Yeah for Me!!!

Well, some of you may have heard that I am putting my extra time that is usually spent working, to get back into something that I love - running. I have been training really hard for the last few months with a few wonderful partners and I ran (and finished in 1:49) my first half-marathon last weekend. What a rush to run across the finish line - arms in the air, knowing that I had given everything I had to run the full 21km race. Even more thrilling was sharing it with the fantastic women that I train with and seeing my running partners cross the finish line after running the full marathon. We wouldn't take our moments away for anything, even with the blue tonails, tired muscles and bleeding blisters. I will treasure this accomplishment forever and can't wait to tackle the Royal Victoria next year.

Part 3 - The Gold Coast

Well we finished up our trip with a busy few days on the Gold Coast at Surfer's Paradise. While the kids a great a time (although they wished we had spent the extra days on Castaway), it was a little busy, loud and overwhelming for us. We went to a couple of theme parks (Dug's first!!) and I don't need to go to another one for a very long time.

As I said, the girls had a great time at Seaworld, which had lots of aquariums, dolphins and other sea critters to sea. Sophie went on her first roller coaster - twice!! What a trooper. I was more scared watching from the ground than she was turning upside-down. The girls did convince me to go on a ride that was a giant pirate ship swinging like a pendulum. It looked quite tame from the ground - it wasn't. I sat next to Elise and after a couple of swings, I was terrified - screaming to be let off. She looked at me and realized that I was scared for real and started screaming herself. Poor little thing - I was holding her arm so tight during the 4 minutes of sheer terror that when I uncurled my grip after it was over, her little hand was blue. Lesson learned - mommy needs to keep her feet planted firmly on teh ground! The next day, we went to Dreamworld which was fun for a day, but by the time it was over, we were spent. The girls got to go on lots of rides and see the tigers at Tiger Island.

We would like to return to the Gold Coast and explore the beautiful sleepy seaside towns, cafes and beaches...and stay well away from theme parks!!

All in all though, it was a fantastic trip and one that we will hold dear for a lifetime.

Fiji - Part 2

I’m finally getting around to writing the second installment of our trip to Fiji and the Gold Coast. It all seems so long ago already.

Anyways, I left off the last posting with our helicopter flight to the next resort and we were again wowed by the tiny piece of grass on this little hillside that the pilot had to put the helicopter down…amidst grazing cows and horses! We arrived at the Outrigger resort, again greeted by a Fijian band and a welcome drink. This resort was spectacular in size and grandeur, but still didn’t beat the small island paradise of Castaway. We again stayed in a beautiful bure – this one nestled amongst spectacular tropical gardens – really beautiful. As you can see in the pictures in the web album – this resort had a magnificent pool and deck area, with lots going on.

One of the nice touches that we unfortunately got very accustomed to at this resort was the Butler service. This meant that every night around 5:30, the staff would come to each of the bures with champagne and canapés. By the end of our 4 days here, I had the timing correct so that I was just finishing my G&T as the lady with the champagne was arriving. To top that off, again around 9, they would bring dessert and an aperitif. It was a wonderful treat and Dug was sad to see it end when we left Fiji – I don’t “do” butler service.

One of the highlights was the nightly torch lighting ceremony where costumed Fijians would start slowing beating on a poolside wooden drum, calling everyone to the ceremony. This usually happened just as the sun was about to go down and we were finishing our champagne. It was really fun to watch because this obviously has because a daily “must do” for kids at the resort. From everywhere, kids would start running towards the pool – along paths and out of bushes, like rats following the Pied Piper. Then the drumming would reach a crescendo and another guy would start circling the pool, lighting each torch on the poolside and blowing a conch. I think it became a bit of a ritual for all the kids who had flocked to the pool to follow (run) behind the guy lighting the torches. At each one, he would stop and let all the kids put their hand on the handle of his torch and they would all light it together. Then he’d run to the next one – kids in hot pursuit. During the first night of this ceremony, the girls were just watching the procession of children chasing the torch lighter and my darling Sophie (the often serious and conscientious child) piped up in a voice load enough for all the other parents to hear, “Mama, it really isn’t safe to run with fire – it’s kind of like running with scissors”. Well, once we and the other adults within earshot had stopped laughing, I had to explain that this was a special circumstance where it was OK to run while holding a burning can of accelerant on a slippery pool-deck.

We continued to enjoy ourselves for the next few days. The girls had a great time donning their head-lamps every night to go hunting for rhinoceros beetles and toads amongst the pathways. However, I had to bring the game to an end one night when Sophie dropped one of the toads into the pool right next to the restaurant. After rescuing it in front of a few dining spectators (don’t think they saw the humour in it), we let it go in the bushes again, but not before Sophie yells out, “It peed on me!” That’s my girl – she not afraid of a little amphibian juice.

