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-9.30pm6. 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
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