Life Less Ordinary

Inspiration

2008-05-28T02:54:00.000-07:00

It's somewhere we've been meaning to go for weeks. A new restaurant opened in Mooloolaba called Soul Food Kitchen. Now, when Jon hears the word ribs he starts salivating like Pavlov's dog. Throw some cornbread, crab cakes and jambalaya into the mix and it's a grand old evening.

Jon at another rib related dinner

It was so good because it was a perk to have food from home, not a necessity. After almost two years here, I have started to miss the things from home less and less. I've learned to go without, developed new favourites (Christ, I just automatically spelled that with a u) or found adequate substitutions. It's funny how that happens. It took me two years to have my Mom stop sending me bras and figure out the sizes here, to be able to make coffee without a coffee maker (which I didn't even know was possible), and I have accepted the fact that my Christmas cookies with always involve a trip to the sex shop bearing the stigma of purchasing gay lubricant to make my cookies the proper way with Crisco.

I digress; our meals were amazing and completely authentic. After our meals, I asked our Kiwi waiter which of the take-home sauces he would recommend for the pulled pork that I've started making for Jon since he missed it from back home. He looked at me like I had ten heads and asked me "Why would you want to pull pork?" and shuffled off to the kitchen to get the chef.

From the kitchen emerges Victor Kimble. I am willing to say after the hour or so I spent talking to him, he is one of the most inspirational human beings I have met.

From what we learned in the short time we spent with him, he grew up in Birmingham, Alabama "before integration" as he put it. A scholarship for playing the trumpet made it possible for him to go to college and he not only went to college, but succeeded in becoming a maxillofacial doctor. That's crazy amounts of school - undergrad, plus med school, plus dentistry school. As a maxfac surgeon, he toured the world with the Navy (I believe) doing intense trauma work. Through a series of twist ans turns, he landed on the Sunshine Coast, cooking for a living because it was the way his mother was - always cooking for the community and being friendly to everyone.

C'mon I know you want to reach out and hug him right now.

July 4th BBQ at Soul Food Kitchen is going to be sooooo good! Be there!

Fraser Fiasco

2008-05-22T02:41:00.000-07:00

Jon and I were supposed to go on a three day bush walking trip to Fraser Island just north of our house to knock off some miles on the Great Walk. The Great Walks are an initiative of Queensland Parks establishing six multi-day hikes in various places of "beauty" in the state. Fraser Island is a World Heritage Areas as it is the largest sand island in the world.

Now, I had never heard of World Heritage sites or UNESCO before I moved to Oz, so find out what World Heritage sites you have visited.

Anyway, back to turn of fate that made the weekend very interesting. Our plans were sidetracked when Jon was asked to handle a remote call over the weekend meaning he could venture outside a half an hour radius of the hospital.

So, I made the bold decision to go it alone. How bad could it be, I thought? The other times I was up on the Island there were heaps of people around and the Great Walks seem to be fairly popular, so I surely wouldn't be camping in the middle of no where by myself.

I couldn't have been more wrong. It was all downhill from there.

On Saturday morning, the weather looked a bit dodgy, but Jon and I rented a car for me to drive the 3 hours up to the barge landing, so I felt obligated to go. After checking the weather forecast and seeing that it called for 10% showers all weekend, I decided to drive up to Hervey Bay to the barge and see if the weather cleared. Blue skies greeted me at the barge landing, so I purchased my walk-on ticket and weaved my way through the numerous 4WDs to find a seat on the upper deck. I should have realised I was a fool when I was the only person walking onto the barge.

The trip over on the barge was beautiful. Dolphins were chasing the barge and playing in the wake, the sun was shining and the weather seemed to have turned for the better. As I walked off the barge with my big purple pack, all of the cars honked and gave me the big thumbs up and I flashed them a hang loose. Miraculously, as I was walking away from the barge my cell phone rang (I never expected service out here) and I was able to have a quick conversation with Jon wishing me luck on my walk.

As I followed the access road to the trail, my pack seemed to lighten and I covered the first 10km fairly quickly. Perhaps, I got a bit over ambitious and decided after a quick lunch at Central Station that I would push on the trail to the freshwater lakes walker's camp about another 10km further down the trail.

I started to get a little nervous as the trail descended further and further away from the road and deeper into the rain forest. The brush on the trail hadn't been disturbed in a good long while; I was climbing over fairly large fallen branches and the leaf bed hadn't been disturbed in weeks. About two hours into my hike off the beaten path, I faced a decision: I was far enough away from more populated Central Station to make turning around mean I would be hiking after dark and I still had high hopes that there would be other walkers in the camp and that made me feel safe. My biggest fear was I would be alone and in danger of something bad happening where no one would know.

Of course, my fears were exacerbated as I hiked onward. It started to rain. Not just rain, but pour. Sand and heaps of rain make walking tedious; it was like walking through wet cement - with 30lbs on your back. However, this wasn't a stroll on the beach in the rain, it was lovely rolling hills - rolling hills of wet freaking cement knowing that I might be walking further and further away from everyone on the island.

As I reached the banks of Lake Benarron walker's camp, wet and exhausted, I was lucky enough to have a break in the weather just long enough to set up my tent. There was absolutely no one else in the walker's camp, so I had prime pick of campsites and heaps of time for my fears to run wild. That they did - not shortly after my arrival, the excitement started when I had some four legged friends come out to enjoy the late afternoon sunshine with me. That's right, as I was just about to make dinner 6 wet, cranky dingoes emerged out of the woods. Now, they are only known to assault children, but they appearance of the pack made me *consider* thinking of sleeping within the safe wooden walls of the composting toilet that smelt like Jon's socks x 1 million.

I made the decision to sleep in the tent. So, here I am, alone, wet, tired and in the woods 10kms from the nearest person with 6 dingoes prowling for food. Since I really did not feel like sharing my noodles with a pack of wild dogs and for lack of a better idea, I took out the small Nalgene shampoo bottle I had filled with tequila, took the two shots that were in there along with the Benadryl capsules I packed for emergency allergic reactions and snuggled into my sleeping bag to read. It was the only way there would be any sleep tonight.

I had packed two books with me: Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and Bill Bryson's Walk in the Woods. I was reading the Bryson book and just as I hear the bristle of fur brush against my sheath of green nylon, I was reading about Bryson's first encounter with a bear on the AT.

Eventually, the anti-histamines and tequila took over. A little bit of sleep came, until I shot awoke turning on the head lamp to try and scare them off. Over and over, what a long night. I would drift in and out of sleeping waking to -

Sniff, Sniff. Shuffle, Shuffle,

Shriek (some small animal.)

Snap. (Bones of said small animal)

Chomp. Chomp. Chomp.

Repeat.

I would fall in and out of sleep to these sound wondering if whatever was outside would try to make it into my tent. Even though dingoes aren't that big, it was incredibly unnerving and incredibly scary. I have had bears come into camp and been less frightened because I had someone with me. Here I was knowing that no one could hear me if I screamed and no one was expecting me back for two days. My heart actually burned with fear.

The coming of morning was never so welcome. Silence reigned over the woods, still I was afraid to leave the safety of my tent. After an hour of tossing and turning and reading, I mustered up the courage to venture outside. Other than paw prints in the sand, there was no evidence of anyone else being there that night.

I quickly packed up the tent and after having a short battle with the Huntsman that was living with my food in the dingo proof container, I decided to cut my trip short and head back the way I came in hopes of catching the 4pm ferry.

I was thankful that the hike was uneventful back to Central Station. Upon arrival, I had a good laugh at the backpackers that crawled into the dingo-proof food locker and were locked in by there travelling companions. They came back 20 minutes later after the boys had tried every way out of the enclosure, only to prove their comedic intelligence by pretending to poop pine cones.

Knowing rain was in the forest, I set back out on the boring part of the hike - the access road. I hiked along the road that was well worn path. It was boring a tedious hiking. By the time I reached the last 2 km point, I had a feeling there was no way I would make the 2pm barge because the backpacker vehicles were whipping past me. I trudged on.

As I passed the 1 km mile marker, I began to curse everyone and everything in existence. Out of no where a pink 4WD vehicle from Fraser Roving (the same hostel I drove out of a year before) stopped and gave me the high sign to pop in the back.

I was so incredibly thankful to hop in the back that I felt ashamed when they were so excited that I had cigarettes and lollies.

They smoked my last few cigarettes, gorged themselves on my leftover food and I donated my leftover noodles to their trips onward to Sydney and Airlie Beach. I gained insight into traffic laws in Sweden, Korea, Germany, France, and the Netherlands.

I had never been so thankful to see a rented car and get behind the wheel. I was only gone 24 hours, but it felt so good to call Jon again. That night taught me that I can be strong and survive on my own, but the whole experience is more pleasurable if there is someone by my side.

There are no pictures from this trip because of the pouring rain that nearly destroyed the camera =)

Fine Australian Cinema

2008-05-18T19:16:00.000-07:00

We just read in the Courier Mail today that "Kenny" is going to be released in the US this summer!

Patch Adams, MD

2008-05-17T18:43:00.000-07:00

Our big weekend hiking trip was cancelled this weekend and instead we decided to take a trip to the Emergency Room. Just for fun.

Jon was in the process of being fitted for new contacts; as most of you know he requires special hard lenses that give him heaps of trouble. He was trying a loaner pair - yes, loaner pair - how gross is that? Just the idea of a loaned contact lens completely grosses me out, but that's how they do it!

Saturday morning he returns from a boys night out and his eye is all puffy and red, so he fiddles with the lens as per usual. Next thing I know, he is such pain he is lying on the bathroom floor sick to his stomach refusing to go the the Emergency Room.

Three hours later, we are in the queue at the hospital to have his eye looked at. We can't be sure what happened but he ended up with a big gash on his cornea and is sent home with an eye patch and ointment that I have to put in his eye.

I am pretty sure he is feeling better because he has been playing World of Warcraft for 5 hours straight with his one good eye.

Three Weeks in New York

2008-05-08T18:26:00.000-07:00

I wish the title was for real, but alas, it's the new gimmick for an in-store promotion at Myer. Carson Kressley did a fashion show, The Naked Cowboy is wandering about (I wonder if it's actually him) and the store is decked out in bad prom decorations that are inaccurate (the 7 doesn't go to Brooklyn)

But that is all balanced out by the fact that there is absolute bliss in 3rd floor homewares. A display of American food!

Now, I didn't realize how much I missed Wheat Thins, Diet Root Beer, Nilla Wafers and Graham Crackers until I had them this weekend. 3 weeks of a steady supply of yellow mustard, *real* Cheerios, Crystal Lite, the list goes on......

I am absolutely over the moon!

Laptop Woes

2008-05-04T22:39:00.000-07:00

Today is Labor Day in Queensland and I am not exactly sure what we are celebrating, but I was pretty psyched to have a day off from work considering I have two major midterm papers due on Friday. Now unlike the Me of Old, one week prior to the due date, I have actually done all of my research and written 75% of the papers and now was in the tweeking stages.

Then, it happens.

I go to boot up the laptop today and nothing happens. The battery light blinks and bit and not much else. Try another plug, take out & replace battery, nothing. Beads of sweat and nervous tears begin to form. Carefully inspect all connections. Notice that the converter is beeping. This cannot be good. Call Jon in tears.

The good news is the according to Jon the problem is isolated to the power supply being faulty and it's under warranty so it's no dramas to go to OfficeMax and get another one. However, today is a public holiday and the stores are all closed. Bugger.

So, the laptop is holding two papers hostage while time quickly ticks away to my due date. Fingers crossed, this will all end well and the moral of the story: anything important gets backed up on a memory stick!

Enter the Twilight Zone

2008-05-04T03:37:00.000-07:00

Jon has been talking for weeks about trying a new restaurant on the Coast, Soul Food Kitchen. It’s a Deep South Creole restaurant with a chef who is a real live Bayou boy that has gotten phenomenal reviews. All day, he’s been talking about how he is going to have ribs and cornbread tonight.

Now, as we pull into the car park it is not looking promising. The restaurant is dark. I see the outside tables stacked inside before Jon does and when he does his face drops. His fate is sealed; no down home cooking for this boy tonight.

He was so shattered that he sat down on the sidewalk to contemplate how the Soul Food gods could have let this happen. It was heartbreaking.

I rallied him by suggesting that we go and see if the Moroccan place down the road had an available table. He’s been keen to try this place since we moved here, but weekend bookings are nearly impossible to get; since it was a Sunday night, I thought we might get lucky.

Lucky would have been an understatement. There was only one other table in the restaurant when we arrived. I quickly ascertained that “they talk like me.” This is my choice phrase to alert Jon that someone in the vicinity is speaking in a North American accent. My shining moment was when I came home and told Jon the PA system on the train to Brisbane talks like me.

After Jon confirms the accent, we then have a bit of fun trying to deduce whether they are Canadian or American. The tip off tonight was that a guy at the other table said, “If you are in any large city and find yourself on Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., you are not far off from getting shot.” Definitely American. Our assumptions were confirmed when they referred to the lettuce as iceberg and not cos.

As our food arrives and another couple enters decked out to the nines in University of Illinois gear. Jon and I smile at each other thinking this could be a really weird turn of events; in the year and a half we have lived here on the Coast, we have not met another American outside of Brissy. Is it possible that there is some weird stroke of fate that had assembled 12 of us into a random Moroccan restaurant in Cotton Tree?

Apparently, yes. As soon as the Hoosier opened his mouth, it was confirmed he was one of us and more than likely from a “red state.”

I never realized there was a correlation between Yanks and Moroccan food or that were actually 12 of us residing on the Sunshine Coast. Randomness.

PS ~ minted yoghurt and lamb are not my cup of tea, but I did try!

Shark Attack!

2008-05-03T04:13:00.001-07:00

To fuel my obsession with all things that will kill me in Australia:

Sydney Through Jon's Eyes

2008-05-03T00:10:00.000-07:00

For Australia Day Weekend, Siobhan and I headed down to Sydney as one of my best friends, Jordan and his girlfriend were coming over from Chicago to visit family. As we haven't seen them in over a year and have yet to visit that part of the country, we took this opportunity to take a bit of a trip.

We get to Sydney, and have a wonderful dinner....

To be continued when I can get Jon to sit down at the keyboard again & photos to come as soon as the laptop returns from repairs.

Tasty Tapenade

2008-04-27T23:42:00.000-07:00

Driving back from Main Range on Easter weekend, Jon and I stopped at a farmer's market in some small town in the back of beyond. After strolling around a bit, we found a olive vendor that made everything under the sun from olives. Jon loves his olives and now our cupboards are stocked full of olive pastes, tapenade, stuffed olives and olive oil.

So, what's a girl to do with gallons of tapenade? I was flicking through an old copy of the The Notebook (very similar to Real Simple in the US) and found a great recipe for a tomato and tapenade galette. It's a take on a French dish with a puffed pastry base topped with layers of tapenade, feta cheese, tomatoes and oregano.

It was a hit with Jon; it was one of the few things that he gushed over and inhaled. I'm still not sold on olives, but I think with the stockhold we have in the house I am going to have to learn to love them.

Pulp Fiction

2008-04-20T23:26:00.000-07:00

Jon has been on my back to start trying new foods. I am terrible at trying new foods and have a really limited pallette, so I really can't argue with him. So today while I was at the local fruit and veggie market I decided to find the most exotic fruit and give it a go.

The colors at the market are amazing and there is such an amazing selection of yummy, healthy produce. One fruit jumped off the shelves at me - the dragonfruit. It is grown in Southeast Asia and Central / South America harvested from a cactus plant. The outside is prickly and bright pink with a pulpy seed filled center. Supposedly very yummy with ice cream.

The verdict: It doesn't taste like much and kind of feels like eating paste.

As I told Jon, Rome wasn't built in a day. There is hope for me yet.

Beautiful Sunset

2008-04-18T18:14:00.000-07:00

We had the most amazing sunset last night. The white exterior of our building was glowing pink - absolutely stunning.

Bread & Butter

2008-04-01T23:55:00.000-07:00

In college, someone once joked that I could be "Betty Crocker by day, Betty Ford by night." Now, although that's not entirely accurate, I do every now and again get struck by the urge to bake something completely random from scratch.

I was hit by one of the moments of domestic goddess inspiration today that you get every so often. As I was making dinner, I decided that we needed (not wanted, really and truly needed) homemade focaccia bread to go along with dinner. Walking 200 meters to the bakery across the street to get bread made by someone else's hands simply wouldn't do.

Now, this is all quite funny because I have never baked bread in my life and I had no idea what I was doing. I dusted off the old Betty Crocker cookbook and gave it a go!

End result, it turned out pretty good for a first effort. Now to clean up the bloody mess in the kitchen.

High Distinction!

2008-03-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

Yay! Grades were posted today from the last semester and I got a high distinction (the equivalent to a A+) in my first Aussie Uni class at Griffith.

Forest Flying

2008-02-15T21:15:00.000-08:00

Our flight out of Prosperpine was in the late afternoon, so we decided to get a new perspective on the rainforest that we had been admiring from the ground. The B&B operator had told us that there was a British couple that strung up an enormous zip line on their property through the rainforest canopy.

"An added bonus," he continued on, "is that their property is home to some of the largest and most diverse bat populations around."

"You could have left off that last bit," I said with a smile.

We set off down the dirt roads and through the creek crossings and drove off into the forest into a place that no rental hatchback should go (thank goodness for zero liability insurance). At one point, it didn't look like there could possibly be people living out here, but we continued to follow this grown-over road and finally came to a farm gate. I knew we were in the right place when I got out of the car and stepped ankle deep in guano. We had arrived.

It was quite fascinating that people lived out here. The couple explained to us that they were completely self-sufficent off the grid due to their location. Quite often, the road gets washed out with big rain and they are "gorge-bound" for days at a time. All of their electricity runs off of a home made water wheel that is powered by the stream on their property and they operate their communications via satellite. Coming from suburbia, it blew my mind that people choose to live this way.

After harnessing up and hiking up the hill, we set off on the first zip line. It was amazing and the bats were surprisingly beautiful. We landed on a platform strung up in the trees to have a better look at the different types of bats and our guide gave us a little bat-ucation. I know more about fruit bats now than I care to!

The second zip line was a bit more precarious where you flew through the palm fronds. Then, it was over all too quickly. Like little kids, we wanted to go again and again, but it was time to go catch a flight back to reality.

It was a great end to our trip.

Into The Snake Pit

2008-02-14T19:31:00.000-08:00

I have a non-rational fear of snakes that is only compounded by the fact that I am living on the continent with the most deadly, highly concentrated snake populations in the world. After the incident of the hissing snake in the rock pools at Carnarvorn Gorge, my feelings on swimming holes have changed drastically.

However, Jon just thinks I am insane and therefore feels it is his job to break me of said ludicrous fear.

We decided to hike out to the Aratulla Falls in Eugnella National Park, since according to our B&B host, it was one of the few trails still accessible that had not been washed out in recent flooding.

