Sydney ... so far

Photos
Crossing the Bridge - how interesting!
A monument to Capt Arthur Philip's landing on 12th Jan 1788
The Birch Beach Babe's!
The monorail



Yes, well we arrived in Sydney last Tuesday and it was great to cross through the epic Blue Mountains - we stand amazed at the determination and perseverance of those first explorers - Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth who forged their way through the tough underbrush that covers the mountains, to get to the other side. Their dedication paid off and they found the fine pasture land that became the beginning of Australia's sheep export industry, for which our country became known and on which we relied for many years.

We had a plan of lots to do here in Sydney and thought we would get up and get going, but unfortunately we had a day of rain and then, even worse, we all got the flu. Slowly, one by one, we fell foul of a temperature, sore head, bad cough and needed lots of sleep, even Darren and I went down - I guess in the van we all tend to be so sharing of everything, including germs!

We forced ourselves out to catch a train to the city and then catch the Monorail around Darling Harbour and train back. Before being sick, Darren went to the State of Origin Rugby game at Olympic Park - the venue was as impressive as the game I think he said! We did feel we could go for a drive and so headed over the Harbour Bridge down to Botany Bay, the site of the First Fleet's landing, no one really wanted have a look as they were cold and not that well! Then we went on to Bondi Beach, as you can see the Birch Babe's ready to go in the photo here! (ready to go back in the car I think!)

With Darren still down and out, I braved the Sydney traffic (not that it is too bad on a Sunday!) and took the kids to Hillsong Church. We had a great time and enjoyed the huge venue and the big worship and excellent teaching, so much so that we ventured back for the evening service as well.

We have been grateful for a lovely caravan park which is right on the edge of national park bushland and it is a quiet and scenic spot in the midst of a busy city, if one has to be sick, at least this has been the restful place to be able to quietly catch our breath and get well again.

On Friday, we left Broken Hill, very sadly said goodbye to the Scotfords. We drove all day to the town of Cobar. Here the Theakston Family offered to let us and the Grossers stay the night. it was great to meet them and their boys, even though Molly had a bad night with croup. The next day, with Molly, Sophia and Grace all not feeling that well, we left the Theakstons and we drove to a crarvan park at the little town of Molong. The next morning, it was so cold that we found the grass was crunchie with frost and it was 0.7 degrees!

We headed off through Orange and Bathurst to Lithgow and, after lunch, we went for a ride on the Zig Zag railway, a world famous railway that was built to get over the western side of the Blue Mountains. The railway was engineering wonder, crossing over some magnificent stone virducts and through tunnels. It was a wonderful ride!

On Monday, we went to Katoomba for the day. First, we went to see the famous three sisters, which were amazing! We then did the giant stairway and that sure tested our endurance! After lunch, we went over to scenic world and went for a ride on the worlds steepest railway. It was quite fun but scary at the same time. It was almost straight down, with the steepest incline being 52 degrees! We then walked through the forest, before we took a cable car back up to the top of the moutain.

Broken Hill 2

YAY, WE GET TO SEE THE SCOTFORD'S



When we left home in January, we knew Broken Hill was on the agenda for us to be available to help and minister to the GFA kids, but we also knew it was a chance to catch up with the Scotford's - YAY!! Our kids have been so excited to be seeing friends from home and after the GFA weekend ministry time, we had the chance to enjoy the company of our dear friends. The kids had fun at the park playing on the skate pipe and enjoyed catching up on the news from home, which was such a treat after being away from friends for so long.

We also had a tour of Broken Hill and learnt about the mining history of the place - it is the richest silver deposit in the world with the line of lode being 200m by about 5km. Did you know there used to be 71 hotels in the town and 14 Wesleyan churches at the height of the mining boom. After continued bad working conditions where the mortality rate was high due to the poisonous dust in the air, the miners staged a strike that lasted 20months and finally led to BHP providing the necessary safe environment.

We visited Pro Hart's Art Gallery and enjoyed the creative genius of this Aussie Icon as well as the outback sculptures that lie 10km north of the town. We visited the local Train museum (of course) and a hit was Bells Milk Bar a 50's cafe with heaps of memorabilia which had the kids staring at us as Darren and I excitedly pointed to this and that, saying, "I remember that, look at this, I remember these!!" Mmmm the olden days are not that long ago, are they?

