Hello Again!

Welcome back to Steve and Kate in Australia. Previously in Australia, we went camping and found many Aussie animals.


This time in Australia, we've been just as active as usual.


Steve's birthday was six months ago in December. Although it was that long ago, we celebrated a few weeks ago by taking advantage of the gift I've given him. See pictures:





That's right. We went skydiving! It was crazy. I mean, I never thought I would jump out of a plane, who would? I was very, VERY nervous. I mean, not as nervous as I thought I would be. But I was afraid something would go wrong. As you can tell, it didn't. But it was pretty great! Unreal actually. We both jumped tandem so someone was doing all of the work for us, attached to our backs by harnesses. I was grateful I had an experienced jumper guiding me through 14K feet of vertical gravity; but Steve wanted to go it alone. Lucky for his safety, he didn't:)

So we flew in a small plane up the 14K feet for what felt like a decade but in reality it was about 10-12 minutes. I scooted to the open door on my bum-that's how you jump at this place-mostly being pushed by the tandem instructor on my back. I concentrated, rocked back and forth three times, praying that this was in my life's plan and that I wasn't jumping to my death. I looked back at Steve and gave a nervous smile. Before I could even get too scared, I was pushed out by the tandem instructor I was with. Then, just 'WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING? GOD I HOPE NOTHING GOES WRONG!!!!' went through my mind. It was surprisingly hard to breathe, and it was damn cold and really noisy from the air rushing by. The photographer was in front of me, falling a little beneath me but facing me to make sure he could film me. It was so weird. I think we free-fell for almost a minute, but that also felt like a decade. 'Please let the chute work when it's pulled,' I thought, 'this is taking a long time to reach the bottom.' BAM! The chute opened and we were home free. Thank goodness! I was going to live! What a great day it was! Then I looked around and the scenery was breathtaking. We actually were floating through the clouds. We saw the mountains, kilometers of gorgeous land, and also a rainbow. It was beautiful.


While I was plummeting to what I thought was my death, Steve saw it in action. Me heading straight to the ground since I jumped first. He said it was a crazy feeling and a little nerve-racking.


Since then, we celebrated my 28th birthday...the best birthday I've had in a few years. Steve did a great job, got me a cake, took me out, really made it wonderful. We've also been doing the usual, hanging out with friends, shopping:), fixing up the apartment with decorations, watching movies. We're both doing well, having a good time, getting lots of relaxing time and really enjoying each other.


We've been here six months already, it feels like forever and just like it was yesterday that we arrived. 1/4 of our time here is already done. Life really does fly by.


See you next time at Steve and Kate in Australia.

"Friendly" Bird Photos

Another photo for you, in case you were wondering what a chicken-eating kookaburra looks like. This bird obviously was well versed in eating meat-on-a-stick. I think it waited until the chicken was medium rare - not too dry.

Later, a crimson rosella inspected our frying pan to make sure our cleaning skills were up to par. Good thing the dangerous tiger snakes aren't as keen about people food.

Wilson's Promontory

Last weekend we had an extra day off from work for Anzac Day which is similar to Veteran's Day. To enjoy the long weekend, we traveled 4 and 1/2 hours to Wilson's Promontory National Park; it was supposed to be a shorter drive, but it's a popular place to go over long weekends. Our friend Annie has been going to 'The Prom' for years, so it was nice having someone to guide us through the area. The Prom is on a peninsula, but 'promontory' actually means high points on a peninsula. This place was absolutely gorgeous-mountains meeting the beach and the Bass Strait. It reminded me of Lost. The sand is so white (some of it actually squeaks), the water looks like Caribbean water, and the mountains and the horizon enclose the beach making it feel like a secluded island.

We were joined by some friends: Annie, Jill and Nick and then Ed, Danielle and T on the third night. It was really nice to go camping with friends similar to our camping group at home (although not as loud and no citations or getting kicked out of the campsite).

