Sunday, 30th May .....

It’s been quite a busy week back at Giant Steps. I had promised the Principal, Anne, that I would be available to assist with any tasks which were pressing but was surprised to see that a great many changes had been made while I was away.

Builders had put a new window into the Reception area, demolished a couple of fireplaces, and started to put a new passageway through from the Reception to the back of the school. There was still a bit to be done but they were planning to come back later in the week.

I’m delighted that these new projects will ’belong’ to Anne as I have a feeling that my ghost still hangs around the Centre too much. Once the projects that I initiated have been completed, Anne will develop more of a sense of ownership and I can steal away in the night.

Over the next couple of weeks, builders will transform part of the school into a new staffroom and kitchen. The last two days of term were a nightmare as the builders gleefully demolished old cupboards, removed walls and tore up floor coverings. Still, it will be worth it to see the new areas coming to completion. I've promised to keeep an eye on the progress while school is closed and deal with any problems which arise.

To start the process of moving on, I’ve told Anne that Marilyn and I will be leaving Deloraine by June 5th. Giant Steps is on holidays for a fortnight and we will take that time to move out of the house and establish ourselves in a caravan park, until we make some decision about what to do in the few months before we head for the Philippines.

We’ve looked at a few possible parks; the little one at Mole Creek is delightful and the bigger one at Longford looks great. However, they’re both a bit too far out of town so we’ve opted for Hadspen which is only ten minutes from Launceston and close enough to Deloraine to come back if necessary. We’ve committed ourselves for just two weeks and we’ll see what happens after that.

In preparation for more geocaching, I’ve downloaded about 60 sites, ranging from simple ones in the park at Hadspen to one claiming to be one of the hardest in Northern Tasmania - hard walk uphill for 3. 5 hours over steep rocky ground on to the plateau. We might leave that one for summer; we don’t want to be heading for alpine regions when there is the chance of high winds and snow.

I’ve even found the ‘first Tasmania cache’, placed by an American visitor, Jerry Medlin on February 25th, 2001.

One of the jobs I took on for the school was completing the visa application for a new staff member that Anne is recruiting from the Philippines. He is a Speech Pathologist and has been working at an autistic school in Laguna called First Steps. He is only 21 and will appreciate the chance to gain some experience and earn some Australian dollars. At any time, 10% of the Philippines population is working overseas and each worker is supporting an average of 5 dependants back home. This is a serious contribution to the Philippines economy which would be a 'basket-case' without the foreign dollars.

Australia doesn't train enough Speech Pathologists, and other countries such as New Zealand and the UK entice our graduates to try their luck overseas. In return we poach from the Philippines. Amon, the new staff member will apply for a 457 temporary business visa which will give him up to 4 years residency before he decides what he will do in the future. He will earn Australian wages while he is at Giant Steps and, with the positive exchange rate will be able to save enough in his first year to buy a house in his home town.

Mountain Heritage Weekend (May 22nd and 23rd) …..

We were keen to get back to Deloraine for this weekend festival, commemorating how the nearby mountains have contributed to the local history.

There’s been a great deal said about the mountain cattlemen of the Snowy River region and Deloraine also has a history of local cattle breeders using mountain pastures for summer feeding. There’s a local Mountain Cattlemen’s Association which has annual gatherings and opportunities for its members to get involved in activities in moving cattle from one place to another, and visiting some of the better-known areas where cattle have been herded for generations.

As has happened in the Snowy Mountains, the cattle families built huts many of which are still being used and others are being restored. There’s also a very active Mountain Huts Restoration Society in this area.

What gives the local huts a special flavour is that they were also used in the winter by members of the families who would trap or snare possums and wallabies for their fur. Prior to the Second World War, a good quality black possum fur might fetch as much as a day’s wages, so trapping and snaring were useful ways of supplementing a family’s income, even during depression times. The design of the Tasmanian huts reflects the multiple uses they had - not only as living quarters but also to meet the need to have a place to peg out the skins for drying.

The object of this Heritage Weekend was to give participants some of the history of the huts and the families associated with them, and get out and visit some of them.