So, we set off in our rental car that had no business being off a paved road to cross flooded creeks on a dirt road, so I could face my fear. As we race along, Jon is beginning to believe that Dakar is in his future and I am envisioning an emergency room in mine.

Slim pickings or not, it was a beautiful hike through semi-tropical rainforest and it was a bonus that the trail was a fairly easy grade with a few spicy spots. Whenever we walk, Jon takes the lead with the promise that he will be our diligent snake spotter; he failed to do his job this time, tripping over the tail of a huge goana, scaring the crap out of the lizard, me and with the screech I let out, two hikers behind us.

After all the excitement, we arrived at the beautiful Aratulla Falls. Theoretically, it is a really nice place for a quick dip if you can over look its snake potential. Jon jumped right in and played for hours sliding between rocks as if they were waterslides. I finally eased my way in and had a quick paddle around until I heard the word leech, which sent me running for my sunny rock.

Baby steps, baby steps.

Platypus Perfection

2008-02-13T19:07:00.000-08:00

When the boat returned to its slip, we still had 3 days before our flight back to the Sunshine Coast and we knew that we would be bored in Airlie. So, we quickly consulted our Lonely Planet and decided to rent a car to head inland to Eugnella National Park. Reason being, the park is heralded for almost guaranteed platypus sightings.

So, we drove an hour inland to see if we could spy ourselves some venomous, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed, semi-aquatic mammals.

We found a rustic little B&B, dropped our stuff and set off to see if we could catch a glimpse of those shy little buggers before dinner. They didn't turn out to be as elusive as we expected. When we got down to the viewing platform, there were 2 or 3 of the little guys swimming about having a feed. What a sight! God is a comedian.

As we settled in for dinner, a storm blew in that had us thinking we might be stranded out here for a few days. Floods had just cleared from the Gorge from the last bad rainstorm and this was shaping up to cut us off from the main roads. Luckily, after a romantic dinner by blackout imposed candlelight with an ominous thunder clap soundtrack, the storm passed with no major damage.

Whitsunday Magic

2008-02-10T18:42:00.000-08:00

All three days on the boat began to run together into lazy hours of snorkelling, diving, eating and sunbathing. Wake up, eat, wrestle into the stinger suit, snorkel, shimmy out of the stinger suit, sunbath, lunch, repeat. It was glorious.

Jon went diving with a our fabulous Frog dive instructor while I opted for slothful snorkelling - floating along with a noodle doing absolutely nothing. The underwater scenery was something out of a picture book; it was hard to believe you were actually there. The piece de resistance was when we came across clown fish - NEMO!

One morning, we took the Zodiac to Whitehaven Beach, which is known for its pristine aquamarine waters and white silica sand. The sand is so unbelievably soft and fine that it was like walking on sugar. It's no wonder it is considered one of Australia's most beautiful beaches.

The entire experience was so relaxing that we never wanted it to end!

Arrival in Airlie Beach

2008-02-09T22:46:00.000-08:00

You have got to love Jetstar. Back in September, in celebration of their millionth seat sale, they ran a sale with incredibly cheap fares. We bought tickets to Airlie Beach for $50 each for a February flight to sail the Whitsunday Islands from the airport across the road from our unit. How bloody awesome is that?

Of course, Jon had to torment me by trying to convince me the wheels were going to fall of the plane since the seat were so cheap.

Anyway.....

The Whitsundays are one of the "must-do" places in any trip in Australia. 74 islands bordering the Great Barrier Reef, crystal blue waters, absolute paradise. It was one of the filming locations in Fool's Gold (the Kate Hudson/Matthew McConaughey movie).

This has one of the trips that we were really excited about. We booked on the Whitsunday Magic for a 4 day, 3 night sailing trip through the islands and planned to stay in Airlie before & after the trip to depart the day after the Superbowl. The plan was to be in Airlie for the game, leave that arvo for on the sailing trip and return to spend another few days in town.

The first night, we stayed at the Airlie Waterfront Bed & Breakfast. In five years when the Abel Point Marina reconstruction is complete, this will be an absolutely beautiful accommodation. However, right now, the waterfront view is a muddy construction site with the bay in the distance. However, the facilities were nice enough with really great decor and a spa on the balcony. Overall, it was meh.

It quickly became apparent that 4 days in Airlie Beach was far too long. In the first night, after having dinner and doing some shopping for the ship, we had seen pretty much all there was to see in this town. We had a lovely dinner and got to bed early as we had to be up early to get into town so that Jon could watch his beloved Patriots in the Superbowl.

Now, we all know what happened and yes, there were tears involved on Jon's part. He grew up in the Boston area and I am a Jersey girl, so I had heaps of material, but any time you brought it up, he'd well up with tears, so it took the fun out of it.

As soon as the game ended, Jon pulled himself together and got ship-shape for our shove off from the marina. The boat was beautiful. It is heralded as the most comfortable in the fleet of the Airlie ships and lived up to everything we heard about it. The crew was amazing, the chef was an absolute gourmet and we can't say enough good things about the entire trip. Despite the flooding in Airlie a few weeks before and the high winds that came after we left, we had absolutely beautiful weather. The whole experience was everything we heard about and more.

The first night we took a short sail to a lagoon where we would be snorkelling the next morning. We were treated to a stunning sunset and a heat lightening show before we fell into our beds exhausted, but really excited for the next day.

Top Gear Takes On Rednecks

2008-01-11T02:34:00.000-08:00

Ninety percent of the shows on tele are American, one percent Australian and the BBC rounds out the programming schedule. Jon and I came across a real gem the other night. It's a car show by the BBC and I absolutely loved it.

Yes, lift your jaws off the floor, I loved a car show. No, I still cannot change a tire or check my oil and yes, I only started pumping my own gas last year. (In Jersey, we pump our fists - not our gas.)

So, what was so special about "Top Gear" the automotive show of my dreams....

What happens when you take three Brits - one in a Camaro, one in a pickup truck and one in an Oldsmobile and have them race across Alabama? Not much one would suppose, but the challenge lies in the fact that they each painted anti-redneck slogans on their opponents cars in an effort to win.

What happens is three British gents cack their dacks when the the redneck army stars chasing them with guns.

See for yourself ~

First Year - Done & Dusted

2007-12-27T21:39:00.000-08:00

Today marks one year in Australia for us......

.... so, we had a lovely dinner and opened a bottle of champagne and listened to our sliders rattle in their tracks on this blustery, rainy, miserable day on the “Sunshine” Coast. We started to talk about all we have learned this year and decide to share it with our fellow Yanks Down Under because no one else can *really* understand.

Let me preface our list by saying, moving to Australia has been the best experience of my life; it has also been one of the most difficult. It has been a year of laughter and tears, both the happy kind and the sad kind. When we made the decision to move, it gave us a change to fix all of those “if I had only known then, what I know now,” situations in our life. From the moment the plane touched down, I was presented with one of the best opportunities and the hardest experiences ever: to recreate our life. Here is a satirical, but mildly true recount of our first year in Oz.

Year One: 100 Things We Have Learned From Our Life In ‘Stralia.

1. There is life beyond ranch dressing, Monterey Jack cheese, dryer sheets, Hershey’s kisses, York peppermint patties, root beer, Bisquick, and Budweiser.
2. And when you don’t have things on the above list for a bit, you don’t miss them so much.
3. I am now keen to do things. Before, I was willing, able, eager and excited. But, now I am only keen.
4. Bob IS my uncle.
5. That a pepper is a capsicum and that the police will spray you with capsicum spray no matter how ridiculous that sounds. (Not from personal experience.)
6. Thongs are worn on your feet and not up your bum. Your bum is reserved for a G-string.
7. You don’t have to be a hippie chick to use tampons without applicators, in fact they are impossible to find any other way.
8. You do not want to make your television debut (de-boo) on Border Security for trying to bring in Fig Newtons, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Crackers and Christmas decorations from America. (Once again, personal experience.)
9. Paper or plastic is a decision we Americans take for granted. Now, I own 500 envirobags for fear of killing a sea turtle because I never am able to remember my green grocery bags.
10. Koala poop is much like rabbit poop. (Gandow, the very cheeky koala at Lone Pine, and my elementary school pet, Flopsy taught me this!)
11. You can’t judge a book by its cover. A custard apple, although ugly, is still tasty!
12. Summer is actually winter. There is winter without snow and it’s not so bad.
13. Toilets cannot flush in the opposite direction with a dual flush system. (The Simpsons were wrong, the embassy does not supply us all with a special machine!)
14. Beetroot does not belong on hamburger under any circumstances.
15. A 1 page resume is not acceptable for any job, anywhere in Australia. For a mid-level management position, a 3-4 page resume is expected. Who knew?
16. Letter sized paper is A4, Legal sized paper is A3. No one tells you this, but when you select letter or legal from MS Office and botch up the printing “queue” in the office, they are all really mad.
17. No shirt, no shoes, does not equal no service here in Queensland.
18. Where ever you go in the world, you will find a 24 hour 7-11 operated by Indians (the ones with the dots, not the ones with the feathers, as my NZ officemate says. She offends everyone equally.)
19. And, there will still be Mexicans will be washing cars at the car wash. (I couldn’t believe we met Jose from Mexico City at the Hoppy’s in Brisbane.)
20. After living here a year, you will have one Kiwi friend who thinks New Zealanders have invented everything from pavlova to a cure for cancer and says “Bro” far too much. No matter how much you love them, a compliment on your new "jandles" will make you twitch a bit.
21. To swim between the flags
22. Big W is the evil empire incarnate – WALMART!
23. The spiders are big, hairy and will charge you. It is justification for your spouse to find you in a closet with flashlight, a magazine and bottle of wine, drunk off your bum! (That is from personal experience.)
24. Despite your political beliefs, Republican or Democrat, no matter how “American” you were at home, you still get misty eyed for the Star Spangled Banner & get a little angry when someone speaks badly about your President , no matter what faux pas he made this time or how much of a dumbass he appeared to be on CNN. It’s your homeland, mate.
25. It’s 5pm at work before you realize, it is the fourth of July, Labor Day, Memorial Day, Martin Luther King Day, etc.
26. For the first few weeks, you think there are a lot of homosexual people at your work with everyone talking about their partners.
27. It begins to pain you when MS Office tells you to spell: colour, centre, labour, paediatrics, utilise, etc.
28. You have to write the “post code” numbers in the boxes dictated by the envelope and it doesn’t work very well for internationally addresses. It’s a zip code and it is 5 numbers!!
29. Everything closes at 6pm except for late night shopping one day a week. It shouldn’t be a holiday when the local shopping centre gets Sunday trading hours! We had a parade for the first 24 IGA!
30. Those damn 2 dollar and 1 dollar coins. I didn’t use change in the U.S. When I paid for $50 of gas in singles, I felt like a stripper; now, I am just embarrassed to whip out all of that shrapnel. 31. While we are on the subject, being a Jersey girl, it pains me to break the motto of, “We don’t pump our gas, we pump our fists in Jersey,” even more so because the damn gas pump doesn’t have that click and hold lever system. You have to hold it the whole damn time. And you can't pay at the pump... or go to a drive through ATM, pharmacy. They make you interact with actual live clerks; how unheard of!
32. How bad is it when you ask the woman at Coles for the premature baby pack of cigarettes instead of the old lady’s eye?
33. It feels so damn good to receive a care package/mail from home
34. You cannot find a good pair of blue jeans outside of the U.S.
35. The Australian people (at least the one’s we have met) are the most accepting, care-free, loving, laid-back people we have ever encountered.
36. A pot is 285mL, a schooner is 425mL and a pint doesn’t exist here in Queensland.
37. Melbourne Cup Day is a brilliant reason to get dressed up like it’s the prom and put feathers in your hair!
38. Mid-strength can save your night! Berroco is a hangover cure-all.
39. Pokies are bad for your brain.
40. Speed cameras are a reality in Australia. This means, you can get a ticket without ever being pulled over. Jon accrued 15 tickets and had his license suspended before we even knew speed cameras existed.
41. He also had to take 5 breath tests in one day while we were driving to Townsville for a diving trip. They don’t muck around.
42. To root means to have sex with, therefore, when you say, “I am rooting for the Patriots in the upcoming Superbowl,” you and Tom Brady are getting busy!
43. Shrimp are prawns, thereby you would never “Put a shrimp on the barbie.” No one ever says put a “prawn on the barbie.”
44. On the barbie, you can cook ANYTHING! Even pizza! or eggs!
45. Snags are sausages, LBDs is code for, well you know, Little Boys D**** and they are small sausages, BBDs are they are big boy’s LBDs...... The sausage all revolves around one image.
46. Fairy bread is white bread coated in butter with sprinkles (hundreds & thousands) coated over it. It sounds gross, but at 28, you can still feel like a little princess with a boa and crown eating fairy bread. I’ve tested this theory.
47. I am not so coordinated. I have been known to all out of my chair, or A over T, as my office mates like to call it. Translation: Arse over Tits.
48. That Union, League and AFL are very different games and if you are not Maroon you ar going to get the crap kicked out of you. (We are in QLD.)
49. Cricket is as boring as baseball, but it’s just as good reason to get very drunk in the stands. 50. Agro = angry, while avro = afternoon
51. The Ashes aren’t something from the Holy Trinity, it’s simply a cricket tradition.
52. My togs isn't as dirty as it sounds.
53. I shouldn’t have to pay 50 cents for my condiments. It’s simply un-Australian.
54. Hinterland is the land or district behind the borders of a coast or river, not somewhere over the rainbow.
55. Tomato sauce isn’t quite as good as ketchup.
56. The word Blackfella is like the N word in America; they can call each other it, but we can’t use it.
57. “Such is life” – Ned Kelly
58. A rock melon is a cantaloupe.
59. Funtack is called blue tack and it is grey in color. It is not really fun either.
60. A chook is a chicken and your friends aren’t quite as crazy as you think they are for having a pen of them in their backyards
61. Fair Dinkum isn’t used in general conversation half as much as you think it will be. However, G’day is and it will always make you giggle until you catch yourself saying it.
62. You never want to dob someone in. Bad things happen to tattle tales!
63. Stay away from things that are dodgy. Just do.
64. You will make the dog’s breakfast of your first year here and it’s okay. It is a complete mess, but you will figure it all out in the end.
65. You do not have to like sausage roll or meat pies to survive.
66. A doona is something wonderful to curl up under on a cold rainy day and yes, we do have them here in Australia (cold rainy days that is!)
67. A fanny is the front bits of a girl, while in the U.S. a fanny would be the back bits.
68. I am always flat out like a lizard drinking and it doesn’t mean I need to go to meetings!
69. Champers (champagne) and chardy (chardonnay) always make the day a bit better!
70. No one really knows what Australia Day is all about.
71. People say they can't understand you when you speak, but claim to watch prime time TV.
72. Jon kicks himself for not finding the subscription website where you can watch streaming major league games a year ago. (www.officialtvsports.com).
73. We could re-start that fake ID ring we ran out of our college dorms with the lack of security on the QLD license, but we would never do a thing like that!
74. You didn’t gain 20 pounds on the plane, the sizes are different.
75. Kilo’s to pounds inches to cm’s. You really do need math for everyday living!76. Kangaroos are a myth. Haven’t seen one yet in the wild!
77. Palm trees and evergreens should NOT be growing side by side. It’s weird.
78. I love choking on the sweet smell of eucalyptus when I go for a run.
79. Yoghurt does not belong on pizzas, even if Dominos tries to market it that way.
80. “Bris-Vegas” is NOTHING like Vegas.
81. People like Crocodile Dundee actually DO exist. It’s true. I’ve seen them.
82. Corks in your hat is actually a good way of keeping the mozzies away.
83. And yet..... They don’t have them in wine bottles. Go figure.
84. When it’s a minimum of 30C in the summer, shouldn’t air con be mandatory?
85. Apparently you need a drivers license to drive in Queensland. You wouldn’t know it to be on the road though. Merge does not mean to drive down an exit ramp and stop, then try to pull out into 110km traffic!
86. Why does it pour in the City and not a drop hits the dam? Who thought to put the damn dams there anyway!
87. The difference in time zones between here and home. My parents ask me every time they call what time it is....
88. And why can’t we all have daylight savings time? I want to play too! Why do Sydney & Melbourne get an extra hour?
89. I don’t need my secretary to tell me there is no 14th, 22nd or 31st month in the year. No wait, yes I do. I loathe the day-month-year format.
90. I have flown Trans-Pacific enough to know that if I cry while I am in the ticket line and while boarding, I get an exit seat with no one seated around me.
91. America and Australia are actually very much alike. It’s the little differences that get you.
92. There is no such thing as good pizza in Australia. No, Domino’s does not count, but it's as close as you will get.
93. You are hand feeding 100 kangaroos in a wide open, fenced in space with no supervision and you are thinking of the insurance liability. (I still say kangaroos in the wild are myths!)
94. Crisco for Christmas cookies can only be purchased from adult shops as a lubricant. What the hell is anyone other than Ron Jeremy going to do with 5lbs of shortening lubricant?
95. While it’s really nice that the lifeguards in Australia are being honoured for their 100 years of service but after a whole year of it, but that commercial.....ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!!
96. You can’t use the medical services here, but luckily you get the money back 2 years later. (10 months to process a Medicare Levy Exemption!)
97. You should know who is the president of New Zealand. When sitting in the Fijian airport chatting up a man with tattoos on his face thinking he is in the WWF, you should know he is a Maori terrorist and not the president of New Zealand.
98. Ian Thorpe will save us all from climate change.
99. I miss the seasons.
100. Writing this list made me thing about all I’ve learned and what a wonderful experience this has been and continues to be!
Year One - Done & Dusted.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T18:46:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!!!

Jon and I celebrated our first hot Christmas in Australia. We decorated our patio palm and the apartment with festive Christmas baubles; we even tried to bring home the evergreen smell of the fresh cut tree with some pine air freshner (sad, I'll admit) and we did a pretty good job of making it feel like home on Christmas. There was just one thing missing: our families.

We had a big Christmas Eve dinner with turkey and all the trimmings including Mum's beet root salad (or a feeble attempt at). Christmas morning, we woke up and opening our pressies: Jon's new surfboard and Siobhan's reading chair for the deck were the highlights.

After the phone calls home, Jon had to work in the ER around 1:00 and I relaxed watching movies for the rest of the day.

My folks sent me this picture of the pug man that had to be shared:

Wicked Winter Weather

2007-12-20T05:11:00.000-08:00

For the first time in our lives, wicked winter weather didn't mean snow, ice, sleet and slush. It has been raining for weeks; it's very dreary, grey and very depressing. We are very lucky that we aren't getting the brunt of it. Northern Queensland is under water; flooding has emerged entire towns which is problematic enough, but throw venimous snakes and crocodiles into the mix and things get interesting.

We went for a walk on the beach in front of our house, which used to be a good 20 meters to the low tide line and it's gone. There is a twenty foot cliff that drops down to the beach. There are black volcanic rocks everywhere that weren't visible two weeks ago. It is shocking what a war Mother Nature has ravished on our little patch of sand.

