Christchurch Pettys in August, mainly in Melbourne!

On Puffing Billy

We spent most of August in Victoria, Australia and had a really good time.

Before we left we had to finish getting our presentation for the autism conference ready.  It involved four little talks each and four pieces of music, with video to go with the music, and video of William introducing himself. It took about two weeks' solid work to get it done, but we were pretty happy with it at the end. Jonathan memorised his part, which meant he was more fluent than when he reads.

The conference room where we did our presentation.  It was pretty full at the time!

Jonathan was endearingly excited about our trip away. Mark was nervous and I was a little nervous. I think we were all keen for the talk to be over and done with so we could relax.

Our token of appreciation from Autism Victoria

We had to get up alarmingly early at about 4:00am to catch the plane at 6:00am. The weather had been rainy in Christchurch and it continued to be rainy in Melbourne. We were collected at the airport and taken to our hotel, The Sebel Albert Park. It was a nice hotel, and really convenient to be staying at the conference venue. The Wednesday was spent getting the technical stuff sorted out, and a little walk, and lunch in town with Claudia, one of the organisers. Jonathan was almost beside himself with excitement when the Marketing manager, Fran, asked if we could appear on live television the next morning. At first it was just going to be Tony Attwood and me, but after a bit of encouragement they put Jonathan on as well


Thursday 9th August was a big day! We got up early again, and got a taxi to the Television Studio. We were taken up th the ABC news area and had makeup put on, then waited to go on the air. The programme is called ABC News Breakfast, and goes live to most, if not all of Australia. The studio is basically a sofa with space for about 6 or 8 people. They did our makeup and hair, and we went in quietly and sat on the sofa and had our mikes put on us while the presenters were talking. While a clip was rolling they talked to us quietly, then when they went on air they introduced us. Mike got Jonathan's age wrong, so Jonathan corrected him. There were heaps of stationary cameras, and the view switched to Jonathan. Then they asked us some questions and then it was all over. It was a blast.

Back at the hotel we made the most of the breakfast buffet, provided along with the room.Then the Conference opened at 9:00am. We listened to the first keynote, Tony Attwood, and then Jonathan spent the rest of the day watching TV in our room. We took up some lunch, and assembled an hour or so before the presentation to get spruced up.

Experiencing a piece of history

It went really well. We managed to get through all our prepared material, and Jonathan wowed them with his music. At the end they called for questions and there weren't any for a bit, then a woman, Rebecca got up and thanked us. She got a bit emotional, which was a bit catching. Afterwards people came up and spoke to us and eventually Jonathan got overloaded so we let him stay in our room while we went back down to talk to people.

We were a hit! The parents especially loved the presentation. They liked that we told how it was really difficult at times, but we came through. It gave them hope. That is pretty much what we had intended. And of course Jonathan's playing was awe-inspiring as usual. We were so proud of him. Several people from the Conference said the presentation was 'perfect" - as in just what they wanted from us.

On the Friday we caught the train out to Nathan and Vernice's for Dylan's welcome home. It was nice to be with them all, and especially for Mark, who hasn't seen them all for fifteen years, whereas I've been over a couple of times in the interim. Such a nice family. Jonathan got to play his Australian medley for those assembled.

Saturday we took the tram in and got a rental car for the rest of our holiday. It was Jonathan's birthday so we took him on the rollercoaster at Lunar Park. It was pretty fun. The ride is pretty mild compared to many we have been on, but Jonathan has a great capacity for enjoyment, and it is infectious.We drove over to Janet's and unloaded the gear, then headed out to Gwyneth's. We were all worn out from the preparation and conference. Everyone sang Happy Birthday to Jonathan. You can see the group photo in Nathan's post.

It was so nice to go to church with everyone the next day. Well - not everyone, but Gwyneth and Richard, and some of the Pettys. Dylan took Jonathan to class, which reminded me so much of William and Jonathan. The Relief Society Lesson was wonderful, partly because I haven't been to Relief Society this year. In the afternoon we mooched around at Nathan and Vern's, then went back to Janet's. Monday was a day off. Jonathan watched T.V. just about non-stop and Mark and I relaxed, went for a walk and had a look at Footscray market. It is a little Saigon. Tuesday Jonathan spent on the Foxtel again, sorting out all the things he was wanting to get straight in his head regarding ads, and co-ordination between NZ and Australia. I'm not sure what it was all about, but he was happy. Mark and I went to Highpoint Mall as I wanted a Sumo Salad. We also had a hot chocolate at Max Brenners and Mark about went into raptures. We went out to dinner with Joanne, my niece. She was very much a part of our lives when the boys were little, so it was lovely to catch up with her.