The ABC program, A Big Country, made a documentary in 1980 called The Paddocks. It featured Basil Steers, one of the last of the high country snarers. Basil, in fact, was responsible for building many of the huts around the high plains but he was only one of the people involved in this activity. Many of the descendants of these pioneers took part in the weekend and many of the families retain connection with the huts.

After an interesting and informative session on Saturday, capped off with a lunch of wallaby patties (which was the staple fare of the snarers), we set out on Sunday to visit as many of the huts as we could. There were about 200 people involved on the Saturday and about half that number on Sunday. It was quite a challenge moving a convoy of over 30 4WD vehicles around the narrow mountain tracks and finding places to park near the various sites.

We’d been told that a herd of Red Herefords was being moved in the area where we would be traveling and, sure enough, we met the beasts with the drovers on horseback. The farmer assured us they were used to traffic but I can’t imagine they would have ever experienced such a convoy as ours.

Apart from Basil Steers, who has been made famous by the ABC program, another interesting character is ‘Boy’ Miles, who returned from WW2 after a stint in Changi and on the Burma Railway. His family say he was affected very much by his experiences and found solace in the mountains. One of his nephews told us he was a ‘loner’ and built many huts as retreats. The first hut we visited was one of his. You can see the living quarters on the left and the section for pegging out his skins on the right (almost falling down). The section for the skins was built with the framework on the outside and bare slab walls on the inside so that the skins could be nailed directly on to the walls. There were no windows and no chimney and a central fire which was kept burning day and night.

This hut is being removed to the local village of Mole Creek and will be restored as an example of a typical hut of the period. The two men in the second picture are Neville (Nipper) and Ray How, nephews of Boy Miles and very knowledgeable about the history of the area.

Our next stop was the remains of a steam-driven sawmill at Gads Hill. This was one of many in the area which flourished before the Second World War. On the outbreak of war, many of the young men employed there left to join up and the sawmill ceased to operate. A hut from the mill was removed to the Borradaile Plains, rebuilt and extended. This hut is now used by a local family who run cattle on the plains in the summer and as a place for their daughters to exercise their horses.

There wasn’t time for us to visit any other huts today but we’ll certainly make it our business to hunt down more in the future. We intend to join the Mountains Cattlemen’s Association (as non-riding members) and join in some of their activities.

Wollongong (15 - 18 May) .....

After New Zealand the plan was to spend a few days in Wollongong, particularly to see my Mum and Uncle Archie who are in separate nursing homes.

Our regular routine has been to stay with Sandy and Janet but, as they have a full house at the moment, we took the chance to stay with Robyn, our long-time friend (in fact, she was a year behind me at both primary and high school). Robyn’s mum was famous in Gwynneville because she would always ask the butcher for a right-leg of lamb because, as she said, they walked around the hillside clock-wise and the right leg didn’t have to do as much work. Unfortunately, she’s not very well at the moment and Robyn is more than a little worried about her.

It was an odd sort of visit to Robyn’s because she left us the day after we arrived and flew to Townsville to visit her cousin Gay, (who was actually in my class in both primary and high school). This left Marilyn and me with the use of Robyn’s house and car - very generous and much appreciated.

My mum is in high care at a nursing home in Dapto. She is pretty fit but struggles to keep track of what is happening. ‘My head’s full of broken bottles,’ she says. It’s sad to see this intelligent and active woman diminishing in such significant ways. She turned 89 in April and is pretty much the last of her generation so far as our family is concerned.

Uncle Archie is 85 and, after a couple of strokes and falls, he is almlost immobile. He uses a walker but he lacks strength in his legs and his balance is poor, so he doesn’t get around much. Whenever we go to visit him, his first request is to go to the bank to draw out some money. ‘How much would you like, Uncle Archie?’

‘As much as I can get!’ he says. The nursing home keeps him on a pretty tight rein financially because, if he has money, he insists on going out and invariably come back stony broke. He has always been a generous man and there are too many people about now who will help him spend what he has.

We took him to visit mum while we were there and they spent a hour or two reminiscing about happy times when they were younger. We had thought we would take them both out for lunch but Mum wasn’t up to it so Uncle Archie had Marilyn and me to himself.

