Gidday, Tom

It was great to welcome our old friend Tom Jones to our home on Friday.  We “met” Tom and his lovely wife Jan through their very interesting blog Waiouru some years ago, when they were canal boating their way around England.  What adventures they had!  After a period of time, the canal boat found new owners, and Tom and Jan moved to Perth.  This is where we finally met them in person, during our trip to Perth while waiting to board the Indian Pacific train for our rail adventure across the bottom of Australia.  We were invited to their home for an Aussie BBQ.

Tom is currently tripping around New Zealand meeting up with family and friends, and ticking off the four day around the mountain trek off his bucket list.  He had a spare night to see us, so stayed in our home town overnight, and came around for dinner.  He kindly bought us some biscuits – Tim Tams because Aussies always take this variety when visiting, he informed us, and Gingernuts, because he is a Kiwi!  Our friends Derek and Dot had also met up with Tom and Jan in UK when they had their own narrowboat Gypsy Rover, so they popped down too for a reunion.  There was such a lot of catching up between us all.

Tom, Dot and Derek

Tom had often lamented on the fact that he missed a good old Kiwi saveloy while living in Australia, so saveloys were on the dinner menu, along with bacon and egg pie.  Not just any old savs, mind you, but good ones made with love  from the local butcher.  I thought that was decent NZ tucker for a relocated Kiwi.

Are the savs ready yet?

After dinner we took Tom around the corner so he could check out our Leisureline caravan.  He has his own small van back home and often goes on fishing trips and further afield with his mate.

We had a lovely evening talking about all sorts of things, the differences between New Zealand and Australia, a little politics, and we were surprised to learn the Winnie from NZ First often appears on Oz TV, who would have known?  It was a great evening, and we are so pleased Tom managed to spare a day on his busy schedule to fit in a visit to us.

Robin and Tom