Thursday 11th December 2025

Thursday 11^th December

SHE SAID;

It seemed like a warm night here last night; the ducted AC was on fan to move the air around, but it doesn’t seem that great in our room. We are in for a few hot days as summer kicks off, & likely to have quite a few whilst here. Hopefully when the AC is on it will be more effective.

It was a quiet ‘house’ day today.

Kings Park, WA

Pukeiti Park, New Plymouth NZ

HE SAID:

There were just a few small things to do today so most of the day was on a screen of one type or another.

Wednesday 10th December 2025

Wednesday 10^th December

SHE SAID:

Another trip down to Joondalup; it is the main centre within ½ hour of here & saves us going into Perth or it’s closer-in suburbs. This time it was for new tyres for Bluee; he’s now done 60,000km & it was time for new ones.

Geoff dropped me at the mall, again, for a few more grocery things & I had about 90 minutes to wander around. The place was nuts busy, even at 9.30am. Hopefully we don’t need to return again this silly season!

On the way back we dropped into the Brown's British bakery for a sampling! It was quite a small place, but we got pies for lunch & a Scotch Egg & a Pork Pie for dinner in a day or so.

Mushrooms! Katoomba, NSW street art with my guide Jacqui

HE SAID:

60,000 kilometres is reasonable for a set of A/T tyres, I think. Towing the van can’t help with the wear and tear. I went for slightly more aggressive tyres this time, just because. Shopping around saved me a little, but overall tyres are just expensive.

After the tyres were done I popped in to collect my already paid-for beers, even though I had not received a text message to say my order was ready. It had been over an hour for the 1 hour click and collect so I thought it should be fine. Well, I hadn’t received a text because there was no stock, despite the site saying that there was. So a refund is now underway. I was looking forward to trying this beer, and it was a great price. Bummer!

Tuesday 9th December 2025

Tuesday 9^th December

SHE SAID:

A quiet day at the house for me, photo sorting mostly.

Geoff headed out solo for an appointment in Joondalup.

The Chicken Tikka Masala Curry for dinner went down well.

More colour flowers from yesterday

HE SAID:

Mmmm curry.

My outing today was for a skin biopsy. I hope the removed mole was benign… The doctor was well prepared, as he had already printed off prescriptions for things I may need, just in case. It was a pleasant surprise.

Monday 8th December 2025

Monday 8^th December

SHE SAID:

Crazy me wanted to drive 250km north in search of a final orchid for the year for me, & hopefully, if we find it, a new one for me! Now that would be COOL.

As the cricket ended yesterday Geoff said he’d come along too.

I packed the flask, morning tea, & lunch, knowing it would probably be most of the day! I was super happy to find the target, the Sandplain Duck. They obviously like the heat, as it was already 30C+ when we arrived around 11am.

I was also surprised at the number of wildflowers still flowering, lots of different types & colours, it was lovely.

Target found - Sandplain Duck

Lots of colour in the heath areas 

HE SAID:

Varena was very happy to find the new orchid on our 500km trip today. It was an easy drive, though long, but there was cold beer in the fridge, and I had not missed any of the cricket, so all’s well.

Sunday 7th December 2025

Sunday 7^th December

SHE SAID:

We had a short drive through the area today, not much to see but it is new for us, & good to get out for a little while.

The cricket continues, as does the photo culling.

In the early evening I chatted with Mum on Teams. Then Geoff & I caught up with Julian & Kiyoka in Japan. They had shocking news, that part of the Naguri house has been destroyed by fire, likely caused by embers from their fire not properly disposed of. Luckily no one was injured. It happened after Julian had left, & the explosion of the gas bottles at the side of the house could have been deadly.

Giant Christmas everything's popping up around the city

HE SAID:

Our short drive this morning helped us familiarise a bit with our current local area. It is a coastal suburb, though our house is just over a kilometre from the beach.

The fourth day of the second Ashes test was good viewing. England did a lot better when they settled down to normal cricket, instead of their reckless Bazball approach, but could only get 64 runs ahead of Australia. It didn’t take long for the runs to be scored, with Steve Smith cracking a six to win. There was also some amusing banter, mainly between the England fast bowler, Archer, and Australia’s acting captain, Smith, with Archer trying to put Smith down for having a go at the runs when there was only a small target to achieve, but Smith’s retort, that Archer is only bowling really fast now that the game is almost lost, then called him “Champ” was hilarious, at least to me.

Julian seemed rather sheepish about the fire at their Naguri house. Fair enough, even though it was a total accident.

Saturday 6th December 2025

Saturday 6^th December

SHE SAID:

I did some baking & cooking this morning. It’s been a while since I made some morning tea, so as the orchid season is pretty much over for me I decided to make some Rock Buns; yummy, a favourite of mine. They remind me of my Nan, who made lovely ones.

