New Zealand: Taupo, Mt Ruapehu, Wellington. aka crossing lakes, rivers and volcanoes to get a scone.

Taupo was such a lovely place, and we were very sad to be leaving here.  It is definitely on the visit again list.

On the drive around Lake Taupo to Tongariro, I had a go fishing in a few of the rivers.  I never caught anything, but with scenery this gorgeous it didn't matter in the slightest.

New Zealand Taupo

Today was off to a nice and lazy start

After a visit to the visitor centre, we went to Aratiatia Rapids, and watched the flood gates open and the rapids come to life.  That was a pretty amazing experience seeing the river slowly fill to a tumultuous torrent after the flood sirens had sounded.

New Zealand Rotorua and Taupo

Today was an early start to ensure we were able to get to the Lady Knox Geyser before it's scheduled 10:15 eruption time. There is a bubbling mud pool on the road side which you can access for free along the way.

Cairns Road Trip Day 8: life is a beach

 Walking Queensland beaches in the morning, swimming in our pool after breakfast, and then into the table lands exploring monster figs,and crater lakes and fishing Lake Tinaroo.

Mt Terrible and Enoch Point

Michelle's Mum had a High School friend visiting from England who she wanted to show a bit of mountain Victoria to. The tracks to Craig's Hut were still closed off for the winter, so we decided to head up to Mt Terrible as it is an easy 4WD Trip from Melbourne, and the views are most spectacular.

We dropped into Burnt Bridge Camp Ground on Big River and did a quick bit of fishing. I "caught" a nice sized brown trout after only a few casts with a lure. I say "caught", as he managed to escape just as I was landing him. I would have released him anyway, so he saved me the trouble of getting the hook out I suppose.

We tried some fishing further upstream without success, so next stop was Enoch Point. We had lunch at the day visitors site by the river, and were visited by a Satin Blue Bowerbird. After lunch we walked upstream to Enoch Falls, a small cascade but worth the walk. Even though we had to cut through a few blackberries to get there. I cut through all of these blackberry bushes with the machette so Liam could get through without getting torn to pieces; but he tripped over and fell on all the cut blackberries anyway!

After lunch we went looking for the cemetary, but it wasn't easily visible from the road so it is left for another trip. We climbed Dane Spur Track, and were soon at the summit of Mt Terrible.

Liam, Arthur and I went off searching for a geocache that we knew was up here, finding it easily on the the side of the mountain. Liam scored a wibbly wobbly bouncy ball, and we dropped off Myrtle the Dancing Turtle Travel Bug.

We returned to the hut and enjoyed the views to Buller which was still covered with snow.

It was time to start heading home, so we returned down the mountain via Newmans Track. There were some spectacular views over Lake Eildon to the north as the track steadily descended back down to the Eildon-Jamieson Road.

We dropped into Snobs Creek Falls on our return journey. The falls were in very good flow due to recent rains and snow melt, and well worth the short detour to visit them.

Fishing and Exploring around Eildon and Big River

A fun day fishing with the kids.  After trying unsuccessfully in the pondage below Eildon Dam, and with the water level rising very quickly we left the foggy lake and made our way up to Mt. Pinninger to enjoy a hot chocolate above the clouds at the aptly named Foggs Lookout.

I had planned to fish in the Big River Arm, but the Taylors Creek Track down to the campsite and fishing areas was for some reason gated and locked.  We made our way down to Burnt Bridge camp area; many of the tracks on my map don't exist anymore in this area and some new ones not on the map are there.  I need a newer map!

I quite quickly caught a very nice Rainbow on a bladed spinner, which I released.  The kids weren't so lucky.  Possibly due to their running down and around the river bank before trying to fish!

We had spag bols for lunch on the banks of the Big River and tried fishing further up Big River, but no more wild trout were to be caught by us today.  We dropped in to the Trout Farm at Buxton so that the kids could all catch themselves a trout, where they had an absolute ball.

China Beach and Mountains of Marble

Michelle spent most of the night up with Liam while he vomited and had diarrhea throughout the night. Liam felt better when he woke up but he was still a little seedy all day.
We started off the day by taking a minibus from Hue to Lang Co Beach. We were accosted by teenage kids on the beach trying to get foreign money and an old fisherman who offered a photo pose for small change. The beach was nice - but it was an overcast and misty day: not very good for taking photos.