We did get the opportunity to go to small wildlife reserve nearby where the girls to hold (cuddle really) some iguanas and a boa. You can see by the photos in the web album that they loved holding these critters.

We also found a little local curry restaurant nearby where the Fiji Bitters were cheap - $2.50 at happy hour and we spent a fair bit of time there. One night, we decided to eat dinner there, along with friends that we met – a mom and her daughter from New Zealand. We arrived at “Johnny’s” to find that the whole restaurant was in almost total darkness with only candles lighting the veranda. Johnny came out to welcome us and told that his power was off, but that his stove was gas so we could stay and eat. Only slightly worried about the food safety, we decided to stay and were treated to the best curry I have ever had. The girls ran around chasing toads, while we drank Fiji Bitters to calm the heat of the curry – great fun was had by all.

Anyways, we said our goodbye’s to Fiji and the friends we made there and headed back to Australia, but we knew that we would make the trip back to Fiji someday.

Bula!

Well, it’s about time I posted something new on this site, but we have spent the last several weeks working hard and just getting through the cold and drizzle of Adelaide’s winter in anticipation of our trip to Fiji. We have now just returned from 2 weeks enjoying warm sand and cocktails at sunset. Because I have so much to share with you all, I’ll break the trip into 3 separate postings. I have also posted another web album (link to left) with pictures from our trip and links to the resort websites in my list of web pages to the left as well- take a look at the Castaway site to get a taste of paradise.

So, first let me say that if you get the chance to do so, experience Fiji. It is truly a paradise, made even more special by the Fijian’s – quite possibly the kindest and warmest people. So our trip started by a pretty nasty overnight flight from Brisbane to Nadi, Fiji where we were greeted by the humid waft of warm wind as we stepped off the plane. We then took a quick bus ride through rural Fiji…this was reminiscent of the roadsides of Jamaica – kids waving from the roadsides that were lined with tropical fruit trees and wandering livestock. We then got to Pt Denaru to catch our ferry over to Castaway. This little dock was bustling with people travelling between various island paradises – everyone was happy, relaxed and moving on “Fiji time”…which some of you may know as “Jamaica time”. We stocked up on beer and mix for our duty free – make note of this as our liquor purchases come into play later on.

Anyways, we board a large catamaran with all the other happy people and spend the next 2 hours winding our way through island resorts dropping happy people off and picking sad people up. Each time we pulled up to a dock or a tender arrived to swap passengers, we could hear the Fijians playing their welcome and goodbye songs and sharing hugs with the guests. It was an overcast day…very humid. Then the rain started…gently at first, but by the time we got within sight of Castaway, it was pouring…West Coast pouring. We got soaked along with all of our carry-on luggage. Before I continue on, it is important to note that along with the humidity, the rain quickly disintegrated the box holding our beer and the other shopping bags carrying the bar essentials. Fortunately a lady working at the bar on the boat found us a big black garbage bag to carry the disintegrating box of beer.

We could hear the Fijian band playing as the tender pulled up to the boat to unload the sad people and trade them for us wet happy people. The rain was torrential as we hit the beach and ran for cover… We were lugging our dripping carry-on luggage, a garbage bag clanging with beer bottles and 2 soaking wet kids, all the while, leaving a bar mix yard sale the entire way as the other bags completed melted in the wet. The other family arriving at the same time and resort hostess followed behind us, picking up our limes and tonic from the sand and surf. Here come the Clampets! Not a very dignified arrival, but memorable!

It rained solidly until the next morning, which wasn’t a bad thing as we were so tired. Elise fell asleep in her chair at the restaurant before her lunch arrived – so we spent the rest of the afternoon sleeping in a luxurious beachfront bure. These bures were beautiful and perfectly appointed – totally luxurious, but very understated. It was the little touches that made them special – flowers on the pillows, a ceramic tub with floating flowers on the veranda for rinsing sandy feet, pottery urns in the bathroom with lotions and soaps, no radios, no TVs, no clocks…anywhere.

While the resort was complete luxury, it was very casual and aptly known as the “barefoot resort” as most people (guests and staff) were shoeless all the time. Mealtimes were announced with the beating of drums and a loud “lunchtime” or “dinner” bellowed out from the restaurant. Kids were always underfoot of the staff, but never treated as nuisances. The kids got to play with band that serenaded mealtimes and dance through the restaurant. The only TV at the resort was in the bar and I'm pretty sure that all that was ever shown on it was rugby. No one cared whether guests drank their own cocktails in the restaurant or ones purchased from the bartender. They didn’t even care about the box of “Cardonnay” (white plonk in a box) I brought to dinner one night.

