A Rainy Day in Christchurch

A new adventure begins! We fly to Melbourne where we spend a couple of days before embarking on the cruise ship Grand Princess for a 13 night circumnavigation of New Zealand. Returning to land, our holiday continues at Phillip Island and ends with one last day back where we started in Melbourne. Join me for a round trip, on sea and on land, to destinations both familiar and new.

March 2023

Ōtautahi / Christchurch

It was rainy and cold in Christchurch but we found a great way to stay dry, on a Christchurch Tram. With interesting commentary by the drivers and 17 stops around the city centre, we were able to explore in comfort. On such a wet day we chose to alight at just a few stops on the route.

As we rode along the tram driver told us about the earthquakes which struck Christchurch on 4th September, 2010 and again on 22nd February, 2011. While the first earthquake was stronger at magnitude 7.1, the second at magnitude 6.3 caused widespread devastation and killed 185 people. Our driver explained how the city is rebuilding using construction techniques designed to withstand future tremors.

To learn more about the 2011 earthquake we left the tram at Quake City, a special exhibition by Canterbury Museum. Displays explaining the science of the earthquake and the response, from both local and international personnel, gave us a greater understanding of what happened to the city and its people.

Back on the tram, we went next to Cathedral Square. After reading about the destruction of Christ Church Cathedral, it was heartening to see firsthand the ongoing restoration work, scheduled for completion in 2027.

Other stops on the tram route included New Regent Street and Victoria Square.

New Regent Street is a wide pedestrian mall with shops, boutiques and cafés on either side of the tram line. We admired the pastel coloured Spanish Mission style buildings dating from the 1930s.

During a break in the rain at Victoria Square we saw Queen Victoria and Mana Motuhake, a Māori commemoration of the Treaty of Waitangi.

We finally left the tram at the top of City Mall. Here we stopped to pay our respects to past and present members of New Zealand’s Defence Forces at the Bridge of Remembrance, a beautiful war memorial spanning the Avon River.

It was a short walk along the mall to the Riverside Market. The indoor farmers’ market, selling local produce and artisan foods was a welcome respite from the rain. We enjoyed a hot lunch and the beer lovers sampled a local brew at the Canterbury Brewers Collective.

After beginning our day in Christchurch at Quake City, it seemed fitting to finish at the Oi Manawa Canterbury Earthquake National Memorial, located beside the Avon River close to the Bridge of Remembrance. The Māori name for the memorial, Oi Manawa, means ‘tremor or quivering of the heart’.

The curved stone wall is inscribed with the names of the 185 people who died in the 2011 earthquake.

Back on board our ship late in the afternoon, the rain finally stopped and the sky was clear again. The setting sun cast a golden glow over the water as we sailed out of Lyttleton Harbour en route to Wellington.

Walking Around Dunedin

A new adventure begins! We fly to Melbourne where we spend a couple of days before embarking on the cruise ship Grand Princess for a 13 night circumnavigation of New Zealand. Returning to land, our holiday continues at Phillip Island and ends with one last day back where we started in Melbourne. Join me for a round trip, on sea and on land, to destinations both familiar and new.

March 2023

Ōtepoti / Dunedin

After three days on board the ship we were ready to do some walking, and we had all day to explore the compact city centre of Dunedin.

We started at the Octagon, a large eight-sided pedestrian precinct surrounded by shops and grand Victorian buildings.

Two contrasting sculptures symbolise the city’s cultural heritage. Ko te Tuhono is a replica of a carved entrance at the Māori meeting house Ōtākou marae, one of the locations of the 1840  signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Nearby, a statue of Robert Burns is one of four created by Scottish sculptor John Steell. The others are in Dundee, London and New York City. Dunedin was chosen as the location for this fourth statue in recognition of the city’s Scottish history.

At the Otago Settlers Museum we learned about the two Māori settlements  of Ōtepoti and Puketai and the culture of the people who first lived here.

St Paul’s Anglican  Cathedral, constructed in the early 1900s, was damaged by fire in 2020. While the beautiful stained glass windows were saved, the chancel was destroyed. Work is underway to restore the damaged areas of the church.

The famous Renaissance-style façade of the Dunedin Railway Station was covered due to restoration works but the building was still open. The magnificent interior features Royal Doulton cherubs and foliage on the walls, 750,000 Royal Doulton tiles on the mosaic floor and stained glass windows on the mezzanine.

All these beautiful buildings are surrounded by expansive parks and gardens.

Queen Victoria overlooks her namesake Queens Gardens and the spectacular 28 metre high Dunedin Cenotaph. Close to the war memorial is another small memorial dedicated to New Zealand recipients of the Victoria Cross.

With two beer lovers in our party of four, our walking tour of Dunedin would have been incomplete without a visit to Speight’s Brewery and Ale House. Knowing that beer has been brewed here since 1876, their expectations were high.

