Today is Waitangi Day in New Zealand, the nearest that country has to a national day and a day which over the years has become fraught with protest action and controversy, just as it seems Australia Day has become here. I heard on the news that John Key had removed himself from a fiery confrontation yesterday only just avoiding the need to be carried out by security staff as Julia Gillard was in Canberra on 26 January. I think there is a real call to adopt another date for the National Holidays in both countries, however such matters are not my concern.
Today the gusts had relented and the sun was out although the temperatures remained quite comfortable. We packed up the eski with lunch as a default action and drove in to the centre of the city. (If we are not sure how the day will pan out, a packed lunch comes with us as we venture out and about.)
At the Visitors Centre we spoke at length with one of the delightful volunteers who used superlatives in describing this lovely city. Bendigo is the biggest inland city after Toowoomba in Queensland, it has a population of about 106,000 and is the only city without a river or a seaside port.
Bendigo was initially settled by pastoralists, and it was two wives of farm workers who stumbled over gold in the Bendigo Creek in 1851. The gold rush of Bendigo was apparently the largest in the country, and subsequently produced nine billion dollars’ worth of gold. Somewhere today I saw the figures of seventeen million ounces of gold; presumably these two statistics match up somewhere.
The wealth produced this city of grand buildings just as it did in Ballarat. We parked on a rise above the centre of the city and wandered down into the centre, admiring all the wonderful architecture and finding a barber for Chris to have a haircut. We walked up through Rosalind Park to the poppet head tower and climbed up the ten flights of metal stairs to enjoy the wonderful views over the city.
Lake Weeroona, just a kilometre along the street, provided us with a lovely picnic venue and after lunch walking circuit. This small manmade lake was completed in 1869 and today was still busy with walkers, cyclists and birds. The one thing missing in all of this was the ability to visually record it all.
This problem was rectified before the day was out; we called in to JB Hifi and secured a new digital camera. Chris said it is my early birthday present, as was its predecessor less than four years ago. Happy Birthday me! Months ahead of schedule! I shall capture the architecture of Bendigo after all.
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