Silo Artist Trail

Our hotel for the night. Stefano's restaurant is located in the cellar.

After a short walk down to the river's edge we headed south of Mildura through the Mallee and then the Wimmera, stopping to look at the three completed silos that form the Silo Artist Trail. First stop was Patchewollock. As we drove in Stephen and I wondered whether we might be underwhelmed by the artwork but we were anything but. The detail is just incredible and it looks great both from a distance and up close.

Links to news articles about Patchewollock: 

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-05/patchewollock-silos-transformed-farmer-mural-fintan-magee/7958950?pfmredir=sm

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-05/patchewollock:-music,-art,-babies/7997016

These large Mallee Fowls can also be found in Patche.
They are made from corrugated iron and timber.

Next stop was Brim. The silos at Brim were the first artwork completed just on a year ago. They are the work of world renowned artist Guido Van Helten and they are awesome. The detail is remarkable. The more you look at them the more you see. The face of the oldest farmer is just glorious. The folds and wrinkles are so life like. This is a link to a short film that shows the painting of the silos. It is very interesting - https://youtu.be/RMEaG6eUyL4 and this link shows the silos from the air - https://youtu.be/qHiirzDO4Kg

Last stop was Sheep Hills. The artwork depicted on these silos is quite different. The colours are stunning but the most beautiful thing about the paintings are the reflections of the sky and wheat fields in the eyes of the two central people. Unfortunately the photos don't do it justice. This artwork was only completed in the weeks before Christmas.

Another three silos have been commissioned and are due to be completed this year. Given the number of cars we saw visiting each silo I would suggest that it will become a real drawcard for the district.

Other interesting links:

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-27/adnate-paints-four-aboriginal-faces-sheep-hills-silos/8059530?pfmredir=sm

https://www.facebook.com/abcnews.au/videos/10155820619749988

Adelaide to Mildura

The Bay Sheffield crew. This photo was taken in Glenelg
before dropping Lach and Cal at Adelaide Airport

Yesterday we drove from Adelaide through the Barossa Valley and Riverland across the border to Mildura. We stopped for lunch at Maggie Beer's Farm Gate. I had one of her pates with homemade bread. Yum!!! The drive is not a hard one as the roads are very good. The environment is hot, dry and fairly flat. The mighty Murray winds its way through the Riverland all the way to Mildura. The orange groves in and around Mildura have been replaced by vines which seem to go on and on forever. We passed signs to many of the famous vineyards such as Lindemans and St. Anne's. We finally arrived at the Grand Hotel. After a short rest we had dinner at Stefano's and it certainly did not disappoint. There were 5 courses. There are no menus - you are simply served what has been prepared for the day, which is based on seasonal produce. We enjoyed all 5 courses but my favourite was the fettuccine with duck livers.

Wild old night in Adelaide

Adelaide was hit by a massive storm overnight. The rain was torrential and the wind extremely strong. Many homes and businesses lost power, there was flash flooding and quite a bit of damage caused by downed trees. The roof on the Glenelg Football Clubhouse was ripped off. The track in some parts was up to 10 to 15 cm underwater. However, the day itself was calm, warm and sunny and competition was able to get underway without too much delay.

Lach competed in the heats of the 130th Bay Sheffield. He ran really well, finishing in 5th spot. He is in the pink in the photo below. Jessica Payne (in the yellow in the bottom photo) from Victoria won the Women's Gift but most other races were taken out by locals. It really was a very enjoyable day of running watched by a large crowd.

They even had a parade of past winners and Hall of Famers. They rode around the track in vintage cars. One of the past winners was actually 91 years young and he enjoyed waving to the crowd and even gave a few kids on the fence a high five.

Bay Sheffield and Glenelg

We woke to rain and it really hasn't improved much over the course of the day. It is very warm and humid but the running has continued with conditions varying from drizzle to torrential. Lach ran in the 70m and competed well. Steph made the final of the 550m after winning her heat but was well off the pace in the final.

Glenelg is a really pretty place and even in the rain it is lovely walking around the beach and along Jetty Road.

Fingers crossed the weather improved overnight and we get a better day for the 120m competitions.

Kia Ora

Our flight is not until later today so once we had checked out of our hotel we decided to do a tour of the WETA Workshop. Sirs Peter Jackson and Richard Taylor of Lord of the Rings fame have produced the digital effects and props for many movies and were also responsible for the scale models at the Gallipoli exhibition. The tour lasted about an hour and it was interesting to get a sneak peek behind the scenes. 

We then went for a drive along the coast road and the views were sensational. Don't be fooled by the blue skies. It is still windy and very cool.

We are now at the airport. We have a long wait before we board our plane so we are filling in our time on our computer and iPad as the WiFi is free and pretty fast. See you all soon.

Last day in Aotearoa (Land of the long white cloud)

Today we hired a little Toyota Yaris and drove out to the Hutt River Valley which is a beautiful area north of Wellington. On the way back to the hotel we drove along the beach road and stopped at Petone Wharf. The views back towards Wellington from the wharf are wonderful, however, the weather was NOT!!! Windy Wellington has certainly lived up to its name and it was blowing a gale again today......and bloody cold. (Although we hear that it was blowing a gale again in Melbourne today too.)

It had rained heavily again overnight, but the sun did come out late in the day and I ventured out onto the balcony for the first time, to take a photo of the view out over the harbour and wharf area.

www.wellington.co.nz

......and the www stands for Wild, Wet and Windy. It was very squally and it rained quite hard all night and we woke to greyer skies than yesterday. We set off to find the underground craft market. It was a nice little market held in an underground car park on the wharf area of the city. We enjoyed a crepe for breakfast and a look around before heading into the central city area to catch the cable car up the hill. The ride up (or down) is only quite short but the views at the top are lovely. They would be magical on a sunny day. We browsed the cable car museum and watched a short film about all the private cable cars in Wellington. The wealthier citizens of Wellington build towards the top of the hillside (or on top of the hill) and put in their very own small cable cars at enormous cost. It was amazing.

The rain had set in again by then so we decided to have lunch in a cafe at the top of the line before catching the cable car back down. We managed to dodge the showers and wound our way back down and along to the wharf to Te Papa and our hotel.