Good News At Last!

Saturday 9th June, 2012


On Friday as I was going to have my nails done Tony rang to say that the car was ready.  Apparently it was just the battery that was at fault.  When they replaced it, everything went back to working normally.  Thank goodness!


So, after picking Katie up and then going to get Tony we went and picked up the car.  It was so good having our car back.  Even Katie wasn't impressed with the loan car.

  Mazda 2.....loan car

Yesterday morning Tony decided he needed a hair cut.  After having that done we ended up going back to Mintaro and taking Katie to the Maze and also to Martindale Hall.

The Coach House and Stables

She was very impressed with Martindale Hall.  She loved walking up and down the beautiful staircase.  I am sure she thought she was a movie star.  This is the house they used in making the movie "Picnic at Hanging Rock" back in 1975.

Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any photos inside the Hall.  For her to get some semblance of the place I told her it was a bit like the house in Downton Abbey.  "Now I get it" she said.  The Hall is available for short stays but we decided we would prefer something more modern and warmer.  It was so cold in there.


She was horrified to think that there were no toilets back in the day (1880's) and that you had to use a potty or potty chair.  "Where's the toilet paper?" she asked.  "There was none".  "What!" she exclaimed.  "How did they have showers?" she wanted to know.  She also wasn't too sure about having fireplaces in all the rooms including the bedrooms.

Ghost gum

Our next stop was the Maze.  It was good to see that Katie enjoyed it and to make it even more enjoyable was the questionnaire that they give the kids to fill out.  It is a series of questions of things that they come across in the Maze and have to answer them, like how many gnomes live in the Maze, and what was the White Rabbit looking at, how many humps did the camel have and what was Hercules carrying on his shoulders.

Katie and Tony enjoyed a game of chess afterwards.  I think they bent the rules somewhat. 

From here we travelled onto Clare and then went to Burra.  Burra is a former copper mining town and always reminds me of a place in a western movie.  I expect to see the cowboys riding down from the hills.

We decided to go over to Port Wakefield for tea.  OMG where were the signposts?  We knew that we had to head for Balaclava but do you think we could find the road that led there. We ended up going back to Riverton, across to Stockport, Hamley Bridge and finally got on the road to Owen, Balaclava and Pt Wakefield.  Meanwhile it took us over an hour longer to get there.

After having something to eat we headed for home.   Once home it wasn't long before we were all in bed.  Katie remarked that with Poppa driving it's just one adventure after another.