Steve and I arrived Friday night to meet Annie, Jill and Nick. It was SO cold outside; between the three nights, the coldest was below 5 degrees Celsius. I mean, I had six layers on my torso and I was still cold. Thank goodness we got an air mattress or else we would have been feeling the cold creep up from the ground into our sleeping bags. It was so cold in fact, that the second and third nights I slept with a hat on!

Friday morning we cooked brekky (breakfast-everything here has a shortened name), hung out for awhile, visited the beach and hiked Mount Oberon. It was a steady, slightly inclined hike. The view at the top was amazing. On top of the mountains, able to see for kilometers out into the ocean, although it all looks the same after awhile anyway-just kilometers of water. But before the kilometers of water, it was just a fantastic view. Really breathtaking, making the hike totally worth it. Steve was in his element, nature and hiking. And I'm lucky that he's so patient with me, going at my pace:) The hike down was a lot easier and faster than the way up; but to anyone that will be at The Prom, this hike and the view is worth doing.

During the hike down, a giant hollow log was slanted down from a height of five to six feet.

After some encouragement, we convinced Steve to climb down it. He said it was harder than it looked, very slippery inside. But it was hysterical watching him try to maneuver down this log.

Halfway down, going head first, he decided he was going to turn around. I mean, how was Steve going to turn around in this log? It wasn't a very big log, and he's six foot. But it was funny, here are the pictures.

After the hike, Jill was cooking chicken skewers on the grill when a kookaburra swooped down and grabbed a skewer right off of the grill! She shrieked, afraid that the bird was going to attack her, rightfully so. Nick and Steve followed the bird over to a log where it was smacking the skewer against the log to get the chicken off of the stick while making these crazy noises to defend it's territory and keep Steve and Nick at bay. The kookaburra reminded me of a penguin, but it's noises were so annoying.

Friday night we hung out, ate dinner and talked. Out of nowhere, this pig/dog-like animal stands on Annie's foot (which she describes as the weight of a 10-year-old child) and proceeds to try to open the food bin with his snout. It turns out to be a wombat, which was exciting to see, but so crazy in that it looks like a pig but acts like a dog. Steve gently kicked it's bum to get it out of the bin and Annie acted like it was a dog by telling it sternly, "No." The wombat did not react to either the kick or the scolding. Luckily the bin was closed shut and didn't get into the food. But apparently these animals wait until nighttime and then go to people's campsite's looking for food. It was an early bedtime for us all after the excitement of these Australian animals.

Saturday we went for another hike (Lilly Pilly Gully trail) with the entire group and did the same old camping thing, cooking, hanging out and we introduced our Aussie friends to the card game of Kings. While we were playing, Ed tried to warn me of a wombat coming up behind me, but I didn't believe him. And what do you know? Not only was Ed telling the truth, but the wombat tried getting into the food bin again. We scared it away after Steve tried unsuccessfully again to obtain a picture of it. It's funny because wombats stick around for quite some time trying to get food, but I guess Steve's camera doesn't work fast enough and he kept getting pictures of the wombats' bum, while it was running away. He finally got one full picture of it (reference picture above).

Sunday we packed up camp, walked along the beaches and headed home. On our caravan ride, we noticed a kangaroo (the video/blog before this one) and two emus. It was so crazy. I can't believe how many Australian animals we're finding. I never thought we'd see anything besides a kangaroo and we're really seeing them all.

It was a great weekend. Lot's of fun hiking, hanging out with friends and seeing new parts of Australia.

Cheers!

Hip Hop

Here is some footage from our weekend. We couldn't believe how close Steve got.

Koalas

Aren't they cute? They are very chill animals. We saw tons of them in February when we visited Cape Otways. These were the only mother-child koalas we found. Be sure not to call them koala bears as they are marsupials (animals with pouches) and bears do not have pouches, therefore koalas are simply koalas. A random fact. And, be sure not to get too close to them for hugs or anything like that as koalas have chlamydia. That's right, those cute little creatures carry chlamydia.

Cheers.

Snorkelling Photos

Steve and Kate ready to try snorkelling

Hey - look at this...

A giant clam.

Some type of sponge?

Colourful coral (Australian spelling, of course).

