As much as I care to write right now about the South Island.

Okay, my loved ones, I admit that it is much easier to blog when I don't leave it for a month. Carli harasses me about not posting, and I love that, so here it is. As best as I can. 

We arrived in Christchurch on February 2nd. It had felt like a very long day. The night before we left, Chris was looking up the conditions of entry to NZ (a little late, I know) and found we were supposed to have proof we were leaving within three months of arriving. We talked it over and decided we would tell them we had jobs lined up in a month. Obviously, that wasn't good enough. After being told so at the check-in counter we dashed over to the internet kiosk and bought the most reasonable flight to somewhere near Uluru (we chose Adelaide) very quickly and then were able to check in and go about the usual airport business. 

After an uneventful flight, we went through a second bought of security (NZ is extremely strict about bringing in any soil or things that can disrupt the ecosystem). The man running the conveyor belt/ x-ray machine thing was tossing bags back and forth, assumedly very tired from a long day's work. The seemingly gruff, perhaps angry, aged man who was off loading the belongings tossed my backpack and then grabbed my neck pillow. The expression on his tired, perhaps prematurely lined faced changed before he his arm had finished it's all too familiar swing. He looked up at me and said, as is if were the first thing he'd touch besides stone in years, "that's very soft". I could see his eyes were still on the neck pillow, now in my hands. I asked "would you like to touch it again?" "no" he said with a smile. 

Anyway... After Chris and I cleared customs and what have you, we scanned the waiting room for Chris' friends Jason and Beryl and did not see them. Blah blah blah, tried to check on facebook to find Jason's number, $5 minimum, turned my phone onto roaming and got it, Chris texted and Jason replied right away "we're in the waiting room" Chris just hadn't seen them... I refuse to take any of the blame for the 15-20 minute side track as I didn't know what they looked like.

So Jason and Beryl picked us up and brought us to their lovely home in the suburb called "Papanui". We spent most (okay... all) of the first day watching "Lost" on blue ray via their MASSIVE tv... but had a much more "productive" second day checking out the surrounding and seeing the iconic buildings around the city including "Christchurch Cathedral".

Our lovely hosts left on the 2nd day to visit family on the North Island and had given us permission to borrow one of their cars to go on a little road trip to Hanmer Springs where Chris has two friends. The drive up was absolutely beautiful. It's crazy to me how quickly the views change. One minute you're driving through hilly, green sheep fields and then you drive around a bend and you're in the middle of a forrest in British Columbia. Our hosts in Hanmer were Trevor and Laura, a married couple with a very cute love story. They have a super cute (huge) puppy named Abby. Trevor, like Chris, is a major board game nerd (and magic cards) so Chris bought a new copy of one of his favorite board games called "Dominion" and brought it to Trevor, knowing he had never played. This turned out to be our activity of the evening for all three nights. I had played once with Chris Sutherland, Chris Neal and Caleb when Chris S and I hadn't known each other long and it sucked, but I now understand how to play and I loooooove it.  

Our activities in Hanmer included: trying not to die from the heat, and going for walks and one swim. The town is a popular holiday location for tourists and many many Kiwis because of it's natural hot springs. The springs consist of 5 or so hot pools. Chris said the hot pools are glorified stinky swimming pools and that they have paved bottoms and there is nothing really natural feeling about them. That doesn't really appeal to me... especially because it's something like $15 to get in (there are plenty of free hot springs in NZ). Chris and I opted for a lovely long drive in the hills. We swam in a river for a long time and took in the incredible views of the huge mountains all around and not a car or even another person was to be seen or heard anywhere. We also visited a historic house which was build some time a while back and was used to host early settlers on their way through the mountains from Blenheim to Christchurch (quite the walk). We walked through the house and took several photos. It looks a lot like a proper house from several steps back, but when you get nice and close you can see it was definately build by hand. The walls look like plaster but are actually made from mud and clay packed together and masterfully smoothed out. The walls taper quite a bit because the mixer would slide slowly down the walls before it was fully dry. It felt very abandoned and perhaps haunted even in the middle of a sunny day.

We had a night back in Christchurch with the cats "Little Puss" and "Fluffy Kitty" before Jason and Beryl came home and we spent every waking moment watching lost. 

We met up with some of Chris' disc golf buddies from when he lived there last year and they brought us around their new course they are currently designing. It wasn't very fun for me because they can all throw the disc soooo far. I had to throw it about four or five times to get to where they could throw it in one. Chris had a nice time though. I threw until I got bored, then I cracked a ginger beer and just enjoyed following them around.

I think my favorite thing we've done on this whole trip was the cave stream. Jason, Beryl, Chris and I went about 2 hours out of the city to this incredible natural cave that has a stream running through it. The walk takes about 45 minutes to do and you are in the complete darkness the whole time. We went to "The Warehouse" before and the three of us noobs bought head lamps - Chris treated me to mine. It was so awesome. About 5 minutes in we found two people who hadn't brought lights and they were huddled over at the side feeling there way though. We invited them to come along with us and use our light, but I'm sure even that was extremely difficult. I was looking around all the time. Down at my feet while climbing over rocks and at my hands for support on the walls. And there was so much to look at! The top of the cave was, at times, about 20 feet high and it was mostly quite narrow. At one point we had to get on our hands and knees to climb under a huge rock that had fallen. There were a ton of side caves that I wish I could have checked out but we were going at a pretty steady pace and I figured Chris and I could come back another time to explore some more. The water wasn't moving notably fast, but because we were in such a confined area, the echo was very loud. We had to pretty much yell back and forth. I was leading the pack and a few times I looked back to check on the person behind me and found I had got pretty far up ahead and would wait for the others to catch up. The water felt very cold at first but once I got used it, I didn't want to leave it. The walk (if you can call it that) ends in a daunting climb up a ladder and then a crawl through a narrow opening. I wasn't sure everyone in the group would be able to make it though, but we managed. If I ever come back to NZ, that will top my list of to-dos!

