Shock, Horror and Relief in Bendigo

Please forgive the tardiness and formatting… we’re having a hard time with internet access and not working from our own computers. You may want to scroll down and work your way back up as we’ve loaded several posts at once and the most current post is always at the top.

 

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I think I woke the city of Bendigo Thursday morning with cries of terror

 

As you are probably aware my entire purpose on this trip revolves around electronic gadgetry. Every night I have to charge two batteries for my laptop, two batteries for my camera, my iPhone, not to mention the occasion battery charge for my teammates

 

So imagine my horror when I found that my charger, which had worked perfectly the night before, was dead this morning. Not to bore you with the technicalities, but because the charger has an Australian converter on one side and a U.S. converter on the other – it would be next to impossible to find one over here.

 

Unfortunately, there wouldn’t be time to address the issue, as we were scheduled for a vocational day on Thursday. With Good Friday and Easter quickly approaching, Thursday marked our only chance for a vocational visit before the long weekend. Good Friday is a national holiday, so all the businesses will be closed tomorrow. Easter weekend is a huge weekend here in Australia, marking a weekend of family get-togethers. It is one of the biggest travel days of the year in Australia.

 

So for our vocational day, Jen visited the Bendigo Bank, while Matt, Christine and Aaron all visited the campus at Latrobe University. Our visits finished up around 12:30 p.m., so we all joined up for lunch in downtown Bendigo. We had such good luck at the Beechworth Bakery in Echuca, we thought we could see if lightning would strike twice. Day two might have been better than day one.

 

Our plans changed at the last moment, so the group had an afternoon of free time. Christine had a commitment to spend the day with her host family at the water park, so the rest of us trotted our way down to the Australian version of Radio Shack/Best Buy, known as Dick Smith’s to try and right our electronic ship.

 

We got the a huge break, because the charger needed a new fuse, which came in packs of six for $2. Hard to believe a 33-cent part almost brought this trip to a grinding hault.

 

Judy, Jen, Matt and I explored downtown before stopping a glass of wine to relax and catch our breath.

 

Tonight the plan is to spend a quiet night with our host families.

Meeting the Mayor

Another transfer day – this time to the city of Bendigo, about an hour and a half south of Echuca-Moama. Hopefully by this point you can visualize what these transfer days are like – usually a couple of large four-wheel drive vehicles jammed to the roof with suitcases, duffle bags and carry-on bags for five people.

 

Our transfer actually took place in the tiny town of Elmore, about half way between the two cities. We had a late breakfast/early lunch with a couple of our newest Rotary friends, Collin, Ian and Rosalie.

 

We were on a bit of a tight schedule as we discovered we had a reception with the Mayor of Bendigo. So we all cleaned up with our nicest Rotary digs and met up downtown with some more Rotarians and some of Bendigo’s council members. The Mayor was a gracious host and was quite generous with his time.

 

The majority of our host families were there to pick us up after the reception, so we were carted off to our new homes. As usual, we have great families and terrific accommodations. However, Jen has the most interesting arrangement of the trip, as she is staying on a 400-acre farm, complete with wild kangaroos and wallabies roaming the land.

 

The Bendigo Rotary Club is hosting their annual art show over the Easter Weekend, so we had the opportunity to head down to Town Hall and catch the opening night. The showing was quite impressive and must have included a few hundred pieces of art. We of course enjoyed some free appetizers and wine during the opening and headed home for the night.

Paddles and Pools

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Wow, what a fantastic day! After a lengthy day of vocational visits, the group met up for a ride down the Murray River in one of the steam paddle boats. It was about a 45-minute trip, which was just right. The Murray River is the life blood to this community and a big part of the history as its one of the largest shipping ports in Australia.

After our tour, we walked through historic Echuca, visiting some great little shops, including a fantastic art gallery. Christine single-handedly kept at least one store in business for the next year. We didn’t want her to feel alone so we helped out with some of our own purchase. It was a nice change to walk around and shop, since we really haven’t had any time so far on the trip.

 

John and Margaret, along with Ann, the Aussie Team Leader, were our hosts for the day and treated us to lunch at the Beechworth Bakery. Holy cow, was that good! We all had some fantastic lunches, but managed to save plenty of room for one of the best dessert spreads we’ve had since we’ve been here – and we would know because we haven’t passed one up yet! I think the group must have tried six or seven different desserts and every single one was absolutely delicious. It was almost impossible to pick a favorite, but we debated the issue for quite some time.

 

Our hosts were kind enough to leave our schedule open for the day, so we decided to impose on my host family – Nick and Jeni, who had agreed to let us crash there for the afternoon. They were at work and their boys were at school, so we took the chance to enjoy the sun and spent some serious pool time. They have an absolutely beautiful swimming pool, so you can imagine how painful it was to listen to music and hang by the pool all afternoon.

 

Back to work in the evening – sort of. We attended the Echuca-Moama Rotary Meeting, which really wasn’t work. This was an incredible club and very hospitable – despite the fact they didn’t laugh at any of our jokes during the presentation! We forgave them after they treated at a local pub for a bit of a farewell as we’re checking out of this fine city tomorrow.

This work thing is a killer

It was a vocational day in Echuca on Monday and it was a full day for everyone. Nearly all of us had two or three different stops, which made for a long day. Christine had one of her more interesting visits as she visited the Koori Education Center and was able to shock a poor Japanse student by speaking to him in his native tongue. Should we really be surprised that Christine can find a way to chat with anybody?

Jen’s host family, John and Margaret, invited the entire group over along with several other Rotarians for dinner after the busy day. I’m sure by now it comes as a surprise we had an evening revolving around food and sweets, but we’ve become quite adept at eating (as our pictures probably indicate)!

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so much food at a potluck. There must have been 10 different main dishes and eight different desserts. Margaret worked incredibly hard and did an amazing job of hosting so many people. It was a pleasant evening and was actually pretty tame.

Off to Echuca

After Saturday’s excitement, we capped off our stay in Shepparton by attending the closing ceremonies for the conference. So we packed up our things, checked out of the hotel and sat through a few presentations until about 1 p.m. in the afternoon.

 

Following the final presentation we met up with our new host families from the Echuca-Moama Rotary Club and made arrangements for the remainder of the day. Since we were about to pass out from hunger, most of us ate at Hungry Jacks, which is the Australian version of Burger King, complete with Double Whoppers. For the most part Whoppers are Whoppers no matter where you eat them – however, if you order the Aussie Burger, be prepared for eggs on your burger!

 

It was about an hour and a half drive to Echuca, and our new gracious hosts, planned nothing for the remainder of the day, knowing we would be exhausted from the conference (actually, I think some of our host Rotarians played too hard and needed a break too!). Everybody in the group had a nice quiet afternoon, which included some naps, pool time and general relaxation.

 

Echuca and Moama are bordering towns on two sides of the Murray River, with Moama falling on the North side of the river inside New South Wales. The rural city relies heavily on tourism as people come from all over the country to enjoy the river and its activities, including steam paddle boats.