Paula and I both celebrate our birthday’s next week and as I will be in Brisbane we decided to treat ourselves to lunch at the Hyatt hotel in Canberra a week ahead of time.

Demelza was home from school with a sore foot? so we took her with us for the experience.  I had only given her 5 minutes notice to get ready and I think it shows.

The cost of the buffet is $35.00 per person and drinks and tea are not included. Something I had forgotten as in the US, soft drinks, tea and coffee are included in price.

As always the food was excellent. I have been to the Hyatt a number of times and the quality of the food is always of a high standard and the service is alway impeccable.

The hot course consisted of Roast Lamb in a jus sauce, steamed fish, pasta, potates, beans, and the most delicious spicy chicken. The cold course  consisted of ham, salami, smoked salmon and a variety of salads.  This is the first time I have been when the weren’t any prawns, mussels or oysters on the menu.  The choice of dishes appeared smaller than usual but I think I am still in the mindset of the buffets in Las Vegas where the service areas are huge.

Our waitress was very attentive and ensured that we had everything we needed.

Demelza and Paula quickly downed the main course so that they could proceed to the desserts, the creme brulee being a favourite.

As this is a milestone year for me, it had been our plan to celebrate this year’s birthday at the Eiffel Tower in Paris but it wasn’t to be. We did have a mini celebration (we have lots of these) at the Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas.

Our birthdays are two days (and many years) apart and we like to celebrate with a couple of nice meals and often a facial, massage and maybe a trip to Sydney to Star City.

I actually ended up having a spoil me day all round as I went for dinner with Phillip and Alan, two very special friends of mine, at their new house. Of course I bored them silly about my trip but they were very polite and listened intently.

Canberra is beautiful at this time of the year, with the leaves on the trees turning to varying shades of gold and brown and I thought this beautiful old tree typified the scenery around town at the moment. Mind you it is just as beautiful in the Spring.

While I have been traipsing around the United States having a great time, I have become a great grandmother.  My grandson Stephen and his lovely partner Shanny finally welcomed their son Connor into the world. 

He was due on 29th February but decided to stay put for a bit longer.  Steve and Shanny’s parents are all happy although everyone feels they have been thrust into grandparent and great grandparent roles way too soon.  I’m sure we will all cope with our new status now we have another little one to spoil.

 Paula and I are heading off to have the breakfast buffet and celebrate Connors arrival by putting some quarters in the slot machines.

This isn’t one of our usual travel posts, but it ties in with the trip my husband Valentine and I took to New Zealand in 2007. And I wanted to make sure the kids got to see this before Paula and I set of for the US next week, and we start writing about that trip.

Our beautiful niece Jenny (pictured left) sent over a number of  family photos of her brother Roy’s marriage to Kay, from ‘the Old Days’ as the grandkids like to call them.

And so that the kids can see that I am not the only one wearing a pavlova hat I have finally gotten around to adding these photos to the blog.

So to my kids and grandkids, here are some of your relatives from New Zealand.

Now that’s a hat to rival the one I am wearing. This style was all the rage back then and everyone wore them.

At least we took the time to dress up for weddings and funerals. No one seems to bother these days.

The group below are our niece Marilyn (Jenny’s sister) and her husband,Norm,  Val’s sister Clarice and her husband Ray. Marilyn is the only one of the group still with us. The other 3 are deceased.

As you can see Marilyn and Clarice are right in fashion although Clarice’s hat is more subdued.

The next couple of photos are of the happy couple, Roy (our nephew) and his lovely wife Kay.

 Cutting the Cake

The next photo if very special as it is the only one we have of Val’s mother. She is standing proudly in the front with Roy, Kay, Marilyn and Clarice. The gentleman on the right is Roy’s father, Bill. Jenny is in the background.

So there you go kids, thanks to Jenny you can now see where your various family traits come from. Hopefully Jenny and the rest of the family will unearth more family photos for you to enjoy.

We are in the process of moving from the beach in Brisbane to a rural area in Queensland which is a good 5 hour drive, although everyone tells me it is only 3-4 hours.

So we are off with the car trailer loaded up with stuff in the first of our moves. We are going to do this progressively a bit at a time.  Right! apart from the rain everything is going smoothly until we are on a down hill run, just around a blind bend, in between the towns of McClagen and Kaimkillenbun. In fact we are 24 klms from the latter, when there is a loud bang and the car swerves over into the wrong side of the road.  I heroically fight the  2 ton beast with its 3ton load back to the right side of the road and carefully bring it to a stop without flipping it.

Okay, let’s sit for a minute and let the adrenalin rush calm down. Now picture this - we are as I said just around a blind bend on a very narrow piece of tarseal that passes for a two way road in rural Qld, pulled off onto a very narrow dirt edge.