O Christmas Tree

2007-12-15T04:37:00.000-08:00

I have a "thing" about faux Christmas trees. I must have gotten it from my Dad; he insists every year that we have a real tree, while Mom grumbles about the needles and the carpet. I just can't bring myself to purchase an artificial tree.

So, being that there is a bit of shortage of the Douglass Fir type tree in our neck of the woods, I did the next best thing:

How Cool Is This?

2007-11-10T04:19:00.000-08:00

You can find your LYS anywhere in the freaking world!!

Happy Halloween!!

2007-10-31T15:17:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!!

Trick or Treat!

Have a spooktacular day!

It's Great When Mates Donate....

2007-10-24T15:11:00.000-07:00

The Australian Red Cross has had a donor campaign all over the tele and radio lately. Did you know that one blood donation saves three lives? It's not just trauma victims that you will be helping; the majority of the donated blood goes to those with cancer, heart disease, liver and kidney disease, people with haemophilia and to newborn babies and pregnant women.

Amazingly, with all of these people who need blood product to stay alive, only 1 in 30 people donate blood regularly.

So, can you think of a reason not to lend your arm and become a great Aussie bleeder?

See if you are eligible at: http://www.donateblood.com.au/

Magnetic Island

2007-10-15T04:21:00.000-07:00

For our last day in Townsville, we decided to hop the ferry to Magnetic Island just off the Coast to see if there was any snorkeling to be had, since our dive trip had been called on account of weather.

The island is rocky granite and quite hilly which makes it pretty funny that the primary mode of transportation is the moke. The glorified golf cart was actually quite tricky to drive and the steep ascents and descents and sharp curves gave me flashbacks to the Hana Highway debacle. Sometimes, I truly thought we were going to start rolling backwards or I was going to be flung from cart when Jon whipped around turns. Of course, he loved every minute of it!

Ironically enough, most of the island is a no-go moke zone. So, we had to hike down to our snorkelling spot at Nelly Bay. Visability was absolute crap and we had no stinger suits, so it wasn't worth our lives to see nothing but swirling sand. We went down to the main drag on the island for lunch and a long walk along the bay.

With the rest of the afternoon to kill, Jon got some thrills by driving the mope up and down the island from end to end over and over. I was never so happy to hand back the keys to a rental car.

S.S. Yongala

2007-10-14T03:42:00.000-07:00

The Yongala is one of the best dive spots in all of Australia, perhaps the world. The ship sank in a cyclone in 1911 and remained undiscovered for 50 years. The wreck now lies on its starboard side in 14-28 metres of water and at 109m long is the largest and most intact, historic shipwreck in Australian waters. Jon was so excited to have a chance to make this dive, but....

Townsville continued to be troublesome. There were only a few dive operators running trips to the Yongala and only one in the days that we were in town. The only other diving option was to go out to the Great Barrier Reef on one of those cattle herding FantaSea boats, which neither of us were keen to do. We visited the one boat going out to the wreck within our time frame and we were told that the conditions had been so terrible for the last few weeks and there was a snowball's chance in hell that we were going to get to the site. Brilliant, absolutely bloody brilliant. Townsville had done it once again.

Jon was shattered. He had wanted to go diving so badly. Think of what a three year old would look like if you told them Christmas was cancelled and you've got half the idea. As a poor substitute, we went to the aquarium and he walked around all forlorn that he couldn't swim with the fish.

Reef HQ was quite impressive. The centrepiece is a 2.5 million litre tank of living coral habitat with all of the colourful fish, eels, rays, turtles and sharks. There is a tank of predatory animals that replicates the flora and fauna found at the Yongala complete with a replica shipwreck. Didn't help matters much. The Night Tank was staggering with glow in the dark fish and luminescent fish.

Still, we had fun and the wreck will be there to dive later. The pirate toy Jon got at the gift shop made him feel a little bit better and we went off to try the TexMex restaurant by our hotel.

It had to be done. The question had to be answered: Can a place that is neither Tex or Mex make a good burrito? The answer is a resounding no.

The upside: American beer (for nostalgia's sake) which can be hard to come by here
The downside: Montezuma's revenge knows no bounds

On The Road Again, Townsville

2007-10-13T21:10:00.000-07:00

Driving to Townsville seemed like such a good idea at the time, to use Jon's favorite phrase. It was such a long, tedious drive on along the motorway. The whole day was a blur and there was much talk of abandoning our hotel reservations and bailing out in Airlie Beach.

We plugged on in hopes of getting on a dive trip out to the SS Yongala and we arrived in Townsville around midnight, bleary eyed is putting it mildly.

We set off in the morning to walk around the Saturday markets. Jon quickly abandoned me when he spied a Red Sox game on the TV in a sports bar. Beer and brunch was all the boy needed to hear; he disappeared into the dark back room into the glow of the big screen tv. He finally emerged when the locals turned off his game to watch the cricket and we were off to the Billabong Wildlife Sanctuary.

On first glance, the place is not exactly aesthetically appealing. First impressions be damned, I was going to cuddle a wombat if I had to do so in a porta-loo. We walked around while we waited for the cuddle time and saw all of the animal exhibits in under 10 minutes. With a half an hour to burn, we sat and fed the ducks.

Finally the hour was upon us, Belle the wombat came out to visit with the public. They are just the most adorable little creatures, but quite bristle-like when you touch them. We did our little cuddle and photos with Belle and started chatting to the keeper who happened to be from America. She was just about to go check in on the koalas and invited us to come on a little "behind the scenes" tour.

Normally, when you see koalas they are just lounging and lazily stuffing their cute little faces with eucalyptus leaves. When we entered the enclosure with the keeper, one of the little fur balls came down from his perch and was trotting around sniffing at our feet.

The greatest moment was when she pulled down one of the Momma Koala's pouches to reveal a little baby! It was a sight to make your heart melt.

After leaving the wildlife sanctuary, we explored Townsville a little bit. Our hopes had been to go for a swim in the lagoon, a man-made swimming area because of the prevalence of dangerous marine stingers in the area. Our bad luck, there was no water in the lagoon.

Plan B was to set off and grab a bite to eat. At 3:00pm, this is easier said than done. Lunch is no longer being served and dinner is not yet being served, so the kitchens at most restaurants are closed. We tried every restaurant on the Esplanade with no luck, so it was back to the hotel for a room service snack grumbling about how ridiculous the situation was.

We had tried to get reservations at the restaurant at casino restaurant because it was supposed to be the nicest in town (the criteria being that they have tablecloths), but the only serve on select nights during the week and we couldn't get a booking. Townsville was just not being kind to us at this point.

The steak house across the street was settled for and the only highlight of the meal was the salt was pink. Australian pink salt, who knew?

Too tired from his early morning boozing to go out on the town, Jon fell asleep shortly after the sun set leaving me to catch up on my movie viewing and find a dive operator to go out to the SS Yongala the following day - easier said then done.

Map Not To Scale

2007-09-28T22:24:00.000-07:00

When we woke up the following morning, neither of us were really keen to get moving right away knowing that we had 7+ hours worth of driving ahead of us. We had a look at the map and decided to make the drive a circuit and go north to for brekky and continue home by driving south east to Gympie.

While we were planning our route, we watched in as the families around us were breaking down there camping operations. I've camped quite a bit stateside and there is something to be said for the Australian take on it. A site for a family of four generally consists of several tents including the two story one that rises off the back of the 4WD with a special tent for the solar shower. I've seen kitchens with sinks and ovens, toy tents filled with all of the kids playthings and tarped eating areas that are bigger than my living room. The funniest part is to watch them break it down like trained worker ants; everyone has a job and the whole thing comes down in 15 minutes flat.

It was getting to be late morning and we had to start driving. After a minor incident with *someone* backing the car into a tree, we started down the long dirt road dodging cattle in our hatchback to return to civilization.

We had breakfast at the only restaurant in Rollerston. It was an experience; the town was a post office/gas station/corner store, church & the cafe. We were the only people under 60 in the restaurant; we had stumbled into a congregation of the caravan retirees that inhabit campgrounds all over the country.

The drive was gorgeous to start: rolling hills, iconic country Australian farms, paddocks filled with livestock and wildflowers, but after a few hours you've seen one windmill, you've seen them all.

Note to self: nothing is ever as close as it seems in Australia.

Carnarvon Gorge National Park

2007-09-27T19:28:00.000-07:00

We woke up early the next morning and set off for a swim in the nearby Rock Pools. At 8am, it was already really warm and the swimming hole seemed like a great idea. That is, until, the girl at the campground kiosk told us the Rock Pools were filled with non-venomous snakes - that was all I needed to hear to not put more than a toe in the water! Jon had a grand old time splashing about and trying to drag me into the snake pits.

With no luck trying to coax me into the water, the trail we decided to take was a 14 km round trip bushwalk that weaved across the Gorge Floor with numerous creek crossings. It was a beautiful day to explore "Australia's Grand Canyon."

According to park literature, the rugged 16,000ha Carnarvon Gorge section is the most popular destination in Queensland’s central highlands. Remnant rainforest flourishes in the sheltered side-gorges while cabbage tree palms, ancient cycads, ferns, flowering shrubs and gum trees line the main gorge. Grassy open forest grows on the cliff tops. The park’s creeks attract a wide variety of animals including more than 173 species of birds (or which we saw two!)

Since this is drought country, the river was far from freely flowing, but it still made for a beautiful landscape for a bushwalk.

It was a really warm day and it was very buggy - it now made sense why Aussie blokes are often portrayed with corks hanging off their hats. We made do by shoving ferns in our cap brims. Not exactly a runway look, but it kept the gnats away.

The walk was "destination hiking" which works well to motivate Jon and I to keep going; there were four stops on our itinerary. The first being a "Moss Garden." The rain falls on the top of the porous cliff walls and trickles down like a really big Brita filter until it hits a hard rock layer of shale. The water permeates out of the cliff side and brilliant mosses have bloomed in the moist habitat. It was a little rainforest oasis in the rather dry surroundings and the cool breeze and shade made it a nice spot to stop and have some lunch.

Then we continued along the bottom of the Gorge losing count of how many times we crossed the semi -dried up creek, making our way to The Ampitheatre, which reminded me of the hiking in The Gunks (Near New Paltz, NY). You are climbing ladders and squeezing through small crevasses into deep gorge. Water eroded away a space into the rock to create a little room that the Aboriginals in the area used for shelter. The walls of The Ampitheatre are absolutely gorgeous; there are 1,000s of color bands that extend hundreds of feet into the sky. The walls make for good acoustics for doing the Ricola commercial, as you do.

The Cathedral Caves, a few kilometres down the trail, were formed by running water like The Ampitheatre. The cave is one of the largest rockshelters in Queensland and the magnitude is staggering.

As we continued on to the piece de resistance, the Art Gallery, Jon found a pointy palm frond and decided that he was Zorro. There was poking, then yelling and I ended up with a few welts on my bum. The drama subsided when we arrived at the Art Gallery, a 62km sandstone wall with ochre Aboriginal cave drawings. It's hard to imagine that these markings have stood the test of time and continue to be so vibrant.

There are examples of line drawings, as well as outlines of tools, hands & weapons that had paint blown around them that have survived the harsh terrain for hundreds of years.

The sun was setting and we were really keen to get back to camp to try and catch a glimpse of a platypus in the river alongside the campsite. No such luck; there were heaps of kids making loads of noise, so the shy platypus didn't make an appearance. A few kangaroos visited our dinner table while we made some kebabs. All dreams of having a few beers by the campfire were dashed; we couldn't keep our eyes open. As soon as my head hit the air mattress, I was out like a light.

See all of the photos from our trip on Webshots:

Carnavon Gorge National Park ~ Central QLD

Manifest Destiny

2007-09-26T21:06:00.000-07:00

After looking at a map of Queensland, we realized just how little ground we have covered. Since it was shaping up to be a rainy weekend up and down the Coast, we decided to go west. The trusty Lonely Planet guide said that Carnavon Gorge National Park was worth the trip, so the tent was tossed in the Holden and we set off not really knowing what to expect.

We set off through the Great Dividing Range and got our first taste of exactly how big Australia is - it's fairly populated in the area we were driving through, still you could pass 100kms without passing through a town. After 8 hours of driving, we arrived in Roma (home of the Big Rig - what is is with Aussies and building big fiberglass objects?) thinking that we were a few kms away. We turned up Carnarvon Gorge Road and realized, we were dead wrong. Night has started to fall and the bugs were amazing; it was like driving through that old school Microsoft Star Wars screen saver.

Two hours, a few close encounters with road trains and many kanagroos dodged later, we arived on the final road to the campsite to another shock: It was another 35kms down a dirt road to the campsite. We didn't pay much attention to the stock crossing sign, until we were literally driving through a herd of cattle, only to arrive to once again pitch the tent in the headlights of the car.

It was nearing midnight and we were so tired. So, we turned in and hoped that the morning would bring some good bushwalking.

Upstream, Red Team! Red Team, Upstream!

2007-09-12T19:25:00.000-07:00

Rutgers Home Opener 2007! It was a family affair to watch the Scarlet Knights beat Buffalo!

Rutgers 2007 Home Opener v. Buffalo!

I'm off to the place where oil is refined, I'm in a New Jersey State of Mind....

2007-09-11T19:21:00.000-07:00

I was incredibly homesick, so I hopped a flight home for some much needed family time.

New Jersey with the Fam!

APEC Supervillians

2007-09-02T02:46:00.000-07:00

The big question here in Australia is did the Chasers go too far? A do-it-yourself motorcade? Are your serious?

Now, I am not one that likes to talk politics. Being a blue child raised by red parents living in a foreign country has made things very confusing. I hemmed and hawed about posting this because I did not want to offend anyone, but came to the conclusion that funny is still funny.

So, without further adieu, I present to you Osama bin Laden on the streets of Sydney storm-trooping GWB's hotel.

APEC Conference: Australia

2007-09-01T02:36:00.000-07:00

There is a lot of bad Australian television. The one redeeming factor is "The Chasers War On Everything."

Now as it is big news in Australia, if you do not read the Asia-Pacific pages of the New York Times or Wall Street Journal, it may be news to you that the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) was meeting in Sydney this week.

However, with security tight across the streets of Sydney, the Chasers decided to have a little play. I still can't believe they got away with this!! In the States, they would have been jailed straight away!

Have a look - it's absolutely hysterical:

Glow Worms & Good Nights

2007-07-05T21:35:00.000-07:00

Since a good portion of our spare bedroom is taken up by surfboards, bicycles and camping gear, you can only sit around and waste time on the Internet surrounded by all of these toys for a short time before you start to feel like a real waste of space.

Although it is winter here in the sunny land of Oz, Jon and I figured if we could handle a brisk, winter camp out. It's not that cold; recently my colleagues have been complaining about the temperature. The record low we achieved last week was 12 degrees; that's 54 degrees roughly. It's not THAT cold.

We loaded the gear into the car and set off for Springbrook National Park to see some glowworms. The park is about an hour south of Brisbane in the Gold Coast Hinterland and is part of group of national parks that make up a World Heritage listed rainforest.

As per usual, we arrive just on the cusp of darkness (I swear Jonathan must love to pitch the tent in the dark or racing the setting sun!) and as we are inflating the air mattress, it is decided that it is in fact cold when it is 12 degrees. Since we can't make a fire on national park property and we don't have one of those really ingenious off the ground fire pit things that every other campsite seems to have, it is unanimously decided that we will go have dinner a few kilometers down the road at one of the bed and breakfasts with a nice, warm restaurant with presumably yummy, warming red wine.

Paddymelons was a lovely little hideaway on the hillside and we snuggled in to have a glass of wine in front of the fireplace and enjoy some nibblies. Seated nearby was another young couple playing chess; after hearing a bit of their conversation, I whispered to Jon, "They talk like me!" I generally get excited when I hear the North American accent, even if it is only the automated voice on the train mispronouncing the next stop.

We struck up a conversation and had a lovely dinner together; it turned out that they were backpackers from Canada and their campervan had broken down. The nearest garage to have it fixed that would accept their roadside assistance program was a ways away and they were told it would take a week to get a tow truck up into the mountains to help them.

They joined on our trip to see the glowworms that live on the Natural Bridge at Springbrook. We thought it would be a relaxed little post-port nature walk. Never in a million years did we expect the entire parking area to be filled with luxury charter buses and hundreds of Asian tourists. It was an absolute mob scene.

As we walked down the trail, more people kept streaming up past us. Finally, we queued up to get a look inside the Natural Bridge. The "bridge" is a rock formation that a waterfall eroded a hole through to the creek below. It's quite pretty by itself; we actually returned the following day to get a look in the daylight. Jon really wanted to jump through the hole, but the idea was quickly quashed by moi.

The glowworms were the pretty amazing; I've never seen anything quite like it in my life. Little specks of green glowing blobs all over the cave walls - like an eerie, green starry night. They glowed, we watched and they glowed some more.

We dropped our backpacker friends off at their nonfunctional campervan and drove off to our campsite, snuggled away in our sleeping bags trying to to think about the fact that it was really cold outside.

Finally - around 1am when I climbed in the car and turned on the heat, I was shocked to see that it had dropped to 3 degrees. That's cold. Far too cold to be sleeping outside, however, Jonathan seemed unfazed by it all until he woke up to find me in the car with the heat on. I got a talking to about mechanics and how that's really bad for the the car, but I could feel my toes!

High Times at Haleakala

2007-06-14T02:29:00.000-07:00

We made a day trip to the top of the Maui today to Haleakala National Park. The main feature of this part of the park is the famous Haleakala Crater. It is huge: 11.25 km (7 mi) across, 3.2 km (2 mi) wide, and some 800 meters (2,600 feet) deep. When you are standing on the rim, it feels as if you might be descending on the Moon.

There were other-worldly plants and the sands of the crater changed color in every direction that you looked: blues, greens, yellows, reds, every color imaginable.

We began the steep descent down; even though it was the beginning of summer, it was quite chilly as we hiked into the Crater. We only had a few hours before we had to meet everyone else for dinner, so we didn't have a chance to hike as far as we would have liked, but the views were beautiful.

On the trek back up, we were really envious of the crowds of people who were on horseback!

We drove up to the Summit and we were above the clouds and could see all of the islands of Hawaii! Words cannot express how beautiful it was!

The Hana Highway

2007-06-13T01:52:00.000-07:00

After a relaxing morning at the Four Seasons shaking the post wedding celebration stupor, we set off for a scenic drive along the Hana Highway. It is a long and winding road cut into that weaves alongside the eastern side of the island. The drive takes about 3 hours of white knuckle driving with a cliff on one side and the mountain side on the other. Jon thought he was a rally car driver and it was completely freaking me out. According to Wikipedia, there are approximately 620 curves along Highway 360 from just east of Kahului to Hana; which means there were approximately 620 times I yelled "Slow the frick, down" or some variation of that phrase.

