What Lies Ahead

 

After much discussion we have made a decision. 

On the 1st of February it will be the 6th anniversary of us going on the road!  When we left our rental house in Glenwood, QLD we never imagined we’d be still living this lifestyle in six years!  We had planned to go look for work then settle in a new area as there was no work in the local area.

We scored a three month job in Townsville, then when that finished we decided that seeing we had wheels and accommodation, and that we didn’t like Townsville in the summer we may as well go explore Aussie!

After 2 years on the road we all thought about returning to New Zealand, but the timing did not seem to be right.

In 2011, after our family tragedy, when we needed  a focus, the Superdogs were born and we did our first public performance at the Goomeri Pumpkin Festival.  Each year they have performed at more shows/festivals with most requesting us to return the following year.

That brings us to 2014 …. this year is going to be the final year of the Superdogs in Australia.

The plan is to return to NZ at the end of this year or the beginning of 2015.  As our children get older and need to make their own life and also with ageing parents/grandparents we feel the timing is right.  We also have two children who have never been to New Zealand, and others who don’t remember it!  Those who do remember are very keen to go back and have been for a number of years.

This year will be a year of tying up loose ends.  Saving like crazy and saying goodbye to family and friends that we have made here in Aussie.  Not sure yet what our life will look like in NZ, but I can assure you we’ll still be giving our kids a “wheel education” and training our Superdogs.

I have included a link here to our fundraising page for those of you who’d like to help us get back home.

Dr Who for Molly

This is a personal message for our good friend Molly to help cheer her up!

We hope you get better soon and are soon running round pain free.

Goodbye 2013

The year that was, that went past of fast, bought with it ups and downs and then left!  Welcome to 2014!

Some highlights from 2013 in 12 pictures.

From SA to Vic and almost back again and 33 point turns!

With our South Australian Rego due on the Odyssey we tried to reregister online, but were given the message that we needed to phone in.  So we dutifully phoned in but didn’t realise we needed a credit/debit card to pay over the phone.  All was set to go, we just needed to put money on our debit card.

Two days later we phone again, card in hand only to be told we now could not do it either online or over the phone, we needed to come in to a South Australian Branch!  We were by this time in Seymour, Victoria about 500km form the nearest SA service centre.  They would not budge!  Apparently our SA drivers license, that was to have been posted to NSW had been returned and now they would not release it until we fronted up in person. The operator we spoke to said they did not post interstate, yet when we transferred our license to SA the lady at the desk had no problem with it! 

We now had two days to get this sorted before our current rego expired!  A 500km trip in two days was not what any of us wanted to do!

We had mail to collect so decided to go and collect it and hope that our SA drivers license was amongst it; it was not!  As it was now close to 10pm we choose to stay put and hope that either SA would be kind to us and understand our situation or maybe we could transfer to Vic rego.

First thing Thursday morning with rego due Friday, we phoned SA again, explaining our situation again, they still would not budge!  So we phoned VicRoads asking about transferring our rego.  Yeah, they said, that’s no problem!  Phew!!  Appointments were made and we breathed a bit easier!

By lunch time on Friday we had our Vic plates!!  Woo Hoo!!

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On another note;  we took a trip out in the Odyssey and used the GPS to find our way out of one town to the next town.  Hmmm … bad mistake!  We ended up on a narrow road with a lot of traffic behind us, and in front of us a 3 ton load limit bridge!  We put our hazard lights on, and got out of access the situation. We thought that with a bit of skill we could get turned around.  So Sarah went up to the top of the bridge and stopped the traffic while Jasmine helped direct Michael and make sure he avoided a stake that was inconveniently placed on the side of the road!  After much skill and manoeuvrings we got her turned round!  The other motorists waved to us as we drove away feeling very relieved!

There was signage approaching the bridge, but when we checked them on the way back they did look like they were pointing to the side roads!

This is a pic from Google Maps of where we turned round.  Fortunately there was a side “road” not that we could go far down it, but at least we could put our nose into it!

The one in which we buy a bus …

Some people have asked if I’ve blogged about our new wheels … here it is!

About 6 months ago, after trying for years, we sold our Volvo (The Auroara).  We then bought a Toyota Hiace Commuter and travelled with a tent.  There were positives to living/travelling in a tent; fuel was cheaper, we could drive further in a day, we could camp at different places, Jasmine could use it to learn to drive.  There were also disadvantages; after a long day of driving we still had to set up the tent, the zips on the tent kept breaking so we had to find a BCF and swap it for another one, it was really cold, we had to always be aware of the weather.

When we sold The Auroara, it had always been our intention to get another bus.  We figured we’d be in a tent for around 6 to 12 months.  After 5 months, though we’d all really had enough of tenting!  My hat goes off to any families who travel long-term in tents!

After a long trip down from Mt Isa to do a show with the Superdogs in Quorn, SA we now had time to look for a bus!

The first one we looked at, everyone loved, looked great on the outside and in the photo’s, but on closer inspection has some serious problems that we were not prepared to deal with.  The kids were very disappointed.  We had three in the area to look at, so with one crossed off we rang the second one, sorry, sold one and the other I have will take a while to be ready … we didn’t have a while in that area as we needed to be in Melbourne for the Pregnancy Loss Association's Memorial Walkathon that we were performing at.

