Six reasons to visit Nagambie by Age Columnist Richard Cornish

1. NAGAMBIE ON WATER - 


Imagine if the Moomba Birdman Rally was crossed with extreme sports and staged by people somehow inspired by biblical miracles. Then you'd get next weekend's Walk on Water. This is a ridiculously fun competition, part of a day of festivities on and around Lake Nagambie, that requires participants to ''walk'' 40 metres on water in a pair of identical home-made shoe-like devices, preferably made for less than $150 from recycled materials. First prize is $1000. ''We're pretty sure the money is safe'', says organiser Shan Jaudzemis. She also confirmed that Ted Baillieu and Tony Abbott have declined to take part in the Park 2 Pub swim - no pollie budgie-smuggling action there. Benalla MP Bill Sykes, however, will be challenged by Merv Hughes in a celebrity grape stomp off in Buckley Park, which will also be home to Hooves and Harvest - a celebration of Nagambie's racing industry (Black Caviar was bred in the district) and production of fine wine. Promises to be a really fun family day. March 3, 9am-4pm, Buckley Park, free entry.

2. AVENEL MEATS-


SCOTTY Reid is a country butcher who was taught by his late father, John, a Scotsman who was butcher on board the Queen Mary as it sailed from Southampton to New York. Reid uses natural skins for his sausages and smokes his hams over American oak. He sources his Berkshire pigs from Numurkah, from which he makes great bacons, and he also specialises in dry-aged grass-fed beef. 
10 Banks Street, Avenel, 5796 2491, Tues-Fri 8am-5.30pm, Sat 8am-2pm

3. CANOE THE GOULBURN

ROB Asplin is a jovial bloke who'll pick you up from the Nagambie Leisure Park and drive you to Tahbilk, unload the canoes onto the Goulburn River, show you how to paddle one, tighten your lifejacket and send you on your way 11 kilometres downstream. This is 2½ hours of tranquil paddling punctuated by the occasional motorboat. From water level, you're drifting through an arcade of river red gums, some home to the occasional koala. One passes by thoroughbred racehorse studs, past old weatherboard cottages and under the old Chinaman's Bridge, built of hardwood in 1882. River Country Adventours, half-day safari $55 a person includes transfers and lifejackets, phone 0428 585 227

4. TAHBILK WINERY

AS YOU drive into Tahbilk, formerly known as Chateau Tahbilk, there's a small block of gnarled vines, some thicker than a wrestler's arm, bearing blue blushed grapes. Planted in 1860, when Tahbilk was first established, these shiraz vines predate phylloxera, a vine root bug that almost wiped out the world's wine industry in the 19th century, making them some of the oldest shiraz vines in the world. They are testament to the historical importance of this Goulburn riverside winery that has become a pilgrimage site for oenophiles, from the creakingly ancient floorboards of the cellar door to the historic outbuildings. And that you can stand there, surrounded by Australian wine history and try their wine for free, is an added bonus. 254 O'Neils Road, Tabilk, via Nagambie, 5794 2555, Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, Sat-Sun 10am-5pm

5. PIZZA IN THE GARDEN

THREE years ago Callum Kaka and Janelle Toomey took over Avenel's old bank and gardens, part of the infamous Harvest Home Hotel. They have given the 1870s bank a wonderful new extension and reinvigorated the old kitchen garden. They opened a month ago and what comes out of the garden goes onto their wood-fired pizzas. The best seller so far is The Wally - roast pork from Scotty (see item two), stewed apple and watercress followed by dessert pizza of Nutella and Jock's vanilla ice-cream. Book ahead. Bank Street Wood Fired Pizza and Gardens, 5 Bank Street, Avenel, 5796 2522, Fri 4-11pm, Sat 

noon-11pm, Sun noon-9.30pm

6. GOULBURN WEIR

YOU know something is important to the nation when it makes it onto a stamp or a banknote. The Goulburn Weir, built in 1891 of terraced granite blocks was the first major irrigation scheme of its kind and featured on the reverse of the Australian half-sovereign and 10-shilling banknotes from 1913 until 1933. It is still a powerful sight, with water cascading down the great stone face before heading off to irrigate the orchards of Shepparton and beyond. You can walk across the weir between 8am and 4pm daily. Goulburn Weir, 240 Goulburn Weir Road, Wahring

Professional Photography - What's it really worth?

How much do you value the pictures of your family and especially your children? I’m not asking about a monetary expense but TRUE value.

Those moments captured and preserved on paper can not be replaced. You flip through photos and are brought back to that special moment. You remember the warmth of the sun, the smell of the salt air, the touch of a loved one, all the emotions from that day, all from looking a a photograph. Sure, at Big W or Kmart,  the paper cost a few cents, then there are the printer costs, the price of a camera or a professional photographer, and of course the expense of whatever it was that created that moment.

But the true value? It's priceless.

So if those photographs are worth so much to each of us, why do we hesitate to invest in quality professional photography? We’ll purchase an expensive camera and snap off photos at all events, photos that are poorly lit, quickly composed and most likely underexposed. Then we print them off at Kmart or Big W and we grumble at the dark greenish pictures.  BUT we still love the memories that were captured. We waste money on bad prints over and over again.

But professional photos cost too much. Really?

The average photography client spends $800-$2000 a year on portraits. $2000 sounds like a lot to spend on prints but broken down over 52 weeks that averages out to $38 per week –  If you sat down and added it up, you probably spend $100-$500 a year on coffees and overpriced pastries and the cinema!
An iphone or similar cost $250+, designer purses & jeans more, luxury cars thousands more. Many people don’t hesitate to spend money on material possessions that will only last a short time yet those same people grumble about spending money on professional images that will last for generations.

So, how much do you value photographs of your family? Can you afford $20-$38 a week to capture those special fleeting memories?

Get out and get those pictures taken.

Time flies by so quickly when your children are little and you can’t get those moments back.