As we continued south, we travelled over the Hai Van pass. It was a fairly hair raising trip with steep S bends with slow trucks and cars and bikes overtaking on the wrong side of the road. Due to the mist and fog, we couldn't enjoy the views, and we eventually reached the top with some bunker fortifications shrouded in mist. The clouds started to clear as we continued on, and we stopped for a short time to enjoy them.



In Da nang we stopped for lunch at a really nice Chinese Restaurant and stopped off at China Beach. I really enjoyed the TV Series, so wanted to see the actual beach since we were here. The Vietnamese have bad memories of this area, so there were few if any locals here. The beach isn't good for swimming anyway, due to the strong currents and rips, so Liam paddled and jumped in the shallows.



From China Beach we went to Marble Mountain. There were lots of families in the marble trade with small shops lining the streets as we approached the mountain. We looked through the huge assortment of marble carvings on display and bought a nice carved Chinese dragon.




From Marble Mountain we continued through the country side soon arriving in Hoi An. The hotel had a pool up on the roof, which quite impressed Michelle and Liam. We had a light dinner at a restaurant over the road from the hotel, which also had an Internet Cafe, so after dinner and sending some e-mails we retired for the evening, with Michelle and Liam still feeling a bit on the delicate side.

Victorian High Country

Tuesday 30th September

We headed off early morning to North East Victoria for a complete contrast in scenery and climate to last weeks trip.  Our first destination was Bright and we arrived around lunchtime.  We had some time to kill before our check in at the Odd Frog so we relaxed on the banks of the Ovens River and spent some time looking in the small assortment of shops in the town centre.  I bought myself a decent pair of walking shoes and we sat and enjoyed a cappuccino.  Check in time soon came around so we drove up to the Odd Frog and made ourselves at home.  The apartment was very nice, being all architecturally designed with corrugated iron, tiles and timber.  Studios 2 and 3 would be the pick of the 3, being higher up the hill to take advantage of the great valley views over Bright.

We then went for a drive around Bright, where we made our way up to Clearspot lookout.  The lookout was perfectly named, having panoramic views from Hotham across Bogong and to Buffalo and beyond.  Seeing the snow capped peaks was magical without a sound to be heard apart from the Currawongs which seemed to be ubiquitous in Bright.

From Clearspot we descended down a 4WD track and made our way along various forestry tracks to the Buckland Valley.  We visited the Buckland Cemetery, and continued on into the forest through the valley to a bushcamp, where we tried a little fishing.  The river was flowing quite fast from the snow melt, and I couldn't find any deep calmer spots so the fishing was not a success.  With darkness falling we packed up and headed back to grab a Pizza for dinner which we enjoyed around a warm log fire.

Wednesday 1st October

Late morning we drove into Harrietville where we fitted the car out with chains.  The weather was fine with no likelihood of them being required but Vic Roads had extended the season an extra week so $27 was small insurance to avoid the fine.  From Harrietville we were soon ascending the steep Alpine Road, and I was able to see how much the trees had started to recover since my trip here 6 months ago.

The trees were all sprouting leaves from their branches and trunks, and though the trunks still showed where they had been scorched and the ground was quite black, there was a reassuring amount of green returning to the bush.

We continued on past Hotham where some late season people were still doing some skiing.  This was my first time to Hotham when there was snow here!  We looked around Dinner Plain with a light snow falling and made our way along the winding Alpine Road through Slippery Pinch and into the Victoria Falls Historic Area.

We spent a little time here near the campsite where I tried some more unsuccessful fishing.  We headed off down the road that used to be the aqueduct which served Victorias first Hydroelectric scheme.  The road took us past the deep gorge of the Cobungra River where we could see the falls clearly from the road.  The road ended at a header pond where the water then plummeted down pipes to the station, which supplied power for the Cassilis Mine.  We didn't make the walk down the track, so we don't know if any remains survived the January Fires. 

We returned back along the road into Omeo where we had our lunch.  My hamburger was dropped on the floor, but they cooked me up a new one as a light rain was falling outside.  The day was getting on so we made our way up the Omeo Highway towards our next rest stop at Anglers Rest.  We stopped at a few points along the road to try some more unsuccessful fishing and see how the trees were coming back in an area I thought was so badly burnt that nothing could have survived.  I was gladly proven wrong as the photo shows.