And they weren’t disappointed!

Joining Jo for Monday Walks

Sea Days

A new adventure begins! We fly to Melbourne where we spend a couple of days before embarking on the cruise ship Grand Princess for a 13 night circumnavigation of New Zealand. Returning to land, our holiday continues at Phillip Island and ends with one last day back where we started in Melbourne. Join me for a round trip, on sea and on land, to destinations both familiar and new.

March 2023

Crossing the Tasman Sea

Two sea days onboard while we sailed from Melbourne to our first New Zealand destination gave us time to

• explore the ship

• go for morning walks on the Promenade Deck

• watch new release movies under the stars

• fill the champagne tower

• enjoy drinks and desserts on our balcony

• eat more dessert at the restaurant

• and look out over the ever-changing ocean

especially at sunset!

The Impressionists ~ Larger Than Life

A new adventure begins! We fly to Melbourne where we spend a couple of days before embarking on the cruise ship Grand Princess for a 13 night circumnavigation of New Zealand. Returning to land, our holiday continues at Phillip Island and ends with one last day back where we started in Melbourne. Join me for a round trip, on sea and on land, to destinations both familiar and new.

The Lume, Melbourne

After seeing the fabulous Van Gogh Alive in Brisbane in 2021, we were thrilled that a similar exhibition featuring the French Impressionists was on in Melbourne. It was a joy to revisit some of our favourite artists at Monet and Friends, and also to meet some whose work was new to us.

Held at The Lume, Australia’s first permanent digital art gallery located in the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, the exhibition was simply breath-taking. 143 projectors cast high definition images of some of the world’s most famous artworks onto the walls and floor of the gallery. Classical music, animations and the words of the artists brought the paintings alive for us in an unforgettable sensory experience.

From the mezzanine the whole gallery opened up before us. The world’s best loved paintings filled the walls four storeys high and moved slowly across the floor below.

At floor level we were surrounded by a constantly changing spectacle of light and colour.

People, unknown but made famous in works by Monet, Degas and Renoir, glowed larger than life.

At the Café de Flore, we added to the sensory delight with a Plat aux Quatre Macarons in flavours of salted caramel, strawberry, passionfruit and pistachio.

If Monet and his friends come to a gallery near you, make sure you go. This extraordinary sensory experience is not to be missed.

A Big Collection

The landscape of western Queensland is dramatic. After a good wet season, Mitchell grass grows thickly on the vast plains. Elsewhere the land is stony and dotted with clumps of hardy spinifex. But if you’d travelled this way 95 million years ago, the scenery would have been very different. In the Mid-Cretaceous period forests of conifers, lush ferns and flowering plants covered the land, watered by rivers and streams which flowed into a huge inland sea. And it was inhabited by dinosaurs! 

In August 2022, we followed the Dinosaur Trail through western Queensland, on a route from Winton to Richmond, Hughenden and Muttaburra, all locations where dinosaur fossils have been discovered. Put your Australian Dinosaur Trail Pass in your pocket and join us on a journey back in time to the land of the dinosaurs. 

Western Queensland

Thank you for coming with us on our road trip through Queensland’s Outback. We saw dinosaurs and dunnarts, learned about iconic Australians and enjoyed spectacular scenery. This final post celebrates Western Queensland’s “big” things – some fun and quirky, others functional or natural.  Let’s take one last ride around the Outback.

The Big Meat Ant – Augathella

“The Ringer” – Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame, Longreach

The world’s biggest Van Gogh Sunflower painting – Emerald

The Big Red Chair – Charleville

In the Outback, bore water drawn from the Great Artesian Basin is a highly valued resource. The water is stored in towers or tanks which dominate the landscape in small country towns. Many are painted with scenes depicting the history or people of the town.

illuminated water tower – Julia Creek

painted water tower – Charleville

painted water tower – Augathella

painted water tank – Richmond

A mural on the wall of the newsagent in Winton commemorates the 1995 Guinness World Record for the longest road train, held by local man Alan Grant.

The Outback is a land of big skies and wide open spaces.

on the road between Hughenden and Muttaburra

sunset – Winton

And finally some Australian birds with big long legs, for Denzil’s long-legged bird photo challenge

white egrets – Judd’s Lagoon

brolga – Rubyvale

Gem Fossickers

The landscape of western Queensland is dramatic. After a good wet season, Mitchell grass grows thickly on the vast plains. Elsewhere the land is stony and dotted with clumps of hardy spinifex. But if you’d travelled this way 95 million years ago, the scenery would have been very different. In the Mid-Cretaceous period forests of conifers, lush ferns and flowering plants covered the land, watered by rivers and streams which flowed into a huge inland sea. And it was inhabited by dinosaurs! 

