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Monday, 24 November 2008
Zig Zag Railway
Mood:  happy

Interesting weekend...We drove up to Bathurst in order to ride on the Zig Zag Railway.

Peter and Jo McKaskill wanted to take us up to the Blue Mountains.  We had gone a few weeks ago, but what they wanted to do was different than our 3-Sisters trek.  They wanted to ride the old steam train along its original route through a portion of the Blue Mountains near Lithgow, a suburb of Sydney.  The route is called the Zig Zag Railway because there was no way to build the track on the slope of the mountains in order to get the passengers from the top to the bottom.  To accomplish this, the track makes a big “z” on the slope and the train has to stop in two places along the descent, the engine then changes ends of the train, and then they switch the track and continue along the next leg of the “z.”  In doing that, the train makes it from the top to the bottom without having the required switchbacks (re:  hair-pin turns) in the track.  The route takes two-and-a-half hours for the round trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, so the route is unique, but so is the train.  Most of the time, they use a fairly modern touristy train to take people along the historic route.  –But we wanted to go on the STEAM train, which only runs sometimes.  Not knowing if it would be there for us, we showed up and lo and behold, it happened to be old-fashioned Steam Train day!   We lucked into it, after all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only downside of the weekend...well, there were two, but the first was that Jo wasn’t feeling well, so she had to stay in the cabin with a cough while the rest of us rode the railway.  The other down side was the weather, which was uncharacteristically cold.  It actually snowed in November, in Australia...Weird!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 In the end, it was a good weekend, and we did what we went there to do.  I think the trip provided some sort of closure for Peter, who has wanted to ride the railway for several years and never got around to it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As for me, I tried to squish a coin on the track, the old-fashioned way.  Not having an American penny, I figured I’d just use what I did have, which was an Aussie fifty cent piece.  Apparently, the Aussie fifty cent piece is a little tougher because it hardly flattened at all.  In fact, it actually left a pretty good impression of the coin on the track!  I still have the fifty cent piece... J

 

 

Posted by kisajaja at 4:19 AM CET
Updated: Monday, 24 November 2008 4:32 AM CET
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Saturday, 1 November 2008
Eden...Harbor town, not the Garden of...
Mood:  happy

Yesterday, we went to Eden, which is a smallish town to the south east of Canberra, about 3 hours drive.   Like most Australian cities, it is on the coast.  Each year, about this time of year, a large population of humpback whale transits the area in order to get from their winter breeding waters to their summer feeding waters.   This transit takes place less than a mile from the shore/town.  Therefore, Eden has its Whale Festival each year, about this time.  (http://www.edenwhalefestival.com/Eden_Whale_Festival/Home.html, for more information)

Eden, like I said, is a little town.  The festival area was tiny, but they made the most of it that they possibly could.  There were a few food booths and one or two carnival rides.  There was a parade, made up of classic cars and large shipping trucks.   There was a marching band, and even the Carlson Draught beer horses and wagon (think Budweiser Clydesdales and you’re there).  The parade went for about 20 minutes, I’d say.  The rest of the festival took about fifteen minutes...There were two stages set up.  One was for the local “battle of the bands” competition.  The other had some drummers troupe on it at one point, but we didn’t stick around for too much of that.   They went on to have fireworks that night, but again, we didn’t stay.

So where were we?  We went whale watching!  I’ve never been whale watching before, so this was something new.  We climbed aboard the Cat-Balou, and headed out onto the water for a two-and-a-half hour cruise.  (http://www.catbalou.com.au/, for more information)

We didn’t know if we’d see any whales, but there was a half-your-money-back guarantee, so we figured we’d give it a whirl.  Turns out, we did NOT get half our money back!  There were whales.  A LOT of whales.  –Or maybe a few whales A LOT of times...Either way, we saw them.