We began our first full day refreshed and were greeted by brilliant sun. Dug and I hiked to the top of the lookout (this made for a great jungle run in the mornings) and then continued our exploration down to a deserted beach and back along the ocean to the resort. We arrived back to find out that Sophie and Elise had made friends with Sophia – the 6 year-old daughter of the American/Australian family that happened to be the ones that arrived when we did…following behind us, picking up my bar essentials. We got along famously, sharing child minding duties, meals and rounds of mojitos…and lots of Fiji Bitters – the National beer.

So, while the weather was less than perfect, we had a great time playing at the pool and beach. Sophie fell in love with the Banana Boat – an inflatable tube that you sit on while being dragged at high speeds around the island behind an overpowered boat driven by a less than vigilant driver. Sophie especially loved being dumped off and didn’t seem the least bit concerned about bobbing around in the water 1km off shore waiting for the boat to turn around and haul everyone back in. I even went for a couple of rides with Tom, Angela and their very adventurous 12 year-old daughter (the American family from Melbourne).

Much of the beach was surrounded by a fringing reef and at low tide the beach was very protected and shallow for a long way out. The girls learned to kayak and while Sophie was happy to pair up in a double kayak with one of the many 8-10 year-old girls, Elise insisted on learning on her own…paddling as far out as she could. They got the hang of steering and turning and loved to paddle out to the tender boats bring happy people to the island, yelling “Bula, welcome to Castaway Island”.

The girls even got to learn a Fijian dance and perform it at the weekly staff and guest pool party and Kava ceremony (which by the way tastes like warm dirt). They also got to watch hermit crab and frog races where the guests would buy one of the critters and would win the pot if their champion racer won. The kids loved it – Elise decided to sneak her hand up during the auction of one of the frogs and was very close to being the proud owner of a $91 frog named “Fiji”. Fortunately, or unfortunately, someone else bid after her and we were off the hook for shelling out $91 for the eventual winner of the race and the $251 pot. We could have used that cash to pay for all the ice cream and Banana Boat rides.

Because the weather was pretty unsettled, we only got one snorkel trip. Sophie and I went out on the dive boat with Tom and Sophia all suited up in short wetsuits. We went about 2km offshore and got dropped off at the outer reef, which sat only about 1m under the surface. It was very windy and choppy with waves breaking on the reef, so my main concern was holding on to Sophie and keeping close to the rest of the group. Her main concern was following fish and trying to dive after them with absolutely no care about how close or far she was from me.. So we wound our way along the reef, staying just along the edge of the most amazing coral I have ever seen – red, green, blue and every shape and size imaginable. So to my left is Sophie enthralled and screaming into her snorkel every time she spied neon blue fish or a “Nemo” and to my right is a 45ft deep blue drop-off. I could just make out the shapes of bigger things swimming along the wall below. After we got into the boat, Tom confirmed my suspicions that one of those bigger things was indeed a shark lying on the sand at the base of the drop-off. Good thing I didn’t believe my eyes while I was in the water.

The highlight of our time on Castaway (second only to the Banana Boat) was our passage from the island to the next resort on the mainland. We got a helicopter transfer which was absolutely spectacular as we flew low over all the cruising sailboats and coral reefs dotting the turquoise water. We touched down at the airport to refuel (both the helicopter and ourselves with yet another Fiji Bitter) and then continued the flight over the mountains. I wish I could have taken a video of this amazing and captivating flight, but I’m sure that I would not have been able to do the scenery justice.

So that wraps up the first half of our trip, which was truly made even more special by the amazing experiences that I watched the girls take on with gusto. From getting thrown from the Banana Boat and screaming for more, to singing and dancing in front of 200 people, to kayaking in turquoise waters, to jumping fearlessly from the boat in the middle of nowhere to explore the underwater world. You can’t put a price on those experiences and this is just the beginning of the trip. I am so proud of my girls – their excitement, wonder and fearless attitudes – we should all be so brave.

The next installment of our trip will be posted soon.

It's almost half over...

Hello everyone. I know it has been a very long time since I last updated this site. We are all fine and enjoying a beautiful Australian winter; it’s much like October in Victoria…crisp cool nights and mornings with very pleasant afternoons in the high teens or low twenties. It is beautiful here at this time of year now that everything is turning from dull brown to various shades of brilliant greens.

The girls continue to do very well in school and they embrace everything with gusto and a smile. Sophie is excelling in most of her subjects and Elise…well she continues to eat more at lunch than any of the other kids at Kindy. In fact, I think that she has taken it on as a personal challenge to out-eat all the other kids.

Dug is still very busy with work and often comes home quite late. The good side of working hard though, is playing hard and we are very much enjoying the sites and good times with the wonderful friends that we have made.

