|
We
both love apple pudding
|

|
We
both love animals.
|

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His name was Monty |

|
We
both love the ocean |

|
and
wild places
|

|
the
wilder, the better |

|
On
the track to Lion Rock, Southeast Tasmania |

|
East
coast Tasmania
orange
lichen is characteristic of this granite coastline. |

|
A
beach shelter, Far East Gippsland |

|
We both love snorkelling |

|
The
Great Dividing Range, Victoria
In
summer |

|
The
Great Dividing Range, Victoria
In
winter
|

|
The
Great Dividing Range, Victoria
In
autumn
|

|
I
bought the Holden at a government auction.
A
standard foam double mattress could fit neatly in the back
I
fitted a Borg-Warner limited-slip differential.
The
kit to recondition the 3-speed manual gearbox cost only $50, and the
maintenance book could be bought from any newsagency for just a few
dollars. Reconditioning the clutch and gearbox required no
special tools. I
converted the car to dual fuel: petrol and propane. The
Hella driving lights would light the road at night for a mile ahead. I
kept that car for 33 years. I loved the adventures which came with
that vehicle. |

|
We
both like blue. My
favourite blue is the deep blue-green of the open ocean. |

|
We
had two kayaks |

|
We
found many wonderful, isolated, remote lunch spots.
We
usually took our time for lunch, especially when we had good weather
and a comfortable rug... |

|
|

|
There
were always good places to camp, with no-one else around. |

|
|

|
|

|
|

|
We
visited New Zealand
Our
Toyota HiAce van ran on compressed natural gas (CNG) |

|
Crater
Lake, Mount Ruapehu |

|
Mount
Tongariro, foreground
Mount
Ruapehu, background
Winter |

|
Mount
Tongariro
Summer New
Zealand's most popular tourist one-day walk is "the Tongariro
Crossing". It's busy, but all the walkers are travelling in the
same direction, so it usually does not seem crowded. The
traverse covers a spectacular volcanic landscape. |

|
Lake Miriam, South Island NZ
The lake was incorrectly marked on our
tourist map as
"Lake Marion"
When we were there, there was no-one else
around.
|

|
Fed by snowmelt, the lake was formed by
an avalanche creating a dam, centuries ago. It lies in a typical
U-shaped glacial valley, surrounded by many waterfalls.
An extraordinary place. |

|
Kaikora coast, NZ South Island.
We swam with inquisitive fur seals.
To my surprise and disappointment, on
my last visit (much later, in 2016) the local fur seals showed
interest in us at all.
|

|
Waikoropupu (Pupu) Springs
Fed by a huge limestone aquifer
underlying parts of the north of the South Island, crystal clear
water bubbles up from the pond floor. We could see the other side of
the pool, a hundred metres away. Water temperature is 11 Celsius,
year-round.
The water has been in that aquifer
for a long time, perhaps many hundreds of years.
The pool contains colourful aquatic
vegetation. |

|
The Mount Cook Glacier
Note our sophisticated wet-weather
gear.
As time has passed, and tourist
numbers have increased, some of the freedoms we had are no longer
available.
Today, for example, it's not
permitted to climb Mount Tongariro, or swim in Pupu Springs. |

|
Miriam trying to correct the lean on a
New Zealand power pole |

|
For a while we settled in at my house in
Coolabah Road, Sandy Bay, Tasmania |

|
I loved her red dress.... |

|
But my favourite dress was the one with
15 buttons down the front.... |

|
Now....
... she seems so far away.... |
|
Miriam... |