TDU Stage Five

For the fifth stage of the Tour Down Under, we set off with a picnic and a couple of outdoor chairs to get a viewing spot and watch the cyclists come past multiple times. Our chosen position was on the edge of the vineyard. Funny that.

Our picnic naturally included a bottle of local wine - the sweet pea moscato from the Battle of Bosworth winery.  Unbeknown to us, while we were quaffing this in the sunshine, the bones of Richard III were being excavated from a carpark in Leicester. Funny that.

Here they come!

Edvald Boasson Hagen in the Sky train

The Sky boys shelter race leader Geraint Thomas

Excellent driving advice...

...perhaps unheeded by this cyclist

The town of Willunga was bedecked in Tour Down Under colours (orange and purple) and, as it was also Australia Day, there was plenty of yellow and green on proud display too.

Old Willunga Hill has a lot of bends, a lot of climb, and a lot of supporters thronging its fringes. It was exciting. In a ftting result for the national day, Simon Gerrans of Orica Greenedge won the stage with Tom-Jelte Slagter (Blanco Pro Cycling Team) taking second place and moving into the overall lead.

The positioning of the screen at the bottom of the hill meant that those riders at the back of the race could watch the replays of the finish as they rode past and celebrate or otherwise in the outcome.

Andre Greipel (yesterday's stage winner and leader of the sprint classification) looks to the finish on the giant screen

Simon Gerrans does an on-screen fist pump while the remaining riders struggle up the final climb

First Week in Canberra

Canberra is obviously the capital of Australia, so it has all the government and national buildings; parliament, treasury, art galleries and museums. Some accuse it of being sterile, and it is certainly functional. Every tree has been planted for a purpose; every park designed just-so, which makes it an easy city to negotiate with appropriate amenities and facilities where you need them.

The National Treasury of Australia

I was a little surprised that the buildings were so staid - there are few flourishes and curlicues in the architecture department, considering they could have been designed in practically any fashion. However, I saw a quote in the Canberra Times from architect, Paul Wilson, about the High Court that makes sense.

"It's not a mean building. It's bold and confident. [But it was designed] to have a presence that should engender in people visiting it a fear of the power and stength and significance of the law in our country and a respect for that role and position in our democracy."

The High Court

A walk around Lake Burley Griffin proves that there are hills in this city. They are called mountains, which is probably a little debatable, but it's certainly not flat.



Captal Hill across Lake Burley Griffin



King Edward Terrace

These sculptures were created for the Melbourne 1996 Olympic Games bid, and were relocated to Canberra as a permanent exhibition.

The following pictures are especially for The Great Galah, as they feature his namesake. The screeching pink and grey parrot is noisy and ubiquitous, and yet, somehow quite charming.



A couple of lovebirds on Lake Burley Griffin made a cool silhouette. Actually, they're cormorants. They call them shags in New Zealand.

We had a lovely afternoon at Mt Majura Vineyard, where an extremely friendly and knowledgeable bloke talked us through a tasting, while we sampled the wines and a platter. I love these bottle wind chimes; the different levels of water within alter the tune when they chink against each other.

1: Wakatipu New Year

Happy New Year! Him Outdoors got a call out to Wanaka on New Year's Day so I went along for the drive, and an ice cream, and a pint of cider at the Cardrona Hotel - as you do.

The next day we did a triathlon at Lake Dunstan near Cromwell and after battling wind, waves and scorching sunshine, we treated ourselves to lunch at The Wooing Tree vineyard and restaurant.

 

Sticking with the vineyard theme, a couple of days later we walked the new Gibbston River Trail, Wentworth Loop, which fortuitously enough, finishes at Peregrine.