In times past BH used to get about 10 inches of rain a year, but for the past few years they have only got about 3, so it is a very dry and dusty place. Once rich in minerals, it has lost its lustre somewhat and as I considered this I thought about how rich our nation used to be in its sense of community and loyalty and strength of family values, but how far we have fallen over the past 60 years or so.

However, we do feel privileged to have met our friends and the families that are in Broken Hill and the others from all different states, for it is these people that strengthen our resolve to continue in developing a community that is rich in relationships, friendship and character and all to the end of seeing God glorified and His name lifted up over this Great Southland.

Broken Hill

Whoever goes to Broken Hill, you might think! Well we have just had a fantastic week there with lots of families from around our great country, they came from every state and represent Growing Families Australia (GFA) an organization which equips parents to raise and disciple their children. Led by Bill and Joan Grosser, who are an inspiration to us all as they travel around Australia building into families in towns and cities everywhere, the ministry of GFA is busy up north in Kununurra, in Aboriginal communities and in country and in city areas.

Darren and I enjoyed the supervision and ministry time with the 33 kids aged 2-13. We had a great time playing games, doing object lessons and learning a memory verse from Psalm 119. We enjoyed a picnic at the creek including tug of war, rope climbing and a ute ride as well, that was great.

We stayed at the Convent on the hill which is owned by the Church of Christ, who acquired it (miraculously, but that is a long story!) after a fire had all but destroyed the roof and the top floor. It has been restored and renovated by the people who live there, who have put many hours of work into fixing the buildings, and it is in wonderful condition now. About 4 couples/families live there and they also avail the many spare rooms for people to stay and be refreshed.

If you are ever in the area, look up the Curtis and Martin family, they are incredibly hospitable and would love to have you to stay and have the opportunity to tell you the story of the Convent and how awesome God is, His faithfulness endures forever!

Mildura

We had a great weekend at Mildura a few weeks ago, the weather was lovely, sunny days and cold nights, and we were parked right on the Murray river so we enjoyed the Paddle steamers going up and down. Also watched a Steamer go through a lock which was interesting and we visited Orange World - run by Mario and Maria! Mario has the most amazing memory and remembered all of our names, and the rest of the group (another 10 people) for our whole tour.

He had the kids off picking oranges and mandarines for everyone and he encouraged everyone to buy Australian, not Californian, fruit! Needing 400L per tree, per week, it has been hard to keep up amongst drought conditions and he has had to pull out trees, then last year they had super hot weather and many of the flowers fell off before they went to fruit. Such is the life of the man on the land and we sympathised with him.

We dropped by two days later and Mario still remembered our names - what an inspiration in putting our mind to good use and ... memorizing scriptures maybe! I recently read about someone who memorized a verse a day over three years, that's 1000 verses, who is up for the challenge! Start with Psalm 1, 23, 91, 121, 139, 150 they are all favourites of mine, have fun.

Hopetoun

Photos: You can see our campsite near the lake here, and there's a few sunrise shots for you to enjoy




Heading north towards Mildura we had a night at a free camp spot in a town called Hopetoun. We hit a locust plague getting there and had fun cleaning their slime off the van and car when we pulled up. We had just finished and a car from Mingenew, WA pulled up to camp. After chatting with them, we found they know the some Haeusler's in WA and it felt like a little piece of home in the middle of outback Victoria.

Hopetoun itself, reminded us to much of Three Springs, it was a town that has become smaller over the years, the school has shrunk and the shops have closed, but the community and its people are still hospitable and warm and friendly. We ended up staying two nights and met another travelling family which the kids enjoyed time with, while we chatted with the Pearce's from Mingenew/Geraldton.

I am a sucker for sunrises and so had to put a few shots up. If you get a chance, get up and see one wherever you are, they truly do show off the creativity of the Master artist and remind me that the new day is a new chance to begin again, whatever the day before has held, God's mercies are new every morning and great is His faithfulness.

God bless you and enjoy your day.

Grampians

We left Ballarat and headed to the Grampians a week ago. It was cold and rainy and our internet was down - don't we love Telstra! So here we are, all fixed and reporting on our time over the last week.

