As we come to the end of our journey for this year of 2011, it has been six months of wonder, excitement & awe at some of the sites we have seen. Australia is a land of many faces, many harsh, many tranquil, & most beautiful in their own way. We have seen similarities to NZ & sometimes thought we were back there, but this country is so big & tough & resilient. There is so much wildlife & the birds have been a delight - I must admit I never thought I would become such a birdwatcher but it has become a bit of an obsession every time I hear a bird to grab the camera & see if I can snap it in order to identify it. My list of recorded sightings is up to about 80 varieties, though naturally I have not been able to get a decent photo of all. There are probably thousands more to be acquainted with, hopefully in the future.
Things I have missed are firstly family & friends, but also include our homemade bread, jam & marmalade, an oven, picking my own vegies & fruit, the art group at Ruawai & the exercise group at Paparoa. Not least the pleasure of bushwalking without having to worry about 'nasties'. What I haven't missed is the winter rains & housework, though strangely enough we started here in rain, & looks like we may end it the same way.
One of the most important things for me personally about being here in Australia, is that I have reconnected with the country of my birth, an emotional journey at times, so I would like to finish with a verse of a poem I learnt at primary school in Oz & which I had entirely forgotten existed till it suddenly popped back into my head. Strange how the right cue can unlock a memory filed away & long forgotten.
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of rugged mountain ranges
Of droughts & flooding rain
Of droughts & flooding rain
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel seas,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me.
Written by Dorothea McKellar.
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