Hopping Through Hobart

On Christmas Eve we drove the two-and-a-half hour trip to Hobart along what is called the Midlands Highway, which cuts Tasmania in half from north to south. Here were drove through the small, sleepy towns of Ross and Campbell. Upon arriving in Hobart, we found it to be sleeping as well given that it was Christmas Eve. Fortunately we had enough time to catch a seafood lunch at the legendary Mures waterfront restaurant. This restaurant is similar to Ivars in Seattle, and had a nicer restaurant upstairs and a seafood bar downstairs. On this day we chose the downstairs and had meals such as Trevally and chips. Trevally is a large fish caught in the South Pacific Ocean. Hobart was one of Australia’s first cities due to its beautiful deepwater harbor location. The downtown area surrounds a large dockside area with “heaps” of fishing and crabbing vessels. After checking out the town and hitting Woolworth’s grocery store before it closed, we returned to our 3 bedroom apartment to finish the evening playing games. On Christmas morning, the girls were pleased to find that Santa had tracked them to Hobart and had dutifully placed their stockings by the heater with care. Because of our travel, we had opened presents prior to our trip and so were glad Santa tracked us down. After celebrating Christmas we packed up a Christmas picnic lunch and drove to the Huon valley where we saw beautiful vistas and seaside bays. When we decided it was time for lunch we pulled over to a picturesque location and had a fantastic seafood lunch and salad prepared by Marce, Grandma and girls. It certainly will be a Christmas we won't forget. The day after Christmas in most Commonwealth countries is Boxing Day. We have heard different stories as to the origin of Boxing Day, but the winner seems to be (1) the day you box up your Christmas decorations, or (2) the day you accumulate more boxes via after-Christmas sales. For our Boxing Day we did neither, but travelled to the famous Port Arthur location where we met up with the Adam family who had just arrived late Christmas Day. Port Arthur was one of the first convict prisons, much of which is still preserved today. And it was one of the first “reformatories” in the British system, and we were able to visit the different buildings to observe how it all worked. Apparently it met with some success, but not everyone was reformed as some people also went insane.

Marc

Landing In Launceston

On Tuesday 19 December we boarded a Virgin Blue flight with Marce’s mom, Alene, bound for Launceston, Tasmania. Upon arrival we collected our bags and obtained our 12-seat Toyota Hiace minibus. Last year in New Zealand we hired a Toyota Hiace having only seatbelts in the front two seats, which was a bit nerve-wracking on the narrow, windy New Zealand roads. This year however we had a shining new white Hiace with only 10,000 km on it, seatbelts all around, and giant red-letters “Avis” painted in bright red on each side. We all joked when looking for it in a parking lot that we could see it a mile away! On our first day we visited the Cataract Gorge, which is only 5 minutes out of town. The gorge boasts beautiful gardens, hiking trails, colourful peacocks, and a long chairlift which takes you across the gorge. It was a beautiful day and we had a wonderful time strolling around the gardens and hiking up the gorge. The weather was considerably cooler in Tasmania, with high temperatures rarely breaking 20 degrees Centigrade (70 deg Fahrenheit). On the second day Marce was fighting a cold, so Alene and I took the girls up north to Hillbrook strawberry farm. Unfortunately a recent frost had wiped out their strawberries, so we were unable to pick any. Instead we picked red currants and enjoyed strawberry parfaits out in the garden. We then went to the Swiss-themed town of Grindalwald and played a round of miniature golf. We returned to our villa to eat dinner and pick up Marce so we could drive to Low Head to experience one of the highlights of our trip, a Ferry penguin tour. At 9PM we joined a tour group of 15 people armed with red-flashlights and went out to special locations on the beach where a colony of 3,000 Ferry penguins returns each night. Just like clockwork the penguins started coming out of the water after sunset and walked in groups up various sand pathways through the bushes. If we stood still the penguins would not notice us and almost walk across our feet. We learned that they were returning from fishing at sea all day, and came back to their nest to take micro-naps of 4 minutes long. Apparently they do this at sea as well while floating in the water. It was great to be able to be so close to the penguins as they returned home. On Thursday we went to the Ashgrove Cheese Factory and after snacking on too much cheese, went to see the 190 metre long King Solomon Cave. Unlike last year's wet gloworm caves in New Zealand, this cave was dry and had a tight pathway through the calcite stalagmites and stagmites. On Friday we toured Seahorse World and the Platypus house in Beauty Point, approximately an hour north of Launceston. Here we learned that Australia has many species of sea horses, some right outside of Brisbane. In the Platypus house next door we were able to see and learn about the unique Australia mammal which gives birth to its young via eggs. We also were able to pet two echidnas, another unique Australian monotreme, similar to a cross between a porcupine and ant eater. After all this fun and learning we took a 20 minute hike to the beautiful Alum Cliff Gorge, located about one hour west of Launceston. We all agreed that Launceston was a great town and has much to offer.

