Rocky! (aka Rockhampton)

Andreas and I have now been in Rockhampton for almost 2 weeks. It has been great to be in a house again. We were getting just a little tired of the air mattress and a few of the cool nights we camped out.

The house here in Rocky (as it's affectionatly called by Aussies) is fairly large, well larger than the place in Townsville. However I did do some deep cleaning once we arrived and settled in, so it would feel comfortable to my standards. Growing up with a perfectionist, tidy mother and home has somewhat shaped how I like a house to be. And the family that lives here are also very busy and don't have a lot of time to spend cleaning. Well I had plenty of it!

The animals are interesting, and funny. There are 2 dogs, Muddy and Splodge. Muddy is a labradoodle, and only 2 years old. Splodge is a 9 year old lab sharpea breed. I must admit I quite miss Tiggy compared to these dogs. First of all Muddy is incredibly hyper and needs a firm hand and consistent commands to not jump up on you. He is a pretty big dog, thigh height.

We are taking them for walks to the dog off lead area. Muddy runs all over the place, though at least he does come when you call. Splodge on the other hand does not listen. She could care less, I think she is undertrained, that's probably the main reason. So we leave her on the lead now, that way we don't have to run after her. Muddy we are working on training with treats as incentives. Seems to be working somewhat.

They also have two cats, Skittles and Missy. They are cute and pretty affectionate, half indoor/outdoor cats.

Then there are 4 chooks (chickens) in a pen at the back of the backyard. Easy to look after, and the free eggs are great!

Some of the best news is I am finally working! A friendly and helpful neighbor passed on a newspaper ad from a chiro office looking for a massage therapist. I phoned the receptionist/part owner and had a interview. This was just over a week ago now. All she could offer me was a casual postion, but hey, I'm only here temporarily, I'll take what I can get.

So I work about 2 shifts a week. It is great to be doing massage again. I really missed it and it's a neat opportunity to work with a chiropractor as I have never worked with one before. Also massage therapists get free adjustments and massage, so I will book myself in for one before we leave. Ahhhh......

Andreas has not found any work and that has definitely been dissappointing and frustrating for him :(

We have attended a church here several times now "Cathederal of Praise" It's a nice sized church with a really great worship team. The messages are good as well. The only down side is the air con is turned up way to high. Feel like I'm freezing thru half the service. To bad my husband is just as cold as me!

We did meet a really nice couple from the church though, Simon and Linda. They are our parents age and have a small boat. A week after we arrived in Rocky they took us out on the boat to this island 30 mins away. Humpy Island. It was such a beautiful day. We went on a hike, then had a quick bite, then the guys went snorkelling in the wet suits, while I suntanned on the beautiful beach. Then after Andy came back I put on the wet suit and went snorkelling. Some beautiful fish to see! We hope to get to the mainland beach at least one more time before we leave.

The story of the Skittles and the mouse will be the next blog.....

Cairns, Undara, Northern Territory, KAKADU, Darwin

Well my honey and I had a very busy and fun vacation for the last 16 days. We drove over 5,500 Kilometers in that time as well. We ended up seeing quite a lot of Australia, I've probably seen more of Australia than my own country.

We started out from Townsville and went up North along the coast to Cairns. This is the last bigger town on the east coast. Cairns was a nice town, though very busy with other young backpackers. The "highlights" was walking along the strand by the beach and daydreaming about owning a fancy sailboat in the future by watching the ones in harbor. Oh and having bats shat all over our car that night plus having a drunk backpacker(s) in the hostel be very obnoxiously loud at 3 am. :P I think we've learned our lesson about hostels......we're too old for them!

Then off to Undara which is famous for it's lava tubes. However the tours were very expensive to see them, and we arrived to late anyways and missed it. But we did hike up to a old overgrown volcanic site the next morning. It was a really nice campground we stayed at as well.

On the way to Mt. Isa which is far west Queensland, we ran out of fuel. The fuel prices were incredibly expensive in the outback, as it was up to 0ver 400 kms between service stations. Thus no competition so propriators could really ask outrageous prices. The most we paid at one station was $1.70litre. This trip became quite expensive........

