29th January - drought/flood in Tasmania

Friday 29^th January 2016

Pete’s friends Maggie and Peter Braithwaite are visiting from Wales. 

They are famous amongst their friends and acquaintances for bringing the rain wherever they go…  Thirty years ago they went to Tunisia for their honeymoon.  It had been bone dry for years, possibly decades, and within days of their arrival – torrential floods!  Houses washed away!

Here in Tasmania we have been suffering a long and ghastly drought.  There are bushfires raging in our beautiful wilderness areas; the paddocks are dry, wildlife starving, farm animals barely surviving even with extra feed.

But…Maggie and Peter are here to save the day!  Flash floods have closed the road to Orford in three places; water carriers, who have been frantically busy for months, haven’t needed to work for two days.  It is all suddenly very WET!!

Thank you Maggie and Peter, come back soon!

27th January - Investigator at MacDonald Islands hunting for volcanoes - Hobart life

Wednesday 27^th January 2016

Pete Harmsen has sent what I think is a great email from the Southern Ocean, with a few photos:

After 4 days in 40 degree Fremantle it was a relief on Friday 8th Jan to set sail and get out of that sweltering town.  Seems strange now to be complaining about that.  It's almost 4 degrees outside, wind a steady 40-50 knots and water temp around 2.8.

After 16 days slowly cruising the Indian, and now Southern, Ocean and hanging various bits of kit over the side testing water for nutrients, iron, temperature and salinity, sometimes to the sea floor at 3,500 metres, it was a treat yesterday to finally see a rock.  Well worth the wait, at 0730 the first mate shouts "Land Ho!!" and out of the gloom appears McDonald Island, or islands as they are.  Quick bit of geology I learned - first discovered in 1854, only been landed on 2 times, one of Australia's only two active volcanoes (we'll see the other one later, at Heard island) it erupted in 1992 and 1997 when the island doubled in size!  What!!  Yes, these are some of the youngest rocks on the planet, on the remotest spot on the planet (53South 72East). I t's still emitting gas, and we saw that yesterday.  We saw the earth breathe!

After the eruption all the penguins left, but there are now estimated to be a million macaroni and king penguins here.  We are doing the first detailed survey of the sea floor, and are finding under sea volcanoes that we will be sampling when the weather allows.  It got a bit exciting last night when the ship was side on to a big set of waves, and we rolled about 40 degrees, sending the commercial toaster and the dessert across the galley, as well as some computers into walls, furniture into people, and me into a desk.  Luckily my nose broke my fall, and it's a bit fatter today!  Even the table tennis table copped a slide and has been put away for a while.  Hopefully not permanently, as the "Heard Island Masters" was just getting under way, and I'd won my first two rounds.

There is a good crew aboard, 20 crew and 40 scientists from 10 different countries.  The food is great, and meals are frequent, breakfast at 7-8, lunch 1130-1230 and dinner at 5-6.  It's then another 4 hours till sunset around 20 past 10, then slide into the bunk to be gently rolled to sleep.

Doing plenty of filming and snapping, so will try to keep up some sort of a flow now that we are taking pictures of things other than albatrosses!  As magnificent as they are.

Here in Hobart is is hot one day, cool the next.

The garden is heaving with wildlife, in South Hobart.  Bumblebees

Small wallabies

Ducks, native hens, quolls, many birds, all managing to provide me with blurry photo opps…

Once again I am proving my worth as a grandmother by providing quality experiences…

Here we all are, early in the morning  gathered happily around an iPad watching clips of Eurovision songs…

And my bed is always arranged in welcoming ways, by Rose.

24th January - Gold coast to Hobart - Boy and Bear - Hobart to Barnbougle - polo - Barnbougle to Christmas Hills - family wedding

Sunday 24^th January 2016

The Storm rollercoaster at Seaworld 

Our last night on the Gold Coast was great.  We met up with friends

Cam, Liz, Marguerite, Twyla

and family

Will, Leo, Hamish, Angus

for a roast dinner at Klein’s, at Runaway Bay marina.

And then UP very early (4.30am…) to get packed up, cleaned up, and ready to fly back to Tasmania.

On the plane

Hamish had a few moments of anguish and stress watching the luggage being loaded onto our plane.  Would his surfboard arrive intact??  (Yes, it did.  Thank GOD!!)

We arrived in Hobart around 1pm, and then…the team split up!  (I miss my boys…)

Strangely…I was very tired, so I slept for a few hours and then it was UP and at ‘em again – a concert at the Odeon – Boy and Bear!

They were fabulous and we stayed wide awake and happy to watch and listen and occasionally sing along, quietly.

We were very lucky because we got there as the doors were opening so we could select the best seats – front row balcony, perfect!

Saturday morning up early again, and off to Barnbougle (just past Bridport) for a gala polo day.

The horses were glossy and shiny and speedy and I HOPE they were enjoying their game as much as the riders seemed to.

At half time the crowd surged onto the field – there were over 5,000 people there, dressed to the nines.  I had no idea what they were doing but it soon transpired they were stomping the divots, getting all of the lumps and bumps flattened out for the next onslaught of hooves.

I was intrigued to see how many people were wearing black and white stripes – very striking, very conspicuous.  I was quite glad I was wearing blue and white with a  muted pattern of daffodils…

We had to leave at 2.30 to drive to the other side of Tasmania (just about…) – the raspberry farm at Christmas Hills, near Deloraine.

It was all a bit dodgy – there are bushfires raging and we were all a bit worried that the whole area would be evacuated.

Fortunately for Dara, the bride, who has been planning her day for many stress-packed months, all went well – no fires, not too much smoke, beautiful warm weather.

It was great being reunited with the family – cousins very happy indeed to be together.

Monique, Gina, Jacqui

We left at 10, which was probably a mistake – too pathetic, too tired.

We missed out on the dancing!  But we did get to see Marcel walk his granddaughter up the aisle!

Leah and Mark

And my mother was brave and resilient and beautiful as always (see above), in spite of still being convalescent (pneumonia just a few weeks ago.)

Monique - mother of the bride~

We are staying in Launceston till tomorrow; Pete is teaching the Darcey girls to play Oh Hell and I am not contributing anything much to the proceedings…