He loves seafood, so we borrowed Mum’s wheelchair and took him to a fish restaurant where he ordered lobster, and prawns and oysters. Clearly, there was more than he could eat so he took the whole lobster home to have at his leisure. It would have been quite a change from his usual nursing home fare.

You have to question what life is about. All our elderly relations are saying the same thing - they’ve had long, happy and productive lives and think it’s now time to move on. As their bodies and minds deteriorate, they see themselves as ‘marking time’. Our ‘oldies’ are lucky that they all have excellent homes where the staff are interested and they are well looked after. Of course, there are many old folk who don’t have that advantage and how many of them will die alone and unloved this winter?

PS We’ve just heard that Mum has been offered a place in a new resort-style home called The Links. It’s in Corrimal Street, Wollongong, just down he road from where Mum lived for many years. Many of the rooms have beautiful views over the ocean or the adjoining golf course, and it is spacious and ultra-modern. Sandy will be going in tomorrow (Monday, 24th) to select her room. Fantastic!

Another benefit is that Sandy won’t have to make the long drive to Dapto two or three times every week as he does at the moment.

I’d like to find a new place for Uncle Archie too. Diment Towers was the first of the Illawarra Retirement Trust’s homes and I think it is over 40 years old. However, his unit has two rooms and any move he makes will be in to a single bed-sit room, and he is not interested.

Thursday, 13th .....

There was very heavy rainfall overnight but it has cleared up a bit by this morning. Still, it isn’t a day for bush bashing. We decided to go back to the Trout Centre this morning to get a couple of pictures and were lucky enough to find one of the rangers processing some fish which had come up from the river overnight.

The ranger explained that the extra water coming down the stream triggered the fish’s instinct that it was spawning time and they returned to the stream where they themselves had been hatched, in this case, the Waihukahuka Stream.

On the stream there is a trap to catch the fish on their way up. The rangers measure and weigh the fish and take a sample of their fin for a DNA project. This information help them manage the fishery effectively.


The stream temperature stays between 10.5 and 11.50C all year but standing hip-deep in water for hours in the winter is no joy. They might have to process 200 or more fish in a busy day during the spawning season and they can only wear a cotton glove on one hand; the other has to be bare.

We only stayed long enough to see him process 2 fish, a 1.4 Kg male (jack) and a 1.2 Kg female (hen). Both were well over the minimum catch length of 400mm.

Wednesday, 12th .....

I don’t want to bore you with details of every cache we find but I need to mention two fabulous walks we did yesterday. They were both in the Tongariro National Park which I believe is a World Heritage Area. The first cache is called Hinemihis’ Walk and it’s at the furthest point of the circular walk of the same name. The track winds among large moss-covered boulders and at time it feels like you are walking though a miniature Grand Canyon. The trees all have Maori names but their Latin names show they are related to familiar trees in Tasmania: Podocarpus, Cupressus, Nothofagus, etc.

The cache was described as being in a ‘natural nest‘, 8 paces from a ‘forest giant’. When our GPS told us we were within a few metres of the right co-ordinates, there was the large tree, and 8 paces back along the track was a fallen tree with the obvious ‘nest’. Previous geocachers had covered the cache with some pieces of bark, and it stood out but, unless you were looking for something, it would not be noticed.

A few kilometres further along the highway is the beginning of the walk to Lake Rotopounamu. Again, it was beautiful country and an easy wide track. We were surprised as we were coming closer to the lake to meet a pack of five dogs trotting down the track ahead of us. A few minutes later, we saw them coming back with two seedy-looking characters. One of them said, ‘We’re looking for a wild hog.’ In a National Park?

(Later, we called in to the Department of Conservation to report them.)

We came out on to a beach with grey coarse sand, obviously volcanic. We were close to the right co-ordinates so we starting looking for a fallen log, 2 or 3 metres in and parallel to the track. Duh! There were dozens which could have fitted that description. Anyway, we asked ourselves, “Which is the most obvious?’ and chose the largest, which was covered with moss and looked as if it had been there for decades. And there was the cache, tucked under the back of the log and semi-hidden by a piece of bark. This cache was lunch-box size and had a number of objects in it as well as the usual notebook and pencil: a balloon, plastic soldier, magnifying glass, etc.