Mostly we saw them swim, which is to say we saw their big humps come up out of the water in order to breathe.   For a while, this was all we saw, which was cool, but I was hoping for more “action shots.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we got some action.  The whales, for whatever reason, decided to show their tails, or “Flukes.”   We got several pictures of several whale flukes, which is important, because these are the pictures everyone thinks about when they think of whales.  We saw a bunch of this, which is good, because it is more interesting than just their humps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, for whatever reason, they decided to breech for us.  Apparently it doesn’t happen often, but breeching is when the whales jump out of the water and make a huge splash.  We saw them breech three times.  The cat balou people said that they can go weeks without seeing even one breech.   They (the whales) do this without warning, and its blink-and-you-missed-it fast, so photography was hard.  We missed two really good ones, but caught the third. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So in the end, we drove to Eden, which is a cool but tiny town, built around whale watching.  We spent a few minutes (plenty) at the festival, and a few hours on a boat.  We saw whales, a few seals, and more of the Australian coastline.  –And we made it home in time for dinner.  Not a bad way to spend our day...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy!


Posted by kisajaja at 11:27 PM MEST
Updated: Monday, 3 November 2008 3:08 AM CET
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Monday, 27 October 2008
7-Bridges Walk
Mood:  happy

So this Sunday, we drove to Sydney to participate in the annual “7-Bridges Walk” around Sydney Harbor, so called, because you have to cross seven bridges along the 27-km (17+ mile) route.  We woke up around 6:00a or 6:30a, got ready, and then headed on down the road, arriving in Sydney around 10:00a-ish.  The first thing we noticed is that the parking lot in which we usually park was hosting an exotic car show.  No problem...They still had spaces available, so with a flick of the $20 parking fee, I parked our antiquated Holden Commadore amongst the Ferraris and we headed over to the walk sponsor’s tent.

Kimberly signed us up for this walk over the internet, so the registration process was a matter of picking up three “passports” in which each of the seven bridge stations and seven village stations would affix their stamps upon our arrival.  We filled up our water bottles and away we went!

I don’t know all of the names of all of the seven bridges we crossed, but it took us from The Rocks, around to Darling Harbour, over to ANZAC Bridge, around to Manly Harbour, across another bridge, through the woods, up a few hills, and finally, across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  As I said above, it was about 27km (17+ miles), and it took us about 5 hours to complete.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I carried a few small snack foods in my pack, along with the water bottles.   The plan was to stop somewhere en route to eat.  We passed by several cafes and bistros, but we knew we wanted to wait until a specific point before we stopped to eat.  The deal was that most of the bridges occurred during the first half of the walk.  The second half, we thought, was going to be pretty boring going from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, so we figured we’d eat somewhere in that part of the course.  Well, that didn’t work out so well for two reasons.  First, there wasn’t much over there.  Second, by that time in the walk, our legs where getting a little worn.  Not worn out, mind you, but we began to wonder what sort of motivation we’d have left after we sat for any lengthy period of time!  Like I said, I had snack food, so we broke out some of that, and I had a Zone Bar, so all was good. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once back at the car, we headed back home, stopping on the way for some dinner.  We made it home around 9:00p, cleaned up, went to bed, and then it was back to work/school Monday morning.

It was a great walk!  -One that I would happily do again if it ever became available to me.  Even Jacoby made it with little to no complaints.  Truly a great day!  For more actually information, see the website:  http://www.7bridgeswalk.com.au/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More planned this week-end, but I’ll write about that then...

Take care!


Posted by kisajaja at 9:13 AM MEST
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Saturday, 11 October 2008
New Zealand
Mood:  happy

Okay, so the deal is, since we are going to Italy next, and we really don’t have time for an end-of-tour vacation, we figured we’d better do New Zealand now, so we don’t end up missing out.   I booked the flights and the hotel, Kimberly did the research, and we were off! 

The trip went from 3-9 October.  We left Canberra, drove to Sydney, flew to Auckland, then drove to Rotorua, a town centrally located on the Northern Island.   We stayed in Rotorua, which is to say that it’s where we slept each night.  We did what we usually do, and went on a series of day trips from there.

What a fantastic trip!  I’m going to try to convey the details and such here, but I’ll be honest up front and say that I’m not sure I can do it justice.  –And there is no way I can fit all the appropriate pictures into this blog!  But I’ll do what I can...