Then to make matters worse, I read in the guidebook that Many of the concrete and steel bridges date back to 1910 and all but one are still in use. That one bridge, badly damaged by erosion, has been paralleled by a portable steel bridge erected by the Army Corps of Engineers. Signs on the old bridge warn pedestrians to stay off due to imminent collapse. My nervous tendencies construed that all of the bridges were going to collapse imminently.

Our first stop was in the bamboo forest and had we had a bit more time, we would have loved to hike out to the waterfall, but with the long drive, it wasn't feesible.

The drive passes through beautiful, tropical rainforest and has many beautiful waterfalls. We had lunch on mangos and other goodies that we found at self-service fruit stands along the road. With daylight fading we made quick stops at the black and red sand beaches and darted off to the Seven Sacred Pools.

We were really looking forward to taking a swim in the pools, but they were closed due to high water levels. We watched the sunset over the pools and had a chat to a few local fisherman.

Then... we had to drive home on the Hana Highway in the dark. All I can say is I am lucky to be alive =)

The Big Day!

2007-06-12T01:44:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was the big day! We were told the best thing we could do is stay out of the way, so Steph, Brett, Jon & I headed off to the Kiehi Cafe for some of the best damn breakfast burritos I have ever had. We had made plans with Russ's roommate John to meet up with us, lend the guys some surfboards, so that when they returned home they could tell girls in bars that they "surfed near Pipeline." Like in the VERY general vicinity, but those are only details.

Halfway through brekky, we realized that Brett's shirt for the wedding was still in the bride's car, so we had to track her down while she was at the spa and retrieve the shirt. While Brett was off finding his shirt, we waited by the Jeep under this tree that had long pods that looked like centepieds. Now, Brett had learned about the centepieds on the island and was DEATHLY afraid of them. Apparently, they are pretty gross to look at and hurt like a beasty when they bite you. Needless to say, even the mention of a creepy crawly sent him into a five-year-old-girl type frenzy. So, being the sweet friends that we are we gathered up as many of these faux centipieds as possibly to scare the crap out of him. We hid a bunch around the car and waited.......

Unfortunately, he walked out and saw us planting our bugs, so he was on guard for the rest of the week. It had the potential to be such a great damn joke.

The wedding took place on a overlook by the Wailea Country Club. Everything was absolutely perfect; beautiful view & sunset. Mike even had one of his student's parents drive the rescue helicopter over the site of the ceremony and drop down 10,000 plumeria flowers; it was snowing gorgeous tropic flowers.

The reception following was at the Irish pub where they met called Mulligans. One of Mike's students came and did a special hula for his special teacher, which really spoke volumes about the relationship he has with all of his students.

We were really lucky to share the special day.

Mulligan (by Jon)

2007-06-11T01:29:00.000-07:00

Sunday was time for the boys to have some real fun, ditch the broads and go raise hell.... On the golf course. *Ahem* Yes, we are real rebels, and decided to go play a round of golf in Waillea. We wanted to do something different, you know? I mean, who plays golf in Hawaii??? So, Russ, Wegs, Steph (yes, he has a girls name), Noel, and Russ's brothers rented some clubs and got ready to do battle. Yes, we rented. And no, as you can guess, we are not good at golf (well, except Noel....He beat everybody by about 20 strokes, that smug *******) But I'll tell you what, we tore that golf course up. No, we did really. Literally. There were divots all over the place, it was pretty ugly.... Let's put it this way, when I went to rent the clubs it was so obvious that I had no clue what I was doing that the guy at the golf shop gave me a bag of balls (literally a whole shopping bag full) and said that I'd need 'em.

I did

*sigh*

Oh, did I mention I got the dubious honour of getting the highest score? No? Good. Then I shot 2 under par.....

Anyway, we got out to the course for the early tee time of 7AM. Loaded the beer on the back of the golf carts and were on our way. Why the beer you might ask? Well, the way looked at it was that we were going to have horrific scores anyway. We might as well get drunk and have that as an excuse. By the time we reached the 9th hole the beer was gone but luckily we ran into the beer girl and bought her entire stock and kept on going. Funny thing was that looking at the score card afterwards that I apparently play a hell of a lot better drunk than sober.

The golf course was awesome, perched up on the the hill over-looking the islands of Molokini and Molokai and sometimes we just had to just stop and soak up the view. It was almost like playing Tiger Woods Golf on the PS2.....except that it was real. Oh, and that we suck. I had bought these really cool salmon coloured balls, 9 of them, figuring that they would be really hard to lose. I started in on the balls that the guy in the golf shop gave me by the end of the 3rd hold. Oops.

Didn't matter though, we had a blast. Moment of the day for me was on the back 9. Can't remember the whole, I was pretty drunk I think. but it was a par 5. I was off in the light rough after my tee shot about 220 yards from the pin. Using the 3 wood I managed to put the ball onto the green about 10 feet from the whole. It was so cool. And no, I didn't make eagle....or birdie. Hell, I didn't even get par as my putting skills decided to desert me at just the right time but hitting it onto the green like that was cool anyway.

Difficult to describe the course with words and can't show you pictures because we forgot the camera but take my word for it, it was gorgeous. Afterwards we went to the bar and had a few more drinks before going home to get cleaned up cause the boys were going out on the town to rage tonight!!!!

Yup, we were going out to party more after playing 18 holes of golf in 90+ degree heat in blazing sunshine and drinking loads of beer. We got back and decided to watch a bit of the game before getting ready and....

Ah well, we had a blast that day anyway even if we did, ummm, fade a bit towards the end.
- Jon

What Jon forgot to mention is after the boys got back from the golf, the families of the bride & groom hosted a beautiful barbeque on the beach in South Kihei. The night culminated in a soccer game Mike v. his nieces and I do have to say, I think Maddie & the girls won flat out! Then promptly came home and returned home to all fall asleep on the couch. But, good times, good friends & good food are always wonderful!

Good Times & Green Turtles

2007-06-10T01:18:00.000-07:00

We had a wonderful sleep in on Saturday & enjoyed a wonderful greasy breakfast at the "Philly Diner" in Kihei. The irony was not lost on either Jonathan or I, but it was wonderful to have the closest thing to a greasy spoon we could find on the island. We had what the Aussie's call an "American Breakfast" of scrambled eggs, white toast, hash browns & bacon while very aggressive little sparrows flew around the inside of the diner and seems to swarm for scraps!

Mike phoned and said everyone was meeting down on the beach in Wailea just to relax, swim & snorkel. So, we drove down taking an accidental detour that ended up in a stunning drive along the coast of Maui. The sights were absolutely breathtaking! As we were driving, the directions Jon took down over the phone accidentally flew out the window, so we spent quite a bit of time backtracking down the road looking for a scrap of paper on the road. These sort of ridiculous things only happen to us!

When we finally met up with everyone else, Mike suggested that we take our snorkeling gear and go explore a little point about a half mile down the beach. Other people had told us the coral was a bit pretty, but we never expected what we actually found! The reef itself was impressive, but not by Australia standards. We were lucky enough to come across a group of green sea turtles gnoshing on the kelp that was floating around. I even took a bit of kelp in my hand and had one of the smaller turtles take a nip from it! There had to be at least 15 turtles; they were everywhere you turned! It was truly a "Finding Nemo" moment!

The bride & groom to be were having dinner at Spago's, Wolfgang Puck's restaurant at the Four Seasons Maui, so we were invited to dinner with the bride's Mom and assorted friends at Stella Blue's, a great local restaurant with a bit of a Grateful Dead undertone. Our Deadhead friends would love it! There is even a drink on the menu called "Friend of the Devil." Check out the website at http://www.stellablues.com./

The best man was one of the managers there, so we had top notch treatment & had an amazing dinner while sipping Lilikoitinis (the most amazing concoction ever! Problem being, you can't taste the vodka!) Our server Chris was a legend! Talk about service with a smile!

We tried to rally to do a "late night," but the night's fate was sealed when Brett took my sunglasses and fell asleep in the bar. This became a recurring image on the trip and the scariest part was he looked better in my sunglasses than I did! Tip-Ups was a great bar, but we were all just so incredibly shot out that all anyone wanted to do was go to bed. We are so not 21 anymore!
The boys had an early tee off time at a golf course in Wailea & Jon was loving be able to watch ESPN Sports Center, so going home early was actually a nice treat!

Halfway Home in Hawaii

2007-06-09T01:15:00.000-07:00

It felt so good to be back in the U.S., even if just for a week. My main objectives were to eat as many bagels & pieces of "New York Style Pizza" as humanly possible & to stock my suitcase full of "homesickness curing" foods.

It was the strangest thing, I left our apartment at 11am on Friday morning to fly from Brisbane to Sydney and then Sydney to Honolulu. When I walk off the plane to meet Jon and hop an interisland flight to Maui, it was 10am on Friday. Shocking. The jet lag wasn't too bad though, other than not knowing what day it was, the time change didn't screw with our circadian rhythms too much.

We rented a bright red Jeep Wrangler to cruise the island and style and rushed off to Mike's house, so he could begin shuttling everyone to and from the airport. After one of Mike's high school buddies arrived, there wasn't much time to think about how tired we were before we were off to Mike's parents condo for a lovely barbeque at sunset. The food was amazing; it was so nice to have "traditional American" cuisine =) I know it sounds silly, but it was so incredibly wonderful!

After the barbeque, Mike and his bleary eyed group of travellers set off to meet up with his bride-to-be and her friends who had just flown in from the Mainland for a night of libations at Moose McGillicuty's and then it all gets a bit fuzzy from there.....
It was a great night, I'm sure!

Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo

2007-04-27T00:53:00.000-07:00

It's our one-year anniversary today! Hoo-ray!

It's been a tumultuous year, but today we celebrate the good time and the bad and all we have been through together to bring us to this day!

Jon told me that today was my day and we would do the things on the Coast that I have been really looking forward to doing together.

We started off our morning at the Eumundi Markets. For you kids back home in NJ, it is kind of like the Englishtown Saturdays with a real hippie vibe. We walked around and looked at handcrafted cheeseboards, soap, skirts, jewelry and it was all absolutely gorgeous.

Jon really got into all of the different food vendors; he had heaps of different kinds of sausages, Lebanese food, crepes, and all sorts of other little tastes. It was a gastronomic day! We were at one of the fruit stalls and he bought a few of these fruits called "custard apples" just because he had never seen anything so odd looking =) It actually turned out to be quite sweet & yummy!

I ended up purchasing an gorgeous hand sewn brown suede wrap skirt and an amber necklace. It was a little freaky when the man who sold us the necklace made me hold it and feel it's energy, but it's a really pretty necklace all the same.

Then we headed off to the Australia Zoo (where Crocs Rule!) Jon was like a kid at the candy store. His favorite part being the really huge crocodiles and the tigers. I liked the wombats best! They are so incredibly cute.I think we are going to adopt the wombat named "Meg" in honor of my sister =) Check it out at: secure.australiazoo.com .au/get-involved/adopt-an -animal/

The zoo was absolutely amazing! They tributes to Steve were really sad & quite moving. You couldn't help but get a little choked up. It's amazing the things that he accomplished in his life and how truly loved he was throughout Australia & the entire world.

We caught the crocodile show at the "Crocoseum;" It is amazing the noise that the croc's jaw makes when it snaps shut. It makes your bones shudder! As we were leaving the show, we ran into a woman taking the elephants for a walk. Apparently, all of the animals get "walked" around the zoo for stimulation. It was hysterical to see two wombats waddle by with the same harness on that Bailey (the pug) wears!

Just like Lone Pine, they have a large enclosure where you can feed the kangaroos, but this one was much more crowded, as where the lines for the koalas photos & petting. The day was also much more pricey, but with all of the great education and conservation programs that come out of Zoo, it's easy to justify.

Jon's favorite part of the day was right at the end when we got to see the two largest croc's, Agro & Acco get fed. They spend most of the day hiding in the water, so you can only really get your head around the shear size of these beasts at feeding time when the caretakers coax them out of the water with food for public viewing. Huge does not even come close to describing how big these two boys were; they make American Alligators look like toy poodles!

Tangalooma Nights

2007-04-22T00:23:00.000-07:00

One of the first things I really wanted to do when we got here was take a day trip out to Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort on Moreton Island and feed the wild dolphins. Finally, today, I got my wish!

We had to wake up so early and drive back down to Brisbane to catch a ferry over the Moreton Island. We got so incredibly lost and ended up missing our 7am ferry by mere seconds. To make matters worse, the area around the launch is very industrial, so pickings for a cafe for brekky were limited and we were even worse off because it was a Sunday at 7am! So, we went to the Airport which is right nearby and had Red Rooster Brekky rolls! (Red Rooster is the chicken equivalent to Burger King.) While we were at the Airport, Jon bought my stuffed koala, Nellie, a new friend; he's a wombat named Russell (I didn't name them, the tags on their tushies did!)

We arrived with plenty of time to spare at the ferry the second time around and set off across Moreton Bay. Moreton Island is 98% national park with the resort making up the other bits. The water is gorgeously calm & clear and the white sand beaches are spectacular! Except, you end up with sand all over everything because it is a sand island just like Fraser Island and it is actually home to the tallest "sand hill" in the world (280m.)

As we were on the boat, they ran a video of all of the different things there were to do at the Resort & on the Island. Everything looked like so much fun that we were kind of bummed we hadn't made a weekend out of it. All of the big sand hills are great for "sand tobogganing" which just looked like SO much fun and there were some kayaking tours where you could go see some dugongs (manatees) in their natural environment, but they didn't fit into our timetable. The ATV trips & Blue Lagoon excursions were not running the day we came out, so that was out. There are also awesome whale watching opportunities for migrating humpbacks, but it was the wrong time of year. So what did we do you ask?

We decided to go snorkeling the Tangalooma Wrecks. It's a group of about 15 different dredgers, trawlers, and other working ships that were sunk off the sheltered western side of the island that are home to myriads of reef fish and gorgeous corals. It was only about a 50 yard swim out to the Wrecks and for the early part of the day the water was absolutely beautiful, not too cold & no strong currents. We took heaps of pictures, but they didn't come out. Words cannot describe how gorgeous the afternoon turned out to be!

We watched the most amazing sunset and snacked on fish & chips at a beachfront cafe while we waiting for night to fall. As dusk settled in, we made our way over to the boat launch area where each night as the sun sets over the horizon, a group of Indo-Pacific Bottlenose dolphins swim in for a visit. There is a marine biology research station housed at the resort that does heaps of conservation and education about the dolphins, their habitat & eco-conservation in general.

As the biologist is giving his chat, the dolphins arrive at their own place and just play around in the water. It was explained to us that they are still completely self sufficient in the wild.

The after all of the dolphins arrive and the marine biologist finished his talk, you walk down in pairs with on the marine biologists and get to hand feed the dolphin. The dolphins line up in lanes in pairs of two with certain biologists in each lane; they return in the same formation almost every night. You handed a fish and instructed to hold it like an ice cream cone, scales down not to injury the dolphin. On the count of three, you both bend down and feed the dolphins simultaneously or you might lose some fingers =)

You can meet the dolphins we fed here:
Tinkerbell: www.tangalooma.com /dolphinweb/dolphins /tinkerbell.asp
Shadow: www.tangalooma.com /dolphinweb/dolphins /shadow.asp

What a weekend! It was such a great time! Jon and I can't wait to get back and spend a little bit more time exploring the island. It was far too much for just one day!

Kangaroo Point

2007-04-21T00:06:00.000-07:00

When we first arrived, Jon's Mum mentioned that a family friend's daughter was studying abroad for a semester at Griffith University in Brisbane. After exchanging heaps of emails, we finally got together this afternoon to check out Riverlife Adventure Center at Kangaroo Point in Brisbane. There are rockclimbing & abseiling excursions each arvo, so Jon and I asked Lindsey if she'd like to join us. We forgot to mention that abseiling meant jumping off a cliff until she was in the car with us, but she was fine with it ~ thank goodness.

As we always do driving anywhere near Brisbane, we got lost. Finally, we found the campus and the area where we were supposed to meet Lindsey and realized we didn't know what she looked like & we didn't tell her what kind of car we were driving. After looking like complete jackasses wandering around the Uni quad, we finally found here and we were off. Except, the map Riverlife had on their website was less than descriptive. So, we accidentally drove over the Storey Bridge 10 times. Jon's head was about to spin off his shoulders he was so frustrated!! Finally, we found a ferry terminal that was a marker on the map, parked there and just walked along the river to the Adventure Center's office.

The riverfront is a gorgeous place to run, bike, rollerblade and Brissy is a gorgeous city. A lot of the other Yanks called it Bris-Vegas, but it completely reminds me of a very clean version of L.A. Everything is very new and clean looking with heaps of modern architecture.

Riverlife is in such a strange place, right on the shores of the river across the way from huge skyscrapers is are these cliffs called Kangaroos Point. Beautiful sandstone cliffs, right in the middle of the city. We climbed up to the top of the cliffs (via the stairs) to go abseiling. As we were getting our instructions as a group of men in traditional aboriginal dress just walked by with didgeridoos. I'm sure they were on their way to some culture exhibition, but to see that with a City Cat Ferry whipping by in the background was hysterical.

There were heaps of rock climbers and abseilers already there when we got there and the area is lighted, so I am sure they stayed long after we left. Donning our sexy helmets and harnesses, we prepared to jump off a cliff for the hell of it! Jon gave the belay quite a fright when he went flying down first off! He dropped so quickly he burnt a hole in his glove straight through to his hand. I followed doing pretty well if I do say so myself considering it's been a few years since I've done anything like this! Lindsey did AWESOME for her first time & only actually finding out what it was we were doing when she got in the car. An absolute natural!

After a few runs down the cliff, it was time to go up! A very zealous Jon went up first & I was his belay (hehehe.) I had HEAPS of fun with that one! It was harder to your way up than it looked, but he eventually preserved and reached the top. Lindsey flew up and back down & enjoyed a fabulous view of the city. I made it half way up, but couldn't negotiate my way around one large overhang. I was Miss-I-Have-No -Upper-Body-Strength-And -When-I-Got-To-The-Point -Where-I-Couldn't-Use -My-Legs-I-Was-Screwed. Plus, we were all starving and someone was having a sausage sizzle on one of the public bbq's on the river.

After an esoteric discussion on the fact that there is no such thing as "shrimp on the barbie," because Aussies call shrimp "prawns" and you never hear anyone say "prawns on the barbie," we drove down to Brisbane's West End to find a restaurant or cafe where our grubby-selves would be allowed to eat. We really wanted to go down to South Bank because there are so many good restaurants, but there was no way with the way we looked. The West End has lots of nice places we could dine al fresco, which was key considering the way we smelled and lots of different ethnic cuisine to choose from. Jon wanted Indian and there was no changing his mind, Lindsey was up for anything, so I just went along with it because Jon was "reminding me" that I did promise to try one new food a week. Caught on a technicality. Bugger. Indian food it is.
We order a feast, which was amazing. Both Lindsey & I were really happy that we gave it a go! It was absolutely delicious. She even liked my trying one new food a week idea that she resolved to do it as well!

