Cradle Mountain Christmas

Garry and I are continuing our “staycation” year with a 12-day tour of Tasmania’s West Coast.  Regular readers will recall we visited Australia’s island State for the first time in December 2013.  At the time we raced through much of the West Coast.  The region impressed us greatly and we vowed to return for a more leisurely visit.

We flew to Launceston early evening on 23 December and collected our hire car.  The following morning was spent stocking the travel larder at Coles and visiting a couple of business contacts before heading towards Cradle Mountain.  Our route inland took us first to my favourite Tasmanian winery, Ghost Rock, where we collected a dozen bottles for the cellar.

Our next stop was a local cherry farm where we collected some tasty seasonal produce.  It was then on to The Truffledore on Cradle Country Farm.  As we drove into the complex, we discovered it was closed. However, the owner saw us and waved us into the visitor’s centre.  Much to our delight, we enjoyed a private truffle tasting session.

In 2013, we stayed at one of the luxurious spa cabins in Cradle Mountain Wilderness Village.  It was a superb venue.  We decided to chance our luck with another visit.  We were a little nervous that the cabins might have suffered some wear and tear in the intervening years.  However, we’ve needn’t have worried.  They’d been refurbished and were just as good as ever.

On Christmas Day we treated ourselves to a decadent lunch at Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge.  The menu was superb.  The meal kicked off with a seafood platter, followed by a traditional Christmas roast dinner and finished off with a delicious shared dessert platter.

 Boxing Day was spent working off our Christmas Lunch. The day dawned with clear blue skies.  We drove up to Ronny Creek and spent the day hiking up to Marion’s Lookout (1223 metres). Our efforts were rewarded with an awesome view of Dove Lake and Cradle Mountain.  We then returned to Ronny Creek shortly after sunset to do a bit of Wombat spotting.  The experience was as awesome as it had been in 2013.

Our final day at Cradle Mountain was spent hiking the Dove Canyon Circuit, followed by a visit to the Devils at Cradle sanctuary.  We spent several hours watching the keeper feed Tasmanian Devils and Quolls after dark.  It was another experience just as awesome as the first time.

Tragedy on Whakaari

This week 16 people lost their lives while visiting Whakaari. White Island, as it's also known, is an active marine volcano off the coast of New Zealand's North Island. On Monday afternoon, a sudden, and violent, eruption occurred while 47 tourists and their guides were exploring the island. As seen in the image above (by Lillani Hopkins), it produced an ash plume more than 3600 metres high.

Authorities say 24 Australians, nine Americans, five New Zealanders, four Germans, two Britons, two Chinese and a Malaysian were on the island at the time. Many were from a Royal Caribbean cruise ship that had left Sydney two days earlier.  The vessel had subsequently docked at Mount Maunganui, my mother's home town, in early hours of Monday morning.

Within minutes of the eruption's end, a series of dramatic rescues by helicopter and boat saw the survivors transferred to shore.  Sadly, eight of those rescued subsequently died in hospital.  The bodies of another eight victims remained on the island for four additional days. Six were finally retrieved yesterday, leaving only two still unaccounted.  

Currently, 15 people remain in hospital, including 13 Australians. Some have thermal and chemical burns to more than 80% of their body. At least 11 remain in "very critical" condition. All of the injured Australians were repatriated to hospitals in Sydney and Melbourne via special Royal Air Force flights during the week. 

The disaster has shocked the nation.  For more than 30 years, tours have been visiting White Island without incident. To date, at least 300,000 people have visited the island including more than 17.000 last year alone. Garry and I can count ourselves among those who've safely made the journey there and back.

In December 2003, we joined my brothers and my sister-in-law for the 90-minute trip by boat from Whatakane to the island.  Upon arrival, we spent about an hour on shore before returning to the mainland. It was a fascinating and highly memorable experience. 

The tour began at an old sulphur works close to the shore; a permanent reminder that nature is firmly in charge. Mining began on the island in the 1840s. It was a harsh environment; workers under constant threat of eruptions, poisonous gasses and unstable land.

