piha

 gap year, piha, us  No Responses »
Dec 192014
 
nz2 001

lion rock from the front of the bach

we awoke to a glorious sunny morning this morning, then the wind dropped away and an amazing sea fog rolled in, this is the view out the front of jeremy’s bach and you can see lion rock, or te piha, shrouded in fog out the front of piha.

kai and I went down to the beach for a walk and play, it was quite eerie with the sea fog rolling off the sea and up the beach, meanwhile people were swimming and surfing and generally enjoying the beach.

nz2 002

te piha shrouded in sea mist

you can just make out te piha in the background, kai and I climbed to the top, well as far as you are allowed to go – a good workout for the calves!

i walked up to the end of north piha beach while kai played on the beach, a good morning routine I think!

nz2 009the northern end of north piha beach

 Posted by at 11:20 am  Tagged with:



enzud

 foodie stuff, gap year, piha, us  4 Responses »
Dec 182014
 
nz1 001

bubbly in the air nz lounge

 

it was with some sense of relief that we flew out to auckland from melbourne yesterday, the tragic consequences of the seige in martin place in sydney hung heavy over most australians I suspect.

the tragedy was overhung by the disgraceful reporting from all of the australian media, the murdoch gutter trash the worst, but even the abc was awful. it was a feeding frenzy of sensationalist misinformation, culminating in the disgusting headline from the daily telegraph “death cult CBD attack”. the media’s misinformed hysteria encouraged all of the loony, racist, xenophobic redneck elements in our society to make a range of threats against those they saw as responsible.

in the end it wasnt terrorism, it wasnt even political activism like our none too bright PM claimed, it was a lone, mentally ill, criminal who should never have been out on bail and who should never have had access to firearms. no doubt the one’s that failed to keep society safe from this sick man will now use the cloak of terror to try to further erode our rights, the government has already signalled this in debate on the proposed data retention laws – while ignoring the fact that a man who was out on bail for conspiracy to murder an ex-wife and multiple sex offences was free to lay seige on a cafe not because the AFP couldnt access his data but simply because he wasnt locked up in gaol.

out of all tragedy comes hope though, the #illridewithyou project that came out of twitter and went viral was a reaffirmation of the true australian spirit of tolerance, support and unity across diversity.

also its worth remebering that the last similar, lone, mentally ill, criminal killed more than 30 people in port arthur – but that was before the subsequent gun laws and the banning of semi automatic weapons. imagine the result in america from a similar siege – it wouldnt only be two killed.

anyway, enough of that! we flew to auckland with air new zealand, on a B777-300 in business class,  it was damn nice to say the least, the new style of business class seats are fantastic and it made for a very comfortable trip, the wine and food was not too bad either!

we arrived to a very wet auckland and took a taxi over to pick up our frien leesi’s car from her mum’s house, then drove out to piha in the pouring rain with no internet on the phones and no map! luckily my internal gps seemed to fire and we made it just before dark. we got a handover from friends of jeremy’s that had been staying there and settled in for our first night. i havent bothered taking any photos because its been very grey and dull. today we did a big shop in town and got settled in. hopefully the weather will lift and we can start to enjoy the beach!

nz1 011

cant argue with that!

 

 

 Posted by at 7:10 pm  Tagged with: ,



victoria

 foodie stuff, gap year, us  3 Responses »
Dec 152014
 

 

vict 020

grandpa bob with nick, tim & kai. well the local leg of our gap year is coming to a close, we spent a few days with mum & bob in geelong before heading up to stay with the phipps family in melbourne. while there we popped down for a day to catch up with phil carter and his wife jane so i think we have covered most of the bases!

while with mum & bob we had a lovely dinner at jack & jills which is always a culinary delight – and inevitably too much to eat! they have a unique menu where you select either a plate of 3 or 4 different dishes and then chose the dishes from an extensive menu, i always find it very hard to choose as everything on the menu sounds fabulous!

the time with the phipps family was wonderful, they have a granny flat at their northcote residence so we had a bit of our own space, but joined the family for some amazing meals and healthy debates about politics, philiosophy and economics! peter and suzana were amazingly hospitable and kai loved having arya and surya to play with.

it was also great to catch up with phil & jane, one day didnt seem to be enough time together but i am sure we will get together somewhere soon.

now we are back down at my brother’s farm so kai can have a few days with the cousins and sal and i can relax before heading off to nz on wednesday to start the journey proper. there has been lots of fun and games with tim’s birthday yesterday and a trip into geelong for an afternoon of go-carting. (i would have been by far the fastest except for a mechanical fault with the engine on my cart. Sal was the rookie of the day and flew round the track in the gurls race!)

the sense of anticipation is very strong now, with just a couple of days to go until we head up to melbourne for the flight across the ditch to nz, i think that will be the real start of our adventure!

