Monica's Photos

Got an owiee

Jmes fractured a bone in his wrist last week at Basketball, since then he has had a game of footy and another game of basketball. If someone could let Fiona and I where to pick up our parents of the year award we'll grab it at our next convenience. 

Couple of photos

Hi All 

Been a bit on lately and I thought I'd share a couple of photos of the most recent activities. Four kids birthdays and Easter 

Matt

Grand Final

Hi all

its been a big GrandFinal weekend. James got up for his game and I understand Patrick had a win also. Well done boys!! 

Hi there

We are now at the airport waiting, waiting.....

We had 2 nights in Dunedin which were interesting - the nights rather than the day. Matthew gave us his tips about the place mentioning that North Dunedin was the Uni area which was full of flats with doors wide open and music blaring and where were we staying - opposite the party house for the Uni and it was O week.  The first night the music did finish at 10pm but the next night was 11 but the talking and noise went on much later.  I know that is not so late but it was this terrible bass that just kept thumping away..... Whinge, whinge!

The town was alright although I don't think I would say you must go there. We did go for a magnificent drive around the Otago Peninsula - fabulous scenery again!

We then drove along the coast to Christchurch which was nothing great except for one town, Oamurua, which was full of the most amazing buildings from mid 19th C.  We checked out golf club before we got to Christchurch- Riversdale had reciprocal rights. It was a peppers resort so very flash.  We had great accommodation for our last night near the Cathedral Square and opposite a little cafe street.

This morning Dad went off to play golf whilst I stayed in bed and watched a movie - the Light Between the oceans- a lovely tearjerker.  After that I went for a walk around the town.  There is still a huge amount to be done but the building is pretty impressive as is the stopgap measures they have taken for shops etc.  there is also an amazing amount of artwork and sculptures around the city.  I took some photos as I walked around.

This is called the cardboard church as those round things are cardboard.

And here is Dad - green is Pantone colour of the year!

In search of Footrot Flats...

Hello there

We are on our last evening in Arrowtown as we move on to Dunedin tomorrow.  Dad played golf with a fellow from that area the other day and he gave Dad the lowdown on the area - thank goodness for golf!

The last couple of days have been a bit quieter.  Sunday morning we want to mass at this little old church - a pleasant experience.  There was a fellow who asked whether there were any visitors and we had to introduce ourselves to our neighbours. At the end, the priest asked if there were any birthdays etc. One couple were celebrating 51 years of marriage so the priest came down the aisle and sang a love song to them!  Quite touching! Also Mary McKillop set up her first school here and lived next door to the church.  Dad then went off to play golf on Sunday whilst I went to the movies.  I saw Manchester by the Sea - I loved it. 

Monday, we visited a couple of wineries and had lunch at one of them.  Today we drove to Queenstown and wandered through the gardens and the town.   Had lunch at a boutique hotel then back to Arrowtown for a rest.  

Here is the Main Street - dad has some better photos.  

Love to all

Mum xxx
Sent from my iPad

Here we are in New Zealand

And it is great!

We had a bit of a trip here with the plane leaving just after midnight and arriving at 5.30 then a 6 hour drive to Arrowtown but it is quite magnificent. The drive was so very scenic with mountains and magnificent lakes with the bluest- green water.  We did have a couple of power naps along the way as well as stopping for a meal.  We had a drink at this old 1860 pub which had been a bit too refurbished but the view was fabulous. Here's the photo.

Our little house is very cute and comfortable. The only negative is that the bedroom is in the roof and the ladder is quite steep with weird half steps so we come down backwards like a ladder - we are being very careful!  And it has an interesting fence made of old bikes!  We took a photo for Andy so he knows what he can he can do wiht all his bikes each time he gets a new one! 

Today we went for a walk through the town.  Lots of shops, cafes etc. it is the sort of town that the tourist buses bring people as part of a tour. It is so pretty.  After that, we went for a drive to Wanaka and on the way we stopped at Cardrona - these photos are for Andrew as he told us about the pub that he had visited 20 years ago!  Dad was a bit sceptical as The beer at these pubs is not what Dad likes! Lucky it was normal beer! So we stayed for lunch - bangers and mash - we could have been in the UK!  It was really great.
The drive was fantastic up over the Range of mountains. Thanks for that tip, Andrew.