Yep, a blown tyre on the trailer.  While we are contemplating our predicament, a car pulls up and the occupants offer assistance.  Just as well really because it turns out that we don’t have the necessary equipment to remove the tyre.

The lovely couple to whom I am eternally gratefull, firstly for stopping and secondly for having all the right equipment, are Steve and Shirley from the far side of Tara. We live on the near side. Dalby being the measuring point.

Once the tyre is removed, it is determined that the wheel bearing has also done itself in. So there is no way we can hobble to the nearest one horse town in the hope of finding a mechanic. So I gingerly drive the car and trailer to the nearest safest spot where we are least likely to cause an accident.

By the way, mobile phones don’t work in this part of town.

Okay, we head off to the local pub in Kaimkillenbun to see if we can track down some help, but no, the mechanic is away camping, how selfish is he enjoying himself at holiday time while we are in this mess.

So there is nothing else for it but to head to Dalby, another 24 klms on. Off course by now it is getting on towards 5pm when the shops all shut and sure enough they have all closed early at 4:30pm because it is still holiday time. None of the three garages have what we need.  Val wants to just leave the trailer and carry on the further 88klms to home but I am a bit dubious about leaving our stuff on the side of the road where it will more than likely get knocked off.

Once we reach Dalby, where mobile phones do work, we make a quick call to our son who contacts some of our daughter in laws rellies and they get us a number of a fantastic chap who comes down and opens his store to provide us with the necessary items to fix the car.

Back to the car, in the middle of nowhere, and by now it is quite dark, so there we are, in the rain and poor Val is fixing the wheel bearing by torchlight.

Thank goodness Steve has left us a rag as the bearing has to be encased in gooey gunk. I of course have my trusty bottle of aquium hand cleaner which I never travel anywhere without. so clean up isn’t too bad.

We have a few hairy moments when Val is putting the brake pad back on but eventually everything is back to normal and we head off to Tara, finally arriving at 12:05am. So we have been on the road for 12 hours. A quick shower, cup of tea and everyone wearily hits the sack. 

Unfortunately, my camera was packed in the back of the car. However, this is not the first time this has happened to me.

We were travelling back from Tara to Brisbane and once again I had the car trailer with 3 motorbikes on board when a tyre blew out on the Land Cruiser. So much for retreads.  This was my first blowout and the family all said I handled it very well, I’m an old hand at it now. 

This is so fantastic for us as  all our photos were lost years ago and we have no photos of when we were young. This photo was taken at the arbor at the Auckland Domain.

Because of family reasons we were married in the Auckland Registry Office and our witnesses were Val’s nephew Roy and niece Marilyn.  No one attended from my family but a number of my friends from work came.

Val didn’t turn 21 until the following day so he had to have his parents authorisation to get married. We had a small family dinner that  night  and the next night at Val’s 21st, he introduced me as his wife.  We hadn’t told anyone that we were getting married, so it was a surprise for everyone. 

This photo was taken a couple of years later at Roy and Kays wedding.

Then off we go to Torbay to visit my stepfather Derek.  He has recently moved from Glen Innes to Torbay, much to everyones relief.  It took a bit of organising as he and Gwen had lived in the old place for a great many years.

So we head over the Auckland Harbour Bridge and onto the Northern Motorway. Of course we don’t have a map that goes out as far as Torbay so it will be a matter of winging it.  Never mind I tell Val there will be plenty of signs.  Ha, they don’t mention suburbs on the turnoffs only street names and as we had know idea of what the street names were to go to Torbay we were a little perplexed.

We do have a general idea of where to go and sure enough we find the main street after turning off at the suburb before.  A few enquiries at the Gas Station and we are heading towards Dereks street.

There is a pleasant surprise when we arrive as Gavin, my brother and his son Hayden, whom we haven’t seen since he was a toddler, are both visiting as well. 

Laura sells real estate for a living. Her eldest son Broden came to stay with me in Canberra a couple of years ago and he is thinking of going to work in the mines in Perth. Her other sons, Vaughan and Devon are still at school and are both really nice kids.

Broden has to bend down to fit in the picture as he is around 6′ 7″. Even bending down he towers over me.

I have managed to get the timer off pat now so I am able to join the group for photos without too much trouble.  So from left to right at the back we have me, Vickie, Gilly, Gavin, Jackie and in the front is Val, Ralph and Derek. Missing from the photo are Ralph’s twin  Laura and our youngest sister Mandy, who is now living in Brisbane and has just had a baby girl on Thursday 13th.  I am looking forward to getting back to Oz to see her.

There is nothing quite like a family get together, reminiscing about the past, making plans to catch up in the future.

 Maraetai is part of the Pohutukawa coast and the name Maraetai in Maori means “meeting place by the sea”.

