Family Comes to Visit!

Welcome to Australia Barbara and Natalie!! Pat's mom from Corvallis and our niece from Portland came to stay for a week after touring central Australia and the Great Barrier Reef. Finally, people who speak like us! It was great to see them, hear family news, and share some of our experiences here with them.

Pat met them in Sydney when they first arrived and they were able to tour the Blue Mountains outside the city for a day. His pictures tell the story of their first encounters with the local wildlife!

From there he came back and they flew up to Alice Springs to see Ulluru, or The Rock. Natalie says she could move there tomorrow and live forever. They stayed in Youth Hostels and day tripped as much as they could in the short time they were there. They learned what we're learning - that there is way more to see than anyone has time for! And this country is spread OUT. Could you ever plan to see all of the U.S. in 3 weeks? Or even a year? But we're all trying to do this with Australia, even though it's the same size. So, we've learned to scale back and prioritize and we're trying to help our friends and family do the same. It's hard to do!!

Once in Cairns on the Reef, they toured on boats for some snorkeling and sea turtle viewing. How cool is that??

We met them at the train station and brought them back to humble little Urunga. They tried the surf one day, came to Macksville to meet the kids one day, and visited the local rainforest and fossiking region, too. We ended with a Mother's Day dinner at the pub (where else do you think we would have taken them??) for fish and chips and more chips. Also that night was a huge rugby game, so we watched for awhile on the big screen before coming home. Ouch, is all I can say. That game, and especially on a large screen, is just painful! But "very Australian."

They are our second visitors from home, and the second folks to say, "We'll be back!"

Picture this:

I love moments like this, when I'm doing something like I might do in Oregon, but the scene is so Australian! Duh, right? But it's just so much fun. I'll share the one that happened yesterday.

It's a colleague's birthday, so we'll all go for a coffee or glass of wine after work at the local bar. Could happen in Albany, and has, right? But here, we meet at the Star Hotel, the ancient, beautiful pub/hotel right on the river in Macksville, population 20,000, working-class town.

We pull right up in front to park about 4:15. We walk in past 6 to 7 very Australian (as my dad would say, "It's like being pregnant; you either are or you aren't; you're never 'very' pregnant.") men having their pints of beer on the veranda. They're talking nonstop with their thick, Aussie accents as we pass through. I order something from the long bar after two older men have bought their lotto ticket games from the woman bartender. A woman enters pushing her stroller the holds two kids to find someone she's meeting here. The bartender calls me "Love" and "Darlin'" as she gives me change and directs me to the water spiggett. I just smiled to myself as I walked back out through the tall doors with the brass nobs. My car pool buddies are sitting outside like it's another day, another dollar. And I feel like I'm in a movie.

May Showers Bring Autumn??

One of the weirdest things about being here is that the seasons are not what we think they will be. That is, May is here, and that means spring flowers, warm weather coming, school's almost out for summer, and there is light at the end of the dark, wet, cold, Oregon winter!!

But no! The pumpkins are ripe, the oranges and mandarins are coming into season, no strawberries anywhere, leaves are falling off the trees (okay, not around here, but if you drive up to the hills . . .), and people are dressing in black sweaters!!

And school is not out for summer! Hmmm. Ross and I have seven more months to go before school's out! But we're not complaining. After our grand two weeks in April traveling in New Zealand, and another two weeks coming in July, we're not complaining. Just rethinking our seasonal clocks!

The weather is cooler. I now put on a sweater in the morning. The sun is gorgeous most days, but it's cool at night. The pool is too cold to really swim in now. But it's the perfect temperature for hiking.

Speaking of the pumpkins, they are not the same as our orange jack o lanterns at home. They are green and striped and smaller. They are used in cooking quite a bit, and it's common to have them roasted on a salad or tossed into pasta. I now make pumpkin soup every few weeks, but the guys won't touch it. I bring it for lunch and love it! I'll add a blog soon about food here. As much as we miss enchiladas (I have yet to find sauce, although, I guess I could learn to make it from scratch), we love the yogurt here and the sausages. Ahhh! More later!

Never saw no stinkin' penguins.

In line at the airport to come back to Australia, a group of American college students here on exchange for a term were in front of us talking about their past two weeks touring New Zealand. One girl was exclaiming, "Yea, so last night we watched the penguins come up out of the ocean onto the shore. They were sooo cute, and they just waddled up and came to their little nests. We all just watched and it was so great!!" Ross quietly says to me in line, "How jealous are you right now, Mom?"

Well, I will be back! In fact, we may get to see the penguins come ashore next month on the south coast here. For now I can only be jealous.

"That is a nice boulder."

Just up the road from Fleur's are the Moeraki Boulders. These are large, perfectly round rocks that sit in the sand and have for quite some time. They were shaped as pearls are, once upon a time, with the earth all around them. Now the earth has eroded and the pearl boulders are left for us to climb on and photograph. No penguins here, but cool rocks, nonetheless.

Urunga is so small. How small is it?

A quick side note before I go on and on and on about our amazing trip to New Zealand: The stores here close at 5:30. Maybe even 5. One of our friends here said, "We have late-night shopping on Thursdays! They stay open till 8! Do you have that in the states?" Awww.

A great little restaurant

We left Dunedin on our way north back to Christchurch. We stopped at Fleur's in Moeraki. Okay, I could live here. And hike at Otago Peninsula. And eat at Fleur's every day. It was recommended to us by our rafting buddies in Queenstown, two bungy jumps and a lot of chocolate and kilometres ago. We had to try it. Fleur is a colorful individual who runs this quaint, perfect eatery on the water in the smallest fishing village around. She gets up from her desk at one of the first tables in the door to seat you and take your order in her silver-tipped cowboy boots and bleach-blond hair. The fish was caught that morning by a local and filleted by the chef out on the front patio while Pat watched and chatted. We loved the decor, the food, and the vibe. And the food.