Then, of course, Bolognese Sauce was the next task; it’s been over a month since we had Spaghetti Bolognese!!!

Geoff managed to tear himself away from the cricket to do a few things, I think!!!

Subiaco Street Art

HE SAID:

With cricket watching my priority I had to get a couple of things done before noon. I pulled out the house's plug-in electric mower and gave the small backyard a haircut. Because the yard is small, and flat, it didn't take long. Then, I finally motivated myself enough to ring around for new tyre prices. This process is a real pain, as every tyre place has a website but wants you to call or submit a form online to get the prices. Annoying when I want to shop around... Anyway, I have an appointment next week for 4 new tyres. We got 60,000kms out of this set, which is OK.

Friday 5th December 2025

Friday 5^th December

SHE SAID:

We set off for Geoff’s appointment in Subiaco around 9.45am; the traffic wasn’t bad, though I did manage to direct us the wrong way! But, we arrived at the MRI Clinic with plenty of time, time enough in fact for a French pastry at the very popular Jean-Claude Patisserie.

I left Geoff at the clinic & wandered around the streets of Subiaco in search of the street art, I found quite a lot. We met up again once Geoff had finished with the first round of imagining, going to Kings Park for lunch, then a drive along the Swan River to kill time, before the 2nd round.

We returned about 45minutes early; Geoff said he could sit & watch the cricket till they were ready to call him in. It happened quickly & we were back at the house an hour earlier than we expected to be!

Around the streets of Subiaco

HE SAID:

Our day out was a bit dull, with a fair bit of waiting around. Luckily for me there was the second Ashes test to keep me amused, both on TV and online. The imaging results can take 7-14 days, but luckily it is accessible online, so I can at least read it, even if I don't understand it! After that it is a long wait, mid-March, to see the specialist for a proper, expert interpretation and opinion.

Thursday 4th December 2025

Thursday 4^th December

SHE SAID:

We headed for the big shopping area of Joondalup this morning. Geoff had a couple of appointments & I wanted to walk around the mall & get some groceries. These combined things took all morning & it was a 2pm lunch by the time we got back & unloaded the car.

Geoff is happy the cricket is back on so I spent the afternoon & evening in the TV lounge with Jes, the cat, for company.

I continued with the orchid photos.

Recent wildflower photos

Fungi & Wattle

HE SAID:

At last the second Ashes test has arrived. The first one was over in 2 days, with England Bazballing themselves into oblivion, again, so hopefully this one goes longer, though I still want an Aussie victory, of course.

It has been a while, but I finally managed to donate blood today. The limited donation locations make it difficult to be a regular donor, but I try. And, with a very small chance that one of my moles may be cancerous I'll be having an excision next week. Not awful, but not fun.

Wednesday 3rd December 2025

Wednesday 3rd December 2025

SHE SAID:

A day in today, no plans.

I worked on my orchid photos, I'm currently up to the 6th September, with 17,000 approx still to sort through. I will have plenty to do over the summer!

HE SAID:

With no plans to go out today I thought that I could mention the beers that I had in New Zealand. All were good, though the zero alcohol one had a rather watery feel in the mouth that I am not accustomed to. I have not ranked them this time, though the Panhead Supercharger and the Cassels Milk Stout were very good - a cut above.

Tuesday 2nd December 2025

Tuesday 2^nd December

SHE SAID:

The ute’s Dash-Cam hasn’t worked properly since we got the car, so today we returned to Range Ford in Maddington to get it looked at. It was an hour's drive there going into the tail end of the rush hour. I’d hate to have to do this drive every day!

We were told the Ford contractor wouldn’t be there till after 2pm, so we got a courtesy car & headed to the Carousel Shopping Mall for a cuppa & a few things. Then on to the Gosnell’s Hotel to meet with Martina & Ric for lunch. It was a 2 ½ hour chatty lunch, with them telling us about their decision to go vegan, quit WANOSCG, & orchid updates.

Geoff got the call about the car around 3pm, so we parted company, picked up the car & once again crawled back up the highways to Quinn’s Rocks. The return trip was 1 hour 15mins, as we were going with rush hour traffic out of the city.

 Meet Marvin...

...And Jes, black/grey & white, & Jazz "allowing"
Geoff to give her a pat

HE SAID:

We had over 8 hours out and about, leaving before 9am and returning after 5pm. A couple of those hours were in traffic, which is never fun. I was rather tired when we got back to the house. I’m not sure what Range Ford ended up doing, as it is difficult to say whether the old dashcam was put back in, or whether it was replaced. We’ll monitor its performance, but I have a feeling that we’ll have to push for more action before too long.