Marc

2 Tickets 2 Paradise

On Friday 15 December Marce and I joined our friends, Ramsis & Ceclia Adam and Andrew & Carole Owen, on a 4 day sailing trip to the beautiful Whitsunday Islands. This group of 74 islands along the central Queensland Coast was discovered by Captain Cook in 1770 on Whit Sunday and forms a haven for sailing inside the Great Barrier Reef. We traveled non-stop by air to Hamilton Island, 90 minutes from Brisbane. Once on the island we transferred to the Sunsail office, where we met our captain and "hostie", Marc and Stephanie. They treated us to a fantastic adventure combined with Stephanie's excellent cooking. At 2PM we boarded our 46 foot Bahai catamaran named "Melissa Py" and began our voyage. We sailed out and along the west side of Whitsunday Island, the largest of the islands. At approximately 5PM we moored on the north end of Hook Island, overlooking the Hayman Island resort about 1 km away, which happens to be the resort where Marce and I celebrated our 20th anniversary a year and a half ago. The moonless night came alive with stars, which included Orion and its flickering shoulder red-giant star Betelgeuse, and the Andromeda galaxy, which could be seen with the naked eye. Stepanie cooked us up a wonderful Spanish paella which we ate outdoors in the cockpit in 75 degree temperatures. On Saturday the wind and weather were favorable which allowed us to sail to Bait Reef, one of the many reefs that form the outer portion of the Great Barrier Reef. Upon arriving we were met by "Boris", a giant bue Wrasse fish about 2 feet long and 1 foot tall. He frequents this boat as he knows he will be fed. Once moored we all jumped in the water and had a great time snorkeling around the Stepping Stones, one of the world's premiere snorkeling locations. Sunsail has one of 15 permits allowing them to anchor at the outer reef, and we were blessed to be able to spend the night out on the reef, some 60 miles offshore. On Sunday morning, we woke early and traveled to Whitehaven Beach, located along the east side of Whitsunday Island. There we enjoyed the 7 km beach with some of the world's purest silica sand. The sand on Whitehaven Beach is so pure that it's actually used to form the glass mirrors on the Hubble Space telescope. At 12:30PM our pre-arranged Air Whitsunday seaplane touched down and met us in Melissa's zodiak boat, where we boarded the 13 seat Cessna 208 Caravan. This airplane was one of the nicest I have seen, with a four-bladed propeller and gas turbine engine, and a GPS-enabled glass cockpit inside. I was able to sit up front and watch while our pilot, Mick, took us on a memorable aerial adventure back out to Bait Reef, Hook Reef, and finally to Hardy reef where we flew over the famous Heart Reef. Air Whitsunday is the only company in all of Australia licensed to land inside a reef, and this we did in Hardy Reef. There we boarded a small glass bottom boat and cruised over the coral before coming to an idyllic location where we all donned stinger suits and snorkeling gear and dove into the water to experience some of the best snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef has to offer. After an hour of snorkeling, we enjoyed cheese, crackers and champagne on the boat before returning to the Cessna 208, which was waiting for us at its mooring buoy. We then returned to Whitehaven Beach, speechless from the beauty we had just seen. After meeting captain Marc and transferring back to the Melissa Py, we enjoyed a wonderful snack meal prepared by Stephanie. No, we did not lose any weight on this trip, that is for sure. We then spent the next 2 hours playing Bocce Ball on a deserted Whitehaven Beach. Marce and I were able to take a stroll along the beach by ourselves where we saw sting rays in the water and thousands of soldier crabs, which were small and formed what looked like blue-gray clouds that moved along the beach. Once the sun had set, we enjoyed our last dinner, a fantastic BBQ steak and prawn meal. On Monday morning the wind had come up, and we had a good sail back to Hamilton Island with 25 knot winds pushing us along. As we said our good-byes to Marc & Stephanie, and boarded the plane for Brisbane, we all agreed it was one of our best vacations ever!

