Nearly half way through 2025 already, hell it is going quick. We have just finalised a trip by train from Christchurch to Picton, across the Cook Strait on the ferry, then train again to Auckland, for the start of September. Alan & Carolyne will be joining us for this week away. We will be having four nights in Auckland so we can try out our Goldcards on the ferry trip across to Waiheke Island as well as other Auckland highlights. Keep an eye out for pictures below in mid September.

We had our first big trip away in our Leisureline Caravan, that we bought mid last year. He headed  up the West Coast for nearly three weeks starting in February. We had done a quick trail around Central Otago in late September last year with Steve and Lynley from Gore for five nights, before we got washed out and had to head home, via an unplanned night in Gore, because of flooding that cut off Dunedin from both the south and north. Pics of that trip are in the "Various 2024" link below.

We finished 2024 off at our caravan in Bannockburn for two and a half weeks over Christmas which was very relaxing. The weather was very changeable with a mix of warm weather and wet.

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