Hello from Dunedin NZ

2025 has started, not all that great weather wise, but let us hope it is as enjoyable as 2024. We finished 24 off at our caravan in Bannockburn for two and a half weeks which was very relaxing. The weather was very changeable with a mix of warm weather and wet.

Our plan is to start travelling this year in our Leisureline Caravan that we bought mid last year.  It is a bit heavier than our old Swift Conqueror 645 so our Toyota Highlander needed replacing with a Ford Everest. Our first adventure will start in mid February when we head up the West Coast. Keep an eye out for pictures.

Last year we had a month in Australia.  We travelled to Melbourne in mid June to go to an International Lions Club's Convention and then onto Adelaide to catch up with our friends there.  We arrived in Melbourne a few days early so we could have a good look around.  We have not been into the central city since 2004 when we landed there on our way to live in South Australia.  The skyline has certainly changed in the past twenty years, there are new skyscrapers and cranes everywhere.  We attended the convention and caught up with some of the 300 NZ Lions that were there, as well as a few Aussies that I know from looking after their Past District Governors website for the last 18 years.  There were Lions from over 180 counties in attendance so it was a very colourful experience.  See the photo link below

Once the convention was over we picked up a rental car and started our trip to Adelaide.  We travelled first to Shepparton were we caught up with Dave Fahey who had been at John McIndoes when I first started there in 1979. After Dave finished his apprenticeship he jumped the Tasman and settled down in central Victoria.  It was great the catch up and do a bit of reminiscing. We travelled onto Bendigo for a couple of nights.  Bendigo is a similar size city to Dunedin and has a similar history with gold discoveries and a Chinese community. At one time there were over 5000 mine shafts around Bendigo, and there is still active mining taking place.  I even got Vicki to go down into a mine.  Only to two hundred feet though.  The thousand or so feet below that which was once mined has now mostly filled with water.

After two night there we followed the Silo-Art route and arrived to stay with our old neighbours Grant & Selina in Black Forest.  Unfortunately Covid had hitched a ride with me, and then Vicki,  so we shifted into a nearby motel for a few nights until we were clear on the bug. Steve & Merilyn flew in from WA and we took the ferry across to Kangaroo Island for a couple of nights.  What a beautiful place to visit. Well worth the trip.

We had another couple of nights in Adelaide then boarded a small commuter plane and flew up to Coober Pedy.  It is a place I had heard about but never got to visit. At just over 800 kilometers north of Adelaide by road it is easier to fly up than drive. What an interesting place to see. There is nothing else in Oz that is like it. Most of the accommodation is below ground because of the heat and even the churches (3 that we visited) have been carved out of the hillsides. It is a very desolate place with much red dirt and lots of piles of spoil left behind in the search for the illusive opals. Two or three nights there is plenty of time to see most of it.

We flew back to Adelaide for a visit back to an Edwardstown Lions Club tea meeting, a final catch up with friends then back home to Dunedin via three flights. It was brilliant to spend time with so many of our friends, and sorry to the few we missed. We look forward to hopefully hosting a few more of them when they travel east.

I gave up full time work on the 22nd of December 2022 and Vicki joined me in late February of 2024. I occasionally drive small trucks and utes around the country for Chris's hire firm and Vicki does a few days a month back on reception at Ear Health.

Chris, Anita and the kids now live at the other end of Green Island on Brighton Road, in a home with enough room for most of their toys.  Chris is Otago Southland Manager of CHNZ (Commercial Hire NZ) based in Mosgiel and Anita has her own mobile coffee business covering the local area, see Ynot a Coffee. Riley and Macy go to Taieri College in Mosgiel although Riles is also working part-time to keep his car fuelled up and running.

This webpage was originally set up to allow family and friends back in NZ see places we had visited while we lived in South Australia between 2004 & 2009. If you have time please check out some of the photo galleries listed below.

It is over fifteen years since we returned home from Oz. We met some amazing people while we lived in South Australia for those five years, and found that, even though you don't see them as regularly, you do not lose your friends at home. We have enjoyed showing off our real home to some of our Aussie friends who have visited in the past years and look forward to hosting more if they wish to come over. 

Come back soon and see what we are up to. If you Hit the email icon on the left panel, you can let us know you have visited our site

Trev, Vicki & Coco (the Cat)

We have our own Weather Station & Webcams, so if you want to see what it is like in Green Island, click on one of these links just below;

 booked.net   

   

 

 

To see some pictures of places we have visited click on any of the links below

2023 Various (New) Oz Trip 2024 (New)
Trev's 65th & Trip to Wellington 2022 Various
2021 Various TransAlpine Trip 2022
Trip 2019 - The UK & France 2020 Various
Otematata - Feb 2019 2018 Various
Wellington 16-18th March 2018 Adelaide - Perth 2017
Adelaide & Sydney 2016 Richardson's Motor Museum
Northern Queensland 2015 T&C Fishing Trip - June 2015
Sunshine Coast 2014  Brad & Carli's Wedding
Brad & Ellise's Wedding Caravans - Old & New 
Fishing Trip out off Taieri Mouth  Fishing Trip Tuatapere & Easter 2013 
Oz Road Trip 2012   Fishing 2011
Macy Paddy Roberts (Ongoing) European Trip 2011
The Deck at Koremata Street Jigger Trip up the Taieri Gorge
Nullabor Golf 2009 Oz Road Trip 
Bali 2009  Perth, Queens Birthday 2009
Colman & Nicole's Wedding Kids Visit July 2009
Eyre Peninsula Trip 2009 Adelaide Sevens Pics 
Clipsal 500, 2009  Chris & Anita's Wedding 
NZ February 2009 Red Bull Air Race Perth
Vicki's Birthday 2008 Coonawarra Weekend  
Wilpena Pound Trip   Renmark, Mildura & Wentworth
Northern Lights Display Adelaide Rugby Sevens 2008 
House Boating on the Murray River Riley Roberts (Ongoing)
Nangchang CJ-6A Flight Old Tailem Town
Trev's 50th Fish Stalker II Charter 2007
Cleland Wildlife Park Vicki's Birthday 2007
Adelaide Gaol Visit  Queens Birthday 2007 
Adelaide Rugby Sevens 2007 The Clare Valley
New Zealand Trip 2007 Mosca Family Pics
Train Trip, North Adelaide Port Adelaide's Museums
Horsham & The Grampians Sydney
Singapore Third Ave.. Forestville
Barossa Album Around Adelaide 2004
Royal Adelaide Show 1st Yorke Peninsula Trip
South Western Suburbs Fleurieu Peninsula
'Wild Thing' Fishing Charter Adelaide Hills Vineyards
  Great Ocean Road Trip Steam Ranger Train Trip
Protea World & Chateau Barossa Padthaway Weekend
Trip Back for Chris's 21st Melbourne to Adelaide 2004

 

Page last updated 30-Jan-2025