We took a trip to the south side of the city a couple of weeks ago and stayed in a little town called Pt. Willunga, outside of McLaren Vale. We had a great weekend with friends in a beach-side house. All the kids had a fantastic time, collecting seashells and rocks and the adults had a great time collecting wine!! Dug and I are heading back to the area next weekend for some more wine tasting and some R&R while the girls have a sleepover with friends.

We have started the official countdown to Fiji. We leave on July 4th for 2 weeks – 11 days in Fiji and 4 in Surfer’s Paradise. It will be just enough time to soak up some sun (and sand) and recoup a little from the daily grind. A stack of books and a bottle of Bombay Sapphire is all we’ll need.

My parents have just returned from their trip to Colombia to visit my brother, wife and son. They had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed the visit and what looks to be magnificent countryside. I have posted a few pictures for everyone to see at http://picasaweb.google.com/sdfoord/MomAndDadSTripToColumbia

Bye for now.

Exploring Victoria - the State

Well it’s about time that I get around to updating this blog as many people are reminding me that it is now sorely out of date. But I have an excuse – we just returned from an amazing 10-day trip through the southeast corner of South Australia over to Victoria where we drove the Great Ocean Road, went through the mountains and returned home. Because I can’t possibly do justice to most of the places with my own photos, I have added some links on this page so that you can all experience a little of what we saw.

So let’s get started. We left Adelaide for Mount Gambier to spend a few days with the parents of my friend Terriann. The beauty of the countryside continued to leave us dumbfounded as we wound our way through country roads to a farm belonging to one of her friends…where we were very warmly greeted by a giant man with huge paws for hands and one of the warmest smiles I have ever seen. Craig and his girlfriend treated us (6 adults and 6 girls aged 4 – 12) to lunch and a tour of the farm. The kids got to play with the farm dogs and ducklings, but the real treat was cuddling the baby guinea pigs. It is important to note at this point, that guinea pigs are considered a delicacy to some…and we kept the fate of the fuzzy little guys a secret from the girls as they snuggled them and named them all. As you can well imagine, at this point I was a little concerned about what in fact was being carved on the dinner table and asked Craig what I was about to eat – he motioned towards the field where I turned to see a flock of goats happily grazing.

After lunch, we got a tour of the sheep farm and the kids had a blast being herded by the dog (Pooch) and Craig who was manning the gates on the chute. The kids were running through the maze of fences and gates, working their way to the shearing shed – with dogs in hot pursuit. Anyways, it was a fabulous day and we said our goodbye’s and left for Mt. Gambier.

As we drove through the fields of sheep and cattle, set among the gum trees (a scene straight out of Thorn Birds) we saw our first wild kangaroos…the first of many on this trip. We arrived at the farm, again to the warmest of welcomes and greeted by the farm dog, “Mate”. We fell in love with this place, the apple orchards, the cow paddocks, the beautiful garden with chooks (chickens) wandering under the trees. We were treated to three days of cook-ups on the back veranda with all of the neighbours. We immensely enjoyed the farm experience…watching the 6 girls run around with what seemed like a whole pack of dogs at times. They got to feed the cows in the morning and Sophie and Elise got to bottle feed and 5-week old calf. They hunted for bugs and fed the chickens…spent 3 days tired and very dirty.

While in Mt Gambier, we spent a wonderful day in the Coonawarra - tasting (and buying) fabulous wines. Terriann had rented a bus and there were about 20 of us on it, enjoying the scenery and a lot of laughs. As you can well imagine, Dug I were the subject of many funny joke and our accents (didn’t know I had one?) continued to amuse all.

The next day, we went to the most amazing set of limestone caves nearby at a place called Naracoorte. They were unbelievable with the most amazing formations. The kids loved it. We even got to walk through a cave that is home to hibernating bats – even more interesting is that this cave was used for parties by the English in the early 1900’s. It even still has the signatures of kids who signed and dated their names with candles – one read “Kay, 1925”.

We then had to say our goodbyes and leave for the remainder of our trip as we headed south to cross over the Victoria border and drive to a beautiful seaside town of Port Fairy. It was stunning and we stayed in a house right on the beach. The girls and I went to collect shells and all Sophie said when we got down on to the sand was “this is shell heaven”. I think we will be bringing home an entire suitcase of seashells.

The day we left Port Fairy, we stopped at a park called Tower Hill, which is an extinct volcano. As you drive into it, the sides are thick jungle with grasslands forming the bottom. During some times, it is filled with water, but when we were there, it was a field, home to countless grazing emus. It was like stepping back in time…like the opening scenes of the Land that Time Forgot. We had a good time exploring the park, but the highlight had to be sharing lunch with a pair of pretty persistent emus. Sophie and I arrived back at the car a little later to join Dug and Elise for lunch…only to find that Elise had locked herself in the car as Dug was brandishing a stick, trying chase away the emus who were eying the contents of the cooler in our trunk. Wish I got a picture of that.

