2015 XMAS BLOG

Bob & Joyce Newell, Bribie Island, Australia

The year 2014 to 2015 transition found us on the high seas in the Southern Ocean with swells of 3-4 metres from the west and on top of that up to 1 metre wind waves from the north-east. The ship rolled and pitched in a confusing fashion so we were all a bit green around the gills especially poor Janet who was quite seasick. 

Fortunately New Years found us at the Campbell Islands returning from Macquarie Island and just a day and two nights of the high seas before docking in Bluff on the far south of the south island of New Zealand. Despite the confused seas and quite cool and windy weather we have had a fantastic trip walking on the amazing subantarctic islands, viewing prolific wildlife and kayaking in calm inlets and wild seas – it seems we were the first tourists to kayak at Macquarie Island. 

The following pictures will give you a little taste of the trip:

Once on dry land again in Invercargill, NZ we hired a car and drove west and north spending three nights in Te Anu and two in Queenstown before returning to Australia and a bit of “rest and recovery”.



At the end of January we camped a night at Neurim Creek via Mt Mee and in February two nights at Forest Glen, during which Bob threw caution to the winds visiting the coast and ordering a new bike from the Electric Bike Centre – a Gazelle Orange C7+ Step-Through for $3750. The pedelec nature of the bike has done wonders gently strengthening his knees to the point that he no longer complains or hobbles up the stairs.

The next few months were quiet with Bob concentrating on playing golf, riding the bike, watching rugby league and a bit of stained glass. Joyce playing recorder, bike riding and catching up with friends. Together we kayaking in the passage and enjoyed a kayak camping trip to Mission Point (up the Pumicestone Passage).

Joyce went on her third Camel Walking Trip for three weeks in June/July and again she enjoyed the outback experience near the Northern Territory-Queensland border immensely.


August was our next big trip taking the overnight train to Cardwell on the far north Queensland coast from where we hired a double expedition kayak and took a leasurely ten days to kayak the about 100 km from Lucinda to South Mission Beach.

We started along the east coast of Hinchinbrook Island and Goold Island. Then there was a long paddle across to the Family Islands where we camped on Coombe Island. Finally we island hopped north to South Mission Beach in choppy windy seas sheltering behind each island for a short rest.

There we had two days to repack before taking the overnight train home from Tully – for “rest and recovery” again.

Towards the end of September Joyce's printmaking group put on a one week exhibition at the Arts Centre gallery. One of Joyce's initiatives was a labyrinth outlined on the gallery floor in dried Banksia leaves of which there is no shortage on Bribie.

In October we enjoyed a few days at Bellthorpe Stays in the first of their new cabins (came on two semi-trailers and bolted together). Lots and lots of walks taken and birds seen, including Regent Bower birds from the veranda.

The end of October saw Joyce and friend Kim Bennie take a conducted walk along the coast of New South Wales near Yamba. One highlight was three brolgas grazing by the track as they passed.



November saw both Bob and Joyce convert to “stand-up” computer desks so we shall see how that goes over the next few months.


Craig, now 40!!!, and his partner, Karen Donogue, moved to Atlanta Georgia at the end of March, and continues to enjoy the busy and well-paid life of a IT geek. 

Janet, now 35, is still managing to go from contract to contract with her work as an ecologist focusing on endangered plants around Geraldton, Western Australia.  One of her main projects, a planting of 23,00 trees mid-year was blessed with 50 mm rain from a localised storm just a few days after planting finished.  She is spreading her wings in 2016 to spend 6 months in Mauritius from April studying Endangered Species Management as part adventure, and partly to update and broaden her knowledge of the field.

This Christmas will be a visit from Janet and a stay at home/visit family affair for Bob. Joyce will be again at the Woodford Folk Festival from December 20th till just after the New Year volunteering and partaking.

Plans for 2016 include a 3 week trek off track in Kakadu National Park for Joyce in June
http://www.bushwalkingholidays.com.au/ksc2.shtml (this time without camels to carry the loads, so lots of get-fit preparation, and hopefully some overnight walks will be needed!).  We also hope to organise a kayaking trip in the Whitsunday Islands. 

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all our family and friends.

Experience the magic of a labyrinth on Bribie

Update:  The labyrinth is now up!

Creating a labyrinth for Bribie:

2014 Christmas Blog

Bob & Joyce Newell, Bribie Island, Australia

The year 2013 to 2014 transition occurred with Joyce volunteering and attending the Woodford Folk Festival. (http://www.woodfordfolkfestival.com).   Woodford was great – both helping put this massive village together (I helped with mainly sewing decorations), and the Festival itself.  Bob took advantage of Joyce leaving to visit Janet in Geraldton (Western Australia) which included Christmas together in Exmouth (Yardie Creek Homestead) and Red Bluff (137km north of Carnarvon), building furniture, and golfing.

 

Red Bluff Tent Cabin, WA

Bob and Janet at Kalbarri NP, WA

 Bob's Furniture, WA

Janet's Gingerbread Tower, WA

Home again, Joyce continued with her Tuesday recorder group in Maleny (70 km north-west), now in about its 20^th year. This year Bob joined her trips with joint early morning bird-watching at Mary Cairncross Park (rainforest) and Baroon Pocket Dam (mixed eucalypt forest) followed by being driving-range volunteer at the Maleny golf course (9 holes under construction).