 

 Posted by at 8:43 am



last day

 foodie stuff, gap year, us  5 Responses »
Dec 042014
 

KI4 026this is the estuary at the front of andrew and di’s property, winding its way into the ocean, as the sun sets over our holiday on king island, the last few days since my most recent post have been a blur of activity, we have explored the island from the northern tip at cape wickham to the southern most extremity at stokes point. we have walked beautiful beaches, clambered over rugged piles of lichen decorated rock formations and driven the beach tracks of this amazing island.

we have eaten wild rocket picked from the foot of the wickham lighthouse, local wallaby, king island cheeses, quail eggs, king island beef, wild water cress, parsley and salty succulents, freshly caught lobster, abalone and warrener shells and we have picked plump, fresh rasberries off the vines, its been a foodie dream and there is no question that KI deserves its reputation for great produce.

all the people we have met have been wonderfully hospitable, friendly and generous, its not hard to see why di and andrew fell in love with the lifestyle!

we had a fabulous day for di’s birthday starting with eggs florentine with wild water cress for breakfast and then a trip up to cape wickham and dissapointment bay before returning to yellow rock for dinner with friends tim & claire, and claire’s parents chris and louise. i cooked abalone slices in butter and garlic for a starter, followed by a chilli spiced mince abalone on rice and the finale of lobster salad with baby potatoes and wild local rocket with a lemon, garlic and butter dressing.

we spent a day exploring the south of the island, visiting surprise bay and stokes point, seeing a huge copperhead snake and a few furry echidnas before ending up at grassy (the other town on the island), for dinner. we got the keys to the sailing club and used their bbq to cook dinner and ate sitting beside their wonderful warm wood fire with friends of the blakes, john and lyn, before watching the fairy penguins make their nightly trek out of the ocean and back to their nests.

yesterday sal and kai and i had a day on our own and explored the kelp factory and kelp walk on the coast by currie before having lunch in a cosy cafe in currie and then heading home via the chesse factory for a tasting and stock up before an explore along porkys beach and heading home to another meal of bbq wallaby and a few glasses of fine red wine!

we will leave the island with many happy memories and a much better understanding of what attracted the blakes this far south! i think we really got in the rythym of our gap year here too, i feel more disconnected from my previous life and engaged in what lies ahead for the next 12 months!

thank you andrew and di for so generously sharing your little piece of paradise with us, your amazing home is better than anything we had expected, far surpassing the expectations created by the tv show and your own descriptions and photos! thanks for all the delicious food, cold beer and great wine.

 

races

 gap year, us  6 Responses »
Nov 292014
 

KI3 001today was the first day of racing at the king island race club for the season, if you had asked me for a list of things we might do while we were on KI, i reckon going to the nags would have been number 874 on the list! i wasnt even aware there was a racecourse on KI!

anyway we had a glorious day for the event, i managed to pick the last horse in nearly every race, didnt make a winning bet all day, sal went into her pro-punter mode and lightened the pocket of the SP bookie, honest howie. her best win was backing the 9-1 roughie in the last race to put an extra $45 in her pocket,  i think she was the only punter to back the horse on course!

we had a few beers, a very tasty steak sandwich and a good dose of sunburn from the summery weather before heading back to the blakes hut for a bbq and a few more ales.

we started with some fresh quail eggs for a starter then bbq’d the cray heads from yesterday for an appertiser and then put some marinated chicken thighs on and grilled them to go with the salads and roast veges the girls had cooked. so ends another magnificent day on king island with the blakes!

