Victoria

October 2005

  

   MILDURA

We came for 3 days and stayed a week.

We were lucky to get in to the River Road Caravan Park ($22 per night) where Grant and Smillie were staying as Mildura was very busy with some parks charging well over $40. One night our park provided a ''sausage sizzle'' complete with coleslaw, pasta salad etc and on Sunday morning pancakes with cream and maple syrup - at no extra charge.

Our visit to Mildura coincided with a 10 day Country & Western music Festival, an extremely well run show. A $3 programme showed which artists were singing at which venue, all of which were free. Shows started at 10am in the Mall or Parks with evening shows in huge clubs. Meals were good value. A few days was enough for us but then we explored the area.     

This area is where grapes are grown for sultanas etc. Sadly acres and acres of oranges are going to waste because of cheaper imports. The Australian government doesn't look after it's own people any better than the NZ govt. So many industries either in horticulture or fish/shellfish are suffering because supermarket chains source cheaper imported products.           

37% of Australian wine grapes are also grown in this area.

The Murray River, which is the border between Victoria and NSW, flows through Mildura and has many house boats and tourist paddle steamers. It was interesting to watch ''Lock 11'' open and close to allow vessels to navigate the different river levels.

A very nice tidy town/city to visit. The newish modern houses here were a marked contrast to Broken Hill. The water from the Murray River is used for irrigation and gives the area a nice green landscape and allows acres and acres of plantings of grapes, orange and olive trees and also wheat (we think).

We enjoyed ourselves here but then we always do as we just love this life!

We then drove south east and stayed the night at KOONDROOK, a small place on the Murray River where we found a lovely peaceful camping spot by the river. We are now in Victoria where the farm land is beautifully green with lush grass. So flat as is most of Australia and with the Murray river for irrigation it’s a joy to drive through.

Riverboat in Echuca

Echuca was our next stop, a once very busy port on the Murray River and now is home to many paddle steamers. It has a ‘port’ waterfront area steeped in history. All the places in this area are very tidy, pretty towns. Couldn’t find a “bush camp” here so we moved on to ELMORE where we found a superb spot on the River Campaspe. Quite a few campers here attending the Elmore Field days so we went along for a look. Similar to Mystery Creek but the machinery (harvesters etc) were much bigger. Unfortunately the weather is deteriorating – (so what’s new) with a bit of rain forecast in the next few days.  By hunting out these ‘bush camps’ we find some lovely interesting places.

Malden

BENDIGO, a gold mining town, was our next stop where we stayed at the local Showgrounds for only $11. Only doing short drives now and next day we drove to BALLARAT, another gold mining town, - and it was the coldest day, several (about 10) degrees lower than normal - but luckily we found Hepburn Springs on our way and had a gorgeous spa in a “heated” mineral pool.  Even put the heater on that night.  En route we called into a very old gold mining town, Malden, which is now the “in” town Melbournites visit at the weekend for antiques and bric a brac. But it was so cold, albeit very pretty with new spring growth on the trees etc, we only bought a pie for lunch. Marvellous farmland in Victoria and also some fields are spectacular with yellow/gold canola.

Pat and Ken have taken possession of their caravan this week on the Gold Coast and I’m sure they’re enjoying lovely hot weather. Graeme is flying home and will arrive in Auckland Oct 8 for a few months before heading off again. Jas and Pen will also be home shortly and their boat is also being shipped to Auckland so they’ll continue working on it when it arrives home. We are flying home Nov 14 until Jan 4 to catch up with everyone and make sure Papa is behaving himself!

We spent a lovely couple of days with Kay and Gary at MELBOURNE but cold, good heavens, Gary lit the fire and also had the gas heating on! But, good as the hospitality was we couldn’t wait to get out of the city and we headed north to Shepparton where we spent up large at a very cheap food warehouse and stayed the night at BENALLA next day driving to WANGARATTA (pronounced like hang and rat). We did a bike ride and had to stop in a hurry to allow a snake to cross the path in front of us - why do they find us!

We free camped the next night at the disused EVERTON Railway Station. From here we did a very steep 16km uphill bike ride to Beechworth, a beautiful historic town. The 16km downhill was great!

In this area they have rail trails which are 6 ft wide tarsealed disused railway tracks and really great for cycling on. Next day I felt good so we did another 22km but I didn’t feel so good after that. Also a magpie decided he didn’t like us and gave us both 3 good pecks on our helmets.

We moved camp to BRIGHT via Myrtleford. These towns are just beautiful in Spring and we’d love to visit them in Autumn. The trees and colours are glorious. We biked from Bright 30km down (well, it was supposed to be downhill but the head wind counteracted that) to Myrtleford and then caught the bus back. But the scenery was lovely.

