Our Mazda Tribute is a 2003 model and has travelled slightly more than 251,000 km. By and large we have not had too many problems with it. Over the years I've hit a couple of animals, requiring some panel beating work, but there hasn't been much else wrong with the car. It has been serviced regularly (we had it serviced just prior to the holiday). So why is it that the alternator decides to die whilst we are on foreign soil? One saving grace is that it broke down in the centre of a major town like Mt Gambier and not on the highway between towns.
So, the local AA man (RACV in South Australia) jump starts the car, then removes the jump leads. The car stops. He does it again. Same result. He then leaves the jump leads on, and the car limps to the nearest auto electrician. What then follows is a few hours of head scratching, phone calls to other local auto electricians, wild estimates of cost and time for replacement, before I finally ring the local Mazda dealership to get their service department to fix it.
I don't totally blame Macca, from Gambier Auto Electrics. It was clear that he had a lot on his plate and didn't really want my car stuffing up his schedule. He at least charged my battery up, allowing me to drive to the Mazda Dealer without having any further problems. But $1,200 for a new alternator (Genuine part)? And 7 hours of labour? ( He was talking about pulling the engine totally apart. That's not how you replace the alternator, from what I see here) On Thursday? Sorry. I have booked to see a show tomorrow night in Warrnambool. Mt Gambier is nice, but it's time to move on. Special thanks to my local mechanic, Tony Whibley (Kinglake Automotive), for giving me some idea as to how much I should actually be paying, and how long it should actually take. So, Hello O G Roberts. You have my car, now make it better. The timing might be a bit tight, but it's the best bet we've got to get where we want to be, when we want to be there.
I then spent the rest of the day in the pool mucking around with the boys. Fingers crossed that tomorrow we get our car back with time to spare for the trip East.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
Adelaide Family Trip Day 13 - (Holes)
The first holiday we ever took as a family unit (Nick was just over a year old) was to Mt Gambier as (surprise, surprise) part of a brass band contest. Memories of that holiday are now faint, but we do recall:
First stop this morning was to The Lady Nelson Visitor and Discovery Centre. The Discovery Centre is the best and the worst of interpretive centres. The wetlands section looked like it should have been overhauled about 15 years ago, with bits of chicken wire sticking out from plaster near faded stuffed animals. The Lady Nelson Brig was closed for repairs (though we did get a reduction in the entry fee as a result). On the positive side the Discovery Room, showing details of European settlement, included a well made video in holographic form, and in the Geology Room, the section of volcanos included a mini light and sound show. This was the section the boys enjoyed best.
The rest of the day was spent sightseeing various types of holes around Gambier.
The Blue Lake (sitting in an extinct volcanic crater) is a a natural phenomenon where between November and March each year the water in the lake appears a very vibrant blue colour. Our visit, being in May, meant the lake was less blue, but still blue enough for me to take some happy snaps:
Maybe the photos do not show the real blueness of the water. Anyway, we did a tour of the Aquifer (Blue Lake is the source of water for domestic consumption). Not for the first time of this trip (nor for the last time today) our tour guide, Garry, made the tour special. We were the only people on the tour and it took a little while for Garry to get used to dealing with a very small group. Once he settled in to it, he was a fount of knowledge, as well as telling us things that SA Water probably didn't want him to tell us (the issues of introducing fluoride into the water in Mt Gambier for one thing). Thanks Garry.
After lunch we visited the Cave Garden, located in the heart of the town, an interesting garden created around a cavem surrounded by construction activity (and incidentally the Mt Gambier library, reputed to be one of the best small libraries in the world)
From there we travelled to the Engelbrecht Cave, an underground cave system stretching for about 400 metres, located under Mt Gambier. In what I consider to be an innovative move by the local council, the cave and surrounding land and buildings (including a cafe) have been leased for five years to a private operator. The lessee, and our guide, Brenton, had explored the caves as a kid (when it was still just glorified landfill) and after travelling the world has returned to his home town with his NZ wife to run a business and to generally raise the standards of the tourism industry in Mt Gambier. Our visit here was split into two sections. the first was the actual tour of the caves itself, fascinating in it's history (previously used as a dump for potato waste for a whiskey producer, then as an unofficial tip for the city, before being cleaned up by the local Lions Club). The caves are world renowned and are used as training bases for cave divers. The second part of the visit was to discuss tourism strategies used by tourism operators in Mt Gambier, and how some of these amy be used back in Kinglake. I thank Brenton for his tour and our chat afterwards.
