Here is my choice for this week’s Scenic Sunday – from a drive along the Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia.
Category: Travel
Scenic Sunday
Here is my choice for this week’s Scenic Sunday – St Kilda Pier, Melbourne.
Ruby Tuesday
Here is my choice for this week’s Ruby Tuesday – this is a cafe/art gallery we passed when driving around Queensland, taking the scenic route round the back through the highlands between Cairns and Port Douglas … it was an awesome little detour that perked us up for the next stage of driving – I would definitely recommend stopping for a stroll and a bite to eat if you’re ever driving through Tolga.
Scenic Sunday
Here is my choice for this week’s Scenic Sunday – a lighthouse on the Great Ocean Road drive from Melbourne to Adelaide (sorry, the name/place escapes me right now!).
Photo Hunt – Music
PhotoHuntThis week’s theme is ”Music” and here are some music moments from our time spent in Fiji.
From the left: Joe, me and Akuila
Dokko – the local landowner, and proprietor of the staff kava hut – this was my Christmas present to him … he really REALLY wanted a banjo, bless his heart!
Scenic Sunday
Here is my choice for this week’s Scenic Sunday – Mossman Gorge, near Port Douglas, Queensland.
Feathered Friends in Queensland
Here are a few more shots of friends of the feathered variety that we met while on holiday:
And here are a couple of shots of the beach/ocean in and around Port Douglas:
And a couple of views of the scenery along the way:
On the left is Barron Falls at Kuranda
On the right from the top: Ant hill in the countryside; Curtain Fig Tree at Kuranda; View from Heales Lookout in the Atherton Tablelands
And finally a quick mosaic of various parts of Queensland life that we saw while on holiday:
From left to right:
Top row: Fields of sugar cane being harvested; Banana palms; Tropical plant
Middle row: Hay bales; Cairns waterfront; Mossman River at Mossman Gorge
Bottom row: Lake Eacham; Mossman River at Mossman Gorge; Lake Barrine
Sorry, too busy to write anything more … probably won’t get chance to get online again before the weekend … and no stitching to show for all the busy-ness! 
A couple of finishes … and some holiday snaps …
Just a really quick post, so I can upload some holiday snaps, as well as my latest stitching finishes. Here goes …
First up my latest finishes from yesterday and today:
“Hannah Purington, 1796” by Little House Needleworks
stitched on Ice Blue linen with DMC
“Stitching Leporello” by Chatelaine
Only one more piece to complete, and all the stitched sections will be finished 😀
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Next up are some piccies from the Mossman Gorge in Tropical North Queensland from last week’s holiday – a wonderful spot just a short drive from Port Douglas … love, love, LOVED it there:
Next are some of the critters we came across on the same holiday … don’t scroll down any further if you don’t like crocodiles and/or snakes!!!
Kangaroos, Koala and Wombat
Fiji Crested Iguana, Frilled Neck Lizard, Iguana
Crocodiles with one lone alligator in the top centre
Black-headed Python, Pilbara Death Adder, Coastal Taipan, Green Python
More piccies will follow shortly … of the gentler feathered friends we met while away, as well as some general piccies of Cairns, Port Douglas, and the general surrounding areas 🙂
Napier/Hastings … final part (photo heavy again)
Alas, Tuesday came far too quickly, and it was time to pack up again for the return drive home. We had a leisurely start to the day and didn’t leave the motel until 10am – we started of by driving to the Silky Oak Chocolate factory and museum, where we unexpectedly ended up spending a full two hours! Not only do they have a cafe serving great food (we ended up having brunch there), but they have a really interesting Museum all about the history of chocolate – it was fascinating, and definitely worth the visit! 😀
Eggs Benedict with Bacon
Raspberry & Pear Muffin
Afterwards we drove into Napier township for a visit to the information centre and a wee walk around the waterfront and streets to take some photos of some of the Art Deco buildings – we enjoyed ourselves so much that we didn’t end up leaving Napier itself until 3pm … oops! 😉
One of my fave sculptures – “Pania of the Reef“
Napier waterfront gardens, with Pohutukawa trees in bloom
If any of you are interested in Art Deco building styles, here is a selection for you. For those of you who aren’t aware, Napier CBD was flattened by a devastating earthquake in 1931, and all of the buildings were rebuilt during the same era, giving Napier the reputation of being the capital of Art Deco architecture due to having so many buildings of that style in such a small area.
We finished off our trip to Napier by stopping at a couple of fruit sellers stalls to stock up on beautiful fresh produce. That’s one thing I really love about NZ, there are plenty of local growers selling their fresh produce – and their quality and flavour is far superior to anything you can buy in the supermarkets. My special treats over the couple of days away (as we bought some other fruit the previous day) were fresh strawberries (to die for!), apricots (one of my all-time fave fresh fruits), boysenberries (can’t remember the last time I saw them fresh since moving to Oz), blueberries, and black cherries … oh boy, I’m drooling again just remembering them!!! Sheer heaven – I ADORE summer fruits 😀
We finished off our gourmet couple of days with dinner in Taupo, at the Waterside Restaurant & Bar – here the food was blissful and the service great … yet again, here are the gourmet delights we troughed through:
Chicken Salad for Mum
Lamb Fillet with asparagus, with Greek Tsatziki & balsamic jus for me – drool
Looking back, one of the other things that brought a smile to my face and a lump to my throat was to see all the Pohutukawa trees in bloom – these are affectionately known as the “New Zealand Christmas tree”, and their red bloom is a real delight to behold. Tales say that if the trees bloom before Christmas, we will be in for a long hot summer … personally I just love to see their blooms colouring the skyline.