J&B hooked us up with blankets, sheet, pillows, and a picnic basket with cutlery and plates and we bought a tent and some mats. With these things and a rental car we set off for our Eight Day South Island Road Trip. We were both in great moods when we left. We had good tunes playing off my ipod and snacks. Then shortly before we arrived at our first stop, it started to sprinkle. We reluctantly agreed that maybe we should just stay at the hostel and forfeit the $75 dollars for a dry place to sleep. But the hostel was full. I was happy to save the money, but I was very unhappy at the idea of setting up camp in the rain.

When we got to the "camp ground" on Mt. Cook, I was shocked to see it was little more than a gravel parking lot and a field - nothing like the private, planned campgrounds I'm used to (but, hey, it was only $6.10 per person). It was raining very hard by then and super foggy. We hustled and got everything assembled in what I think may have been record setting time. I was grumpy and cold and there was nothing to do, so we fell asleep around 8 pm. It wasn't even dark yet. I awoke with a start some time later and it was very bright outside. I figured it was time to get up, but then Chris informed me that the reason I was startled awake is that the light had turned on suddenly. It was just headlights shining on our tent. My mind had already decided it was time to pack up and go so I check the time. 11 pm. So I forced myself back to sleep. 

When I awoke at a more reasonable hour, I could hear the rain had stopped and it was very sunny outside. Chris unzipped the tent and just started laughing. It turns out this place wasn't a s*** hole like we'd thought the night before. I followed him outside and saw that we were in an amazingly beautiful park. There were ice capped mountains all around and New Zealand in all of its glory. After walking around on the trails for an hour or so, we crammed our stuff in the car and got back on the ol' dusty trail.

The next night was Queenstown. A side note: when we woke up on Mt Cook I remembered right away that it was Valentines Day. So, hours later when we'd reached Queenstown, Chris asked me what I wanted for dinner. I said something nice. He said "Okay, well, we can go to the grocery store and...." I said, that's fine, but it might be nice to go out. He said "okay. we can go out" So he picked a place called "Hell's Pizza". We looked over the menu and made our choices then I went and waited at the table while Chris ordered. I was feeling a little miffed that Chris had forgotten although I know it's not really a big deal (it's not like he forgot my birthday or something) Then Chris sat down beside me and handed me a chocolate rose and said "Happy Valentines Day" I immediately warmed up and said "aww! When did you remember!?" he said "as soon as I woke up this morning" "yeah right! When did you actually remember" he said sometime earlier when he was looking at his mental calendar he remembered we are staying with his friend on the 15th, so, today had to be the 14th. I knew that was more likely. Then I asked him where he got the rose. He got it from the til. For free. Oh well, it's... the food that counts. And it was awesome. We made our way to our camp ground and it was super lame. So, we went into the picnic area and set up camp on the lakeside. It was just beautiful there. The camp ranger came along as we were taking in the view over some Monteith's Summer Ales and told us if we were staying more than one night we would have to go to the camping area, but he wasn't going to make us move tonight. We thanked him and when he had walked away, we cheers-ed and went back to watching the sun set. 

We packed up at a reasonable hour the next morning and headed out for some disc golf. It quickly became my absolute favorite course ever! Chris got a hole in one on our first hole which was pretty awesome. Chris plays the par that the course sets and I add two to every hole. When we finished, I was 21 under him, so without being asked, I knocked 18 off my score and still won. Woo woooo!! We stayed the night at Chris' friend Jame's who is the guy who made the course we'd just played. It was a fantastic evening of food (we made pasta and garlic toast) beers and story telling - just wait for me to retell the one about the bear and the toke.

We played the course again the next day, this time with me at only 1 par more than Chris, and I won again! It was a very close game. Just sayin'... I'm awesome. 

On the drive to Punakaiki, we stopped at two glaciers; Fox and Franz Joseph. Both were pretty beautiful. We weren't able to get very close because both of the glaciers drop chucks of ice "the size of a mini vans" daily. They have signs up with news articles about tourists being killed by ice falls because they crossed the safety barriers. Even with this knowledge posted about, apparently one third of the people that visit the glaciers every year go past the safety lines. 

Punakaiki is most famous for it's incredible "Pancake Rocks" which, I think, are New Zealand's "Twelve Apostles". We went to look at them twice. The first time was in the evening as the sun was setting. They got their name because they look like stacks of pancakes but in beautiful shapes. Hard to explain, I'll post pictures. 

The hostel we stayed at had the option of camping, so I pitched the tent on some prime, beach front real estate. There was a sign outside the office that said "weather rocks" and had several little stones hanging from strings. I was quite interested in how these things tell the weather, then laughed the whole way through the rest of the sign "if rocks are:

wet = raining, dry = sunny, blowing = windy, shaking = earthquake, white = snowing, gone = tornado" etc. Pretty cute. The hostel also had an herb garden that I picked some fresh rosemary from to go with our dinner, and fresh mint to go with our breakfast. 