Exhausted and stuffed, we dropped her back off at her dormitory and drove back up to the Coast for a well deserved sleep!

Fraser Island Finale

2007-04-09T03:15:00.000-07:00

By Monday morning, I was never so happy to be headed home! I missed Jon terribly and I was baffled at how some of the guys from the UK managed to stay drunk straight through our trip. Silence on the car drive home would be a welcome sound; the Scottish blokes hadn't stopped with the banter in three days and through their thick accents you could really only understand the obscenities, which was more than likely 3/4 of what they were saying. Fookin' Nobs they were.

(While I was on Fraser, The Easter Bibly brought Jon lots of chocolates!)

We were all excited to be visiting another freshwater lake on the island since Lake Wobby was so beautiful. It was really hot and we were advised not to swim in the ocean by the tour operator, so the lake was looking good. The downside was today would be another day of inland track driving which is so bumpy & uncomfortable for the passengers and stressful for the driver. We had all been on the grog the night before, so it was a wonder that no one tossed their cookies in all of the jostling!

We left nice and early from our campsite to beat the traffic (yes, we are on an island with no roads and there is still heaps of traffic) and take much sought naps on the shores of Lake MacKenzie. It was quite lovely, but cold & quite frankly at that point all anyone wanted was to not have sand on every square inch of their body, their belongings, the truck. We really just wanted to get off this effin' sand dune & have a shower.

On the drive back, we had heaps of time to kill so we stopped at Central Station, which is an information center that is one of the first places you pass coming onto the island from the ferry. More notably, it is the only place you can fill your water jugs from a spigot with drinkable water according to our tour operator =)

We had the traditional "end of camping trip" smorgsboard when you eat everything that is left over. It yielded some pretty nasty results. It has always made me laugh that when you buy cheap store brand cheese, it is just labelled "Australian Tasty Cheese." It doesn't pretend to be imitation cheddar, swiss or any other type of cheese. It is what it is, generic cheese, but it's not tasty. It's pretty damn gross. Paired with the remainder of the "backpacker's meat" package we tried to make spaghetti with bolognese sauce. I still don't think the "backpacker's meat" package had any real meat in it other than roadkill. Shudder. While we were lunching, a hungry goana emerged into our little picnic grove. It was crawling into our packs and pots looking for food. It clearly had lost all fear of humans and simply saw us as a meal ticket. Hysterical.

(Can you believe that outlook is made of compacted sand?!?)

We spent a few quick minutes reading the information kiosks and left knowing more about logging and sand mining than I think any of us ever cared to know! We wanted to get in line for the ferry to be sure that we would be able to get on the 2:00 one and be back on time. We got in line and waited and waited. It was touch a go there for a bit, but good old Rollie, was the last truck to fit on the barge. We waved goodbye to the heap of sand and set off for home sweet hostel.

We did a quick gear unload & I was off like a shot. I couldn't wait to get home and shower with soap in my own shower and see Jonathan. I rang him from the road and he told me he was finishing heaps of cleaning and you could hear in his voice he was obviously rushing around and flustered. I was so excited and thought it was such a sweet gesture considering he worked such long hours over the weekend, and I get home to find him flustered, but the apartment still in the state I left it in on Friday. When I asked Jon what he meant, he just gave a big smile and sheepishly said he had to do heaps of cleaning to tidy up the big mess he made to bring the unit back to status quo. I don't think I've laughed that hard in a long time!

You can see all of the photos on webshots:

Fraser Island Trip

D-I-N-G-O and Dingo was his name-o

2007-04-07T00:28:00.000-07:00

The plan for the day was to drive as far north as Indian Head and park the truck to hike to the Champagne Pools, about 40 minutes north. We'd have the morning to wait for the tide to be conduicive to beach driving and we would visit Eli Creek on our way to go find a campsite for the night.

At 6am, it was a warm day, the sun was shining and we hadn't been eaten by dingoes, yet. We packed up our tents and piled back into our cramped quarter and set off with great ease compared to yesterday, except for the fact that we had no water and had being drinking the night before. Super. We filtered some water through the bottle to brush our teeth, but after that we were pretty much screwed. Until we remembered that the someone had told us the little streams that ran down the beach was some of the freshest water on earth. Apparently the massive sand dunes act as a filter when the rainwater up top and hundreds of years later it has trickled down through the inner workings of the sand dune and emerges as a pure fresh water stream. Whether this is true or not, I am not sure, but it was our best option & no one died, so all and all a good day, but quite a sight.

When we arrived at Indian Head, at 9am, it was hot and only going to get hotter & their were heaps of other backpacker groups camped out there. The tour operators advise you not to go in the water in this area because it is a tiger shark breeding group. Fabulous. As we are sitting their weighing out the pros and cons of risking a shark attack to get momentary relief from the heat, a couple dingos appear around the trucks. Poor little guys look like they are starving; I know they are supposed to be skinnier than domesticated dogs, but these guys look gaunt compared to the dingoes we have seen in documentaries & the zoo. Fortunately, we never had to use our dingo defense training.

We climbed up to the top of Indian Head, which is a pretty impressive sight, since it is made entirely of sand. These formations that appear to be boulder-like, but when you scratch at them they crumble like sand. It's pretty amazing. Once at the top, I have to say I was a little disappointed, the trip we had done with Terry a few months ago, had just as many beautiful sights & it was half the dramas to get there and back. We did see some sharks swimming in the waters below and decided we would definitely wait to go swimming until we reached the Champagne Pools.

To get to the Champagne Pools, it was a 40 minute walk up the beach and by the looks of it, it would be crowded. Heaps and heaps of people were trekking up the beach in search of some relief from the heat. When we arrived, the pools are actually just depressions in the rock where water pools after the waves crash. In most places, it's only knee deep until a really big wave comes and then it's like being in a washing machine. In a few places, it's too deep to stand. The general consensus was we were not impressed. It was so crowded and for such a long walk, we really did expect more. We jumped in and out of the freezing cold water in all of five minutes and headed back in a crazy sunshower to the van to make sandwiches and start the trek down to "Happy Valley" campground's campstore to get water, ice cream & meat pies. It truly would be the happiest place on Earth.

We got water, hot crossed buns for Easter, soda, meat pies & ice cream. A gross combination for lunch, yes, but a meal has never tasted so good. We heard from other groups that had just come through Eli Creek that it was freezing & crowded as well and not worth the hassle. I figured, I'll be back with Jon, so I really didn't care if we skipped spots, so we went ahead to find a campsite early before we lost daylight. After much searching for a spot, we found the place were all of the backpacker groups were congregating and in the nick of time we got the tents pitched and it started to rain, and rain, and rain. We were all huddled in the leaky, pink SUV for 2 hours drinking goon until the weather finally broke around 10pm. We were all wandering from campsite to campsite having a really good time. I ran into one of my RBC schoolmate's little brother, who is studying abroad over here. Very random. I decided it was time to go to bed when the boys decided to bury one of the Candians that passed out in the sand and were pulling tent stakes out and being the Godzillas of our tent city. Yes, that's definitely my cue to get to bed.

Comedy of Errors

2007-04-07T00:05:00.000-07:00

We set off early in the morning in our bright pink 4x4 that was ominously named, "Rollie" for the Fraser Island Ferry. Our first stop was Woolworth's were the 9 of us each pitched in to buy food & grog for the weekend. Possibly the most painful grocery shopping experience of my life & the occurrence of our first big mistake. We sent 3 guys from the UK to go to the bottle shop to get alcohol for the weekend. As we emerge from the parking lot, we see them victoriously standing over 20 boxes of goon. It's like boxed wine, except on further inspection, it does not claim anywhere on the box to be wine; it simply said "chablis." It's cheap, it's gross, it's nasty and apparently made from fermented fish bones. But, it does the trick if you are looking to get silly on the cheap. It tastes about as good as it sounds. Ick.

Armed with heaps of goon and the Aussie equivalent to Raman Noodles, we set off for the ferry launch. We only stalled the car 7 times in 10 kms! =-)

We set off for the barge, completely unaware of what lie ahead. None of us had any real 4WD drive experience, most people couldn't drive a stick shift on the road, never the less in sand. It was all very unnerving. At least on the ferry ride over, we could relax and enjoy the weather ~ for at least part of the way. It started to pour down rain halfway through the ferry ride and didn't stop until late that afternoon.

The first day of driving was to take us on inland tracks to Lake Wobby, one of the fresh water lakes on the island. The inland tracks are tricky to drive on because it's all soft sand and unrelenting hills. Plus, obviously it's not a two lane highway, so if you are driving along and someone is coming the opposite direction, it gets a little tricky. Downright scary when these monster vehicles (think massive four wheel drive tour busses) from the Kingfisher Resort on the Island come whizzing by with no patience for weekend warriors. The island was packed because of the long weekend and the "traffic jams" we got in were pretty amazing.

You also have to realize that we were driving an old beat-up Toyota Land Cruiser manual transmission that had the seats ripped out of the back and benches down the sides like a paddywagon with three people up front & 7 people in the back plus all of our gear in the main part of the truck because roof storage units made the vehicle top heavy and more prone to tip over. We were doing a pretty good job of almost tipping quite often; the added weight up top would have just put us over the edge! It was close quarters to say the least!

It started to rain harder and harder and good ol' Rollie started to leak. It was hot & humid and now we were wet. Screams of "Get me off the effin' sand dune!" quickly began. I truly think the guy who was driving the truck was on a verge of a nervous breakdown between the conditions and having 9 back seat drivers is enough to make anyone moody.

Finally, we arrived exhausted & hungry @ Lake Wobby. After a 40 minute walk down this long trail, we came to this massive canyon of sand with a small lake in the middle of it. Families were taking sleds and sliding down the sand dune which was almost a kilometer long and a straight 45 degree angle like it was snow! It really was an impressive sight! The lake was emerald green in color and against the yellow-orange tones of the coloured sands made for a lovely sight. We all got down the the bottom, inspected for crocodiles (which don't even live on the island, but still, you can never be to cautious) and went for a swim. The catfish kept nipping at our toes, but other than that it was lovely. The sun finally came out and we all sat in the shallows of the lake, had a beer and for the first time really starting having fun. That is, until we realized, getting down the the lake was the easy part! Now we have to trek back up to the top of this sand dune and back along a trail that was completely uphill. We would sleep well tonight!

When we got back to the truck, we decided we should go to one of the established campgrounds to get water & use the barbeque and facilities their for dinner and washing up. So, we set off further north passing the Maheno shipwreck which has been a landmark on Fraser Island since the 1930s if I remember correctly. We stopped to take some quick pictures, get some use out of our tentinus shots playing on the rusty ship & hurried up the beach to get to the campground before dark & the tide came in. Once the tide comes in, there is virtually no beach to drive on and you're in basically stranded where you are =)

Since we had such little time, we broke into two groups, the girls made dinner while the boys went down to pitch the tent on the beach. We did not have the permits to stay in the campground because the hostel figures that a bunch of backpackers will never obey the 10pm quiet hours and they are probably right. All was going well until darkness fell and we found out that they only provided us with a torch that had to be hooked up to the car. Sh!t. After digging in my pack for a bit, I found my headlamp, thank goodness. But cooking by the light of one headlamp was not fun. But, goon makes everything a little bit better.

Then we ran into our second problem of the night. We went to go fill our big water jug and the spigot has a big sign on it saying "Not Potable Water." Apparently, for potable water you have to drive back down to Central Station (a good hour or so away on those inland tracks) to get drinking water. We were screwed. We had no water. Luckily, I had my filter bottle, but it was slow going. We stocked up on the ground water to use the bottle for the night and figure the rest out tomorrow.

As we are freaking out about that, the boys come back, defeated with tents and poles strewn all over the back of the 4WD. It's too windy to pitch the tents down on the beach; it just can't be done. What to do? If we illegally camp in this permit, we face a hefty fine from the rangers and the hostel and will get kicked out way after the tide is up and will be forced to drive through salt water, which means we have an additional fine from the hostel. We scarf down our nasty "backpacker's special" sausage and steak (using those terms loosely) and head down the beach, with the tide encroaching and everyone kind of freaking out of the prospect of having to sleep in the truck parked in the dunes.

We eventually found a sheltered area where we can pitch the tent if we use the van as a windshield and all 10 of us pitch each tent 1 at a time. It was that windy and ridiculously difficult, but we did it thank goodness. We all gathered around our one headlamp and drank goon and ate "Home Brand" (store brand) cookies that were disgusting, but we were so hungry it didn't matter.

The stars above were absolutely amazing. We kept seeing shooting stars and the sky was unlike anything you've ever seen before. It was like being at the planetarium, but in real life!
After some silly uni drinking games, we all went to bed knowing that we had limited windows due to the tides to get where we needed to go. Early to bed, up at 6am to beat the tides. We all went to bed happy to know that tomorrow had to get better and worried that the dingoes would kill us in our sleep!

Flying Solo to Fraser Island

2007-04-06T01:32:00.000-07:00

Jonathan was rostered for very long hours over the Easter weekend & it seemed silly for me not to take advantage of the long weekend from work to travel a little bit. Since I was travelling alone, I didn't want to drive too far, so I settled on joining a group excursion to Fraser Island out of one of the hostels in Hervey Bay.

So, Friday late morning, I set off on the 2 and a half hour drive up the Bruce Highway. The drive takes you through the beautiful Mary Valley, which is the proposed sight of the much debated Traveston Dam. It's a real hot button issue here: the government is planning on building this massive dam to help alleviate the water crisis. The down side being is the scenic, picturesque farm land is going to be under water & farmers are going to be driven off their land. But, they aren't going down without a fight! It's always on the news & there are signs lining the road as your drive through indicating how deep the reservoir will be at given points, some only being knee deep. It's absolutely unbelivable that anyone could not see this is a bad idea. But that is Queensland for you! Read all about it here: http://www.savethemaryriver.com/

I arrived in Hervey Bay far too early and since it was Good Friday all of the shops were shut. It was a bit too hazy to relax on the beach, so I consulted the "Lonely Planet" Queensland guide that Berit & Mike gave us for Christmas. Apparently, my prospects were bleak being that it isn't whale watching season, the other reason people flock to Hervey Bay. The town is wildly popular as a jumping off point for Fraser Island & heralds fabulous whale watching in the spring months (Sept, Oct, Nov.) My choices were: The World Famous Shark Show, "the world's most informative, educational & thrilling video on sharks" that plays in a building with plaster sharks all over the outside or King Neptune's Reef World Aquarium. I opted to check out the aquarium before I had to head over the hostel for our debriefing on Fraser Island.

When I pulled up, I couldn't have been more disappointed. The buiding was a one story cinder block pile right on the water: half function room /restaurant, half tourist trap. But, what the hell? I had nothing else to do for the next few hours and I truly did not want to have to spend anymore time in the hostel than I had to and I had to pee, so how bad could it be? Well, if you are judging books by their covers, then this was pretty terrible. There were a few Japanese tourists inside the aquarium that was literally the size of our apartment.

The young man who worked at the front desk walked around an explained to me that the way that they've structured the aquarium is completely natural. The light is natural sunlight, no artificial light is used and all of the water is constantly being pumped from the sea, so there is no oxygenation mechanism. They even grow their own microrganisms in one tank; let me tell you it's one of the most captivating tanks (totally sarcastic.) Now, I'm sure this is all quite impressive, but the place still was kind of dark & dingy and falling apart.

It was absolutely worth going to see though; there we animals in the tanks that were unbelievable. The colors on some of these fish looked like they were painted by a maniac toddler with Crayola finger paints! There were tanks of these gorgeous sea apples & sea cumbers the likes of which I have never seen. One tank has sea horses that look like they were alien species. Absolutely amazing and it was mind blowing to see a placard that stated that all of these fish, including the tank of poisionous sea snakes, lion fish & stone fish all live in the waters this area, extending up to the Great Barrier Reef. I now have an unhealthy fear of said sea snakes, lion fish & stone fish. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.

I actually learned a lot & the owner of the aquarium came around and explained more about his little ecosystem and the symbiosis of the fish species in the displays. Quite intriguing.
I had saved the best part for last. Outside of the aquarium is a large tank with little baby sharks and big loggerhead sea turtles that you can pat. Now, normally, I'd think sticking my hand into a tank with sharks is a bad idea, but they were just little babies. The sea turtles are just so graceful and beautiful to watch swim around and the sun had finally began to peak out, so I spent quite a while sitting their enjoying the day playing with the turtles. It was fabulous because I was the only person there!

Time got away from me and I had to rush over to the hostel to meet the 8 other people that I would spend the next 3 days with crammed into a bright pink 4x4 on the world's largest sand island. Everyone seemed nice enough & we got the "safety briefing" on how to defend yourself from a dingo which was in itself hysterical and agreed to meet up at 7am to get off to the grocery store to get food.
After a few drinks to make the hostel bed bearable, I turned in to get ready for our early morning departure!

Snorkelling in Coral Cove

2007-03-25T01:18:00.000-07:00

Jon and I woke up early Saturday morning to enjoy the beautiful beach that was at our doorstep. I had brought up my snorkel gear and Jon took it to go off the rocks by our campsite. He saw some small sharks, anemones & some great fish. It was impressive, but we had heard there were better spots in the area that he wanted to check out.

So, we set off in search of a dive shop to pick up a snorkel set for Jon, so we could go splash around in Coral Cove for a bit before we had to head back home to Marcoola. But, Bundaberg decided to be closed; almost everything was shut because it was Sunday! Finally, after hours of hunting, we found a dive shop and Jon was able to get the bits he needed.

The owner was really nice and gave us tons of advice on where to go. So, we headed down to Coral Cove about 15 minutes outside of Bundaberg and hopped in the water off some rocks. It was absolutely spectacular. There were heaps of reef fish of all varieties, colors & patterns. There were quite a few really large schools of fish that we were swimming through ~ brilliant. The corals were every color in the rainbow! It was absolutely spectacular!!

On the way back from our entry point, we found this area in the rocks where the waves rushed in through a small opening into a larger pool. The water swished around like a washing machine, so of course, against my better judgement, I decided to jump in and go for a spin. I checked with some of the local kids ~ but teenage boys and good safety advice usually don't go together. It was so much fun!!

As the sun started to set, (which is super early because here in rebel Queensland we don't do daylight savings time; we're too cool) we started to make our way home.
It was a WONDERFUL weekend; just what the doctor ordered, so to speak!

A total aside, on the way home, we were listening to the radio and heard a news story that is too funny not to share! It was about these two schoolgirls in NZ who did a school science project that involved testing beverages for Vitamin C. Ribena is a well-known black currant juice over here that claims to have as much Vitamin C as XYZ number of oranges; apparently, it tastes like medicine, but for years and years people have been drinking it because they think it's good for them. The schoolgirls' tests uncovered that Ribena not only doesn't have the heaps of Vitamin C it claimed to have, but it doesn't contain Vitamin C at all. The girls took them to court and won! Too funny.