Anyways we had to hitch a ride to the next town which was thankfully only 20 kms aways and buy a 5 litre jerry can then hitch another ride back to our stalled car. Ahhh the adventures :P

Mt.Isa we stayed at a very nice caravan park but it was quite abit cooler at night.

Threeways, the next stop was an awful location it was so windy the tent was caving in and very cold. We didn't even stay at that caravan park on the way home.

Katherine was beautiful. It was warm . This was in the Northern Territory now, the far north west state of Australia. We stayed at this campground for 2 days. We hiked up a 7 km walk the next day along the beautiful gorges. Saw a thin small brown water snake and then turtles and fish in the river. We dropped bits of our lunch and tuna in the water and they loved it!

The campground had a nice pool in it as well, so we cooled off after the hike.

That night we met a German backpacker named Patrick. He was 19 but passionate and intelligent. Anyways Andreas and I talked with him for several hours and religion and Christianity came up too. It was a great opportunity to witness our faith. Patrick is definitely searching and we prayed that our words and example could make a postive impact on him.

Then on to Kakadu National Park. We stayed at the Park for 3 days, 4 nights. It was great. Many hiking/walking trails, beautiful rock escarpments, artistic ancient aboriginal rock art, unique and diverse wetlands. We went on a wetland boat cruise and saw about 4-5 wild crocodiles. The second campground (Merl) that we stayed at in the national park was better. The only down side of Kakadu was the Mossies (Mosquito's). They were awful, those combined with Midgie bugs. Andreas and I got at least 200 bites each. Let me tell you it was a very itchy 5 days after.

Then on to Darwin. Which is the only city on the North coast of Australia. It was a scenic interesting place. A beautiful park, historic museum and lovely beach. The only problem was no swimming as there was algae growth in the waters. We also got our thermostat replaced on Mandy and also a couple rock chips on the windscreen from the big road trains that passed us on the highway. It was mainly 2 lane highway the whole way.

Then it was the long drive back to the east coast, to Rockhampton. We drove over 2,500 Kms in 5 days. The most interesting stop on the way back was in a town called Winton. Nothing very special about the town or the caravan park we stayed in that night. But at the caravan park they had this evening show featuring 2 middle aged bush poet women. It was highly entertaining. They were comediens, they shared some amazing poems they had wrote, waxed yarns about the way of life in Oz and just spoke abit about their lives. It was definitely memorable.

Two days later we were here in Rockhampton........overall this road trip was awesome and I could not have had a better travel companion. I love married life and have such a wonderful husband. Andy was so helpful with all of our camping and set up, making dinner, looking after Mandy really well and even changing the oil himself. He was the best snuggler the nights it was cool outside, I actually for once was not too cold camping :)

I will be uploading a bunch of pictures on my facebook today of our time in Australia, if you're interested in the sights we've been seeing :)

Goodbye Townsville....

So this last week was our final week in Townsville. Andreas and I were pretty laid back and took it easy. We were saving some money by not doing any big expeditions since we will be driving alot now for the next 2 weeks (5000 Kms round trip) camping and staying in other accomodations.

We went up Castle Hill again, last Monday and then again just this past Sunday. Love that hike. We took Tiggy the dog twice and she just loved it. She is such a sweet dog, I am already missing her so much.

The main excitement of the past week was the radiator top tank of Mandy cracked open. Andy was driving and we were at a busy intersection when he noticed steam coming out under the hood. Suddenly the temperature gauge went from middle of the scale to hot! We were like "Ahhhh we need to get off this road!" The street light turned red, then the engine failed but after a couple tries we got Mandy started and turned right into a side street, pulling to the curb. Then we looked but had no water in the car to speak of. We were planning on going to a nearby house and ask for some water for the rad, but a lady was walking by so we asked her if she lived nearby and we could get some water from her. She had a full water bottle on her actually, so let us empty it into our rad. That cooled it down enough for us to get home. (5 mins) The next day we took it to a radiator shop and had it replaced and a rad flush and refill. We are very thankful to God that this happened in Townsville and not out in the boonies on a desolate road to Kakadu.

