Saturday, April 30, 2011

30th April 2011 Our Stay at Tawonga

John and Chris left today on there 2 months holiday in there van travelling to Western Australia..good luck to them on their travels and a safe journey.


John and I settle into there home for the next 2 months...we are very lucky its a beautiful home...here are some pictures to share with you...






 Our room

 Sophie



View from the front verandah and also our bedroom of snow on the mountain tops...this was taken last winter....hope we get to see snow while we are here

Friday, April 29, 2011

29th April 2011

Woke to a beautiful misty morning the mist in the valley looked lovely...


John and I went for a drive into Mount Beauty to pick up some fresh bread and have a look around at what our local shops had to offer for the next couple of months...


Came back and had morning tea with John & Chris and they gave us the knowledge of the surrounding areas...and it gave Sophie  (the dog ) chance to get to know us a bit more...


Chris and John went out and John and I relaxed on the front verandah with a view to die for...we are so looking forward to staying here... I took a video of the view but its a bit big to put on here... :(

The garden off the front verandah

28th April 2011 Tawonga

Today we woke to yet another beautiful day, we left Howlong and travelled on to Tawonga (which is near Bright) our next house sitting job...this time we are sitting for 2 months till the beginning of July.


Travelling to Tawonga on the Kiewa Highway was a lovely drive all country side and beautiful views....









Arrived at Tawonga at Chris & Johns place just after lunch...and we spent a few hours settling in the drive way was on a little slope so we had to jack the RV up a fair way...a bit scary having it so high off the ground...but its only for 2 nights.









Chris & John are leaving for there trip on Saturday and John & I move into the house.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

27th April 2011 Thursday

We should have been leaving today...but during the easter break our big slide out decided not to slide out anymore ...if its not one thing its another.. and they all seem to go when the warranty is out grrrrrrr...


We had to drive the RV into Albury to the Winnebago Service Centre for them to check out the problem which John had already solved himself anyway ...the gearbox in the motor has gone in the clutch system...Albury Winnebago contacted head office and they are going to cover the cost of replacing it... $1200 phew thank goodness for that....which wont happen till the parts have been sent out to Albury...


Our lady arrived home today so our house sitting duties have been finalised..but she said we could stay here as long as we wanted...but we will move on tomorrow....

Sunday, April 24, 2011

21st -26th April 2011 @ Howlong

Today we arrived at Howlong NSW, where we are house sitting over Easter... We are looking after 4 dogs and 1 cat...2 Golden Retrievers Monty and Jemma and 2 poodles Harry and Lucy and a cat named orange.

A nice big home on an acre block even though its in a suburban area.

We didn't do much over this period, caught up on my washing and ironing John caught up on washing the car and RV..and I had heaps of work to catch up on the computer and bills to pay etc...

We got nothing done while at the rally !!!!


 The House
 John getting acquainted
 Lucy
 Orange
 Smacko Time !!!!
 Jemma  & Harry
Its a dogs life !! oh and cats !!

This is our first house sit and we have enjoyed it !!

18th - 20th April 2011 Boathaven Holiday Park

We traveled to a place called Ebden and booked in at the Boathaven Holiday Park, what a beautiful park it was right on the lake...I took some great shots of the sunrise on the lake...






I flew out of Albury on Monday late afternoon to Sydney I am spending a few days with my girls and going to Pats Mums funeral on Wednesday, then flying back to Albury Wednesday night.


Was nice to see my girls, Pat picked me up at the airport and took me back to stay with Sharon on Monday night and I spent all day Tuesday with her, and also caught up with Jenny and the grand children, I spent Tuesday night with Mychele, and we both spent  Wednesday together and went to the funeral then she took me to the airport to fly back. It was full on but worth it...and I was glad I was there for Pat at the funeral.


While away John had some "man time" alone...he took some nice shots of the lake at night time with the full moon on it....








I would also like to share a couple of pictures with you that I took...


 A butterfly stuck on the grill on the front of the RV... obviously dead awwww


Some very strange looking moss on a wooden log..

This park was beautiful and I'm sorry I didn't get to spend any time there with John...but we will return one day...

Saturday, April 23, 2011

11th - 17th April 2011 CMCA Rally

CMCA Deniliquin 25th Anniversary Rally

A tribute to Don & Erica Whitworth for having the foresight 25 years ago while travelling in there Kombie Van to get this organization off the ground. The club has now over 67,000 members


Deniliquin which is situated on the banks of the Edward River, began as a river crossing during early settlement and has developed into a commercial centre servicing the Riverina.. its also the home of the famous UTE MUSTER



We only had 80 kl to travel so no need to rush...woke to rain this morning, as usual packing up in the rain...This will be a good test for John and I as once at the rally we will be on our own steam no electricity and no water (except what we fetch for ourselves and fill our tanks up with) we are allowed to run our generators for 2 hours a day to charge up the batteries...

Was a nice run to Deniliquin all country roads...arrived to see nothing but motorhomes all around town all going to same destination...the Rally... we had to queue for a while as the weather wasn't the best and they had had heavy rain the night before which left the grounds in a bad way...



Very sloppy.... it didn't help all these heavy vehicles trying to park on it... but eventually we were settle in a row of big rigs...in the mud yuk !!!






Over 1000 motor homes on the site so we had a long walk each time to the main marque and all the many exhibitors and other goings on.. but it was great exercise, and each day you saw something new during your walk...the weather fined up after 2 days and we had lovely weather for the rest of the week..

The event is run by volunteers of the club and what a great job they did !!!!!!



Every night they had entertainment on which was of high standard ....one night they had a couple on named "The Lady and the Larrikin" beautiful voices and he was a larrikin which made us all laugh...we liked them so much we bought their CD John had a picture taken with Lisa


We had a few walks into town which was not too far, the whole town opened up for us everywhere we went.... they had discounted prices for us...and made us feel very welcome.

The club organised tours of the area.... we went on  one with Lois and Mike  to a rice farm where they showed us how it was grown...and harvested...very interesting...


Rice field


The next day we went on a tour to "Mundiwa"  Deniliquins first "run" or station of 700,000 sq acres taken up in 1842.... we enjoyed the historic surroundings of the homestead




The also ran many seminars where we learnt so much about different aspects of being on the road...and also craft shops were run every day... I signed up for a craft of making a teddy bear purely out of wool, with a large needle...called needle felting...I made it for John in his football team colours...


Mid week while taking a stroll we passed a small coaster home and John noticed the name on the side of it and said "Hey that's my cousin" he was very happy to find his cousin Jan and husband Geoff who he had not seen for years.... we had a nice catch up with them... amazing all those motorhomes and what do we find....

Geoff-John-Jan

On  the last night they had a Black and White ball and of course everyone had to wear black and white, and each group dressed up there tables.... some went to an awful lot of trouble..with some great outfits..and some silly outfits...







We left on Sunday with a sad heart...we had to say goodbye to our friends who we enjoyed there company so much ..and our new friends...

We had a great week CMCA and will definitely go to another rally..


A special remembrance to my best friend Pat's Mum... Jean who passed away this week, she was a beautiful  lady , and will be sadly missed.