The last stop on our hole tour was the Umpherston Sinkhole, an elaborate garden built in a large sinkhole by someone a long time ago with too much time on his hands. The gardens themselves were a nice to look at, but once you got over the novelty of it being in a big hole, it was just another attraction to tick off on the list.
Am enjoying a bottle of Cab Shiraz purchased from Hundred of Comaum in Penola now. Looking forward to more sight seeing tomorrow.
- not sleeping much as we were next door to a group from another band that didn't know how to sleep, just how to drink
- Visiting the Blue Lake
- Nick being terrified of the ocean when we ventured down to the water at Ocean Grove, on our way home.
First stop this morning was to The Lady Nelson Visitor and Discovery Centre. The Discovery Centre is the best and the worst of interpretive centres. The wetlands section looked like it should have been overhauled about 15 years ago, with bits of chicken wire sticking out from plaster near faded stuffed animals. The Lady Nelson Brig was closed for repairs (though we did get a reduction in the entry fee as a result). On the positive side the Discovery Room, showing details of European settlement, included a well made video in holographic form, and in the Geology Room, the section of volcanos included a mini light and sound show. This was the section the boys enjoyed best.
The rest of the day was spent sightseeing various types of holes around Gambier.
The Blue Lake (sitting in an extinct volcanic crater) is a a natural phenomenon where between November and March each year the water in the lake appears a very vibrant blue colour. Our visit, being in May, meant the lake was less blue, but still blue enough for me to take some happy snaps:
Maybe the photos do not show the real blueness of the water. Anyway, we did a tour of the Aquifer (Blue Lake is the source of water for domestic consumption). Not for the first time of this trip (nor for the last time today) our tour guide, Garry, made the tour special. We were the only people on the tour and it took a little while for Garry to get used to dealing with a very small group. Once he settled in to it, he was a fount of knowledge, as well as telling us things that SA Water probably didn't want him to tell us (the issues of introducing fluoride into the water in Mt Gambier for one thing). Thanks Garry.
After lunch we visited the Cave Garden, located in the heart of the town, an interesting garden created around a cavem surrounded by construction activity (and incidentally the Mt Gambier library, reputed to be one of the best small libraries in the world)
Adelaide Family Trip Day 12 - (Penolaraya)
Having experienced a pretty wet Saturday it was good to wake up to a sunny Sunday morning. The travel today was not going to be arduous (157 km in total) so it was to be a pretty relaxing day.
First cab off the rank was a mini drive-by tour of Robe, where we got an appreciation of the layout of the town, and visited a couple of historical relics, including the remains of the Old Gaol (built 1860/61 and used for about 22 years) and the Cape Dombey Obelisk (built 1852, used to guide ships through the entrance of Guichen Bay).
From Robe our next destination was Penola. This is the Coonawarra wine district, one of the best known red wine regions in Australia and was voted Most Fabulous Wine Region in the world at a 2004 International Wine Tousirm Conference. Prior to eating and drinking our initial stop in Penola was supposed to be a quick one - "for the kids". We spent a couple of hours at this place and was absolutely amazed by it.
The place I refer to is Penola Fantasy Model Railway and Rose's Tea Room, also known as Penolaraya.
In all honesty I was not expecting much from this place. It was in a side street and it looked as though you were entering the front rooms of someone's house. No-one greeted us at the front counter and it sounded a bit too quiet, like no-one was around. Having paid our entrance fee we then stepped through the cafe area to the main inside room. Rather than provide an initial description I will provide photos:
The creator of all this, Graham, is a retired school teacher who has always had a vivid imagination and has spent a good 10 years of his life developing this fantasy railway. It is apparently the largest fantasy railway in Australia, and I'd believe it.
The boys (and I) like going to see railways. The last one we visited was in Hobart and was a replica of a Swiss mountainside, including day and night sessions as well as different seasons. A few years ago we visited one in Emerald, being the largest HO gauge set in the southern hemisphere. One of the reasons that these are good places to visit is because for the owners, this is more than a business or an extension of their hobby. This is their passion. They live this stuff. And they want to share their passion, their knowledge, their love of their interests with other people. Yes, some may see them as being slightly loopy, eccentric, reliving their childhood, but I think it makes them more interesting.