Marc

P.S. Check out this website below to view more of our pics at the online Kodak Gallery:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=rb4s789.1k0ceiat&Uy=-7rdamw&Ux=0

Grandma Alene Arrives For Christmas!

It's been a long time coming (especially for the girls) but Grandma Alene, my mom, arrived Friday morning for her second Christmas Down Under with us. In our 21 years of marriage, she has only missed two Christmas seasons with us--one, three years ago when we had just arrived in Brisbane, and the other, the year she decided to take a warm-weather holiday to Mexico. This year she will join us for a month of fun in the sun. The weather has been perfect and cooler than normal for her arrival--highs in the upper 80s with evening temps in the low 60s. After travelling for 27 hours (actually 17 hours in the air) she did an amazing job keeping up with us for the day. Once she was settled, we enjoyed an invigorating swim in the pool, followed by a few hours of Christmas shopping in the mall, and ended the day watching "The Santa Clause" movie while wrapping and wrapping and wrapping gifts--whew! She managed to stay up until 10PM before crashing for the night.

Yesterday morning Grandma Alene, Michelle, Meagan and I were up and out the door by 7AM for a brisk walk down to Racecourse Road (a weekly ritual for Marc and I) where we enjoyed breakfast at one of my favourite cafes, Ascot Continental Deli. Then it was home to fit in a little more wrapping before we all headed out to see "Charlotte's Web, starring Dakota Fanning. Yes, you read that correctly, the film was released in Australia on December 7th ahead of the American release date, December 15th. Usually we have to wait to see new films until about 2-6 months later, so this was quite a treat! "Charlotte's Web" was filmed in and around Melbourne, with its idyllic setting, which is why they chose to premiere it in Australia first. It was a positively charming and beautiful adaptation of E.B. White's book, and a much more engaging film then we expected. We all agree it's a definite must see film of the holiday season!

Then it was time for--surprise, surprise--more Christmas shopping at Queen Street Mall where we finally scored and found a swimsuit for Meagan, after months of searching. Well, it's not really Meagan's fault; its just a difficult process finding modest swimwear in Australia.We wrapped up our day out with dinner at Sitar, our favourite Indian restaurant. Then it was home for an evening Christmas celebration, which was admittedly a little strange because we celebrated it so early in the season. The highlight of the evening came when Michelle and Meagan discovered that their two dear friends, Callie and Margaret, will visit us for three weeks in March. The girls are barely able to contain their joy and excitement!

Today, we're off to church and then over to the Adams for another Christmas get-together and BBQ dinner (an Australian Christmas tradition).

Marce

What Is A Didgeridoo?

