Armidale, Sydney and Queanbeyan

So last monday (9th) Andreas and I left Brisbane and took a lovely scenic route to Armidale. We went from sea level to 1000 meters above. It was so beautiful to see the mountains and see the great dividing range (again). Armidale is the highest city in Australia and we could definitely tell from the temperature. The winter temps in Armidale often go below 0 at night anyways. Colder than Southern B.C. average winter. It was one of the nicest towns we have seen. Population about 30,000 and so much of the original architect from the early 1900's. A good number of schools, churches and even homes were designed by a famous architect and are well maintained.

It really gives the whole town a quaint look.

We stayed at a great bed and breakfast called Annie's B & B. The best part is we were upgraded to the studio suite which was it's own building. It had a great kitchen as well for us to make our dinners. For us this was our 6 month anniversary celebration. We had fun!

The second day there we did a free town tour that highlighted the schools, universities, the old railway station, the art gallery and the churches.

We also visited a winery that afternoon. The cellar door assistant was a lovely young lady that was really fun to talk with. We are loving all the new people we are meeting along the way.

On Wednesday we took another lovely scenic route back down the mountains to Sydney. We stayed with Cessi, Andreas youngest sister. She is such a sweet sister-in-law. I love her. We camped out in the living room, as Cessi shares the downtown flat with 5 other girls. We were only like 2 blocks from the Hillsong City Church. I took in a service on thursday morning called "Sisterhood". A regular session the church hosts on thursdays. It was great! The worship was just excellent and the speaker shared a very encouraging message. Then on Friday we went to the college chapel service. Again great worship!

Another perk at the apartment block that Cessi lives in is a shared gym and pool facility among a few of the buildings. So Andy and I had a workout both days and took in the sauna as well. We arrived in Sydney early evening on Wednesday and left Saturday at noon. Because Cessi is in Bible school we really only had Friday evening and Saturday with her. We walked around some of the downtown and to a great park on Saturday. Oh yes and we also shared a dinner with Carolyn and Charles on thursday evening. It was great to see them after 3.5 months and catch up. They are a hospitable and sociable couple.

We arrived in Queanbeyan late afternoon Saturday. The couple we are housesitting for Phil and Cathy are very nice. Their home is older but nice and clean (Phew). Average 3 bedroom home. They were very hospitable giving us their room and ensuite the night we arrived and telling us to stay in that room for the duration of the housesit. We will be here for a full 2 months. They own a dog and cat. Jack is a blue-heeler cross cattle dog breed, and a really well-behaved and smart dog. He is a pleasure to walk and play with. Mitzy is an indoor cat only and more aloof, but will get used to us in time. Both pets sleep in front of the wood fire on mats beside each other at night. Very cute. It is very cool here, August is the coldest winter month for Queanbeyan, night temperatures around 0 (or lower). This is not the warm part of Oz, but we were prepared for it.

I had an interview yesterday at a massage clinic in town and I have the job. It's so easy to get a job in this country it seems. More about it in the next blog....

Alpha Homestead, Brisbane (Forest Lake Suburb + Wellington Point Suburb)

Well this last week has been very eventful and fun. First we finished our housesit in Rocky last Wednesday morning. Then for Wednesday morning to Saturday morning Andy did some bush clearing up at Mt. Morgan about 75 mins from Rocky. He was offered the job by the couple who had taken us boating to Humpy Island the first week we arrived in Rocky. Excellent that he had some work, but there were no pit toilets or anything on the property. I didn't want to stay up there for 3 days. So I stayed at the Walford's home with the wife and daughter. Though I did really miss sleeping with my hubby! It was weird I felt single again. Don't really enjoy it.

Last Saturday we headed to Alpha, west of Rocky. It was to a homestead on Pine Hill, called Rocklea. Basically it's like a big farm, but Oz style which is much different than Canada. The couple Lawrence and Pat are the parents of the man that we housesat for in Rocky. They invited us out to their property. It was fun. We saw the cattle and gave them hay, I rode Junea the mare, and Andy and I went for walks along the dusty dirt tracks (of course minding the cow pies!)

