Just some photos of a Lizard that was in our garden. Its the biggest one we have seen in our garden, though hes quite small in comparison to some of the others we see while driving off the beaten track.
We all got quite close to it before he decided to leave through a hole in the back fence.
It was probably about a meter long.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Camping in the outback
Well not quite the outback but nearly...
We asked a few people if they wanted to try out camping in the wild. We had a few brave takers in Brent, Maria and Trevor, Jackie and their daughter Chloe and we also took along Taydens friend Josh...
Brent, Maria and us arrived out at 40 Mile beach at 9am and set about setting up camp, Brent and us were the only ones who have been camping before, Maria, Trevor and Jackie were camping virgins.
We found a pretty good place to camp and set up all the tents and most importantly the kitchen area. We had taken our fish fry and were doing a fish fry for dinner, Luckily I had taken some fish out as the hunters and gathers weren't much of hunters and gathers at all.
CAMPSITE
ONE OF THE KITCHEN BENCHES
After the tents were all up we were all hot and sweaty so decided to go down to the beach for a swim. The water was littered with seaweed and was pretty dirty, we were a tad disappointed as last time we came out the water was beautiful and clear. The heat really getting to us we launched in amongst all the seaweed and cooled down. There was an old guy there fishing, he warned us to be careful of the stone fish and sharks, then a little while later he came down to show the kids a tiny shark he had just caught, they thought it looked cute and pretty harmless, then he went on to say he had just seen a 5 foot shark swimming our way. We decided to get out rather than become shark bait and went back to camp to have a few coldies.
SWIMMING WITH THE SHARKS
MARIA AND KAHAYLA
The hunters and gathers decided to go looking for fire wood and came back a short while later with our wagon laden with old railway sleepers that they had found. So a huge bonfire was made on the other side of the camp (a fair way from our tents and stuff). The boys went fishing while Maria and I started organising our feast.
JANAYA HELPING HUNTER AND GATHERER BRENT GET HIS TACKLE SORTED
THEN THE REAL FISHER GIRL KAHAYLA (OR SEAHAG AS SHE IS KNOWN AT HOME)HAD TO BE CALLED IN FOR MORE ADVICE
JANAYA SHOWING HOW ITS DONE
NO ROCK FISH IN HERE
dinner was yum with a fish fry, and salads and stuff, I think Jackie was blown away about our camping dinner (I think she thought we would be eating damper or something) We all went over to the fire and cooked marshmallows for the kids before trying to get them all into bed.
I had come very prepared for the huge mozzies and had a ring of fire round the campsite with all my citronella candles it looked really pretty, it worked a treat as no one saw a mozzie. (The mozzies here are something to be afraid of as they carry three nasty virus which can be fatal)
We spent the night drinking and stargazing, the stars were an awesome show.
Sometime at about 4am the heavens opened up and it started to pour, I had to laugh as Sean, Brent, and Trev got up grumbling and moaning about having to get up and shut the windows on the tents.
We all got home a new shade of red (from the dust not the sun) and tired, but it was a good camp.
Oh I saw my first huntsman spider, it shared our tent and it was huge...
We asked a few people if they wanted to try out camping in the wild. We had a few brave takers in Brent, Maria and Trevor, Jackie and their daughter Chloe and we also took along Taydens friend Josh...
Brent, Maria and us arrived out at 40 Mile beach at 9am and set about setting up camp, Brent and us were the only ones who have been camping before, Maria, Trevor and Jackie were camping virgins.
We found a pretty good place to camp and set up all the tents and most importantly the kitchen area. We had taken our fish fry and were doing a fish fry for dinner, Luckily I had taken some fish out as the hunters and gathers weren't much of hunters and gathers at all.
CAMPSITE
ONE OF THE KITCHEN BENCHES
After the tents were all up we were all hot and sweaty so decided to go down to the beach for a swim. The water was littered with seaweed and was pretty dirty, we were a tad disappointed as last time we came out the water was beautiful and clear. The heat really getting to us we launched in amongst all the seaweed and cooled down. There was an old guy there fishing, he warned us to be careful of the stone fish and sharks, then a little while later he came down to show the kids a tiny shark he had just caught, they thought it looked cute and pretty harmless, then he went on to say he had just seen a 5 foot shark swimming our way. We decided to get out rather than become shark bait and went back to camp to have a few coldies.
