Packed up. Bye bye Blue Mountains :(

I've landed a F/T job in Dunedin, New Zealand. We're shipping off in 2 weeks and we're getting rid of everything to make a light load. Sunshine and I are very sad to leave, as the mountains has given us a beautiful life style. We had a very good house with a secure yard for the dogs and easy access to some wonderful walks. But its bye bye Blue Mountains, hello Dunedin.

We're excited about moving to New Zealand actually. We love mountains obviously, and NZ has quite a few of those. Dunedin is a lovely town, with plenty of interesting shops and sights to visit. See the pictures I took on our first visit.

So this blog has changed from "Life in the Mountains" to "Life in the South". The URL has to change too. http://lifesouth.blogspot.com

See you over there.

Visit to Jenolan Caves

We've had Aunty Mary out from the Philippines for the past few days. Unfortunately its been cold and rainy for those days. So we went out to the Jenolan Caves for the day. Lucas Cave was pretty good, they even have musical concerts in there twice a month.

Here's the rest of the photos.

Our New Years Eve

Sunshine and I went canoeing for new year's eve. F@%k it was hot! Somewhere in the 40's I reckon!

We drove down from the mountains (dum move actually - as it just got hotter), through the Wollemi National Park, down to the Colo River.

It was very crowded and all campsites were booked out. We ended up finding an unlocked gate and set up camp on someone's land. Turned out the landowner lives in Tasmania, so we had a good 2kms of river front all to ourselves.

We put the canoe in at around 7pm for some on dusk, glassy water paddling. It was very peaceful.

After dinner, we watched a DVD on the laptop, had a few drinks and went to bed. Unfortunately we didn't get much sleep on account of some furious mozzie action, even with a net over us, and some extreme heat. Man! summer can be rotten. Bringing the fan was a very good idea!!

The next day, it was just too hot and windy (even at 7 am in the morning) to think about more paddling. We drove back up the mountians and put the canoe in at Dam Cliffs. Much nicer, less crowded, cooler water.

Life in the mountains is so much nicer. That'll be the last time we take a holiday anywhere other than the mountains!

You can see all our photos here.

Land on Booth Ave

Sunshine and I have been looking at land up here in the mountains. Tired of paying off a landlord's investments, we want our own place, where we can build and renovate pretty much how we please, and be investing in our lives together while we're at it.

Here's a block we really like. 2000m2, surrounded by bush and the Blue Mountains National Park, gently sloping, overlooking a bush valley. Few neighbours, road access, power and phone lines, but no water or sewage. Asking $105 000.

We think that's a pretty good price, a sign that things are getting real up here again. We spend long hours looking into possibilities for affording a $190 000 loan to buy the block and build a very basic shed/house with a view to renovating it as we go. I've started saving links for building.

Not having water or sewage is a bit of a problem, but not as much as the likely council requirements such as bushfire threat management, that may require us the clear the trees beyond the property boundry! I have a fort like house design in mind if this requirement becomes a reality...
Blue Mountains City Council has an excellent map service that shows a lot about the blocks for sale up here.

So we've made a few inquiries to banks, and typed our figures into the available calculators. Things look grim actually. My 'self employed' status won't help matters, and my annual income may only just scrape us in for the amount we're asking. And we still have to pull together a 10% deposit... all this to get a loan with repayments equal to the rent we pay anyway!

Bike Dogging to Pulpit and Anvil Rock

Sunshine, the dogs and I have just returned from a pretty good bike dogging leg. We drove out to Hat Hill Rd, along it a bit, and bike dogged it down to Pulpit Rock, then on the Anvil Rock. Nice trip, easy going, dogs did well.

It snowed up here again!

Its been pretty cold of late, and the day before yesterday snow flacks were being blown all around, but nothing settled. Then over night it managed to settle a bit, giving as a glorious morning!



Here's the temperature inside at 8 in the morning:



It was Blackish's first time to see snow. It was funny to watch her running around in the deck, slipping and having big stacks!

Bike Dogging to Victoria Falls

Went Bike Dogging again on Sunday. This time Sunshine came along. We ate lunch atthe Yum Cha place at Mount Victoria, then road down to Victoria Falls. Nice views and the dogs did well. I've since harnessed them up in line, rather then side by side, as Mistisa is clearly the lead dog, while Blackish does better as a second.

Mount Vic Flicks to see "What the Bleep do we Know?"

Went to Mount Vic Flicks for the first time on Sunday. We saw What the Bleep do we Know, an interesting film about neuro science, quantam mechanics, the soul and spirituality, and human conciousness and nature!! Heavy going hey? It was pretty thought provoking.

But Mount Vic Flicks is pretty charming. Nice old style cinema still selling chock cones. I hope these types of cinemas keep it going. Here's a shot of the screen...



and another before the film

Posters in Katoomba

I've noticed the poster poles in town recently. A couple on there caught my eye. Here's one that appeared to be screen printed:



And another interesting adaption of the old ripticket style. Interesting style and content of course!

Bike Dogging

I dunno about you guys, but the price of petrol is killing me!
So I've put my 2 over active dogs to good use, and started training them in bike dogging.

Here they are after a 1 hour ride through the bush! I gotta say, it was bloody great!