We stayed in a Hostel in downtown Rotorua.  Yes, a Hostel.  It was really nice, considering!   We stayed there because it was located right on Lake Rotorua and was close to the market areas and the main tourist restaurant/shopping district.  That being said, we had no idea the Hostel was hosting the Jamaican Music Festival our first two nights there.  We fell asleep both nights listening to live music. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent the first day in and around Rotorua in order to explore our surroundings and see what there was to see.   Rotorua, itself, is a tourist hot-spot because of the geo-thermal activity throughout the town.  There are entire areas in the town that are constantly steaming from the ground, or have constant boiling water or mud in sulphur pits around the parks and some housing areas.  There were entire neighbourhoods built on top of some of these hot-spots which provided the residents’ heating needs throughout the cold seasons.

We had heard going into all of this that the whole town reeked of sulphur.  Well, yes and no.  We smelled it, but it really wasn’t bad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We hit the markets, found a carnival, walked through the geo-thermal springs, went through most of the souvenir shops, and really just had a fantastic time.  In the afternoon, we decided to drive out to the Bay of Plenty to have a look. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This rock is solid jade, and was available for purchase for a mere “a couple million dollars.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we went out to Waitomo.  Now, for some background, Waitomo is Maori (native Kiwis) for “The place the water enters.”  It rains a lot there, like most of New Zealand, but there are also vast cave networks throughout the region.  These caves are tourist attractions, since they are actually filled with Glow Worms.  To be fair, Glow Worms are actually Fungus Maggot Larvae, but hey, who cares, they are pretty anyway!  We went on a guided tour of one of these Glow Worm caves and it was amazing.  Imagine seeing a starry sky on a pitch-black country evening.  You know, the kind of sky that makes you think, “Wow, I’ve never seen that many stars before.”  Now imagine that same starry night on the roof of a cave.  It was like a night sky over rough terrain.  I’ll include a picture, but really, it can not do it justice...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also in Waitomo, and actually before the caves trip, we went to the Shearing Shed.  It is the only place in New Zealand that raises and shears Angora Rabbits for their fur.  They had over 300 rabbits, each with a name, and none of them EVER harmed.  Even when the rabbits died of old age, they are buried, not eaten or skinned.  Every six-weeks or so, each rabbit is brought in and sheared and then the fur is made into yarn.  That yarn is then used to make all kinds of stuff.  The funniest thing about this is that the rabbits don’t seem to mind any of this.  They lie still for the shearing.  They stand still on the podium for pictures.   They don’t mind the tourists petting them, endlessly.   Hilarious.  The funny part is that during the shearing, each bunny is “stretched.”  They have these little bungy cords that get attached to each leg and it stretched the rabbit so that its skin isn’t wrinkled.  Once flat, the shearers won’t catch on skin and hurt the rabbit.  And I’ll say it again, while hilarious to look at, the rabbits didn’t seem to mind it, not one bit.  Funniest thing, ever!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went from the Bunnies to the Otorohanga Kiwi House, a sort of small zoo that actually has Kiwis (the birds, not the people or fruit) on display.  There were other animals as well, but it was mostly about the Kiwis.  We weren’t allowed to take pictures of them, though.

Then we went to the caves.

After Waitomo (in the evening) we made a sprint against time and foul weather to the Pacific Ocean beach.  On good days, when there is enough time, you can dig a shallow hole on the beach, which will then fill with hot water (geo-thermals, again).  BUT, this water will burn you, so you have to dig close to the ocean, so that when the waves come in, they spill into the hole and cool the water down.  We didn’t get to do this, because we were late and it was STORMING out, but we did get to walk out onto the black sand beach and see the Pacific Ocean.

