After finishing another one of mum’s so called short flat tracks out of Bright, we headed to Warburton. The best part of the day was driving through the beautiful Yarra Ranges National Park. The mountain ash trees were so TALL! Tuesday morning after breakie we were loaded up for another day of riding. Second breakfast…
Last night we filled our bellies with a roast dinner cooked in our Wombat Retreat Cottage. I got some new bike tips hehehehe watching the Australian Mountain Bike Championships. We were up early and Mum said today was a short flat ride. I said, “Mum you have never taken me on a SHORT ride or…
The Dog on the Tuckerbox is an Australian historical monument 5 miles from Gundagai. The history of statue goes back to the poem “Bullock Bill” written by Bowyang Yorke in 1857. Let me tell you about the first time we stopped at the ‘Dog on the tuckerbox’. We were on our way home from our…
Earthquake 22 Feb 2011 At 12.51 p.m. on Tuesday 22 February 2011, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake caused severe damage in Christchurch and Lyttelton, killing 185 people and more than 7,000 were injured. There was damage to houses, offices, businesses and land. We watched in the Quake City museum the news footage of the event. It looked…
We spent two days in Hanmer Springs. Hanmer Springs was named after the surveyor Thomas Hanmer. Grace and I measured ourselves! The town was surrounded by high mountains, little shops in the main street and lots of old buildings. One of the old buildings we walked around was the old Queen Mary Hospital. The alpine air,…
We had travelled to the west coast of New Zealand to see the glaciers. Firstly we drove over Haast Pass. Along the way we tramped in the rain across a swing bridge to see the Blue Pools. The water was grey coloured on the cloudy rainy day. On we went to the glaciers. There was…
Mum woke up early and booked a QUAD BIKE tour. Mum remembered Mark and Kel doing it when they visited Franz Joseph. It was pouring down rain and I thought this was perfect weather to burn outs in the mud! At the quad bike office I had to be sized up to see if I could…
Between 1860 to 1880 about 800 Chinese came to Otago and West Coast in search of gold. In 2002 the New Zealand Government formally apologised to the Chinese community for discrimination to early Chinese settlers. In 2003 the Department of Conservation upgraded the Arrowtown Chinese settlement as part of a national reconciliation. A local hero…
Today I got back in my nicks and riding shirt as we were off to ride the Gibbston Valley Track. After Better By Bikes sized us up for bikes we were off. The trail goes beside the river the whole way. The track wasn’t flat, there was lots of up and steep down. This meant…
Ferrets and stoats were introduced into New Zealand to stop the rabbits. But they started eating ground birds eggs. In six years the bird population decreased dramatically. The New Zealand Department of Conservation now put out traps. These traps are wooden boxes with a little hole in one end. Inside the traps there is a…