SWIMMING WITH THE SHARKS
MARIA AND KAHAYLA
The hunters and gathers decided to go looking for fire wood and came back a short while later with our wagon laden with old railway sleepers that they had found. So a huge bonfire was made on the other side of the camp (a fair way from our tents and stuff). The boys went fishing while Maria and I started organising our feast.
JANAYA HELPING HUNTER AND GATHERER BRENT GET HIS TACKLE SORTED
THEN THE REAL FISHER GIRL KAHAYLA (OR SEAHAG AS SHE IS KNOWN AT HOME)HAD TO BE CALLED IN FOR MORE ADVICE
JANAYA SHOWING HOW ITS DONE
NO ROCK FISH IN HERE
dinner was yum with a fish fry, and salads and stuff, I think Jackie was blown away about our camping dinner (I think she thought we would be eating damper or something) We all went over to the fire and cooked marshmallows for the kids before trying to get them all into bed.
I had come very prepared for the huge mozzies and had a ring of fire round the campsite with all my citronella candles it looked really pretty, it worked a treat as no one saw a mozzie. (The mozzies here are something to be afraid of as they carry three nasty virus which can be fatal)
We spent the night drinking and stargazing, the stars were an awesome show.
Sometime at about 4am the heavens opened up and it started to pour, I had to laugh as Sean, Brent, and Trev got up grumbling and moaning about having to get up and shut the windows on the tents.
We all got home a new shade of red (from the dust not the sun) and tired, but it was a good camp.
Oh I saw my first huntsman spider, it shared our tent and it was huge...
lots to update
I am getting so slack about updating the ole blog, so will bring it all up to speed.
3 weekends ago we had a pretty multicultural weekend. On the Saturday, we decided to go out to Walcolt Bay for the morning, and decided to invite a Pakistani family along with us. They were supposed to arrive in November when we arrived, but they had troubles with visa and they didn't get here till January.
I had met Naheed at the airport while waiting for Sean to arrive home from Perth, during the cyclones. We had a good chat and she seemed really easy to talk to, thought I'm not sure what I expected, I guess I just thought there would be this cultural barrier there or something. Sean had got to know Fisal a bit better during the fire training and such.
Anyways we decided to ask them to come along with us, as we know what its like being the new comers and how lonely you can feel at times, even more so for them being Pakistani. They were keen so they followed us out to the beach.
We also took Taydens friend Josh. We get out there and Sean drops us off down at the beach and went back to pick them up from the car park as they didn't have a 4WD at the time (They now have the flashest brand new shiny black land cruiser) Fisal had mentioned to Sean that his family wouldn't be swimming as they don't really swim. Well of course my kids were already in the water when they got back and Sean didn't take long to follow. I stayed back to talk more to Naheed. Next thing you know the whole Khan family are in the water having a great time.
SEAN AND FISAL ENJOYING A COOL OFF IN THE WATER
NO THEY WEREN'T GOING TO SWIM
Fisal and his kids and Sean and our 4 (josh being the 4th) stayed in the water for a good hour, I had a quick 10 minute dip during that time just to cool off. Then it was a game of beach cricket, more swimming a bit of fishing and more swimming, you couldn't drag those kids out if you wanted.
PAKISTAN VS NZ IN A CRICKET MATCH
Sean had taken both our surf casters out and gave one to Fisal, never fished before he soon had the hang of it and seemed to be really enjoying himself. Josh ended up taking over from Sean for a while and ended up catching a stingray. The weird thing was that when he got the ray onto the beach there were about 8 other stingrays that came in with him, it was a bit freaky really, I guess it was his family and extended family seeing what was going on. They let the stingray go and he swam away but three other stayed and watched us for a while, odd...
THE HAPPY FISHERMEN AND THE NEWEST MEMBER OF THE WALSH FAMILY, JOSH
I LOVE THIS PHOTO
When it was time for lunch Naheed an I got the food out, She had gone to a lot of trouble and made the most delicious chicken biryani, if you haven't had it before do try it is my newest favourite food. I had made this big chicken salad sandwich on one of those long Turkish loaves and sliced it up into small slices. She was so apologetic as they couldn't eat it as they only eat halal meat. Halal meat is where the animals are slaughtered facing Allah and have had a special prayer said for them. They get all their meat shipped up from Perth from a Halal butcher.