Maraetai was an early European settlement dating back to 1838. The beach is very safe and ideal for swimming fishing, having a picnic or relaxing on the grassed areas or just walking along the beach taking in the panoramic views stretching from Auckland city to the Coromandel Ranges.

Derek lives in an ideal position with his house so close to the beach and there is a boating ramp next to the Maraetai Beach Boating Club for when he gets the opportunity to go out fishing.

 Ralph and Vicky are planning  a trip to Australia in December (providing Ralph gets himself organised and arranges to get his passport).  The Oz family are all excited about catching up with them.

Big brother Gavin has recently been in Australia for a visit and hopefully he will come over again in the not too distant future. 

 Derek organised the barbie and Jackie dished out the most scrumptous carrot cake for dessert.  As the cooler evening set in we moved inside by the fire that Derek had lit earlier.  The nights tend to be cool in September although the days are  mostly lovely and warm. Fortunately the rain had stopped the day before so we were able to sit around on the patio in the sun.

All too soon it was time to go, so we followed Vicky and Ralph back to the motorway turnoff, as the route we had taken to Maraetai was through Brookby instead of taking the Redoubt Rd turnoff.   One thing I do find frustrating in NZ is that the motorway off ramp signs have street names rather than suburbs, so it you are looking for a particular suburb and don’t know the street names, you are pretty much at a loss. Still  for all thatwe managed to get around reasonably well.

We stopped for lunch at the Country Kitchen in Wellsford and had really nice fish and chips.  The cafe is neat and clean and the staff are friendly and helpful. The food is tasty and there is a good variety available.  Well worth stopping when you are travelling north from Auckland.

It was so exciting when we finally arrived, after taking a few wrong turns and having to phone Kay (Roy’s wife) for directions.  She directed us to the local shopping centre and sent Roy down to get us.

We got a lovely surprise when we arrived at Roy and Kays house, there was Vals niece Jennifer and her husband Dave. We haven’t seen them for over 20 years and Jenny has always held a special place in our hearts.

In true Kiwi fashion, Kay whipped up a great lunch in next to no time and it wasn’t long before we were all nicely relaxed and finding out all about each others families etc.

The boys and I went for a walk to the beach which is only meters away from the house.

Roy and Jennifer are two of 3 children of Vals eldest sister Joyce, who passed away many years ago.  They also have a  sister Marilyn  who also resides in Auckland.

Val is the youngest and youngest of 7 children, 5 sisters and 1 brother.

Then it was back to the house to catch up on all the family comings and goings.

It has been 40 years since we last saw Roy and Kay. And it is when you meet up again that you kick yourself for letting life get in the way and not keeping in touch.

This is why we took this trip - it was a balm for the soul. We wanted to make sure we visited as many relatives as we possibly could in the short time we had available.

Roy and Kay have 2 children - Steven and Sarah; Jenny and Dave have 7 boys between them, Jenny’s sons Kevin, Mark and Shane and Daves 3 boys Gary Shaun and Mark.

So here are all the happy campers. I finally managed to get the timer to work on the camera so that I could be included in the group photo.

Dave, Kay, Jenny and Roy

 All too soon it was time to leave and head back to Auckland.  Only this time we have all vowed to keep in touch.

Driving up to Whangarei we passed Maungaturoto, a small town where my uncle and aunty lived when I was about 10 years old.  I went to my first real dance at the local church and in those days everyone got dressed up when they went out. I remember wearing a lovely pink gingham check dress with a full skirt, sweatheart neckline and puffy sleeves. I thought I was the belle of the ball, mind you so did a lot of the local young men at the time.

Supper was provided by the local mothers who all baked scrumptous cakes for the occassion.

My aunty and uncle lived on a farm so there were lots of exciting things for a city kid to see and do such as feeding baby lambs and calves, collecting fresh laid eggs and just having fun.

I remember when we went to a place called Glinks Gully on the 90 mile beach in Northern NZ, where we collected Toheroas. These are like a large (6 -7 inch) muscle or clam and they have a really strong tongue with which they dig down into the sand.  Toheroas were protected and you were only allowed to take  a limited number and you weren’t allowed to put them in a bucket or on sacking. So no sooner had we dug them up than they were madly digging to get away. It was a constant battle to gather enough for a feed.

My aunty put them through the mincer and they were climbing over each other as though they were trying to escape, but that was just my fanciful imagination at the time. We had Toheroa fritters and I can still imagine the taste after all these years. It was one of the best seafood meals I have ever had.  Apart from Oysters and Muscles I find most seafood bland.

Apparently they are now a protected species that  the Ministry of Fisheries have declared that they can only be collected on one day of the year in Oreti Beach in Southland.

Such a shame really as they also make the most delicious soup.