Then on to a place called Apollo Bay - along the way, we traveled the Great Ocean road, which is a narrow and windy coastal road with magnificent views of limestone sea stacks and sandy beaches - truly amazing.

We arrived at our cottage in Apollo Bay just as it was getting dark…deep in the temperate rainforest. We were greeted by a cacophony of what I can only describe as screeching coming from high in the trees. We had our suspicions of what might be calling out from the dense trees, and they were confirmed as I stepped on to the deck first thing in the morning and was greeted by several kookaburras. They all lined up on the railings of the deck, waiting for breakfast. Turns out that kookaburras want nothing to do with rice cakes – they much prefer bacon, stolen fresh off the BBQ. These birds were amazing and provided hours of fun for the kids as they got to pet them and feed them bacon crumbs.

The next 2 days were spent exploring the Otways – a National park that boasts giant redwoods, ash forests, waterfalls and towering ferns. It reminded me of Cathedral Grove – damp and smelling of earth and a freshly watered greenhouse. We visited a place called the Otway Fly. This attraction is a steel walkway suspended 25m above the ground that wound through the rainforest giving a birds-eye view of the trees and ferns below. To get to the walkway, we wound through rainforest trails amidst 10ft high tree ferns along a path called Dinosaur Trail – hidden through the underbrush dotted along the path were life-size and very realistic dinosaur models. The kids were in heaven. We eventually got to the Fly, and even with my fear of heights, I was spellbound. However, we did eventually come to the main attraction – a 47m high tower and an arm of the walkway that swung like a pendulum. This is were I declined further exploration and had to watch the rest of my family climb 47m into the air with great enthusiasm while I clung to the base of the tower too scared to look up or down.

After this truly astounding morning, we made our way back to the coast to the Cape Otway Lighthouse. Given the “high” morning we had, I declined the climb up the lighthouse that sat on an 80m cliff edge. Of course, Dug and girls thought it was great. We have come to the conclusion that Elise has not fear at all and likely will spend her youth hurtling down a mountain on a snowboard!

Sadly, we left Apollo Bay and continued along the Great Ocean Road to the next amazingly beautiful town called Lorne. This is a little seaside town, famous for its surfing. We only had one night here, but could have stayed a week. We had a magnificent apartment across the road from the beach where we could watch the surfers. Even more incredible though, was the flock of visitors that we had as we sat on the deck enjoying a morning coffee – a flock of cockatoos that ate banana chips from the girls’ hands. These birds are so beautiful and big, much bigger than their pet-store cousins that we see at home.

Now off to the mountains. We sadly left the beaches and coast road for the Grampians – a mountain range near the Victoria/SA border. Of course, we had to pass though another wine region (and cellar doors) on the way!! We wound our way through the narrow and windy mountain roads to arrive at our last stop – a cottage in a little valley in the middle of a 1000 acre horse ranch. It was absolutely exquisite, totally private and nestled in among the gum trees with kangaroos at the edge of the clearing. We were again greeted by the farm dog – Sally, a border collie that led us on walks through the forest, leaving our sides only to be called in for dinner. This was truly a happy place of solitude and relaxation. We spent the next days exploring the rugged mountains, lunching with kangaroos and exploring the ranch. We celebrated the last night of our trip with a cheeky bottle of Rosé (yes, Dug drank Rosé) and a campfire, complete with marshmallows.

Sadly, we left our little piece of paradise, eager to return as soon as we can.

From the Mouths of Babes

Well this was bound to happen - the girls have adopted some Aussie lingo and are very comfortable in the usage of many of these gems. Before I continue with the next anecdote, the following translations will add to the humour of the story:

Stubbie - a beer
Mate - buddy, pal, comrade, friend, acquaintance, anyone really

Anyways, now to the story...the girls were eating dinner last night and Dug and I were puttering in the kitchen when Elise pipes up (completely out of the blue): "Duggie, can you get me a stubbie, mate and pass me the remote". Once Dug and I picked ourselves up off the floor from laughing so hard, we almost did get her one, just because she was so earnest.

