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.