Heaps of blue fish (commonly used Australian adjective)

Overhanging shelf of coral

More coral

And even more coral

Elusive sea turtle swimming away from a school of scary snorkelers

Seen enough photos of coral?

I didn't think so.

Nemo found!

Second of a Few Updates

Here is another update for yous guys.

We recently celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary. That's right, we made it an entire year. It was bittersweet. Sweet in that it's exciting where we are, already a year after the 'Big Day.' And we've had so much fun over this year. But bitter in that it's been so long since we've all been together. I got nostalgic while watching the wedding video. We do miss you all and are trying to figure out how we can move everyone we know here to Melbourne, Australia.

To celebrate our anniversary, we took a vacation to the Great Barrier Reef in north-eastern Australia. Here is a little factoid for you; it is the world's largest coral reef system, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for 2,600 kilometres.

We traveled just a few short hours to Cairns (pronounced 'Cans') and then took an hour drive north to Port Douglas. Some of you might recognise this town name as the set location for the filming of the horribly scripted and acted Fool's Gold. Or maybe it sounds familiar because you know it as the living place of Olivia Newton John. Although we did not come across the great Sandy from Grease, we did see some of the filming locations from Fool's Gold. I'll have to suffer through the movie again when it comes out on DVD to see if I can recognise it now.

Anyway, Steve did a fantastic job planning this trip-I told you he was really good at planning our trips. Our hotel was in a perfect location. The harbor was on one side and the pubs, restaurants, cafes and shops were on the other. It is a vacation town for many Aussies, not like Wildwood though. Very quaint, Caribbean-like.

We walked around, shopped, ate, got massages, it was wonderful!

The beach was a funny experience. You know how Wildwood has miles of beach? From the boardwalk and where you start walking all the way to the actual ocean where you set up your beach chairs and tent? This beach was a little different. It also had a four mile beach (it is literally called the Four Mile Beach), but it is four miles long, not wide. So, not anywhere as big as Wildwood.

And on top of that, there was only a small section where people are actually able to swim in the water. Every morning the lifeguards cordon off a section with floats and netting. It's called the Stinger Safety Net. They do this so the killer jellyfish stay out and aren't a threat to people. Their sting is very painful and can cause heart failure and death. We didn't go in the water, not because of the jellyfish, but because, well, I don't know why. It's really crazy because there is a swarm of people in one section of this four mile beach and then nowhere else. And they can't go that far out in the ocean either. This space in the net is only about 100 x 250 feet. So the swimmers all just kind of hang out there in the netting together. Almost like fish in a net. But I guess it saves lives. Although while we were there and reading the morning paper, in a safety net at a beach nearby, a crocodile had somehow gotten into the net and people were actually swimming with it thinking it was a floating log. Luckily no one was hurt.

Australia has some crazy animals here.

During our trip, we took two excursions. The first was a four-wheel drive through the rain forest. Although, the four-wheel drive was more of a minivan. Our trip almost got cut short when the car wouldn't start up after our first stop. Lucky for us there was another 'four-wheel drive' car there with the same company that had two seats available. We walked through the rain forest, along the river, looking at the different wildlife and plant life. Most of the wildlife were birds. But, there were some 'dragons', they're actually called Boyd's Forest Dragons. The optimist in me was really looking for a dragon, or at least something that looked like a dragon. It was more like large lizards on the sides of trees, still something I've never seen before.

We also went on a boat and saw a female croc. She didn't jump out of the water and snap at us like I thought she would. She just went deeper and deeper into the water as she was afraid of us. We also saw a tree snake that I think the owners of the tour really just put up as a stuffed animal/snake as they knew exactly where to look for this creature. The whole point of this boat ride was to see native Australian animals, so what would you think when the captain navigates directly to a spot that he 'usually' sees a snake:) I was a little cynical about that.

We went to the beach, through strangler figs (which are vines that 'strangle' trees), and mangroves (trees that literally grow in the beach sand)-see picture. It was a pretty educational tour, interesting and lots about nature that I didn't know.

