Merry Christmas from Australia!

No chance of a white Christmas here, rather it is 17 degrees and sunny. It was a quiet Christmas morning for us - pancake breakfast, reading books, and uploading photos. We now have basically all of our photos onto the computer, sorted through, and uploaded onto the internet. They are available here.

To hear an Australian version of Jingle Bells, click here (Holden: Australian version of chevy, Ute: a mix between a car and a truck, Eskie: cooler, Kelpie: Australian shepherd dog).

Returns

It feels like it has been forever since we last posted. We returned to Melbourne, to meet up with Jessica's friend Amy who was flying in after a trip to Africa. We stayed at a wonderful caravan park (read: campground) North of Melbourne, which ended up costing only slightly less than the hostel we lasted stayed at in Melbourne. On the other hand we didn't have to pay as much for parking, and the facilities were exceptionally clean. We visited the Melbourne Museum which was enjoyable (and free) but overall unremarkable, but we still did not manage to get to the Immigration museum or the Ian Potter National Gallery, which we have been intending to do.

We met up for coffee with Amy in Fitzroy, Melbourne's oldest suburb. We hadn't managed to make it into Fitzroy yet, but were glad we did. We found great used book store to stock up on books (we spend a great deal of time reading), had lunch at an amazing vegetarian restaurant, and returned at night for some live music - Fitzroy is a hub for Melbourne's live music scene.

After three days back in Melbourne, we decided to return to Wilson's Promontory National Park for a couple more nights camping. We hiked over to Oberon bay, and did some short walks down to Whiskey Beach and Picnic Bay as well. We enjoyed "the prom" as much this time as on our last trip, but the flies seemed to be worse this time, especially on our hikes. Eventually we will have some great pictures to share from here.

Unfortunately, our relaxing time in the prom had to come to an end, and we returned to Sale, where we signed the lease for our new 3 bedroom house. Even though it is much larger than we need, it ended up being much nicer than the other options in the same price range. The house wasn't cleaned before the last tenants moved out, so our first day was spent trying to bring it up to our standards. We spent one night in the house, which was a nice change from the tent, especially with the stormy, rainy, weather. However, the electricity cannot be hooked up until after Chrissy (read: Christmas), so we will be spending the next week or so in Maffra, thanks to Steve's boss.

Steve is still trying to sort out the paperwork needed to practice in Australia - insurance quotations started at $12,500 for the year, but thanks to some advice from colleagues other sources which are up to 4 times cheaper have been found, but some require membership to Chiropractic associations - which means more paperwork. Registration with the State is also needed, but they are closed for Chrissy until the middle of January, so work will have to wait until then for Steve.

A few more photos have been uploaded to the address in the last post, and we will try and get some more added when we can

More Pictures

Check out this address for pictures - http://www.flickr.com/photos/54632595@N00/

Hopefully that works!

Also, see the ads on our blog? Aren't they pretty? They help us fund our trip. So far, we've made $5!

Forest Fires, Job Offers and Apartment Hunting

To sum up the past 7 days in five words or less, it's been exhilerating, relaxing/buggy and (finally) stressfilled.

Going back to the beginning, we spent 3 wonderful nights in Wilson's Promontory National Park. A wonderful big park with many hikes and hills and beaches. We got to play in the surf on a (nearly) deserted beach. We hiked up Mt Oberon (really only half way up, to be honest, as you *have* to drive up the first half). We saw wombats - a baby, a mom and a deviant one who tried to break into our neighbours tent - and bushy tailed possums and many wonderfully coloured birds. On our third morning in Wilson's Prom, we woke up to rain. All to familiar with the annoyances of a wet tent, we packed up as quickly as possibly so as to escape before the tent was soaked. While packing up, there was simultaneously a flash of lightening and a crack of thunder and next thing we noticed, a black plume of smoke was rising over the forest just north of us. Wilson's Prom, you should remember, has a history of devastating forest fires, so we were understandably worried, packing faster in the hopes of escaping the wildfire. We were assured on our way out the fire was in fact under control and nothing to worry about, however, retrospectively we're glad we left as for days later we heard news the fire was still burning in Wilson's Prom!

The next couple of days I've labelled relaxing/buggy, however don't be misled as buggy is in no way relaxing. The relaxing, pathetically, went on inside our car where the bugs were reluctant to venture. We camped for free along 90 Mile Beach, where there wasn't much more to do than read books and walk along the beach. You aren't even really supposed to swim along the beach as it is no monitored by the lifesavers.

Last night, Steve signed his contract. Though he's now (theorectically) gainfully employed, he's still got the headache of registering with the board, getting insurance, etc. We've also got to find ourselves a place to live and as we're trying to find the cheapest place possible, the pickings are slim. We visited one unit with a loft bedroom and another more conventional one bedroom unit. On Thursday we are going to visit a 3 bedroom house. Our trouble aside, the craziest, most mind blowing aspect of the whole experience was one we learned apartments are not rented with fridges in Australia! Furthermore, if they advertise a house with laundary it doesn't actually mean there is a washer and dryer, rather a sink and a space where you could put the washer and dryer if you were rich enough to own one.

Road Trip!

We have a new travel companion, Mick. He's only 16, but he has traveled a heck of a lot of Australia (300,000 km or so) and will be travelling a bunch more with us. So far we've we've travelled over a thousand kilometres up and down the Great Ocean Road in our new (ie 16 yr old), shiny (now dusty), red ford laser (Mick). We (or at least Steve since I can't drive manual yet) have pushed Mick to his limits on 4WD dirt tracks and curvy ocean roads and we've come out alive, so that's a good sign.