Sat morning I went to a ladies morning at the church Andreas and I attended here in Townsville. It was a fun morning and I met some more women from the church.

The homeowners came home from their holiday yesterday and we were happy to see they were happy with our housesitting ability. Margaret was very glad the animals loved us and were well taken care of. It was such a blessing for us to be able to live in a home for a month for free. Townsville was such a beautiful city too. At the dinner that night Trevor had a open half full bottle of this delicious red wine. He saw Andy and I enjoyed it, so offered us an unopened bottle from his fridge. How generous, it's made by Bailey & Bailey (Australian) and the label is "Two fat ladies". Well there would be one fat lady if I bought it often :P

Now we are staying in Cairns for the night, then we are off into the interior.....

My answers to the Bethesda Ladies:
Ilse - No we stayed in a resort (4 star) for our honeymoon in Fiji, since then we have camped, in a tent, or stayed at people's houses. No we didn't burn our lips, though we did burn our backs and chests.

Andrea - We loved the horseback ride, it was so fun and I was thrilled that my horse stayed ahead of the other 3 horses in line, it liked to lead! Our honeymoon was fabulous.

Gaal - Yes most backpackers hostels have shared lounges/living rooms, with a TV and comfy chairs. Hostels are like dorm rooms with bunk beds, shared bathrooms and kitchens. Fun was to meet people.

Staff - we saw a Koala at the Billabong Sanctuary and Andreas and I patted it. Then we also saw one live in the wild on Magnetic Island. They are very cute!

Billabong Sanctuary, Magnetic Island and Wallaman Falls

So this last week in Townsville has been fun. Since Andreas and I are both not working we decided to see some of the attractions in the area. The first place we went to was Billabong Sanctuary which is like the local zoo, Aussie style. All the animals in the sanctuary are indigenous to Australia, we saw different reptiles, birds and mammals such as kangaroos, koalas and a cute wombat. It was neat to have the "roos" eat out of our hands (it was Andreas' highlight) and to pet the koalas and a wombat. I really loved the dingos, which are the Australian wild dog. They are quite short but very cute and I loved to pet them. The crocodile feeding were very interesting, and the facts that we learned were fascinating. We also got to hold a baby crocodile, its mouth was taped shut and its belly was surprisingly soft to touch. I also got to have a python draped around my neck, something Andreas would not do at all, he barely even touched the snake while I carried it. The snake was pretty soft too, but cold.

Two days later we drove to a place called Wallaman falls, which is the highest single drop fall in Australia. At 268m high it is an impressive sight and incredibly gorgeous. We wanted to take the hiking path down to the base of the fall but unfortunately it was closed. Instead we did a short trek along a nearby creek through a rain forest area. It was a beautiful area, with lians hanging from the trees, weird looking "birds nest ferns" and cute turtles swimming in the creek, Andreas also took a swim with the turtles in his Adam's suite. We also happened to lose our front hub cap three times on the bumpy pot holed road to the falls, after the third time we just stuck it in the trunk until we got home.

On the weekend we went to Magnetic Island which is only 20 minutes by ferry from Townsville. It is a magnificent island. Beautiful beaches, lush lush vegetation, some WW2 history, some great nature treks. We spent the morning on the beach, climbing over big rocks, swimming and just enjoying the sun. Around noon we went for a trek at a area called the Forts, which is the remains of a WW2 radar and gun site. On the track to the ruins we saw a wild Koala sleeping in a tree. Also a sign at the beginning of the trek recommended wearing sturdy footwear, but I only had thongs on, and didn't have any proper shoes. I was pretty good for the whole hike until the last 10 mins on the way down when I slipped on some loose sand and got a nice gash to my left palm. Oh well, I'm better prepared now.