The cattle are so funny, when you approach them on the road, they look like they'll trot toward you but then they run into the bushes. Hehehee.

After Alpha we had a night in Taroom, then we had been invited to stay in Brisbane with a couple we had met camping back in early May. Patty and Andy are a couple our parents age and have a beautiful home in Forest Lake (Brisbane suburb). It is so clean and tidy and very big too. The guestroom was so nice and the bed so comfy. And though it is getting pretty cool here at night and in the morning (12 or lower degrees) they have heating in the rooms. So it chases the chill out. They also have two lovely dogs Champ and Chilli and we walked them both mornings. On Wednesday we went to downtown Brisbane and shopped around. The first time Andy and I have really shopped together here in Oz. And after 4 hours I was pretty tired of it. Andreas is so happy he didn't marry a shopper :)

Thursday we left the McFarlane's house and went to the beach in the afternoon. Just to relax and read. In the late afternoon we headed to Markku and Sirkka's place. They are the Finnish couple we stayed with in May, on our way up North. We will be here with them for another day and a half. So exciting to find their little sauna in the backyard is working again. We did a sauna on Thursday and Friday evening. Great way to warm up in the cool evenings :) Yesterday Andreas and I went to the Mt. Coot-Tha Botanical gardens. They were so beautiful. It was a perfect day to walk the gardens. Cool catci, Pine and Fern trees, Herb garden and Azaleah garden.

Then today we went on a fun hike with Markku and Sirkka and their friends. It was about an hour and half away, parallel to the Gold coast but up in the mountains. It was cold! We left early in the morning and it was probably 7-8 degrees during the hike. Good we all had enough layers. We went 12 kms and there was beautiful scenery and waterfalls.
Pictures will be uploaded in a day or two.

Heading to the Hunter Valley (Wine country) and staying at a B&B next week for our 6 month. Yay!

Memories from Rocky

Well it has been close to 2 weeks since I last wrote a blog. I guess Andreas and I have kinda just settled into town here at Rocky. I've been working 4-5 days a week the last couple weeks and then Andreas and I have walked the dogs or run other errands.

We have really gotten quite close with the Higgins family, who we went 4x4ing with 2 weekends ago. A week and a half ago they invited Andy and I over for dinner. We brought desert! After a BBQ meal we sang karoke for at least an hour and a half. It was so fun and funny. Jeff and Petie Anne are great and their daughters are so lovely. When you live somewhere for 5 weeks, that's about the length of time it takes to connect with people. But now we have to leave....sigh

Then just this past Saturday the Higgins invited us for dinner again. Yummy! The Higgins couple friends, Doug and Jen were also there. Fun to meet new people.

I have really enjoyed the staff I've been working with as well. The employers, Rolf and Claudine treated us staff to a lovely fancy restaurant lunch. It was so good. And considering I'm only a temp very generous of them. They also give all staff and their spouses free adjustments and massages. My spine and hips are now corrected and Andreas has experienced his first adjustments as well.

We also attended Life church a few more times and met some friendly and kind people there. It was good to attend a smaller church, people noticed us and reached out. Andreas also did some labor help there one morning.

We will be leaving this housesit tomorrow morning. Then we are off to Alpha, staying at a homestead for a weekend, then slowly start driving south, Brisbane, Ballina, Armidale, Hunter Valley, Sydney and then Queanbeyan, our next housesit.

In the pictures above are the two dogs here, Splodge (the small lab/sharpa) and Muddy (the big labradoodle). We loved Muddy and would consider having a labradoodle when we have our own place. I'm holding Missy, the black cat with personality!

The family in the picture is the Higgins daughters with their dad Jeff. The other bloke in the picture is a family friend.

