An Awfully Bad Name For A Blog

New Zealand

john — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 18:16:46 +0000

Back in April we had our first real holiday in about four years. It was a grand old time we had in the North and South Islands of New Zealand and, though we went for 19 days, we really wished we could’ve had longer. We listened to a lot of advice from family, friends and colleagues before we went and did our research so we always had a rough plan though we generally played it by ear each day.

I’m not sure why we decided to go to New Zealand just as winter approached especially as we haven’t really seen much of Australia. I estimate that, from Sydney, we’ve been about 160 miles south (Canberra), 70 miles west (Jenolan Caves) and about 270 miles north (Coffs Harbour). That’s about 30,000 square miles out of the 30,000,000 available to us; only 1% of the country.

But New Zealand we chose and I’m glad we did. I have about 19 days of entries coming through soon all taken from my diary after some minimal editing to remove references to any criminal activity we were involved in¹ or the copious notes I made on the distribution ratios and correlation between dead possums and One Lane Bridge signs².

We created 1000s of pictures and a small percentage of them have been uploaded to flickr and can be found here. If you’re not too interested in flicking through them all then our tl;dv gallery is below – this is a picture or two from each day which is either a bit nice or just representative of our day:

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I’ll be publishing the articles with the day of their telling so they’ll appear beneath this article. I’ll edit this post with links when this happens.

Day 1 – Sydney to Christchurch

Day 2 – Ashburton, Lake Tekapo, Omarama

Day 3 – Queenstown

Day 4 – Te Anau

Day 5 – Milford Sound

Day 6 – Queenstown

Day 7 – Lake Wanaka, Haast

Day 8 – Glacier Highway, Franz Josef, Hokitika

Day 9 – Arthur’s Pass, Castle Hill, Akaroa

Day 10 – Christchurch

Day 11 – TranzCoastal Railway, Marlborough Sounds, Wellington

Day 12 – Wellington, Te Papa

Day 13 – Napier

Day 14 – Taupo

Day 15 – Wai-O-Tapu, Rotorua

Day 16 – Hobbiton, Whitianga, Hot Water Beach

Day 17 – Auckland

Day 18 – Auckland

Day 19 – Auckland to Sydney

we weren’t, well, except maybe on day 13
I didn’t though I have mentally stored every single occurrence

Roz Made a Wiggles Cake

john — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 08:11:06 +0000

This is from a few years ago, I just put together the various bits of the video today. For Oscar’s first birthday Roz made a Wiggles Big Red Car cake. It took about 7 hours and a lot of icing.

Some pictures too:

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McMahons, Milsons, Kirribilli

john — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 12:30:45 +0000

Yesterday we went shopping for some stuff for New Zealand. Top of my list was some new walking shoes as my old ones had been making hissing noises for over a year. So today I wanted to break them in a bit. Was intending to go finish off the Balmoral Beach to Chowder Bay part of the walk we missed out on two days ago but the buses were not playing ball on Zombie Sunday so I decided to go for a wander near where we live instead. Didn’t plan much except to head out the house with Roz to visit that really nice bakery at the top of Blues Point Road.

Given that as a starting point I headed on down to McMahons Point. Was never sure you could get from there to Milsons Point easily but after exploring around some apartment blocks I found a path up to East Crescent Street which was different if not exciting. From there down to Bay View Street. The view I imagine is for those that own the houses. Fortunately at the end of this street were steps down to a boardwalk which followed beneath a railway track around to Luna Park and the ferry wharf. I’m not sure the train track is still in use as it seems to stop at the park but without any station.

Anyway, from there I battled through the crowds of families around to the Bridge and under it continuing along the foreshore to Kirribilli. I couldn’t continue along the foreshore as I’d reached the Prime Minister’s house and apparently he’s allowed a nice big foreshore view. Whatever. It had been 1 hour since I left so it was a good point to head home for dinner anyway.