After that we headed home as it was getting quite hot and their new landcruiser was arriving that afternoon.
When Sean saw Fisal at work the other day, he said his family couldn't stop talking about swimming at the beach and their new friends they had made, he also said he was off to buy himself a fishing rod. haha. It made us feel good as we know no one else on Seans shift would have gone to the trouble.
That night we went to a housewarming with all our Scottish friends. On Sunday we were invited to Brians house, he is an Indian who started with Sean but I wouldn't call them true Indians as they are not Hindu or Muslim and have lived in South Africa for a long time. There was also another South African family and an Aussie guy. It was an awesome evening, Brian is definitely the host with the most and is quite taken with Janaya, he couldn't do enough for her. He ended up carrying her around for ages and she fell asleep on him (so unusual for her but he did give her chocolate which could have put him in best friend status in her eyes)
THE LOVELY NAHEED shes such an easy person to get on with very witty and funny.
3 weekends ago we had a pretty multicultural weekend. On the Saturday, we decided to go out to Walcolt Bay for the morning, and decided to invite a Pakistani family along with us. They were supposed to arrive in November when we arrived, but they had troubles with visa and they didn't get here till January.
I had met Naheed at the airport while waiting for Sean to arrive home from Perth, during the cyclones. We had a good chat and she seemed really easy to talk to, thought I'm not sure what I expected, I guess I just thought there would be this cultural barrier there or something. Sean had got to know Fisal a bit better during the fire training and such.
Anyways we decided to ask them to come along with us, as we know what its like being the new comers and how lonely you can feel at times, even more so for them being Pakistani. They were keen so they followed us out to the beach.
We also took Taydens friend Josh. We get out there and Sean drops us off down at the beach and went back to pick them up from the car park as they didn't have a 4WD at the time (They now have the flashest brand new shiny black land cruiser) Fisal had mentioned to Sean that his family wouldn't be swimming as they don't really swim. Well of course my kids were already in the water when they got back and Sean didn't take long to follow. I stayed back to talk more to Naheed. Next thing you know the whole Khan family are in the water having a great time.
SEAN AND FISAL ENJOYING A COOL OFF IN THE WATER
NO THEY WEREN'T GOING TO SWIM
Fisal and his kids and Sean and our 4 (josh being the 4th) stayed in the water for a good hour, I had a quick 10 minute dip during that time just to cool off. Then it was a game of beach cricket, more swimming a bit of fishing and more swimming, you couldn't drag those kids out if you wanted.
PAKISTAN VS NZ IN A CRICKET MATCH
Sean had taken both our surf casters out and gave one to Fisal, never fished before he soon had the hang of it and seemed to be really enjoying himself. Josh ended up taking over from Sean for a while and ended up catching a stingray. The weird thing was that when he got the ray onto the beach there were about 8 other stingrays that came in with him, it was a bit freaky really, I guess it was his family and extended family seeing what was going on. They let the stingray go and he swam away but three other stayed and watched us for a while, odd...
THE HAPPY FISHERMEN AND THE NEWEST MEMBER OF THE WALSH FAMILY, JOSH
I LOVE THIS PHOTO
When it was time for lunch Naheed an I got the food out, She had gone to a lot of trouble and made the most delicious chicken biryani, if you haven't had it before do try it is my newest favourite food. I had made this big chicken salad sandwich on one of those long Turkish loaves and sliced it up into small slices. She was so apologetic as they couldn't eat it as they only eat halal meat. Halal meat is where the animals are slaughtered facing Allah and have had a special prayer said for them. They get all their meat shipped up from Perth from a Halal butcher.
After that we headed home as it was getting quite hot and their new landcruiser was arriving that afternoon.
When Sean saw Fisal at work the other day, he said his family couldn't stop talking about swimming at the beach and their new friends they had made, he also said he was off to buy himself a fishing rod. haha. It made us feel good as we know no one else on Seans shift would have gone to the trouble.
