Good-bye Brisbane and flooded Queensland

Our time in Australia is ever drawing closer to the end. We only have 16 more days in this lovely country. Today we are leaving Queensland for the drive down to Sydney.

The last two weeks here have just flown by. Unfortantly Queensland has suffered some very serious flooding during that time. We had so much rain in the last 10 days of Dec and then 9 days at the beginning of Jan. It was just to much for the Brisbane river to hold, plus water from the rivers up north that were swollen were travelling into the Brisbane river. The areas of the city centre that were close to the river flooded big time, shops, banks, restuarants, botanical gardens, boat transit terminals. Plus there were a number of residential areas lining the river and they all got flooded out. It has been so heartbreaking for the Aussies. The guesstimated cost of all the damage, and to rebuild/repair is in the billions!
But I am so impressed at the Aussie spirit of reaching out and helping that neighbors and locals have been giving. There has been so much clean up that has had to be done, and the mud and water are extremely dirty and contaminated. Thankfully it has been beautiful weather and dry for the last 11 days so the river has gone down alot, though it is still high. Andreas and I drove into the city yesterday to clean the windows for our last client. The river looked incredibly muddy and still quite high in it's banks. We will be donating some money to the government flood appeal account.

Our last two weeks of work went well. We have so enjoyed not only the opportunity to work together, but of meeting some lovely elderly people who genuinely needed our help. So many of them were so sweet and it was interesting hearing abit about their life story. We loved meeting Effie Munday who was a strong Baptist and a genuine and lovely lady. She is in her eighties but still sharp as a tack and pretty good on the computer. Effie had a heart for missions and is still trying to get Bible material out into Africa. She was an inspiration!

We also had the opportunity to pray with one client who was actually quite young, in her 30s but with a nerve disorder from a complication of anathesia. She needed some encouragment so we talked with her and prayed with her and it was a special moment. We do hope and pray that this next year will be so much better for her.

Our last full weekend here in Brisbane was lovely so we finally went to the Gold coast and Surfer's Paradise. The beach was so good and the waves were spectacular. It was our best beach day that we've probably had for the last half a year. Of course we used spf 30 but still got sunburnt!

Now we hope to sell our Mandy Mazada quickly and for a fair price, to pass the vehicle road worthy inspection and spend some time with our sister Cessi before we fly to Vancouver.

New Year 2011 ;)

Yikes, hard to believe that we will only be in this great country for about 4.5 more weeks. The time has flown!

We had a lovely weekend with Cessi, though unfortantly it was very wet. Then we realized all of last week that the office through which we work were closed for the holidays.

So Andreas and I had a long break. Unfortantly it was quite deary outside, but we did read alot and go for some walks, plus take down the Christmas decorations. Then it cleared up last thursday, and friday. We went to the beach on thursday on the Gold Coast. It was a nice, though windy day. We will still make it right to Surfer's Paradise one weekend! New Year's Eve on friday. Thankfully a nice day. We celebrated the coming of 2011 at a nearby hotel. There was some good music and it was very nice to dance again! I love that my man is willing to go dancing with me, when he knows how much I love it. Even if it's not Andreas forte he's a good sport and lots of fun!
Though of course we left at like 12:10 and then went to bed. :P

Back to work this week. We have been filling in for several staff who are on holidays so we have been split up and going to seperate people's homes. The only downside is some confusion among clients who have not expected us or been home. I think the work office could be a bit more organized. This has resulted in some lost hours of pay for both of us, but mostly me. I sure hope our last two weeks will be the full amount of hours we usually have. We both would like a steady income for abit anyways.

We have definitely enjoyed our conversations and meetings with the seniors we are helping. They are so sweet!

Will write again shortly before or after we leave Brisbane.....then God's leading for a good sale of our car!

Merry Christmas

The last 2 weeks here in Brisbane has flown by. Hard to believe that we only have another 3.5 here.

We have been blessed to find work through the company that Sirkka works for, the Finnish Rest Home Assoc. Sirkka is the homeowner we are housesitting for. So we have been employed as causal employees and have been going to aged individuals homes and doing domestic cleaning. It has been quite a pleasant job actually.

First off, because Andreas and I are actually working together and really enjoying it too. We are a good team together and work well. We will not likely be working together much in the near future, so it's a neat opportunity. It's also great to be using the same car and starting and finishing work at the same time.
Secondly we have loved some of the clients that we have cleaned for. They have been so sweet and generous, giving us chocolates or something cold to drink and just sharing about their life. We have met some very interesting people!