We arrived at the Blue Duck Inn, where we were warmly welcomed and told where the woodshed was if we wanted to keep warm tonight.  Thankfully the prediction of snow didn't eventuate.  I was carrying the wood back to the room when two horses galloped past; I thought they were going to crash into my car!  We certainly felt like we were in an episode of McLeod's Daughters.  Especially when we settled down in the pub for the best Chicken Parmagiana ever, what with everybody in Akubras and Dri-z-bones, and cattledogs walking around the tables looking for scraps!  The fishing that evening and morning was, as you guessed unsuccessful.

Thursday 2nd October

We continued up the Omeo Highway through a light drizzle and stopped at Big River Bridge campground for a morning cuppa and another unsuccessful fishing attempt.  There was so much water in all of the creeks and rivers we came across from the snow melt and they were all flowing high and fast.  We stopped off at the cemetery in Glen Wills, which in itself had an interesting story printed on a piece of laminated paper on a post:

Between August 1894 and August 1920 97 burials took place at the Glen Wills Cemetery, on the Omeo Highway, North of Omeo and South of the Mitta Mitta township. This Cemetery is now cared for by the people of the near by Glen Valley.
During those 26 years this Cemetery served the mining areas of Sunnyside and Glen Wills. To stand on the site of the long gone township of Sunnyside is an eerie feeling. "Sunnyside is situated on the Sunny side of nearby Mt Wills and is approximately 4000 feet above sea level. Today there is little more than blackberry bushes and a few very ancient fruit trees to mark the place where once was a thriving township. A Hotel, Stores, Catholic Church, School and Mechanics Institute and a population of around 600 people.
Sunnyside was reached by a rough bush track from Omeo known as the Knocker Track. Mail was delivered by coach and heavy goods by Bullock Wagon. Farmers from Benambra would make trips to the township with fresh meat, vegetables, butter and other produce, which was much in demand. Mr George Fitzgerald of "Shannon Vale" supplied oats to feed the horses. By 1924 the ore had become difficult to treat financially and water was also causing a problem, and not long afterwards the town was abandoned.
The Cemetery records illustrate the hardships experienced during these years - isolation, the severe weather conditions in winter, primitive housing and no doctors. Of the 97 persons buried, 40 were infants - sometime twins, sometimes a mother had died and soon after her baby. No baby formulas to feed a motherless baby, whooping cough and other illnesses would account for young children dying. Several young men were buried "by order of the Police In Charge" - I wonder what the story behind that would reveal? These truly were the Pioneers of this land.
Some years ago, due to the efforts of Mr Cecil Cooper, a sign was erected denoting Glen Wills Cemetery and a fence along the roadside. By this time only two graves were marked - one unknown and another marked by a fence in which a tree denoting the grave of Mrs Phillis Emmer Bittner, aged 43, who was buried in 1916.
In recent years (1985) a firm of bridge builders were constructing a new bridge over the Mitta Mitta river at Glen Valley. The mother of the bridge builders (of Italian descent), was visiting her sons and was amazed that there were no crosses in the Cemetery. Before leaving the area, they built a large cross on a square slab and promised that one day they would come back and erect crosses to commemorate the grave sites. This they did in the summer of 1991. As there is no plan of the actual sites of the graves, they were placed in a double row consistent with the two graves visible.
It is hoped that a dedication service of this hallowed ground will take place in the Autumn of 1992. Many people in the area have relatives buried in the Glen Wills Cemetery.
Betty Fitzgerald (Shannon Vale)
We continued from Glen Wills to Sunnyside, another old gold mining town of which little remains.  We spent a considerable amount of time exploring around the old town site, finding many old relics, pieces of broken crockery, crumbling chimneys and bright daffodils from long abandoned garden beds.

On the roadside further north from Sunnyside we came across a glorious site: an old mine shaft on the roadside with a crystal clear mountain stream gushing from within.  I presume the water entered the mine further up via a ventilation shaft and made it's way down to the mine opening where it came out near the road.  The recent fires had opened the forest right up and there were many old artefacts from the mining days clearly visible from the roadside which I would presume would have been previously hidden in the undergrowth.  We could see tracks cut through the hillside with many pieces of rusting iron sheets, as well as trolley wheels and ore buckets spread through the forest.