 

fishing & feeding

 fishing, foodie stuff, gap year, us  No Responses »
Nov 292014
 

KI2 003we rose yesterday to a stunning king island spring day, after a leisurely sleep in, and decided that it was the perfect day to head out on the boat for a fish. we hooked up with a couple of andrew & di’s neighbours, dave and tim, and rendevoued at the boat ramp. we launched and set off for christmas and new years island which lay just off the coast from the blake house.

the plan was for the boys, andrew, tim & dave to go diving while i took the girls and kai to the beach on christmas island – as keen as i am to get in the water and kill things, the water temp in bass strait is below my threshold!

we found a sheltered cove and had a fat old time, the girls sunbathed on the beach while kai and i scrambled over the rocks exploring the coastline, like two rock monkeys. well one rock monkey and one slightly overweight old man.

meanwhile the hunters were hard at work collecting abalone and crayfish, all of the catch was very kindly donated to our household so i shall be doing a big seafood cookup over the weekend.

after getting back in and cleaning up we got ready to head out for a highlight of the king island social calendar, the Sustainable Agricultural Fund’s Annual Christmas hoe down at the old reekara school, it seemed most of king island’s population turned out for the 2 spit roasted pigs, chargrilled lambs, and wallaby haunchs as well as about 10m of salads laid out on tables.

we got to meet a lot of the very friendly and welcoming locals and kai had a ball running round all night with the local kids. the pork was perfect, and the lamb and wallaby cooked on the Argentinean grill was as good as I have ever had.

the Argentinean grill was interesting because as you will see in the photos, they have a very low level charcoal layer under the meat, but the main cooking is done by the fire on top of the grill, this means there are no flare ups of fire from dripping fat as the meat cooks.

 

king island

 gap year, us  No Responses »
Nov 282014
 

KI 001

so its goodbye to tassie and off to king island, for those of you who dont know, king island is in the middle of bass straight between tasmania and victoria.

we have dear friends, andrew & dianne blake who moved to king island and built an amazing house which featured in an episode of grand designs australia, you can read about it here, Grand Designs Story – we have wanted to visit ever since they finished the house and now was the obvious opportunity.

KI 002

we flew up to melbourne from hobart on the ‘tassie devil’ plane and then caught a little plane down to currie, the main town on king island, andrew and di picked us up at the airport and took us straight down to the boat house in currie harbour, the boat house is run as a bring your own food restaurant – so everything you need is there, crockery, cutlery, glasses, tables, bbq,  etc.

the woman that runs it cleans it every day and there is an honesty box for a donation, its a marvellous idea and so we enjoyed a magnificent picnic on the banks of the currie harbour.

after lunch we drove across the island to andrew and di’s house and settled in for our visit, its an amazing house in an incredible location, filled with their collection of arnhem land art as well as their own works. the house has a wonderful energy and we felt totally at home from the moment we walked in the door. the beach is five minutes walk across the amazing sand dune that lies astride the landscape in front of the house. there is even the wreck of an old paddle steamer on the beach, all that remains is the boiler and the ‘axle’ for the paddles, but its a grim reminder of the history of this coastline.

finally a few more images from currie harbour,

 

RIN

 foodie stuff, gap year, us  2 Responses »
Nov 262014
 

rin 019

when we first arrived in hobart a bit over a week ago, i noticed a little japanese restaurant, RIN, on harrington st while i was walking around. i asked mahni and geoff whether it was any good and they highly recommended it.

so we set down last night as the last available chance for a meal out before our departure for king island, and headed down to RIN for a feed.

i have to say it was one of the best japanese restaurants i have been to, the food was fresh, the flavours fantastic, the service friendly and the setting perfect. my only disappointment was that they used the little individual packets of wasabi – which was all the more odd for being so out of kilter with everything else about the food and presentation. i did have a mr grumpy whinge to them so if you find yourselves in hobart looking for a great japanese meal, RIN should be where you head and maybe they will have real wasabi!

mahni had bought a couple of very good bottles of sake back from japan with her recently and as expected they proved to be the perfect accompaniment to the food.

the absolute highlight for me was the tasmanian scallop sashimi – just to die for!

eleven

 foodie stuff, gap year, us  3 Responses »
Nov 242014
 

eleven

look at those cheesy grins! yes folks, thats is the happy day, eleven years ago, on the 24th November that we got married, in our breezeway, after nightshift!

what can i say? well for one thing its amazing how much that shirt has shrunk in 11 years, doesnt even fit me anymore.

something else i can say is how incredibly happy and rewarding those 11 years have been, spent with that beautiful woman in the picture. its been a wonderful journey, so much shared – our deep and abiding love for nhulunbuy and the people of north east arnhem land, our passion for fishing and boating, our love of fine food and good wine with close friends and family, our amazing travels over the globe and now our gap year adventure.

the amazing thing is just how easy it has been, and how right it has always felt, we are both blessed to have found such happiness in each other.

thanks sal, for an incredible 11 years.

of course an anniversary is an excellent excuse for a meal out, so we headed off to a little mediterranean restaurant in north hobart called Anatolia and shared a very decent meal over a chilled bottle of local sav blanc.

