Getting Our Sea Legs

For two weeks Brad and I traveled some of the most beautiful parts of Australia's east coast.  This entry will be the first of a few as there were so many great highlights and it is hard to pick, so you get it all!

Mahdieh Hossini, a long time friend of Brad's, hosted us on our first night in Brisbane.  She was a thoughtful host and supplied us with a HUGE bag of Aussie road trip goodies, vegemite, and Bushman's Deet Tropical Strength which came in very handy for our camping trip in....

THIS! A delightful two person DELUXE camper van.  We splurged on air-conditioning, a running joke for us as it couldn't keep up with the Aussie heat, hence leaving windows open at night, therefore really appreciating the bug repellent.  Thanks Mahdieh!

Our drive to Airlie Beach was an exercise in how many road trip games two people play in 14 hours, but we did see these cool Glasshouse Mountains, sugar cane fields, and banana plantations.

Check it out! All ready for our first night in our sweet digs.

Loved these pit stops.  Free coffee, bickies, and juice on the side of the highway.

 Second night we rolled in to our site in the dark and woke up to this. Good morning Seaforth!
 

The birds woke us up crazy early, but all was forgiven when we saw how pretty they were.

And then we set sail in the Whitsundays on day 3! This was our boat, this shot was taken on the way back from Whitehaven Beach.



This is the galley of the boat which transformed into our bedroom. The crew slept up here too, everyone else was below deck...totally lucked out, the table you see was turned into our huge bed every night...turn down service on the ocean, woot woot!



Our sunset...




Our first mate and senior dive instructor giving us our days itinerary and briefing.

 Some of our new friends.  We now have a place to stay when we want to visit Holland, Brazil, Germany, Netherlands, England, and China!

Group shot of all 26 passengers getting ready to hike up and over the hill to Whitehaven beach.

 Can you see the lizard?



 View from the top of the hill on the hike.




 Time to play! Oh dear, the crew supplied us with Zinc...

 Attack of the Vegemite Monster!

 Da beach is ova there...


I think he's happy...

 Oh myyyyy
 

The trees on Whitehaven Beach inspired Brad to create this haunting image. 

Time to get serious and do some diving.  This is and aerial shot of Bait Reef where we stayed overnight and dove in three different spots.  One of the spots is accessible only a handful of times throughout the year.  We had great weather and missed the cyclone by a day. The white dots are sailing boats, that will help give you some perspective on the size of this small part of the reef.

 The reef from the deck of the boat, we amped up the colours so that you can see the actual reef.

I dove three times on this trip.  I was happy that I did because my first dive experience in Hawaii was not a great one.  I can't wait to do it again.

 

 

 Can you find Nemo? They always travel in twos.

 

We hope you enjoyed the pictures as much as we enjoyed our holiday.  We will be posting again soon with the rest of our trip as this was only the first half of what has truly become our most amazing adventure to date.

 

Wine tours, rugby, parades, oh my!

The last couple weeks have been busy for Brad and I, full of adventures, new friends, and visitors.  First on the blog today are photos of a wine tour day over the long weekend.  The Pyrenees wine region was beautiful and had some gorgeous wines for us to sample.  Woo hoo! Brad drove, I sampled...

 and sampled some more!

The next day Brad and I went to the Begonia Day Parade in Ballarat to cheer on Pleasant Street Primary who came second in the school category. 

Brad had yet another opportunity to take in more rugby! This time it was New Zealand vs Auz.  Canterbury Crusaders had a fantastic win over the Melbourne Rebels. 

I finally had an opportunity to meet some of the other exchange teachers!  There are nine of us in total.  These three are sure to be mentioned in future posts....hehehe.

We had the opportunity to visit Sovereign Hill during the Ballarat ITA weekend and yep, they dressed us up.  Don't we look gorgeous! (snicker, snicker) And look to the far left...Marty and Angela Lewis joined us for the weekend.  Angela was my final kick to apply for this exchange as she did one to Sydney four years ago.  Thanks Ang!

Bowling 1890's style!  I saved you from the original view that Brad shot...thank gawd for cropping.  We then played English Bagatelle and tied for the highest score of the day.
 

The actors on the street are just brilliant.  This lovely creature was so life like that people would avoid her on the street!

