right now to do the hay and more importantly to give Hugh and his family some holiday time before school starts again.

That  is all this time. I do like plenty of feedback. Please remember your comment won’t show on the website when you first write it. We have to approve it before it is posted. That way, if you say something too rude I can delete it!