It’s interesting to look through the logbooks to see who has been there before us. Eileen from the Czech Republic came through in late-April, others from Germany, Canada and the US had also been to this cache in 2010.

On the way home we tried something different - a multi-stage puzzle. In these, there are a number of points to find and all you are given are the coordinates to the first. At that point are the coordinates to the next step. The coordinates given on the website were S 390 2.876’ E1750 49.045’ and the clue was ‘Point to the Blue’. At those coordinates we found a signpost pointing to something called ‘Blue Pool’.

On the back of the signpost was a blue tag with a new set of coordinates: S 390 02.791’ E 1750 49.997’. From here, it’s a matter of following your nose. We wandered around for a while, watching how the coordinates changed on the GPS. We came close and at one point the GPS read S 390 02.791’ E1750 49.985’, but we were, apparently, on the wrong side of a busy highway and there also seemed to be a fence in the way, so we gave up and went off to find a coffee shop.

I’ve still got some learning to do in the finer points of navigation with a GPS.

Following our usual pattern of having every second day a lazy one, today we visited the Tongariro National Trout Centre which is just a few kilometres out of town. It’s a wonderful place, similar to Plenty near Hobart, and very geared up for school children. The first trout in New Zealand were introduced here in about 1883 and came from Tasmania. Zane Grey in the 1930s came here and called it El Dorado. When he wrote about it back in America, it brought a flurry of visitors and founded the multi-million dollar industry we see today. Zane Grey did something similar for marlin fishing out of Queensland, I believe.


We had planned to go to Rotary tonight. There was no telephone number for bookings so we called in to the venue to check on details. Unfortunately, the girl told us the meeting had been cancelled for some reason so Marilyn is forced to cook another meal tonight. Last night she put some pine nuts and garlic in a frypan to brown, got involved in writing her Newsletter #4 and managed to burn them. What a smell! We had to have the door open for hours to try to clear it a bit.

Tomorrow night will be our last night in Turangi and we’ve booked in to a Curry Night at a local restaurant so we’ll try to use up what food we have left tonight. It’ll be a bit of a mystery what we end up with. Marilyn says she will take the last few bits and pieces - salt, oil, pasta, oats - to the nearby backpackers where somebody will appreciate them. If we leave anything in the fridge here, it will be thrown out.

We need to book out of here by 9.30 on Friday as they have a complete turnover of customers every week. We plan to return to Auckland via Taupo and Rotorua, and will stay at the airport on Friday night, before getting our plane out at 6.45 on Saturday morning. The car is due back at Budget at 4.30! I wonder if they will be open.

Boiling mud .....

Monday, 10th May - It’s Jamie’s birthday today and also Hannah’s (Sandy and Janet’s grand-daughter) On the way down from Auckland, Marilyn suddenly remembered we had left Hannah’s card back in Deloraine. It’s too late to send another so we find an e-card on the internet and send it off.

Sunday afternoon was spent finding the remaining caches we had on our list. Two we enjoyed particularly: Major Jones Booty and Stumped Among the Needles. They were both on a beautiful track which runs on the eastern side of the river, steep in parts but great walking.

We had a lazy start to today. Marilyn wanted to wash and I was happy to spend the morning reading. After lunch, we thought we should stir ourselves so wandered over to the information centre to see what we could find to do that wasn’t too strenuous. The simple choice was between the 8-hour Tongariro Alpine Crosing or a 20 minutes stroll through the thermal area of the next village. Guess what we chose!

Tokaanu is only 10 minutes drive and is the site for the Tongariro Power Station. This is very reminiscent of the power stations in Tasmania or on the Snowy Mountains scheme. We might have a visit to the station later in the week but for now we were looking for the town’s other attraction.

We followed the signs to the Thermal Baths and checked out their facilities. We’ll be back later for a dip in a private pool at a temperature of 400 and limited to 20 minutes, but unlimited use of the public pool after. There’s also a discount for seniors.

Next to the Baths is the Thermal Walk - a gentle stroll through boiling mud and steaming pools. Unlike Rotorua, the mud here has no sulphur in it so doesn’t smell. Some particularly hot areas had been covered with planks but, in most cases these had been broken open, so we could hear the furious boiling underneath.