Heroes in a Halfshell - Turtle Power!

2007-03-24T00:56:00.000-07:00

Jon and I set off on Saturday afternoon to drive about four hours north of our home to Mon Repos Conservation Area, one of the largest turtle rookeries the South Pacific. Loggerheads, flatback and green turtles all make yearly appearances to nest at Mon Repos.

We arrived and set up our campsite at the Turtle Caravan Park right on the beach and set off down the trail to the information center where we met the ranger that would be taking us down to the turtle nesting area. The information center was a really interesting; you can learn everything you every wanted to know about sea turtles, their life cycles & what is threatening the species to explore while you are waiting for your turn to go down and see the nests.

Since it was the last weekend of the season, there were heaps of people there; each of the four groups had 60 people! We were really excited that because we booked early in the week we got to go in the first group and the turtles starting doing their thing early in the evening, so we weren't kept waiting around for hours.

As we walked down the beach, we had to do so with our torches turned off and walk in a tight group. We had quite a few children in our group, so it was quite a feat! The turtles use the light from the horizon to navigate their way down the beach, so any artificial light can affect the natural process, so the conservationist at Mon Repos do their best to facilitate these tours with minimal impact on the hatchlings.

When we finally arrived at the nest, the little guys were already bursting through the sand. We saw 95 turtles in all climb out of their little nest and they were placed in a small enclosure to avoid any of them getting lost or stepped on. All of the little ones were out of the nest within 10 minutes.

The hatchlings we saw were absolutely adorable. Words really can't describe what an amazing experience it all was. Right before we got ready to watch them make their run to the ocean, the rangers brought around one of the hatchlings for us to take a quick photo & feel their little flippers.

Sadly, we were told that only 1 out of every 1,000 hatchlings will survive to maturity. The ones that do, however, will return to Mon Repos to lay their eggs because they are able to interpret their location from unique magnetic information that they sense from their hatching beach. Also, because the sand is darker than most beaches, the hatchlings will all tend to be female from Mon Repos because the temperature of the nest determines the sex of the hatchlings, which accounts for the high number of return females lying eggs.

After the nest was checked for any stragglers, we were asked to line up in two lines perpendicular to the water line, several of the children stood in the middle with their flashlights on the guide the baby turtles to the sea. The ranger let them out of their enclosure and they made their dash to the sea. It was an absolutely amazing sight! Finally, when the last wave washed the last one out to sea, we started off back to the info center.

We were told that the little guys were going on a swimming frenzy to make their way out to the East Australian current, just like in Finding Nemo!

As, we were walking back we crossed paths with two more nests that were already hatched and had started making their way down the beach. Having those "encore performances" was such a great added bonus!

The Kangaroo Flu

2007-03-18T00:47:00.000-07:00

So, in hindsight, Jon and I both were not feeling well and we probably should have not gone down to the Koala Sanctuary, but we were so excited about it & we have so little time off together that we pushed through and went despite feeling kind of crummy.

Mark & Tracey had told us the night before about this Koala Sanctuary called Lone Pine that is located just south of Brisbane where you can cuddle a koala and handfeed kangaroos. You can check it out online @ http://www.koala.net,/ and in Swedish at www.koala.net/se.

We were like little kids running around a zoo for the first time. The koalas were all just sort of doing what koalas do, sleeping in the trees. But they were so incredibly cute doing it! We went to an little informative seminar on the little guys and then rushed off to have our pictures taken with Gando, a very cheeky little koala. So cheeky, that he pooped in my hand! Lovely. But you couldn't get upset, because he was so damn cute.

The "official" photos are up on the web at:
http://www.koala.net/photo/1803034158en.htm (Jonathan)
http://www.koala.net/photo/1803034059en.htm (Siobhan)

After cleaning myself up a bit, we bought some kangaroo food and walked into this massive enclosure full of kangaroos. You would never see anything like this in the U.S. There is no attendant or any one facillitating anything, you just buy a bag of food and walk into a huge pen with heaps of all sorts of kangaroos & wallaby's. The only advice you are given is a sign that says, "Approach slow, Stay low, Feed with a flat hand."

Jon was a little disappointed that they kept the Red Kanagroos seperated because he really wanted to take a photo with one, but I completely understand why when we saw they are over 2 meters tall standing up! He did fall in love with this one little pretty-faced wallaby joey that was amazing adorable & what a little personality.

After feeding the kanagroos, we went around looking at all of the different exhibits of the koalas. There are over 130 little buggers on the property, and all amazing adorable.

Onto the bird section, they also do a lorikeet show, but we skipped that because we had them in our backyard in Nambour. The cockatoos were really neat; we had a great time "talking" to them; one of the sulfur crested cocktoos kept saying "Yabba Dabba Doo," whenever Jon spoke to him and would mimic all of Jon's movements, if he leaned left the bird would, etc. etc.

They also have dingoes, fruit bats, wombats, echindas to name a few. It was a great day, the only thing we were upset about was Jon was really looking forward to seeing the Tasmanian Devil and he was "on holiday."

We ended up having to cut our trip a little short sadly, because we both just started to feel worse and worse as they day went on. In the carpark, we saw Lars & his girlfriend returning from their weekend trip to the turtle roockery just outside of Bundaberg, about 300 kms north of here. It's a bit of a hike, but they had such rave reviews about the experience that we are trying to organise something for this weekend while the baby loggerhead turtles are still being hatched!
Jon fell asleep on the couch straight-away and I was up all night with a fever & chills & general icky-ness. Jon wrote me a prescritpion for anti-biotics today and advised me to stay home from the office and just sleep. (Yes, he got his very first presriber's number a few weeks ago! It's a milestone!)

It's 30 degrees C here, pretty hot, and I have the air con off, I have one of Jon's big sweatshirts on, with fuzzy warm sweatpants & woolly socks. I hope these drugs start working soon!!!

You can see all of our photos on Webshots:

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2007-03-17T00:36:00.000-07:00

Well, the morning started off quite eventful! Jon went out for a morning surf up at Pt. Cainwright in Coolum. He came home telling me how it was a little choppy & rough and he got tossed around a bit. As he turned to the side a bit, I saw this big gash in his back dripping blood down his back. The fin of his board came down on top of him when he was knocked over.

After arguing over whether or not he needed stitches (Normally, I'd totally trust his opinion, but he couldn't really see the cut to see how deep it was) So, we went to see Dr. Lars, the Swiss doctor that lives downstairs. Under all the blood, it was just a nasty scratch, so we got lucky there.

Then, we had probably the most non-festive St. Patrick's Day that either Jon or myself have ever had. (I didn't hear bagpipes once & it was 90 degrees. Although, there were people in green falling over in the street, so, they've got part of the spirit, I guess?)

In the evening, we met two other Americans from Texas for drinks & dinner. We had such a great time. We went to this Turkish restaurant & had the most amazing meal. It was a family-style "feast," so we all got to try lots of everything. Yes, I know everyone who knows me is probably laughing at this idea, but I actually liked it. I even tried quail, which I didn't like, but I tried.

The best part of the evening was the belly dancer came out and she danced around the restaurant for an hour or so. It was really a nice touch to the evening. We got a real kick out of the fact that she was quite possibly the whitest, white girl we had ever seen dancing in a Turkish restaurant, but she was so amazingly talented!

Happy Birthday Jonathan!

2007-03-11T00:32:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Jonathan!!

Last night to celebrate Jonathan's birthday we went to Ba Vigo in Cotton Tree. Oh my god, the food was to die for! It's a modern Spanish cuisine. Jon had a tapas olive platter, a tapas Duck pate, and a tapas scallops & chorizo. For his entree, he had the catch of the day, that was a magnificent snapper. I had a beef fillet, that was absolutely amazing. Like butt-ah, if you know what I mean!

This morning, Jonathan woke up to our dining area covered in balloons & streamers with his birthday gifts. I also made him the closest thing to Greg's Chocolate Layer Cake that I could muster.

Right now, he's relaxing on the couch in his new board shorts, reading his new video game strategy book munching on the candy bars I found from the UK & US at the Moolollybar in Mooloolaba. He's a very happy boy!

Seal Swim!

2007-03-10T00:22:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since we've been out exploring our new surroundings. Since Jon volunteered for an extra 2 shifts this weekend, I decided to go to Underwater World in Mooloolaba for the afternoon after doing some birthday shopping for a certain someone on the Esplanade.

Jon surprised me by booking a "seal swim" for me where I actually got to get in their habitat tank and swim with them for a bit. There were a couple of seals in the tank with us; the biggest was Groucho who was MASSIVE. Thankfully, he kept his two ton self towards the bottom of the tank showing off for the people watching from the Underwater Viewing area. He was HUGE! Baby Oscar was adorable and very friendly. I even got to play tug of war with Bella & her rope toy the same way I do with my puppy, Bailey. However, Bella is much stronger than Bailey and gave me a couple tugs that sent me flying! It was such a great experience & I can't wait until Jon & I get to go play with the seals together!

Underwater World was an amazing place. They have this incredibly exhibit called "Monsters of the Deep" with specimens of all of the pelagic fish that look incredibly alien-like. They even have on display the only giant squid that was ever found in one piece. It's in block of ice almost 4 meters long and its tenticles are wrapped back over it's head to fit it in the ice. The eeriest part was this black & white eye that was a large as a dinner plate!

Another really cool exhibit that they have is meant to teach people all about the mermaid's purses that they find on the beach. You've seen them, those little black pouches with stringy legs on all four corners. They are actually the enclosures for shark embryos until they reach gestation. The exhibit created a glass mermaid's purse that actually contained live, growing shark embryos that the facility is hand raising. It was absolutely amazing to see. The little guy was moving around and you could see his umbilical cord and sac bit that he was getting nourishment from. Absolutely wild.

Just for the kitsch factor, they have this "aquarium" inside a Honda SUV that is pretty cool. "A Fish Called Honda," it was named. It was just pretty neat to look at.
On the lowest level, there is a moving walkway that snakes through 80 meters of a tube running below the main aquarium, filled with sharks and fish of all varities. Now, I tend to visit aquariums where ever I travel to see all of the different displays, but this was by far one of the most magnificent "large tank displays" I have ever seen.

Overall, it was absolutely amazing and I can't wait to go back with Jon. I saw specimens of fish that I never knew existed and literally made my eyes pop out of my head. Some of them are so gorgeous, or just so different that it takes your breath away for a second. And best of all there were otters, which were super cool, but smell super bad.

It was really great to spend the afternoon just acting like a little kid again.

Our first visitors!

2007-03-04T00:14:00.000-08:00

We had our first house guests for afternoon tea today! Ian and Jan came up to the Sunny Coast to bring us the parcels that arrived at their home that we shipped to ourselves from the States! It was a lovely afternoon catching up on all of their great adventures and getting some insights on life here from locals.

It has been so incredibly rainy here for the past few weeks; it was such a treat today when the sun finally came out. It's disturbing how much rain we have gotten while the rest of Queensland still remains in a terrible drought.

Brisbane & surrounding areas were just increased to some serious Level 5 restrictions. Basically, all outside watering is prohibited, except for 20 litres by bucket to wash your pets, garbage cans, & parts of your car. They anticipate Level 6 restrictions by September. It's scary the implications that these restrictions will have once they are put in place. The impact that it will have on daily life and "water dependent business" is unreal.

The higher level restrictions are anticipated for September that may limit households to 400 litres a day. That's not a lot. Apparently cutting your shower by 2 minutes saves 25 litres of water and our washer and dishwasher must heaps of litres. Thankfully, we do not live in the direct area of these water restrictions and haven't really felt any effects of the problems further Southeast Queensland.

However, the government has a new plan that will directly effect everyone living on the Sunny Coast that has everyone up in arms. So, they want to build this pipeline that will transport water from our full dams to the dams further south that are incredibly low. That all sounds fabulous, love thy neighbor and all that good stuff, but then they want to tax both the Sunny Coast residents & the Brissy residents to cover the costs of the pipeline & water transport. That just seems unfair, especially when the newscasts we approximating an extra $800 AUD in fees/taxes for this water pipeline. Scary.

We Haven't Fallen Off The Face Of The Earth

2007-03-01T00:12:00.000-08:00

Wow, it has been a really long time since I sat down to write to everyone. Things have been so incredibly busy (in a good way) that I guess we just got lost in our day-to-day lives.
After the first week, I finally got to spread my wings at work and I'm loving it. I'm going to leave it vague for obvious reasons, but everyone I'm working with and all of my clients have been amazing. I'm really enjoying the opportunity to interact with so many different people on a daily basis.

Jon has finally finished his string of nights; now, he is working in the CCU. It has been a great learning experience for him.

Unfortunately, we are on completely different schedules and rarely see each other, but that should be ending shortly.

All and all, things have finally come together. Yay!

Mount Coolum Climb

2007-02-10T23:55:00.000-08:00

About 2 miles up the road from where we are living now is one of the most predominant features on the Sunshine Coast, Mt. Coolum. It is a geologically similar to the Glasshouse Mountains in the hinterland; volcanic leftovers as how it was described to me, but I’m sure that’s not the “technical term!” The signpost at the trail terminus approximates that is about 208 meters high and 25-26 million years old!

So, of course, after living a week in its shadows, I couldn’t take it anymore and I had to climb it. The climb looked daunting and seemed incongruous with the estimated 2 hour return time posted at the terminus, but it turned out to be much easier than I originally anticipated. Although, it was very, very hot making the trip up fairly difficult.

The start of the trail winds through a paperbark tree forest with a great array of flora growing amongst the beautiful trees! On the Park’s website, I read that over 700 different plant species grow on this mountain!! It was absolutely beautiful and the trail was well-graded and well-maintained in this section of the hike. It is worth the trip, even if you turn back once you reach the exposed parts of the trail.

The track becomes rocky and steep as you past an old quarry and the craggy vertical cliffs of the mountainside. The views here are worth the climb; you can see as far south as “The Spit” in Mooloolaba and have a lovely view of the coastline from this vantage point.

The trail takes a hard right turn and drastically changes to rock & sand with eucalypts and grass trees. The rock in some sections almost forms perfect columnar stairs. This area is completely exposed and I was absolutely melting trekking up at about 9:30am; I can’t even imagine what it felt like when some of the people that were starting as I was finishing experienced. A wet bandana under my baseball cap gave some relief, but I doused myself with some of my drinking water to cool off.

Supposedly there was only a high of 28 degrees C today, but it felt much hotter on the mountain. It was so hot and I began to notice a distinct smell as I was climbing up. I eventually realized that it smelled like charcoal after a barbie! I definitely felt like a piece of meat being grilled!

I was hoping when I reached the top I would see the Peregine Falcons that live up in the area, but I guess it was too hot for them as well.

As you continue up, there are beautiful views sweeping from Mooloolaba as far as Double Point (the Lighthouse we visited on our Cooloola Safari.) On the summit, there was a small, makeshift memorial to Steve Irwin. It was very heartwarming to see such a lovely tribute in an amazingly beautiful for an outstanding man.

I even called Jon and left him a voicemail saying, “Hey, I can see our house from up here!!”

On the way home, I saw the best sign ever. We have koala crossings, no fire ant crossings, no banana plant crossing, kangaroo crossings, all by our house. But, for some reason, the “AGED CROSSING” cracks me up the most. The graphic on it is pretty funny: a man bent over a walker.

Disconnected Discourse

2007-02-07T23:52:00.000-08:00

Think really hard about the last time you had no phone line in your home or no access to the Internet. It’s unimaginable isn’t it; I have no idea how idea how I existed pre-1990. I mean the last time I used a rotary phone was… well, it was like 1998, but that’s because Lakeridge Swim Club is not exactly technologically saavy, but we’ve got Rocco, so it evens out.

Sorry, I digress…….

Jon and I moved into our new apartment and thought we would be able to have a telephone line through the resort until our telephone line would be set up. However, that was not the case; as soon as our apartment came out of the holiday letting pool, they were unable to provide that service for the unit.

We went to Telstra, the local telephone and broadband Internet provider, last Saturday afternoon and filled out an application to have someone come to our home and initiate our service package. By Thursday, we still had not heard from them and called Telstra Customer Service directly. We were floored to find out that our application that we had lodged at the shop was not even processed yet. With a little negotiation and a few tears, we were able to have the compassionate customer service person arrange for a service call on Monday, February 12th. I cannot believe I have been without the Internet for over a week.

I shudder to think at the amount of emails that are piling up for both Jon and I and all web bill-paying that needs to be done. It’s been really hard being so out of touch with my friends & family too. No phone, no internet and limited contact with other people has made things kind of lonely for me. Especially since Jonathan is working nights and sleeping during the day, my human contact is limited. I just have to keep telling myself it’s only for a few days.

I felt like Fred Flintstone when all of the paperwork that I have scanned for DIMIA, my work, Jon’s work, the real estate agent that had to be sent out the old fashioned express way and I wasted two days driving up and down the Coast to hand-deliver it to where it needed to be. How did we exist pre-email / Internet? I can’t even imagine going back to that!

We do have a kiosk in the resort, but no matter what time I go down there whether it is 2pm or 2am, there is a pre-teen MySpacing their face off for hours. So, we apologize for the fact that we have been out of touch lately, but it’s ridiculously expensive to call / receive calls internationally on our mobile phones, we have no land line, no Skype access, and essentially no internet.

Everything else has been going really well! We absolutely love our new home & have been enjoying the beach and the pool everyday!

Some good news: My letter of offer arrived yesterday and my start date is Valentine’s Day. All of the visa verification and tax file number issues were resolved and everything is on the up & up.

Are you ready for some football??

2007-02-05T23:49:00.000-08:00

You would think that if you had to wake up in the morning at 7am to commute the hour (the same distance I had to travel to NYC) only to watch the Super Bowl and drink Budweiser, it wouldn't be a problem? I can tell you from experience, it seems just like getting up for work. I could barely get Jon out of bed! Especially because, THE PATRIOTS WEREN"T PLAYING!!!

We did make it down to the Prince of Wales Pub & Hotel to watch the Colts / Bears game play out with many other American expats! What a great day & what a great game! We sat and we bitched and we comiserated about things that no one else here would understand. I mean truly, the taste in the Yankee Stadium dog is "Brooklyn Water." No one else gets that, except the proprieters of Eli's Bagel's in Matawan, which is why there bagels are so GOOD!

By meeting the Americans that live in BrisVegas as they call it, I have realized one thing: Jon and I are country folk. Brisbane is a far cry from NYC, Boston or LA, but being on the Sunshine Coast, we are, as the woman at the Telstra shop put it, "about 20 years behind the U.S.A."

But that's not a bad thing. Career-wise, Jon and I see each other. Neither one of us has the opportunity to become a work-a-holic. We are forced to do shopping in a set time frame, which, in turn, distinctly sets apart free time or family time. We have the opportunity to sit and talk, or to sit and say nothing. When did that ever happen stateside?