The other trip we took was to the actual reef for snorkeling. It was great. A surprisingly long boat ride out there, but well worth it. We got our wetsuits on (as it was jellyfish season) and were both feeling claustrophobic with the masks and breathing tubes. I was ready though, flippers and everything. This was a little scary though because the tour guides were really hoping to see sharks. I was putting my life in their hands, trusting that it's a good thing if we see sharks. Ughh.

As soon as we got into the water, I felt weird. I was surprised at that. I thought I was going to be a natural snorkeler, don't laugh, I really did. But I felt smothered with the mask and breathing tube and like I couldn't swim with the flippers on. I went back to the boat and reluctantly got a noodle (a float tube). I felt like such a four year old with this thing, especially because the 11 year old on our trip didn't need it. But, I wasn't the only one. About half of the people snorkeling used them. It was amazingly comforting.

So we swam around, looked at all of the coral, the beautiful colors, the fish not being afraid of us. It was just unreal. We went to three different locations and my favorite was the first. Aside from the fish and the reef being the most colorful and largest variety, it was the amazement of seeing it for the first time. Steve saw a sea turtle but I missed it. We also saw a giant clam, tons of Nemo's (clown fish), lots of different colors and shapes of coral, but no sharks. Steve was more adventurous than I was, he would swim through the crevices to the bottom, pointing things out to me. It was a great experience.

We had so much fun on our trip, seeing a different part of Australia. (We want to go to so many more places while we're here that we started planning our next trip). Of course we didn't want to leave to go back to reality. But it was really nice to get away and also celebrate our anniversary.

Cheers!

First of a Few Updates

We are the worst bloggers. It has been two months and four days since our last blog. We hope to bring you up to speed on the exciting lives of Steve and Kate in Australia.

Although, just so you all know, "Life is the same in any country. You get up, go to work, come home, eat, hang out and go to bed to do it all again the next day." To quote my brother Brian.

But, we have some fun and memorable moments that we'll fill you in on.

First story.

Animal lovers: Do not hold this against us.

We planned a weekend away in late February which was supposed to consist of camping. We traveled to the Mornington Pennisula. And we drove around for a campsite. For hours. I think we can figure out who planned this weekend:) I really do love him and he really does do a great job with these trips. We ended up staying in a hotel. Hey, it happens.

So here we are, traveling around, checking out the town and nature, just driving around in our automobile, on the wrong side of the road. As we're trying to find a place to have a snack, three giant kangaroos are staring at us. I mean, they're about (and let me put this in my terms, no actual measurements used) two car lengths away from us. It was amazing. I slowly took out the binoculars and Steve took out the camera. And we missed them. That fast. They didn't make noise, I expected to hear a 'boing' as they hopped away, but it didn't happen. It was just like grown men were running away from us. Except, I've never seen a grown man hop over a fence with both feet at the same time.

We were just truly amazed. Our first encounter with kangaroos. The Australian stereotype had entered our lives. We continue driving and notice some things moving, keep driving. You look out far with the binoculars and there are a ton of bush-like objects. Keep driving around the bend. A kangaroo hops across the road in front of our car, again two car lengths away. Then another, and another, and eventually we're watching these 5 foot to 6 foot tall animals hop frantically from one side of the road to another trying to get away from us. It's just amazing. We stay there for quite some time, just staring at them all. All the bushes actually turn out to be kangaroos, and there are heaps of them. I stopped counting after 100. It's unreal.

We keep driving and see a lone kangaroo. This is where the animal lovers should probably stop reading. For only a second, it looks scared. We're taking pictures and seeing how close Steve can get to it. It's not hopping away. Weird. Steve gets so close that he realizes it's foot is tangled up in the fence it's leaning against. It's in a distorted position. So, after a little while, Steve actually takes it's foot out of the fence with the help of his Swiss army knife no harm (from Steve) to the kangaroo. The kangaroo was not scared at all. Then the sad news. This kangaroo's leg was dislocated. It couldn't hop away. It was going to be stuck there forever. So sad. 'Should we bring it back to the US?' I said. Instead, we opted to talk to locals who then directed us to the house on the property where we had our first kangaroo sighting. This man, we were told, had a license to kill kangaroos. WHAT?!?!? We just got to Australia. It's our first time seeing the stereotypical animal. And we're going to talk to a man that kills them.