We started out our road trip in Torquay - surf capital of Australia. Did some window shopping in Roxy, Billabong, Rip Curl and so on. Visited the Surf Museum and were awed by the number and variety of surf boards that have been constructed over the years. Imagine surfing on a 18 foot, wood board. It's kind of insane. Of course we actually had to try surfing ourselves. Steve is an old pro, however it was my first time so we took a lesson. I had fun, though it's really hard and definitely takes more than 2 hours to learn. Hopefully we'll get out a number of more times this summer so that I can get better.

From Torquay we continued on down the Great Ocean Road (built after the first world war by returning service men for those who are interested). We camped two nights for free in a Scout Camp (Steve lied and said he was still a Scout leader - bad Steve). We did some bush walks around there and were terrorized by flies . (They don't bite, but are wicked annoying.) We drove farther, visited waterfalls, saw echinas in the wild (wiki it if you don't know what one is), did a treetop walk, camped for a couple nights in Otway national park, saw the 12 apostlees and other geologic formations, survived a thundstorm in our tent, then finally drove back the way we came, past Melbourne ending up on Philips Island where we are now.

Last night we went out to watch the "Penguin Parade". The "Penguin Parade", happening every night around dusk, is the return of a 800 strong penguin colony from the ocean where they feed to the beach/dunes where they social, mate and sleep it off. They are the funniest little penguins - only about a foot tall but sooo noisy.

Today we're planning on heading east towards Wilson's Prom, another national park. It is a fine, sunny day, so perfect for spending in a car! Yay road trip!

Another week has passed us by.

We rented a car and spent a couple of days in the small towns of East Gippsland where there is a chiropractic office looking for an associated. The towns in the regions are all quite small (3000, 10 000, 20 000) but for some reason seem to lack small town charm. We did however experience some native wildlife - a herd kangaroos hopped in front of our car and flocks of cockatoos flew overhead. We also tried to go to the beach but, like usual, it was raining.

Friday we went to the Melbourne Aquarium which was nice, but not as good at the Vancouver Aquarium (which we went to a few months back). In the evening we walked to St. Kilda pier and saw the Port Philip Bay little penguin colony - they come out of the sea at night and hide in the rocks of the breakwater. We also saw many water rat swimming around by the pier. (The rats were cuter than you might imagine, not creepy like most rats.) On our walk back home we walked though Luna Park, a local amusement park. It was strangely empty.

Melbourne and?

It has officially been two weeks here in Australia, and we now have the hot weather we wanted when we were up at the beaches in Sydney. It was forecasted to be 37 degrees today. I wrote my Australasian board exams on Friday and Saturday, which were ok other than an interrogation of knowledge and practice by a panel of 4 Australian chiropractors - nervewracking!

With all of the studying for the exam, we did not tour melbourne much, other than walking through Fitzroy Gardens, the treasury gardens and JFK memorial, and through downtown (the "CBD"), bourke street mall and chinatown. So on saturday night we ventured ino St. Kilda, which used to be a seaside resort. It is now one of the city's livliest areas, with stylish restaurants and bars. We stopped for tapas before heading to the famour St. Kilda's cake shops (Thanks John, for the recommendation), and then met up with 2 former CMCC students at Red Eye, a night club that is part of a hostel (quiet night's sleep?). Yesterday we visited New York Tomato, a restaurant built into the back patio of a townhouse unit near our hostel, and then took the train to go look at some cars we were thinking about buying - but no luck yet. Today we visited the old melbourne gaol, built in 1841 and the site of the hanging of Ned Kelly as well as over 100 other prisoners. Next up, we're heading towards Lakes Entrance for a few days, and then back to melbourne.

Four Days in Sydney, Finally in Melbourne

After hours of sitting, on Sunday morning, we finally arrived at the Sydney airport. We ended up stuck up in the air for about 3 hours longer than originally projected, including an "emergency" refueling stop in Samoa. This meant, instead of spending 4 hours in the Fiji airport we spent less than one, and, as a result, having no time or oppurtunity to browse the duty free stores. The plane from Fiji to Sydney was an impressive double decker plane - it must have held hundreds of people, half of them sporting those corn row braids you get at any tropical destination.

We breezed through customs in Sydney, found the subway (also double decker!) into the city only to discover it cost an outrageous $14 per person! (And this was only the beginning of the revelation that everything really does cost more in Australia.) It took about an hour (and another $3.90 spent on the bus) and finally we arrived at Collaroy beach and our hostel. Unfortunately. due to rain, we didn't spend the next three days lounging and tanning as originally planned, however we did visit the Taronga zoo, walk up and down Collaroy beach, visit the Sydney Barrick's museum and walk around downtown Sydney, as well as relax in the hostel and enjoy a brief vacay.

This morning we arrived in Melbourne after an overnight train ride. Not a great sleep was had, however we saved money on a hostel which is always important when you have no income. Today we walked around a little bit, discovered the public library (free internet!) and enjoyed the sunny Melbourne (nice change from rainy Sydney).

Flight

The adventure has started - well almost. We're sitting in the airport watching a movie on the laptop and waiting for boarding to start. It was supposed to start boarding an hour ago, but no sign of a plane or any Air Pacific staff yet. Our flight was also supposed to depart at 6:35pm, but we just noticed out tickets say departure at 19:35, so they switched the scheduled departure time without letting us know.

PS - If there are ads on the website when you view this, that means you can help fund our Australian adventure by clicking on them. I think we might be able to make enough for 1 wing on 35 cent wing night.

PPS - That means click on the ads when you come read our blog ;)