deekay

24 photos here On 5 August we started driving the Gibb River Road, an iconic 4WD road that has been upgraded over the years to accommodate the tourists wanting a real 4WD outback experience and it’s good for puncturing tyres. The road is 588km long down to the Napier Downs turnoff towards Windjana Gorge. We spoke to one couple who had had five punctures! We both got through without any punctures. However Murray had to replace one set of trailer wheel bearings which involved a 300km round trip from Mt Elizabeth Station to Imintji and return, which took about 5 hours. The bloke at Imintji, about two thirds of the way through, has a business basically just repairing and fitting new tyres and repairing trailers. Camping is on stations that have basic camping to Homestay type ... read more

As I publish this blog, we are just leaving Katherine and heading west towards Western Australia, to visit some ex-Keri teachers in a small aboriginal settlement then do a desert track. You can check out Murray and Chris's blog at http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/KIWOZ-TOURS/ But here is an update from Borroloola to Darwin with 20 photos..... Crossing into the Northern Territory was celebrated with photos under the sign. To the unobservant the landscape seems repetitive and may be boring. But there are subtle changes all the time, and there is plenty of beauty in the bush. Our first stop to buy groceries and beer was Borroloola, an aboriginal town 1000km south east of Darwin, The groceries were no problem, although pretty short on fresh fruit. Enquiring about beer, the beer is sold from 2.30pm onwards. Consequently, quite a few ... read more

May 2011 - We’ve been here at this 220000 acre cattle station in Western Queensland for nearly 5 weeks as work continues and we’ll probably stay here longer as required. Murray and Dave made and positioned the new water tower in four days and lifted the tank up, connected up the pipes and have fixed up the old tower. Also on the agenda has been mustering, both on quad bike and horseback (made DC very happy), branding, ear tagging and castrating (wince!), sourcing parts and fixing the various vehicles here (trucks, motorbikes, cherry picker, loader; (Once a mechanic – always a mechanic); putting out new troughs and doing the plumbing, feeding poddy calves (orphans) boiling up mung beans to give to the cows as a distraction while the poddy calves feed, fixing dodgy septic tanks, etc. ... read more

We are back in Kerikeri for a couple of weeks, on-route to Dunedin. Well, the couple of days work at the station turned into 8, 12-hr days of grading, checking water lines, mustering, drafting, loading, de-horning, castrating and fire-branding cattle, and a continuous stream of meals to prepare and laundry to assist with, along with joining an evening kangaroo/wild pig hunt with Kim the roo shooter. The largest paddock required a chopper to assist with the muster. Sadly, the weather cut our visit short by a day or two as 10mm of rain turned the 20km trip to the bitumen into a slidey glug of red mud. Murray had the grader on the back of the road train, but the truck wouldn't budge. Our trustworthy landcruiser proved its worth and we threw it into four wheel ... read more

June/July 2010 Our trip back from Queenstown was stunning with lots of snow; and a heavy frost through the Gibbiston Valley. A car seemed necessary, so we bought a Galant. This means that I have transport, as Dave is working for the Taieri Gorge Railway in their workshop as an engineer’s assistant He is learning different skills and enjoying meeting a bunch of new people. I have caught up with old friends and enjoying doing a bit of distance learning in computing, via the Otago Polytech, just to brush up on some forgotton skills. Thanks to Steve, we were lucky to get tickets for the All Blacks test against Wales at Carisbrook. It was an awesome atmosphere as it was the last international to be held at the old grounds. We joined the “march” from the ... read more