 Posted by at 8:15 pm



MONA

 gap year, us  No Responses »
Nov 242014
 

mona 5

i had heard so much about mona, (museum of new and old art, http://www.mona.net.au  ) and it was definitley on the to-do list for tassie, now whether i had my grumpy old man slippers on or what i dont know, but i came away severely underwhelmed.

there is no getting over the logistical and architectural grandeur of the site and its buildings, and decending the spiral staircase down into the bowels of the subterranean building hewn from the limestone rock is impressive, but from there the experience went down with the decsent for me!

the main exhibition currently was something called ‘river of fundament’ by matthew barney, i found it to be an expansive, sprawling, self indulgent, disjointed, psychotic episode. it was also so poorly lit as to be virtually unviewable, clearly this was a choice by the artist, he may have been on the right track – i think just turn the light off and have the bored looking, officious attendants lead the visitors thru to the other side!

there is also a film, described as a 3 act opera in 7 parts – i imagine that viewing it would be in contavention of several UN regulations on human rights, and would be a form of torture beyond comprehension. i noticed a book as well – about 5kg and 5cm thick, i suspect it would do well as a door stop or propping a wobbly table up.

there were several other smaller exhibitions which all failed to impress me at all, probably 3 pieces of work in the whole massive, sprawling venue worked for me, best of all a huge human head sitting on the ground, with windows in it like portholes, through which you could look in and see the inner workings of the brain, an amazing contraption inside the head, by mechanical means with all sorts of objects in motion, hands opening and closing, books flicking thru pages, fruit, birds flying and so on. it was very clever and beautiful.

the other two pieces were a pinball machine that had been re-worked as an interpretive piece about the game of life, and a life sized girl-doll lying in a caged cupboard, i had great trouble getting kai to stand next to it – he was terrified!

we went across to mona on the ferry with paula and ed, old friends of mahni and geoff’s, they are great fun and we managed to have a fun filled day despite my mr grumpy attitude to mona itself. we had planned to all have lunch at mona before heading back to hobart, but the 3 options were all over priced, with pretentious and uninspiring menus so in the end we starved ourselves until we got back to hobart and then woofed down an excellent feed of fish and chips washed down with a couple of bottles of pinot gris.

 

 

antill art

 gap year, us  1 Response »
Nov 242014
 

4tas 1

in another lifetime my mum ran a commercial art gallery in south yarra, melbourne and one of her favourite artists was judy antill – and her walls hung with judy’s works are a testament to the high regard mum holds for judy’s talent.

judy now runs her own gallery in hobart at battery point opposite the famous bakery, jackman and mcross, her quaint little cottage houses a collection of her own beautiful works as well as a small selection of other interesting artists. the gardens around the cottage are filled with fun and funky sculpture and we spent a lovely couple of hours with judy as well as having a bite of lunch across the road at the famous bakery!

parrtay!

 foodie stuff, gap year, us  1 Response »
Nov 242014
 

3tas 1so this party was an amazing feat of organisation and planning, i am not sure that geoff and mahni would have taken it on if they realised just what an enormous amount of work it was going to entail!

the outcome was just amazing though, geoff managed to secure a recently closed restaurant in downtown hobart to host the party so all the facilities required were avsailable, the invitations went out and about 70 of mahni’s close friends and family gathered from all over the country to celebrate her life and birthday.

geoff arranged friends from his work at the migrant resource center, so we had the most amazing sri lankan cuisine which was the perfect choice for such a night.

there was also a 3 piece jazz band and geoff and jessie did a couple of songs as well.

it was just a perfect night and i am sure its a party none of will forget in a long time!

 

flowers

 gap year, us  1 Response »
Nov 232014
 

spring is a riot of colour in tassie, every garden it seems has a display of beautiful flowers, bees are a buzzing eyerywhere and the air is heavy with the perfume of jasmine, roses and honey suckle. i figured the floral fashion fiesta was worthy of a post all of its own!

tassie

 foodie stuff, gap year, us  1 Response »
Nov 222014
 

1tas 6no, thats not tassie! thats sunny cairns, on monday morning this week we headed off on our gap year with a flight down to tassie, cairns being the first stop. we had about 4 hours there and just lazed around in the qantas club eating and drinking! we then flew down to sydney and spent the night in sydney before heading off to hobart on tuesday morning.

