Happy New Year

31/12/2012
Some much needed rain today making the grass grow, know what I will be doing on Thursday and Friday!
Our IT skills have been  tested as we have been trying to find something suitable to live in and drive around New Zealand during their peak holiday period. Availability of motor homes and campervans is limited as everyone in the southern hemisphere seems to want to go wandering. We think we have found what we want, and hopefully have booked it, assuming we have hit all the right buttons on this shiny thing. Just waiting for confirmation now but of course it’s New Years Eve so not much will happen for a day or two.
We are fairly confident though as our luck has been good lately and continued this morning when Jane picked up our winnings from this weeks lottery. We have to admit to depriving some poor soul of  $12-50c out of the $30 million they may have won, hope they won’t hold it against us!
So here we are with one hour to go in 2012, Billy-No-Mates unfortunately. The plan was to go down to the beach with a bottle of vino, and, from there, watch the fireworks across the bay at Palm Cove but as it has rained for most of the day and there is still a covering of cloud we didn’t think there would be a lot to see. Instead we will watch the fireworks from Sydney on TV, unless someone from the UK  Skypes us or TXT, that’s not looking likely.

1/1/2013
Happy New Year.
Considering we didn’t actually go anywhere last night we were decidedly sluggish this morning, don’t seem to be able to cope with late nights and  that bubbly tack these days.
New Years Day is known as recovery day here and we were invited to recover at Frank and Julie’s house for a pool party. Some of their family were there as were their good neighbours from across the road, a very sociable bunch. Then there were maybe half a dozen children who hadn’t quite grasped the idea that us old buggers were there for recuperation and their screeching wasn’t going to help. Putting ones head under the water worked but there is only so long you can hold your breath for before surfacing to the next ear splitting scream.
Despite that we had a lovely day with Frank cooking a really nice BBQ, lots of grog and no chance of an early night.

02/01/2013

 Back to reality as the festivities are over for another year  (wonder where we will be next year?) Now we  have some decent rain, the parched lawns are beginning to green up so most of the day I have spent mowing and whippy snipping. We did have a bit of a break for lunch and ate out at the food hall in Smithfield Shopping Mall. We bought a guide book to New Zealand as that is creeping up on us , having now got confirmation of our camper for our 35 days duration there. The book wasn’t cheap which made me a bit annoyed as I had stupidly left a copy of it in the UK.

 Had a night watching tele for a change, a documentary on the life of the great Freddie Mercury, what a waste of a talent now he has gone. Time they found a cure for that H I V.

 03/01/2013

  It seems the majority of the Australian continent is about to suffer an extremely savage heat wave, especially all the southern states. Up here in the north it is already hot, but we are in the wet season so every now and then  we have a storm which cools things down for a little while. We are having days of 35c  constantly but the south is preparing for at least a 10 day spell of temperatures in the mid 40’s with certain spots getting close to 50C…..that’s bloody hot! 

 We won’t be heading that way for a couple of weeks, so hopefully it will have cooled down a bit by then.  Working in these temperatures isn’t easy and I find myself cutting the same bits of grass over and over again, ‘cos it’s under a tree. As it happens, work is suspended due to mechanical failure, somehow I have managed to lose a tyre off its rim and so it has to go in for repair. It come back tomorrow then work can continue……. On Monday!

 04/01/2013

  The van hasn’t moved for some weeks now so we thought we would go into Cairns in it to pick up the mower wheel. Do you think the bugger would start?? It did eventually, but the warning light for the brake  system is showing up which is a bit worrying as it could be $1000 job to get it fixed to get us over to Perth. I do have a contact who might be able to help and will speak to him over the weekend. Fingers crossed! 

  We had a call from Paul and Lorraine who reckon they may be home a little earlier than they had said, we were expecting them on the 16th but now it looks as though it will be a few days before that. In a way it ‘s good as we will have less pressure covering the 5,500K to Perth, and be able to spend time with friends en-route as we wander south before heading west. The weather could also pose a problem as it now looks a certainty we are in for an extremely hot summer with ridiculously high temperatures. Doing less mileage a day will help but we can’t see it being a lot of fun. Mustn’t whinge as we expect temperatures in the low 20s in New Zealand, positively bloody freezing!