House At Mount Prior Rutherglen

... I settled on a canny combo from the northeast of England who go by the name of Dire Straits (look out for them they are going to sell zillions of records). Now I know that I am being terribly unfashionable and the several members of the nuns will be tutting loudly – like they day when ever Rupe tries to get Romeo and Juliette going – but I don’t care – top tracks that I have not heard in the longest time.

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.

... at some point find some time to cool down a bit, the last couple of days have been quite hectic, I’ve been given more and more responsibility at work and there just seems to be no time for anything else.

I don’t know exactly how much longer I will be staying in Melbourne, I’m guessing about 2-3 weeks max, I gotta move on!

Alrighty guys, I love you & miss you!! Hope to hear from you..

xox Inka

... really lovely route which took us through a wattle garden; Erin and I counted at least four different varieties! We also found a stone laid labyrinth and Aboriginal creation rock garden which explained the lifestyle of the local people before Europeans moved in.

Dinner that night was BBQ with noodle salad and potatoes organised by my uncle, and BBQed by Erin. The footy finals were de rigeur on TV of course, but after helping with the dishes I crashed on our lilo pretty early!

We have driven further into the state of Victoria and away from the coast into the bush and mountains. During the drive, we passed several areas that had been affected by the recent bush fires, the trees were all black but begining to regenerate.

We first passed through Glenrowan which was where the famous Ned Kellys shootout ...

... the details of our lives. Jason's kids had 'adopted' the kids from another family, so all us adults sat around for the afternoon talking about our relative journeys, the benefits of various cars (a very important topic when one travels all the time) and then the lady from the other family piped up with 'Our house has ghosts in it'. This led to a fascinating discussion on the activities of these ghosts, I offered my opinion that they were not ghosts at all, but demons, and they ...

... to identify it as I was too busy trying not to run over it.)
More echidnas
Two big owls (couldn't identify them in the dark)
Many many birds of various sorts.
And most recently, flies the size of small birds.

On my way to Sale last week, I decided to stay at Holey Plains State Park. My Guide Book is sometimes extremely helpful in guiding me to good places to camp, and other times it seems to leave out a few vital details. In this case, it said words to the effect ...

... the first ones, including the ones who where executed in there. (they still have the nooses etc - !) The cells where TINY, and they didn't even have proper beds, just these little camp spring things. Reading some of the 'crimes' people where condemned for was ridiculous, one woman in 1890 was arrested for cursing her husband after he had died and she found out he'd sold all her land and she has nothing, Then after she got out she was taken back ...

... the whole affair. After we left Glenrowan, Seth fell asleep so we decided to make the most of it and motor on to Melbourne where we arrived mid afternoon. We are staying in the Dockland apartments which offer a superb view over the docks. They have been very beautifully rehabilitated and offer tons of restaurants and cafes. We had the opportunity to have a Cambodian meal which was enjoyed by the whole family.

... merlot at this place. We now have a bottle here at home! We saved the real wine drinking for Sunday, our scheduled walkabout. Saturday night was lowkey. We got to the hotel around 5 and took a brief nap and then thought we would run to K-Mart and pick up a board game for later in the evening. Of course, K-Mart closed at 6 p.m. (It's just the way it goes here in AU). We went to a Thai restaurant instead and spent the rest of the evening watching hotel movies ...