Sunrise from the deck! That boat is actually part of the Land Cruiser that went underwater for 7km.

After some early morning faf we head to breakfast at a place called Laneway. They had delicious food and coffee! There was so much greenery you felt like you were in a secret garden.

From there we headed to JBHIFI to buy a drone. We have wanted a drone since the start of the trip. But with no drone policies on all department of conservation land it was a no brained to not bother. Now we are heading on a once in a lifetime camp on the coast of the Kimberley and I really want to make the most of it. On the plane I said to Rowan, I think we need a drone. Now we have a Nikon P1000 Coolpix, a Canon X3000 action camera and a DJI mini 3 drone. There should be some pretty incredible footage.

The Darwin Museum & Gallery is next on the list. We spend quite some time looking at it all.

Well worth a visit. We worked up an appetite, off to the marina for lunch. There was an array of fish swimming next to us. They were great entertainment.

Back to the apartment to get this drone charged up. While we wait we have a swim in the pool. Then we head off to a spot that you are allowed to fly drones. There is no SD card in it yet, Rowan wants to get used to the controls. Here is one picture that is sent straight to the phone.

Once the battery is flat we head back to the apartment. A few drinks and nibbles at the apartment before heading to the Zen Hotel to watch the sunset.

After the sun disappeared we head to dinner at the Hilton. The food was really nice. Joanne and I shared our meal as we were feeling quite full. A very smart move as there was room for desert.

Tomorrow we have an early flight to Mitchell Falls then a helicopter ride to the Kimberley Coastal Camp. There is no signal so you won’t hear anything until we get back.

Happy Birthday to Skylar my niece who is a big 4 tomorrow!

Off to the airport, we are heading to Darwin!

A pretty scenic flight. I really haven’t seen Australia. It was great to have such a lovely view the whole way. We landed in Darwin around lunchtime and headed out to the boat club. We hired a car for 2 days and got upgraded to this brand new fancy af Ford Ranger. This thing has all the bells and whistles.

Bellies full, we head to Anaconda to get Rowan some new sunglasses. From there we hunted down our airbnb. It is the top apartment in an older block, there are new blocks around us much higher. Once we figured out where everything is we jumped in the pool to cool down. The heat is not bad, I feared a lot worse.

For dinner we are going to the Mindel Sunset Markets. There is a great variety of food. We shared a delicious tuna, avocado, mango nachos, while watching the sunset.

Once the sun goes over the horizon the strangest thing happens. I promise I am not making this up. The 5 thousand or so people clap. Yes clap, like at the end of a show. It made me laugh, the three of us looked around these people are all crazy. I find out later that it is a thing, they always clap haha.

After the sun has set we wonder around in the dark sampling food around the markets.

Once we are back at the apartment I jump into bed. I am absolutely pooped!

My grandpa, G/Pa, Fred, Woolfy, Allan sadly passed on Matariki aged 93. Grandpa got through his open heart surgery like a champion. But unfortunately when in respite care an infection set in and it took him swiftly. Now those who are reading will already know the amazing life my grandfather had. Grandpa was married to Colleen nearly 72 years and they went forth and multiplied. They had Sue, Deb, Jane (mum) and my late uncle John. From the three girls came 12 grandchildren, 23 great grandchildren and one great great grand child. I mention this as he was a family man. Importantly he had another family, a huge community of support and love with his motor racing.

I am sad to see my grandpa go and I have prepared myself for this day. That may sound strange but we really don’t know how long we have with our loved ones. Even knowing my grandpa is not immortal I found his passing hard. The selfish side of me wanted him to live forever. I will miss him immensely but my Nana even more. I can’t fathom what it would be like to lose your partner in crime after 71 years. Like losing a limb? I can only speculate. I have many memories of G/Pa that I will cherish. He really was a true role model and we are all lucky to have him in our lives.