I think it was one of the last nights of our road trip that had us staying at a free camp. There were at least 10 million sand flies trying to eat me. The End. For now. Next up: big shakes. 

Melbourne and The Great Ocean Road.

Ooooooooookay. I'm sorry for the delay.

We arrived in Melbourne on January 19th. It wasn't a dark and stormy night but it may as well have been. We figured we'd roll in to the city and call up our choice of hostel from our Lonely Plant Australia book (compliments of my lovely Aunt Vic)
NOPE! Australian Open ruined that!! There was not a room or even a dorm bed to be had in the whole city. While wandering around the Southern Cross train station, we met an old man security guard who told us we could sleep in the waiting room if we couldn't find anything else, so we went to this waiting room and found several thin metal benches, a sign that said "LAYING DOWN IS PROHIBITED" and two shady characters in the corner. We sat on the benches and continued surveying our situation and decided we had no choice but to call up a near stranger and ask for help. We called a girl named Ashleigh whom we'd met on Christmas Eve in Maleny. I told her the situation we'd found ourselves in and before I got the chance to ask if we could stay with her she said "come here! it's not much but you're more than welcome"
We took a cab and were enjoying the comfort of her home in less than half an hour. Her boyfriend James who was also at the Christmas Eve party lives in Melb aswell so Ashleigh informed us she'd be staying with him and invited us to stay in her room! The next morning James took as around the town while Ash was at work and we went for a fantastic breakfast at a place called "The Penny Farthing" which I must say, is much more quaint and therefor matched to its name than the one in Victoria.
We spent the rest of the day and the next two or three days wandering around and getting to know (and love) the city.

We deiced the best way to see the famed Great Ocean Road would be by car so we rented a car for 3 nights and took off. It was more stunning than I could have expected. The weather was perfect and we found ourselves pulling over at almost every available spot to take pictures of the ocean and the sky and the beaches and trees. We got as far as Lorne the first day and found a great hostel owned by an Australian named Robbo who loves Canadians. Especially West Coast Canadians. He encouraged us to pay in Canadian and wanted to talk about places in BC Chris and I have never been too and, in some cases, heard of.
The next day we drove to Port Campbell and saw on the way the "Twelve Apostles" (there are actually only six still standing) which are these incredibly tall rocks that stick straight out of the ocean. They used to be attached to the cliffs but the connections have eroded and for whatever reason, these few pieces were left standing. They are just as beautiful if not more on a slightly cloudy day (like the day we saw them) as they are on any postcard at sunset.
We talked to a man from Germany that night in our hostel who showed us pictures of "The London Bridge" and told us we had to go there. So the next day we went a bit further North and saw the incredible rock there which resembles the London Bridge (I guess?) It juts out from the rock and has an amazing arch in the middle that waves crash into. It isn't really a bridge any more because in January of 1989 (if my memory serves) the connecting piece of the bridge fell with no warning at all into the ocean. Luckily, there was no one crossing at the time, but there were two people on the other side who then had to be airlifted back to land. Among many awesome things we saw, there were a few disappointments, but I learned that, in Australia, if you keep your eyes open, you can turn even the most pointless of detours into a great experience. We stopped to check out a place called "Wreck Beach" hoping to see a sweet old ship wreck. The walk down was listed as 1.3 km and there was no one else there. There is absolutely NO way that walk was 1.3 km. It was MINIMUM 3 km and it was through crazy bushes and swamp. When we had gone for way too long, we got a great view of a not so great beach with not a wreck to be seen... so rather than walk the rest of the way only to be disappointed, we decided to turn around and walk back. On the way, Chris' elf eyes spotted an Echidna!
http://australian-animals.net/
Now, I didn't read the write up I posted, but I will assume that if you did, it told you they are mostly blind and rely heavily on their other senses to detect predators. I assume this because, Chris' and my heavy footsteps alarmed the poor critter and caused it to curl up protectively and semi bury itself in leaves. We stayed very still and waited and sure enough after a minute or so it uncurled and carried on doing it's thing. It pretty much looked right at us and was fine. We got some great pictures and a video and were then thrilled that we'd gone on the seemingly pointless mission.
At another "lame" place we went to, we found we had to pay $17.50 each to see a lighthouse (and the toilets were inside the gate.) We are quite happy to give donations, or pay to take tours, but we felt a self guided walk around a functioning lighthouse (government funded and locals don't pay) felt like quite the crappy deal. So we each had a pee in the bushes and got back in the car. On the way back to the main road, we spied some people gathered at the side of the road. We pulled over and found they were watching about 8 koalas (some with little babies on them) climbing in the trees eating leaves. We stayed and watched for a long time and it was such a cool experience. They were unbothered by us watching but totally aware we were there. Our joy was interrupted by the terrifying scream of what sounded like a wild boar somewhere behind us. We were quite divided in what to do... I voted get in the car and leave, Chris voted have a look around. We agreed on a very very careful look around walking heavily and staying on the road. We didn't find anything but heard it several times, always from just behind us.

Turns out that's the sound koalas make.

We were planning to stay in Apollo Bay for the last night, but I hated it there so we went back to Lorne and stayed another night with our buddy Robbo.

Back in Melbourne we had a great time with Ash and James going for dinner and playing cards and going for picnics in the park.