Here's a look at my bike dog harness, collars (am about to buy body harnesses) clipped in to a Y, clipped to a rope passing through some irrigation pip (prevents leg tangle) then about 1.5 m to the bike head tube. Its very easy to control (so long as you're a pretty experienced trail rider). Even when they make a dash for another dog (something I hope they'll grow or train out of) If I keep a strong line, they get pulled quite quickly back into line.
Soon we'll do a bike dogger through the local town ;)

Jo's Walk

Jo came to visit last week. She took Sunshine and I on a nice walk that links Centenial Glen to Porter's Pass and accross to what I know as Celebrity Crag.


Here's the view back towards Centenial Glen and Porters Pass climbing area. We are about to climb up to Celebrity Crag. I spotted some good looking lines along this way.


Jo's favourite water fall is this little one, just down from Centenial Glen. When viewed straight on, the bolder at the bottom looks just like an elephant! Hence Jo's name for the falls - Elephant Falls.


And Centenial Glen is a beautiful place for walking under falls. Pitty about the erosion being caused by the climbers though.


We rested at Celebrity Crag while to our left a couple of climbers made their way up the cliffs. The dogs where well behaved on the walk, Mistisa's saddle bags slowing her down just a touch, and keeping her from running off too far.

It Snowed Today!!

Yesturday it was sleet and hail. I was getting so excited, I called it snow!


Today though, it snowed for sure! About an inch of cover. Enough to clip sunshine into her skis and get pushed around the deck.


Our dog Mistisa has never seen snow before, she was quite curious about it, giving it a taste and eating it. Our other dog Black One, was in getting desexed this day so sadly missed it.



Aparently, it only seems to snow once in the Blue Mountains every year, and only lasts half a day at that. This snow melted on the same day, but was enough to get us amped for a ski trip down south.

Climbing at Mount Boyce

Richard's brother Peter was keen to try out climbing for the first time today. Richard tool him to Mount Boyce for a taste on "The Erie". Peter's girlfirend Zoe found a safe pirch to watch from, where she snaped these pictures.



This is Peter seconding up the final pitch of "The Erie". What a great climb too! I'm sitting behind Richard up the top, belaying Sunshine up "Set, Piece, Battle", a harder climb at grade 14 (though I reckon its even harder again). If you look closely at the photo below you can see Sunshine about to sink her teeth into a steep section, while Peter prepares himself for stepping out of the cave on the erete.

Mum's Visit

Mum came to visit over the weekend. Sunshine and I were recovering from colds so I hope we didn't pass it over to her. Cooked up a lamb roast, and mum chewed the bones by the fire, much to the dogs dismay!

Sunshine's Family Visit

Sunshine's parents, brother and sister came to stay over the weekend. Fen and Steve came to the pub where Sunshine used to work. I tool them all down to Mount Piddington the next day and belayed everyone of Hocus Pocus. It was funny to watch.

Chris and Amanda Visit

My old friends Chris and Amanda visited us over the weekend. It was great to see them again. Sunshine and I showed them around the Mountains which put on a lovely show for us all.




We ate out at Cafe Zuppa where Chris told me of his plan to start manufacturing active wear back in Taiwan. I'm looking foward to seeing his products as I can see his been putting a bit of thought into the designs and stuff.



The highlight of the day for me was the visit to Evan's Lookout in the afternoon. Perfect light in perfect weather really made for some nice views and pictures.

Sweet Dreams

Keeping the big easy day climbs going after the inspiring Arapiles trip, Sunshine and I headed down to Sublime Point and climbed "Sweet Dreams" for the day.


Its a great climb well protected all the way, but perhaps a little loose in places. By far the most thought provoling section would have to be the traverse on the third pitch. Here's a shot I took of Sunshine sitting at the second belay after I finished the worrying taverse.

Sunset Climbing Again. Tal, Narrow Neck.

Sunshine and I managed to fit in another sunset climb today. We went back to Narrow Neck, but this time abseiled in over Cave Climb. We weren't expecting a 5O meter abseil, as the guide didn't really say exactly where the abseil was. We couldn't find a shorter one so ended up going down Cave Climb's route. We only brought one rope though, which meant we had to split the abseil into two 25 meter descents. There just so happened to be another couple climbing Cave who didn't mind us interrupting their peace and quite for a while, and let us use their anchors for the second decent.

The exciting abseil over and done with, we walked a fare way along the cliff base to find Tal. A 3 star grade 14 that Sunshine picked out.



Tal was a bit of a heart stopper actually. It has a couple of traverses and run out sections to worry about, but I think that may just be because I went off route. The direct line "Toll" - grade 16 looks like a real beauty by the way.

We combined the first and second pithes of Tal, with a great belay ledge to sit on.




First belay ledge, good to get to, roomy, flat, comfy and with great views.

The final pitch was a bit scrubby. Again, not sure if I was off route. Don't think I was, but a traverse right back over Toll would make it a pretty interesting trip.


Second belay ledge anchors.

There is a final pitch that can be added to the Tal experience, but we'll have to return another day for this as the sun was setting, and we were able to walk out from the second pitch. The add on final pitch looks pretty good though.


Sunsetting while sunshine coils the rope.

Images from Just Pictures