Hello lovely people – it’s been a while between drinks as they say; another year has slipped passed.

It is not without interest that I find myself easing into my eightieth year – wow! I still seem to be functioning quite well and life is tumbling along in it’s usual fashion, and I am still accompanied by the lovely Jacqui. It has been quite a year though, and one of considerable change.

Off to the East.

After much soul searching we decided that it might be time to move east. It was prompted mainly by Pippa and Tara’s stated wish to see us into our old age. To this end, we all decided to pool our resources and find a property to share, which is not easily done in this age of nuclear families living in separate houses. It is not seen as a usual thing to do.

So we put our house on the market, and to our consternation, we get an offer immediately.

Having had so many family christmases in Queensland, this year (Christmas 24) as we have no nearby family, we resort to our fallback position and, you’ll never guess, go on a Christmas cruise! This time a trip around New Zealand once more.

Imagine our surprise when on our way to the shops in Albany, we see the Westerdam, the very ship we are to join in a week, moored in Albany Harbour. Pity we can’t just jump on here!

Holland America’s Westerdam on it’s way to pick us up in Sydney.

Arriving in Sydney we book ourselves into the YHA, set high among “The Rocks” next to the harbour bridge and overlooking the Opera House.

The Sydney Opera House from our window in the YHA.

Underneath the YHA is an extensive archaeological site.

Needless to say, the precinct under the Opera House is a very popular place to enjoy the festive season.

Climbing the bridge. People like to do strange things these days.

Having enjoyed a couple of days wandering around the Rocks, we once again, board the Westerdam and settle into shipboard life. We do really enjoy having nothing much to do except enjoy the passing views, the food, and entertainment of one sort or another.

Once more cruising through New Zealand’s amazing Milford Sound.

Milford Sound in New Zealands spectacular Fiordland National Park? – boring!

Sunset over Stewart Island, south of Invercargill.

There are a lot of logs in New Zealand. To be seen in most NZ ports it seems.

The much honoured Kiwi. This sculpture in Napier, a city full of Art Deco buildings.

The crossing attendants dance their way through the day in Napier.

Gosh … does this really happen here? It seems it may do here in Tauranga.

Yes? What do you want? Go away!

I told you – no developer will make me sell my house! I don’t care what you say.

Christmas aboard the Ship.

The crew of the Westerdam try hard to give the ship a festive feel. In the main atrium there is a model village covered in snow, complete with circling miniature railway.

The snow covered Christmas scene.

And, of course, there was CAKE!

Not sure these guys thoroughly approved.

Meanwhile back in OZ

We now find ourselves in somewhat of a dilemma. The offer on our house has fallen through, so we have to wait for another to come up. This involves reducing the price a bit but still we wait. In the meantime, we haven’t yet got anywhere else to go. P & T would like to be within easy reach of Melbourne so that they can redevelop their contacts there for work. Whilst Townsville has been good, it is not quite so good in terms of long term income for two freelance creatives.

Pippa and Tara enjoy their last tropical Christmas.

Still without an offer on our house, we decide to use a few of our frequent flyer points to take a weeks trip to Melbourne in order to seek a suitable property that has two dwellings that we might share. We stay in a house exchange on the beach in Albert Park and roam through the region around Melbourne in our hire car looking at properties which might suit. There are some attractive places which for one reason or another get crossed off the list. Our last property is in Mount Macedon, 60km to the north west of the city, situated in the heart of the Macedon Ranges. While this is happening, we accept an offer that has been made on our house.

It suddenly becomes very real; it seems that it is actually happening.

In the meantime, P&T have put their house on the market and received a good offer almost immediately. Wow! It really is a snowball on a steep hill. It means we are now able to put in an offer on the Mt Macedon Property located on the interestingly named Zig Zag Road, and it has been accepted. All we have to do is move.

Having spent what seems like an age surrounded by packing boxes once more, we set off in our caravan, although not without drama. Having waved goodbye to our furniture, we are spending a few days in our caravan parked on the back lawn, so we can do the last minute cleaning and so on. Now settlement day has arrived and it is time to go.

The caravan on the back lawn, all ready to move out.

Having patted myself on the back for managing the difficult reverse to get the caravan onto the back lawn, I am now excessively over confident about how easy it will now be to drive off. With remarkably little care, off I go down the driveway at the side of the house, igmoring the protruding corner of the roof.

Mistake! And final settlement is today!

Amazing how easy it is to tear off part of the roof.

Oh dear!. Best get off to the caravan dealer to see if we can replace the very destroyed window in the caravan, and to make embarrassing calls to the estate agent to explain what has happened. In some way, luck is with us. A replacement window is available and the purchasers have agreed to let settlement proceed for an appropriate reduction in the price to cover the cost of repairs.

And so off we go towards the east once more with our Red Brick Castle in Albany becoming just a memory.

Mount Macedon, here we come!

Having circled around through Perth and Jurien to farewell friends, our journey across the Nullabor is uneventful, but gets increasingly cold as we go on. After two weeks travelling and covering almost four thousand kilometers, we end our journey in the caravan park in Macedon (some five km from Mount Macedon). It’s the end of a cold and wet June. Settlement is at the beginning of July – a week away.

This is our new home in Zig Zag Road, Mount Macedon. P&T will live in the cottage who’s roof can be seem peeking over the main roof.