Next funny Elise story - she is going to be really mad when she finds out that the entire world can read these stories. The girls are pretty obsessed with making "nature houses". These are plastic tupperware containers that they fill with rocks and dirt and leaves to attract various wild critters to come and live in them. There are currently 5 of them in the back yard. Anyways, back to my story. I was home with Elise this afternoon and she was busy making a nature house out of a sandwich container. This house was intended to hold her pet lizard called "lizzy" - it is important to note that we don't have a lizard named "Lizzy". So Elise was out catching ants for Lizzy and in spite of my insistence, was bringing them inside to put in the nature house. In she comes - ant in each hand - good sized ones clenched tightly between thumb and forefinger...when she starts to yell - "they're biting me - they're biting me!" She starts to cry, very loudly, still yelling that she is being bitten. So here's the scene...Elise is crying and screaming, the dog is going crazy in the commotion, and there are ants now dropping out of the container all over the kitchen floor. It was like "Wild Kingdom" - beasts locked in a battle of survival. Elise was in pain, but determined to keep these ants tightly clenched in her hands. I'm sure they did not appreciate the humour of the situation or maybe had some insight into the fact that if they survived the squeezing, they were going to be fed to a non-existent lizard called "lizzy". Regardless it was funny - Elise was holding on out of pure stubbornness and the ants holding on for dear life. The ants finally won and Elise dropped them and then promptly squished them both.

My time here has taught me to appreciate the small things in life...

It's Raining...finally

Well the title speaks for itself - it has finally cooled down and we woke up to rain yesterday. It's not "sideways, driving, wet-to-the bone Victoria rain", but at least it's a little rain. I know, I know...there's no sympathy from the BC crowd who have started growing mushrooms between the toes and are sprouting gills, but trust me, extraordinary unrelenting heat and unrelenting rain are pretty close together on the continuum of miserable weather.

We had a nice Easter weekend. We even got a visit from the Easter Bilby - see http://www.easterbilby.com.au/. The bilby is a rabbit-sized endangered marsupial that has been adopted as part of the Easter tradition and many chocolates are in the shape of a bilby. Anyways, the girls were thrilled to find out that the Easter Bilby and Easter Bunny had both found their way to our house here and delivered a treasure of hidden chocolates.

We took a trip out to the Barossa Valley on Saturday with some friends. They took us to the Whispering Wall, which is a dam that has such incredible acoustics that if you whisper against the concrete on one side, your words can be heard perfectly on the other side...140m away! It was pretty neat. In this picture, you can barely see Dug and the girls on the other side talking to friends standing just underneath me.

Then on to the wineries!! We went to McGuigans, then carried on to one of our favourites - Torbrek (Malcolm - thanks for the introduction to this one). Absolutely fantastic!! It was hard to wipe the smile from Dug's face as we got to taste some of the best wine ever.

We continued our weekend with a trip into the Adelaide Hills - a beautiful countryside full of winding roads and charming little towns. Speaking of winding roads...we have come to the conclusion that this part of the world is host to some of the most dangerous and rudest drivers we have ever come across. I'm sure that many Australians are excellent, safe drivers, but you can be sure that 1 in 4 tailgate incessantly, speed, refuse to allow anyone in front and are generally nasty behind the wheel. My apologies to any Aussies who belong in the category of good drivers. But you have to admit that you take your life in your hands, especially on the country roads which are barely wide enough for 2 cars, no divider and have speed limits of 80km/hr! Dug is an excellent driver and he was visibly rattled by the flagrant display of machismo and arrogance by people thinking that they belong on a Formula 1 race course.

We carried on to another wildlife park and I have to again be negative about his experience. At many of the wildlife parks, visitors can purchase food for the animals - this is typically pellets that look very similar to rabbit food. At this place, visitors had the choice of peanuts or COOKIES!! Or if you didn't want to purchase food, I was told at the front desk that we could feed the animals whatever we wanted, with the exception of the otters - they were on a diet because they were getting too fat. I was shocked and absolutely appalled to see people feeding these poor animals cookies and Cheetos and whatever crappy junk food they had with them. It was heartbreaking to see people throwing cookies and potato chips at sad looking monkeys and droopy eyed dingos - it was kind of like charging admission to a dump so that people can watch once-majestic bears eat garbage. Anyways, we won't be going back there...

Our Easter weekend finished off on a high note at a brewery, for a fantastic plate of antipasto/ploughmans lunch and a cold beer. They sell their beer in 2l jugs with handles, that you can bring back for cheap refills. Brilliant!! You can't imagine how happy Dug was leaving the brewery with a belly full of meat and cheese and a jug of beer in hand!

Hot, hot, hot.

Well, first of all, I'm sure that many of you have heard about Adelaide's record heatwave. If you haven't, we're in the middle of record hot weather - day 9 of high 30's. This breaks the previous 8-day record set in 1934 and according to the forecast, we are in for the same temperatures until early next week. Apparently, March is supposed to have an average temperature of 26 degrees...we would enjoy some of that right now. We are getting used to the hot days, but it's the hot nights (with less than stellar AC in the house) that is tough. Too bad we couldn't refit our water cooler to run ice cold beer instead!!