Lunch with Ric and Martina was chatty, as always. Going vegan is obviously important for them, so we discussed that a lot, and orchids got a going over, as usual. I didn’t have a beer as I was driving the dealership loan car, a hybrid MG, which seems better than the one we hired in Sydney, but I am still scarred.

Varena whipped up a tasty light dinner of smoked salmon and corn fritters to tide us over.

Monday 1st December 2025

Monday 1^st December

SHE SAID:

It was already 26c at 7am this morning. I put the AC on ASAP for Marvin, Jimmie is quite particular that he is kept comfortable. There were no cat “break-ins” overnight into the master bedroom, Geoff’s vacuum cleaner & pot plants stopped them!

The ute was due for its 60,000km service, so Geoff took it down to Clarkson for that. He returned quite quickly, getting a lift back.

The rest of the day was inside as the temperature rose to 38c, a summer blast, but back down to 28c tomorrow. The cats seem to be more relaxed around us today.

Street Art from Katoomba, Blue Mountains

HE SAID:

The 60,000km ute service came around in less than 18 months. Mechanically the ute is great, and tows the van really well. The software-based actions executed through the tablet-sized screen are still a complete pain in the bum, and the dashcam issues will hopefully be resolved tomorrow.

Seaview Ford have given up having a staff member drive customers somewhere local while their vehicles are getting serviced, and instead use Uber, which I guess saves the dealership some money, but is not great. There are exceptions, like for me today, when the service manager nearly choked at the Uber surge-pricing rate of $35 for a 4km drive, and grabbed an apprentice to take me back to the house.

Sunday 30th November 2025

Sunday 30^th November

SHE SAID:

We both slept reasonably well for our first night in a new place.

I went to make drinks & found Jes outside the door. I assume she wanted food. When I went into the lounge I found that between the 2 cats they had gotten into the owner's bedroom, which they weren’t supposed to do. LOL!

The day was taken up with washing & moving a few random things from the van to the house as we remembered them! The cats weren’t seen till food time in the early evening.

I had an hour-long Teams video link with Mum, who seemed good; we haven’t chatted for about 3 weeks as we were in & out of signal.

Murals from Southlands, Canberra

HE SAID:

So, first 24 hours and we had three minor issues. The cats had got into the owner’s bedroom, assisted by a knackered sliding door arrangement, and they had got into Marvin the guinea pig’s room despite the knackered old bungee cord on the door knobs. The third thing was the clothes line cord braking on first use. Hopefully that is it for problems for a while.

Saturday 29th November 2025

Saturday 29^th November

SHE SAID:

We had a lazy morning at the van; we weren’t in any hurry to depart Dryandra as we only have 200km to drive to our new house sit in Quinns Rocks. Jennie, the owner, asked us to arrive around 3.30pm.

It was a good drive up, with a lunch & coffee (for Geoff) break on the Brookton Highway.

As always Geoff made the parking of Bertie on the slight slope at the house look easy, though I was rather nervous about getting into the van to unload our things, but everything went smoothly, no movement detected!

Jennie & Jimmie were pretty much ready to leave when we arrived, but did a handover of the house, 2 cats, Jess & Jazz, who were very shy & didn’t come to say hi. Marvin the Guinea Pig was snoozing away.

We took control of the house after 5.30pm & moved the rest of our things in.

PS A few more NZ photos.

Weevil??? & baby praying mantis

Beachcombing in NZ

HE SAID:

No numbats were seen this morning. The five previous sightings will have to do. After our very leisurely start to the day we slowly packed up the van and were on the road around 11:30. 

There was one moment of excitement on our drive when a twit tried to overtake us just as an overtaking lane had ended. I already had my indicator on and was moving over, but as this vehicle had sat behind us for quite a few kilometres, and not used two overtaking lanes, and I had just finished saying to Varena how content he must be to be cruising all this time behind us, he came dangerously flying up from behind to pass us. So, when he chose to overtake way too late, and we were merging into the single lane, he had to cross the solid line into the oncoming traffic lane. Lucky there was no-one coming, but he seemed annoyed when I honked at him! Tosser!

Setting up at the Quinn's Rock's house took the usual 75 trips to the van, but we got it all done and chilled out after dinner.

Friday 28th November 2025

Friday 28^th November

SHE SAID:

We headed for the bright lights of Narrogin today; we need fuel for Bluee the ute & fuel for us, as in rolls for lunch!

Our Numbat spotting was fruitless on the return trip, BUT the Numbat Whisperer scored again, with another spotting around 5.20pm. A male again, close-ish to our camp, though he kept on moving. We could see him hunting for termites for about 20mins. AWESOME. He wasn’t put off by a car going past or that there were quite a lot of campers around now.

To see 5 numbats in 3 days is wonderful.We haven’t beaten our record of 6, but still we are stoked about these finds.