We stopped at Mitta Mitta General Store, where we picked up pies and pasties for lunch, which unfortunately turned out to be cold.  We headed off to Dartmouth Dam to check it out.  We returned from Dartmouth via Mitta Mitta again, and continued on to our destination of Corryong.  Mitta Mitta looks like a great place to spend some time, with reportedly excellent fishing, lots of mining history, and various walks including one to Bogong, Victoria's highest peak.

Along the way, we stopped off at a nice place on the Mitta Mitta River to try some, wait...  You guessed it, unsuccessful fishing.

We passed a Sea Eagle soaring over Tatonga Inlet, and we stopped at the lookout over Old Tallangatta where the old railway and foundations of some of the houses that used to make up the town prior to its relocation still remained.  Passing through a cutting of the Murray Valley Highway a hawk or kestrel swooped down and took some animal from the embankment.  Further along the road I spotted an Eastern Snake-necked turtle making it's way across the road.  We stopped the car, picked him up (boy do they smell) and popped on the side of the road where he was heading, down towards a small swampy area.  I also spotted an Echidna digging his way into the roadside embankment.

We soon arrived in Corryong and settled into our accommodation at the Corryong Country Inn and enjoyed a relaxing spa.

Friday 3rd October

The weather finally came good on our last day of our holidays.  We made an early morning drive further up the Murray into Biggara Valley, a beautiful green valley full of cows.  We sat on the banks of the river at a picnic spot there for breakfast, watching a pair of Nankeen Kestrels as they hunted for food.  For reasons unknown, I tried fishing again, giving up when I finally lost my lure on a snag.

We continued towards Tintaldra where there were spectacular views back across the green valley to the Snowy Mountains in the distance.   We stopped in Walwa for some lunch, they make the best Sweet Chilli Chicken Wraps and the Foccacias were pretty damn good too!  We drove up to the start of the Pine Mountain walk, Pine Mountain apparently being Australia's largest monolith, 1.5 times bigger than Uluru.

From here we drove out to the Murray Valley Weir, and wasted half an hour plus, looking around Wodonga and Albury for a Shell Service Station.  Giving up we drove down to Beechworth were we spent the afternoon visiting the craft galleries, picking up a very nice new vase.  We also had a quick look around the cemetery, including the Chinese Burning Towers were I was swooped by a very aggressive magpie!

On the way home we stopped off in Millawa, picking up some cheeses and having dinner at the Deli there.

Bogong High Plains

A Camping Trip to the Bogon High Plains

Henric/Heather
Nissan Pathfinder
Mark/Michelle/James/Liam
Nissan Patrol

Friday

Friday we arrived at Mongan's Bridge Caravan Park in the early afternoon, where we setup camp and settled down for a relaxing evening.

Saturday

I got up early and walked down to the Kiewa River, where I caught a very good sized brown trout, which we stuffed with lemon and onion for dinner.

After breakfast, Henric and I went driving looking for some 4WD tracks.  We drove up to Falls Creek, keeping a constant lookout for tracks, but all were closed off as being part of the water catchment.  Not really a 4WD destination, this area.  More walking.  Oh well, we explored Falls Village and headed back to camp to enjoy that trout.

Sunday

On Sunday we reviewed the maps and identified a 4WD track, so off we headed.  The track however proved a little hard to locate, eventually finding it through a farmers property.  With some guidance from the landowner, we were through some gates and making our way across the paddocks and up the hill.  This was a real nice 4WD track across the top of a spur.  Henric got to use his chainsaw and clear a tree off the track.  We backtracked down through some pine plantation and came out in a lush green field where we stopped over a small creek and ate our picnic lunch under a tall gum.  Continuing on after lunch we found ourselves back on the farm.  Giving our farewells to the owner, and thanking him we headed back to camp

Monday

On Monday, Henric and I headed off looking for more tracks, and found another track out the back of a farmers property.  Nobody was home, so we made our way through and drove up a very narrow windy road to another track running along the ridge top.  Time was against us exploring further, so we headed back to camp to pack up and make our way back home.

Jordan River Valley

Saturday 27^th January

This was a trip initially in the footsteps of last weeks trip, but an opportunity for Michelle and the kids to come along as they missed out last weekend. It was also a trip of exploration into the Jordan Valley to see Jericho and Red Jacket that I had wanted to do for many years, long before I had a 4WD to get me down there.