 

Tonight we went to the movies at Dorothy Browns cinema and saw 'Lion'.   We were both moved to tears.

The weather has been fantastic and should stay that way.  My only frustration is that I can't walk in the mountains so we are going for driving trips. Sunday is going to play golf and I plan to go to the movies twice!  Should be fun. 

 

Mum xx

Sent from my iPad

Singles - REISSUE!!

Might not be everyone's cup of tea. Love a re-issue though.. Get it on Vinyl and wear a flannie

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/singles-soundtrack-reissue-to-contain-grunge-era-rarities-w462468

Christmas 2016!!

Hi All

Hope that you are all well. I've picked some photos from Christmas this year to share for the OS'ers.  It was wonderful having everyone over to our place for the day and thanks everyone for their contributions and efforts. 

The tree in our backyard got a promotion for the day to act as Christmas tree and Dan did an excellent job of keeping the present sharing moving at a crisp rate.  The weather couldn't have been better - a lot of sun, the pool got a workout with a nominated relaxing end of the pool  and an I think Bernard named the other end the annoying end.

The photos are in the gallery here. I will also add the ones that Dom sent through as well.  It's not my best work in the photography department but hopefully they are able to share some of the happy memories of the day.

thanks again

Matt and Fiona

We are ready for Christmas!!

The latest in artificial trees....

Courtesy of Pinterest-

Tina

Summers Up!!

Matt

Home Valley to Darwin

Hi All

just in case any of you were wondering how our adventure ended up I thought I had better finish the emails I started. Picking up where I left off we were on our way to El Questro station. We managed to get here without anymore flat tyres which was a great relief. The mighty Pentecost river was supposed to be the big river crossing that were going to have to do was bone dry. This was both a relief and a disappointment.

There were more river crossings in our future including a second crack at a different part of the Pentecost this time with water where I promptly stalled the car half way through. All ended well as Fiona and the boys got out and pushed us across. Just jokes about that part but we did lose our rego plate there I think, must have been crocs. El Questro had some amazing gorges, swimming holes, springs and overpriced beer. The next three days were spent doing some long walks into some of the many beautiful gorges on the property. It was getting hotter and more humid as the trip went on so swimming and icypoles kept the boys motivated and Fiona and I kept it together in much the same manner.

After El Questro we had intended to head up to Kakadu, but had heard that it had started raining there which meant that most the places we wanted to visit had been closed by the rangers as they couldn’t be certain there weren’t crocs there now. instead we headed to Kununurra and lake Argyle for a short time and then up to Litchfield national Park for more waterfalls and swimming holes.

The last couple of days in Darwin were a great way to wrap up the trip with a visit to the wave pool, the museum, the cinemas and finish it all up with dinner at the trailer boat club before flying home. It was a really wonderful trip and a great opportunity to see a beautiful part of Australia so thanks Phil and Tracey for getting married you’d better start working on some new excuse for us to visit - 'i bought a new set of golf clubs’ - anything will do!

hope you are all well and take care

Matt and Fiona

Matt

Do we have a footy team yet?

We'll be adding another little baby to the clan next April! All good so far and v exciting. Cx

Claire

Broome to Home Valley

Hi

Second update for you all. Good thing we had a test run of all the camping gear at Cape Leveque as it turned out they had supplied us with the wrong size tent poles. They were quickly swapped over, we resupplyed with food and tasty beverages as the bloke from the hire place called beer - 'make sure you stock up on tasty beverage there's none on the Gibb' - and we set off for Windjana Gorge. You can't swim at the gorge as its full of freshwater crocs, loads of them if you look close at the water you can see their heads just showing in the photo behind James

It is a beautiful walk through the gorge though. Lisa of crocs, bats and colourful cliffs. The next day we set off to Tunnel creek which is a cave about a kilometre long with a river running through it. Once again lots of crocs and bats. There were quite a few people walking through the cave so it felt pretty safe. The boys did get a bit freaked out once when we had to walk through a shallow part of the river. After this it was off to a place called Bell Gorge to camp for the night. We got there in time to walk the couple of Km into the bottom of the falls for a swim. It's one of the prettiest places I have seen and we probably should have timed it to spend more time there