He was quite normal and very friendly. After explaining the situation to him, he agrees that it's best to put the animal 'Out of it's misery.' Both this man and Steve are telling me horror stories of a fox, being a local predator, will come along and eat it alive. Not kill it first, but eat it alive. So we wait for the man to get his gun and his 12 year old daughter and her friend. He actually said, 'I'll have to bring my kids, but they'll have to learn about this stuff some day anyway.' And I promise, he wasn't a wacko, really normal. So we lead him to the kangaroo. And right away, kanga knew what was going to happen. It was quite sad. I couldn't watch. I was trying to make sure the kids were okay. One of which was crying, shouting for her dad not to do it, and bawled up in the fetal position on the backseat floor of the car.

We got someone to kill kanga. So sad. I still can't believe it. So that was our first encounter with kangaroos. Welcome to Australia!

After that, our mood was kind of mellow. We took a nature walk and I said, 'Steve, do you think there will be snakes here?' He responded, 'I don't know.' But, being the nature expert he is, I trusted him. I'm talking and talking and talking. Then Steve talks, but really he shouts, 'Whoa!' Yep, a giant black snake is standing in our way. I'm so scared. I'm afraid it's going to swivel itself around my leg, up my body and swirl itself around my neck to kill me. Obviously it doesn't. But I walk away. I'm asking for Steve to come with me. But, being the nature expert he is, he throws a stick at it. I was so scared and angry. I find out later that he threw two sticks at it. When someone asked why, he said, 'I wanted to know if it was alive.' Come on! Luckily, it slivered away. No snake injuries.

It was an interesting day to say the least. We also saw a wallaby and an echinda, both rare animals to see.

Australia, me and my nature-expert husband in the wilderness.

So, that's just the first of a few updates. Come back real soon for more stories.

P.S. The kangaroo pictured here is NOT the one that got shot. The one we got shot was half the size.

Pictures from Australia

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=214320373/a=34285048_34285048/t_=34285048

Surf from the Southern Ocean

I got a job!

It's true. As of 4/2/2008 (that's February 4th, they do the date and month backwards here), I will be fully employed as a Communication and Marketing Officer.
That's right. After 8 recruiters, 8 interviews and 2 second interviews, I've landed a job. I will start Monday. I'm excited to get a routine going, to stimulate my mind, to start on my career and to stop interviewing! Although, I became an expert interviewee, if I do say so myself.

Best of all, it's a 4 minute walk from our apartment. Can you even believe it? It's two blocks away! I couldn't have gotten any luckier. My hours will be from 9-530, so with the commute, it'll be from 855am-535pm. It's great!

I'm very excited and after two months of not working, I'm PRETTY sure I want to go back to work:) Wish me luck!
~Kate

Flinders Street Station

This is the view across the street from our apartment building - Flinders Street Station, built in 1854. A mere twenty years before, the entire city of Melbourne did not exist – it was the hunting and gathering grounds of Aboriginals whom had resided in the area for approximately 40,000 years. As an aside to an aside, the earliest recorded history most of us learned about in school – the Mesopotamian Civilization - occurred only five thousand years ago. Back in a little more modern of times, the then small village of Melbourne was founded in 1835. Gold was discovered during 1851 in the region and the ensuing prosperity soon begat “Marvellous Melbourne”.

The main entrance of Flinders Street Station is down the block, on the left side of the photo. The traditionally photographed dome cannot be seen from this angle. This station is the main commuter train station for the Melbourne metropolitan area (3.7 million people), an estimated 110,000 commuters use the station on a weekday. Compare this to ~6 million people in the Philly area with only 25,000 using 30th Street Station.