Other things that I loved being in NZ, was that you can buy L&P everywhere you turn your head … even at the humble pie cart in an outdoor market – ah bliss 😉
It was great to see the Auckland icon, the Auckland Sky Tower, with its impressive bulk shadowing over the CBD.
And not to mention the vast lush “green-ness” of the countryside – unfortunately I didn’t get a great photo of it as it started to cloud over on the way home from Napier, and then rained off and on the entire way home to Auckland 😦
But one of my biggest treats was to spend a week in the warmth of Mum’s Christmas tree – her tree has brought delight to my soul for as long as I can remember, and I made sure my final night in Auckland was spent huddled in the lounge with the warm glow of the Christmas lights … and a rare night of familial bliss as we all sat and watched the Christmas in the Park show on TV, followed by an hour of Aussie and Kiwi stand-up comics … what a great way to finish off a great holiday! 😀
I have come home with many beautiful gifts – but no photos yet as they were bought using Christmas money, so they’re wrapped up under the tree … I’ll share photos after Christmas. What I can share, though, is the wonderful treat from Mum – a set of Prairie Schooler Santa ornies … I just adore these, and will treasure them always! Thanks so much Mum, you’re a sweetheart! 😀
Napier/Hastings … part 2 (photo heavy)
The next morning we had a tour booked with the Gannet Safaris company – our destination was the gannet colony at Cape Kidnappers. We’ve done this trip years once before years ago, but we took a tractor ride up the beach to the colony … this time the trip took us by 4WD mini-coach overland through hilly sheep farms – Mum wasn’t too keen on the sheer drops off the cliffs and hillsides, but we were both impressed at not having to climb the steep path up to the colony from the beach level, as the coach drops you off right at the colony itself!
On the way to the Cape we drove through a Cape Kidnappers Station, and were lucky to catch one of them getting the sheep ready for shearing – here are a couple of photos of our infamous Kiwi sheep (of which 95% of Kiwi jokes are aimed at!), and the sheepdog hard at work herding into the pens (not bad photos considering they were taken through the coach window glass) 🙂
We had a short stop at the top of the cliffs to enjoy the view of Hawke Bay (which is the actual Bay, as opposed to the region, which is called Hawkes Bay), and here we were treated to seeing a really big school of dolphins swimming around after the fish that must have been there – it was breathtaking seeing so many in one place … unfortunately we were too far away to take really great photos, but here’s just a small handful of the dolphins that we could see. I reckon there must have been about 20-30 in the school … just incredible!
When we got up to the colony I was in my element … I tend to love birds of all kinds, not just ducks, and could’ve spent hours and hours watching the gannets. They’re the most amazing birds, and this time of year we were extra lucky to see the chicks hatched and being cared for by their parents – they’re incredibly ugly babies, but they certainly grow up to be something truly majestic and wonderful!!! I love this photo of the protective parent and his/her chick 🙂
Both Mum and I loved to see how affectionate the gannet couples are – the male and female birds take turns to look after the egg/chick while the other fishes for food, then when they return to the nest there’s much noise and ‘hugging’. Apparently their wing span reaches approx 2m across, and they’re glorious to see in flight. I couldn’t choose just one photo, so you get a few different shots to look at if you’re interested 🙂
Another colony off the coast (view from the lighthouse)
After the gannets, we drove out to Taradale where we had a splurge of a gourmet lunch at Church Road vineyard … the food was delicious and the glass of Reserve Chardonnay was sublimely out of this world (although at $36 a bottle we opted not to leave with more, however tempting it was!).
Aoraki Smoked Salmon & Asparagus Salad with poached egg, lemon
beurre blanc & kumara crisps – yum!!!
Walnut Tart with quince & maple & whiskey ice cream – yum again!!!
Finally to finish off the afternoon we drove to JJ’s Crafts (BTW Katrina and Kath, it’s now moved to 14 Glouchester Street, Greenmeadows), where we picked up some Christmas fabrics and a fabric that will hopefully be suitable to finish the infamous Just Nan’s Evening Star (as to date I’ve been unable to find anything remotely suitable locally – the colours in the stitching are just very difficult to match). I also picked up a packet of rustic bells after seeing them on Kath’s Christmas tree.
Unfortunately we ran out of time to visit Heirlooms, but that will definitely be first on the list for the next visit! 😀
As we’ d had a full-on day, and a big dinner at lunchtime, we headed back to the motel to have light nibbles before bed, before we returned home the next day.
