Below are some photos I took around Sydney during my visit here in July.
Bev and I rode to Pie in the Sky from Wahroonga and back to Hornsby. It was a rather challenging 42 kilometre ride. Here we are at Pie in the Sky
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| Main street Millthorpe |
I am over in Sydney for a month, ostensibly to see the Tour de France free to air on SBS, but in reality it is to spend time with Bev.
I have been doing this for the past three years and typically we go away somewhere new for a few days. It is always difficult at this time of the year as school holidays are on and it means places are more expensive. However, for the most part the central west is not a popular place because it is cold and can even sometimes snow. This time we decided to go to Millthorpe. Millthorpe is a little heritage village about 15 minutes south of Orange.
The trip from Sydney takes about three and half hours driving via the Blue Mountains.
We arrived there on Monday 12 July. It was a very nice day in Sydney when we left, with the predicted high to be 20 degrees. The temperature plummeted as we climbed into the Blue Mountains so that when we stopped for lunch in Leura it was around 8 degrees. Very much puffer territory.
It was a similar temperature when we arrived at our studio in Millthorpe. The cloud had rolled in and there was a rather cold wind blowing. Our studio, called The Speckled Nest, is very cute but is deficient in light, WIFI, and smart TV. The latter is very small and is like viewing a TV when we were young. Fifty years ago they were small, in black and white and typically sat in the corner of the lounge or living room a long way from the viewers. That did not bother me at the time as I loved TV.
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| Outside our cottage |
All that has changed and I enjoy being immersed in a programme in the same way as going to the movies.
With no streaming TV and nothing on linear TV we had a lovely evening playing games.
Tuesday
It took us a while to get going in the morning. There is something nice about not having to be anywhere in particular at a specific time. We wandered to down to a rather nice café called The Providore where we had an excellent coffee and a little treat.
Then we went for a walk around part of the village to get several views of the heritage railway station. It is incredibly well maintained although it does not seem to be functional any longer other than as a place for passengers to alight or depart on a train. According to an information board the train service is once a day from Sydney returning to Sydney later in the afternoon, The service had recommenced in 2019. I suspect it must have been a freight line only for a while, although in the early days it would have been the main transport link to Sydney.
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| The historic railway station at Millthorpe |
Millthorpe grew around the railway station and a flour mill established in the late 19th century. The years from 1900 to 1960 were the golden years of the village. This extract summarises a little of its history:
The railway station and siding became the beating heart of Millthorpe’s success, connecting local agricultural producers with expanding markets in Sydney. The Mill depended on rail, as did farmers and merchants eager to supply the state’s growing urban appetite.
Millthorpe rose to become one of the largest rail centres in NSW, exporting flour, chaff, and later potatoes. It was during this golden age of agriculture and commerce that the village’s built character was truly forged. Elegant and functional buildings sprang up - many of which still line the streets today - serving commercial, agricultural, and civic needs.
Commerce thrived with the establishment of a butter factory in 1894, a jam factory in 1922, and a freezing works that exported rabbits. The village also boasted one of the state’s busiest freight-handling centres, alongside essential services like banks, a post office, schools, churches, and telephone facilities - everything required for a thriving rural hub.
All this seems to have come to a halt around 1960. I assume changes in the market and alternative and more efficient ways of getting produce processed and to the market were determinants of decline in the commerce.
It is now largely a tourist destination. Fortunately, most of the old buildings still remain. Apart from tarmac I suspect it does not look too different from the late 19th century although the shops are selling different things nowadays.
We continued on a long loop around the village, and it was interesting to see there is quite a bit of development on the outskirts of the village with some very large lifestyle homes being built.
After lunch we visited a local winery outlet, Angullong, where we tasted a very nice range of wines. We were hosted by the owner of the vineyard who is in her mid-eighties and sharp as a tack. She was very engaging. Her granddaughter, who was home from university was helping out.
The wines were very interesting and they grew a range of Italian red and white grapes because, we assume, that’s the wine she enjoys most. One of the better wines was an interesting blend of grapes that was called Harriet, which is the matriarch’s name.
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| Cacoar |
Later we drove to Blayney and then to another heritage village called Cacoar. It was very pretty but with fading light and it being rather cold we did not spend much time there.