Tonight is our last night in Melb and we fly to Christchurch, New Zealand tomorrow evening. We had a great meal out with our friends Stella and Hemi who Chris knows from couch surfing last year when he was here.

I will leave you now to go watch the 5th episode of season one of Lost. Sooooo getting obsessed.

More soon!!

last days in Maleny.

These last few days have been wonderful.

Due to the floods, all transit in Queensland is free until the 30th of this month. That's a total bonus as Chris and I had been planning to get out and play some disc golf at a near by course. We got on the free train and were there at about 2 in the afternoon. We played all 18 holes and saw some beautiful nature including a water dragon. After the game we walked over to the "coles" for some snacks but it was closed (at like 5:30 wtf?) We went on to the train station. About a block away I guess I heard the train way off in the distance so I took off running. We caught the train by the "skin of our teeth" after running as fast as we could. When we got to our connecting station, we learned the train we needed to catch had stopped running quite a while ago. We decided to try to hitchhike before it got too dark but it quickly became apparent we wouldn't be getting picked up. Chris was very hungary so we walked through the tall grass between the highways to go to McDonalds, afraid the whole time we'd come across snakes or huge mud pits. We found neither. After making a few phone calls and finding out my super ghetto phone can go on the internet, we'd learned a motel room would cost $90 and a taxi would cost $110 and I'd sent a facebook message to Katherin the nanny asking her to call me. About three hours after learning we'd missed our last train, Chris and I found ourselves sitting outside a casino telling stories and watching a gecko catch flies. Then Katherin called and said she's be on her way. We rejoiced and decided to go back to the 24 hr McDonalds to celebrate with some french fries. Unfortunately the floods have made it so very few food deliveries can go through and they'd run out of most stuff so they closed. MAN.

Yesterday was very pleasant. We poked around town and went for a walk at Mary Cairnes Cross park for our third try. We were so excited to see 4 or 5 wallabies. Then we made a Mexican dinner for the family and it was a major hit.

Today we went into town and I got small gifts for Ella and Fia. Then I mailed them along with a bunch of stuff I wish I hadn't brought to Aus for a total of fifty something dollars. It will take 2-3 months to get home.

We had planned to go on this big walk but due to those damned floods, the roads were blocked off so we couldn't get there. It turned out great though because we got to see soooo much of the area just driving around and taking pictures here and there. At one point we were about to go over a bridge and I looked ahead and said "watch for that bird." After a moment I realized it was, in fact, a turtle. I took a few photos from a distance then got closer and closer. I was worried he'd get run over so I nudged him off the road with a stick. It seemed to take him a minute to realize what was going on because he went from a saunter to a sprint in no time and then fell about two feet off the side of the bridge and hit something and then rolled a bit before hitting a pebble and sliding into the water. I'm sure he was okay... sad and funny.

We've spent this evening playing tennis, swimming in the pool with the whole family, and playing games around the table. I'm sad to be leaving this place behind but I know very well that it's time.

Our plan now is to head to Melb on Wednesday after one night in Bris (and dinner with Andrea and Steven) and then stay there and around there for two weeks and then go to New Zealand for a month. Then we'll fly into Adelaide and go up the east coast for 2-4 weeks then *finger crossed* meet Adam and Lindsay in Thailand and then maybe even Carli after that if we can time it right. Then home? In mid May? I dunno.

Rain rain go away.

Sorry I haven't been blogging, Mom. 

I guess it has been several days. Where did I leave off?

Chris and I were happily living in the family room inside the laurels main office building when one morning we were told there was an accidental double booking. We had an hour to move into the family home. So, we moved from our lovely, quiet, beautiful room into Conrad (the three year old) 's room. Their house is beautiful as I've mentioned before. It feels like a real home... in that it isn't full of bugs and there aren't bars on the window. Those were some very loud days. It was really nice to be loving with a young family over Christmas, though. The three little ones were so excited and Amanda organized a beautiful dinner on Christmas Eve which Chris and I put together. There were alternating red and gold decorative plates under each dinner plate and candles in large silver candelabras atop square mirrors. I took a picture, which I'll post... some time. We also hung these beautiful purple flowers all over the tent (which was up due to the insane weather) They have very long stalks and then purple flowers that come out like fireworks from the top. So we hung those at differing lengths all over the canopy. There was much food and drink to be had that evening. We also got to meet tons of really nice and interesting people. I spent quite a while talking with a man who is about 70 and has Parkinson's disease. He was telling me about living and working in South East Asia for years and about his hobby farm "up the road" where he and his wife raise, get this, miniature angus cattle. 

On Christmas morning Chris and I opened a few presents from each other and then had breakfast with the family. We had eggs benny which made me quite homesick. And also sick... as I don't like to partake in that tradition. After breakfast the kids were starting to freak real bad so it was present time. I really like the way we've always opened presents in my family. One at a time. They don't do that and it was a crazy scene. Every minute or two one of the adults (including myself) would run into the chaos and collect all the wrapping paper and try to move the presents out of the way. I was reminded of the ball boys in tennis. Running in and out as fast as possible. After present opening Chris and I went to get some much needed quite and opened the rest of our presents. 