We stopped for breakfast at Cambarville.  We spent a little longer there this weekend, looking at the old houses, some still being lived in whilst others in complete ruin.  Prior to the time of the sawmill and the timber getting there must have been some huge trees in this area.  Apart from the rare tree surviving from that time, the rotting stumps with the notches in the side the timber getters used are the only clues to how large these trees were.  One day we will have to take a walk to the Big Tree.  I wonder which is bigger, the Big Tree or the Ada Tree?

We drove from Cambarville to Matlock and shortly after Matlock headed down into the Jordan Valley.  The turn off was unmarked, and there was some uncertainty that this was the right direction, however a little further down the track we came across an information board with some of the history and photos of the Gold mining towns of Jericho and Red Jacket.

The road down was not steep, and just bordered on requiring a 4WD vehicle.  Eventually the valley floor came into view, and was a lovely verdant green.  The nature of this green was soon to reveal itself, and it was anything but lovely.

The entire floor of the Jordan Valley was completely over run with Blackberries.  There was a small cleared area in Jericho in which to camp, but river access was pretty well denied.  Some access was available where the tunnel was, however the river main could barely be seen.  It certainly wasn't possible to explore around looking for relics or signs of the town that once was.  We headed further upstream, but the story was the same.  Blackberries everywhere.  This was extremely disappointing, as I had wanted to explore these old sites for many years.   We had always believed this area to be idyllic; we headed down stream to find our lunch site.

We stopped on the river for lunch at what was presumably Red Jacket.  I had heard that there was a cemetery here, as well as some ruins.  All we could find were Blackberries.  There was a small cleared area at the side of the track were we set up for lunch.  After lunch we continued across the Jordan to see if there was any sign of what was once Red Jacket, but apart from a piece of rusting iron, we saw nothing but blackberries.

We continued further down the Jordan, and were finally rewarded with some indications of this area's past.  There were many mullock heaps and excavations on the side of the road, stone walls and water traces as well as other signs of diggings.  We continued down towards Violet Town, where again we saw no signs of it's existence before making the steep rocky scrabble out of the valley.  On our ascent we passed a small convoy of 4WD vehicles coming down, fortunately we met at a portion of the track that enabled us to move to the side.  We made our way back to the Walhalla Woods Point Road, and headed back towards Matlock.  We passed a tin hut, in which Michelle left our names on the wall.  Whilst scanning on the UHF, we picked up a young girl (Jessica?) singing.  James talked with here along most of our trip back to Matlock.   At Matlock, we headed down towards Jamieson looking for a suitable camping spot, the plan was to stay at the same location as last week.  We might even find that missing shoe…

Unfortunately it was a long weekend, and that campsite as well as pretty much every other one was already taken.  Tunnel Bend was completely crowded, and every small track off the side of the road led to somebodies tent.  We eventually found a spot that looked half descent.  We got out and checked the river access and it was all looking good until some guy rolled up, parked near our car and got out to do some fishing.  Rather than wait and see if he was going to set up his tent right next to us, we continued our search.  I found what appeared to be the perfect spot.  Too small for anybody else to join us, and right near the river.  We emptied everything out of the car, and I started to clear some brush from the tent site, as it was a fraction too small for our 6 man dome tent.  Unfortunately one of those plants was the roof to a Jumping Jack ant's nest, and the ant on the leaf I grabbed was none too happy with me.  Those things can bite!  I've still got the sore 2 weeks later.

Everything was quickly thrown back into the car for one last look for a campsite, else we were going to drive back home tonight.   Michelle saw a promising track, which we turned back to explore.  This was the best campsite on the river.  We set up camp for the night, had some dinner, had a swim and an unproductive fish, and then went to sleep with the sounds of the Goulburn.

Sunday, 28^th January 2001

Michelle, James and Liam went for an early morning fish while I tried to catch up on some sleep.  They didn't catch anything, but the bottom caught and kept our Rooster Tail lure.  The search is now on to replace it, but we haven't yet found them anywhere.

After breakfast, we packed up and started towards Jamieson.  We kept an eye out for the lost shoe, but never saw it anywhere along our journey.  James and I fished a little in the Goulburn, but with no luck.   I saw a reasonable size fish follow the lure once, but there wasn't any action to speak of.  We also fished in a nice spot on the Goulburn Arm, north of Jamieson, but there were no fish there today.  Through Mansfield and onto Bonnie Doon for a lunch stop (how's the serenity?) and we made our way back home through Yea.