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| As if this was still operating in Cacoar |
Wednesday - GPS sends us the wrong way
It was time to do a bit more exploring. We visited The Providore for our morning fix of coffee and a little pastry. The made a very very nice fruit loaf.
Mount Canobolus and is an extinct volcano, it is also the high point in this area rising to about 4000 ft above sea level. Apparently it regularly gets snow. While it had been cold it had not been snowy cold. It had been recommended as a place to visit.
We plugged the destination into Apple Maps and followed its directions. It took us to the southern side of the mountain and before long it had us climbing up a gravel road that looked like it was mainly used by logging trucks. For a while we were the only car on the road taking it slowly up the unknown road. We let a 4WD vehicle pass us and shortly after we encountered a rather damp stretch of clay. Bev was unsure about going through it being concerned that we might get stuck. So I turned around the car and headed back the way we came. A truck had passed earlier and we caught up to it. By this time we were thinking perhaps this was the wrong way to the summit. Then a few minutes later the 4WD that had passed us caught up to us. We wondered at that point whether the road had become unpassable.
Later in
Orange we were talking to a woman in the Information Centre about our little
adventure and she said that other people had been sent by Maps up a similar road as
us. It seemed later, when we did drive up
to the summit, that the only way there was on the sealed road we eventually followed. The view was fairly restricted due to trees
stopping us seeing much of the surrounding area. It was also bitterly cold up there due to a
stiff southerly. 
At the top of Mt Conobolus - it was very cold
While we were in Orange we visited the local Art Gallery where there was a rather interesting exhibition by a local artist. It was an installation that involved a huge number of coloured balls on filaments of nylon strung across half the room and filling the room. It was fascinating. All in all we had interesting day.
Thursday - Returning to Sydney
It had been very cold overnight but by the time we got up if there was any ice on the car it had well and truly disappeared. It was a sunny day and while cool mid-morning it was very pleasant to walk to another rather nice café nearby.
It was another four drive back to Sydney. This time we went through Bilpin which is an apple growing area on the eastern flanks of the Blue Mountains. Near Bilpin we stopped so that Bev could get an apple pie for which the area is renowned for. They grow apples in this area. I guess the cooler days allow for them to thrive.
Below are some photos of Millthorpe that I liked.
Looking over Millthorpe at dusk
Sponge Bay
T had said we needed to be at the market by 9 o’clock to be assured of getting the best vegetables. It was another bluebird day promising to heat up considerably during day.
When we arrived at the market was really buzzing but no one was selling
anything. We discovered that they aren’t
allowed sell until a bell is rung. So
here were the hordes of people wanting give away their money in exchange for
their goods but unable buy anything. The
bell was duly rung and money began exchanging hands. It was not a large market compared to the
Hawkes Bay Market or for that matter the Marlborough Farmers Market, but they
had a range of product including vegetables, breads, honey, macadamias, and
preserves. The vendors seemed to be
doing a reasonable business. One vendor
had Manuka honey for $10 a kilogramme but I don’t think it was tested for the antibacterial
factor. 
Gisborne Farmers Market
I took the vegetables back to the AirBnB as I didn’t want the heat to ruin them. Then it was back to the cottage for some finishing touches.
The cottage
On the way back to the AirBnB Trudy suggested I call into a berry
shop. I did so and I spied some boysenberries that I have not had for a
while. They looked really nice so got a ice-cream container of them (the
only option). I was waiting for Trudy as we were going have a coffee, so
I sat down on a bench and put the berries on table. Just as I did that
the bench tipped up and I ended on the ground along with the berries which also
tipped down. They were not cheap so I gathered them up and put them in
the container to wash when I got back to the house.
T said that she decided she was going back home that afternoon and asked what I wanted to do. I could understand her need to get back to her home as it. I didn’t want travel in the heat of the afternoon. There would be enough of that the next day and I was planning to leave as early as possible to avoid as much of the heat as I could. There was also the Hawkes Bay Farmers Market to visit as a break on my way back to Wellington . And, I wanted to enjoy the warm dry weather before venturing back to Wellington and the lousy weather we were having at the moment.
I helped T fill her little car to the gunnels. It was amazing how much it could take.
