Exploring Expedition National Park

For our long weekend during Easter, we decided to head out on a mission for a weekend of camping.  We headed to Expedition National Park, it is 2hrs North from Chinchilla and 2hrs West from Taroom on a 90km 4WD track.

DAY ONE

We were a bit late getting our shit together, nothing unusual there, so we did not think we could make it to the campsite we were initially wanting to get to before dark, so we set up at Lake Murphy for the night.

Lake Murphy in all its' marshy glory

Enough stuff? Seriously there was no room at all for anything else.  I did say to Michael, "How do parents do this? New found respect for our olds!"



The wagon loaded up.




Cool looking insect



The hunter gather with his new camp oven, making beef strog - so civilised!



Cooking dinner, and making a fire.



Washing the dinner dishes and packing up for the night (NB: it was a bit after 7pm and mosquito central!!)

DAY TWO

After a lovely night sleeping in the tent, a bit hot if anything to complain about, but just lovely.  We had a nice breakfast, packed up out gears, syringed Eak's ear again because his ear generates enough earwax for ten people and causes him hearing loss and pain.  We headed off for the remaining 90kms in towards the National Park, we were wanting to camp at Robinson Gorge.

We ran into a farmer that owns the 80,000 acres backing onto the Gorge, these are his cattle that he only sees twice a year.  Crazy!

Run with the wild horses?

Cattle Dip pool - she is a long way down you need ropes to get there for a swim, from up here.

Cooking sausages, and the date loaf.

DAY THREE

We met with some of the other campers, they all seemed to be packing up so we were concerned that the had heard of bad weather so were leaving, the 4wd track in becomes impassable with heavy rains so if it did rain we could have become stranded!  While it was early and not hot, we went for a walk down to Robinson Gorge (about 2hr round trip) .

Robinson Gorge.



 

Bag-shelter Moth, Processionary Catterpillars (Ochrogaster lunifer)

Snake skin........ but no snake

The floor of Robinson Gorge. 

END DAY THREE

The weather forecast was average with rain and thunderstorms, the problem was that the access track becomes impassable once wet and if we stayed the night we could have been stuck for 24 hours or more. We had a lovely dinner, all tucked up in bed reading our books and I was yabbering away to Eak, he then says to me "shhhhhuuuussshhhh"

Shahn - "what is it? what's wrong?"

Eak - "Do you hear that?"

Shahn - listening intently for a bit "Nup"

*HOWLING*

Shahn - quiet tones "what is that?"

Eak - "sounds like a pack of Dingoes"

*continued HOWLING, more replies from other dingoes now*

I look at Eak, he looks at me.  I feel like my heart is going to beat right out of my chest.

Eak - "what do you want to do?"

Shahn - "holy shit, lets get out of here! I won't be able to sleep anyway, we can get back to Chinchilla by midnight.  Keen?"

Lets just say we packed up the whole campsite in less than 15 minutes and we were OUT OF THERE!! I know that dingoes seem limited to being interested in children but New Zealand doesn't have anything (except people) that can kill you, I sure as hell wasn't going to take any chances.  We were also the only ones camping there that night and about an hour away from the nearest house and two hours away from the main highway.

As it was, we saw this little bugger on the road. One of the culprits!



Long story short, cool weekend!

xxxx Shahn & Eak

Sailing at Moreton Bay

We went sailing up at Moreton Bay, off Scarborough Yacht Club.  Michael has been out sailing with these guys a couple of times.  John (JVP) has a sweet Catalina? 34 not sure what year, heaps of fun, bit slow will not point that high but perfect to have a few beers. 

Our first GoPro video!

The other competitors of the day behind us.

The owner of the boat on the left (JVP) and the crew having a few casual beers along one of the legs.

Eak got a GoPro for his birthday from his fantastic girlfriend, so I strapped it to my chest and attempted to capture some of the sailing of the day.  It is quite tricky to see what you are doing but it was its' first test run!

Checking the tell tails to get her moving.

Looking back through the fleet, with Morton Island in the distance

Byron Bay Bitches

We are almost at the point now where we have explored most of the mountains around a 2hr radius from Ipswich/Brisbane and so we decided that we would head down to the forever beautiful, Byron Bay NSW.  Friday night, we booked a sea kayak tour for 2pm and we were winging the rest.

We got up at 6am and on the road early,  its a nice 2ish hour drive south to the coast.  We headed to the first surfboard rental place we came across and got two boards, loaded them on top of Hugo and headed off to the beach! (see the soft racks on top of the car)

After a few hours surfing, we headed out sea kayaking. It was awesome, the group we went out with had not be kayaking before so we owned it and smashed out through the waves from the beach without falling out.  Great fun!

 

 

After the kayaking excursion we headed up the hill to the lighthouse to take some nice snaps.

 

We headed down to the pub for some dinner, and Michael decided that we should stay the night so he could go surfing early in the morning before we needed to head back north to go back home. So after many phone calls we sussed out accommodation that wasn't $700p/night so we could rest before another exciting day in Byron.

Eak had this fantasy that he would be a kick ass paddle boarder, he really struggled with how difficult it was - you needs some killer core strength to paddle board! So after about an hour of paddling around, he was knackered and needed a bit of a rest so I took some snaps while lying my poor sunburned body on the beach! Looking like a pro, in my opinion!

Wanaka 2012/13

I have taken photos from my Aunty and Uncle's folder (Thanks) as they were too good to leave out and I had not seen them.  They are from February 2012, before we left for Aussie.

Doing a bit of bouldering in the National competition in Wanaka that Bethanne competed in 2012.  Cool fun, I'm not very good as you can see by my interest in the climb behind me, but definitely worth a go.

Shahn and I getting ready to head out for a sail, first time on Lake Wanaka.

Having a picnic on the beach and a bit of Kayaking as well was a good afternoon. (Left to right Uncle John, Me, Chris, Marg, Shahn, Pete and Bethanne). My beloved Toyota Corolla, she had so many problems but it never stopped running. After 5 years (100,000km) it sold for the same price as I bought it.

Christmas 2012 in Wanaka

For Christmas this year we logistically could not see both families in the short time we had in NZ so Shahn and I headed to different islands for our time off, her North and I, South.

At the top of Mount Iron, after a short walk (Me, Chris, Richard & Bethanne)

 

View looking back towards Lake Wanaka from Mt Iron

Another shot from top of Mt Iron, 150 people must walk to the top of this every day over summer.

Looking towards Lake Hawea from Mt Iron

Bethanne and I sailing from Ruby Island, man did the wind pick up that day had heaps of fun flying a hull, good first lesson for Bethanne too.  Hopefully teaching everyone the basics of sailing will get them into it when they are at Wanaka.

The drive from Otautau

Off on a bike ride around the lake edge, trying to tell the time.

Watching the start of the storm blow looking towards Motutapu Island

Taking the Cat on her first sail on Lake Wanaka, not much wind at all but heaps of fun.

Me just testing the new self tacking jib (worked really well in a good wind, ok in a light breeze.

Pete throughly enjoying no wind and floating our lives away.

Chris and Richard heading back after kayaking to the other side of the lake.

On a bike ride to Luggate (Very sore after this I was not very friendly with my seat) but awesome ride.

Wanaka House before the rain and storm (bone dry) - see lumps of dirt bottom right, that is the site of new rock garden (see below)



Made a rock garden with a few native flora at the Wanaka house, took a few days but pretty happy with the outcome. (Rocks came from an unknown source)

SNOW IN JANUARY!! On the Crown Ranges on January 2nd, 2013