It's hard to believe Christmas is already here and gone!! Wow this year has just flown. We were very blessed to have Cessi, Andreas youngest sister stay with us for a few days! She's living in Sydney currently, so it was just a quick flight up here! We were quite happy to have at least some family with us during this weekend, and not just the 2 of us. We went for a swim at the beach on Christmas day, even though the beach was flooded and the weather was very overcast. It was still warm enough in the ocean! We made a lovely dinner on Christmas Eve of skewers with lamb, chicken, roo and veggies and pineapple. We made two Finnish dishes, one a yummy potato bake and also delish rice and carrot dish. We had waldorf salad and palvola for dessert with whipping cream and fruit. Then later on we had cheese and a divine Gewurtztraminer wine. We ate lots!!!
Christmas Day we had leftovers but it was still good! We made a gingerbread house in the afternoon and Andreas and I went for a nice walk. Thankfully the weather managed to be dry for most of the afternoon. We watched Anne of Green Gables that evening. Today we slept in (well Cessi did) and we had a late breakfast and lunch. We all read our books and just relaxed. In the afternoon we went to the city centre of Brisbane and walked around, but it was pouring rain all day. We got wet even with our umbrella's! Then we dropped Cessi off at the airport and came home.

At this time of year we do miss family but are so thankful for skype to stay connected and close. It is also very special for us to be able to spend our first christmas together and be thankful to God for the gift he gave us in each other!

South Australia & New South Wales

So Andreas and I were very happy when the weather started warming up. Our last full day in Clare we walked along the Riesling trail, and along some paved roads as well. In the end doing about 17 kms. My dogs were aching me then! We visited several wineries. Our favorite was the Sevenhill Winery, which is actually run and operated by the Jesuits. They started the winery in the 1800's for the creation of altar wines for mass. However over the decades they started creating table wines as well. We found their quality was exceptional and their prices were really reasonable too. They still do some fermantation in the wooden barrels so it's very aunthentic.

After we left Clare we drove down to Port Victoria on the Yorke Peninsula. We have become members of the Top Tourist caravan/camp grounds. So we recieved a booklet stating which towns had Top Tourist campgrounds. Well there had been one in Port Victoria but when we got to the campground office there were no logos up and I was hesitant. We gave them our membership card and the woman confirmed they were no longer with them. I was miffed that they had cancelled their membership with the chain after the booklet came out! Sneaky cheeky's!!
What was nice was the weather warmed up dramatically. Andreas and I found Port Victoria beautiful.

Port Victoria has a significant connection to the Åland Islands (where Andreas' mum is from). In the 1930's and 1940's huge four masted windjammers would sail from Europe to Australia to load up with grain to be taken back to Europe. An overwhelming proporion of these ships came from Åland although they carried their load mainly to England. There was a small maritime museum in town which Andreas found very interesting, in a documentary featured in the museum two of his grand mother's friends were interviewed. The era of bagged grain trade and windjammers came to an end in 1949 when the last two ships Pamir and Passat left Port Victoria and about 110 days later reached Falmouth via Kap Horn.
The same afternoon we had a beach afternoon on Marion Bay, Yorke Peninsula. It was great that the temp was in the high 20's and the lows were in the low 20's. Very comfortable to sleep in.

Then we headed to Port Augusta. It was hot there, with the temp in the 30's. But a dry heat so very pleasant. The second day there we headed to the town of Whyalla and went to the HMAS Whyalla museum. The ship was neat to explore and tour guide was fun. The actual museum was okay too. The ship was actually built in Whyalla as a mine sweeper/corvette during WW2. Today she is about 2kms from the ocean on dry land, quite a feat of transport to have her moved there.

From Port Augusta we went up to Flinders Range. We loved the Rawnsley Park campground. We did a short hike the day we arrived, about 5km along the low ranges. The gound was abit soft though, due to rain earlier that day. The next day we did a long 13.8km hike to Wilpena Pound lookout and Rawnsley Bluff. There was a very steep part for at least a km that was very challenging but fun too! The view was spectacular. We went for a swim that afternoon in the camp pool, so it was another hot day in the 30's. We loved this campground as it was quite quiet and few campers. The amentities and camp kitchen were incredibly clean and suitable.

