Sundowner Paddlesteamer 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.

... in the meantime.

My uncle told me a little more about the AUDAX organisation - I'd always assumed it was an Australian group given the first two letters of the name, but apparently it's from the latin word for 'bold' which makes sense, given English still has the word 'audacity'. The organisation started at the turn of last century in Europe where a team of riders would all set out on trips of a certain length and endevour to ride at the pace set by their leader ...

... 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.

We arrived at Beechworth only half an hour away from Wanganderry. As we arrived in Beechworth,we found a caravan park.We took it and started putting up the caravan.While mum and dad were taking up the caravan,Marc and I were riding our bikes to the park and throwing the frisbee. Now today was actually the first day we'd been in a caravan park.For dinner mum went looking for a shopping centre.When mum came back she had bought our dinner and some salad.We ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

... We all take a turn in the bath warm water. Back at the house, we try roo meat for the first time. What a feast!Saturday is a double-date! Brad and Bronwym take us for a whirlwind tour through different vineyards in the area as well as a tour of a olivery and a cheese market. 

... 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 ...

I won't ponders for entries about my job in Melbourne, the visit of Science museum or enven the visit of Philipp Island. Though I enjoyed (or not) those moments, they are a bit faded away. But that Chrismas was so very special and so dear to me, I have to write an entry. Emma - who was a trainee designer for Mothers Art - and her family invited me to spend Christmas break in Albury ...

Having spent 7 weeks mixing with Aussies & other johnny foreigner types we decided that some proper company was needed, i.e English company. So off we trotted down to Albury which is in the the borders to see Kerry's cousin Darren & his Mrs, Wendy (I suppose now Paul's cousin-in-law?). It didn't look that far to get there on the map (about 3cm from Melbourne)so we were looking forward to a short(ish) leisurely trip. Oh how wrong we were. First off it must be ...