31 weeks down...

 

   

Che, Erin and Quinn visit Melbourne

Behind the scenes at the zoo (c/o JR)

Quinn and Ruby at the playground

Attempting to stuff cannelloni

 Greek dinner in Brunswick St

 Mother's Day brunch at our favourite local cafe: Mitte in Rushall

 Quinn tucking into his third milkshake of the morning!

Death Row Dinner: Part 1

This was an idea conceived over a delicious feast in the Cinque Terre: What would be your final three course meal if you had the chance to choose it (and eat it!) before you died?

Rather than cooking the whole meal yourself, we invited Fraser and Kelley to join us in each cooking a course over four separate evenings. The rules also stipulated that your course needed to be accompanied by a drink match and music.

For the first round:

Course One: Kelley
The Ultimate Steak Sandwich accompanied by an Otago Pinot Noir (always a goodie).

Course Two: Hamish
Scallops cooked three ways, with  Dark & Stormy cocktails (first enjoyed with Boston and Fraser in Bermuda).

Course Three: Gabrielle
Snapper, Beurre Blanc sauce and Panzanella salad (Bread & Tomato salad), with an Italian Soave wine.

Course Four: Fraser
Deluxe Chocolate Fondue (a family favourite), with homemade prune ice cream served with Baileys drizzled over the top.

We also able to finally use the Wedgwood dinner set which was purchased on a very quick trip up to Stoke prior to leaving the UK.

 

 

Letterbox Wildlife

Our friendly letterbox huntsman spider:

Mabel the Monkey

My first attempt at sewing in about 10 years! Mabel the Monkey was made for the future little Miss Rodgers :)

Easter in Bright

We're back in the rat-race now which means we're back taking holidays when everyone else is escaping the city!  So, we've spent Easter in Bright - in the north of Victoria - and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  The usual ingredients of a good weekend - and a good easter - were present: good food, river walks, red wine and deli food. But our long weekend threw in a couple of bonuses by way of a late booking at a cottage overlooking Mt Beauty that turned out to be tremendous, a road that could have been built for the sole purpose of early morning cycling through the Tawonga Gap, unseasonally warm temperatures and of course, coverage of the golf from Augusta to accompany our piggy Easter breakfasts.  We'll be back Bright, we promise.

River walks

Long vineyard lunch

View from our cabin

Early morning visitor

Portarlington triathlon

Perfect conditions to make a triathlon debut.  800m swim, 26km ride and an 8km run in a shade under 1:50.

Ocean Grove

Moving into Melbourne

It's been nine months since we closed the door on our flat in Earlsfield in London and now we finally have a place to call our own in Northcote, Melbourne.

Moving day

29 boxes of life from London and New Zealand

View to the city from the eastern end of Bridge St

New Year in New Zealand

A selection of pictures from our fortnight in NZ over new year.



Steph & Gabrielle at Fraser and Kelley's wedding in sunny Dunedin



Fraser, Shaun, Hamish & Bevan

New Years day: University of Otago

 


Lupins at Tekapo



Steph overlooking Lake Tekapo from Mt John



Returning to childhood memories: Lego VW

Christmas in Adelaide

A sensational few days with Batman and the family in Adelaide

Dinner with the neighbours, Ziah, Trudi and Kim (23 December):

Christmas day festivities:

Melbourne

Hmm...we didn't seem to accomplish an awful lot in Melbourne on this trip. Thanks to the wonderful hospitality of Frazier and Kelly we kicked back in Bamfield Road and managed to catch up on some admin, as well as keeping an eye on the lettuces and tomatoes while F&K went back to Aotearoa to beautify themselves for their big day.

We'll be returning to Melbourne in January for the Australian Open, and just possibly, finding somewhere to live - so there will no doubt be more photos to view at that stage.

Canberra

We conquered an impressive list of tourist attractions in the capital: Parliaments old and new, the National War memorial, the Australian Institute of Sport, the High Court of Australia, the National Gallery, the National Library and the National McDonalds.  True to it's reputation, Canberra appears to lack a punchy personality but we did find the city extremely interesting and tourist friendly. The displays answered some of our questions about the many layers of the over-engineered Australian political system.  The lawmaking here is awful: in the last two months the federal government has passed retro-active legislation, a ridiculous tax on the countries most productive industry and a half baked carbon tax. It seems crazy that a country with such an enterprising history and people needs so many rules and so many rule-makers.  

View from National War Memorial toward Parliament

Senator Elliott