 Oct 18th we drove from Bright to LAKES ENTRANCE over the Great Alpine Road. And what a drive. Australia does have hills, maybe not huge mountains, but this drive could certainly rival any drive we’ve done in New Zealand.

A bridge for skiers to ski over

We climbed from Harrietville at 300m to the top of Mt Hotham at 1800m in 20km. A good road but winding and steep with big drops down ...... It took us right up into the ski fields. We hadn’t expected to find such a road in Australia. just taking us from Bright to the coast. No snow now but still drifts of ice around.  It’s obviously a very busy place in the snow season judging by the amount of accommodation and the number of ski lifts available. And we were right up there!   Amazing! The drive down the southern side was quite tame in comparison but still a great road and a very interesting drive.

The top of Mt Hotham

We spent the next few weeks exploring the coastline from Lakes Entrance to PHILLIP ISLAND staying at free camps at PARADISE BEACH and REEVES BEACH.

Lakes Entrance is just what it says, an entrance to a multitude of lakes. Amazing how many boats, runabouts and larger, in this area. But we didn’t see any decent fish being caught.

The entrance to Lakes Entrance

Paradise Beach was alive with mozzies and the beach was soft sand so very hard to walk on but a good place to ‘bush camp’ with toilets and water available.

Lakes Entrance beach

Lakes Entrance

Paradise Beach beautiful but huge mosquitoes

Tarra-Bulga 

PORT ALBERT is one of the original fishing villages, a pretty place with a good fish and chip takeaway. The wind got up so we were quite glad to leave our camp site by the water after three nights.

November 2005

Little blue penguin

Phillip Island

WILSON’S PROMONTORY NATIONAL PARK was busy as it was Melbourne Cup weekend and a lot of Victorians take a long weekend. This park was badly burned last Easter when a “controlled” fire became uncontrolled and came very close to the camp area. 600 people were forced to sleep on the beach that night.

Phillip Island

We had a lovely site at PHILLIP ISLAND right on the beach. Visited the Nobbies, a seagull rookery. First time we’d seen baby seagulls, and plenty of them. Also little penguins have their nests in this area and they were cute to see. A broadwalk has been built to allow viewing without disturbing the birds and penguins and also to allow viewing of seals and the blow hole. An exciting place on a windy day. Visited Churchill Island and while walking around the farm the flies were catching a ride on John’s back on his white shirt.

Then back to Melbourne we toured the MCG which was being readied for the Commonwealth Games in March 2006.

We met up with (sister) Pat and Ken with their caravan at BALLARAT where we visited Sovereign Hill, a recreated gold mining village. 

 Our second time in Ballarat but at least it wasn’t raining this time.

We flew home to NZ on 14th November to spend a few weeks with Papa.

From mid November to early January we were in New Zealand and stayed most of this time with John’s Dad which was great. We were lucky to spend some time with Graeme who has been back in NZ for a few months but is now preparing to head back to Majorca in March. Unfortunately the super(motor)yacht Crystal Lady Jas and Pen are working on was delayed arriving in Auckland and we missed seeing them. We flew back to Melbourne and spent some time with Kay and Gary before we sailed to Tasmania.

March 2006

A Koala at Kennet River CP

After Tasmania we drove from Melbourne to Adelaide along the Great Ocean Road. We loved it and had perfect weather. The 100km from Ocean Grove to Apollo Bay has lovely holiday towns with world renowned surf beaches. A beautiful drive. We stayed at  the KENNET RIVER CP. 


Then on to the "Shipwreck" coast so called because of the reefs far beyond the mainland which have claimed many lives and approx 160 ships over the years. The rugged 70m cliffs and limestone formations (amongst them the 12 Apostles - now 11 as one fell over) were absolutely spectacular. 

Images of the Great Ocean Road

One day, driving from PRINCETON to PETERBOROUGH, we moved the caravan only 37km as we checked out all the broadwalks to the various lookouts. While on business a few years ago we did this drive but only had a couple of days and didn't appreciate it's beauty.

Fossilised structures in Portland area

Port Fairy

Murray River "riverboats"

We stayed a couple of nights at the old whaling town of PORT FAIRY and 3 nights at HENTY BEACH,PORTLAND.  Both pretty places. Then across the border into S A to MT GAMBIER for three nights. While there we visited the Coonawarra wine region noted for it's Cabernets and had lunch at Poplars winery. 

Mt Gambier sink-hole

Also visited Penola and learnt about an Australia Joesphite nun who, among other things, established a school in 1866 for children regardless of their family's income or social status. Blessed Mary McKillop was beatified by the Vatican in 1995 and authorities now need to be able to attribute one more "miracle" to her for her to be made Australia's first saint. Her story was very interesting and she was quite a character - a lot of 'get up and go'. Also at Penola, which is just a small town, is the most amazing antique shop. Even John enjoyed looking around it!