I took a roundabout route past Careening Cove and Milson Park and finally up the boring Freeway-hugging paths back to North Sydney and home. On my own I managed 7km in 1.5 hours. A bit faster than the Bay Walk near Haberfield and this time there were more inclines. I put my pace down to my wonderful new shoes that will surely lead me up Mount Everest one day. No pictures today because I forgot the camera. Plus it would’ve slowed me down man.
McMahons, Milsons and Kirribilli
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Spit Bridge to Balmoral Beach

john — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 11:03:26 +0000

This was another filling in the gap walk. It was originally to be the Spit Bridge to Chowder Bay as I particularly wanted to show Roz the views up on the Middle Head part of the walk but it wasn’t to be. We wanted to be sure Roz’s knee was good for New Zealand next week so we started the walk on the south side of the bridge to cut out about 1km.

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We had no guide book this time so I had to hope that the bits of the foreshore I thought we could walk along did in fact have paths at either end and weren’t too dangerous. Fortunately most of the harbour foreshore is good like that, almost designed for walking despite the number of houses with wonderful back gardens reaching down to the water’s edge¹.

We got some good views over to the Manly Scenic Walk and at times all three of the Heads (North, Middle and South). I particularly liked Rosherville Lighthouse sitting nestled between two houses with a walkway leading to it’s entrance halfway up. Looked as if someone like Jonathan Creek should live there. By the time we got to Rosherville Reserve we had come across some up and down bits and more steps than Roz’s knee could handle so we decided we’d aim only for Balmoral Beach and stop there.

Fortunately that wasn’t far. And as it was Good Friday we decided to forget about our sandwiches and have fish and chips instead. I had my fish in a bun². As we’d gone out late and the temperature was dipping close to 0ºJ I decided to join Roz in the bus home.

we must stop doing these urban walks as the houses make us too jealous
beef is a fish

The Life Most Ordinary

john — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 18:05:11 +0000

We are still here. Have not updated since May 2008! And had the site taken down for about a year. Apologies to the two concerned citizens of the world who wondered where it had all gone and also to those who did worry but not enough to ask.

We remain in Australia, I am still working for the same company I was with two years ago. Though it has been taken over by another. Which has taken over two others too. Which means lots of redundant positions in the company. Which means I’m on a shoogly peg. So we are back on the visa trail again. This time aiming for permanent residency so that when I do get the boot¹ we won’t have to leave the country. Won’t bore you with that just now but prepare yourself for later posts.

Anyway, I’ve got a bunch of draft posts from years ago that I’ll publish soon (all with the old dates so they’ll appear older than this post) and then we’ll get back to updating here – maybe I’ll finally convince Roz to write here too. We’re off to New Zealand for about 2.5 weeks after Easter so will post whenever we get the chance there.

I’ve moved all the old gallery pictures to flickr for a number of reasons. At the moment the old posts still point to the internal gallery as I can’t be bothered relinking just now and so some of the aligning will be a wee bit out on them. On one of the sidebars is what flickr deems to be our more ‘interesting’ photos. No idea what that means. Don’t be surprised to find some old black and white pictures in there as I’m sharing that account with our genealogy pictures.

That is all.

there’s no doubt about it

Cremorne Point to Taronga Zoo

john — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 11:38:08 +0000

As I mentioned last week, we are trying to walk all of the harbour so, as we’ve covered from North Sydney to Cremorne Point and Taronga Zoo to Middle Head before then we though we’d fill in a gap of Cremorne Point to Taronga Zoo. It makes sense if you have OCD¹ yourself.

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Shorter by 1.5km this time. We cheated at the start. We had a plan of where we wanted to walk from and too but there was no easy way to get to the start without a car as no buses went there and to get the ferry there would’ve taken a good few hours. So, we jumped in a taxi. Whatever.

Cremorne Point is where we spent New Year’s Eve with Nicky and her friend in 2008/9. A very good vantage point for the bridge fireworks. It was nice to see it again in daylight though without the bottles, food and people lying on the ground.

The walk took us around Mosman Bay and past several ferry terminals, not sure how many are still in use. This part was very pleasant. It got a bit annoying when we had to cut across to Sirius Cove. It seems that you can’t continue around the foreshore to it so you have to head up pretty steep roads to the middle and then down a series of steps to get to the cove. Once again, not great with Roz’s knee.