Settlement day arrives and we move our caravan to the new property. We are now able to explore it properly for the first time. It is clear that it has been somewhat neglected and needs extensive renovation; the cottage especially needs a complete new kitchen and bathroom. Both the main house and the cottage need many of the stumps replacing, these do, after all, hold the house up. It turns out to be a much more extensive renovation than we had anticipated.

However, here we all are, surrounded by boxes and all living in the main house, a situation which is to continue for three months while a continual stream of tradies (tradesmen to the non-aussies) fix the place up.

As to the neighbourhood; within the first week we have visits from nearby neighbours and an invitation to a gathering next door. This very generous invitation allows us to get to know most of the people who live in the immediate vicinity. What a welcome! So unlike our previous experience.

So to the property itself. It sits on an acre of land with lots of very tall trees and abundant wildlife. Kangaroos, and the odd deer plus lots of parrots. Unfortunately there are also rabbits.

Our house suspended on bottle jacks while a number of old wooden stumps are replaced by the new concrete versions.

Detailed plans for the bathroom in the cottage.

The lovely Rob building the new kitchen and bathroom in the cottage.

Our first house guest.

A kangaroo keeping our grass down.

‘Any room for us too’, laugh the Kookaburras!

‘What about me’, squawks the sulphur crested cockatoo.

‘I’m first in this queue’, whistles the King Parrot.

Mount Macedon seems an ideal place to be … it is definitely country, has some elevation (we are at 540 metres), is sixty kilometres from Melbourne via the freeway and has an hourly train service to boot.

The centre of the town of Mount Macedon. Small isn’t the word for it! We love it for that and especially its really good coffee. There is also a pub next door.

Macedon station. One hour to the centre of Melbourne with it’s extensive cheap public transport.

After sharing the house for three months, the cottage is ready to be occupied and Pippa, Tara, Satori, Inca and Goji move in.

A large number of stumps have been replaced and the house and cottage levelled (mostly). We have new skylights on both the cottage and the house. We have six kilowatts of solar power to each home (twelve in all) with batteries to come. We have a new heat pump for hot water supplying both dwellings. The veranda on the cottage still needs work but we can do that when the summer gets here.

The house is quiet. All we need is a break – especially from the cold.

The view from the cottage of the garden and Mount Towong in the background with it’s cap of cloud.

A bit of history

Having spent several years working in Europe, both in Germany (in covid times) and then Belgium, Pippa fell pregnant and she and Tara felt it was time to return to OZ. The offer of a full time dance role for Tara in Townsville seemed ideal. So they moved and Tara started at Dance North straight away. She was to join a performance of Wayfinder which was about to go on tour. In fact, it was to be the most comprehensive tour by an Australian regional dance company to be performed at twenty two regional centres.

Pippa, who at the time was not far off giving birth, managed to get a grant to make a full length documentary of the tour. This meant that she and Tara (and Satori to be) would be able to travel together. The first show was to be in Sydney.

Then everything changed! Tara was injured on the opening night. What a blow!

This meant that Tara was only able to dance in a limited fashion and that Pippa’s shooting schedule was turned completely upside down. However, between them they managed it, but this was one of the main drivers for them deciding to leave Townsville. Pippa completed editing the film after arriving in Macedon and had it ready for it’s premier as part of the Northern Australian Festival of the Arts in Townsville and for which she was also the photographer. The showing was extremely well received and will, no doubt, be a part of other film festivals as time goes on.

If you would like a taste of her documentary, Wide Horizons, go to her Vimeo Channel https://vimeo.com/1117379185

Pippa’s photo used for the Northern Australian Festival of the Arts promotions.

Off to Auckland for a much needed break from renovations.

The timing is ideal. We all need a break from the tradies. P&T have moved into the cottage (or the cabin as they prefer to call it). They are off to Townsville and we have found a home exchange in St Hellier, a beach suburb of Auckland in New Zealand.

St Helliers beach is a short walk away from our apartment.

On the wild west coast at Piha.

We have come to see the Gannet colony

Gathering material for a shallow nest

Spectacular in flight floating on the coastal wind

Greeting each other with their necks when one partner returns

No bans here.

Auckland skyline in the distance.

Around and about – three months later.

The area we find ourselves in, is very quiet and only locals use our road. There is as much walking traffic as cars and a circular walk of around two kilometres takes us through a magnificently treed landscape of mountain ash and stringy bark, interspersed with ancient rows of scotts pines, including six on our block alone.

Jacqui takes a rest in Zig Zag road on the way around the circle.

On Mount Macedon itself, Sanatorium Lake was purpose built to provide a water source to a hospital specialising in the treatment of tuberculosis, which was never built. Now the lake is a beautiful setting for a number of self-guided walking and horse-riding trails, and a five minute drive away for us.

The beautiful Sanatorium Lake.

A climb up to the lookout atop Camels Hump (1000 metres), on Mount Macedon itself, yields an amazing view to the north.

Another bonus of moving to this area, is that we are now within easy reach of Max who has just turned fifty – amazing! So trips down to town have become more frequent.

Flinders Street station in central Melbourne, is quite a landmark.

(L-R) Nickee (Max’s partner), Mahli, Zoe’s 14 y.o. daughter who stayed with us for a week, Jacqui and Max, with Berty sitting at the front.

Max and Nickee have bought a house! Moving in on the 23rd December.

Max’s stall at the Coburg Makers Market.

Beside being a long term sound engineer, Max has become a master sculptor – this is one of his pieces in the morning sun