Then after the church service on Sunday we went out for a lunch with a cool couple, named Ross and Rebecca. They are very nice, around our age, Rebecca is due with their first child in less than 2 weeks. It was just a great opportunity to connect with some local people and make friends. They have also traveled in Canada before, so it was neat to exchange stories.

Well our last week in Townsville will be good I'm sure, then on to Cairns and Kakadu National Park.

Hello from Townsville

So we have been here in Townsville for 11 days. This city of about 180,000 is located in Northern Queensland, along the east coast. The temperatures have been wonderful an average of about 25 degrees. The house we are house sitting for is a clean renovated 3 bedroom two level house. We also are in charge of feeding the pets, a cat named Lib and a dog named Tiggy. Lib is quite arrogant I must say, only interested in us when he wants to be fed. Tiggy on the other hand is the strangest dog I've ever met. She is like an abused dog, would run to another part of the yard if we approached her. However her owners, who are a nice couple in their 60's obviously don't mistreat her. However Trevor (the man) thinks she might have some inbreeding in her.

Anyways the owners have been gone for a week now and I've been trying to get Tiggy to come to me and warm up. I tried treats, didn't work. Then yesterday I thought, maybe a walk will do it. I mentioned the word walk to Tiggy, don't think she understood it. Poor girl, I don't think she get's walked more than a couple times a month. So then I showed her the lead, well what a difference. She jumped and hopped around and came to me easily. I snapped it on, opened the gate and whoa immediately she was pulling me down the street. It was a fun walk and something I plan on doing daily for her till we leave. Dogs are meant to be walked!

We have found a nice church to attend here, it's called Life Church and the members are very friendly. It's also close to where we are staying, so convenient.

Andreas and I are looking for work presently. Andreas tried a door to door salesman job for a few days, but didn't enjoy it, so that is done. He wasn't getting paid for his time, and though he quite enjoyed talking with the people he met, the sales scheme he had to pitch was unrealistic.

I have just got a public liability insurance number for myself privately. Though it does cost some money, now it will be easier for me to find work. There is two clinic/spa here that is interested in my availability and will call me later. Praying that it works out well and we can make some money before we leave in 3 weeks. Though right now our expenses are nil, so that's a huge help.

The pictures above are of The Strand, a popular park/walkaway along the coast of the town, Castle Hill rock, which Andreas and I climbed last Sunday. We will try it again this weekend.

The third picture of us kissing is taken at the scenic "Kissing Point" lookout.

Cheers......

Our camping trip up the Eastern Coast of NSW/QLD

So on the morning of April 29th, we left Sydney for our long drive up the Eastern coast of new south wales. This is a state in Australia. Anyways we wanted to break things up, have less time on the road and spend time in campgrounds and exploring. Our first campground was The Ruins in Booti Booti National Park. It was nice, pretty empty campground. The beach was beautiful, but the waves powerful, so we didn't swim in it. The next day we went to Seals Rock to a historic lighthouse, about 45 mins away. My first time driving on the opposite side of the road, it went okay! Seals Rock was so gorgeous, a few big beautiful beaches, the lighthouse and rock formations around it magnificant. We took some pictures and sun tanned and swam in the ocean, though the water was much cooler than in Fiji.

After packing up the following morning in the rain (uughh!) we drove to the next campground Arakoon State Park (Trial bay gaol campground). It was a busier campground but very nice amenities and great beach and bay to swim in. We were there only one night, then we drove to Woody Head campground in Bundjalong. We were at Woody Head for 2 nights. We met some fun Aussie couple camped beside us. Andy and Patti, they are middle-aged but were very friendly and helpful. Definitely a part of this adventure is meeting the different locals.