After T departed I changed into my cycling gear and headed out to see what other delights were to be seen around the city. I visited Sponge Bay which is another surfing beach. The access to the beach was restricted due to a storm having eroded the cliff surrounding the beach. The steps had been washed away and the carpark had huge chunk out of it.
View from Sponge Bay looking to Young Nicks Head
I road into town along the cycleway and took my time looking at the various
points of interest. Being a nice day
there were a number of riders and walkers.
Oneroa Beach was a hive of activity with brave souls walking gingerly into
what must have been reasonably cool water.
The temperature was almost perfect being not too hot or too cold with a
gentle cooling breeze coming off the water.
I rode along the main street. They have tried to beautify it but it still looked a little run down to me. There are some very old buildings that are still occupied by shops giving it quaint look.
I rode alongside the river to the confluence of two of them where they combined to flow out to sea. It is easy to see how Gisborne floods with the two rivers combining to over flow the banks when rainstorms like the recent cyclone occur. The city is very flat!
After returning to the AirBnB I packed up the car and tidied up the house ready for an early departure on Sunday morning. It had been a really interesting stay there and the weather couldn’t have been better.
Looking toward Kaiti Beach 
Oneroa Beach
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| A representation of Young Nick pointing out land |
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| One of the rivers |
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| The confluence |
By the time we finished the temperature had climbed to the late 20s but as humidity was really low it was quite manageable and almost manageable if one was in the shade.
I had never been to Matawhero Wines, which was one of the earlier boutique wineries, and T wanted visit it so off we went. They made their name when Denis Irwin, the owner, made a Gewürztraminer that won a number of gold medals in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was a long lived and particularly lovely wine.
The winery was in a lovely setting with tables out on the front lawn mostly in the shade. It was far too hot to sit in the sun. We sat on the veranda and had a flight of 5 wines including the iconic Gewürztraminer, a more recent version of course. The wines were well made with the best probably being the said Gewürztraminer and coming in second, in my view, a single vineyard Chardonnay. I The winery was only open for three and a half hours and our late arrival meant it was a quick departure as the hostess booted us out claiming both that the license required her to stop serving at 3:30 and to have everyone gone ten minutes later. She also said she had been working really hard that day. It sounded a very strange license requirement.
Matawhero winery
We then headed back into town to a Mediterranean food shop called Vetro, which T said was very good. I was able to find stuff that was difficult if not impossible to procure in Wellington. The retail assistant was from Argentina and so we talked about the political situation and then moved onto the the food and wine of both countries. She commented about how the Argentina had the potential to be very wealthy but that wealth had been squandered or only gone to a few elites. I commented that we had been to Mendoza and how we had a love affair with the wine. For her the wines were the better than New Zealand. She liked the big and bold flavours whereas she found New Zealand wines to be rather insipid. I agree with her description of the Argentinian wines but I think that NZ wines are by and large extremely good on the quality/value for money spectrum. Argentinian ones are as well particularly as their peso is almost worthless.
T had decided that we should go to the movies. The movie was Pulp Fiction. The venue was The Dome which turned out to be a former gentleman’s club one of many that were dotted around the country. It was all faded glory. Some of the furniture dated from sixty to seventy years ago and were long past their best. It was all dark panelling and dim light so much that I could imagine the landed gentry in smoke filled rooms, fulminating against the government, the council or anything else that irritated them. It was likely that no women permitted back before about 1980. Now apart from a few places in the main centres these places have died along with their patrons. Many of my generation couldn’t think of anything worse that belonging to such a club.
The movie was held in a room with beautiful stained-glass domes adorning the ceiling. I walked in to see that we were being seated in bean bags in a semi reclining position arranged by the staff. We were the oldest there by two generations. We were literally eased into the correct sitting or reclining position and there were even beanbags for the feet. It was very cute. There was an intermission when the pizza and chips arrived for each of the guests.
I remember seeing Pulp Fiction back in the 1990s but apart from the violence I couldn’t remember much else. Seeing it again thirty years later it wasn’t all that violent and the story was engaging as were the protagonists. The dialogue was brilliant. It was wonderful entertainment and a triumph of film making, in my opinion, and it still feels very fresh.
It was a beautiful clear blue sky that greeted me when I opened the curtains. T was still hunkered down in her bedroom so I decided to go for a walk to the beach which I had been assured was only 15 minutes’ walk away. Indeed it was!