Sal’s mum, mahni was celebrating her 70th this week so that was reason enough to start our trip off in tassie, geoff & mahni’s house is sitting up on the hill overlooking the bay in west hobart and i am certainly burning a few calories climbing up and down the steep hills around town! we have been pretty furiously drinking and eating since arriving so the exercise is definitely required. we kicked off with a comfort food meal of lamb shanks and mashed spuds the first night and then on thursday night went out with a few friends to a spanish tapas bar.

friday night was a party for mahni at home with about 14 of us, some of them friends that couldnt come to the big party planned for saturday night so this was the pre party! mahni cooked a yummy scallop pasta dish, geoff followed up with a second course of smoked duck thai salad and I finished with eye fillets on a bed of mashed, spiced kumera and topped with grilled field mushrooms and a side of asparagus. for some reason i forgot to take any photos of the spread so you will just have to use your imagination!

 

shiz gettin real

 fishing, foodie stuff, gap year, us  3 Responses »
Nov 132014
 

nov 19

so d-day approaches apace, 4 days and we are off on our gap year. we are slowly working thru the to-do list prior to departure, the fact that we are coming back makes it a series of tasks without pressure, what we dont get done, we dont get done!

the fact that we are effectively spending the first month doing a rellie-run lessens the anticipation, excitement and nervousness, I think if we were taking off straight to a new country it would be both more exciting and intimidating.

the photo above for me portrays what I know we will miss, sitting out on our back verandah, with my dear wife, shirtless (me, not her), sipping a cheeky sauv blanc and demolishing a whole crispy skin golden snapper, with Thai tamarind and chilli sauce on rice. we caught the fish on our boat, its a sweaty build up night with the dark, dusk sky filled with grey, stormy clouds. this is our life – and i know i shall miss it.

its been a pretty foody november, got off to a rollicking start when i was going thru one of the freezers and found a lovely pork belly, i marinated it in a bourbon marinade and then dry rubbed it with 17 secret spices and herbs. it was onto the weber smokey mountain cooker then for a few hours slow roasting. i had a tray of spuds in the lower rack and they gently roasted in the drizzle of piggy fat, i dont know that it would have got the tick from the heart foundation, but hey its ok occasionally isnt it?!

melbourne cup was next cab off the rank, the gurls were off for a big knees up at the walkabout, but i took the opportunity to do a warm smoked chicken salad with poached eggs and hollandaise sauce for brunch, you cant really go wrong with anything that involves a properly made hollandaise!

sal had a poor day at the races, she spends days before the big race studing form guides, tea leaves and tarot cards and nearly always comes home drunk and cashed up. at least she still came home drunk!

i sort of get the feeling i should have split this post in 2! anyway, we are on the home straight now! we managed to get a day in fishing with dave, in between preparations at home, we went out on dave’s boat and while it was less than perfect conditions, we had a great day, caught a couple of little mackies, a huge queenfish and a big barracouta. we had lunch at SE Bremmer island and enjoyed a swim in the balmy build up waters! the mackeral got thrown on the char grill with lashings of olive oil and salt with grilled limes.

kade had his birthday last saturday and spent the day cooking a piggy on a spit, its a bloody big job, especially with a hand cranked spit, and sitting around a fire pit in the build up is a bit like cooking in a sauna, but the end result was magnificent and we all had a rollicking good time.

somewhere in there we had a few spots of rain one afternoon, kai stood out the back shivering and if you look closely you can see the rain drops on the concrete, it was the first hint of the wet, with no rain since july.

kai also won a principal’s award for  being a “thoughtful, friendly and helpful student, best wishes on your world wide adventure”

earlier this week i found a big eye fillet in the freezer so i whacked it into slabs and chucked it on the char grill, dead animal singed on coal cant be beaten, it is the best argument against vegetarians and other food deviants.

that should round out the pics and the last update before we depart on monday, irregular updates will cover our meandering around the globe so stay tuned – please subscribe at the top of the right hand frame, that way you will get an email everytime i post an update!

 

 

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