As a former school teacher, Graham was able to communicate well with the kids. He had created a series of "Where's Wally" type quizzes where you had to locate various characters amongst hundreds of figurines dotted throughout the displays. As an example, there were 3 Colonel Sanders figures, dozens of smurfs, and a number of obscure figurines from the Yellow Submarine (the captain of the yellow submarine, blue meanies). The only groups missing were SciFi figures as I couldn't see Star Wars or Star Trek represented (though an Alien was there).
The quizzes were given to adults and kids alike. If you finished them quickly he would then proceed with additional quizzes, mostly made up then and there. Graham could tell if you were genuinely interested and would spend more time telling you about his creation.
There was an outside area as well. In the next couple of months 200m of track are to be laid down and with the purchase of some "really fast" trains, will make the outside just as spectacular as the inside.
If you are ever in the Coonawarra region I strongly suggest you spend some time at Penolaraya. You will not regret it.
Do not worry, I did not ignore the wines. Lunch was at Terra Rossa Wine Club, where we enjoyed some tapas and I managed to taste 4 or 5 different reds as well as their dessert white (to go with my dessert). The keys were then handed to Lesley who drove on to Mt Gambier, where we will be for the next few days.
First cab off the rank was a mini drive-by tour of Robe, where we got an appreciation of the layout of the town, and visited a couple of historical relics, including the remains of the Old Gaol (built 1860/61 and used for about 22 years) and the Cape Dombey Obelisk (built 1852, used to guide ships through the entrance of Guichen Bay).
 |
| Photo of Ben taking a picture of the Obelisk |
From Robe our next destination was Penola. This is the Coonawarra wine district, one of the best known red wine regions in Australia and was voted Most Fabulous Wine Region in the world at a 2004 International Wine Tousirm Conference. Prior to eating and drinking our initial stop in Penola was supposed to be a quick one - "for the kids". We spent a couple of hours at this place and was absolutely amazed by it.
The place I refer to is Penola Fantasy Model Railway and Rose's Tea Room, also known as Penolaraya.
In all honesty I was not expecting much from this place. It was in a side street and it looked as though you were entering the front rooms of someone's house. No-one greeted us at the front counter and it sounded a bit too quiet, like no-one was around. Having paid our entrance fee we then stepped through the cafe area to the main inside room. Rather than provide an initial description I will provide photos:
The boys (and I) like going to see railways. The last one we visited was in Hobart and was a replica of a Swiss mountainside, including day and night sessions as well as different seasons. A few years ago we visited one in Emerald, being the largest HO gauge set in the southern hemisphere. One of the reasons that these are good places to visit is because for the owners, this is more than a business or an extension of their hobby. This is their passion. They live this stuff. And they want to share their passion, their knowledge, their love of their interests with other people. Yes, some may see them as being slightly loopy, eccentric, reliving their childhood, but I think it makes them more interesting.
As a former school teacher, Graham was able to communicate well with the kids. He had created a series of "Where's Wally" type quizzes where you had to locate various characters amongst hundreds of figurines dotted throughout the displays. As an example, there were 3 Colonel Sanders figures, dozens of smurfs, and a number of obscure figurines from the Yellow Submarine (the captain of the yellow submarine, blue meanies). The only groups missing were SciFi figures as I couldn't see Star Wars or Star Trek represented (though an Alien was there).
The quizzes were given to adults and kids alike. If you finished them quickly he would then proceed with additional quizzes, mostly made up then and there. Graham could tell if you were genuinely interested and would spend more time telling you about his creation.
There was an outside area as well. In the next couple of months 200m of track are to be laid down and with the purchase of some "really fast" trains, will make the outside just as spectacular as the inside.
Do not worry, I did not ignore the wines. Lunch was at Terra Rossa Wine Club, where we enjoyed some tapas and I managed to taste 4 or 5 different reds as well as their dessert white (to go with my dessert). The keys were then handed to Lesley who drove on to Mt Gambier, where we will be for the next few days.
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