I came back to NZ on the Monday to help in any way I could. Rowan followed on the Friday. The preparations for the funeral were overwhelming at times. The whole family came together to make it happen. Some did a lot more than others like my sister Sarah & cousin Dean who had a spreadsheet to keep us all on track. We did videos to try help keep the ceremony as quick as possible, even then it was one and a half hours long. There are parts he would have approved of and parts he didn’t. But hey, funerals are for the ones left behind so you will need to forgive us Fred. My favourite part, was watching him leave at the end and all his friends and family waving. We had car engines revving, finish flags flying, horns honking and people cheering.

I am thankful for Rowan for being my rock through the entire ceremony. He stood by me throughout. When I gave my dad a big hug at the beginning my tears began. By the afternoon I felt like I had cried 10 litres of water and my tear ducts hurt. An incredible amount of people came to say goodbye and celebrate his life. Rowan thinks over a thousand. Everything was filmed and it was live for those who could not make it. If you want to watch I will put the link at the end. After the ceremony we went to my cousin Dean & Maria’s home. I am not sure how long we were there but it was good being able to chat and see everyone properly. My cousins son Kortez got a bit of a raw deal being his 9th Birthday. He was a champion, knowing today was not about him. By the end of the day, we were all exhausted.

On Sunday we went up to the shed for a drink for grandpa. It was nice to see everyone and say goodbye to those flying back home or going away. It feels strange being in the shed with no grandpa, it will take time. Rowan and I are back in Australia, we came in early yesterday (Tuesday). We will be here till the end of August as we have a few adventures booked. So watch this space!

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Wow it has been a year, I am not surprised that our journey isn’t quite complete. It just feels like a long time ago that we set out with heavy backpacks and heavy hearts. We needed healing and this adventure was our way of starting fresh. The year has taught us to be comfortable being uncomfortable. I won’t lie to you and pretend I love being cold, wet or hungry, but I can accept it. Some days mentally are just more miserable than others, but I look back on them and I don’t regret pushing through. Some of the parts I loathed at the time are now fond memories. Thank you for joining us we have a bit further to go. There are a few side trips coming up that I promise to blog about.

A little overview of what we have been doing in. Sydney so far. Bette is having her big 93rd Birthday this month. I have taken over the food for the party and I have been practicing my skills. It has been 6 months since I baked, I have been feeding up the 3 neighbours on her apartment floor. They seem to be happy to take my extras. There is a Pink Champagne theme (I made up). I am enjoying trying to master champagne cupcakes, I feel the flavour is not as prominent as I would like. Baking must not be as big here, or where I am in Sydney. The supermarkets have limited options. Rowan of course has been cooking up a storm and feeding us all well. I have a few recipes for the party for him to do.

I have been doing a bit of a Spring clean here. The silver is shining, I think I may attack the chandeliers next. Bette has cleaners once a week, but of course it is all the extra stuff that never gets done. Rowan and I have a list of jobs to complete. We have taken some chairs to get the cane replaced. There is a chiffonier in need of some minor work and another cabinet needs a new pin for its escutcheon.

We are heading to Dungog to see Heather, Katy, Huntah & Ben.

In the middle of the night my brain decided it was time to get up. I ended up falling back to sleep 4 hours later at 4am. I hope I get a full nights rest soon. I finally got up around 6am and made myself a coffee. Today Dad, Rowan and I are heading to Whangaparāoa to have lunch with Nana & G/Pa. When we arrive there is another car in the driveway. My cousin Karl is here from Perth. What a nice surprise. We end up having a lovely lunch a good catch up. We leave around 1pm towards the airport.