Back to the resort for an early dinner and to see what’s on television. We get three local channels, Sky Movies and 3 or 4 other Sky channels. There’s still nothing worth looking at so it’s just as well we brought some of our DVDs. We’re just starting to re-visit Series 1 of Numbers.

First attempts at geocaching .....

We woke up late but determined that we would have a go at the sport of Geocaching. There are many caches hidden around Turangi and I’ve downloaded details of half a dozen to my hand-held GPS. It doesn’t take us long to discover that we need more than the coordinates - on the website, Geocaching.com, there are instructions, and photographs and clues, all of which help to point us in the right direction and know when we’ve got there.

The first cache we aim for is called Settler’s Corner. We know from the website that it’s at the south end of town and there is an anchor nearby. Amazingly, we go straight to it. There was the anchor just where we expected it to be. The website also tells us the cache is a small plastic box inside a camouflage bag. There is a coded clue also which translates as CORNER TREE GROUND LEVEL. Too easy! Find the cache, sign the log and conceal it again. Then it’s off to the next cache, only 650m away, called Turangi Angler.

The site is a large statue of an angler at the entrance to town, the coded clue is CAUGHT and there is the cache next to the fish on the end of the angler’s line. That’s two down.

We’ve walked about 2 kilometres and found 2 caches and it’s already 12.30pm, but there are four more to find before the day is out. It takes lots more walking and the next ones are not as simple but we finally find them all. We’re tired and a little foot-sore but we have seen some lovely areas and are very satisfied with a good day’s work.

The Land of the Long White Cloud .....

It was an uneventful flight to Auckland; Pacific Blue did all that it could be expected to do and we landed safely and on time. Budget Rent-a-Car also did its job and without too much hassle, we took delivery of a nice little Toyota Yaris. Why is it that it costs more for insurance than for the car itself? $23 per day - what a rip-off!

By the time we have a quick bite to eat it’s 6 o’clock before we leave the carpark and head for Hamilton. The GPS lady has an American accent and insists on talking in miles, not at all like the cultured voice of my GPS at home.

Our motel is in Ulster Street, Hamilton and is just one of what seems to be hundreds. How on earth can they all make a living? We had already grabbed a good deal through Wotif but when we arrived we were able to negotiate two free continental breakfasts as well. If it were left to me, we’d never get a bargain but Marilyn has no inhibitions about asking for a ‘gift with purchase’.

After a nice meal at the hotel restaurant and a trip to Pak’n’Save for supplies we stumbled across the 20th Anniversary Show of Nightline on TV Channel 1. It was extraordinary - a bizarre mix of serious news stories, reviews, comedy and nudity. Can you believe they showed a montage of nude shots from the past 20 years? It seemed to be a regular feature of the show and quite gratuitous. Unbelievable!

We’re now settled into our unit at Turangi Leisure Lodge. It’s quite a large complex and we’ve been given a 2-bedroom cottage which is very comfortable. There’s a real emphasis in the town on trout fishing. The Tongariro River flows into Lake Taupo and is a noted fishing spot. The lounge room at the resort has stuffed fish over the mantelpiece and trophies for the heaviest fish, etc.

The town itself has the look of an old Tasmanian Hydro town - simple wooden buildings and no pretensions. Marilyn and I went for a walk and it’s clear that he locals don’t take themselves too seriously. We bought jam from a grandmotherly-type who had put her stall up near the shopping centre and fruit from a young couple who set up in front of the information centre.

The other attractions of the area include hot springs, bushwalks featuring boiling mud, ‘volcanic scenery’, white-water rafting, and so on. Rotary meets on Wednesday night.

It looks like being a terrific week!

Beautiful Mudgee .....

Marilyn’s parents have lived in the Mudgee Nursing Home for several years now. When Marilyn’s sister, Anne and Alan bought a property here, it made sense to move Iris and Bill here as well. They were quite happy in Woonona but it was difficult for the family to visit and having them close meant that Anne could look after their affairs better.

As far as Marilyn is concerned, if she has to travel from Tasmania to Woonona to see them, she might as well make the extra effort to travel to Mudgee. Anne and Alan are away at the moment, so it was particularly important for us to visit. They live a bit out of town and, without a car, it is a bit difficult for us to stay there so here we are at the Mudgee Motor Inn.