Next day was to another camp site called Manning Gorge. We had a long walk into the falls here of about an hour each way and given it was about 40 degrees and the rough terrain and Rick climbing we were very proud of the way the boys handled it. We met several adults along the way who struggled with it. We spent a good couple of hours there jumping off the rocks and lazing around before heading back. The camp sites are pretty dusty dry affairs. They have at a minimum have a flushing loo and shower and beyond the cool looking Boab trees and views not much else

We had a big drive ahead of us the next day of about 300 km and had been told the road gets worse as you go along. We had planned to stop at Ellenbrae station for lunch as it famous for its scones. Turns out the scones are great but so is the tyre repair service as we picked up puncture just before the station. Sam had also picked up a middle ear infection the night before which is less than ideal but it turns out the station managers in the area also have a small pharmacy which they are allowed to dispense from after a phone consultation with a GP. We are very fond of Ellenbrae station.

We continued on to Home Valley station where we had planned to camp for two nights. Some of the stations also have flash cabins so after a brief discussion with the boys we thought we try our luck with one of these. The until conversation didn't go very well as it was going to mean we needed to book two expensive cabins. Fiona did some quick negotiating, Sam complained about his ear and the nice lady at the counter said we could all pile into in of their 'Grass Castle' rooms for 50% off. We are now also very fond of Home Valley station!

We are now headed off to El Questro station for three nights, then not sure after that as reports are that it is storming in Kakadu.

Fiona and I have loved the journey so far and the boys have had great time as well so long as we aren't to far from a swimming hole or icypole.

Hope your all well

Matt

Broome to Home Valley

Hi

Second update for you all. Good thing we had a test run of all the camping gear at Cape Leveque as it turned out they had supplied us with the wrong size tent poles. They were quickly swapped over, we resupplyed with food and tasty beverages as the bloke from the hire place called beer - 'make sure you stock up on tasty beverage there's none on the Gibb' - and we set off for Windjana Gorge. You can't swim at the gorge as its full of freshwater crocs, loads of them if you look close at the water you can see their heads just showing in the photo behind James

Matt

2nd attempt

Hi All

Hope your well. Thought I'd share a few moments from the trip so far. The photos have probably gone out of whack when posting them to the blog so you might have to click on the pictures to see them all. First stop was Sawyers creek just out of Perth to see Mick and Leanne and their kids. They have about 8 acres of lovely bush land just out if Pert and the wild flowers had just come out. The only photo I have is of the cousins lounging about on deck chairs though, so sorry bout that no wild flowers.

Next stop was Broome for Phil and Tracey's wedding. We probably should have done the camping first as the place we stayed had its own pool and the Cartoon Network so the boys didn't want to leave. The wedding was a lovely occasion on the beach. Then up to the fishing club which had lovely views over the same beach. It was a great night and just brilliant to catch up with all the Leach family and the Waterfords. While we were up here there was festival on - Shinju Matsuri - which involved making floating lanterns and launching them. The boys had a great time with this as it also meant getting wet. We also had a trip to the Croc farm, which opened the boys eyes a bit. Not sure if Sam got the message as he wanted to buy a crocodile at the end

Next stop was two hours north of Broome at a place called cape Leveque. It was a good test run for the four wheel drive and camping gear we had hired before we set off down the Gibb river road. The drive up was pretty hairy when you are normally used to the eastern freeway. We had a shelter right on the beach, just amazing views. The place is spectacular colours, with red rocky cliffs straight onto beautiful white sand. Fiona and I loved it , the boys loved it when they were either swimming or had an ice cream in their gobs. Which was often. Once the heat of the day died down it was all smiling faces again.

We are now back in Broome again for a quick stop at one of the many caravan parks here before setting off again tomorrow.

I'll write again soon hope you are all well.

Take care Matt

Mums 70th

Monica 0423 290 494

Tina's birthday

Matt

Smart boy on first day

Solomon is off to senior school today!

Claire

Before and After...

Claire