The beach was a beautiful strip of light grey sand still showing the effects of the storms that have blighted this region over the past year. There are still significant amounts of forestry slash.
Wainui Beach
The beach is renowned as a premier surf beach said to be the best in New Zealand. When I got there I stopped to talk with a guy who had a camera set up to take photos of the local surfers. He said he was doing it make up a surfing calendar. He had motorcycle with a trailer which he said he took all around NZ following the surf breaks.
Riding the waves
The sea was full of black wetsuit clad surfers bobbing up and down on the waves before they launched themselves onto breaking wave. They were all ages. Further along the beach from where I was some people had constructed a pavilion made out of the slash. It looked reasonably sturdy given that it had nothing physical like nails or rope holding it together. Someone had even set up a Christmas tree inside it. Not only were there surfers, there were beach walkers and the girlfriends of the surfers, the latter were absorbed in watching what was happening to their partners on the water.
After breakfast I called into the local café to get a cup of coffee. It is a vegan café so the milk for my flat white was oat milk but I had a choice of others. The coffee was rather good. The food offerings didn’t look too bad either.
T’s deceased son’s cottage is very cute. Very old and in need of someone who wants a rather large renovation job. It was good to do a bit of manual work like digging out things. Such activity doesn’t happen when you live in a flat. The closest one gets to such exercise is potting plants or herbs, which is not the most physical of activities. My job was to dig out a couple of planter boxes and then to clean some windows that were covered in some gritlike stuff that seemed embedded into the glass. With heat rising it was rather difficult to keep the water on long enough for the cleaning materials to do their thing.
After some lunch back at the AirBnB I took my bike on a ride into Gisborne. It was rather nice being on a manual bike again. The trail was concrete so it was easy riding on a route that was very flat. Almost nothing like it in Wellington except for going around the bays . The cycle path took us from Wainui Beach to the port area. The area around the port is rather pretty in an industrial sort of wa and is full of restaurants and cafés . I kept following the cycle path and it took me to Waikanae beach which was not quite as nice as Wainui. Several kite surfers were taking advantage of the northeasterly wind.
Looking toward the port
Commerating the beginning of colonisation 
Waikanae Beach looking toward the port
The ride back to the AirBnB was a bit more energy inducing due to a brisk head wind. The exercise was good and I like seeing the neighbourhood at a slower speed than driving.
I sat in the shade reading for the rest of the afternoon. We went to a restaurant called Works for dinner. It is in the port area and was an old warehouse or something before being repurposed. The food was ok with T having the pick of the dishes, a pork loin with a slightly hot sauce and interesting vegetables. Unfortunately, my main of snapper was dry and slightly overcooked. Everything was crisp and quite tasteless. It was a disappointment.
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| Ringside view of the action |
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| Girlfriends and assorted supporters |
My friend T had asked me to come to Gisborne to help do some work around a house that her deceased son had owned. I was at first reluctant but decided that it would be an interesting adventure.
I had a meeting to go to on the day I was planning to leave so I had packed the bags and loaded the bike on the back of the car ready for a speedy departure. According to Maps the distance was 537 kilometres or thereabouts taking the fastest route. It was predicted to take 7½ hours.
Wellington had rare nice start to the day being very mild and even warm. It felt like summer. I wandered down to the barber and had my well overdue haircut. I was starting to look like some eccentric old bloke I thought. Then it was a walk to CAB picking up some cherries along the way. I had a bit of time so I stopped for a coffee.
The meeting was long and didn’t seem to go anywhere with some people dominating which is very irritating. While sitting there I suddenly realised that I had forgotten to pick up my cherries. That was the third thing I had left behind in an hour. A cap and then my glasses at the barber’s. I wondered about my memory for a moment.
Fortunately when I returned to the café they had kept my cherries for me. That was so nice.
I got away soon after getting home. The route I took was up towards Palmerston North and then over Saddle Hill to Woodville. The GPS said it was the fastest but I think with all the traffic delays it would have been quicker going up through Greytown.