The owner of the place, Andrew, is a bit of a character. When he bought the motel it was pretty shabby and run down so he’s in the midst of a major renovation. He’s already replaced the beds and TVs and is now working on the reception area and dining room. It’s a bit chaotic having to avoid tools and building material when going in to breakfast but he doesn’t seem to notice.

The pool is nice and very inviting but there were three plastic cement bags floating in it when we arrived. They’ve been removed now but they must have been there for a couple of days at least.

We spent most of yesterday at the nursing home. Bill is very deaf but his mind is still sharp and he loves talking about old times. When Marilyn was growing up, he never talked about his past but he’s more open now about his younger days. He was brought up in a ‘bohemian family’ in Sydney. His parents were both journalists and authors and the household was described by the editor of the Bulletin as a ‘menage’.

Bill left home at 14 to become a jackeroo in the Riverina District of NSW. His name is Hilary but on the property, he called himself Larry because he had heard that his grandmother in England had always wanted to have a son called Larry. On the outbreak of war he was working with a vegetable grower in the Burrinjuck Valley but left to join up. He served in the artillery and, even though he volunteered to go overseas, he got no further than Jacky-Jacky which I think is on the Cape York Peninsula.

Iris was brought up in a very close family in Russell Vale, and when they married, Bill was absorbed into the clan. He lost contact with his brothers and sisters and Marilyn never know that there were other aunts, uncles and cousins on that side of the family.

Iris turns 93 this year and is quite frail. She rarely leaves the nursing home and is losing her sight.

Today, she stayed home and Marilyn and I went with Bill and some of the other residents to the local Golf Club for a Chinese meal. The nursing home organises two trips out each week and Bill always volunteers for whatever is happening. The local taxi company has a disabled maxi-taxi which collects 6 or 8 residents, and 2 or 3 staff and they set off for an hour or two in the community.


Lunch today cost us $8 each and it was a trucky-size serving. It was also a chance for the residents to have something different from the usual menu. Bill always has a beer and one woman wanted a triple scotch. “It’s got to have a bit of kick in it,” she said. When it came, it was pretty watered-down with lemonade but she was happy.

We left them to get the maxi taxi back to the home and walked into town - about 15 minutes.

We get the bus at 6.50 in the morning which will take us to Lithgow to catch the 9.30am train to Sydney. We’ll stay overnight at the Formule 1 and book in for our New Zealand flight on Friday morning. Sandy and Janet are bringing mum up from Wollongong to see us and we’ll all have breakfast before our plane leaves. It’s Mothers Day on Sunday so we are pleased we’ve been able to see both mums just before it.

I’ve just finished reading House Rules by Jodie Picoult, the story of a young man with Aspergers Syndrome and an obsession with crime scene investigation. He finds himself accused of murder and the story describes in some detail how his Aspergers affects not only his own life but the life of his family.

And now for something completely different .....

When I started this blog I thought I would make it just a record of our travels, expecting that we wouldn't be spending much time 'at home'. However, we've been back from Narawntupu for a couple of weeks now and I feel the urge to get back on task, not that anything too exciting has happened but, if I don't write it down as it occurs, it's lost. The reason we’re back in Deloraine is that I had promised to spend some more time at Giant Steps as there were a couple of pressing issues to be resolved and I wanted to give my support. Also, we had committed ourselves to host a dinner on May 1st to raise money for a project we are supporting in the Philippines.

After our experiences in the national park, we’ve decided we like the idea of free camping, in those fabulous quiet areas which abound in Australia. To really get the most from that experience, we need to have a way of charging the van’s battery so that we are not limited to just two days before we run out of power. The options are a generator or a solar panel.

The world of caravanners is divided into two camps: the generator users, and the generator haters. Already, in our very limited experience, we’ve met a number of people who believe that all generator users should be banned from all public places. Our opinions aren’t yet fixed in place but we do want to be friendly and easy-to-get-on-with so it’s a solar panel for us.