Wednesday was sightseeing and going to Torquay. We parked the car at Docklands and caught the free tourist bus tour. Then we had lunch and caught the free tourist tram. All good. We picked up our gear and drove down to Janet's place at Torquay, which is about an hour from Yarraville. It's a lovely modern little place, with Janet's artistic touch to it. (Not sure about the orange bedroom, but I know Nan loved it!). The next few days we walked and relaxed and watched T.V. We found out about a blind sport called Swish and went to watch the filming of "Live on Bowen", on student television.We explored the Bellarine peninsula and saw some lighthouses. We went for a drive down the Great Ocean Road. So many people had told us to do so we felt a moral obligation. It was lovely. We stayed at Bimbi Park, near the Cape Otway lightstation. (Australia's most significant lightstation, we are led to believe.)

The weather deteriorated about the time we got to Bimbi Park so we just settled in, ate hotdogs and read "To Kill a Mockingbird", which I have been reading to Jonathan over the last few months.
Monday was a lovely day. We woke to a sunny day and had a breakfast snack before heading out. We drove down to the Cape Otway Lightstation, stopping to take photos of koalas on the way down. We paid $40 to go into the lighthouse compound, where we spent about 3 hours, looking at things, and having a delicious lunch. A highlight was Pat, a real-live ex-lighthousekeeper, who sat up at the top and chatted and asked us questions.

The Christchurch Pettys at the Cape Otway Lighthouse

From there we kept driving along the Great Ocean Road, stopping at various scenic points including the Twelve Apostles, and London Bridge. Then we turned inland and drove back via Colac and Red Rock, a volcanic hill with a great view.

One view from the balcony at Cape Otway.  I quite liked how the wind blown trees looked like at river bed.

The next day we took Jonathan as promised to Geelong for a game of ten-pin bowling and a swim. There were some other blind people there at the bowling, which was quite a conincidence. Margaret and Rosemary arrived to stay a couple of nights with us and did the catering. Next day I went shopping and got nice clothes for Jessica, William and Mark. Janet came down for the afternoon and we walked to the shops for an ice cream sandwich.We started a tricky jigsaw with Australian fauna and yellow water.

Next we packed and cleaned up and drove to the ferry to travel over to stay in Dandenong (which is nowhere near as nice as the Dandenong Range). It was a beautiful day until we were at Arthur's seat and a big wind and storm came up.

We went to Dandenong so we could go on Puffing Billy and some tree rope activity place. The scenery was nice, but the train ride was freezing. I should have chosen the shorter ride, but we survived. We drove into the city to get some Walkers' Donuts.They are pretty near perfect. Make Krispy Kremes seem pretty substandard. We went to Trees Adventure, which was just great. Jonathan as usual was amazing, going along ropes and flying foxes etc. Mark is keen to go back and try a harder course.We went to Doncaster Mall, which is amazing. Mark was especially taken with the light at each park showing green or red indicating whether the park was taken or not. Fantastic.

We spent Saturday afternoon and night at Gwyneths, (Mark's cousin) and I really enjoyed getting to meet some of the daughters of the two families. Laura even downloaded my statistics app. The next day back to Fairfield, the same ward we had been to last time for church. This time Austin and Gwyneth were the speakers. Nice talks. Austin reminded me of William with his facial structure. All Pettys are good-looking it seems.

Nan stayed with us at a motel near the airport to make it easier for us all to get our flights in the morning. We got home about midday and Jessica picked us up at the airport.

Stuff other than the trip to Australia

We watched more of the Olympics than usual as we discovered a sports programme called "The Crowd Goes Wild" which did a 30 minute summary and commentary each evening. They were pretty funny and the interplay between the presenters made it very entertaining. We even set the T-box to tape it while we were in Australia!

We have now seen The Twelve Apostles

One morning we biked into town to watch a building implosion. This is the first one in New Zealand, so we didn't want to miss it. It was very cool to be there, and feel the blast from the explosives and then watch it gently fall over. You can see a video of it here. We were standing just on the other side of the trees. Yet another Christchurch building is levelled. There are whole empty blocks in the centre city now. However we haven't had an earthquake over magnitude 4 since the middle of July, and nothing over 5 since May, so we all have a quiet hope that the worst is over.

William turned twenty-five just before our trip away, so we had them over for a birthday meal (lasagna) and presents. His main present was a video camera from us and Jessica. Jonathan gave him a sodastream machine so he can make his own fizzy drink.

Jessica has a casual job with the HITLab at the University of Canterbury. She does clerical and IT tasks and miscellaneous things like cleaning out cupboards. It pays well, is a nice place to work, and she had the right number of hours to help their finances without affecting the Student Allowance. She also helps William with his school projects. He had a big individual project to film and edit to culminate his first year of the course. The second year starts almost straight away, which is sad because he doesn't get a break, but good because the student allowance carries on.

I know it's a cliche but there were a bunch of them in the trees by the road.

Pretty bird

My mother has found a nice place to live, seeing her house is being bought compulsorily by the Government.

Mairehau Primary School had their annual "grandparents day" and we got to be surrogate grandparents for the Brown children. It was so nice - we visited three classes, and then went to a concert and morning tea. The principal and DP both remembered us, which I thought was impressive as Jonathan was only there for two years. I guess he is pretty memorable.

And that was August 2012! The adventure is over for now, and the work begins on the business venture.