Chris and I had been planning to work for a few days in between Christmas and New years but the weather was so bad that the pavilion (main reception area, which we were painting) was partly flooded so we couldn't go in there. We spent a lot of time playing cards and, one we were moved into badger's woods, watching movies. Sadie and Caleb were on a trip on the sunshine coast so they came up and stayed with us on the 30th and 31st once we'd moved into Peacock Meadow. New Years was mostly quite uneventful. I put on my purple american apparel dress (as it's the fanciest I've got with me) and my black shiny tights and my new purple NARS eyeshadow and some silver sparkle liner and went down to the house and was BY FAR the most dressed up. I had two free pour vodka waters with lime and two (maybe three) jello shots and then went home for a nap. Chris called me at 11:40 and told me to come back down. I was pretty annoyed but decided to go anyway. At this point Caleb and Sadie were sleeping. Chris and I rang in the new year with 15 of our closest strangers and then watched the 12 minute long firework show that had happened an hour earlier in Sydney. 12 minutes is actually a really really long time to watch fireworks. I had lost all of my pizzaz by that time and sat quietly on the couch watching the show and thinking about New Years past spent with Grandma and Grandpa Gogo on the porch. We would always fight for the big yellow fireworks that resembled french fries (Grandpa's idea)

We've gotten a lot of painting done since then and have even had 4 or 5 super hot and sunny days. 

One night in Peacocks after dinner, I noticed a tiny little huntsman (about the size of those "huge" black spiders at home) on the curtain. I calmly asked Chris to catch it and then went on with my computing. A minute or two later I looked up and saw that Chris was having half a meltdown. He had taken several dishes of all shapes and sizes out of the kitchen and was trying each one out by making practice capturing motions with a magazine in the other hand. I began ridiculing him and making "better" suggestions. We eventually decided on a two man method which involved him placing a bowl over the spider and a book on the other side of the curtain at which time I would move in and slide a magazine between the spider (then inside the bowl) and the curtain. Then Chris would take magazine from me and bring the contained spider out the door which I would have by then opened. The entire plan went flawlessly until the release. Chris placed the magazine on the ground and lifted the bowl. The distraught and confused spider took off running.... toward Chris' bare feet. Chris lost his cool and began screaming and hopping wildly toward the door at which time I spotted a fair size cane toad which was also hopping toward the door. I began screaming as well. I went to slam the door as Chris was attempting to get through it. I opened it again as Chris jumped over the jumping toad. Then to add to the chaos, Chris felt something on his foot. I think we both assumed it was the spider... but it was really a freaky grasshopper type insect. We both screamed and jumped around as it jumped around the living room. When we figured out what it was we both calmed down and Chris trapped it under one of the many bowls already in the living room. 

We've now been working and living in the biggest of the cottages called "wattle lane". It has three bedrooms down stairs (one is Catherine the nanny's room) and the upstairs is a big open space with couches and chairs and a dining area and a kitchen. It has a great set up with pretty much all of the cooking supplies we require.

The rain here comes in cycles, it seems. It will drizzle for a while and then someone turns on the hose and it fricken buckets down. Yesterday we took a day off after working for 6 days in a row. It had been sunny and hot but unfortunately, the weather turned and it poured. We wanted to wait out the down pour before going on our nature walk so we puttered around for a while in the Maleny shops and did our grocery shopping. The rain let up so we drove to the park. When we got there the rain got very heavy again so we opened the curtain thing on the sun roof and watched the rain fall for a while. When it let up again, we got out of the car and scoped the scene. The trail was one massive puddle so I promised Chris we'd come back another day. On our way out we happened upon a wild wallaby!! Sooo cute..

When we got home, there was an ankle deep puddle in the way of the front door. Chris powered through it and got very wet feet but I didn't want to get my runners wet so I took my shoes and socks off and walked through in bare feet. That's the great thing about Aus. It may be a storm, but it's still quite warm out. Minutes after getting inside, I sat down to clean some mud off my ankle. Nope, not mud. Leech. I grabbed a tissue and pulled it off with out thinking about it... I don't know if that's bad as I know I've heard you're supposed to salt them or burn them off... my ankle was bleeding a little. I handed the wad to Chris who had by that time come to check out why I was freaking out. He put it in the toilet. It tried to climb out. So Chris flushed. It didn't go down. So Chris attacked it with the toilet brush. It climbed deep into the bristles. So we left it. Later, Chris went down to check on it and found it was climbing out of the toilet. I wasn't there, but I imagine at this point he lost his mind. He told me he took the can of air freshener and smacked it. It didn't die. He continued to smack it. He guesses he must have hit it 30 times before it finally stopped squirming.     Cold. Blooded. Killer.        He said there was blood all over the toilet bowl, I told him not to worry as it was probably mine. 

So far today Chris has made a wonderful breakfast and we've watched dumb and dumber on vhs. We'll call today a write off. OH! but when we were walking over here (to the office) to use the internet, there was a super bright flash of lighting followed by the. loudest. clap of thunder I've ever heard. I am not kidding it sounded like a metal garbage dumpster was dropped 10 feet right beside us. My left ear drum hurt for a while after. Yipres. 

I'm not going to proof read this... lack of movement has turned my brain to mush and I want to take a nap. 

Our New Life.

I hate to admit this but... the weather has been unseasonably rainy. A typical Australian summer's day is uncomfortably warm from early morning to mid day, and is then cooled down by a big storm lasting from 10-45 minutes. To note the few positives in a subject I find to be generally quite negative; it's very green here, and Chris and I are turning it into a great excuse to watch gross amounts of 30 Rock. 

And so, the great fill in begins...