Looking over New Course 

Clubhouse & Driving Range

As well we enjoyed Bribie and surrounds with cycling, walking, kayaking trips, seagrass monitoring, printmaking, laughing, and singing (Joyce) and golfing (Bob).

Various “Green Men” (tree spirits) 

Rainbow prints and Orabela quilt

Special trips included camping at Caloundra while Joyce joined in a scratch performance of Handel’s Creation, having Janet visit for ten days in May, a couple of camps at Booloumba Creek (north-west of Maleny), and a special kayak trip up the Pumicestone Passage to Caloundra and back in May/June (two days up, one day resting, two days back- about 30 km each way).

In June we joined about ten others at a volunteer week at Lake Allom on Fraser Island making a new walking track and renovating several buildings at an old forestry camp. We enjoyed visiting the island after quite a few years absence. It is still a magical place but is showing signs of over-use (and abuse) by many more visitors – once a quiet haven but now on the backpacker must-do list.

 

Lake Allom, Fraser Is 

Western beach, Fraser Is

A special treat in July were some genuine Dutch stroopwafels (an ALDI special) which revived memories of our time in the Netherlands forty years ago.

Joyce departed on her second camel trip in the first-half of August this time to the eastern Simpson Desert with 17 pack-camels, 4 cameleers, 8 to 15 fellow walkers and 3 to 4 naturalists. She thoroughly enjoyed the 200 km trek over seventeen days, the solitude of the desert, and the comfy swag and myriad stars at days end. Further information at (http://www.desertexpeditions.org/great-white-lakes-expedition.html and photos from one of the group members, Cecilia https://www.flickr.com/groups/2672518@N21/pool/ (8/14 photos only – Cecilia was also on an earlier part of the trek this year in May in the Western Simpson, where the sand was much redder.)

 

Joyce and Billie 

Joyce's overnight camp

Camels on the move

Landscape with trees

August 20 saw Bob elected President of the BribieBUG (Bicycle User Group). The BUG organises a programme of social rides and advocates for improved facilities on the island and adjacent mainland. A few interesting years coming.

In early September we returned to Lord Howe Island (about 600 km SE in the Tasman Sea). We thoroughly enjoyed our two weeks spent golfing in the early morning and then cycling, bird-watching, walking, beaching and even a kayaking trip over the coral reefs.

 

 

White Terns 

 

Lord Howe Woodhen

 

Lord Howe Golf Course

Putting by the lagoon

Pandanus forest 

 

Typical Lord Howe shoreline

October brought a second track-making volunteer week at Lake Allom on Fraser Island. Then followed by a week in a Tannum Sands cabin while Bob ran a Daesim training course at the Gladstone QAL alumina refinery.

Rough track cleared

Finished by Terry the Tractor

We have one last trip planned for this year. Dec 11^th we fly to Christchurch, New Zealand, to meet Janet and together spend a week on Stewart Island (just south of the NZ South Island) before joining our Heritage Expeditions Galapagos of the Southern Ocean cruise on December 23rd for 12 days visiting Subantarctic Islands south of New Zealand (The Snares, Auckland Islands, two days at Macquarie Island and at Campbell Islands on the return trip). We are looking forward to lots of sea-life and bird-watching, a bit of kayaking and hopefully some unusual relatively good weather on the Southern Ocean (visit http://www.timeanddate.com/weather/australia/macquarie-island to see what the weather is usually like). More news on this trip after we return.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Newell Family News 2013

New Years Day 2013 marked the start of the last of our 3 months as caretakers at the Eyre Bird Observatory , a lovely remote location on the Nullabor Plain a kilometer from the beach in the south of Western Australia.  Janet was heading home to Albany 1200 km west, after a great visit for Christmas, so we celebrated with a golf game on the beach. 

New Years Golf

on the beach

at Eyre

The month included a watching a war between collared sparrowhawks over water rights at the birdbath when the temperature rose to 47.6 degrees (a reminder of things to come in our warming future with possibly increasing drought??),  a birding trip to Twilight Cove where the Nullabor escarpment joined the coast (see photo 2) and a frequent entertainment by the Observatory's most charismatic inhabitants, the Major Mitchell Cockatoos.  Caretaking in January was a busy time, with hosting two week-long courses of 8 to 10 people, as well as house-keeping, maintenance, caring for other guests and birding. It was a great privilege to be able to spend three months in such a beautiful place, and we thank the Committee who run the Observatory for Birdlife Australia for making our stay possible.