Skittles, Ferns National Park and work

So this last week has been fun and relaxing, yet steady. The Skittle and mouse story is already two weeks old, but funny.

So a few days after moving into the house, I noticed mouse poo and urine under the sink cupboard. Since the homeowners had mentioned, if we happen to see mouse signs in a cupboard, just leave it open and the cats will get it, I figured the cats had already got this mouse. The cupboard just needed to be cleaned out. So I cleaned the cupboard and sanitized it.

About 5 days later, Andreas came home to find water all over the floor. He opened the cupboard beneath the sink and saw the leak in a hose. He closed the faucet and realized it was the dishwasher hose, then detached it from the outlet. Examing the hole, we realized it was definitely a mouse trademark. Plus I noticed more mouse poo on the cupboard bottom. We were like, where is this mouse coming from? We had taken everything out, and cleaned the cupboard. We had not seen the mouse. Then we spotted the hole in cupboard that the hoses go thru to attach to the back of the dishwasher. Small but enough for a mouse to squeeze thru. Skittles the cat was already in the kitchen prowling near the dishwasher. Andreas pulled the dishwasher out a bit and saw the brown mouse. Skittles was interested too, we pulled the dishwaser out abit more and she darted in right away and grabbed the mouse. Then she carried it to one of the boy's rooms. Then she dropped it and it ran up the closet door. Skittles couldn't get up there. Andy pulled it off the closet door by it's tail, and dropped it back on the floor (the bedroom door was closed). Mousy just ran under the bed. Skittles followed it under the bed and somehow managed to get him back into her jaws, but then she dropped him again. Mousy ran behind the desk and bookshelf. No way Skittles could squeeze in. Andy and I were like, oh great we need to get this mouse out, but we can't pull the desk and bookshelf to far out, as there were a bunch of books near the top. Then Andy thought of a mop handle, and Mousy wasn't too smart. Andy put the mop handle behind the desk and slowly drew it out and Mousy just ran closer to the top of the mop, and Andy's hand. We decieded not to give Mousy back to Skittles because she was just playing. She was not interested in harming it.

Then we tried drowning it into a bucket of water but Mousy just kept pawing the water. Finally we just went to the end of the backyard and tossed it into the field behind the house. Immediately the birds were at it. Let nature run it's course!! I don't think we'll be seeing Mousy

again.

Then on Saturday we had a very nice invitation from a neighbor family down the street. They are close friends with the couple(family) we are house sitting for. Jeff and Petie-Anne have 3 daughters, 9, 12, 14. They were camping out for the last weekend of mid-winter school break at Fern's National Park. They invited us out to go 4x4ing with them.

We drove an hour to the National Park and joined in for a very fun day of 4x4ing with the 5 of them in their SUV. We went on the big, high sand dunes of the area. It was very fun and we got pretty stuck at one part for abit. All fun and adventure. The girls, Charlotte, Elousie and Emma were very nice girls, it was great to spend some time with kids again. We just had such an enjoyable time with another family and getting to know more people. We feel we know Jeff and Petie Anne better then the family we're housesitting for, probably b/c we've spent more time with them already.

We went to a different church last Sunday, it was a much smaller church, maybe about 50 people. But it was warm (temp) and the pastor had a good message and since it was so small we actually met quite a few people. We will be going back to Life Church.

I have had quite abit of work this week, working 5 days of the week. At the end of last week a part-time employee quit and suddenly they needed me for more than 2 shifts a weeks. I had no problem obliging. I'm glad I've been able to help during this pinch. They have hired another massage therapist but will still give me the 3-4 shifts they offered for next week too. We will be done here in Rocky in excatly 2 weeks. I have really enjoyed working in the Hauert Chiropractic Clinic. I love the set up, it's a clean, simple, airy set up and very modern. The chiropractor and his wife are very nice as well.

Included a cute picture of Missy drinking a tad of milk.

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!