We wish you a merry Christmas!

We have been looking forward to this moment for three years - our first Christmas in our very own home! Although we didn't actually spend Christmas at our home, we had lots of fun putting our first tree and decorating it with the decorations we bought two years ago.
This year worked very well with time spent with both families. Christmas Eve was spent with the Adkins' and Christmas afternoon we arrived at the Pikes.


Even more fun then the tree was making a present for our parents. After a full day of baking, Roland and I had our own houses to assemble and decorate for our respective families. We shared creative ideas and had a lovely afternoon together. The best feature was definitely Roland's snowman!




Both houses were well received but the most excited person was undoubtedly Angus. I don't know how many times I heard him say, "I like that one!", "I really like it Aunty Kellie!" or "You made it all by yourself?!" He was very cute. All the kids were very excited when it came time to break it up and eat it!


As is always the case with Pike family gatherings, there were dogs everywhere, but none more excited by our presence than Scally. All her Christmases come at once when Roland is around and Sarah put this little sign on her back when she was lying under the tree. It says, 'Roland, Love Santa'. Emily knows how much Roland likes walking the dog. She told me that I should get a dog for Uncle Roland then he can take it for walks and I could have a rest. That way, I can watch what I want on TV and I don't have to watch the cricket with Roland. Child logic is a beautiful thing!

The kids loved the giant ball from the Donaldson's, especially when it was deflating!

By the 27th, everyone else had left Enysbury. Dad took us to Werribee Gorge for a lovely little walk. The rocky cliffs were very interesting, showing a number of anticlines and synclines.

Cup Weekend Away

On the weekend of Melbourne Cup, Mum and Dad came away with us to Cape Schank Lighthouse. I had always wanted to stay in a lighthouse keepers cottage and this four day weekend that backed on from my 30th birthday seemed like the perfect opportunity. It was a cosy, three bedroom cottage, and in the howling wind it's not hard to see why stone was a good option for building!

Our first day.

The cottage by night.

The lighthouse was only a few hundred meters away, perched at the top of the cliff. It is a rugged section of coast and the rocky shoreline was great for rock hopping. We took a walk down the board walk to the shore, but the wind was very strong and very cold!






we had a little church service on Sunday and the tea-party set the Mum bought at garage sale came in handy during communion!

And of course, what Pike family gathering would be complete without a good afternoon platter. Yum!

On the Monday, I went to Diggers for a workshop and Mum had a very pleasant day just hanging in the beautiful gardens.
We had a lovely weekend together, despite the terrible weather. The accommodation was nice but a bit over priced but at least I now know what it would have been like to live in a lighthouse keeper's cottage!

Overland under cloud and snow

Once you walk the Overland Track, you understand why it’s counted as one of the best in the world. Easily accessible, well maintained, visually amazing, it’s not surprising that people come from all over the world to walk it. I walked it in 2006 with some friends and ever since, I’ve been trying to get down there with Roland. It’s a place worth sharing. When we were in Tassie during the mid-year holidays, we did a few day walks, including one a Cradle Mountain. It renewed my desire to come back and do the walk together.

So Term Three was spent organising this little adventure; our first private bush walk together, no teenagers allowed! A quick plane trip to Launceston, afternoon of food shopping and a night in a hostel followed by a half day bus ride to Cradle Mountain saw us at the start of the walk. There was one hitch though – snow. There had been a two metre dump the previous week and there wasn’t any up-to-date info on how much was still on the track. We were told it would probably be alright to walk without snow shoes, but it may be necessary to turn back if it was too deep. Given such conditions, we stayed overnight in Cradle Valley to allow a full day to walk the first 10kms, rather than the five hours of remaining daylight we had left that day.

It was a good choice, and even though the day didn’t have the stunning sun shine of our arrival day, we really did need the full day. It took us about six hours to walk 10kms, and I was utterly exhausted by the end. The soft snow was nightmare to walk through but we met some walkers coming in the other direction who told us that there was no more snow to walk through once we were off the plateau.

Overall, we did the walk over five days, saw a few spectacular views, enjoyed the alpine environment and met some great people. It was a cold week, but a wonderful one none the less.

This is a side-on look at the walk (click to enlarge). As you can see, Day One, getting over Cradle Plateau is by far the hardest! We stayed at all the huts except Kiaora Hut.

Cradle Mt. on our arrival day

Two walkers about to set off

Example of some of the board walk.

Because of the melting snow, every water course was pumping!

A happy walker about to ascend onto Cradle Plateau

Crater Lake was spectacular

The steepest part of the walk - part of the ascent onto the plateau - not for the faint hearted!

The first patch of snow with Crater Lake in the background

A cold camper in some shallow now. It wasn't uncommon to fall though to my knees or waist in the deeper sections. (and I did put some pants on after lunch!)

Cradle Mt.

Barn Bluff

Night One: Waterfall Valley Hut - a wonderfully warm place after a hard day of snow walking.

one of many creeks

Brief views of the surrounding peaks from Frog Flats on day 3.

Above and below, examples of board walk. Not all the walk is board walk. There is still enough mud to make sure you know you're in the wilderness!


One on the majestic peaks that could be seen from our final hut when the cloud lifted.

Narcissus River. This water flows into Lake St. Clair, leaves as the Derwent River and passes through six power stations before ending up in Hobart and flowing into the Tasman Sea.

Home

It was about this time two years ago that we decided to leave our beloved home of Marshmead. We had a basic plan: Roland would get a job at a school, we would buy a little farm, and I would be the farmer. Simple enough. It looked like this simple dream would become a reality when a History/Geography job was advertised at my old school in Hamilton. We went house hunting and found a small property that fit just about every one of our criteria. The job interview when well, and in a few days they school would give a yes or no.

We were to spend most of Term Four in New Zealand that year. We were expecting a call from Hamilton before we left the country. But someone intercepted the pass. St Paul’s Warragul, Roland old school, had rediscovered the resume he had sent in a term before. He received a call to say that they didn’t really have a job to offer, but would be very interested in having him back at the school. They just needed the resignation letter from a current staff member, and then they could offer Roland a job at the Year Nine Centre.

This began a flourish of phone calls, with two schools vying for Roland’s letter of acceptance. But for us, it was more than choice between two schools; it was a choice between two home towns, two lifestyles. It became very clear very quickly that if we chose Warragul we would not be able to afford our dream of a little farm. Land prices were too high. It would mean moving into town for a number of years until we could upgrade to a home in the country. Warragul, however, did have one thing Hamilton could never offer; a short drive to the city, where both our families live. After living in far East Gippsland for a number of years, and with the health of Roland’s father becoming a greater concern, Roland decided that being in a position to be able to help his parents couldn’t wait, but our little farm could.

As it turned out, we would have to wait for our house in town anyway. The Simonds saga has dragged on for 18 months. It took six months for the company to start the build, then over a year to complete it. Sixteen weeks over contract, they finally finished. We signed off this afternoon, collected our keys, and for the first time walked into our very own home.

Roland entering our first home for the first time.

Our first meal - a carpet picnic of fish and chips.

The kitchen/dining area

Front sitting room

entrance

laundry

rumpus room, upstairs

spare room - the two of these look the same

bathroom

front of the house

A tall house means plenty of yard space

rear of the house. Alfresco area is on the left side.

We've had a wonderful fews day moving in and deciding how to use the rooms. It will be a long process - moving down the hill - but we're already feeling at home.