Last Christmas I was given two tickets from Boeing to attend a Christmas concert put on by the Queensland Orchestra. Marce had come down with the flu, so Michelle and I enjoyed an evening Brahm's concert. The highlight of the concert was a piece played by William Barton, one of the most prominent didgeridoo players in the world. You might be asking what a didgeridoo is? A didgeridoo is an approximately 3 foot long branch from a tree which is hollowed out by termites. By blowing into the end, one can make some interesting sounds from a hollow branch. The real trick is something called "circular breathing" where you breath in and out at the same time. I still haven't figured that one out! After the concert Michelle and I had the opportunity to meet William, a 26 year old Aboriginee from Mt. Iza in northern Queensland. We exchanged business cards and kept in contact. At some point William told me he wanted to develop a corporate speaking program to compliment his orchestral playing. One thing led to another and we invited William to our house where we had dinner and laid out the strategy for his first coporate speaking event at Boeing. Following that session we had a few planning sessions with my Australian friend, Brendan Croucher, who is truly world-class at developing corporate strategy events. William was the surprise guest speaker at my groups' annual offsite, which was held at the Twin Water Resort on 9-11 Nov on the famous Sunshine Coast, about 90 minutes north of Brisbane. During our offsite William played both modern and traditional didgeridoo pieces for both dinner meals, and led an afternoon session where all of the Boeing team learned to play PVC pipe didgeridoos. Marce and the girls came up for the end of the event, and we stayed one extra night at the resort which gave us time to swim, hike and play on the Sunshine Coast. It was a great weekend for all!

Marc

On our way to Twin Waters ...

Earlier this week, my dad had a leadership training program at Twin Waters, a resort located about two hours north of Brisbane. He proposed that we all meet him there once he finished so that we could spend some time relaxing, swimming, and bike-riding. So, at this moment, we’re driving to Twin Waters along the freeway. Bing Crosby’s Christmas album is keeping Madeline and Marina occupied (they’re singing and bopping like crazy!), and I can’t help but think that “White Christmas” is a ridiculous song to listen to in Brisbane. Right now, the sun penetrates through the white cumulous clouds floating in the baby-blue sky, and would cause our car to feel uncomfortably hot if we didn’t have air conditioning. Whoever invented air-conditioning, we thank you with our whole hearts! This year, the weather is actually quite a bit cooler than we remember last year, but we all know that in just a few more weeks, the mercury in the thermometer will touch the 35* Celsius mark (which is about 95* Fahrenheit).

Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere … it just doesn’t feel right. While browsing through the malls (they call them “shopping centres” here), we’re bombarded with miniature Santa Claus toys, fully clad in jackets, boots, and scarves. Anyone wearing that in the middle of December would practically die of heat stroke! Australians should realize that Santa ought to change into a different costume before giving gifts to Aussies. Maybe he would be decked out in shorts, flip-flops, and sunnies (Australian’s nickname for “sunglasses”). He definitely would receive tim-tams and ice-cold beer from the kids instead of the traditional cookies and milk. But one nice thing about having Christmas in summer is that the dads are given about two weeks’ holiday to spend traveling with their family, relaxing, etc, instead of having only one week in Christmas and one in summer. That last option doesn’t give much time for traveling overseas or relieving all the stress from work (of course, I don’t really know much about occupational stress, because I’ve never had a job other than picking up pine cones...).

Last year, around this same time, we vacationed at Twin Waters, and found it to have a never-ending list of activities. In the middle of all the hotel rooms and restaurants sits a rather large, manmade lake filled with an enormous floating trampoline, sailboats rented by vacationers, and numerous pink and green colored kayaks, bobbing up and down on the gentle waves. On land, even more activities abound: bike-riding, bungee-jumping (it’s really small, though, and more for little kids), tennis, and trails to and from the near-by beach. I don’t think we’ll suffer from boredom this weekend! We’ll try to write about our time here soon.

Thanks for reading!

~Michelle

Marina, up and running again

What a relief to have Marina back to her perky, cheerful self after this past week! The case of gastroenteritis she contracted at the end of our trip to South Australia was a real doozy! She was so sick and lethargic by Wednesday that we took her to our doctor who promptly told us to get her into ER. We were extremely impressed with the staff at Wesley Hospital, a private hospital about a 10 minute drive away. As Marc was paying the bill, he jokingly commented to the Receptionist that it would cost that much just to pay for parking in a hospital parking garage. The cost of Marina's ER visit? Less than $100US--amazing! I guess that's a result (or some would say benefit) of living in a socialized country. Fortunately Marina didn't have to stay overnight, but we were told to force the liquids down and monitor her closely for the next 12-24 hours. By Friday, she had turned the corner and today she's thankfully back to normal.

Marce