The next day we went out to see the Aratiatia Rapids and the Huka Falls.  This was cool!  I’ll start with the falls first, because there isn’t much to say about them.  It’s a neat area where 250,000 liters of water per second is “squeezed” into a small amount of space and shoots through a fairly narrow, natural canal.  Pretty impressive, though not really a waterfall, per se.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rapids were something else, entirely!  Basically, the town has this dam.  Opposite the dam is a rough valley, mostly made up of large boulders and rocks strewn about.   Four times a day, the town opens the flood gates on the dam, seriously flooding the entire valley!  Then they close the gates, the water subsides, they wait a few hours, then do it again!  I don’t know why, but they do, and it’s amazing!   Seriously, I took a little over 100 pictures of the valley getting engulfed in this tidal wave of water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day, we went to the Agrodome on the outskirts of Rotorua.  This was to be our “Extreme Sports” day.  First, we viewed sheep!  Then, we really did get extreme with a visit to the Extreme Free Fall facility.  It is exactly what you are thinking...A HUGE fan that blows enough wind to pick the person up and simulate sky-diving.   Kimberly, Jacoby, and I all did it.  Again, HUNDREDS of pictures.  Kimberly got the t-shirt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Extreme Free Fall, we headed to the Zorb.  If you’ve seen the Jackie Chan flick “Operation Condor,” you’ve seen a Zorb ball in action.  That’s the thing that looks like a giant hamster ball that Jackie rolls down a hill and flies off the cliff.  If you haven’t seen it, no worries.  It’s really a giant, inflatable hamster ball that they toss you into the middle of, and then push you down a big hill.  There are four ways to do it.  There is the Straight Down or the zig-zag course, in either a wet or dry Zorb ball.  In the dry Zorb, they strap you in and go end over end until the ball stops.  In the wet ball, they actually put a bunch of (warm!!!) water in the ball with you, which allows you stay pretty much on the bottom, sliding along like a water slide as the ball goes barrelling down the hill.   RIIIGGHHHT!  I went end over end anyway, just a-spashin’ and laughing the whole way.  We went with the Wet, Zig-Zag option.  This time, Jacoby and I got the t-shirt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last full day we drove out to Napier.  Napier is on the east coast of New Zealand, and is where they grow all of their grapes for New Zealand wines.  It’s sunny 300 days a year, which is a striking contrast to the rest of the country.  It was a BEAUTIFUL drive through the mountains to get there!  That being said, we had three things on the list of things to do in Napier.  One was to visit Opossum World, where they make all kinds of stuff out of Kiwi Opossums, which are CUTE little things, not like the American variety you are thinking of.  The next thing was to visit Napier’s Classic Sheepskins factory and watch them make prepare and cure sheepskins for a variety of products.  (No, Jamey, there was no blood or meat of any kind in this factory.  It was all very clean and family friendly).  The last thing was a stable in which to go horseback riding on the beach for a few hours.

We made it to Opossum World, which was much smaller than we’d imagined.  Not much goin’ on there.  Then we went to the Sheep Skin Factory, which was actually pretty cool!  We went on the tour, bought some stuff, then headed off for the horses.  They are not there, anymore.

Okay, so one-for-three on Napier, but again, it was the best drive we had on the Island.  Really terrific views over typical (re: beautiful) New Zealand terrain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day (our last), we packed, and drove back to Auckland to catch our flight.  We arrived early enough to play a round of mini-golf, which Jacoby was pretty serious about wanting to do.  Then we flew back to Australia!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once back in Sydney, we decided to hit the Blue Mountains prior to coming home.  We drove out from the airport, spent the night at the 3 Sisters Motel (fine livin’ after the Hostel!!), and woke up ready for a hike.  It took us about 3 ½ hours to walk the trails, and I would recommend them to ANYONE! –As long as steep, natural stairs don’t bother you.

The walk started with a view of the 3 Sisters rock formation.  Then we headed to the “Giant Stairway” which took us down into the valley.  Seriously.  No exaggeration.  It took us half an hour to get to the BOTTOM of the stairs.  Amazing!  Think Frodo in the last Lord of the Rings.  It was THAT kind of stairway.  Once on the bottom, we walked along roughly 2KM, past a terrific waterfall, saw a few more waterfalls, then ended up by the Blue Mountains Railway.  This railway boasts “steepest railway tracks in the world.”  They take you from the top, through a tunnel, and then down the rock “cliff” to the bottom.  It’ll also take you to the top, if you’d like to avoid the OTHER set of stairs...The ones that take you back to the top.  We’ll have none of that!  We headed off for the stairway and it took a little over an hour to reach the summit.  Granted, we stopped and took a LOT of pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please note the stairs in the middle of this picture.  All of these shots where taken on the way UP the stairs. 