See our previous post about where we live. Albeit, the melonoma capital of the world, but it's our home now......

Loving Life, Loving You, From the Sunshine Coast....

Moving on up to the East Side!

2007-02-02T16:09:00.000-08:00

The entry below truly explains how fabulous our life has become. But.....

Before you read this, whether you know us or not, please know that without the support of our families, we would not be in this position today. Both of our sets of parents raised us to realize that the world is our oyster and that nothing was beyond our reach. We also each have siblings and "Jaimes" that challenged us to reach for the stars throughout our lives.

In the more recent past, Jon's parent's graciously let us live in their home for what they thought would be 2 months that turned into almost 7 due to DIMIA. Berit and Mike are the type of people that Jonathan and I aspire to be. When we told them that we wanted to move to Australia to pursue a dream, they didn't ask questions ~ they just asked how they could help, even if it meant they had to endure personal sacrifices. They had learned at an early age that there is richness is life when you travel the world and passed that value on to their children. I was an extremely lucky that they accepted me as family and tried to instill these values in me.

Without their support, Jonathan and I could never have achieved all we have in the past few months. Not only the financial and emotional support, but the words of wisdom and guidance. In the time that we lived with them, we endured the visa process/medical board approvals, private hardships, and the duality of parents & children living together in adult life and we still managed to come out loving each other.

Berit & Mike, we do love you more than words can ever express, not only for what you did, but for who you were.

To explain to those of you that don't know them, Jon's Mum sat me down one night before we left and passed these words of wisdom on to me that I feel I should share with any woman who is traveling because of her husband/ boyfriend/partner's work. In a nutshell, she told me to find a niche for yourself; there is a certain loneliness in traveling for someone else's work. The first month or so before your find a job or make friends at work or in general, you will be incredibly lonely. Seek out an expat group in your area, or if you have a hobby find women in your area with a common interest. Women around the world commiserate over the same things: Men universally leave the toilet seat up and underwear on the floor. You will find solace in having someone to understand your frustrations and you will find unyielding support from expats when you have those "stupid questions" that you would never ask a native. I would have drowned in my new surroundings if it were not for Berit's advice.

Jon and I cannot thank his parents enough for the unyielding support they offered us during the initial stages of this adventure. It's nice for both of us to know that we have "Mum & Dad" and "Mom & Daddy" to turn to for advice & support. The numbers are in our favor.

Now, here is what I meant to say today:

Just like "The Jeffersons" we moved up to the east side, only it was the east side of the Sunshine Coast. All I can say is "Wow." I am living in a beautiful apartment (or unit) in a gorgeous resort on a breathtaking beach with a man I love. Jon and I might be the luckiest people in the world.

We both were lying by the pool today and Jon looked over at me, smiled, and said, "Hey, we LIVE here!!!" It is unbelievable that this is our home. We are so lucky and blessed to have found a home with such a great location!

It is a beautiful resort complex with a fabulous restaurant, bar, pool, beach access, day spa, gym, game room, gambling room & beautiful hotel rooms & long-let units. As I write to you now, I am listening to the sound of tropical birds; albeit different birds than in Nambour. (See future entries for pictures). Currently, I am sitting out on our master bedroom balcony, listening to the waves of the Pacific roar like a washing machine and there isn't another person in sight. I am looking out over the ocean and a lagoon style pool that is lit up like Times Square. There is also a children's play pool that I have found is awesome it sit in while reading and sunning/tanning. (We have found, sometimes the old men monopolize the "benches" by the jets in the regular pool. I can only imagine why and every reason I come up with is GROSS!!!

Yesterday, Jon and I walked down to the beach and it started raining. We laughed our butts off because we couldn't decide whether to walk the 100 meters back to our room or stay put. We just both knew we were living in paradise when we didn't see hypodermic needles, tampons, or condoms on the beach like you would at the Jersey Shore.

I will always be a Jersey Girl at heart, but this is far better. White sand that you can filter through you toes. The sea turns from transparent to light blue to aquamarine to deep blue in 200 meters. Shells that we bought in stores on the boardwalk wash up on the beaches in front of my new home. Hell, I have found the hermit crabs that we bought of vacation ever year biting my toes while I run along the beach each morning.

Right now, I can smell the sea from where I write to you tonight on our balcony and it is GLORIOUS!

Today, after the rain, we decided to stay put on the beach and the sun came out and we laid on the beach in front of aquamarine seas and loved life!! You can be chest deep in the ocean and still see your feet!! Such smuggers we are these days!!!

Back to the apartment....(or unit, as they call them in Oz)

When you walk into our apartment, it is an arterial hallway that branches out to two doors: one into the main living area and one into the master bedroom. The entry hallway has our washer/dryer closet and we have ideas for furnishing it as a proper entryway. The main living area has a kitchen area with all stainless steel appliances and a granite counter top with breakfast nook. To the right of the entryway, there is a guest bedroom and ensuite bathroom with a luxurious tub & rainfall shower stall. A small dining area with oak dining room set with purple accents; the living room is a purple microfibre set with birds of paradise accents. At the end of the room, there are floor to ceiling windows with rolling blinds. The balcony has a full wicker & iron dining set that perfectly accent all of the plants we have previously bought with ample storage space for Jon's surfboards.

The second door off the arterial hallway opens into a LARGE master bedroom and ensuite bath. This room also has floor to ceiling sliding glass doors with rolling blinds. The bathroom has a beautiful rainfall shower. It even has a mini-bar. Perfect for guests or in case we get to silly to walk to the kitchen to get another glass of wine! More likely the prior!!

Our first night here, we decided to go downstairs to have dinner at the Gecko Restaurant. It was luxurious to say the least! Jonathan had a duck dish that was delectable and I had lamb that was to die for! We have a high-end restaurant in our "basement." How amazing is that???

The bar downstairs, The ScuBar, is having a raffle. Every Cooper's you purchase, you get a ticket to enter to win a Cooper's Pale Ale surfboard. Needless to say, we've been drinking a lot of beer; As some of you might remember, I'm a Cooper Trooper!!

The next day, once we were settled in somewhat, we went down to the wine cellar downstairs and bought a bottle of champagne to celebrate our new home. We ate dinner (chicken with herbs I grew in our potted garden) on our balcony overlooking the ocean.

I can't rave about where we live enough!!! Mum & Dad, Mom & Daddy, siblings, anyone... you have to come a visit and experience it for yourselves!!! We can't wait to have you here and share in our happiness!!!

Queensland is for Lovers!

2007-01-31T16:06:00.000-08:00

We do love our new home, but some things boggle the mind beyond culture shock.

I just saw this story on the news and had to share it with you -

Four high-risk prisoners, including an accused murderer and armed robber, spent hours roaming unsupervised across a jail rooftop yesterday.The prisoners, on remand at the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre, spent the afternoon sunning themselves, smoking cigarettes and skylarking for television helicopter crews from the corrugated iron roof in the exercise yard of the prison, in Brisbane's outer west. They broke away from a group of eight prisoners who were walking unsupervised to a medical centre in the prison at about 12.30pm.

See the rest of this article & photos at http://www.news.com.au /couriermail/story/0 ,23739,21145399-3102,00 .html

What kills me is rather than getting them down, the prision officers were giving them footballs, cigarettes, water, etc. I just don't get it?

.. And by 2009, we will be drinking toliet water.. er, I meant effluent. Tasty effluent!

But, even so, QUEENSLAND IS FOR LOVERS!!

Effluent, Tasty Effluent

2007-01-30T15:27:00.000-08:00

That's my new word for today. There is a big debate here in Queensland about the fact that the government wants to add recycled sewage to the drinking water, or effluent as it's called. It's not exactly a palatable idea, but necessary in these dry times in this area. Still, I don't know if I can get my head around drinking it.

Things are going well, Jon is finishing up a stint of nights at the hospital tomorrow evening and then he will enjoy a week off. I got a brief reprieve from starting work because my visa had to be processed through the main HR department in Sydney and we all know how hard it is to get in touch with DIMIA! It's a blessing in disguise though; there is actually a lot to be done in preparation for Friday. It's time to stop living in transition.

We are very excited to move into our new home. There are several other doctors and their wives or girlfriends living in the complex & we will have a plethora of neighbors in a really social environment. The property is absolutely beautiful, we will post pictures as soon as we have the chance!

This is our new home:

Today, I drove down to Brisbane to go to the Factory Outlets for linens and other odds and ends that we need for the new place. Talk about amazing prices!

My anticipated start date is Wednesday of next week, which will allow Jon and I to join some other expats at a pub in Northern Brisbane to watch the SuperBowl on Monday. Although, I am more excited about the commercials! Budweisers & wings at 9:00am! It all seems a little dysfunctional, but I suppose the SuperBowl is a reason to drink before noon?

Jon and I are also on the road to being motor vehicle owners! There are dealer car auctions down in Brisbane that you can hire a broker to take you down to and help you bid on a car. It is a good situation for us, since neither of us know anything about auto mechanics or Australian automobile makes, and they check it out to make sure it is in "A1 condition," as the dealer told us!

Things are certainly coming together!

Australian Princess - The Finale

2007-01-28T15:26:00.000-08:00

We get five channels here in Nam-BORING, so I got sucked into reality TV.

Tonight, Jon and I are rooting for Kylie Booby to win Australian Princess.

Check out her blog at : http://www .australianprincess.com .au/default.aspx?page =kyliebooby&ID=6g

And she won!!! Yay!

Happy Australia Day!

2007-01-25T15:17:00.000-08:00

As I sit down to write to you this evening, the tree outside of our dining room window is full of parrots; I have never seen anything like it. Jonathan and I thought it would be fun to put a bird feeder in the tree in our backyard and wow, are they are flocking to it! They are absolutely beautiful with every color in the rainbow on their little bodies. We took a picture, but it doesn't begin to describe how pretty the whole scene actually is.

That aside, we have good news on our front today: I accepted a position at a subsidiary of the Federal Publishing.

Jonathan is celebrating Australia Day (January 25th) by working all night at the hospital. His first day back on nights after a very relaxing week doing a whole lot of nothing. We spent lazy Sunday in Mooloolaba have an brunch al fresco on The Esplanade and took a long walk on the beach.

Wednesday, we drove down to Ferny Grove to meet up with Ian & Jan Cowling at their home to retrieve some of the packages that we sent over before we left. The visit was lovely, but far too short as the Cowlings were rushing off to catch a flight Stateside. We've planned a longer visit for when they return and the rest of our belongings arrive.

It was decided that the scenic road back to Nambour was out best bet and that we should drive through Redcliffe to check out the area where we could have lived. Both of us had the same resounding feeling of thank goodness we chose The Sunshine Coast! It was not an area that we would have wanted to live at all and we have heard nothing good about Redcliffe Hospital, so it just reaffirms our feeling that we made a good choice!

We finished our day at The Ginger Factory for a quick walk through their gardens and a viewing of their annual flower show. It was absolutely beautiful! Of course, we had to take some plants home! We picked out two gorgeous tropical flowering ginger plants & while we were shopping a PR representative for the Ginger Factory took some photos to be used in future promotional materials & adverts. Mr. Spielberg, I'm ready for my closeup!

Since Jon is working tomorrow, I am not sure what my first Australia Day will hold. I was thinking I might venture down to Brisbane to check out the celebrations down in South Bank, but we will see what the day holds. Maybe I'll try some of the new Vegemite flavoured ice cream that they are introducing for sale tomorrow? Probably not.

Mountain Magic

2007-01-20T00:52:00.000-08:00

Well, our trip to Sydney didn't pan out, but we had a great weekend anyway!

Jon and I decided to head into the Blackall Range & Glass House Mountains to explore what lies to our west. So, we set off in our rental car and drove along the Glass House Mountains Tourist Drive (now Steve Irwin Way) for an afternoon in the Australian countryside or hinterland as its known here.

The "travel guide-esque" description of where we went:

The Glasshouse Mountains are volcanic crags along the coastal plain that were first discovered by Captain Cook. The story goes that upon seeing the unusual shapes of the moutains he was reminded of the glass factories back home.

However, the mountains are deeply seeded in the life of the Gubbi Gubbi Aboriginal peoples. According to Aboriginal legend, the Glasshouse Mountains are a family of mountain spirits including father Tiborgaran (the father of all tribes) mother Beerwah, and Coonowrin, the eldest son. As the lore goes, Tiborgaran was anticipating a flood and became fearful for this family's safety. He called on his eldest son to look after his wife, while he assisted the other children. As he ushered his other children to safety, he looked behind only to find his wife abandoned. Coorowrin had fled. Tiborgaran picked up his nulla nulla (club) and struck his son in anger, dislocating his neck and leaving him permanently disfigured. When the flood waters retreated, his brothers & sisters made fun of him relentlessly for his odd look and he sought forgiveness from his father. Tibogaran wept tears of dispair and begged his son to explain how he could abandon his mother. He then told his son that although his mother appeared large enough to take care of herself, it was because she was pregnant. Then, the whole family cried and created the streams that lead to the sea. Tibogaran, then, turned his back on his son for all eternity.

Today, as we saw it (and the well placed national park placard explained,) Mt. Tiborgaran faces out the sea with his "back" to Mt. Coorowin, which as you will see from our pictures has a rather unusual shape. As for Beerwah, as the legend goes, she's still pregnant. Can you imagine?? Thank goodness mountain aren't real people!

After a short stint of exploring the Glasshouse Moutains National Park, we decided that this area deserved much further backpacking, climbing & time. So, we tabled it for another day and continued onto the Blackall Range Tourist Drive through the towns of Maleny & Montville. Both are rather artisty communities with lovely rows of shops filled with hand-crafted goods & uniquely Australian wares. We just stopped quickly and picked up two more beautiful tropical plants for the new unit. I'm sure we will spend much more time in the shops, wineries & restaurants as time permits.

Our final destination was Kondalilla National Park to vist the Kondalilla Falls, which is supposed to be a beautiful 90 meter waterfall set on a backdrop of subtropical rainforest. However, the word of the day in Queensland is DROUGHT, so that falls were less than impressive. It was more like the Kondalilla trickle. On the upside, it was a short hike out the the "falls" and on an extremely well maintained path. The rainforest foliage was quite a sight as well! At the end of the path, there was a large rockpool where many families had gathered to go swimming. Although the signage warned against it, the kids were all jumping from the rocks above (up to about 30 feet high) into the mountain pool below. Jon thought it looked to good not to try and had a great time.

We returned home just in time to get cleaned up for a small barbie at one of the other doctor's home in Bli Bli. It turned out to be an intimate gathering with our host & hostess from the UK, a young woman doctor from Aberdeen and her boyfriend, an Aussie couple & ourselves.

I was informed at this gathering that the Huntsman spider (see previous blog entry) will chase you. Although, the teller of the story did mention that this has only happened to her when she has come home from the pub. Still, not good. Phil, our kind new Aussie friend, has offered to loan me his copy of "Australian Creatures That Can Kill You," and take me pesticide shopping! Yay!
We had a great time and hopefully the next time we all get together it will be at our beachfront unit at Surfair!! Move in day is February 2nd!

Signing off from the melonoma capital of the world, good night.

Week 3: Top Ten

2007-01-19T23:34:00.000-08:00

Time again for the top ten things we have learned in Australia this week....

1. Beets are an key component in Australian burgers. We both have bitten into a burger or two expecting them not to be there, but every time, without fail, they are. We have asked numerous times what the Aussie obsession with beets is due to, but we have not gotten an acceptable answer to date. Beets truly only belong in Mum's Beetroot Salad on Swedish Christmas on Christmas Eve.

2. The next time you go into a restaurant in the U.S., please pocket as many complimentary packets of whatever sauce you choose on our behalf. We have found that every Fish N Chips shop charges for sauce packets! Tomato sauce, vinegar, BBQ sauce - $0.25 AUD a piece. While it is not a large sum, it is just a little bit irritating to sit down for a meal and have to go wait in line again to purchase a small package of tomato sauce to have with your chips.

3. Our bookstore, BIG W. Our clothing store, BIG W. Our electronics retailer, BIG W. Our greenhouse, BIG W. Our housewares store, BIG W. BIG W, which I am assuming based on the logo typeface & store layout is an extension of the evil empire of Sam Walton, a.k.a. WAL-MART, is the only game in town. At least in Nambour.

4. Possums are mean. REALLY mean. We have known that if you venture out into our backyard post-10pm, you are in the possum's domain. There is a little creature that skurries across the back fence of our yard every evening. However, one night while Jon is at work and I was staying up till all hours of the night to phone back to the U.S., Mr. Possum decides to jump off of his post on the fence and fight. He's hissing, squeaking and squealing so much that although I was more than triple his size, I was scared. For the remainder of the night, the furthest I made it outside was to stick my head and arm outside to smoke a cigarette, while a very annoyed possum squalked from the fence. I figured that if worse came to worse, I should be able to shut the door before he got to close? I was hoping. Does anyone know how fast possums are??

5. "Loo With a View" is the best name for a public beachfront bathhouse ever. It's just that simple. Kudos to Mooloolaba, Queensland. But it doesn't smell any better than any public beachfront bathhouse. EVER.

6. WARNING ANYONE OF THE MALE PERSUASION SKIP #6. Ladies, feel my pain; let's talk tampons. Applicators are a luxury here. If you want to pay double & them some for your feminine products, then you can have applicators. But in eco-conscious Oz, they just don't exist in an economical form. On the plus side, they come in cute little 16-packs that look like mini-cigarette packs in great designs. Also, it's not like the Jersey Shore where when you are shell hunting the majority of the "wildlife" that you find are tampon applicators, six pack rings & bottle caps, so that's a plus....

7. In the U.S. you are bombarded with adverts for Direct T.V. that boast 300+ channels of viewing pleasure. Here, we have standard TV that is a whopping 5 channels and we can upgrade to Select T.V. that heralds 20 channels Australia wide. Holy shit, what WOULD we do with 15 channels that are all cricket all the time?

8. Jon and I were watching the news the other night and they were showing this segment on a family that was caught shooting cane toads out of a potato gun clear across their property and probably the next seven shires. The RSPCA was outraged at the mistreatment of these animals and proclaimed, "This incident must have happened in North Queensland because they are just a bunch of rednecks up there." Well, we laughed our asses off at that fabulous statement; you couldn't get away with saying that about Kentucky on U.S. television.

9. Queensland is whole-heartedly celebrating 100 years of the lifesaver. Major kudos to these mainly volunteer organizations that keep us safe during our summer beach holidays! However, S&J have one small comment to make: There are thousands of kilometers of beaches in Queensland and somehow the lifesavers manager to put up their red & yellow flags 10 meters apart sporadically along each beach basically corralling 1,000 of people into a very small area. I really can't enjoy my swim when while floating with the waves making my arm brush the privates of some Portuguese tourist! In all seriousness, the individuals that have guarded the beaches of Queensland are amaznig. Day after day, they put others before themselves for the greater good. Some of the guys we have seen highlighted on tele are over 60+ years old. Their selflessness should be rewarded on a daily basis.