We thank Dad and say our goodbyes. We are nice and early for our flight, we check in and go straight through to security. The area is quite busy, Rowan and I read our books as we move slowly up the line. I get through fine but I get selected for an explosives swipe, of course I pass that one too. We end up going for a good 20min walk while we wait for our gate to be announced. Then we find some food and massage chairs. I am surprised at how good these bulky chairs feel. Finally we get to board, I had picked the back of the plane and a window seat for Rowan. Once we are on I realise we will have no neighbours, we have 3 rows in front of us empty and one row behind us empty. The whole 5 rows on the left are empty too. Wow we get heaps of space, I move over to the aisle seat. Ooo Mr Organ is on the list of movies, we wanted to watch this Farrier doco when we left for Australia last time by the time we came back it was no longer playing. We start our movies at the same time. There is an awesome hostess who gets us 3 red wines and 2 glasses to try out. Donna comes back in a few minutes asks what our favourites were and brings us back two more bottles. It doesn’t stop there, we get heaps of Kit Kats (12), business class snacks. When the meals are about to be served of course we will be the last. Lucky for us Donna gives us our meal first before heading to the front. Thanks, Donna! I have the chicken cous cous and Rowan has the roast beef. Rowan gets offered more meals, by the time we reach Sydney we are very full. I can’t finish my chicken meal but I do have room for a Kit Kat.

The landing is rather bumpy, I am glad when we touch down. It takes a few minutes for our bags to come through, customs is really fast and we are out in no time. Joanne has come to pick us up, turns out she hasn’t told Bette we are coming. When we walk in the door she gets a mighty surprise. Bette was dreading being on her own for 3 weeks and is very glad we are here. We stay up chatting to 1am (3am kiwi). I will update as we go, but I won’t be blogging daily unless, we go away somewhere interesting.

We get moving early and pack up. I am worried I won’t be able to ride in, fingers are crossed that my tube will hold enough air. We need to leave enough time in case we need to walk to the bus interchange. We get in with no fuss. We just want something easy for breakfast but nothing around us available. We end up eating at Joe’s Garage. We enjoy a nice meal there and a coffee.

Once on the bus, it goes fairly fast. This is only 2 hours unlike our last big bus trip. We arrived earlier than I expected. Dad comes out to pick us up and take us back to his place. We take over the entire deck and pack all the gear we want to bring and leave a lot behind. We end up with 16kg check in and one carry on bag. I give the bikes a clean and some fresh oil. We organise a lunch with Nana & Grandpa for tomorrow. Then I booked a flight to Sydney for 5.30pm.

After all the jobs were done I could relax. Sue made us a lovely curry and we had a good evening.

Despite my weariness from the last few nights and the late night last night I still didn’t sleep well. Tortie the cat followed us up to the bunk house last night. She came to hunt for mice and ended up being upset that I wouldn’t let her sleep on my feather sleeping bag with me. Tortie was part of the reason for my lack of sleep. I left Rowan to sleep a bit longer and I made my way down to Arnica’s house. The pet sheep was on the deck.

Arnica and Sharn had a bit of farm work to do but she said she will be done. by lunch time. I am welcome to have some breakfast and chill in her house. I take the opportunity to start planning the next few days. I really want to finish the Cape Reinga leg before heading over to Sydney for Bette’s birthday. The weather has other ideas, it is not working in our favour. My grandpa is going in for heart surgery early July and I wonder if I should stick around for that. The problem is we will be twiddling thumbs for at least a week. I call my dad and let him know we are heading his way and ask if it is okay. Our passports are at his place.

I look into going straight to Hobart to see Rowan’s aunty first. We end up putting that in the too hard pile for short notice. There is too much to organise with hire car and accommodation. Sharn & Arnica finish working and Sharn is heading into Hamilton to the baby show. Nicole and Sharn are happy to take us to the holiday park.

We say our goodbyes and thank them both for their hospitality. Not long after they leave we realise we have left our rubber mats in the back of their car. Lucky for us they will drop them off before they head back to the farm. Once settled in we find a bus to get us to Auckland. My lovely Dad says he will pick us up from the Manukau Bus Station. We have an early dinner and get into bed, I am pretty tired.

The day began with a quick coffee and we got packed up to go. There was heaps of room in the ute for all our gear. Sharn said I will call the wife when we get to Te Kuiti and you can come sleep at the farm. I really had a crap sleep, I haven’t had a good sleep since we left the airbnb in Mangakino. I also wake up to a pancake flat tyre. Mmm I must have done that on the trail yesterday.