Then we found our way back to the car and drove home.

It was a great trip!  -And also our last major get-away in Australia.  We have another week-ender coming up, but I’ll write about that when we get to it...

Enjoy!

 


Posted by kisajaja at 11:47 AM MEST
Updated: Saturday, 11 October 2008 12:27 PM MEST
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Friday, 26 September 2008
Thai Festival
Mood:  happy

Celebrating the Thai Independence Day, the Thai embassy opened their grounds for a festival, and invited all of Canberra to come experience Thai culture, dancing, some shopping, oh, and of course, food.  They had been advertising this thing for months!  So, we went...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


It was packed!  Apparently all of Canberra DID show up, because it was wall to wall people in there, on what isn’t one of the smaller embassy grounds.  They had about a dozen food venders, they had shopping tents set up selling brass ornaments, clothes, Thai silk, spices, pretty much everything.  They had a traditional dance troupe, a few bands playing various types of music, ranging from traditional Thai to American Blue Grass, I kid you not!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Thai fruit carving.  That thing on the right is a watermelon!

They also had this fund-raiser/game set up that was pretty funny.  They have a fairly large tree, into which they attached probably thousands of little foil stars of different colors.  The idea was that you would use this bamboo pole to “catch” a star, which had a little number sticker inside of it.  The higher the number, the better the prize.  We looked at the prize tent, and had a BUNCH of stuff.  Bicycles, stereos, home theatre sound systems, bags, toys...Jacoby wanted to try.  Again, and again.  In the end, even Kimberly “had a go.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think we won one “earth-friendly” hand bag, one pack of noodles, and a can of broth...  J

 

It was a really well done festival. The food was good, the shopping, nice, and really it wasn’t a bad way to spend a few hours, celebrating with the Thais.


Posted by kisajaja at 9:52 PM MEST
Updated: Friday, 26 September 2008 10:02 PM MEST
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Archery 101
Mood:  happy

Kimberly found an add in the paper for the Holder Archery Club.  Apparently, every first and third Sunday of the month, they hold an Archery clinic for beginner (read:  first time) firers, to sort of expose them to a few hours of introductory archery lessons and have some fun. 

 

It sounded like fun to us, and Jacoby has been a sort of archery kick lately.  I still don’t know why.

 

We went!  We had to haggle with the guy to let Jacoby participate (we didn’t make reservations), but in the end, they signed him up and started fitting him with the appropriate long bow, guards, and such.  Jacoby then looked back at me and said, “Aren’t you going to shoot?”  The guy said he could probably “squeeze me in,” so I signed the forms, paid the money (cheap), and then joined Jacoby.  Kimberly was the photographer for the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve shot before, so there wasn’t much in it for me, other than an hour or so of target practice, which I don’t get often, and I’m a little embarrassed to say how much fun I had shooting the balloons the guy kept putting on our target, all of about 25-meters.   Really a good time...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jacoby had a ball, and finally got to send some arrows “down range” which, like I said, he’s been talking about for some time, now.  As soon as we were done, he asked if he could come back the next week.  I said sure, but “Only if mom signs up, too.” 

 

I’ll be the photographer, the day after tomorrow...

 

 

 

 


Posted by kisajaja at 9:44 PM MEST
Updated: Friday, 26 September 2008 9:51 PM MEST
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Saturday, 20 September 2008
Last Weekend, in Review (Finally)

 

Actually, as I was writing this, Kimberly wrote to Sabrina and summed it all up pretty well!  So, stealing shamelessly from a private e-mail sent to Sabrina by her mother, here you go:

“This weekend we went to Floriade. Each year Canberra picks a theme - this year's theme is Australian movie legends. Then they haul a bunch of dirt into Commonwealth Park and make large garden patches where previously there was nothing. In the gardens they plant a bunch of different kinds of flowers to represent something from their theme. The problem with all this is that the flower beds are flat and massive (probably 50 feet x 50 feet or more) so unless you happen to be freakishly tall, walking by on a pair of stilts, or flying your helicopter over the park, you have no idea what the picture is they are trying to convey. They have little signs with drawings of what it's supposed to look like, but honestly it could look like just about anything and no one would ever know. That being said there were a lot of flowers in bright vivid colors and it was rather pretty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is, of course, part of a piano keyboard...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, this is all temporary, built just for Floriade... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also went to a church festival where they advertised that they were having Tongan food. Having never had Tongan food before we were curious. They had three food options. A pig wrapped in foil, a fruit drink with smashed fruit bits and watermelon juice (I don't like watermelon), and a dessert made from spinach - dessert should not be made from spinach. Ryan decided to try the spinach dessert. I had a bite too. It tasted like pureed spinach that was made into a pudding and then had gelatin added to it and then they took the jello after it had set and stirred it up so that it was lumpy and then they put a caramel sauce on top. I stick by my initial assessment - dessert should not be made from spinach.”

Well summerized, indeed!  Except we also had lava-hot spring rolls and a few dim sums at the church festival...It’s all about the food to me...


Posted by kisajaja at 6:25 AM MEST
Updated: Saturday, 20 September 2008 6:36 AM MEST
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Wednesday, 3 September 2008
A Day on the Mountain
Mood:  mischievious

Peter skis.  I ski.  Jo and Kimberly can ski, but don’t really like to.  Jacoby snowboards.

What I’m getting at is this...Peter and I went skiing and left everyone else at home.  It sounds mean when I say it like that, but that’s what we did.  Jacoby didn’t come because he would have been expensive, and I don’t know much about the slopes here in Australia.  In hindsight, it was a good thing, because some of the slopes were pretty rough.  –More on that later.

Peter and I registered for a one-day ski trip, organized by Murray Bus Lines.  We were to board the Murray’s bus at something like 5:30 in the morning, they would take us to Threadbo (the same place we hiked up Mount Kosciuszko, only with more snow) for the day, and then the bus would get us home in time for dinner.  All equipment rentals were included, so we didn’t have to have our own stuff.

It was a great day at the slopes!  We made several runs throughout the day. The lines were a little crazy at the chairlifts, and we had some equipment problems with the rental ski boots, but all in all, it turned out just fine.  There were more runs than we had energy for, so that’s good!

The slopes are different here in Australia then they would be in the states.  For instance, when you get on a chairlift, there is no run-map to tell you what you’re going to find at the top.  It was my first time there, so I had no idea what we were getting into most of the time.  The second thing is that while the runs were labelled at the top of the mountain, there was no guarantee that the Green Circle (easy) trail you were following down the mountain a few hundred meters wouldn’t end at a point where the only remaining options to get down the mountain were all Black Diamond (Expert) runs.  Neither of us had been skiing in quite some time, so when this happened (a few times, actually), we did the best we could to make a controlled descent without getting too banged up in the process.  We eventually found a couple of good runs for our ability level, sort of in the middle of the mountain, but that was towards the end of the day, and the only way to get to them was to accept the expert slopes at the top,  and the time delay that was necessary to get down and not damage ourselves.  We also ended up on one long run that was seriously snow challenged.  It was a muddy mess, but we made it!

All in all, it was a good day!  Neither of us was comfortable enough to take a camera, so no pictures...Sorry...Go back and look at the other pictures and add more white stuff and less green stuff. 

It was fun to hit the mountains just once in Australia.


Posted by kisajaja at 6:56 AM MEST
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Friday, 22 August 2008
The Long Awaited Update
Mood:  happy

Okay, so I haven’t blogged in a little while.  While several things have happened in the last few weeks, not much of it is fun, sharable news.

For example, Sabrina went home, in order to get ready for her sophomore year at Shippensburg University.  An event, to be sure, but not fun to share.  She stayed pretty much her entire summer enduring the Canberra winter, which is not good by Australia standards, but not really all that bad...

I went to Puckapunyul , spelled something like that, for a week in order to run some battlefield simulations (wargames).  It was school work, but it was fun and not a bad trip.  I am going back there next week for another simulation.

We had a few smallish events that were fun that I’ll mention.  The first was that went to the Indian Independence Day at the Multicultural Centre.  It was pretty good with dancing, music, and food.  We left before the speeches... J  We also went up to the Mount Stromlo Observatory the other night.  They had set up several telescopes to view the Southern Hemisphere stars. That was actually pretty neat, since it was a crystal clear night.

