News Bulletin – December 2010

This is our fourth newsletter as we say farewell to 2010 and look forward to a new year of challenges in 2011. 

Soon after coming back from New Zealand, we headed north for Exmouth. We had a leisurely drive up to Exmouth with stop overs at Geralton and Carnavon where we camped.  Exmouth lived up to its promises with emus strolling through the town, the hot weather and tons of seafood which we indulged into. But over and above all, the snorkeling made the trip such a success. Turquoise Bay with its ‘drift’ snorkeling experience was very pleasant but somewhat scary. Snorkelling around the Oysters Stacks was the highlight where the Ningaloo Reef with its protected marine park status really came to life. While we had to juggle the tides and be careful of razor sharp rocks, the snorkeling was amazing. We sighted reef sharks, octopus and a myriad of fishes in all colors and shapes. We did a few short walks in the Shothole Canyon and Charles Knife Gorge.

Our traditional July trek on the Bibbulmun Track near Collie was threatened prior to us heading off as a severe weather warning was issued for the South West.  We adjusted our initial plan and cut the walk down by a day. We were dropped off at the Mumballup Tavern and walked south to the Noggerup Campsite. It was a short 5 kilometres walk but some of us got caught in the rain a kilometer or so from the hut. The next day we retraced our steps towards Collie with a stop for lunch at the Tavern. A reasonable walk of 17.7 kms, where we enjoyed the views across Glen Mervyn Dam and the banksias trees covered with crystal drops of rain. We had the Yabberup hut to ourselves, as the rain seemed to have kept all walkers away. The final day walk to Collie was a long haul; 19.7kms with rain bucketing down on the last 10 kilometers. We were all relieved to be back to civilization and hot showers.

2010 was a busy year at Paraplanning Direct. Sini, who is studying Accounting and Financial Planning at Curtin University, is now employed on a part-time basis as a Paraplanning Assistant/Bookeeper.  Sini is from China. It is a delight working with her and when we have lunch together, I take the opportunity to learn more about a different culture. We also welcome David Francis as a contractor. David has a Bachelor in Economics and is a Certified Financial Planner. He is based in Adelaide.  I took the opportunity to meet with David while attending the Millennium 3 conference in Glenelg in October 2010. The profile of our team members will be posted shortly on our website.

Another milestone for Paraplanning Direct is the transition from Visiplan software to Xplan.  It was a great success, with fantastic support from the Xplan team both at Millennium 3 and at IRESS.