I see we did a better job with the Olympic Torch in Canberra than you did in London! Gordon Brown couldn't organise a piss up in a you-know-what.
Spent some time in the NGV gallery. It was the one in Fed Square, dedicated to Aus art. We both really enjoyed it. The building itself is fantastic, the floors are laid out in a geometric figure of eight and as you wander around you get views through glass sections and little cutouts of other floors and other parts of the floor you are on. You get sudden and unexpected views both of artworks and of the vistors in the gallary. A bit like a peep show. I liked " The Pioneer" and the woman being carried out in the flood disaster, Lin liked the moderist view of Melboune. Could have spent more time there. 39 Steps was great, acted by 4 people only, not the Hitchcock style, done as a comedy. Nice theatre.
We have finally got in contact with our old neigbours and we are trying to get together with them when our paths cross in Christchurch.
Drove to Ballarat through the rush hour on a day before ANZAC day, a public holiday. Nice baptism of the hooked right turns. We found a great Motel in Balarat - Sovreign Park - it was better than many so called 4* star hotels I have stayed in. It was attached to the Red Lion, a great family pub with grub and a super atmosphere. We spent the day in Sovereign Hills, a re-creation of a gold mining town in the 1870's. It had loads going on and the houses, workshops & businesses were populated with staff in costume. It was great to chat with them. I especially enjoyed talking with the wheelwright, the shopkeeper and the housewives in the houses. We went down a mine and saw the redcoats in action. I think I saw one of them making eyes at Linda. If he hadn't had such a long barrel, I would have challenged him!
We drove across country from Ballarat and we are now in Port Campbell on the Great Ocean Road. A very small town with a beautiful bay that has been the scene of ship wrecks, so many that the diving schools run tours of them.
I have heard some say that Victoria is very much like England. I can now confirm that belief. It is a bank holiday weekend - it is peeing with rain - I had to drive with my headlights on at 2pm, the fog had descended - it is 10 degrees celcius - we are both soaked through! Not really tho' there are no traffic jams, in fact no cars at all.
We have wandered along the 12 apostles, formally the sow and piglets. I think I prefer the old name. I don't like to think of apostles falling down and collapsing in public. These are a chain of pinnacle islands formed by coastal erosion. The islands are steadily collapsing, but new ones are being formed. Nice to see, but better in the sun, I think. There is one island, Mutton Island, in the chain that is host to 50,000 mutton birds (short tailed sheerwaters) It is supposed to be a great sight to see them flocking in April & May. They raise their single young and at the first storm in May, they leave for their summer grounds. The young can't fly at this time, they don't get any more feed and just have to sort themselves out and join their parents in the Aleutians. Have a look on the map to see where that is, the Aleutians are up by Alaska. Thats what I call tough love. The funny thing is we didn;t see a single sheerwater, I wonder if all the wildlife in Aus are a spoof, we drove 38km of eucalips today, smashing nose clearing perfume, but no koalas - we have seen no kangaroos, no emus, no koalas, no wallabies, no echidnas, now no mutton birds.
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