At our campsite in Adelaide, we had the good fortune to make friends with two couples from the Victorian city of Ballarat, Judy and Ian, and Julia and Dave. Judy had insisted that we look them up when we got to Melbourne, so we thought “why not?”

Ballarat’s past revolved around gold and–‘scuse my pun–revolution, but nowadays earns it’s crust through tourism. Ian kindly took us for a drive around the city to show us the city’s sights and heritage. Aside from the gold-related historical sights, the city seems both proud and concerned about its lake. Lake Wendouree is six kilometres in circumference and is encircled by the most fabulous, luxury houses, restaurants, parkland and botanic gardens. Boat sheds back into the lake, which plays hosts the famous rowing races. There’s just one rather important problem. There’s no water in the lake. It’s been bone-dry for over three years and shows little sign of filling any time soon.

Talk of the town is the lack of water, which is a major cultural challenge for us Brits to understand. The locals shower with buckets beneath them to catch the excess drops. If it ever rains, they’re all out in their gardens spreading out any receptacles they have that look like they might be watertight. People with green lawns and clean cars are massively frowned upon by the community and are often compelled to erect signs to explain where they sourced their water. Water trucks enter the town to sell the wet-stuff at rates cheaper than the metered-pipe. So serious is the crisis here that Judy intercepted Claire emptying a small bottle of stale water from our car: “No! Don’t waste it! Pour it on the flowerbed!”

After a welcome spot of wine-tasting at their brother’s/sister’s (it’s complicated…) house, we settled down to an abundant barbeque at Judy and Ian’s place. We did what only seemed right, given the dire water shortage: instead of wasting precious H2O, we drank copious amounts of beer and wine. I tried to ‘wow’ Julia and Dave’s kids by firing my India-bought elastic band-powered rocket into the air, only to get it stuck on the roof on my third attempt (don’t worry Mum, I climbed a ladder and got it down). As we discussed our plans to leave the country, Julia and Dave offered to store our car for us whilst we were away — they have a spare, locked garage and paddocks all around which seemed like a great option for us. We’re constantly amazed at how much space the non-city centre dwelling folks in Australia have.

We treasure spending time with locals in their local environment. It provides a rare and useful insight into a culture’s “real life” away from the potted tourist attractions and experiences. Thanks very much to Judy and Ian for their city tour, ample food, excellent booze and shelter. Thanks very much to Julia and Dave for kindly agreeing to store our admirable car, Don, throughout our New Zealand adventure.

We’ll miss you Don. In this incredible heat, you haven’t even broken into a sweat, which is more than I can say for your two red-faced owners.

[Show as slideshow]