Then we are on our way to Brisbane. Our first stop was Broken Hill in NSW. We had left South Australia, but Broken Hill is very west NSW. Anyways the weather was beautiful the day we arrived but that night was awful! The wind blew so hard and it was a total lightening storm and we ended up sleeping in the car as the tent sides w constantly caving into our faces was not condusive to a good sleep. It also poured rain so the tent got very wet. The only upside of that campground was the couple camping next to us were from Parksville, BC. They were in their 60's and really nice. We had a nice chat with them (before the weather had turned!) Well it made for a good memory!

That day we drove about 750 kms, (our long day of driving)to Dubbo. The weather was good in Dubbo and we were able to hang up some clothes that had gotten very wet. The caravan park was lovely as well, incredibly clean and pretty new. The camp kitchen was lovely! However the town had some major flooding going on....the Macquarie river near the caravan park had totally flooded its banks. Thankfully the park was fine but on the other side of the river another more lower level caravan park was totally flooded as well as the parkades of two shopping centres. This has been such a rainy year for Austalia, which is great b/c they've had drought for so long.....but now at this time of the year it has become too much! The couple from BC, Tom and Teresa were also in the same campground again and we stayed chatting with them for over a hour. They invited us to come look them up when we visit the Island, great connection to make.

We had a good night sleep and the next day we drove up to Goondiwindi just inside Queensland. We love being back in Queensland. Another beautiful campground. Very clean, we had a huge campsite for ourselves, good camp kitchen and clean amentities. The pool was the best though. We went swimming in it yesterday and it's slightly heated so it felt the same temp as the ocean in Fiji. So comfortable to swim and sit in.

Now we are on our way to Brisbane for our next housesit for 5 weeks. It will be great to be in a house again. Though we loved the camping that we've done for the last 3 weeks, we are ready to be in a house again......and work too!

Castlemaine, Great Ocean road and South Australia

So the last two weeks have flown by. We arrived in Castlemaine on thursday afternoon, Nov 18th. It was so lovely to see our grandmother Bibi again. It had been 14 months for me and 10 months for Andreas. We love our Bibi. We were all staying with Bibi's son and his wife and children. Since the home isn't to big we tented out in the backyard. The weather was first cool when we got there, but it warmed up beautifully for the weekend. We celebrated little Annie's 1st birthday on the Saturday. This is Bibi's first biological grandaughter. She was enjoying having the time with her grandaughter.
On the Sunday we drove into Bendigo and walked around the lovely city and did some shopping.

Monday morning we left and drove South towards Geelong, grocery shopped and then headed out onto the Great Ocean road, one of the most famous beautiful scenic drives of Victoria. Though the day was so sunny, clear and warm inland, once we headed out on the coast the sky was so foggy. We could hardly see anything. Thankfully we didn't drive to far along the coast that day. The next day was beautiful, warm and completely clear. We saw beautiful coastline, and also did a detour inland and did a tree top walk in the Beechforest. We saw the gorgeous famous Twelve Apostles, limestone pillars left standing when the coast around them has been eroded away.
We camped in Port Fairy that night.

The next day we drove into South Australia. We had these expectations that it would be so nice and hot in this state. What a disappointment! It has been so cool, quite cloudy and windy and even periods of rain. The whole week we have been here. Even the locals are saying it is a very unusual cold snap!
We're very glad we have each other to snuggle up to in the tent!
We saw Coorong National Park along the South eastern part, then we went to Victor Harbor on the Fleurieu Peninsula. It was a beautiful area with great scenery but again so windy and cloudy that we mainly just drove around it. Then we headed into Adelaide for 2 days. It was cloudy with minor sun and the city was great to drive around in. Compared to the other 3 main cities of Australia we have been in, Adelaide was definitely the best road wise. Wide multi-lane streets and very simple road grid. We went to the Migration museum which was very interesting and did a bit of shopping. We also went to a small Baptist church in the morning, very sweet people.

The last 2 days we have been in the Clare Valley. We have enjoyed the lovely famous Barossa Valley, finding we enjoyed the Peter Lehmann wines the best. Then today we had a super long walk, about 17 kms along the Clare valley wineries. We really loved the Sevenhills vineyard which is actually run by Catholic Jesuits. It's a super old winery over 160 years old. Originally created for altar wines, they later expanded to make great table and fortified wines. They had a beautiful church, an old crypt and a lovely ancient cellar. At least the weather was nice and warmer this afternoon.