Sparrowhawk Water Rights Battle

Impressive Limestone Escarpment at Twilight Cove

Life is Fun for Some

We left Eyre Feb 7th in the capable hands of Pete and Meg McCarthy, and headed home by a longer scenic route.  Bob finished playing the Nullabor Links golf course – the world’s longest with holes at roadhouses across the Nullabor finishing in Ceduna.  (He had started in October in Kalgoorie during our trip to Eyre and ended up with 111 for the 18 rather interesting holes). We continued east via St Ive Station (north of Gawler Ranges), Port Augusta, Mambray Creek NP, Crystal Brook, Loxton (on the SA Murray River), Swan Hill, Echuca, Shepparton, Mt Buffulo, Bogong High Plains, Omeo, Orbost, Cape Conran NP, Ben Boyd NP, Eden, Merimbula, a very wet round of golf at Tura Beach, Narooma (camped at Brou Lake and birdwatching boat trip to Montague Island), Batemans Bay, Bathurst, Mudgee, Scone, Girraween NP, arriving home Feb 25th after a 5369 km trip.

Kalgoorlie Golf Course - Nullabor Links holes not all like this

The rest of the year we have mostly stayed closer to home, enjoying Bribie Island, trying to put more focus on just being, and on appreciating life including friendships, and less focus on the need to be constantly doing.  On the health side, we have both been lucky to have no major problems, though Bob had cataracts removed from both eyes in April – and Joyce had both her eyes done a couple of years earlier.  We feel this is increasingly simple and common operation is worthwhile doing as early as possible because it definitely increases one’s quality of life.

Stained Glass Hanging of Noisy Pitta

Bob has focused on golf, with 2 or 3 games a week social and competition, and being treasurer of Dad’s Army, the social group he plays with.  His involvement with the Community Arts Centre on Bribie which he had supported in many roles for over 3 years, chiefly as treasurer and IT expert, ended mid-year after a breakdown in communication with the committee.  This change in direction has definitely had a silver lining, as he is enjoying the extra time and energy just to be, and to explore other options.  He turned 70 in August, and celebrated with his first ever sighting of a noisy pitta, an uncommon rainforest bird which had eluded him all his life.  He made the stained glass pitta in the photo in celebration of the occasion.  

 



Joyce has continued her musical interests enjoying playing with a recorder group in Maleny, and with the Bribie Island Orchestra, and singing with an informal group.  She greatly enjoyed a workshop on making glass beads early in the year, but has not managed to resume her glass fusing and slumping interest yet.  Instead her artistic energies have focused on printmaking, which has led to this year’s Christmas card.  She is also trying to focus more on appreciating life, through regular explorations of the bushland on Bribie, and on meditating weekly with a Christian Meditation group.



Joyce's glass beads by the front window (on left).

Glass Beads Close Up

Joyce's Christmas Cards

Both of us are active in the Bribie BUG – Bicycle User Group (https://sites.google.com/site/bribiebug), and have introduced several of the members to geocaching (http://www.geocaching.com), with rides to find most of the caches near Bribie.  We hope to create some cycling-friendly geocaching trails on the island next year.  As well as regular Wednesday and Saturday rides, the group has had several weekends away, camping, cycling and kayaking, something we hope to continue in 2014. 

 BribieBUG Rides and Stalls






Joyce visited Janet in Albany for two weeks at the end of July helping Janet tidy up and pack in Albany (400km S of Perth) and find a place to live in Geraldton (400km N of Perth) where she started a new job working on a project to help protect rare and endangered plants in this area known for its wildflowers.

Our main trip away was in late August to the Northern Territory to explore areas we had missed on previous trips.  We enjoyed a 6-day kayak tour down the Katherine and Daly Rivers (http://geckocanoeing.com.au), which both let us explore some fascinating and remote country, and to enjoy great kayaking in clear water with lots of interesting, but not too challenging rapids.  

Kayaks and Guide's Canoe on Daly River

Bob navigating a Small Rapid

We also went on a 5-day tour by 4WD through Kakadu National Park to the Cobourg Peninsula (http://www.venturenorth.com.au/cobourg-tours.html), again to explore a remote area we hadn’t been able to reach on our own since Arnhem Land is an indigenous area requiring permits to enter.

Sunset from Camp

Tour Group

Rock Art Guide

Lotus Lily Flower

There was also great birding in the wetland swamps of Kakadu National Park and in Arnhem Land. And of course there were also many crocodiles, freshwater and saltwater, so you had to be watchful.
 

Jacana (a lily walker)

Jabiru (a stork)

Lurking Crocodile

We plan to finish 2013 in separate directions.  Joyce is going to the Woodford Folk Festival as a setup volunteer and then an attendee, while Bob is flying west to Geraldton to visit Janet and to spend the Christmas week with her in the Exmouth and Shark Bay areas.

Bob’s mother Kath Matskows, now 92, is living reasonably contentedly in a home in Toogoolawah, with Bob’s sister Noela helping out when needed.  Craig is still in Boston working with VMWare and living with his partner, Karen.

The message on this year’s card – Dare to be Vulnerable - is a reminder to try to explore beyond our self-set limits that give us a false sense of security.  We are trying to and see our civilization and its future realistically instead of through the rose-coloured glasses that most people, especially our politicians, use to hide from the reality of the inability of humanity to comprehend and solve the problems facing our increasingly complex world.  This level of honesty is not pessimistic – it just opens the window to truly accepting the complexity and fragility of our beautiful world, and to being able to live with appreciation of all that we have. 

We wish you all a beautiful and exciting 2014.