Disaster struck in 1914 when the crater wall collapsed and caused a mudflow that killed 11 miners – perhaps wiping away their living quarters in the middle of the night. Nobody knows exactly what happened as no trace of the men was ever found. The only survivor was the miners' cat.

From the sulphur works, it's a 500-metre walk to the crater, weaving through bubbling mud pits, hot water streams and roaring sulphur-rimmed vents. In hindsight, as you can see from the image below, we got uncomfortably close to at least one active fumarole. However, I recall the guides giving us very explicit safety instructions. They also didn't let us linger at the crater lake for more than a few brief minutes.

On the day of our tour, the surface of the crater lake was smothered by steam and several fumaroles were very active.  After looking at the photos we took that day, including the image above, I must admit that the lake appears to have been far more active during our visit than it was last Monday when disaster struck.  We can only hope and pray that the survivors of this week's tragedy will make a full recovery.

UPDATE: 15 December 
Sadly a young woman has died in hospital overnight. The eruption's death toll now stands at 17. Health officials grimly warn that, in the days ahead, others may yet succumb to their traumatic injuries.

UPDATE: 16 December 
Another person has died in an Australian hospital. The official death toll now stands at 16. However, this number doesn't include two people still missing and presumed dead. The Ovation of the Seas cruise ship also arrived back in Sydney today after completing a rather sombre and truncated itinerary. Many of those who died were passengers on the cruise that ended today.

UPDATE: 23 December 
The death toll has risen again with another death in hospital overnight. 19 people, including two still missing, have now died. Officials fear more may yet succumb to their injuries.

UPDATE: 13 January 2020
Another death in an Australian hospital last weekend has taken the death toll to 20.

UPDATE: 3 July 2020

The final death toll now stands at 22 people. A fourth American died on 29 January, and yesterday a German man finally succumbed to his injuries. This means that of the 47 people on the island at the time of the eruption almost half have died.

Bush fire fallout

Three weeks ago I shared a map that showed all of the fires burning across the state of New South Wales. Unbelievably the latest map is even worse as a ring of fires is now burning around the entire Sydney region.  Compare the latest map with the one I published last month. The coastline shown stretches almost 1000km from the southern outskirts of Brisbane to Sydney's northern suburbs.

Yesterday the Rural Fire Service (RFS) said there are 120 bush and grass fires burning in NSW, 50 of which are yet to be contained. More than 2 million hectares of land has now been ravaged by fire (that's 5 million acres for the imperial measurement folks) - and we're only four days into Summer.

For four days now the heavy smoke haze has left us feeling like we’re live in the twilight zone. Every day the sky takes on a surreal orange hue. It gives everything a freaky amber glow while casting ominous orange shadows. Then, in the final hours before sunset, the sun slowly turns a bizarrely vivid pink. Sydney's skyline increasingly resembles the notoriously drab and gritty conditions I've always associated with Delhi and Beijing.

We’ve also been waking to the bizarre sight of thermal inversion layers across the Sydney skyline. The horizon has dirty smoke haze bands appearing at ground level and high altitude; which are then separated by a band of clear blue sky.

Last night these layers were enhanced by swirling fringes of grey ash clouds. The cloud then settled overnight and we woke this morning to find black ash and ghostly grey grit covering every external surface.  The paving image below is the same area shown in the orange shadow image above. These images were taken three days apart.

UPDATE: 1:00pm.  6 December
This afternoon a combination of dry conditions and difficult terrain has resulted in several large fires joining together north of Sydney.

The Rural Fire Service said the Gospers Mountain fire, which has burnt more than 250,000 hectares, has merged with the Little L Complex fire near Singleton and the Three Mile fire at the Central Coast.  The merged fire is now up to 200,000 hectares wide, large enough to engulf the entire city of Sydney, from the coast to the Blue Mountains.

Furthermore, without an extremely strong westerly change, Sydney could be blanketed in smoke for weeks or months as fires continue raging to the north, east and south of the city. At 1:00pm today more than 40 fires state-wide are still burning out of control (i.e. classified as not contained).