The local caravan dealer quoted us $1320 which is a discounted price because we already have the wiring installed but I decided I’d better get another quote to make sure we were in the ballpark, So, check the yellow pages, ring the first ad that mentions caravans, and I find myself talking to Morrie who runs his one-man business from the old hall at Whitemore, a tiny hamlet just out of Deloraine. Morrie does the whole job in two hours, provides a unit which shows me what’s happening and charges me just over $800. Fantastic! As I drive away, he calls out, “I do satellite dishes as well!” Do we need a satellite dish?

The dinner on May 1st was great. We invited about 30 people and expected 21. At the last minute there were a few cancellations but, happily, those who couldn’t come sent us a donation anyway. There were several other dinners held on the same night around Deloraine and we all gathered later for a shared dessert. Our hope was to raise $2000; our group alone handed over $480 so it looks like we will reach our target easily.

I started writing this episode on Monday 3rd May in the Lansdowne Hotel in Lithgow, NSW, while we are waiting for our dinner to be served up. We’ve just got off the train from Sydney and have a couple of hours to fill before the coach takes us on to Mudgee. Time for a good country pub meal.

Marilyn’s using the laptop at another table, replying to an email from one of ‘her girls’ while I have the little netbook to record my random thoughts. It’s crook when you need to carry two computers on a trip. Sign of the times?

Marilyn suggested on Thursday that we should go to Mudgee to see her mum and dad and then spend a few days at one of our timeshare resorts. As usual, we have got carried away and we are booked to fly to New Zealand on Friday. From the available resorts we chose one at Lake Taupo. We fly to Auckland and pick up a car and will have just over a week to see the sights around this area (see a later episode for details)

Before you start to think, why aren’t they taking the caravan? it’s because we can’t get a booking on the ferry. If our original plans had eventuated, we would be on the mainland by now, but the decision to stay in Tasmania until Easter has complicated things. We’re not sure what will happen between now and September when we go to the Philippines but no doubt something will eventuate. Certainly one of the consequences of staying in Deloraine has been that this trip will be somewhat more expensive that it would have been if we didn’t have to add in the cost of getting off the island state.

Anyway, we left Launceston early this morning, flew to Sydney, took the train to Lithgow, and are now on a bus which will get us to Mudgee by 10 o’clock tonight.

A long day and it didn’t start well. I had bought myself a beautiful leather jacket (in fact, Marilyn paid for it while I was humming and hawing about whether I really couldn’t live without it - she gets fed up with my reluctance to spend money on clothes). I have always wanted a leather jacket and often try them on but, for one reason or another (too expensive, too Happy Days, too short in the sleeves) I’ve never managed to acquire one, until now.

This trip was a perfect opportunity to wear it for the first time but when we got to the airport we found that the security tag was still attached. There was no solution to the dilemma and I had to go without it. Jamie had driven us to the airport so he was given the job of taking it back to Myer to have the tag removed. My worry is that he will wear it a few times to ‘break it in’ and won‘t want to give it back.

A word about the project in the Philippines. On our trip in January 2005, our host, Kit Reventar, took us to see a resort and tree plantation she is developing in a remote area on San Miguel Bay about 350 km south of Manila. The resort adjoins a small fishing village called Cayucyucan and Marilyn and I saw the villagers lining up their containers on Sunday morning to buy fresh water from the water truck which comes every week.

Apparently their wells only produce brackish water which is not fit for drinking. The villagers live at a subsistence level and the cost of water is an expense they can ill afford. We’re delighted that Kit organized Rotary support last year to improve the situation. With the new arrangement, water is now pumped from a well to an overhead tank and collected by the villagers as required. The second stage, which will involve our Rotary club, is to drill down a bit deeper to find a supply of better water and pipe it to each household in the village.

Marilyn and I have a soft spot for the children in the village and helped out on one occasion by giving each child a new pair of thongs and a lollipop, sponsored the school soccer team to attend a local carnival, and even helped buy new soccer boots for the team. The children at Giant Steps sent art supplies to them one year and, on another occasion, we sent them some books. We’ll be back there in September and are looking forward to seeing how things are starting to develop; I’ll give you a report in the blog.


If anyone would like to make a donation to the water project or to give something nice to the children you can send a cheque to the Rotary Club of Deloraine, PO Box 85, Deloraine, Tasmania 7304, and mark it Philippines Project.