Meredith Visits for Christmas

Meredith and me at Rehn Bier

Meredith drove off at 5:30 am for the 15 hour drive back to Alice Springs after visiting us for a week or so during Christmas.

Max, the camouflage dog came with her and had a couple of nice walks in Tanunda between being spoiled with special foods and plenty of attention from Pop and Nana.

As usual, he had to be drugged to cope with the trip but after worrying all day - as parents do - both arrived home safely at 10 pm and we were relieved.

During her stay Meredith shopped until WE dropped. She's 30 years younger than us and therefore much more energetic and resilient. Not only that, living at Alice Springs, she's deprived of the variety of shopping we have in nearby Adelaide and Ti Tree.

I have a psychological distaste for shopping; I like to know what I want, go get it and come home. None of this swanning around. However, being the great parent I am, I stuck it out although towards the end, I waited in the car listening to music while Christina and Meredith shopped on.

Meredith also likes fine wines - especially sparkling wines and what better place than the wine capital of Australia to do some wine tasting?

We drove to Rockford Winery, 1847 Chateau Yaldara Wines, and Saltrams and gave the other 69 a miss on this occasion. At Yaldara we visited the Vintage Chef Company cafe for lunch which gave Meredith a 20% discount on her purchase.

As "Bob", I resisted the temptation to imbibe so we could get home safely but that was fine, I rarely drink before 5 pm anyway.

Meredith tasting a sparkling white

The old vineyards and wineries are worth visiting if for no other reason than to view the beautiful buildings, wooden furniture and surrounds.

Gardens are well developed and gorgeous in the case of 1847 Chateau Yaldara having had 173 years to be established.

The buildings are largely constructed from bricks or rocks plucked from nearby fields. They'll all be standing well after we're gone.

We also visited Rehn Bier on her last night and each bought a carton of mixed beers. Rehn Bier is conveniently located 200 m from our house and I've become friends with the owners and staff as I visit every so often - but not that often.

Unfortunately, this year, son Dale wasn't able to visit as he had work commitments and grandson Tory decided at the last minute to stay at home.

We had a pleasant Christmas Day lunch with smaller amounts of food than usual, but still sufficient. With only the three of us and Meredith being a vegetarian, there was little point cooking up a whole restaurant full of food.

Next year we plan go all go somewhere together for a family Christmas.

Stay well.

Robin

Adelaide River War Cemetery

We drove to Darwin from Alice Springs as son Dale was scheduled to have a cochlear implant operation. It's 1500 km so we usually stop somewhere overnight and make the trip over two days. 

We stopped at Mataranka and then drove the shorter distance to Darwin.

Enroute, we visited the Adelaide River War Cemetery which is a beautifully grassed and laid out area to remember those who died in the Top End during World War II. Of particular interest to me were those RAAF members of 31 Beaufighter Squadron and 44 Wing.

There were airfields all over the top end, numbers that ran parallel with the Stuart Highway and many of the deceased would have been victims of the Japanese bombing of Darwin and other areas.

Although I've driven past the cemetery, which is a kilometer or so from the highway, this is the first time I have visited.

I was pleasantly surprised by the beautiful lawns and gardens that comprise the cemetery and surrounds which is available for picnics and recreation.

This is a nice spot to stop and reflect on the many thousands of men and women who made the supreme sacrifice so that we could live in freedom under our own flag and with our own values rather than as captives of others.

Every day I'm reminded of how fortunate we are to live in Australia and I say a silent thank you to our heroes.

Robin

Sailing on the Sea Princess

Main Activity Deck - Sea Princess

The Sea Princess was the first ship on which we did a tour - 40 days! We went from Sydney, Australia to Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, China, Japan, Guam and back to Sydney.

You can read about that tour here.

This tour began at Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and took us south to our neighbour country, New Zealand.

It's the third time we've been to the "Island of the Great White Cloud" and I always wonder why anyone who lives in NZ would leave. It's a beautiful country.

We traversed the west coast of the islands and then came up the eest coast calling into several ports, the following map shows our travel route.

Unfortunately, it was too rough for us to visit Akaroa and Napier which was a disappointment, however, as the ship's captain said, it's better not to push the margin of safety with so many people on board.

This trip was during the Australian school holidays and included New Year's Eve. There were numerous children on board and a much young group of adults - their parents and other adults apparently taking advantage of the Christmas-New Year slow down and holiday break.

As we had been on a number of previous cruises, we didn't get involved in many of the on-board activities - been there, done them. Christina did attend regular Knitters and Knatters Group meetings and we attended several excellent evening shows we had not seen before. One of the comedians was spectacular.

I caught up on a stack of reading I had stored for the occasion and of course, on those places we visited, we got off the ship and had a good wander around, even though we had seen them before. At Auckland we visited the Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life attraction where we met some interesting creatures like this pufferfish which eyed me off as I took its photo.

I can see you Robin !

Initially I thought it was ugly (who am I to talk?), but ultimately I realised what a beautiful piece of work it was. Only evolution could produce such an odd creature with antennae to perform whatever function they perform. (Anyone help here?)

Probably the highlight of the trip was doing a cruise along Milford Sound. We'd visited previously by bus, but the tour in and out covered all of the Sound and we had a good look at the dozens of waterfalls running down steep rock walls into the lake below.

Milford Sound from Sea Princess

I have a large number of photos of Milford Sound all of which are pretty similar - steep Sound walls, plenty of greenery and billions of Litres of running water that would probably be among the purest on our planet.

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip around New Zealand and meeting the inhabitants was also enjoyable as they are inevitably friendly and appreciate those of us from "over the ditch" visiting.

Robin