Bundjalong was a scenic national park with several good walks throughout it. We went for one walk about 3.5 km, it was very desolate. Didn't seem like it had been walked through for quite a time. The eucalyptus trees were unique. Then when we got back to the car, and took off our sandels we found 2 little leeches, one for each of us :P I just pulled mine off since my skin was sweaty, but Andreas had to light a match to get his off. Then your blood doesn't clot well for awhile, but thankfully we had bandaids in the car. The next morning we packed up in the rain again :( and drove to Brisbane, to stay with Andreas friend's sister. Sirkka and Markku hosted us for 3 days, 4 nights. After camping for 5 nights, it was nice to have a bed again. They were an incredibly hospitable and kind couple. It was a honour to get to know them, they had many interesting stories to share.

Friday the 7th we left Brisbane, early morning. This day was going to be our longest drive up to Rockhampton. 630 kms later we arrived at Martin and Rebecca's place. They will be our second housesit after this Townsville one. They have a large home with a large yard, 2 hyper dogs and 2 cats, plus 4 chooks (chickens). And a pool! This will be a nice housesit to have and the family were very friendly and helpful.

The next morning we left for Mackay and Seaforth campground. It was raining as we were driving there and we were not wanting to set up in the rain. But thankfully the rain stopped just as we were ready to set up camp. We met another nice Aussie couple who had quit their jobs, sold their house and were travelling in a caravan around the country. Neat couple! It rained abit later that evening, but thankfully was sunny when we had to tear down the next morning. Then we commenced our final drive to Townsville about 400 kms away. More about Townsville next blog......

"Mandy Mazda"

So we have started our adventure along the central eastern coast of Australia. We drove up from Sydney and are now in Brisbane, camping at some very nice NSW state campsites along the way. But how did we get there? With our "new" car, Mandy Mazda!

We had the lovely privilege to stay with a couple that live in Glenwood, a suburb of Sydney. Actually quite close to the Hillsongs church. Carolyn and Charles were so hospitable and helpful. They picked us up from the airport in Sydney when we flew back from Fiji and settled us into a spare room in their house. We knew the next day would be car-shopping. Tuesday morning we left with Carolyn for Paramatta Rd, a well-known auto sales road in Sydney. Many, many dealerships, new and used. Carolyn was helpful and had a few good tips to add, plus she knew where the dealerships clumped together along the way. After test driving a couple crappy, overpriced, not very nice looking used models, we found our car. We went to Sari autosales and saw a nice '97 Mazda, the interior in very good, clean condition and the exterior also quite nice, no dents, never has been in an accident. For a 13 year old car, it was taken care of. 184,400 km on it. The price, more than I wanted to pay, we haggled it down to 3,650. But it does have all the extra's my Tricia Tercel doesn't. Power windows and locks, adjustable steering, a/c, more interior lights, adjustable driver's seat and a much bigger boot! She's a station wagon, the back seats fold down and we can fit lots of stuff in her. Two things we've noticed now, with use, that don't work too well: the cigarette lighter is diconnected and the gas gauge on the dash goes completely to empty, once the tank is about half full. However there is a fuel warning light that comes on, when the fuel starts getting low, plus we are just using the trip meter to record our milege, so it's not a big deal. Normally who cares about a cigarette lighter, the only thing was the pump we bought to fill up our air mattress needs that outlet to function. So now at campsites we have to borrow other campers lighter outlets! Humbling maybe, but also a great way to meet some local Aussies. They are very nice and helpful, with the laid back personality that reminds me much of Canadians!

Wednesday, after we bought Mandy, we got her registered in our name, paid the tax for it, then went shopping for camping supplies. Carolyn again was a great help and she took us to Kmart (which is big here-kinda like Wal-mart) because we said we wanted to get what we could as cheap as possible. We found a great tent, Esky box and water jug, large water container, air mattress, camping chairs and camping cooking utensils for great prices. We also got maps, that Caroyln could get for free from NRMA.

Carolyn and Charles were such great contacts for us, and all from my boss in Chilliwack, Maggy. Carolyn and Maggy are cousins, and Maggy offered to help out when I told her I would be moving to Australia for a time.

Thursday was pack up day, picture looking time at Carolyn's neat scrapbooks and our wedding photos, and then off we were at 10:30 am to our first campsite along the way. The saga continues........