BACK OUTBACK WITH DOGS AND CATS

We have been in Aussie for a few days - on the fringes of the outbacks - up Wilpena way. It was a fantastic trip - 2300kms of driving and two trips in light aircraft. It was the holiday we needed and gave us a better understanding of the vastness of the great land. Wilpena Pound is worth a visit and we thank the communist firefighter for the tip on that one. Clare is a beautiful valley bursting with 24km of Riesling grapes. We visited the extraordinary Seven Hill Monastery and vineyard and saw the heart of old Catholicism and the mark it made on the small hamlets and towns that pepper the area. We visited ruins of the old stations that stood at attention along the old Ghan railway. We drank and we ate. There were DOG days ( Days off the Grog) and CAT days - Consume Alcohol Today, days. Coopers pale ale, Padthaways finest bollocksy reds. and some emerging sauvignons like Mojo, all peaches and gooseberries.

We visited Aborigine sites and tread the same path as the old people.

We saw a land at its greenest and probably finest - soaking in the rainfall that has ended 10 soul destroying years. We joined with Aussies and mourned the loss of fellow countrymen at the hands of terrorists in Jakarta - united in disgust and sorrow. Days later we revelled in the competition on Edens lush field where the All Blacks played with some grit and made us proud.

We spent days without a computer or blackberry and felt better for it.

We celebrated a birthday of a baby born at 26 weeks with 150 farming aussies and marvelled at the sameness of our lives.

And today we have spent 49 years on this earth and are comforted by a life that that has been richly lived and made better for walking in the shoes of others.

GOOD BIRTHDAY PRESENT FOR OLD BUGGERS

Dads birthday falls on Boxing day - this year sis and I decided to give him an introductory helicopter flight with his instructor grandson who works for Helipro.
We left Rangitumau and headed over the hills to Paraparaumu. We decided to take the hairaising but stunningly scenic Akatarawa route. Don't ever attempt it if you suffer from irritable bowel syndrome.

Anyway Dad, 73, was up and away within minutes of us getting to the Paraparaumu airport. They flew over Kapiti Island and watched a school of tuna. Dad flew the helicopter by himself.

He has flown in helicopters hundreds of times but never with his grandson and he has never had the opportunity to fly himself. We took the more sedate Heywoods Road back across the divide and Dad grinned the whole way home. It was one of those days that will be indelibly stamped on the family's collective memory.