Anyways, back to our adventures...we went to Belair National Park last weekend for a quick run outside before it got too hot. What a beautiful place. While the kids were playing on a big playground with a fort and underground tunnels, I was bird-watching. We looked up to see 3 kookaburras sitting in the tree, not the least bit concerned for my presence. I couldn't snap pictures fast enough. I then moved around the tree a little and to my amazement, saw 2 tawny frogmouths sitting on another branch. You probably haven't heard about them - they are nocturnal owl-like birds that look like branches when they sit in the tree. Needless to say, I did not manage to get a picture of these, but the park warden said that we were very lucky to have seen them as they are quite a rare site. We then walked around a small lake nearby. The bird life continued to amaze us - we could have watched for hours...if it wasn't so hot.

For any of you who are interested in birds, I have uploaded a bird photo album (pics that I have copied from other websites) onto the blog that chronicles the birds that we have seen to date in the wild. I'll keep this updated as we see more.

Till next time.

Continuing our travels

We took a little day trip to Glenelg, which really is a southern suburb of Adelaide only about 30 minutes drive from us. What a spectacular place - just beautiful. It' right on the beach...a little resort town full of neat restaurants and shops. It's a busy place with lots going on - buskers, camel rides on the beach(??), an amusement park for the kids.

The highlight of Glenelg though was the Rodney Fox Shark Museum - filled with pictures and memorabilia of his 40-year relationship with great whites. If you don't know who he is, the short story is that he's the once abalone diver who was attacked by a great white (I'm sure you've seen the famous pictures of his wound) who now dedicates his life to protecting them. He has been featured in National Geographic is is known all over the world - read about him at http://www.rodneyfox.com.au/. Just in case you're interested, go to that site and see some of the pictures in the Gallery that were taken during his Port Lincoln shark diving expeditions (I mentioned these in the last posting). Anyways, back to Glenelg...we arrive at the front desk to pay our admission to the museum and I am asked by a very nice lady (who realized that we were foreigners) what brought us there. I told that I knew the story of Rodney Fox and had seen many of his documentaries and admired his work. She said something like..."well you can tell him yourself" and he steps out from behind the counter. Turns out she is is wife and we had a lovely chat - it was a real honor to meet him.

On to the next adventure - we had our first encounter with an Australian beastie of the creepy crawlie sort. I was up late by myself and was just locking the doors. All the lights were out, except for the TV and as I walked through the kitchen (in my bare feet), I caught something out of the corner of my eye on the floor. I thought is was a lizard, realized it wasn't and thought that maybe it was a small snake. At that point, I had the good sense to back up and turn on a light. Turns out the bugs here are BIG, really freakin' BIG. It was a fine specimen of the Giant Australian Centipede and before you click on this link, keep in mind that this thing was about 5" long and the body (not including the legs) as thick as my index finger http://images.zacharoo.com/animals/centipede/centipede.html. Anyways, me being me, I captured it under a plastic container for the night so that I could show everyone else my find in the morning. Dug was not nearly as enthusiastic about it as the girls were, but the girls and I had a Free Willy moment and let it go in the garden. I have also learned a very valuable lesson - to shut the doors before it gets dark and wear slippers.

Southwest Australia - the Odyssey

Well we have just returned from our first roadtrip. We decided to explore a little town called Port Lincoln - a town that is famous for tuna and great white sharks. They actually do offshore tours at this place where people pay money to get thrown in a shark cage for an up close and personal experience.
We visited Lincoln National Park, which surprised us by being so remote while only a few kilometres outside of town. Much of the park was inaccessible due to poor roads which was a bit shocking considering the state of the good roads. At one point, we were greeted by a sign that read "road ends in 500m", then "road ends in 250m". Needless to say, we were more than a little curious to find out why the road ended - was there a reason why it needed to end and if so what would it be? Well, as we came over a very small rise, we indeed came to the end of the road - literally and figuratively. We found ourselves upon the end of Australia and the start of the open Southern Ocean - with rugged rocks and crashing waves rivalling the roughest of BC's coastline. It was spectacular and the picture doesn't even come close to doing the scenery justice.

We then carried on to the other side of the park and found a secluded beach - we were the only ones on it. The girls were in their glory looking for shells.

The day we left ,we stopped at a wildlife park to feed some beasties. I must add in here that 5 weeks into this trip, we have yet to see a kangaroo outside of a park...except of course prone by the side of the road. The birds were amazing, flocking all around us and landing on our heads and in our laps, under our feet. Elise's experience with the magpie goose a few weeks back made her keep her distance from the birds - I don't blame her because they nipped when the food didn't come fast enough. Unfortunately, my camera batteries ran out before I could snap any more pictures and I missed capturing one of the funniest sights yet...a big wombat fast asleep on its back with its stubby little piggy legs straight up in the air. I thought is was dead until it scratched it's little wombat parts with its stubby piggy foot.

