here and there

After a massive absence I am back on my blog, have been too busy, had to go back to Tafe to learn pattern making to draft the patterns for the girls label https://www.facebook.com/huudaverti   have not had my camera charger to download my photos, it got left in New York. had to buy a new one a baulked at the cost of the genuine Olympus $79, managed to get one overnight from Melbourne for a price I could afford,  and of course I have been everywhere non stop.  After my trip to Gosford I headed off to Fiji for Easter and a stay on Leleuvia with a side trip to a small cay that is a seagull hatching area,  the seagulls tried to scare us away and if you can see some of the detail you will see eggs and baby chicks,  we didn't stay long and left them to their family life

 I was so excited to get these prints in Hong Kong and have them made into my family tree at a framing shop in Suva, they have done a marvelous job but it has to stay in Suva until Chris leaves as its too big for my suitcase. 

 the flights home from Fiji arrive just in time to see the most marvellous sunsets, this one taken through icy rain when Brisbane had bad weather.

After my Easter trip  to Fiji, I stayed on, then Chris and I came back to Brisbane and  went to Sydney, and back to Fiji and I came back to Brisbane before going to Fiji again and flying to NYC for the Full Figure Fashion parade,  its made me dizzy even writing about it.  It was so lovely to have all the family in New York, a couple are missing in the photo but they were there enjoying the vegan food at Pure Food and Wine, sitting outside under an umbrella on a sunny day  eating fabulous food.  Who could ask for more and there was, Italian food at Eately, and Basta Pasta,  Italian food at 5th Ave Brooklyn, Mexican food in Brooklyn, Loving Hut food on 7th Ave, I think our shop in Brisbane is better, more space,  and my favourite cucumber and yoghurt soup, and more.  With all that food I even lost weight, walking up and down the subway stairs, up  the apartment stairs and stairs and more stairs. As I write this today I have just had my routine blood test results and every thing is normal. LG.

the after 3 weeks in New York it was back to Fiji to prepare for the showcase of   designers who will be in Fiji Fashion Week in Oct.  I was backstage helping Chris and even walked out with her after the parade  to give the crowd a look at my new shirt silk top from material bought in New York.

 and after all that hectic travel it was back to our favourite island for a rest, I love exploring and this is the first time I have been able to get a photo of the white moray eel which is in the water holes at low tide as it's generally too fast to hide, you just hear a swish of water,  but not this time.

Holidays come to an end, but life is like one long holiday, off to Grafton for a few days to see some distant family, then off to Fiji next week to help prepare for the  big parade on Oct 1, life is busy for a pattern maker.

B days, beautiful blue sky, blue water, bush flowers and birthday

 On Sunday I traveled down the other side of Brisbane Water to Patonga, and at each turn the scenes were a delight, why had I waited so long to see this part of Australia? This is on the hill looking down to Woy Woy from Staples Lookout

 Driving down the road I nearly didn't go to the Mt Ettalong lookout, the parking lot was so scruffy and no sign to tell of the beauty a short walk away, but I talked to some people coming back and they said do it. This is looking south towards Palm Beach

 and then admiring the gum trees, grass trees and large rocks as I walked I made it to the lookout looking north to Gosford in the distance. What a hidden gem.

 Driving to Patonga the side of the road was lined with flannel flowers. The road ends at Patonga, but there is still more to explore.

And then on Tuesday my cousin and I went driving to Wisemans Ferry, St Albans and side roads exploring the past, only to return home to a birthday surprise.  Pavlova made by Grant who had come from Sydney especially for dinner.  Having a birthday away from home is a pretty good idea. 