Number 5 sighting

HE SAID:

We managed a few things while we were in Narrogin, getting back to camp for lunch. The arvo was just chilling at the van, with an extra numbat turning up as I enjoyed a carbonated beverage. Varena takes some great photos of these cute little buggers, and her enthusiasm and joy make me want to find more. It makes it fun!

Thursday 27th November 2025

Thursday 27^th November

SHE SAID:

We had a drive around the woodland, in hopes of seeing more numbats. Geoff came up trumps again, though it was a fleeting encounter. We also saw an echidna, birds, & a few kangaroos.

The rest of the day we stayed at the van, chilling out.

Geoff cooked steak on our BBQ for dinner; it was a tasty dinner.

Elegant Parrot

Robin

HE SAID:

Mmmm steak. Before our tasty dinner we had a lazy day at the van, with a couple of hours in the morning driving around Dryandra hunting numbats, with just the one sighted.

Wednesday 26th November 2025

Wednesday 26^th November

SHE SAID:

I slept OK, but was wide awake around 6am, Geoff too.

We hit the road to Dryandra Woodland before 9.30am, with a stop in Collie for a cuppa.

There was plenty of room at the Gnaala Mia campgrounds. We chose the top loop, which has a little more internet signal. We took it easy for the rest of the day.

Geoff was my triple eagle-eyed hero this afternoon, spotting not 1 but 3 numbats close to our camp, on site 3. AMAZING work hubby. 😘😘😘

Dinner was more adventurous that last night's beans on toast. We had ravioli with creamy tomato sauce & salad.

HE SAID:

The five hour time difference between NZ and WA was very apparent this morning. I woke around 3am, and it seemed hard to go back to sleep. I dozed a bit longer but was up early.

Having three numbats come so near to our camp was impressive, though it makes me wonder how many we missed. Oh well. We spent around 45 minutes just watching the little bugger's antics, as they scurried, dug and kicked up dust, and even leapt between logs, but with mixed success.

Tuesday 25th November 2025

Tuesday 25^th November

SHE SAID:

We were up at 4.30am & at the airport queuing to drop the bags by 5am.

It was a very long, boring day of travelling. Air New Zealand were good again, BUT, of course, S***star Airlines stuffed up our seats; we were in separate seats & rows, then their “brilliant” baggage handlers didn’t know how to load the cargo in the plane so had to do it all again, which took an hour & 15 minutes.

We had to wait for a taxi at Busselton Airport there were none waiting. You can imagine how tired & cranky I was when we finally got in after a 22-hour day!

The quaint Mangonui fishing village,
close to Molly's house

Farewelling NZ yesterday morning

HE SAID:

There was a little clock-watching before our 4:30 alarm, but we managed to be up, ready and gone quickly. Dropping off the rental car at Auckland Airport was a bit of a pain due to us missing the subtle signage and having to do an extra loop around the carparks, but we were still done and dusted promptly. After that there was the usual queuing at every step, but the flight was on-time and there were no problems.

Jetstar, on the other hand, were their usual poor standard. I shouldn’t be surprised, yet when I have to fly with them I always am. Disappointing.

As we were barely awake when we got back to the van we tried to arrange to meet Dorte and Gary tomorrow morning, after we'd had some sleep. But as they couldn't meet up until tomorrow afternoon, and we were due in Dryandra at that time, a couple of hundred kilometres away, we popped in for about 2 minutes, said hello, collected our mail, and went back to the van to veg.

Monday 24th November 2025

24th November 2025

Monday 24^th November

SHE SAID:

After dropping Ang off at her work, we headed a couple of kms down the road to meet a local orchid nut. John was very friendly & keen to show us his orchid collection before we went for a walk on the Te Henui Trail behind his house.

He told us there are 17 different orchids that flower here, though we only saw 2 in flower today.

We had a cuppa with John & hit the road north for the Naumi Hotel near Auckland Airport, a 550km-ish trip with 11 sets of roadworks along the way!

We ate at the hotel & had an early night.

Tutkiwi Greenhood & Paka-Waka Orchids

New Zealand scenery

Hotel Naumi 

HE SAID:

What is it about showers here in New Zealand. Nearly everywhere has a different arrangement. Some of them are odd. Some of them are stupid. The shower at Ang and Tony's was the only normal one we encountered. One shower had a small hot/cold lever around the spout where it joined the wall at head height. Another one had a single wheel/knob that had colours and words for adjusting the temperature that did not line up with the marker, so we had no idea what to expect, and struggled to turn off. Another had almost black wall tiles at about a 45 degree angle instead of horizontal/upright, so that the orange (that's right - orange) grout made the walls appear corrugated and were a little unsettling, and added to this the tap was 2m from the shower head, on the opposite wall, so that you couldn't check the water temp if you were at the tap, nor could you adjust the tap while still getting wet. Odd all around!