In my last blog (I believe) I wrote about how Chris and I were planning to "relocate" a vehicle from Byron Bay to Brisbane but pass Bris and go to Maleny to meet with the HOL people before returning the car because it was within the km and time restrictions of the deal. SO on Wednesday Chris left our hostel at 8:40 am to pick up the car at the agreed pick-up time, 10 am. At 10:20 the car place called to "make sure" I'd received the notice that we would have to wait until Friday to pick up the car. I said "uhhhm. That doesn't really work for us... my boyfriend left over an hour ago to get the car and was supposed to pick it up 20 minutes ago." She apologized and suggested I call another car relocation company and see if they had any relocations available... Meanwhile Chris arrived at the car place after an hour or so long bus ride (which cost about $10) and a 3 km walk to the airport and was pretty peeved to hear what they had to say. He argued that he had the confirmation letter in his hand as well as an online mastercard statement saying all payments had gone through. They apologized for not letting us know our car could be cancelled with two days notice and said it was the fault of the middle man company which booked us and was supposed to call us. The middle men said they had called yesterday (even though they were supposed to give two days notice). I later checked my messages and found they had in fact called, but only to confirm what time we were picking up and said they would call again later. After about two hours of arguing with many people on the phone, Chris admitted defeat and went to catch the $10 bus back to Byron... only to find it didn't come again for two hours. He set about trying to hitch hike and got picked up pretty quickly by a 60 something year old massage therapist named Dave. Chris explained his woes of the day and told him that now we would have to pay $30 each to get back to Bris. Dave said he was heading to Bris that evening and would happily give us a ride if we met him out front of his office later, which we did. 

Dave is a lovely person. He used to run an aroma therapy shop, worked as a sports therapist for many famous Australian athletes, is now teaching massage therapy in three places, and was at the time heading to Bris for a meeting with Olympic organizers to talk about boxing. As if that wasn't enough... but he used to have pet wallabies and has a 10 foot python named Bredie which is play on the word 'bredi' , the type of snake she is. He asked us if we've heard of Steve Irwin. We said yes (obvs) and he told us he and Steve grew up together. One time Steve called him up and told him his snake who he used to put on zoo visitors' necks for photos had been snapping at people. Steve wanted to know if he could buy Bredie from him. Dave told Steve he didn't have enough money to buy her but offered to let him borrow her. When Dave went to the zoo to drop her off using his key to the back gate - he mentioned this privileged possession a few times ;). He handed his snake to Steve and went to check on Steve's snake. He realized quickly that she had a bright red rash on her belly. He then figured she was getting people's sun screen under her scales and it was then painful for her to be on people so she was snapping to get away, not to hurt people. He went to the 'chemist' and got some stuff and fixed her right up. Awww. And super cool. We also talked about his views on Steve's death. Very interesting. 

After Dave dropped us off at the bus, Chris and I went to our hostel called 'base' which we'd booked that morning through an agent back in Byron. We checked in and went up to our room. Now, let me tell you: we've had some crappy rooms... but nothing has compared to this. There is a sign in the room saying to never leave valuables in the room. Fair enough... I guess that's common... but it also says to never leave the window open when out of the room or SLEEPING! This room, I should mention, did not have air conditioning or even a fan. So, not AC, no fan, no window. In Australia in summer. Right. Above all the door was a grate with no glass or anything... just open. We could hear people's flip-flops flip-flopping all the way down the hall (all night). Then there was the paint. It was bright green and was missing patched in places sometimes as big as two foot circles. I noticed after sitting on the edge of the bed that the entire beige blanket was covered in short black curly hairs. I refuse to speculate who they were from and what part of their body they came from. Then I looked under the bed and found a piece of garbage which cemented my suspicion that no one had vacuumed... then I noticed three dried boogers on the wall. Then I looked down the side of the bed and was hardly surprised to see toe nail clippings. I went downstairs to inform the front desk guy who told me he was very sorry but there was nothing that could be done about it tonight but to inform the manager in the morning. At 9:30 am I marched down and told the manager that to start, Chris and I had been startled awake in the middle of the night by someone screaming and it took us a minute to figure out they we're just goofing off. Chris got up and yelled "shut up" out the door - which is very unlike him. *Chris would like me to add in that he only did that because I told him to... and that it's not unlike him to do what I tell him* I explained to him that we paid SEVENTY DOLLARS for a private room and we felt we may as well have been sharing with everyone on the floor. He interrupted and said he was sorry about the noise but it goes hand in hand with staying in an old building. If we wanted quiet, we should have booked in at the much nicer, older demographic Base hostel down the block. I said "oh, I'm not finished!" and I continued on with all the disgusting details of our room. When I was done, he was totally appalled and very apologetic. He refunded the night's cost, and moved us to the other hostel. Which was quite nice. 