Til next time...

A quick update

Well it’s about time that I got around to updating this site with what has been happening since we arrived. It’s hard to believe that we have been here for a month already!

So where to start…the girls have started school and are loving it. Sophie is in a grade 2/3 split and has settled in to an English class no problem. She even got a perfect score on her second spelling test. “Bravo”…or shall I saw “well done” instead. Sophie has made lots of friends and is really enjoying taking recorder lessons. She starts gymnastics next week.

Elise is fully engrained in Kindy now – she goes to school Monday and Wednesday mornings and Tuesday and Thursday from 9 – 3. They serve snacks and hot lunches from the kitchen within the Kindy. When I asked Elise what she had for lunch last Thursday, she replied with “I had 3 cheese and soy sauce sandwiches”. Very puzzled, I asked the lady in the kitchen the next day, she cleared it up for us – they were cheese and vegemite!!

I have fully embraced gardening the Aussie way. This means trying to keep plants alive with no rain and very strict watering restrictions…like watering once a week. What this means is that we have to conserve all gray water from dishes, laundry and baths to then carry it bucket by bucket to the garden. I am starting to get a nice green lawn and I have bought tones of flowers and pots to add some colour to the yard. Just to keep them alive, I have to water twice a day when it’s really hot. But the good news is that I have lots of gazanias, hibiscus, oleanders, vincas (like impatiens), mandevillas and even a frangipani (plumeria).

The people that we have met here are fantastic. They are so warm and kind and have embraced “the foreigners” and all of our strange customs and words like we are family. They all want to share their homes, their dinner tables and fantastic bottles of wine. The incredible people more than make up for the unbelievable take your breath away 39 degree heat.

Well, have to sign off for now.

We made it!

Well, we have arrived and settled in. It was a long trip to get here, but the girls were troopers. For anyone looking to make your way to Australia, Singapore Airlines is definitely the way to fly - now if only they had flights from Victoria to PG!!

Singapore was a great place to stop over before the next leg of our journey...it's very beautiful and clean, but very humid. We spent the day at the zoo and the girls got to see animals that they have never seen in person before. The highlight was walking through the "biodome" and coming literally face-to-face with huge fruit bats and a troop of lemurs.

We arrived in Adelaide the next day to find it hot and dry...looking very similar to Kamloops in the middle of summer...of course with the exception of the gum trees and exotic birds. It took us a few days to unpack and get settled and then venture out to try to find our way around the city.

We visited a wildlife park on the weekend and the kids got to feed some Australian beasties - kangaroos, wallabies, potaroos (big pointy nosed rat-like marsupials) and emus. Take a look at http://livingtravel.com/australia/southaustralia/ClelandNationalPark/cleland_1.htm to see some pictures of strange animals that we got to see up close. So close in fact that Elise got chased and bitten by a very large Magpie Goose. The kangaroos were lovely, they were lounging all over the park, sometimes not even getting up to take food and accept a scratch. it was quite the day for all of us, experiencing face-to-face (literally) encounters with big red kangaroos and emus.

The girls have now had a week of school and are loving it. Elise has settled right into "Kindy" without a bit of concern and both girls have already made some friends. Dug is enjoying work and even got out for a sail this week. We have met some wonderful people who have made us feel very welcome.

Well, I'm off...Elise is asking for another "meat and mayomase" sandwich.

How far away is Australia?

I'm sure that you have all heard that we are leaving the cold and rainy shores of Victoria on Jan 19th for sun, sand and Vegemite in Adelaide. It's just for a year and I'm sure it will fly by, but now that it's so close, I think we are all a little nervous.

We are frantically trying to box up and store our personal belongings, purge what we can and pack all of our summer clothes into our luggage. I am only supposed to be taking 5 pairs of shoes, but I have managed to stow away a few more - I made extra room by taking out some of Dug's sailing gear. By the time he notices, we'll be there already.

The girls are very excited, but now have realized the enormity of leaving all of their friends and family. They are most excited to see the Australian wildlife - especially kangaroos and the elusive duck billed platypus.

I have been trying to work myself up to the 27 hr plane trip to get there. It's 11 hrs to Seoul, then another 8 to Singapore and a final leg of 8 hrs to Adelaide. We do get a 24 hr stopover in Singapore to stretch our legs and shake some of the jetlag, but I think it will take an entire year to get over the flight and prepare myself for the return home!

While we are going to miss our friends and families tremendously, it's going to be a huge adventure for all of us and a great opportunity to discover a part of the world that we may not have otherwise ever seen.