In general, Aussies love their cars. Twenty million Aussies own 14.4 million cars, a slightly lower rate of 301 million Americans with 250 million cars, but still fairly high compared to the rest of the world. Nevertheless, this city has a great public transportation system, including the tram network, known to many Americans as trolleys. At the bottom of the photo is a tram stop with a tram entering the shadows on the right. Using the tram network, we can easily reach most of the inner suburbs, which are much like the neighborhoods in Philly (i.e., South Philly, Fairmount, Manayunk). There also is plenty to do within an easy walking distance of a few blocks of our new home – restaurants, shops, museums, pubs, theatres and much more.

A lot of facts, I know, but some may find it interesting.

The Tennis

Wednesday night we went to 'The Tennis' otherwise known as The Australian Open. (We still haven't figured out why they call it 'the tennis' and not just 'tennis'. They'll say, "We're going to the tennis tonight.") The Australian Open is one of the four grand slam tennis tournaments along with the US Open, Wimbeldon and the French Open. It is a tennis competition with 128 women and 128 men vying for the grand prize of $1.3 million each for the top male and female tennis players.

Melbourne is crazy about sports. Heaps of people go to these games, it's all over TV and advertisements throughout the city and even in store windows. Everyone here seems to support the tennis. So, at the advice of MANY Aussie's, we bought at $20 grounds pass ticket for admission after 530pm on Wednesday; this night, the games went until 10pm (last night, Saturday, the game started at 12am and went 5 sets). It was a great experience and since we were there, we've been following along watching more matches on TV. At Wednesday night's games, there were swarms of people, lots of vendors, excitement, 20 plus courts and lots of switching our heads back and forth to follow the tennis ball going from one side of the court to the other.

We've attached a picture of one of the matches we saw with a view of the city behind.

Hope you're all doing well and next time you're near one of the grand slam events, you should definitely go see 'the tennis.'

Cheers!

View of the CDB

You Have the Right to Remain Silent

Did we foget to tell you Steve had a run-in with the law?

It's a simulation at Old Melbourne Gaol.

37 Days and Counting

So, we've been here 37 days already! Time really flies.
I'll try to update this more often, but I'll reacap the last 37 days for you:

We arrived December 10th and started that day to look for an apartment--you all know how I need to get things done. Steve met his coworkers the next day and I bought cell phones for us and we opened a bank account. Two days and we're already starting to settle in. Wednesday, 12/12/07, our things get stolen from our hotel room. As it turns out, we're still realizing things that have been stolen even though it's weeks later. To date, we had stolen (although all on 12/12/07) Steve's work computer, two cell phones, international adapter, Steve's jeans, my fossil watch, Steve's prescription safety glasses (not sure what someone is going to do with prescription glasses) and both of our ipods. It was crushing, but we survived and thank goodness that's all that happened.

The remainder of that week we spent time looking at the 19 apartments we were interested in and settled on our current location right in the CBD (Central Business District) and signed our lease on December 17th. We're right in the heart of the city and city life is fantastic!

This is a long recap, sorry.

From then, we got ready for xmas, bought a tree, presents, settled into our apartment with furniture, pots and pans, everything. It's amazing how much you stuff you realize you need.

We've done sightseeing. The aquarium; a beach town; the Old Melbourne Gaol (jail); lots of walking around the city; frequented the Queen Vic market-lots of vendors and fresh produce and great cheeses, wine, bakeries, etc; the Melbourne Zoo; saw a Romeo and Juliet play in the Royal Botanic Gardens; visited surrounding suburbs with lots of shops and cafes. We've been to a ton of restaurants and shops.

We also settled into normalcy a little, checking out the theater seeing Phantom of the Opera and seeing a local band, going to the movies, I joined a gym; we finally got internet and a phone in our apartment! We spent xmas eve and New Year's Eve in the city, they're also having things to do in the city.

We've also been hanging out with a girl I went to college with at La Salle, it's so nice to know someone here.

So we're keeping quite busy. Steve has been going to work, about a 10 minute train ride; and I've been searching hard for a job. Two interviews today!

We're having a lot of fun and trying to pack in as much as possible while we're here.

We miss you all a ton and hope you might visit!

I'll write more often so you're not bombarded with these long blogs!
~Kate and Steve