The cove is right next to Taronga Zoo and our walk took us beside the back wall with an electrified fence. I hoped we’d get to look in at the behind-the-scenes action like the lions playing poker with the zebras but there was nothing to be seen. The best scene is very close to here though and that is just at the tip of the cove where you can look back at the city and the Bridge just visible over Bradleys Head Lighthouse. When we were there a cruise ship was leaving. It was big. As they all are.
Cremorne Point to Taronga Zoo
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or, CDO as I prefer to put the letters in alphabetical order

Walk from Taronga Zoo to Middle Head

john — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 11:33:11 +0000

We’ve recently started to make a concerted effort to go on nice long walks again. Starting small, building up kind of thing so that by the time the sun goes away and the temperature dips below 0°J¹ we can tackle the Great North Walk again. Ultimately our plan is to have walked the entire Sydney Harbour foreshore. We’ve already covered a good portion of it now we’re filling in the gaps.

Today was a 6.5km walk from Taronga Zoo to Middle Head. It was originally going to go all the way to Balmoral Beach to end with a nice swim but Roz has lately had a dodgy knee so we curtailed it by a few km.

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So we got the 247 bus to Taronga Zoo. It stops, unfortunately, at the top entrance so there's a dull walk down to the Athol Wharf from where there are the usual magnificent views back to the Bridge and House. Like many of the foreshore walks there are well-trodden paths and various boardwalks dotted around so the stroll to Bradleys Head² is easy. What's at Bradleys Head I hear you ask? Well, more views, plus the foremast the WWI cruiser HMAS Sydney plus one of the six columns from the old Sydney Post Office just sitting there next to the water begging for a statue to be put on top of it.

We didn't stay long there. Always the problem with the foreshore walks is that you can walk for ages and get a bit puffed out but when you get to a nice scenic stop you find little old ladies and people in wheelchairs and all manner of fresh-looking things in their Sunday bests looking at our red faces and sweat-stained bum cracks and thinking the worst of us. This was at the 2km mark.

Anyway, onwards we pressed through Clifton Gardens passing the backs of some annoyingly-stunning properties full of either swimming pools or tennis courts all the way round to Chowder Bay. This is ostensibly a beach beside an old military barracks. The buildings have been restored but weren't open today. Some nice restaurants are on site but we were still full of the redness of face and sweatness of bum cracks so we had our sandwiches on the sand instead.

We originally intended heading onwards to Balmoral Beach but Roz's knee was not helping. Fortunately the 244 bus leaves right from here. I left Roz and continued on the track up to Middle Head where some of the best views were to be found including a sculpture on the cliff side that surely came from Sculpture by the Sea. I caught the same bus as Roz as it made its loop around to Middle Head Road and decided not to continue to either Balmoral nor Cobblers as it would've been dusk by the time I got in the water.

I'm mapping our walks on this website for now until I find one that doesn't want my first born for access to all their good bits:
Taronga Zoo to Middle Head
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0 degrees John = 20 degrees Celsius – we’ve adjusted too easily to the warm temperature here such that 20°C feels freezing
always with the missing apostrophe, Australia?

Sydney vs Melbourne

john — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:00:51 +0000

We went to see Sydney v Melbourne today which we though was a semi-final or something but was more to do with deciding where the semi-final is played. Or something, don’t really understand it. Anyway, a few pictures:

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Sculpture by the Sea 2009

john — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:00:20 +0000

A few pictures from the always interesting Sculpture by the Sea exhibition between Bondi and Tamarama Beach:

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Seven Bridges Walk 2009

john — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:00:09 +0000

Today we tried to do the Seven Bridges Walk which is a 27km circular walk across 7 of Sydney Harbour’s bridges. We started early at Milson’s Point, walked across the Harbour Bridge, down to Darling Harbour and across to the Anzac Bridge through Rozelle. It was here that the rain that had been threatening started to chuck it down. We made it to Iron Cove Bay, where we first started walks when we arrived in Australia, and had a bite to eat.

Many people were abandoning the walk but we decided to continue and headed across the Iron Cove Bridge when we remembered that the free ferry was going from Birkenhead to Milson’s Point. So, drenched as we were, that’s the way we went, skipping about 10km of the walk. We managed about 12km today but I feel a cold coming on.

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