Soldiers marched through the streets and fired their rifles.

I tried my hand at gold panning and found a flake on my first try! I'll have to go back again, I've got the fever...

Over the next couple weeks, Brad and I will be getting ready to go to Brisbane, the Whitsundays, and Tasmania.  We'll also be taking in a runway event during Melbourne's Fashion Festival and celebrating St. Patrick's Day and our favorite watering hole.  This was a brief blog so if you have any questions about the pics, please ask!

A whirlwind weekend along the windy winding Great Ocean Road

So this is how our road trip to 'Apollo Bay' started.  Google map your start point and destination and you never know which route you'll end up on.  Gravel road and kilometers of farmland as far as the eye could see.  We were laughing pretty hard at this point but just kept going with it.

Not long after the long deserted gravel road we find ourselves on a narrow winding road through Great Otway National Park, full of almost lush greenery.  It's supposed to be stunning when its not in drought.
When we arrived at our wonderful(SACRASM a plenty) accommodation, we dropped our bags and made a bee line for Torquay.  Julie quickly sniffed out the factory outlet stores and we were off.  Cheap surf boards from Quicksilver and Ripcurl, $100 wetsuits, boardshorts 2 for $50, $10 rashies and $20 bikinis had us occupied for a while.  Actually we have to go back!  We needed to get to...

SUPER RUGBY.  Yes it was only preseason but it was great to see some quality rugby being played.  Most of the big guns were there, Savea brothers and Scott Higginbotham, etc., but no Conrad Smith.  The Hurricanes ended up coming up short but it allowed the crowd to leave happy.  Saw this little guy too,

That's a Harlequin jersey if you weren't sure.

The next day, after we spent a night in our closet, I mean room with a view of the building next door, we hit the road.  The Great Ocean Road.  First stop according to my navigator was

I had know idea why we were stopping here only that I would be able to see some Apostles.  Well I did and I didn't know how high above sea level the road was until I went down the stairs carved into the side of the cliff.

It was described to me as much quieter than the 12 Apostles car park which we stopped at just down the highway.  Although there you did not have access to the water so if you wanted to dip your toes in the ocean it had to be here at Gibson steps.

She seems surprised its not luke warm.  "Its okay Honey, the Arctic is just a little way over there".  Haha.

Its pretty awesome even if it does happen to be windy as heck and overcast threatening rain.

Just watch your step,

The Arch

London Bridge
Actually used to be attached to the mainland via a land bridge which collapsed back in 1990 and stranded a couple of people on the island for a couple of hours until a helicopter came and got them.  How cool would that be!

While we are on our trip we are endeavoring to try new things and that opportunity came via dinner.

KANGAROO.

Sunday morning sleep in

Good morning! One week has flown by and I can only imagine how fast this year will go too.  For our first weekend excursion Brad and I took the train to Melbourne so that I could go shopping for teacher clothes.  I brought enough with me, however I quickly realized that they would be too hot for the classroom.  I'm in a new building, but it doesn't have a/c. It's not unbearable, but it gets hot.  We're expecting highs into the high 30's this week and it should remain hot until mid March.  The view from the train is spectacular, country for miles.

For my teaching colleagues at home this school would be a dream... Most reading levels of my year six class are at about year ten, the atmosphere is like Tribes but Tribes on steroids... I know it's been only a week so I am interested to see how the year plays out when challenges arise between students. I have been given the role of Social and Emotional Wellness Coordinator (I think that's the title), a big job but they seem to think I'm well suited for the role.  Essentially I check in on kids who's parents have recently divorced or experienced other difficult situations, then send them on to others if needed.  They've also given me one extra block of time so that I can do the job.  I've been told that they will try to get me on every possible excursion with the senior unit, including Sovereign Hill, Geelong Waterpark, the Immigration Museum in Melbourne, etc., etc.

I've attached pictures of our staff development day.  We met on the lake for a morning of Thai Chi and saw my first Black Swans.  Needless to say I am overwhelmed with happiness and feel very supported.

Next weekend Brad is looking forward to exhibition rugby in Geelong.  Today Brad and I are off to a BBQ for international teachers past and present.  I have yet to see a Kangaroo! Maybe today...