Neerim, Victoria

Well it has been 2 weeks since my last blog, and about 17 days since we left New Zealand. Right before we left for the South Island we had a house/farm sit confirmed in Neerim, Victoria. Since we already were planning on being in Victoria for alot of November, we were very happy to have a 16 day house/pet sit.

Well today is our last day and we are happy to be out of here. The homeowner lives on an acreage and has quite a few animals. 5 horses (which are darling - 2 geldings, 3 mares), 2 dogs, 3 cats, 2 chooks, 1 guinea pig, 1 cockatiel bird. Plus a cow, but she required no work, she had a whole huge field to herself.

We did like the location of the place, only 80 minutes from Melbourne or the beach. When we first arrived we were quite dissapointed at how cool the weather was. It was windy, rainy and cloudy for over 3 days. A high of about 15.

We went to Melbourne for the first time that week and checked out the Old Melbourne Gaol. It was such a neat experience. One of the most interesting museums we have been too. We took a number of photos. We also checked out some of Melbourne downtown.

The first weekend was our 9 month anniversary and a beautiful sunny day and we went to Phillip Island. It was a busy day there and a great beach. Unfortantly we didn't bring our swimsuits to get full body color and we also didn't wear sunscreen. We both had shoulder, arm and knee burns. Thankfully not to bad though.

The next week was lovely weather. We went to Melbourne again and checked out the downtown, the older buildings and shops.

We also went to a beach in Inverloch. It was a quiet day since it was during the week and nice and warm. This time we had sunscreen on and got a nice comfortable tan.

The animals here at the home have been interesting. The dogs Cash and Annie are complete opposites. Cash is a 12 month German Shepard and very hyper. However he is quite intelligent and listens pretty well. Annie is 13 yrs old and very calm. However I don't if she has ever been trained. She doesn't seem to know any commands.

The 2 outdoor cats are fine, obviously very low maintanice. The one indoor cat Kimba, has been a complete headache. Though we change his litter box every 2 days, he has a kidney problem and urinates alot. Whether his box hasn't been dry enough or he's just wanted to be a pain he has peed in the house over 10 times. So annoying and smelly! Andreas and I have deceided we will NEVER have a cat! They are cute at times but the hair is just too much.

The 5 horses are very beautiful. My favorites are Cocoa, Raz, Clancy. Though I really like Zeph too, but just this last day he has been acting so scared and spooked of us. We need to take the rug off him, as the weather has gotten warmer but it's dragged too low and we think that's what's making him scared.

We went to Melbourne again on Sunday and went to the Victoria Art Gallery (it was great!), Victoria and King's Domain gardens and visited the Remembrance Shrine which was in the gardens. Great learning opportunties!

Today Cash attacked the old chook. He was already defeathering her when we noticed. I was so upset to see him doing that. Poor chook barely moved when Andy picked her up and carried her to the coop. Just a little cackle. She was not bleeding and we have checked her throughout the day and she is still breathing. Though moving very little. We are not thrilled to have to tell the owner this :(

Now we will be off to Castlemaine to visit Ronnie and Bibi and family!

New Zealand holiday

Well the last two weeks have been great. Andreas and I decided to do a hop over to the South Island of New Zealand. We didn't know when we would next go to New Zealand and since Australia and New Zealand are "neighbors" so to say, we knew this would be the best time to see it.

It was such a wonderful time, we had great weather, out of 10 days we had only 2 cloudy/rainy days. It was a nice comfortable temperature of about 18 degrees and the scenery was majestic.

The day we arrived into Christchurch, we bought some kebabs and did the long drive to Queenstown, where we stayed for a full 4 days. We rented a little Nissan Pulsar (manual, small sedan). It had great mileage. About 6 litres per 100 km. We were so happy with it and Andreas definitely was comparing it with our "Mandy Mazda". Our car has average mileage. On the way to Queenstown I started realizing my kebab was not sitting with me well, and felt quite nauseous. But all we could do was take a couple of rest stops and keep driving. We were staying in Queenstown with a couple friend of Andreas.

