Elizabeth'S Manor North Albury

Can't believe how early we had to get up this morning - 3:30am NZ time (which is 1:30am Aus time) to get to the airport.
But it was all good. Watched the Twilight movie on the plane on the way home and now i cant wait to see New Moon!

Coming through customs in Australia was funny as i had to go in the high security line due to my Maouri souviner that i brough back with me that is classified as a weapon. I was just glad that Border Security wasnt there to film me haha.

... around so much I hadn't even felt myself riding lower on my rims! My hero, he changed the inner tube for me so we could get going quickly. I can do it myself, but it takes so long - plus we'd found out at the midway check point that there was a time limit to this ride. I suddenly went from just being happy if I finished the ride to wanting to make the time limit - doesn't the human brain work in silly ways? After my puncture neither Erin nor I thought we'd make it in on ...

... police occured.

We then spent a few hours at Beechworth, an historic little town which still has an operating telegraph station. We went on a scenic drive along the gorge (which was quite narrow with our big bus!)

After we headed down to the town of Bright and then into Mount Beauty, stopping at the overlooks of the town.

... a lovely night,also with some cake,milo's,and a movie! In the morning we packed down the caravan and headed to the main street.We went to 'The Famous Beechworth Bakery'(as mum calls it) to have lunch.After a few minutes dad carried on and did a bit of drawings.Mum, Marc and I went to the Beechworth Honey shop.The three of us went on a tour at the shop.We also bought a jar of Grey Ironbark.At the end we wondered around the town and headed to a new place

... best be gotten rid of, to which I received the response of 'no, I quite like the ghosts' from the lady, while her kids were much less comfortable with them, and I had a great discussion with the kids about Jesus and how He could protect them from the ghosts, and they delighted in telling me all about how they had learnt that Jesus died and then came back from the dead in their school scripture classes (probably a hot topic, with Easter fast approaching.) In the end, we all ...

Okay, so I went to the church, and it was surprisingly good. The entire congregation was only about 10 people, which really gave it the atmosphere of being a house church. The 'sermon' was very interactive, the people were incredible sincere, not only about welcoming a visitor, but also in their pursuit of a Christ-like life, and we had a rousing discussion about the benefits of cars which run on vegetable oil. (I am thinking of buying a new car - or a new 'old' car, which will run ...

"Suffering" through the heat wave, we were happy to know that the Madras had planned a waterski party on the Murrey river for the evening and then a "barbie" afterwards. There house is backing the river, so not a long way to go. The river is down, so we do have to trailer the ...

Bus to Albury. SO HOT! Theres a major heat wave going through Aus right now. Temps in the 105-110 range where I am. It makes walking any sort of distance with a backpack pretty unfun. I did basically nothing in Albury, got in about 9 pm, left around 11 the next morning. To be honest, it didnt seem to have much to offer and I had no desire to stick around longer than I had to.

... I have to say that with the drought, Lake Hume has receded somewhat - so much so that all of the boat ramps we have seen stop at least 30m from the water's edge. Got into the site OK, but soon learned something else - still getting a lesson at day at least. Not a good idea to back on to the ramp (used to ensure the van is level on the site - these sites aren't all that level, in fact we are on the wrong side of this site ...

... to work (nearly missing the bus EVERY day). We've met some great people and a few freaks and drunk enough red wine to keep our blood thinned til we're well into our 80's. Obviously learning to board and ski was fantastic too. Whilst we are sad to leave Hotham we are both excited about the next stage of our trip - driving the Nullaboor to Perth. With all that went wrong with the van between Cairns and here the omens are not good but we figure that, if nothing else, it will be an adventure...