Especially when I'll be back in Brisbane by Friday and then more celebrations at the weekend.  LG

 After arriving home from Fiji, I just had to get moving again, a quick trip to Gosford to fill in some family history gaps, and then at the weekend I went driving, to places I have never been before on the coast south from Terrigal, the photo above is  part of Forrester's beach. I want more time to explore those rocks

 

 then I discovered the Three Points lookout and this is the view looking north.  Captain Cook mapped this area closely

 and if you walk a bit further at the lookout you get the view to the south, to Lion Head and even south to Sydney if I had taken the photo with the panorama lens, but for some reason I couldn't get it to work

 Maitland Bay is a hidden gem, its a 20 minute walk down steps to the beach and longer coming up, I went half way  to a lookout standing on massive rocks, (the dark at the top of the photo is a  tree branch) but the mosquitos made me change my mind.  Next time I'll take repellent and be prepared. Just wish I could grow  Eriostomens like the ones I saw flowering along the track

I ended up at Wagstaffe which is the end of the road on that side of Brisbane Water but to-morrow is another day of driving and that was even more breathtaking.

The end of the journey

It was back on the Shinkansen at Nagano for a fast trip to Tokyo, then a change to the Narita Airport Express, then a taxi to the Crowne Plaza, then a free bus to Narita Station and a walk through Narita town, by this time it was getting dark, but not too dark to visit the 700 year old temple and walk up the steps to view the real temple where no  photographs are allowed. shame it was too dark to view the gardens.

 Its all down hill to view the temple and then its a steep walk back up the hill, but finding another rabbit was a reminder how nice rabbits are, especially the chinese astrology ones.

 We hadn't eaten and all the Japanese places were vegetarian unfriendly, so what better than a Mexican place, that wasn't something we had eaten for a while and it was good enough.  We were still looking for more strawberry cake so took the free Hilton bus (only for Hilton Hotel guests the sign in the bus said, but no one checks) from Narita Station to the Aeon shopping mall, but still missed out on the strawberry cake we wanted, it was late so we got a taxi back to the Crowne.

 

 Next morning it was a quick but good breakfast and in the hotel, then the bus to the Airport, a bit of duty free shopping and then clear views of all the snow which had been falling in Japan from the window of our flight to Hong Kong.

 Then it was onto our flight by Air Pacific back to Nadi, we had an evening meal which was passable but breakfast for all the vegetarians in economy was a cold bread roll, butter  4 small chunks of fruit and a small water, Alex calls them Air Pathetic, and Chris said even the prisoners in the gaol would get a better breakast, what made us laugh was that the breakfast menu had been chosen by a group of priority customers.  On landing we headed off to the Hilton for a better breakfast, the food was OK but the flies were terrible and none of the food was covered, so we had to watch what we were choosing.    Then taking turns on the drive back to Suva  to unpack, get used to the hot weather again and realise what a great time we had.

The Fire Festival

 After our dinner it was a short walk through the snow to the site of the fire festival, held every year on 15 Jan to ensure the gods look kindly on Nozawa Onsen.  Everything was ready when we arrived and most of the good viewing spots were taken, the snow had turned to smooth ice from all the footprints and it was quite hard to stand, but that made the scene more exciting,  The fireworks went off, the drums were beating,   a fire was lit to provide a lighter for all the bundles of twigs, the 42 year old men sitting on the platform were in full voice, the 25 year old men were waiting for the battle to commence and we found a safer spot to stand just near the police tent, as none of us wanted to end up with broken bones from the slippery ice.

 

the photo above is one of the two poles, with decorations made by the 60 year old women in the village and wishes for every boy child born in the last year.  Usually they only have one but this year they needed two, must have been a boom year for births.

 We couldn't survive the cold to stay till the end, and it was 10 oclock and the boys need to be in bed, the end was shown on the TV in our rooms and is spectacular, the men had left the platform as soon as the logs are alight, so they were safe and next year they help defend the 42 year old men in the battle. The last thing to be burnt is the poles with the wishes for the boy babies.

 next morning it was back to view the site and all the people gathered to see the embers, cooking their breakfast and getting something for a good luck piece for the year.  We had a taxi to catch to get to the station for our train to Narita.

and this is what we were leaving.  I could get to like living in snow country.