I stopped for lunch and coffee at Woodville and then it was through to Napier where I stopped to get fuel. Then I had a hold up going out of Napier. It was one of the many roadworks that I encountered during the journey. It was rather slow going from Napier to Wairoa. There were many one way stretches and even a bailey bridge to go over. Many of these were controlled by traffic lights. I can see why the road was closed for so long, there were dropouts all along the route, the hills were scarred with slips but where there was native bush it seemed to have been spared. The creeks and streams were still full of forestry slash and I guess what is left is just a small percentage of what came out of the hills. I had forgotten what steep, narrow and windy route it was. The contractors have done an amazing job getting the road open. T had driven the road six weeks previously and said the progress since she came up had been significant.
A cyclone certainly wrecks devastation on the land but it also heals quickly and it possible to see the green starting to appear in places where there was once mud.
I stopped briefly at Wairoa to go to the loo and stretch my legs. I finally arrived in Gisborne at 7:30pm. An eight hour drive it was which is half an hour longer than predicted by Maps. The hour and half from Wairoa was on a road that also had experienced its fair share of damage however, it is not as steep and windy as the Napier to Wairoa section.
Finally I arrived in Wainui a seaside suburb of Gisborne. I will be interested to see the famed surf beach just around the corner.
Some of the driving left a lot to be desired with one bloke passing just before a blind corner and another passing on double yellow lines. They were really lucky not kill themselves and some other poor sod coming the other way. New Zealand drivers are so bad it is no wonder we kill so many. Part of the problem is that our roads are relatively narrow, full of vehicles and lots of trucks which are very long and are difficult to pass even when there are passing lanes as the truck and trailer units are so long.
Byabarra Cafe
I had always wondered what the hinterland was. It seems that it is the bit of land a few
kilometres inland from the sea before the Great Dividing Range. Beyond that is the Outback where you find the
black stump.
Bev wanted to call into a café at a little national park on the outskirts of Port Macquarie for a coffee. It was a very nice peaceful place in an area of remnant subtropical rain forest. After our coffee Bev decided we should take a walk around the forest on the elevated boardwalk. It was quite beautiful. We heard a few species bird calls none of which we could identify, saw a reptile that looked like a snake (called a land mullet) but in fact has little legs. We were also told there were monitor lizards around and brush turkeys (which Bev spotted two of). The bush is so unlike the NZ bush, and despite recent rain there was not the same wet smell you get in NZ.
After our walk we headed off to Wauchope on what was described as a
tourist drive. The town was described in
the brochure as being a full of cafés and interesting shops. It was Sunday and most of them were shut and
there did not seem to be many cafés – it was a bit underwhelming. Of course there were a couple of large clubs -
one related to sport and the other and RSL.
They are very much part of the fabric of Australian life.
As we left the village we got hit with a tropical downpour. The rain battered the car for a few minutes then it was all over. Our next stop was to be Comboyne for lunch. The road we were on was very much like one in the Waikato countryside, all rolling hills and lush green paddocks broken up by stands of eucalyptus trees.
We slowed to pass through a little place called Byabarra when we both spied an interesting looking café with lots of cars. We decided that it must be reasonably good so called in and despite looking small from the outside it opened out into quite a large venue with expansive views over a very green valley. The village consisted of the café, a church and a few houses. We had some rather nice food sitting outside looking out at the view.
The road from there took us up the side of an escarpment, through a forest recently devastated by a fire onto the Comboyne plateau. Apparently caused by a person tossing out a cigarette while waiting at a stop/go light. This was dairying country, and it certainly was lush and green from the recent rain. However, we were told that many farms were diversifying into other things such as avocado farming and pigs due to water issues and climate change.
Bev wanted to call into a place called Larrikins Gaol where there was coffee and gifts made by local artists as well as garden centre. I ended up having a long chat to the woman owner of the place who said she had bought the gaol and done it up with recycled local timber as the building was run down. She even had photos of it from the past into including one showing its derelict state when acquired.
After a walk around the cute little village which even had a police station we headed off toward a place called Lorne on a gravel road that was in rather good condition. We never did see Lorne despite us having been through it apparently. We went through another place called Laurieton and climbed up to a view point called North Head in the Dooragon national park which was one of the higher points around the area at 480 metres. There was a very good but hazy view of the surrounds including the coast both northeast and southwest. It was also a location for hang gliders but there were none to be seen today.
Our day ended with another barbecue meal sitting on our little deck.
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| Views from North Head looking toward North Haven (top) and Northeast to Lake Cathie |