Then we found a small restaurant that is very similar to Chipotle in Virginia.  We’ve gone there a few times in the last week, and probably again tomorrow.  The place is called Zambreros.

Tomorrow is the Indonesian Independence Day being celebrated at their embassy, so we’ll go check that out.  We’ll go to the Thai one, as well, but that’s not until September.

So, what event has happened that I found suitable for sharing?  We got our RFO (Request for Orders) and I now know where we will go next, after Australia.  Here’s the story...

About a month ago, I got an e-mail from my assignment officer who reminded me that I was due to move in December.  Roger that.  Got it.  While he said he didn’t know what jobs were available, he would let us know soon and that we should start thinking about preferences.  I replied to his message by saying, “I don’t suppose you know if you’ll have anything in Japan?”  He replied by saying, “Yes!  As a matter of fact, I do.  No promises, but I’ll keep you in mind...”

Then time went by.

About a week ago, I got another message that said “hey, folks, here’s the jobs list.  Rank these jobs in order of your preference and return it to me.”  I read the list.  No Japan.  I wrote back to confirm.  He confirmed, no Japan.  Apparently the guy in the job decided to stay. 

Okay, well, maybe next time.  We ranked the jobs with my top 2 being Hawaii and Italy.

Two days later, I find out that We didn’t get Hawaii or Italy, but instead, would be spending our next three years in balmy Anchorage, Alaska.  –Or at least Kimberly and Jacoby would.  I’d be going back to Iraq as a SIGO for the 4th Bde, 25th ID (Airborne).  Okay...Not bad, could be worse.

Two days later, we find out that I will NOT be going to Alaska.  Apparently I couldn’t get there in time for their unit MRE (rehearsals, taking place in November), so they had to take someone else.  My new choices were Colorado Springs, Colorado, or Ft Hood, Texas.

I replied, “Great!  Either one would be fantastic! I’ll take Colorado!”  We’ve been to Ft Hood, Texas.

Next day, I get an e-mail, “Okay, you want Colorado, but based on the needs of the Army, I may have to send you to 173rd Airborne BCT (SETAF).”

I wrote immediately, “That’s Italy!  That’s my second choice from the beginning!  I’ll take it!”

Three days later, it was confirmed.  We’re going to Vicenza, Italy, about an hour west of Venice.  We report on 22 February, or before.  Before I get there, I have to complete the S6 (SIGO) school in Georgia.  It takes five weeks, starting 5 January, so it looks like the end-of-Australia leave will be shortened to accommodate that.  Then it’s back to Italy, this time to live for a while.

It’s a great unit with a proud history and I’m glad to have the opportunity to be a part of it!

-But we will be overseas, again.  Let the teeth gnashing begin.  Like Australia, I’ll do my best to ensure we have a guest room waiting!


Posted by kisajaja at 12:30 PM MEST
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Saturday, 2 August 2008
...And on the way home...
Mood:  happy

 

The next day, we did something that I thought was a great deal of fun.  You may wonder about this one, so let me explain.  There is a place near Dubbo called Parkes.  There is nothing there.  Really, the whole place is a sheep paddock and a road that takes you somewhere else.  However there is one unique thing worth seeing there.  There is a large Radio Telescope in Parkes that was featured in a funny Australian movie called The Dish.  If you’ve seen it, and I’m guessing you haven’t, then you know the story, but for the rest...

According to the movie, at the time of the Apollo 11 moon landing, Parkes had the largest radio telescope in the southern hemisphere.  As such, it was NASA’s primary communications site when Apollo  was out of range of California.  It was the ONLY one in the southern hemisphere large enough to receive a television signal from the moon.  As it turns out, it was the Parkes dish that received the video feed from Neil Armstrong’s first steps, which was then broadcast live all over the world.

So we went to see it.

For the record, Parkes is really there, they really have a radio telescope, it really participated in the Apollo missions (and continues to support NASA today), and it really is featured in the movie. 

You should really see that movie....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Posted by kisajaja at 8:15 AM MEST
Updated: Saturday, 2 August 2008 8:20 AM MEST
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