We arrived at Steve and Mary's past 11:00 pm. After a mint tea we went to bed. Thankfully we had a great sleep and I felt much better the next day. We explored Glenorchy and Queenstown that day, did a couple short hikes. The next day we went skydiving! It was so awesome and such a great experience. There was only one instructor jumping that day, so Andreas and I took turns. He did the jump first. When he came down and told me how awesome it was, I didn't feel nervous but excited. We had a nice 20 minute scenic flight up to 12,000 feet. The instructor was a Korean named Yuan. He was really nice and thorough and had done over 900 tandem jumps before. We had a beautiful view of Lake Wakatipu and the surrounding mountains. It was a clear, sunny day. Yuan opened the door of the plane, helped me put my legs out and then.....out we went. The freefall was a good 45 seconds and went so fast. We were dropping at a speed of 200 km/hr but we were so high up it wasn't scary. You could barely see the ground. The air was just whipping past. After the freefall, the parachute was opened and we had about a 5 min float to the ground. Though this was a pricey activity it was so worth it!

The next day we went to Wanaka with Steve and Mary, had a lovely lunch and then did a long walk/hike by Lake Wanaka. It was such a warm day. We had dinner that evening with Steve and Mary's senior friend Alan. He cooked the dinner himself and it was pretty tasty!

Sunday we went to a church service in the morning at the local Anglican church which was hosting a Jazz style worship. Had a good walk in the afternoon, with Andreas, and he also went to the golf course with Steve after lunch. In the evening we went to Steve and Mary's church. It was a good service and the people were very lovely and friendly.
Steve and Mary are such a lovely couple, so hospitable, comfortable, kind and very generous. I felt so at ease with them and could see why Andreas liked them so much. It was such a gift that they opened their home to us and made us feel welcome. We want to be like that in the future. When we left Monday morning it was quite emotional for Andres and even me as well. We invited them to come to Canada and visit us. We'd love to see them again soon!

Monday we drove to Milford Sound and picked up 2 hitchiker backpackers (at different places). First we picked up Joel (he's German) and drove him for an hour. Shortly after we dropped him off we picked up Geri (she's Canadian!). We drove her to Milford Sound. It was such a beautiful day at Milford and the fiord was gorgeous. We did some short hikes around the area, then went to see a cinema show that evening that is shot from the air of the Milford/Doubtful Sound fiords. Majestic!
We stayed in Manapouri that night at a backpackers lodge.
The next day we went to Catlins. On the way we stopped at Invercargil and Bluff (which is the Southern most tip of NZ). This was on the southeast of NZ. We stayed at a really nice beach house, and there was only one other guy there. The accomodation also came with 2 outdoor cats. But I let them in and they were so friendly. Immediately curling up beside us or sitting on our laps. The house had a beautiful view of the beach/ocean.

The next day we drove up back to the West Coast to Haast. As we got closer the weather got quite cloudy and cool. When we arrived at our motel and unpacked, we walked around the town then went back to the motel and made our dinner. Watched abit of TV and went to bed. We had driven long that day.
Thursday we drove to Greymouth. On the way we stopped at 2 glaciers, the Fox glacier and Franz Josef glacier. They were magnificent. We walked to some great look out points. The weather was rainy but not bad. We stayed at a Top 10 holiday park cabin that night.
The next day we drove to Blenheim, and stopped on the way at the Blowholes and Pancake rocks at Punakaiki. Really neat. A nice walk around the area as well. We stayed at another Top 10 park that night.
Saturday was our last full day in NZ. We drove back to Christchurch, but on the way we stopped in Kaikoura. There were so many seals in the area. They were very interesting to watch and some were sunning themselves on the rocks and grass. It was easy to get very close to them and take a picture. Though a large group of them tended to produce an unpleasant stench. We did a lovely walk at the coast in Kaikoura first along the top of the hill, then on the way back along the beach. Saw 2dead seals by the beach :(
Then on to Christchurch. We returned our rental car and the owner drove us to our hostel. We walked around downtown Christchurch for a couple hours, Andreas got his hair cut cheap, and we ate yummy hokey pokey ice cream. Then we went to bed early as we had to be up by 4 am to get the shuttle to the airport. Unfortantly there were a few drunks outside the steps of the hostel and they were talking loudly late into the night. We didn't sleep well at all.

Sunday morning we flew back to Sydney and headed into the state of Victoria. We have a short housesit for 2 weeks in Neerim South. It is in the country and a beautiful area. We are looking after 2 dogs, a few cats, a bird, 5 horses, 2 chooks and a guinea. It's mostly just feeding that needs to be done though.

Our time in New Zealand was awesome. It was very special and significant for us as this is the country where we first met. And excatly 9 years ago. Okay the North Island of NZ, but close enough!