I hop in Arnica’s van and Rowan hops in Sharns ute. We explore a little on our way out. There is another Lodge which is further off track. Black Fern Lodge is a lot more rustic and has a load of charm. When we reach Te Kuiti we get some breakfast. After breakfast we find an op shop, it feels like the weekend but of course it is Friday today.

When we reach Ōtorohanga we buy some extras for dinner. It will be just Arnica and us as Sharn and his wife Nicole are going to some local farm gathering. When we arrive at the farm I really have no bearings of where we are. But we are in a place called Parawera. When we arrive we meet Nicole and then get shown around the bunk house further into the farm. The farm is 750 hectares, a mix of dairy, beef and lamb. Nicole also runs a farmstay and horse trekking business. This is currently closed as she is heavily pregnant. We settle in and enjoy a hot shower. Arnica is kind enough to let us use her washing machine and let our clothes dry in her home. We have a lovely dinner and chat with her long into the night. I even indulge myself and have a couple of whiskeys.

Arnica shows us this funny kiwifruit a friend picked for her. We convinced her to put it on trade for $1 reserve. I don’t think it will go far, but you never know! It doesn’t help that we tried it in the Antiques category but it has some how shifted to building.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketplace/building-renovation/portable-cabins/listing/4194428280

It rained and it rained and it was still raining. The weather settled around 11am, so we packed up to go. Leaving the solid shelter behind to slowly get through the bog out to the main track. I didn’t attempt to keep my feet dry and just walked through all the mud and water.

It took us nearly an hour to do 800m. That may give you a better idea of how hard it was to get our bikes in and out of Bog Hut. On the main road we quickly fuel up with a sandwich. Once we started cycling the rain began. I wasn’t too worried as it was a lot of downhill fun. We went over several bridges and a couple of neat suspension bridges.

We were quite tired and wet by the time we hit Harrisons Creek. We almost stayed but decided to carry on to Piropiro. There was the allure of a potential hot shower that kept us moving. Despite being very wet and a little cold, I was enjoying the ride. The ups were slippery and hard, but it did make me warm

We got to the lodge around 3pm and discovered it was $560 a night for a bathroom and for a shared bathroom room $390. Now I really want a hot shower but not that badly. Nope, this is for the ebikees with $10k bikes. Our next hope was Camp Epic which is 2km or so over the hill. We arrive there to a locked gate. Department of Conservation camping it is. We arrive and find the highest bit of ground to camp on. This is a free campsite accessible by car and is a favourite of hunters. We ride past our friends on the dirt bikes but I can’t see them. As I finish off the inner workings of our tent Rowan looks for a stream to swim in.

He gets chatting to our bike friends and they invite us into a farmers shelter to warm up at the fire. We thank them and chat for a little bit and decide we better get out of our wet clothes. After a thorough wash with a bottle I can get in the tent and complete the set up. I join the fireside and Nick has boiled the jug so we can have a hot drink. Bruce and Nick are old farmers who come out here quite a lot. They are probably here more than at home. We cook our dinner with them and have a good yarn until 10pm when we all head off to bed. Sharn offers to take us out to Taumarunui or drop us wherever we like tomorrow. Rowan and I are exhausted and gladly take the offer. Rowan even more so than me with his cough still from the flu.

Up up and more up. We left camp at 10am and steadily went up most of the day. Just before the track there was a tractor. We ended up meeting a whole group on ebikes heading to the lodge for the night.

I am incredibly jealous of the ebikes. This trail would be so much more fun without slogging it up the hill. However the scenery is incredible. I can highly recommend anyone who wants to should do the trail.

Made it to the 10km mark

The forest just got better from there.

We made it to the highest point wahoo. We encountered some people on dirt bikes who pretended they were allowed. I am sure they are not. They told us about a hut off track we could go to but it would be hard to get our bikes there.

An 800m slog through the bush we finally made it to the Bog Hut. Built in the 60s for researchers looking at plant life and animal life in the area. It has a fire, we got it lit for a small amount of time. It ended up going out. The wood is far too wet. Freezing our buts off after a swim in the creek. I am waiting for my dinner to be ready then I can hop into bed and get warm.