In August 2022, we followed the Dinosaur Trail through western Queensland, on a route from Winton to Richmond, Hughenden and Muttaburra, all locations where dinosaur fossils have been discovered. Put your Australian Dinosaur Trail Pass in your pocket and join us on a journey back in time to the land of the dinosaurs. 

The Gemfields

While our final destination on the Dinosaur Trail involved fossicking, this time we weren’t looking for dinosaur remains. At the Gemfields in Central Queensland we fossicked for precious stones.

We’ve been to the Gemfields and their little towns before and remembered the beautiful Sapphire Reflections sculpture at the gateway to the region.

We knew we were in the right place when we spotted some oversized tools of the trade in Sapphire,

and the big sapphire ring outside Pat’s Gems Tourist Fossicking Park had us dreaming of finding the perfect stone.

Inside Pat’s we bought a bucket of wash, hoping it was laden with gemstones, and set about learning the skills of gem fossicking. First we had to rinse away the excess soil from the wash in our sieve.

Then we carefully tipped the remaining contents of the sieve onto a hessian cloth. The search began as we sorted through the gravel looking for tell tale flashes of colour, painstakingly checking the stones one at a time.

The reward for our effort was a small collection of  sparkling stones. While most were the usual blue, green or yellow, we did have a couple of the less common “parti” stones with more than one colour.

All our stones were pretty, but they weren’t good enough quality to make into jewellery. They did make a wonderful souvenir of the last stop on our holiday though.

In Miniature

The landscape of western Queensland is dramatic. After a good wet season, Mitchell grass grows thickly on the vast plains. Elsewhere the land is stony and dotted with clumps of hardy spinifex. But if you’d travelled this way 95 million years ago, the scenery would have been very different. In the Mid-Cretaceous period forests of conifers, lush ferns and flowering plants covered the land, watered by rivers and streams which flowed into a huge inland sea. And it was inhabited by dinosaurs! 

In August 2022, we followed the Dinosaur Trail through western Queensland, on a route from Winton to Richmond, Hughenden and Muttaburra, all locations where dinosaur fossils have been discovered. Put your Australian Dinosaur Trail Pass in your pocket and join us on a journey back in time to the land of the dinosaurs. 

Jericho

With a population of just 229, the town of Jericho is small – just a grid of four by four streets beside the Capricorn Highway. Inside the Information Centre and Post Office is an even smaller version – a handcrafted miniature clay village.

Created by Alice McLaughlin with help from local artists, the village features 43 of the town’s homes and community buildings. 

And it’s not just the buildings on display – the locals are featured too. There’s a game of backyard cricket going on at one place. 

Perhaps this gentleman is deciding how to spend the day in his shed.

And on the main street, neighbours are catching up on all the local news. 

The most popular place to go in Jericho is the drive-in theatre. It’s one of just a few drive-ins still in operation in Australia and plays new release movies in a double feature once a month.

There’s a lot happening in the little town of Jericho!

Sunset Views

The landscape of western Queensland is dramatic. After a good wet season, Mitchell grass grows thickly on the vast plains. Elsewhere the land is stony and dotted with clumps of hardy spinifex. But if you’d travelled this way 95 million years ago, the scenery would have been very different. In the Mid-Cretaceous period forests of conifers, lush ferns and flowering plants covered the land, watered by rivers and streams which flowed into a huge inland sea. And it was inhabited by dinosaurs! 

In August 2022, we followed the Dinosaur Trail through western Queensland, on a route from Winton to Richmond, Hughenden and Muttaburra, all locations where dinosaur fossils have been discovered. Put your Australian Dinosaur Trail Pass in your pocket and join us on a journey back in time to the land of the dinosaurs.  

Hughenden

Usually when we go to a lookout there’s just one wonderful view to enjoy. At the summit of Mount Walker, 10 kilometres from Hughenden, the lookout has six vantage points all facing in different directions. We decide to drive up the winding road to the mountain top just before sunset, when the wintery evening sky takes on deep purple and orange hues.

Etna and Ironbark Lookouts face south west towards the vast open plains between Hughenden and Winton.

A stand of majestic ironbark trees on the downhill slope gives this lookout its name. 

Hughenden Lookout faces the little town of Hughenden to the south,

while in an easterly direction is the Jardine Valley, located between Hughenden and Prairie. 

Reay Lookout also faces south, looking over the Mitchell Downs towards Reay Station. 

We save the best till last, going to Sunset Lookout just in time to see the sky alight with a fiery glow as the sun disappears below the horizon.

No Porcupines Here!

The landscape of western Queensland is dramatic. After a good wet season, Mitchell grass grows thickly on the vast plains. Elsewhere the land is stony and dotted with clumps of hardy spinifex. But if you’d travelled this way 95 million years ago, the scenery would have been very different. In the Mid-Cretaceous period forests of conifers, lush ferns and flowering plants covered the land, watered by rivers and streams which flowed into a huge inland sea. And it was inhabited by dinosaurs! 