That night we went to a housewarming with all our Scottish friends. On Sunday we were invited to Brians house, he is an Indian who started with Sean but I wouldn't call them true Indians as they are not Hindu or Muslim and have lived in South Africa for a long time. There was also another South African family and an Aussie guy. It was an awesome evening, Brian is definitely the host with the most and is quite taken with Janaya, he couldn't do enough for her. He ended up carrying her around for ages and she fell asleep on him (so unusual for her but he did give her chocolate which could have put him in best friend status in her eyes)
THE LOVELY NAHEED shes such an easy person to get on with very witty and funny.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Floods at home
I was shocked to hear of the once in 150 years flood happening in Whangarei. Quite timely as we had just recieved a letter from the local council about our creek at home and that in a 1 in 100 year flood it would cause heaps of flood damage and Seans Troll bridge that he made would get washed away. Errrr wrong mr council people, the bridge was as solid as ever and yeah the creek flooded it didn't cause any damage to our neighbours or ourselves. We now have a new swimming hole where a bit of the bank has fallen in but other than that it held out pretty well.
Dads farm took a bit of hammering, with slips and his roads getting dealt to in places. He has a lot of work ahead of him now getting it back into shape. We did feel a wee bit helpless being so far away.
We followed the news once we heard and just couldn't believe we were missing out on all the drama, I would have loved to see our creek like that in real life, i have seen it pretty full at times but nothing like in the photos mum sent me. Oh well will have to wait another 150 years perhaps...
Our new swimming hole...
Dads farm took a bit of hammering, with slips and his roads getting dealt to in places. He has a lot of work ahead of him now getting it back into shape. We did feel a wee bit helpless being so far away.
We followed the news once we heard and just couldn't believe we were missing out on all the drama, I would have loved to see our creek like that in real life, i have seen it pretty full at times but nothing like in the photos mum sent me. Oh well will have to wait another 150 years perhaps...
Our new swimming hole...
Janayas 4th Birthday 17th March
Well its taken me ages to actually get around to completing our trip at Exmouth so here it is.
Janayas 4th birthday. wow my baby is a big girl now. We woke up pretty early as we were leaving to go home, so Janaya opened her pressies then it was time to load up the car and have one last swim in the pool before we got on the road.
We set up Janaya in the very back by herself and all her new toys, she was very happy. The trip home seemed alot quicker than going down (as it does). The kids are great travellers thank goodness, so we seemed to be home in no time.
As we got nearer to Karratha we were amazed at how green everything was, apparently it hadn't stopped raining since we left just after the cyclones. I had to take photos as I just couldn't believe my eyes. Where there was usually red rocks and red dirt there were pastures of green grass and for a moment it felt as if we were driving in rural NZ.
The road when we left
Five days later, amazing what a bit of rain does
Karratha itself was an overgrown mass of green grass everywhere, very pretty but also the realisation that there are lots of snakes around also enjoying the new growth. Our front verge from our fence to the roadside has aways been just ugly red dusty dirt, but we were greeted with nice grass which we are going to try and keep alive.
We threw a very impromptu party for the birthday girl and had maccas for tea. She had a blast, even though she had spent 5 hours in the car...
Since then we have had another cyclone come and go with no real excitement we were on Blue alert for a day with the cyclone looking like it was going to directly hit us, but at the last minute did a u turn and crossed between Broome and Port Headland. Pretty non eventful.
Janayas 4th birthday. wow my baby is a big girl now. We woke up pretty early as we were leaving to go home, so Janaya opened her pressies then it was time to load up the car and have one last swim in the pool before we got on the road.
We set up Janaya in the very back by herself and all her new toys, she was very happy. The trip home seemed alot quicker than going down (as it does). The kids are great travellers thank goodness, so we seemed to be home in no time.
As we got nearer to Karratha we were amazed at how green everything was, apparently it hadn't stopped raining since we left just after the cyclones. I had to take photos as I just couldn't believe my eyes. Where there was usually red rocks and red dirt there were pastures of green grass and for a moment it felt as if we were driving in rural NZ.
The road when we left
Five days later, amazing what a bit of rain does
Karratha itself was an overgrown mass of green grass everywhere, very pretty but also the realisation that there are lots of snakes around also enjoying the new growth. Our front verge from our fence to the roadside has aways been just ugly red dusty dirt, but we were greeted with nice grass which we are going to try and keep alive.
We threw a very impromptu party for the birthday girl and had maccas for tea. She had a blast, even though she had spent 5 hours in the car...
Since then we have had another cyclone come and go with no real excitement we were on Blue alert for a day with the cyclone looking like it was going to directly hit us, but at the last minute did a u turn and crossed between Broome and Port Headland. Pretty non eventful.
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