Now we were down to the last one, or actually he had two the same.  So next afternoon found us looking at not one but two Leyland Tigers!  Now our very good friends have one (The Tumbleweed Project) so we have a soft spot for Tigers!  It took ages to check out two of them!  Hey, takes long enough going through one 38 foot school bus!  After about two hours of looking, poking and asking questions we decided that one sounded better than the other when the engine was running.  We put a deposit on it subject to a test drive the next day.

On arriving home to our tent we found this:  

A massive wind and rain storm had swept through our camp, broken almost every pole and ripped the tent in several places.  It was totally beyond redemption, even MacGyver could not have fixed it! The only thing that stopped us from all falling apart was the thought that tomorrow night we would most likely be sleeping in a bus!  So for our last night we all nine of us piled into the van!  It was rough night, but at least we were dry!  Next morning we packed the tent into the rubbish bin!

After we broke camp (pun intended) we headed off to test drive the bus.  It drove well, so we paid our money and drove back to where we had been camping.  Everyone was happy to once again have a solid roof over our heads and not have to set up the tent EVER AGAIN! (well not that tent anyway!)

Performing in memory of

Sunday 15 September 2013 we performed in memory of our babies we have lost. 

Pregnancy Loss Australia had their annual fundraiser to raise money to assist families who have lost a baby through miscarriage, still birth or neonatal death.  When they asked for stall holders and entertainers for the event we offered our Superdog Trick Show for the event.  It was an honour to sponsor such and event.

To be able to bring joy into the lives of others who have also suffered loss or losses is a privilege.  If for 15 minutes we can make people smile, take away the pain or give them something else to focus on our show is a success.  Judging by the number of people who came over to watch, and those we spoke to after the show, I think we succeeded in our purpose.

Having suffered multiple miscarriages and a neonatal death there we lots of emotions stirred in our family too.  The girls who perform with the dogs were very keen to do this in memory of their siblings lost and especially their forever little sister Serenity who went to be with Jesus at 13 hours old on 12 March 2011.

Balloons were released at the end of the day … a very moving experience.

Not sure how much was raised in total, but it was in excess of $20,000!  Awesome effort by all involved!

First Time in the Northern Territory

After the show in Mt Isa, we were booked for our first show in the Territory!  We were all excited about it as we’d never been in that state before.

We left Camooweal around 11 am and embarked on what we think is the most boring drive we’ve been on in all our travels so far!  The distance to Tennant Creek from Camooweal was almost 500km’s with lot’s and lot’s of nothingness in between!  To quote Sheppard and Ford in Stargate Atlantis:  “I’ve never seen so much nothing!” “And I’ve never gone so far to see it!”

We didn’t get a photo at the border because of the graffiti on the sign.

We arrived in Tennant Creek , a town of around 3000 people at around 7pm.  Lots of Aboriginal people were just wandering the streets.  We checked out the town then headed to the showgrounds to set up camp.

Next day we talked to the show secretary who had only found out the day before that the Superdogs were even coming to the show!  We walked around with him while the thought about were he could set us up to perform.  Really the only place to set up was round the back and mostly in the sun.  We asked for some chairs so we could set up a place for the audience only to be told “we don’t have any chairs, all the locals will just sit on the ground.” 

Our first performance of the day didn’t have many people watching which was disappointing and made it hard for the girls and the dogs to stay positive and perform their best.  After that performance we headed off in search of some chairs (that they apparently didn’t have) and we found all of seven (7) of them!  And for our next performance we actually had people come and sit in them!    Never once did we have people come and sit on the ground!  Lesson learned: if you want a present audience, set up some chairs!

Another piece of advice we were given by an elderly gentleman who watched our final show of the day was:  give it your best even if there is no present audience and then the dogs will also give their best.  He was right!

It was a hard day, about 31 degs and we were looking forward to spending the afternoon/evening relaxing.  We bought some cold drinks and headed back to camp.  As we were relaxing and thinking about dinner we noticed a very drunk Aboriginal male heading over to our camp.  He came and stood beside Mike (who was washing the dishes) just looking over his shoulder!  Rather disconcerting to say the least.  He then staggered round and sat down under the tree about 1 metre from our table and watched us from there!

On looking round we noticed all the other showies packing up and getting ready to go and decided we didn’t want to be in the showgrounds on our own!  So we told the girls that we had a change of plan and we were packing up (at 7pm) and leaving as we didn’t feel that it would be safe in a tent.  I’ve never seen our girls pack up so fast!  By 8pm everything and everybody was packed into the van!  Our usual pack down is about 2-3 hours!

We headed off, had dinner outside a gas station and hit the road back to QLD!  Spent the night in our small (3 person) tent with 5 people in it and the older girls and dogs sleeping in the van.  We woke to a beautiful day, being Mike’s 50th birthday!  With still about 400k’s to go we decided to postpone his birthday till later and packed up and headed east!

We are now regrouping after a busy time and preparing for our next gig at Mt Isa’s Paws Hoofs and Claws Christmas in the Park fundraiser on July 27.

We put the chairs in the only patch of shade!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chana and her crazy dog Lassie!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jessica and her energetic dog Tess!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jasmine and her smart dog Sparkie!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chantel and her pretty puppy Freya!

If you want the Superdogs to perform at your show, festival or fundraiser, please don’t hesitate to contact our agent, Mac Brothers Circus.

While in the Territory the Superdogs were also interviewed by ABC Radio.  You can find the audio HERE.

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