In August 2022, we followed the Dinosaur Trail through western Queensland, on a route from Winton to Richmond, Hughenden and Muttaburra, all locations where dinosaur fossils have been discovered. Put your Australian Dinosaur Trail Pass in your pocket and join us on a journey back in time to the land of the dinosaurs. 

Nature Photo Challenge: Patterns

Porcupine Gorge

We didn’t see porcupines at Porcupine Gorge – there aren’t any in Australia. But we did see fabulous scenery! 

Porcupine Gorge has been formed over the last 500 million years, weathered by wind and water. When we were there in the middle of the dry season Porcupine Creek, which flows through the gorge, was a series of still, clear waterholes. In the wet season from November to March, the average rainfall totals around 400 mm and the creek becomes a raging torrent.

A 400 metre walk from the car park at our first stop to the Gorge Lookout led us to a viewing platform on the edge of the gorge. We could see, in both directions, a large section of the 27 kilometre long canyon. 

It was easy to distinguish the layers of exposed rock on the walls of the gorge; the dark basalt cap on top, resistant to erosion, and the soft lighter-coloured sandstone beneath, worn away by the power of moving water. 

Further on, at the Pyramid Lookout, we saw the gorge from another perspective.

After a relaxing picnic lunch at a table overlooking the gorge we decided to tackle the Pyramid Track, a 1.2 kilometre path winding down to the creek and the base of the Pyramid. While it was not a long walk, the suggested time of 90 minutes return told us it was going to be more strenuous than the level cement paths to the two lookouts. 

It took 30 minutes, walking downhill through the savannah grassland, to reach the floor of the gorge. The Pyramid, a huge sandstone monolith, towered over the creek, its sandy beaches lined with melaleuca trees.

The sandstone beside the creek was carved in fantastical shapes, in some places worn smooth and elsewhere shaped into deep overhangs. 

Where the creek had receded, most of the large hollows and deep potholes formed in the stone were left full of cool clear water.

A few, though, were stained red with runoff from the sandstone walls of the gorge. 

After a hour spent exploring, it was time to retrace our steps back to the picnic area. It did take longer to walk back uphill, but at 40 minutes we were well within that suggested 90 minute time frame. 

So why is the gorge named after porcupines? We read two different theories.

Even though we didn’t see any, there is a large population of echidnas in the area. While their only similarity to porcupines is their covering of protective spines, that may have been enough to confuse early European explorers. Or perhaps the gorge was named for the dense clumps of spiky spear grass which cover the slopes on either side of the creek. 

Either way, the three walks at Porcupine Gorge lead to stunning views of this spectacular landscape. 

Joining Denzil for Nature Photo Challenge: Patterns and Jo for Monday Walks

Fossil Hunters, Part Two

The landscape of western Queensland is dramatic. After a good wet season, Mitchell grass grows thickly on the vast plains. Elsewhere the land is stony and dotted with clumps of hardy spinifex. But if you’d travelled this way 95 million years ago, the scenery would have been very different. In the Mid-Cretaceous period forests of conifers, lush ferns and flowering plants covered the land, watered by rivers and streams which flowed into a huge inland sea. And it was inhabited by dinosaurs! 

In August 2022, we followed the Dinosaur Trail through western Queensland, on a route from Winton to Richmond, Hughenden and Muttaburra, all locations where dinosaur fossils have been discovered. Put your Australian Dinosaur Trail Pass in your pocket and join us on a journey back in time to the land of the dinosaurs. 

Richmond  

At The Australian Age of Dinosaurs in Winton we learned how professional palaeontologists work side by side with trained volunteers to find and excavate dinosaur fossils. At Richmond, amateur fossil hunters are welcome to do their own fossicking at designated sites. So, armed with our fossicking licence purchased at Kronosaurus Korner, the necessary tools, and visions of making the next big fossil discovery, we drove out to the fossicking site.

Even though it looked like any other part of outback Queensland, we knew some significant finds had been made here so we were excited to start searching.

With picks in hand Glen and Kevin each selected a starting point. They both got to work, carefully chipping away at anything which looked promising. 

I was happy to wander, turning stones over with the toe of my shoe and poking around in the dirt. Ripples preserved in the rock reminded me of the time when this land was under water. 

In this area rich with the remains of prehistoric marine creatures, it wasn’t long before we started finding fossils; ancient bivalves, so similar to their modern descendants, forever preserved in the soft sandstone. 

We may not have found a huge Kronosaurus queenslandicus buried just beneath the surface, but the thrill of holding in our hands creatures who lived 110 million years ago was just as exciting.