Tiwi weekends are so easy

Most of our weekends have a now familiar pattern. On either Saturday or Sunday we have a magic flight over somewhere. This weekend the flight is on Sunday. Its a long weekend here - the locals don't care what the big island in the south says. Anzac weekend is a long weekend no matter what day Anzac day is. So we fly again tomorrow. I now use Paul's old camera. It does not always behave but it is better than my old one which has a broken catch on the battery door and works only while the rubber band does not break. The dust, humidity and 35 workshops have done their damage.

After Tom and Jacinta left us, we flew over to Milikapati, which has some nice places. It is very small but is very pretty. It has a slight hill so we get some exercise. We managed to see the beach a couple of times last weekend. Tis a magic blue all along the edge of the community's beaches. The store there is pretty good - best on the Tiwi's so we had a little shop. We have left a food stash there. We fly in on a Sunday and since nothing is open, we knew we had to leave some food there or starve. So we have steak and sweet potato there. Hopefully no visitors to the guest house took a fancy to my stash. I did leave threatening notes! We did not know when we left about the Monday holiday..... so lucky on Monday night, we have a meal promised to us. The accommodation at Milikapati is pretty good actually. The guest house is a repainted old people's home, which is quite appropriate actually. It is clean, has a great stocked kitchen and does not make you sick.

We flew over to Pirlingimpi on Wednesday for another magic flight. It's only 15 mins or so in a plane but it also takes us 15-20 mins to load and another 15 mins unload our 250 kg of luggage, so it is still a big undertaking.

There are some magic beaches here. We did not really explore them much. More for next time. We are staying in a wonderful fishing lodge - no Gary we did not go out fishing. at $700-$1000 a day, it is not in the budget. Paul reckons that should be saved for the collapsable boat.... Boys and their toys. We have not used the last boat yet.

The fishing lodge is on the water's edge and has a very wonky jetty that we did fish off of one afternoon while taking in the magnificent sunset views. We also had a fish at the barge landing - no joy. I really don't know why fish would bite plastic and steel anyway. I think I am a bait and hook girl.

The lodge here really looks after you. We have meals included and the boys here really know how to cook. We have had fish every night (and for lunch today) and it has been delicious and different every time. The meals are just fantastic. We have had a wonderful time working on the myriad of reports we have to write with a pretty nice view and the off beer. We can actually have a beer here - at the resort only, so it has been a nice change. Mind you we only seem to have two and that's all we can take. I am sure this is good for us. I must admit, having a beer and watching the sun drop is a nice treat. It is very hard to believe we get paid to do this.

Speaking of work, we do some, I keep saying. This last two days went really well but soon we were made redundant. One of our participants decided to help her colleagues use a computer and so we must have done a good job. They were a good bunch and very enthusiatic. So it was a very easy time for us.

Jacinta and Tom in the Tiwi's

Here we are in Nguiu on Melville Island, one of the Tiwi Island group. The community is quite small, but being close to Darwin, it feels a bit different to other communities. Maybe the tourists twice a day help to create that feeling. It also does not feel as isolated, being only 15 mins in a plane from Darwin and we only went to a supermarket 48 hours ago.

The big news is that Jacinta and Tom (our sister and nephew) came over for a visit. They were holidaying in Darwin and thought they come and join us. It was all a last minute surprise but we loved it and so it would seem, did they.



They volunteered to come to work with us. Silly people because work they did. The ladies loved Tom who helped them edit and print their pictures and write stories. They also helped pack and unpack every day and helped with the running about we do to get catering and other things to happen. It was pretty nice for us to have an extra pair of teachers in the team. The Tiwi ladies certainly got value for money. The ladies loved Tom so much they gave him a Bima Wear scarf for his birthday tomorrow. It was very cool.

Jacinta did not escape either. She helped out various groups - many at once and got to meet some fantastic people in return.


Jacinta and Tom got to visit all the art galleries. We didn't. Maren certainly took them under their wing and made sure they had a Tiwi Experience. Tom was also taken on a tour of the community and school by some of the artsists from Tiwi design.
This is Alan that Tom spent a lot of time with. Tom has a great painting of Alan's to remember the trip with.

We also had a nice afternoon on Wednesday down the whalf. We didn't see the big croc we were warned about. It was a nice afternoon catching the famous Tiwi cloud formations and afternoon light.
The boys went fishing - well Tom did and Paul talked to Nimmo - again!! Jacinta and I went to look at the local church and other historic buildings.


So tonight they headed back to Darwin before the flight home. We were left to cook our own dinner which was a bit of a shock.

Happy birthday for tomorrow Tom.

Home for a week that was

Well we went home for a week and what a week it was. Not sure we have recovered from it yet. the best thing of the week was seeing Janet (twice) which was cool and seeing all the Sutton Girls. It was also nice to catch up with Gary, Vicki, kids and Jeff. We also had Jan and Terry, Lindy. Libby and Nimmos (all at least once). It was social to say nothing of Scott and Aaron and the Bangalow Crescent crews getting attention too.

Paul had a cancer cut out on Monday, me on Tuesday. Mine was just a wart in the end but Paul was sick a couple of days and still recovering. We bought a truck, had a dozen trips to buy things for it (do we really need all this stuff Nimmo?), and managed to buy and set up two new computers and reconfigure two others for Jeff and Brooke.

I also went to Rosewood three times and spent a whole day with mum. That was probably the most relaxing day of the lot.

How on earth did we manage to do the BAS's too?


We also got dozen's of deliveries including the Manigrida burial poles and brolga's, which Lindy helped me move, after everyone deserted me. They are a bit heavy!

So after some crazy days, we have at last got back north. Life is much simpler up here for us. We flew out of Darwin Tuesday afternoon and arrived in the Tiwi's at Nguiu.