more snow and the monkeys

 every day we woke to fresh snow and it snowed most of the day, great for the skiers, and good for me rugged up walking around the village, drinking coffee and eating some of the specialties from the bake house, We had eaten some tapas food one night when we couldn't get into a restaurant and Chris found there was a restaurant upstairs and they would serve us a 10 course vegetarian feast, well worth the price just to see the beautiful look of the food on the plate,  and this photo only shows the appetizers.

on the last day we were busy, the boys went back skiing and Chris and I took another walk through the village, and visited the site for the fire festival with the men busy at work in the snow, the previous day the men had dragged the tall trees to the site, the trees had been cut the previous September, this photo shows the ledge where the men sit while waiting for the other group of men to try to set fire to the logs. its much taller when finished.

 We had a quick hot steam bun lunch and then it was off  to visit the snow monkeys in the afternoon, a 50 minute bus ride, a 1.6 km walk uphill and along a path through the snow to get to the viewing spot, I nearly decided not to go but with Chris helping me over the icy spots on the paths and steps we stepped into a different world, worth the effort of the walk.

the monkeys frolic in the snow and then jump into the onsen.  a notice with the rules for visiting says they are not in our family tree

a great way to keep warm. We got warm on the trudge back to the bus, enjoying the snow scenes as we drove back to another Italian meal, I had ordered the day before, they were fully booked but when I said we would come early and only eat pasta and pizza they agreed.  The food was so good be ordered more and then had sweets to finish off and give us the energy for the fire festival soon to start

on the rail again

we  left Kyoto on the Shinkansen to Nagoya,  what better to eat on the train than Melty Kiss Whips,   I discovered the green tea whips in Tokyo and didn't get the strawberry ones, luckily I found them in Kyoto and lots of other varieties.

 We changed trains to head to Nagano, I did plenty of knitting and took some countryside snaps,  the boys were lucky enough to see some monkeys from the front of the train and came back to get Chris but no more. At Nagano it was lunch time and we had 50 minutes to wait for our bus, hot toast and a coffee went down well.. I am amazed that most of the toast in Japan is 2.5 cm thick and soft white bread. We had been getting glimpses of heavy snow but our bus ride to Nozara Onsen was all snow.

Nozara Onsen had been the winter Olympics site in 1998 and its easy to see why.  We left the bus and had to drag our luggage down the streets to our Ryokan,  we were not that happy with our room and a long talk between Chris and the manager saw us changed to a room with a view the next morning.  We went for a quick walk around the streets, tried to find some vegetarian but the tofu is all cooked with fish sauce,  found Pasta di pasta due, not the greatest pasta but an interesting take on pasta with mushrooms and nori. It was early to bed as Chris and the boys were to head to the ski school early the next morning.  We had a delicious Japanese breakfast sitting on the floor cushions, lots of Australians at the hotel with us and we all were pretty uncomfortable sitting Japanese style. After they had left,  I had a relax, looked at the computer, did some knitting and then headed uphill to the moving pathway to join the others for lunch.  They were delayed, so I ordered a caffe latte at a machine in a shop and then took the ticket to get my coffee. Saves translation issues. Everyone had had a good lesson and Oskar was excited to show me his new skill.  We had some noodles, Chris had found a waiter who understood our need for vegetarian. They went back to their lesson.

 and I went to explore the town. There is snow everywhere and lots of running water from the hot springs, which sure makes a contrast..  There are 15 public onsen in the town and some for just foot baths,  but our ryokan has their own private onsen so we didn't need to venture nude in public.   

 Walking round the town I tried the panorama feature on my new camera.  I had an apple steam bun, we wanted to try them last night but they were all sold out so I didn't want to miss out again.  The apples in Japan are gigantic and very tasty, I have never seen so much snow in one place and the sky gave the indication that there was more to come

We didn't realise until too late that it is necessary to book for dinner, the restaurants are very tiny and quickly fill up with hungry skiers after 6, we were lucky enough  to find another  place called Billiken.  they sure know how to make pizza in Japan.  For meat eaters you could even have horse meat.