We left Bris on Friday morning for our "day trip" to Maleny. We went to the train station and found we had a while to wait for our train and then had McDonald's for breakfast. What a let down. Yuck. After the train ride, we again found the bus wouldn't come for a long time (small towns and there public transit - sheesh). Hitch hiking was again the best option. Chris was standing under a tree talking to other Chris, our potential boss, and I started putting my thumb out  (actually, I put my arm down at a 45 degree angle with my pointer finger out which is how one hitch hikes here) like, the third car stopped and Chris and I ran over with our bags. The man that stopped was a very friendly Australian who has never left his country and therefor had never seen snow, he told us. He was thrilled to find out we were planning to stay in the area for a while and pulled over twice to show us the views. 

http://www.google.com.au/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=glass+house+mountains&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi&biw=1280&bih=702

As a side note, I'll mention that every person we told we were going to Maleny said some version of "Oh, there's a cheese factory there". I laughed when I saw the cheese factory is right across the street from House of Laurels. (small towns and their cheese factories, I tell ya) To make a very long story a little shorter, Chris and his wife Amanda are incredibly awesome, welcoming people. Their property is a group of 5 lots each with one building. They all have cute names like "Badger's Wood" and "Wattle Lane" (as a second aside, I just said to Chris "what was it called? Wattle...?" and Chris said "I didn't know they had names" I said "wow, you are incredibly unobservant" and he said "if by unobservant you mean good at disc golf..." haha!) So, Boss Chris has hired us on to basically do all the work he doesn't want to do (repainting all of the cottages etc) for probably 4 days per week so they can rent out the cabins on weekends for weddings (and we can travel around the East Coast) or we can stay if there is room (which, he said, there almost always is) and it's rent free (!!!!!!!!) And then they invited us to stay for their big annual party the following night. And then they invited us to come to dinner that night for a bbq with their friends. And then they offered us their car to go check out the town. So we accepted.  

http://www.laurels.com.au/Gallery.html

In town we went for lunch at this great little cafe. Then we went grocery shopping and then to the bottle shop to get beers. On the way there, a fricken huge lizard (2' with tail?) scampered across the road and stopped right in front of us. We both made a bit of a scene (not on purpose) and I could see some locals laughing at us through a window in a restaurant. I asked the guy in the bottle shop about these things and he said the one we saw was not the biggest they get and they are commonly referred to as "water dragons". He said they are "placid as". We met lots of really nice people and had SO much fun in the hot tub, talking with everyone (most of all George from Atlanta, Georgia and his wife Woneda - sp?) At the big party the next night, they had two big slushy machines going. One with margarita and the other was pina colada. 

Boss Chris gave us the low down on snakes and spiders. Snake to be afraid of: Red Belly something, and the Brown Snake (most deadly in the world?) but they don't see them often. The rest are boa constrictors. He said to remember all snakes are more afraid of us than we are of them, so we will probably never come across them. Spiders to be afraid of:             black one with red dot (but he knew what it was actually called), and the funnel spiders. The funnel spiders live in the ground in tall grass and build funnel shaped webs to catch their prey. They stay underground all day and come out at night. So we have to wear shoes at night if walking in the grass. I think Boss Chris said if we get bit by a funnel spider we have about 20 minutes to get to a hospital. After that it's quite serious. My Chris was just reading from our lonely plants book and learned we are 100 times more likely to drown here than to be killed by an creature, there are roughly two deaths per year from shark and alligator attacks but 1000 road deaths, and there hasn't been a human death from spiders in 20 years. That's good news :)

We got a ride from George and Woneda back to Bris and stayed at "somewhere to stay" for one more night before coming back to Maleny to start working. Very excited. 

Today we hitch hiked from the train to HOL again. A young woman named Tabitha picked us up and we folded ourselves and our backpacks into the back seat of her car. The front passenger seat was taken up by a tiny little wallaby joey in a basket. He had just spent several days with an IV drip due to a very bad cold. Tabitha works in animal rescue and told us the animals have been a bit crazy with all the rain. Koalas have been wandering out into the road and 8 are in the animal hospital right now after having been hit by cars. She has 22 wallabies living at her house right now. I asked her if she needs any help and she told me she's be happy to have me come over and help bottle feed all the little babies. I'm really looking forward to it!! She also invited Chris and me to go to a wallaby release event at Steve Irwin's dad's house in January. Hitch hiking has brought great opportunities so far!

I'm sorry if this message has been hard to read with all the brackets and asides. I'm pretty tired. Home sickness has set in but I hope it's brief. I can be on skype again now that we are settled and have an internet connection. I look forward to talking with you all asap!!

Love, Jeri

Byron Bay (Round One?).

We love it here!!

We arrived in Byron Bay (NSW) on Sunday Dec. 12th (yesterday) and have been thrilled with the place other than a few minor details. The beach is amazing. It's beautiful sand and tons of healthy (with the exception of sun exposure, perhaps) beach people. I mention this because I recently learned Aus is now leading ahead of the US in obesity and adult onset diabetes in children.  When we arrived on the greyhound yesterday morning, we were greeted at the bus stop by some hostels inviting us to stay there. We chose "Main Beach" for the free WiFi and the close proximity to the beach. It's a little more expensive than our last hostel ($85/night) but much better. Other than the kitchen (which is disgusting - Chris washes our dishes before and after we use them) the place is nice. Really friendly people, nice staff, and great policies. The areas bordering on residential property are closed at 10 and all other areas are shut down at 11 and seem to be enforced rather well. Also, we can borrow boogie boards for free and use our room key as a deposit. As Chris pointed out, that means we wont lose our keys at the beach. The beds are crap and I couldn't fall asleep for a while because my lower back was threatening to go out from the sagging in the mattress. We also have an en suite.