UPDATE: 10 February
As of 14 January 2020, fires this season have burnt an estimated 18.6 million hectares (46 million acres; 186,000 square kms), destroyed over 5,900 buildings (including 2,779 homes) and killed at least 34 people. An estimated one billion animals have been killed and some endangered species may be driven to extinction.

Set for Summer

Garry has been hard at work refreshing our entertaining space.  The gardens have been replanted, the pot plants repotted or replaced and the new built-in BBQ is looking simply awesome.

Recently, our building also finished its "once in twenty years" facade refurbishment.  Every external surface has been repaired and repainted.  The contractors have even filled and repaired gaps in concrete formwork that the original builder never rectified.

Everything is now looking literally as good as new.  It's all been finished just in time for Summer. We have just one small task to complete.  Garry is keen to install a permanent internal gas line under the garden bed for the BBQ. Once this is done we'll be able to remove the external gas hose currently exiting the front of the built-in frame.

FYI. The new stainless steel spotlight pole visible on the left has been installed plumb with the walls. Unfortunately, the camera has warped the perspective in this image. It’s honestly not about to drop off.

Catastrophic fire warning!

New South Wales is currently experiencing its worst start to the bushfire season in more than two decades. Today's fire warning map is a real eye-opener. Fire warnings and active fire zones now stretch almost 1000km from Brisbane to Sydney (that's the coastline visible in the map above).

More than 3000 firefighters are currently on the ground across the state, supported by 60 aircraft. There are 71 fires burning along the coast. Eight are at an emergency level, 10 at watch and act rating and 40 remain uncontained. One fire alone, west of Coffs Harbour, was 150,000 hectares in size, with a perimeter of 1000 kilometres.

Today's weather forecast is predicting highs of 38C and winds of up to 80km/h for the Greater Sydney region. Fire authorities have issued a "catastrophic" rating fire warning for Sydney. This rating effectively means that if a bushfire breaks out today any home or structure in its path won't survive the firestorm that engulfs it.

So far this month three people have died in bushfires in the state, more than 100 homes have been lost and thousands have taken refuge in regional evacuation centres. Sydney has been engulfed by smoke haze and smog on and off for weeks as bushfire smoke is blown hundreds of kilometres along the coast. At times the haze has been so thick it's obscured our stunning view of the city skyline. On other occasions, the sky has taken on a bizarre sepia shade.

We last saw bushfires this destructive and pervasive in 1994. During that year, bushfires closed every road out of the greater city basin with the exception of the Hume Highway. Multiple bushfires raged within bushland around the harbour, in the Blue Mountains and across the Hunter Valley.

This year much of the state is entering its fourth year of intense drought. Dry conditions have left hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest, bushland and farmland littered with deadly levels of Dry, combustible fuel. Already this season we've seen normally moist and dense rainforests burning in Queensland; a phenomenon never recorded or witnessed since European settlement began more than two centuries ago.

Fingers crossed we have a boring day!

UPDATE: 8.00pm 
Temperatures in our suburb hit 37C today. The sky was transformed into an eerie lavender and sepia haze this evening as the winds slowly swung south. No major fires broke out in Sydney and a few flare-ups in the Blue Mountains were quickly brought under control. Tomorrow’s fire rating remains at a “catastrophic” level.

UPDATE: 19 November 
This morning we woke to another day of incredible smoke haze drifting across the city.  This photo published by Reuters shows just how pervasive the haze is throughout the inner Sydney basin today.

UPDATE: 21 November 
This morning we woke to another morning of extraordinary smoke haze.  Here's the view from our balcony. As you can see the city skyline has simply vanished.  Our outdoor furniture also smothered by a growing film of gritty brown dust.

UPDATE: 29 November 
Overnight the Australian Bureau of Meteorology released its long-range forecast for Summer. The bureau says it's likely to be much hotter than the nation's normal "average" temperature of 27.5C; with drier than average conditions. The following map highlights in red those areas where the probability of this forecast exceeds 80%.  We've also woken to yet another day of smoke haze across the city skyline. 