10. Our friends outside of Oz, google blue-bottles. They are real pain in the arse. Nasty jellies that blow in with the tides that pack a real punch. Swimming has never been so hazardous to a couple of Yanks. But, aren't you jealous of where we are swimming?!?

We found a place to live!

2007-01-18T23:20:00.000-08:00

Jon has been working nights & I have been ill will a nasty stomach flu, but there is a bit of good news to report: We received word from our real estate agent that our application was approved for the property at Surfair Beach Resort in Marcoola. The beaches in Marcoola are some of the best on the Sunshine Coast & the resort is quite lovely with all of the amenities of a perfect holiday resort.

We have a unit with two separate entrances off the main entrance, one that leads to the living room, dining room, kitchen (with all brand new stainless steel appliances,) bedroom & ensuite bathroom. The second door leads to a self-contained bedroom with ensuite bathroom & balcony. Perfect for guests, hint hint.

The only other notable is I had my first run in with an Australian spider. I was home alone and sick as a dog, when I got up to get a glass of water and saw this MASSIVE spider sitting on the wall above our cabinet. I am not exaggerating at all when I say, the thing was as big as the palm of my hand. I tried to whack it with a magazine, but it moved to quickly, so I did the overly mature thing and locked myself in the bedroom and hid from it =)

I learned later it was a huntman spider, and yes, it will kill you. It's been rumoured to charge at people as well. Glad I didn't find that out first hand!

Tonight is Jon's last day on night's and now he will have a week off of work. His friend Jordan is over in Sydney for a business trip and we are hoping to catch a flight down to spend some time with him over the weekend.

Sunday Safari!

2007-01-14T23:08:00.000-08:00

Jonathan & I have been told by many of the locals that a visit to Great Sandy National Park was a must. The park is divided into two sections: Cooloola & Fraser Island. We decided to sign-up for a 4WD tour of the southern section in Cooloola today & couldn't have been happier that we did!

At 8am, we met our tour guide Terri, in Tewatin at the Noosa Marina. The group consisted of Jonathan, myself & a mother with two lovely children from Sydney. We piled in the Land Cruiser and headed up 40 Mile Beach just as the tide was going out. In the early morning hours, we spotted kangaroos on the drive to the beach and when we finally got to the ocean the water was a pristine aquamarine color the whole ride up to our first destination point: Red Canyon.
Upon first inspection, the "canyon" looks like the Red Rocks you might find in the American Southwest, but Jonathan found out very quickly that looks can be deceiving. The canyon wall was too enticing not to climb, but it was not rock or clay, but sand. Each time you tried to take hold, it crumbled through you fingers.

Turns out, the national park is the largest vegetated sand dune system in the world. There is no rock and only traces of clay holding the sand in its firm formation. The minerals in the sand have oxidized causing it to turn vibrant shades of red, yellow, orange streaked with white. They boast 70 shades of color and we tried to get the kids on our tour to count for us, but they got bored after about 15.

After a short drive up the coast, we drove past our second destination, the Cherry Venture ship wreck. In 1973, a large cargo vessel was bound for Brisbane and caught in 12 ft.+ seas. It ran aground on this stretch of sand and now is just a rusted heap of scrap. Apparently, up until last year, it was quite an impressive sight and maintained much of its form, but the Queensland Park System demolished parts of the ship for fear of someone climbing on it and getting hurt on the scrap metal. By this time next year, the Cherry Venture will be removed from her final resting place because of asbestos concerns. It was an amazing sight and a reminder than in a fight of man vs. the elements, Mother Nature usually wins.

Onward to the "high point" of our day, we climbed the only rocky outcropping on the island to visit the lighthouse keeping watch over the Pacific Ocean. The view was breathtaking. Our pictures cannot do it justice. From our perch, we had morning tea & watched a school of dolphins swim along the cove below. We even spotted a massive manta ray.

We then trekked back down to sea level and followed the ocean along to Rainbow Beach, home of the real coloured sand dunes. In all fairness to this natural marvel, the word dunes does not correctly describe what we saw. I mean imagine mini-mountains of sand, some as tall as 50 meters. They were tall enough that as we swam, we could watch gliders launching off of them.

Our final destination for the day was the second type of habitat for the day, one of the two sub-tropical rainforests that was completed bedded on a sand dune. We had a lovely picnic lunch while a monitor lizard wandered around our feet. Then we did a short walk around the surrounding area to look at strangler vines and how they create these odd looking, gnarled, hollow trees by entrapping other trees causing them to die and decompose.

By the end of the day, we were completely knackered. Jon slept the whole ride home and I could barely keep my eyes open. We took a lovely afternoon nap and Jon is getting ready now to go off to the hospital for his first night shift.

Tomorrow, I have my second interview at well-known Queensland publication, so keep your fingers crossed!

P.S. Jon and I have been walking around for the past week singing the song from Bindi's new commercial. Watch:

Sea-kayaking on the Maroochy River

2007-01-13T23:00:00.000-08:00

Friday night, we met up with several of the other doctors & staff at the hospital for drinks at Zachary's in Mooloolaba. It is a great little trendy-ish bar just off the main drag down there. Lonely Planet calls said bar, "Where hair gel goes to die." =) Either way, all of Jon's colleagues are amazingly nice and the bar was a lot of fun.

We woke up this morning and did an inspection on the property at Marcoola Beach Resort. It was huge & had enormous balconies, but I think we are leaning towards the one at Surfair. We are planning on submitting our application tomorrow! Keep your fingers crossed!

The morning was quite overcast and did not appear to be a good beach day, but luckily enough the clouds burned off around noon and the sun was shining So, Jon and I decided to go check out some sea kayaks for hire on the river in Maroochydore.

We went for a short paddle around the little islands in the river. The views were lovely, the sun was shining, and the wind & tides were perfect. And of course, I got mouthfuls of water from numerous paddle splashes from a playful Jon.

By the time we got home, we were both completely knackered from a long day out in the sun & salt air. All plans of going out with the other docs in Cotton Tree went to hell in a handbasket & we ended up spending the evening watching Ghostbusters II on TV and eating Domino's. Pretty lame, but we have to be out of the house by 7:00am tomorrow for our 4WD trip through the Cooloola section of the Great Sandy National Park.

Life is a Highway... and I have to learn to drive on the left of it....

2007-01-12T22:49:00.000-08:00

As I am writing to you, I am on our back patio and the sun is stinging to say the least. It's only 10:00 in the morning & I can already feel myself burning, so this will have to be short & sweet. Otherwise, put me on a skewer and I'll be a kabob.

I'm about to set off on the of my greatest Australian odyessy yet: I am going to drive to look at the Surfair apartment all by my lonesome. Just me and a lot of left-hand driving. Now, I wouldn't be so scared, except for the fact that Jonathan, who is way more accustomed to this then I am has pulled a few brilliant driving maneuvers since we have been here, i.e. forgetting where we are and making a right hand turn out of the rental car parking lot into oncoming traffic. There are so many roundabouts and what not, that I am very nervous about it.

Things have been continuing to going well. Jonathan has picked up an extra shift at the hospital tonight, so he will be on-call in the wards until 9:00 tonight. After that, we are going down to Mooloolaba to join some of the interns and house officers at the pub for the weekly Friday night get together. So, it should be a lot of fun.

I am going to look at the Surfair apartment before 2pm & then I have an interview in Maroochydore at a well-known Queensland newspaper publication. After that, since Jon has to work, I plan on taking a drive down the "tourist drive" through the Blackall Range. We can see the Range from our house, but we haven't been up there yet.

Per Mum's suggestion, we have reached out to the Americans in Australia and Americans in Brisbane groups. It's a nice security blanket to have; they have sporadic events & a daily email group to ask "the silly questions" that you have being new over here, but feel like an idiot asking an Aussie.

Also, I found a Knit & Natter group here on the Sunshine Coast that specifically knits for Queensland's Needy. They get together a few evenings a month to knit, have brunch, and just relax & chat.

Alright, time for me to take shelter from the sun ~ would you believe that it is so hot here right now that the metal buttons on my jean capris are so hot that where I have the laptop leaning on them it is burning my skin!

P.S. If you were wondering, the girl I was hoping to get eliminated from Aussie Princess wasn't eliminated ~ they kicked of the doctor girl that Jon & I were both rooting for!

Need to Get A Jobby Job

2007-01-10T02:42:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of our second week, being that we are settled in a little bit more, I have started to look for a job. I really only started looking Monday and already have been on two interviews. Things look promising and there are more career opportunities here than I initially anticipated!

Jonathan is working in the orthopedics department and loves it. It is so nice having him on regular hours where he leaves at 7:30am and is home by 5 at the latest. He's going to nights for the next 6 weeks, but the way the hours work out he works 5 days for from 9pm to 8:30am and then has the next 5 days off. It's a beautiful thing. His next two rotations look like they will be in General Surgery, but that may change.

Not much to report, things are going well. This weekend we are planning on going to make a final decision on the unit we are going to rent, and then on Sunday we are going to do a tour of Cooloola. It's a rainforest walk, tour of the colored sand beaches, 4WD safari down 40 mile beach & snorkeling. It gives us something to look forward to during these rainy afternoons!

For those of you who worried with us over the Medical Board registration, you should read this article from today's Courier-Mail about any inquiry into a Scottish doctor up in Townsville:
www.news.com.au /couriermail/story/0 ,23739,21037016-3102,00 .html

Apparently, doctors trained overseas is a real hot-button issue here in Queensland. In retrospect, all went fairly easily!

A Day At The Beach

2007-01-07T02:40:00.000-08:00

Jon and I spent our Sunday cruising the coast in our rental car and relaxing on the beach at Coolum. It was an absolutely beautiful day, but the water was a bit treacherous because of a cyclone up north. There were really strong rip currents and all of the seaweed and sand was being churned up off the ocean floor making for less than ideal swimming conditions. To top it all off, there were jellyfish the size of dinner plates every few feet!

But, the weather was beautiful, which has been rare around here since we are in the midst of the rainy season. We had a lovely lunch of fish & chips (burger for me!) on the beach and visited the Ginger Factory in Yadina.

The Ginger Factory is yet another agrigcultural tourist trap here on the Sunny coast, but they have a nursery where they sell plants. I picked out two little plants for our patio to make it feel a little more like home!

He lives in a pineapple under the sea.....

2007-01-06T02:35:00.000-08:00

It has been exceptionally hard to find an air conditioned, furnished apartment within our price range. All of the real estate agents I have spoken to assure us that this should change when the summer ends, but we really don't want to stay in Nambour (or Damn Bored! as we've started calling it) any longer than we have to.

We found two units that we are interested in that are fully furnished and set up as holiday rentals. That is great for us because that means electronics, pots, pans, crockery, flatware, etc. are all included in the rental. All we need to bring is our stuff and linens.

Both units are located in Marcoola in beachfront resort complexes. We are doing are final inspections of the properties on Friday & Saturday to make a final decision.

Then, on our way home we visited the "Big Pineapple" in Nambour. It was thrilling for a few minutes and we purchased a really tasty pineapple, but other than that ~ not so much to report. Jon did purchase a bottle of hot sauce of a special varietal; it was called, "Smack my arse and call me Cindy." There were several other "very descriptive" types that I care not to repeat that he wants to try during our time here.

Our First Week: Top 10

2007-01-05T02:23:00.000-08:00

1. Jon and I have confirmed that toliet does in fact flush in the other direction.

(An aside on our toliet: Some of your would think it's super cool! In that, I know there are some guy friends of ours out there that are proud of their bodily functions and frequent rateyourpoop.com, but I'm not naming names. You would be insanely jealous. On the good old American Standard there is one handle to flush right? One standard flush. Get this, we have TWO buttons, a tsunami of a flush and a baby flush.)

2. 9 out of the top 10 deadly species in the world live in our backyard, or where we swim, etc. You get the idea. A woman I met at a barbie (bbq) has me so insanely frightening of finding a redback spider (poisionous) in my shoe, that I spray them before I put them on ~ that can't be good for the feet.

3. DJ Joel was right about Nambour. All of you were no trading (shopping) on Sundays? Nothing is open after 7pm ever. The entire town is one big upwards hill. I stepped in a dead tree frog walking up that damn big hill from the shops. Right now, I have a gorgeous view out my window of the Blackall Range (I think) and the Feed Store!

4. Australian Princess is my new super-secret reality TV obsession. As many of you know, I was head over heels for a TV show back in the States called Beauty and The Geek. I think I've discovered an international conspiracy: There is a he/she out there who just jumps from country to country trying to win reality TV shows. Check it out the photos. Eerie, ay?

5. Sawyer from LOST wasn't crazy; a chirping, croaking tree frog while you are trying to sleep will drive you mad. We have this one behind our unit that is equivalent to the sound you here back home when a outdoor pet cat gets attacked by a racoon. You know you know the sound. It's terrible.

6. They don't make dryer sheets in Australia. That makes us sad.

7. For a tropical climate, apartments with air conditioning are few and far between. It's a novelty. And, no of course the windows are all almost floor to ceiling to accentuate the views, sigh, so no window A/C units fit. But, I really can't complain =)

8. I never really had such a profound appreciation for inexpensive medications, groceries & herbal supplements when I was stateside. Now, when we left I saw a CVS flyer with buy one, get one Centrum 300 pill vitamin bottles for $10.00. I was in the Chemist today and the small 100 pill bottle was almost $34.95. That's about $28.00 USD. Tylenol, Advil, NyQuil, all these things you take for granted are SO expensive, even the native Aussie brands.

9. Jon's contribution: Just because there is an ATM machine doesn’t mean you can get money out. Just because a store accepts Mastercard or Visa (and you have plenty of funds in the account) doesn’t mean you can buy stuff. Our credit cards work one in 5 times at best and in one in 10 ATMs. We have to walk 3 miles to an ATM to get money out to take the bus, only to walk back those 3 miles to the bus stop right in front of our unit. Life’s funny that way, isn’t it?

10. Probably the most important thing I have learned: I am the luckiest woman in the world. I have a wonderful, loving, caring man who loves me as much as I love him. We are living in absolute paradise (yes, even Nambour is nice.) We are surrounded by people who are extending themselves to us beyond anything we could have ever believed. Life is a bit slower paced here, but that's a good thing. It has given me the time to stop and smell the roses, or tropical flowers =) The act of leaving the States allowed me to heal some old wounds and regain my life, but I still hold all of you back home very close in my heart. Moving made me realize what is important and what everyone in my life has meant to me. I love you all! And I miss you terribly!

Happy New Year!

2007-01-01T02:21:00.000-08:00

New Year's Eve Day was our first excursion to Nambour Center to go grocery shopping and pick up some basics. We were surprised at how expensive groceries are here! Our property manager, Ian, was kind enough to give us a lift to the shop and back, so that we wouldn't have to carry our groceries the whole way up this monsterous hill that lies between us and a the center.

Ian was also kind enough to invite us to join him at a New Year's barbie at the home of his Kiwi friends, Liz & Bruce, in Palmwoods. We graciously accepted! They had a lovely home that overlooked the Blackall Ridge & we saw one of the most majestic sunsets I've ever seen! We met a bunch of their neighbours & had a night of lovely bbq, good conversation and a few glasses of wine.

We arrived home before midnight due to absolute jet-lag. We watched the fireworks in Sydney on the tellie. They were supposedly the biggest display in the world this year. You can check them out here: www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov .au/nye/

Happy New Year to all!

Airport Abandonment Issues

2006-12-30T02:15:00.000-08:00

Jonathan and I arrived in Brisbane, jet lagged and exhausted on Saturday, December 30th.

Madness ensued from the minute the plane touched down! Jonathan was having "tummy troubles" in the last few minutes of the flight and let's just say an airplane bathroom in descent was not the place to take care of it =) As soon as the door opens, I told him to run and take care of his needs and I would wait for him outside the men's room. Well, he was quite ill and it took quite awhile, so I just sat there reading a book. A man in a customs uniform approaches me and I explain the situation to him and got a reaction I did not anticipate; he made me go yell to get Jonathan out of the bathroom. Then, he starts asking me 1,001 questions about where we came from and where we were going. I am so jet-lagged and so oblivious that I had no idea at what he was driving at; I couldn't figure out for the life of me why he kept asking about being in South America or Africa. Then, it clicked. He thought that we were drug smugglers and Jon's tummy troubles involved balloons filled with illegal substances! What a great foot to start off on!

We made it through immigration & customs with no problems, thank goodness. Most of you know I had troubles with my visa / passport right before leaving; all that worry was for nothing! When we walk through the International Arrivals gate, we don't see a driver with our name. We wait, and wait, and wait and no one shows from the hospital to pick us up. So, we go buy a Vodafone Prepaid Cell Phone Sim Card two terminals away and when we call to activate it, you need a valid address that we did not have at that point. So, we go to buy a traditional calling card, and apparently in the day and age of cell phones, they are few and far between. Thank goodness, we met a lovely Kiwi woman named Isabella, who let us use her cell phone. She made us promise that we would "Pay it forward," while we were here.

Jonathan finally got in touch with someone from the hospital and the lack of a ride was a miscommunication. So, we showered in the aiport and hopped in a Maxi and set off for Nambour Hospital.

We arrived in Nambour at our lovely temporary housing, pleasantly surprised (and a little bit relieved at how nice it is!) It's a lovely two bedroom townhouse directly behind the hospital. We were met by the property manager, Ian, who is a lovely bloke. He got us settled and advised us where we could get some basic groceries for breakfast. (Nambour is a sleepy town to say the least! We walked down the Main Street for 20 minutes before we found a place to buy milk & eggs and only saw 4 people!)

But, we did find Domino's! After ordering pizza, we settled in, watched all 5 of our television channels & called it a night. We very happy to be here and so excited about our new adventure!

Best Layover EVER!

2006-12-29T01:57:00.000-08:00

Jonathan and I had a long layover in Fiji. Initially, we hadn't planned on leaving the airport, but the customs made us go through immigration and customs because our layover was more than three hours.

After battling with customs to keep my shoes (apparently I was harboring US soil,) we hired a private taxi for a "three hour tour."

Our tour driver Jone (pronounced Jon) was more than eager to share with us the history and culture of the island, as well as his insights in regards to the recent military take-over. It was a bit scary; there were men with big machine guns everywhere, but for some reason, you could sense that they meant tourists no harm. People walking down the road waved at the taxi and seemed genuinely happy to see that people were still coming into the country in spite of the political unrest.

First, we went to First Landing, a resort constructed where the first settlers to the island landed. We had a lovely breakfast overlooking the Pacific & outlying Fijian islands. We had a lovely breakfast overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Then, we went to the Garden of the Sleeping Giant, named for the mountain ridgeline above that resemble a man and a woman lying head-to-toe. The garden was started in the 1970s by actor Raymond Burr to house his orchid collection and has a beautiful walk through the lower mountain rainforest. It was absolutely gorgeous. We even had a chance to see the wild horses that live on the mountainside.

Then, it was off to Brisbane!