The Grampians was very picturesque and although it was rainy, we managed to get half a day of sunshine which was enough to do the main sights and enjoy the stunning beauty of the mountains. We heard, this week, that they had a dusting of snow on the peaks there so we were glad we had moved on further north!

We walked down the mini Grand Canyon, saw the view from Baroka Lookout, did some walks in the bush and visited one of Victoria's most impressive waterfalls (although Tassie falls beat it hands down!)

Sovereign Hill

Well what can I say, Sovereign Hill is a FANTASTIC place to go. We have had so much fun learning about life in the 1850's over the last two days and we could go back for another two days as it was so good.

Arriving at 10am on Friday, we were overwelmed by the many things that we could do, we stood looking here and there and then decided to take a walk down the main street. There we found authentic shops, replicated on those that were there in those early days on the Goldfields of Ballarat. There were people in period costume, ladies, gents, police, red coats and locals. One of the first places we saw was the photographic studio and would you believe the photo in the window, it looked just like our family 150 years ago!! We had so much fun dressing up for this and everyone wanted to keep their olden day clothes on and walk around in them like the other people outside! But alas, we had to return to the 21st century.

We heard a man talking about the goldrush and learnt alot of how they found and dug for the gold and how the businesses in the area expanded. It was a cold day, but there were fires all around that one could warm up next to, we had lunch in a hut near a fire, that was the perfect spot. We visited the school to see what that was like back then, we went on a carriage ride, saw candles being made - and found out a 12 year old boy (they used Jerome as an example) could become an apprentice candle maker. He'd get to live in the store, boil the tallow (that is the sheeps fat and it stinks) and learn the candle trade for which he would be paid nothing for the first four years, and then probably get his own store. Jerome decided that was not for him!

We saw boiled lollies being made, went for a tour down a mine in which was a commentary of the find of the Welcome nugget, 69kg, found in the 1860's I think, we went to the Bowling Saloon for a go at old style 10 pin bowling, saw how the made wagon wheels, went to the tin foundary where they make candle holders, little bells, pans, etc.

On Saturday, the sun came out and we went panning for gold, which I wasn't too keen about, until we found some gold! Then I could see why people got addicted to the dig. It was fun to find a few flakes and feel we had struck it rich! While we were panning, a police man came down to check the diggers licences, some of the in costume men, showed licences and those without a licence took off and got shot at while they scurried over the hill. The policeman made some snide comments, then pointed to our kids and said, "And you kids, BEHAVE YOURSELVES!" After he left, Sophia, quite seriously, turned to me and said, "I won't do anything wrong Mummy." No way was she going to get shot at!

It was fun to see the red coats march down the street and they were all celebrating the win of the Empire over the Russians in the Crimean? war this was a wonderful victory, worth a volley of shots from their muskats, and "for all those who had a delicate disposition, they were to put their digits into their auditory orifaces and stand clear" THAT was LOUD.

Overall, we loved the many different things that we learnt and how the whole place had been planned so well and those who worked there did so with the utmost credibility to the era in which they lived. It was a time of Ladies and Gentlemen (an older man commented that I was wearing "men's pants, of all the things" I did feel suitably underdressed and apologised), it was a time to make a fortune, although many didn't, there was a class about the way they lived, but it was a hard life, especially in the early days.

We visited the gold museum briefly and found and tall pyramid there, 45 feet high and with a base that measured 10 foot square, it was representative of the gold taken out of Ballarat from 1851 - 1860, it was huge, and the gold from then till now was valued at $12.5 billion dollars worth.

Darren's Birthday

On Thursday we celebrated Darren's birthday. It was COLD with the maximum getting to only 12 degrees, so Darren was loving it, it was his perfect weather day! We visited the Eureka information centre and then went on to lunch at Beechworth Bakery. Now that is a great place to have a birthday lunch, especially as we had vouchers for free drinks! It was a great resturant style bakery and the food was sensational, everyone was treated to savouries, lots of hot chocolates and then the sweet of their choice and we all came away feeling very full.

We came back and enjoyed sitting around the fire in the park Games room. Jerome challenged everyone to table tennis to see if he could be king, we all had a go and found Darren will hold the title for a little longer (well it was his birthday so we had to let him win a few times!) We had birthday cake for dinner.