First Day of School 2024

Katy began the next day in Year 9! Her electives for this term include Cafe and Catering; Creative Cuisines and Global Studies!

First Day of College 2024

 Ella started Year 11 at Lake Ginninderra College! 

She has chosen English, Maths (Specialist Methods), Chemistry, Sports Development and Outdoor Rec. Her timetable looks like this... late starts Tuesday and Wednesday and early finish Thursday and Fridays...what type of school is this????

Flight

A last minute decision, we found ourselves hurtling towards Commonwealth Place trying to make the 9.30pm drone show. For three nights in late January, in apparently an Australian first, 600 drones flew over Lake Burley Griffin. Flight had 3 shows - 8.30, 9.30 and 10.30pm

Parking was crazier than expected and as a result, Andy dropped Ella, Ryan and myself off and retreated to find a spot. We walked very quickly to make the show arriving on the deck of the National Library as a dove was flying through the moonlit night sky!

We moved spots and watched as the dove changed into each of the floral emblems of the states / territories. It was at this point that Andy arrived to see the emerging kangaroo and emu and then the national emblem. The drones then disappeared back to their charging stations.

It was a little underwhelming show really - the images were impressive but it was over very quickly. We joked around asking Andy if he wanted to hang around for another 45 mins to see the show again.

Funnily enough it was on our way home when chatting about the show, we discovered a few more details.  The show was actually a trilogy - Welcome Yumalundi; Rejoice and One and Many. So each show told a different story and they were so short because the drones could only fly for a short time before needing to be recharged.

New Purchase

While at Lord Howe, Katy and I visited one of the local artists gallery. She was an older lady who did lots of screen printing so Katy who was hoping to find something special didn't while I was just accompanying her and not looking for anything did!

These cards caught my eye. We selected three. Back in Canberra we bought some black frames and found a spot...

 

Welcome to Noodle

We have a new addition to the chicken coop! We have adopted Noodle from Jase. Noodle found herself without a friend after her sibling sadly and unexpectedly died. 

Gypsy and Hope didn't really blink an eye when Noodle arrived. I certainly didn't see any chicken bullying behaviour however Noodle did spend her first night under the chicken coop being too afraid to climb inside.

By the next night though she had edged her way into the gang and made it inside!

Aston Cres Market Garden

Back home and the first moment I get I'm straight into the garden as it's flourishing. Unfortunately the nectarines I though would be perfect to pick were overripe and mostly rotten or half eaten. The plums though were fantastic - 9kgs worth which means loads of poaching and bottling.

As for the rest of the vegetables it is all looking great with the usual tinge of red! Tomatoes, rhubarb and rainbow chard giving colour to the veggie patch. I also found a few cucumbers - a first for me as I've never managed to successfully grow them before!

Last Day in LH!

Last day, last walk! This morning the trails involved Andy trying to summit Mt Eliza then join me on the the loop of Kim's Lookout and Malabar Hill. Originally we heard that the Mt Eliza track was closed, due to the nesting Sooty Terms however a local convinced Andy that the fledglings would be out and walking around almost ready to fly. Thus Andy tackled the hill hoping no one would be around but a short distance after crossing past the track closed sign, Andy said the fledglings were out and about but were everywhere including all over the track and panicking to get away from him. The situation made him very uneasy and he turned back opting not to summit Mt Eliza.

Meanwhile I at this point in time was enjoying the view from Kim's Lookout - it was perfect!

Andy eventually caught me up as I was descending Malabar Hill. We continued down to Ned's for a final swim.

Back at the lodge we couldn't lounge around for long as we were required to leave our accomodation by 10am. Thankfully the lodge allowed us to use the 'transfer lounge' until we departed at 1pm for our 3pm flight.

In the meantime, we ambled around the island visiting all the shops in search of  souvenir t-shirts and successfully bought one each!

Hot and sweaty by lunchtime, we decided on a final dip in the main lagoon and were back at the transit lounge as the only rain on our trip fell from the sky! Perfect timing. The only thing left to do was shower, do a final pack and read.

On arrival at the tiny terminal we discovered it was packed. The flight before us had landed, the passengers disembarked while the rest of  the crowd were waiting for their departure. Unfortunately (or possible fortunately of some) the plane had a technical problem. It was first delayed and then cancelled as the issue required an engineer to inspect it! All the passengers (except for 3 who managed to sneak onto our plane) were forced to stay for another night!!

We were glad to have a working plane and uneventful flight landing us in Sydney around 6pm. A smooth transition through the airport meant we were quickly in the car on our way home. The holiday was over and life was back to normal work / school holiday routine! 

Lord Howe is definitely a special place and we were certainly glad that we chose to have a holiday there!

Exploring the Reef

Today Island Cruises took us to three locations on the outer reef of the main lagoon to snorkel - Erscott's Hole, Comet's hole and Horseshoe reef. Each area was quite different in reef topography and the abundance of fish was fantastic. A really great experience. Video cinematography could do with some refinement :) I would have loved to do a kayak / snorkelling tour out and around the Admiralty Islands but the weather was against us.

 

 

The Big Swing and Herring Pools - Local Knowledge Needed!

Morning exercise involved running through the middle part of LH - up Transit hill for great 360° views of the island to Blinky Beach then back on Lagoon Road meeting up at the main lagoon beach for a refreshing dip. 

By late morning after breakfast, coffee and reading, our feet were getting itchy and we had a few spots still to visit. Katy, Andy and I left Ella at the accommodation and rode the short distance to a trail head of the big swing (thanks for the inside knowledge Grant!), The Clear Place and Valley of the Shadows.

Katy was happy to stay on the big swing deciding not to walk to the other spots! Andy and I ran into Curly the bio security dog and her handler who were checking out the area for rats. The Valley of the Shadows was a lovely steep gully full of lush palm trees and gave us a nice break from the hot sun.

The afternoon had us on another adventure. We'd heard from locals about the Herring Pools - rock pools that are only accessible at low tide by wandering around the rocky ledge of Old Gulch. Although the walk to the Old Gulch was only 2kms form the Old Settlement Beach, it involved hiking up and over a steep ridge! Hot sweaty work.

On the way over we checked out North Beach which in low tide looked very uninviting with lots of seagrass but probably a perfect spot for turtles. There are a few facilities here namely picnic shelter and toilets used mostly (I'd say) by the tourists who get boated in and dropped off for a few hours. 

A short boardwalk away was the Old Gulch, a rocky cove bounded by steep cliffs. Our mission involved negotiating the southern rocky cliff ledge. We picked our way carefully along the rocky edge wondering if we were going to be able to find the pools. It took ages to cover the short distance but our hopes were buoyed when we discovered the first of the Herring Pools! 

 

  

Continuing on we were looking for the last and deepest one. Eventually it came into view. Katy and Andy were eager to explore it so quickly stripped down to their bathers. The water was clear and surprisingly deep and very refreshing! We played around taking videos with the go pro. 

Our idyllic playground was short lived when over the rocky horizontal several faces emerged. It seemed another family group had the same idea as us. By this stage though we were content and ready to leave this special place. We dressed and made our way back to the rocky beach of the Old Gulch where we cooled off again in the turquoise waters before consuming some snacks. The walk back was no easier - lots of stairs, rocks and roots and it wasn't long before we were hot and sweaty again!