Tramping on the Peninsula

We went in search of penguins that are said to come ashore at dusk. We did find sea lions and beautiful birds. And we hiked. We started out through a farmer's pasture and ended at the ocean in time to see a sea lion snoozing on the sand. No people. All along the shore there are farmlands and remote houses perched up on the hillsides. I took 100 pictures every other curve in the road. Fortunately Ross didn't jump from the car in exasperation! And Pat is very patient, too! They humored me by taking the first trek, and listened while I oohed and ahhed at every view (which is mostly the same - ocean, ocean, and more hillside with ocean!). Without offering to stop at the next trek, they let me entertain the idea of coming back someday to take each one. I really was obsessed. It was wonderful.

But still no penguins.

How Much Farther?

We road tripped off to Dunedin after our tour on the water out to the Tasman Sea. More beautiful scenery. We landed at a great old (haunted) youth hostel and tucked in for the night. The city is not special in my mind, just larger than I like and more of a port town than charming city. It came highly recommended, so I tried to keep an open mind.

The youth hostel was an old brick building with many little hallways and nooks to explore. The TV room was in the basement down an old rickety staircase, and in another cubby for $10 you could rent the claw-foot bathtub/bathroom for a cozy soak complete with candles and bath salts. Our room had three walls of windows (not bad for a tiny room!) big fluffy doonas, which was good because we were cold! New Zealand's weather mirrors Oregon's, so we felt at home - and cold!

We toured the Cadbury Factory which awarded us with a pocketful each of Easter leftover chocolates. We fell in love with Jaffas, orange flavored M&Ms. Yum. Not fans of Pineapple Lumps. Is it the name? Well, they taste like banana, so that could be it, too. We were shown a silo that has been transformed into a tourist gimic. We climbed a staircase that circled a very very large vat. "Don't touch the railings, ladies and gentlemen, they are covered with chocolate." Picture Ross right now. Then, at the push of a button, the guide opened the vat and melted chocolate poured out into a trough below by the gallons, sure enough, spattering more onto the coated railings. It was then piped up back into the vat to be ready for the next tour. I foolishly asked (but I was sincere!) what this represented. The guide told me, "Nothing. We do it because we can!" Silly me.

Then we went on a sea lion and penguin hunt.

Fiord Land!

So, I survived both of their bungy jumps miraculously enough. We drove on to Milford Sound, famous for it's beautiful waterways through the fiords. They get 9 metres of rain per year. So, it was raining. The good news is, when it rains cats and dogs, which is WAS, there are waterfalls EV-ER-Y-where. It started with, "Ooh, look at the waterfall, Mom!" Then it was, "Ooh, there's another one, Ross!" "Diantha, there's two over there." Then we just quit talking and gazed out the windows in amazement. We counted over 21 on one mountainside area alone. We're told when the rain stops, within 20 the waterfalls are gone. We did not get to see that.

We stayed in a lodge at the base of the mountains and the entrance to the fiords. It was dark. It was damp. It was pouring. Our bunkhouse was a mixed dorm for 7 people. That night it held four American college kids from the east coast hoping to trek for 3 days if it stopped raining, which it did not, and us. I was at the car when Pat and Ross met them just moving into the room, too. The boys were being polite, asking where we wanted our beds. "I don't know," says Pat. "I'll ask my wife." He says the boys just looked at each other. When I walked in they were all staring at me. Well. We chose our beds and bunked down, me and all the guys! Let's just say, I don't remember such a stench growing up with two sisters.

The next morning we boarded our tour boat for two hours on the sound. Fantastic. Soaking wet, freezing cold, and fantastic. We saw seals on the rocks, but it was not dolphin season, apparently.

Our drive after took us out of the sound and over to the east coast to Dunedin, home of, among other things, the Cadbury chocolate factory. Yes!

It's the Re-al Thing

You can buy rum drinks in a glass coke bottle here.

Queenstown Bungee Jumping

We arrived in Queenstown, the adrenaline capital of the world, and definitely the best town of the trip. The fam ventured to the bungee jumping bridge where we watched many jumpers make the leap. After we left the bridge I decided that I was bungee jumping and Pat was coming with me. The next day we went back to bridge for the second time in twenty-four hours. We went and got our order numbers and headed to the line forming on the bridge. It finally came turn for Pat and I to get suited up. I, being the man, went first. I gave the card to the guy and he went to go setup some pulleys. He came back after a few minutes and asked for my card, I told him that I had already given it to him and he replied "Oh, I must have forgot because I'm drunk." With those reassuring words I was strapped in and edging myself to the Ledge of Doom. I stared down 150 feet and muttered Oh My God. My instructor laughed and repeated OMG. He told me to wave to the cameras and counted down saying good bye as he reached zero. I just hopped off and prayed I didn't die. During the fall you reach euphoria, the peak is right before the bungee comes into play. In the middle of the air you are falling for so long that you can have thoughts running through your mind. I realized that i had jumped feet first on accident so that I will be doing a front flip in the near future. Said front flip occurred in mid air and I was completely disoriented as I dangled in mid air being lowered to the boat with possibly the two most hilarious Kiwis of all time. I got out of the boat and turned around just in time to see Pat take the leap, scream his head off, and check his pants to make sure that he hadn't pissed himself. It was a good day and a good send off from Queenstown, at the end I was seriously contemplating redoing my jump in order to do it correctly. Another time however, this is not the last time Queenstown will see me.
Ross out