Kangaroo Island

Garry and I recently took time out of the business for a three-day strategic planning offsite. It's been four years since we acquired Artiwood. During this time we've progressively worked towards, and ultimately achieved, almost every long-term goal we set ourselves in 2015.  This includes a comprehensive rollout of new back office systems, an all-new website, new policies and procedures, a new corporate identity, our first staff hire, and growth that's seen see us double the size of the business.

Having achieved so much, the time is right to set some fresh goals. I worry that we’ll start drifting and erode the potential of our business without a clear and compelling long term vision. We need a new roadmap for the next four years. Once that’ll focus us on the right priorities to continue evolving and growing our business. 

In all my years as senior manager, I’ve found that physically separating an executive team from the daily grind always pays dividends. Therefore, with so much at stake, Garry and I decided to go somewhere remote, with limited internet access, where we could step back from the day-to-day distractions and find time to truly think outside the box. 

After some debate, we settled on Kangaroo Island.  We secured a superb deal at the highly-rated Southern Ocean Lodge that included a meal plan, daily excursions to the island's most scenic locations, and a meeting space where we could close the door and go deep into the business without interruption. The island proved to be an inspiring choice. We spent three, highly productive, days alternating between mind-cleansing encounters with nature and comprehensive, often passionate, strategic planning sessions - one of which ran late into the night.  

The blend of fresh sea air and refreshing coastal views has worked its magic. We've returned from our offsite with an exciting new four-year vision. If all goes according to plan, by 2023 we'll have a business that's doubled in size again, we'll be running it from a Sydney showroom, have a new website in place, and have a key account manager on board to help us secure and maintain new corporate accounts. Let's see what happens next!

Until then, here are a few images from our time on Kangaroo Island.

PS: The Remarkable Rocks really are remarkable. We were also incredibly lucky with the weather during our entire time on Kangaroo Island. We woke to blue skies and light winds most days making excursions like our morning visit to the Rocks all the more memorable.

Fiji Redux

Garry and I have just finished a week unwinding in Fiji.  After last year's phenomenal vacation at the Sofitel on Denarau Island we decided to give Fiji another try.  This time Garry found us a deal with the Shangri-La Fijian Resort on Fiji Island's famous southern Coral Coast.

We flew with Qantas and made our way directly to the hotel.  The airport transfer took more than an hour but only cost FJD90 (AUD60.00).  I cannot imagine travelling that far, for that long, for anywhere near the same price in Australia!

The hotel itself proved to be a bit of a hit and miss affair.  Overall, the food was better than last year.  We thoroughly enjoyed the Thai inspired restaurant and some of the curries in the family buffet restaurant were delicious, to say the least.  The evening canape service at the adult's only pool was also well organized with each table receiving its own tiered tray of canapes.

However, the facilities were rather disappointing.  The adult's only pool didn't have enough foam beds for every sun lounge, the pool menu was rather uninspiring and the quality of service tended to fluctuate from day to day and from venue to venue.  We also thought some of the resort's venues looked incredibly dated and their layouts were often rather incoherent.

The Fijian resort is a large and sprawling complex with plenty of activities on offer. As a result, Garry and I never left the resort's lagoon island.  Instead, we enjoyed a couple of rounds of golf on the 9-hole course (don't ask how many balls we lost!) and ventured into the coral-fringed lagoon for the occasional swim. We even found time for a round at the resort's putt-putt mini golf course.

However, our enthusiasm for swimming was somewhat diminished after we encountered several snake sea cucumbers sliding along the lagoon floor (take a closer look at one in this creepy video).  We spotted these exotic-looking creatures one evening while making our way home from dinner along the beachfront.

The weather was cooler than last year and we found that the southern coast was more exposed to the daily trade winds. Given this experience, I think we'll be back at the Sofitel next year to experience its $30 million beach club refurbishment.