After we got set up yesterday we went down to the beach and boogied in the waves. I've never done that before. It was awesome and it made me want to learn to surf, which we may be able to do for super cheap at.... the Beaches of 1770... I think. I don't remember. Chris was looking into that. After dinner (Mom's tomato basil mozzarella) we walked over to this super cool hostel/ brewery/ pub called "Art's Factory" and each enjoyed a local brew and listened to the live music. The performer was this woman named "Lou" who sang country. Chris and I both thought she was about 30 (she resembled Mama Cass some-what) but then saw she has a tween daughter. I guess she still could be 30. She had a beautiful and very young sounding voice but had a good amount of power behind it. I'd like to figure out her name so I can listen again. She had a song called "I'm in love with a cowboy" I thought dad would really like. Her song after that was called "I'm in love with your mind". One the way home Chris and I admired the stars (you can't really see them in Bris) and talked about Orion. It's the most obvious constellation here but I also spotted the little dipper.

The salt in the ocean or something put my eyes back into itch-overdrive and I couldn't stand it anymore so I stopped by the local "chemist" (have I already mention that's what pharmacists and pharmacies are called?) and happened upon the most pleasant of Chemists. He was so helpful and friendly and genuine. I guess it's silly to go on about it, but I feel like he was just such a shining example of how people in the service industry should be.

On to the bugs: 
Last night Chris and I were in the common room checkin' up on the internettings, and we saw a HUGE spider run across the room and stop on the other side. I jumped up to check it out and alerted everyone else in the room to it's presence. A woman maybe from Germany took a photo of it so I ran back up to our room and took a photo for myself (will upload some time).

After dinner last night, Chris was washing the dishes and I went back up to the room to put the dry food away. While I was in there I thought to close the curtain as it was then dark out. As I slid them to a close, I noticed there was a MASSIVE cockroach right beside my hand. Rather than panic, I quickly began looking through the room to find a cup big enough to trap it. We only have one size of cup - some small plastic wine glasses I bought for Sadie and me to use down by the river. It's about 2 or more inches wide and I felt sure this wasn't large enough, but it was all I could find. So I went back with the cup and a piece of rigid paper. I was about to try trapping it when the little creep took a run for it. Luckily, right out the open window. Unluckily, it ran right back in then I reached to close the window. I grabbed my piece of paper back and tried to flick it out the window, but no, this only seemed to attract it. So it ran at me, grabbed on to the paper and I flailed (I think I was emitting loud squeaks by this point). My flail caused it to fall to the ground... or toward the ground. It actually landed on my ankle. I was screaming at this point. It ran off and under a backpack as I heard a knock at the door. It was my temporary hero, Chris Sutherland. He had a very amused look in his eye. I told him the situation in a laughing panic and proceeded to collapse onto the bed, happy to let Chris take over. He dealt with it after a lengthly chase. He still wanted to trap it, but I said No, kill it. I call him my temporary hero as I was left to deal with the 2nd giant cockroach of the night. After that we discovered there is a screen on the bathroom window so at night we are setting up the fan in the bathroom to cool the room and keeping the other screen-less windows shut tight.

After dinner tonight we were happily chatting about whatever when Chris unlocked our door and flicked on the light. He let out a panicked noise hopped a few times before practically taking flight and landing on the bed. I thought he was just overreacting and asked "Cockroach?" No. Biggest spider of life ***editors note: this is the biggest spider of MY life (thus far) - Chris slept with much larger spiders in Danetree National Park. A fantastic story. Ask him to tell you some time if you don't know it.*** Chris told me to leave, which brings me to now, blogging downstairs. Chris joined me a few minutes after that and reported the spider was about three inches with its legs and had a body the size of a small walnut.

Ew.

We will be shaking everything out thoroughly. Chris said at one point it went under the door... which means they can get in under the door. I don't even know what I'd do if I had to kill one of those. It makes me think of Jena. For the first time since arriving in Australia, I'm glad she's not here. She would probably pass out. Or give me a black eye while trying to run away.

Tomorrow we are going for a walk up the beach to a lighthouse. Chris said Byron Bay was his favorite place when he was here last year and this walk is just beautiful so I'm quite looking forward to it. Then the next day we'll head up the coast back into Queensland to check out House of Laurels.

Hope you're well!

Love, Jeri

Chris. Is.... Here.

So, Chris is here. He arrived at 11 am yesterday.

I walked down to Sadie's place of work to enjoy a flat white and was quite pleased to find she had two minutes until her scheduled 30 minute break. We sat together and chatted. When her break was over I walked a block or so to the train station and was getting ready to set up camp (I was about half an hour early) when a train pulled up. I looked left and right hoping to see Chris... AND I DID. He arrived only about two minutes after I did. We had big hugs and walked promptly to our hostel to check in.

Our room is kind of crappy. It has only one tiny window and the only other lighting is a bare lightbulb hanging in the middle of the room. We've made it quite homie though. We were talking about getting some sticky notes and labeling each of the shelves "Jeri's room" "Chris' room" "kitchen" "storage room" and other such to pretend it's a full home.

So far today we walked to Cole's for breakfast food, made breakfast, had a dip in the pool... went for kebabs and met with Sadie.... got a library card... researched travel options...

Our plan as of now is to leave on Sunday (today is Friday) and head to Maleny to scope out the "House of Laurels" scene... then buy greyhound passes to Byron Bay. And then back up to Airlie Beach to look for work of nothing catches our fancy before then.

The rain stopped the day before Chris arrived and it has been HOT and sunny out since. Perfect beach weather... now if only there was a beach around.

That's all for now!