Meredith

Good Evening People!

This blog will be about the Meredit Music Festival. Held every year in December from a Friday until Sunday. I wanted to leave work early but did not want to tell my boss why. Apparently this event gets dubbed as a 'hippie' event and I heard my boss makes fun of those who attend, so I just kept that to myself. Maybe you will be able to sense sarcasm in this blog.

This picture shows the absolute chaos that happened over the weekend.

I was slightly nervous that I would be bored going to a music festival all weekend, this was my first. I mean, what could we possibly do all weekend? The obvious, listen to music, yes. But what if I didn't like the music? What if I wanted to sleep and the music was too loud? What if I wanted to take a real shower? What if we didn't meet up with the other people we knew going as the ten thousand people there might be hard to find them? What if, what if, what if everything??? I've only become a 'camper' in the last five years, was I really ready to embark on a full weekend of music and camping?

I committed. Along with Steve and Annie, we drove the few hours to Meredith on Friday afternoon and then sat in a bit of traffic waiting for all cars to get checked (no glass bottles were allowed, but any other form of container in which to put alcohol could be taken in).

The forecast was not looking good. I think it drizzled a bit on our carride, maybe even rained a bit. But this did little to prepare me for what was to come. Two nights of camping, three days and nights of music and this year, especially for us, 48 hours of sideways rain, cold wind and mud. It was a thrill. I cannot even begin to describe the actuality of this weather-but I will try.

Out of pure luck, we were in the farthest possible section for camping. Tents were crammed in next to one another, like sardines. And couches! Everywhere! Couches at campsites and even more down at the stage. There were so many. I wondered if people literally took the couches right out of their living rooms or if they found a couch on the side of the street and grabbed it on the way. After this weekend, none of these couches would be able to return to their original homes.

People were walking in the dirt road (which was a no-no on the list of rules), people were partying, people were listening to music, people were waiting on line for the port-o-johns. There were just massive amounts of people, everywhere. As we drove to a land far, far away, we pulled up next to another group of friends by pure coincidence. Steve picked out a site for our tent wanting to set up before the downpour started. Annie set her massive tent up next to us.

We then began a difficult walk down a very, very long road to get to the music, the Supernatural Amphitheater. Maybe not so difficult for the drunk people there who didn't care, or Steve who has experience walking in any condition, or Annie who had gum boots (of which I had gum boot-envy all weekend), but it was tremendously hard for me. I am pretty sure I was moving at the pace of a slug and missed about four sets of bands performing. It was just mud, pure mud. It must have rained pretty good before we got there. But it was just slippery. I just had this huge vision of me walking too fast and slipping and being covered in mud. No way was I going to go all weekend without a shower and mud covered.

Off to bed early. As we slept, the wind swept through like a tornado. And all night. I almost thought one of the drunk neighbors was pushing our tent in just to annoy us. Poor Annie had this giant tent that broke. It caved in on her! While she was sleeping. The wind was so intense and insane! Annie's tent day 1:

That was Friday night. I thought that was bad. Had I known what would happen on Saturday, I probably would have been kissing that muddy ground thanking the skies above for providing such a beautiful evening for us.

This day was just absolutely ridiculous. We finally got our acts together and put on our ten layers of clothing-oh, I forgot this very important point!

Steve must have learnt this in boy scouts. As it was completely muddy and wet on Friday night, I had on a pair of synthetic socks which allowed for them to get wet, but to keep me warm still. They were unbearable to get off at bedtime, so wet and muddy.

When I had to get dressed on Saturday, Steve wasn't sure if the other socks I brought were synthetic so he suggested I put on the damp, muddy socks from the night before. Oh it was so disgusting. I almost got sick when I was entering my right foot into this dreadful, unwarm dirty sock. But Steve insisted that they would keep me warm. Then, I had to put on the cold, muddy shoes I was wearing the night before. Another joyous moment at Meredith. I was so annoyed that Steve didn't know if my other socks were synthetic, it would have been so nice to wear a fresh, new, clean pair of socks. Ugh! What the heck do boyscouts know anyway? It wasn't until I actually got out of the tent that I realized my feet were warm. They were! He was right! Boyscouts know everything! And while I tried really hard not to think of how filthy my feet were, at least they were warm in this freezing cold weather.

And so, in the dirty, warm socks, we went to the top of the hill where we could slightly see the bands on stage. It was a giant tent, two actually, that tons of people were under to be sheltered from the sideways rain. Massive amounts of rain fell from the sky. And because the tents we were under only had ceilings and no side walls, we might have well just been outside with the rain. The wind was blowing the rain sideways into the tent and making us wet. It was hard to get into the music with this but I did hear a few bands that I liked. Wish that the weather wasn't so bad so we could have been out more. Mostly I was just standing there, face down, with a hat on and a raincoat (thank goodness Annie's dad insisted she bring an extra set of rain pants and raincoat!) snug around my face, I wondered how long I would have to sit there.

We walked around some more. Up and down the hill, the food and bathrooms were down the hill. The 'path' up and down the hill was really just a hill filled with mud. I know this entire area is a farm, but don't they have any grass on this farm? I swear it must only be dirt for miles when there are no people or rain. It was so thick, seriously! I just had to put my foot in it, it just sank right down, like quicksand. You could almost hear the oozing of mud into my shoe if it weren't for the rain. And when the heck was this rain going to stop anyway??!?!?! I think there was clearly enough mud to last us a decade! I almost thought girls were going to break out into full-on wrestling.

The mud near our campsite was so bad that they brought in quads and a tractor to pull the cars out of the mud who got stuck. By the time we got back to our site that night, half the people were gone because the weather was so ridiculous. I was proud that I was still there, although, that's probably only because I wasn't driving.

Another early night for us, about midnight. Steve said this is the most sleep he's gotten at any music festival in his life. Annie's tent officially became our storage area for our esky and chairs as it clearly could not be a safe place for one to sleep, some of the poles even snapped in half - just from the wind! It was now a storage area because Annie had to put the seats down in the back of her car and sleep there! What a trooper and a true Meredith fan (8 years of attendance!).

Sunday we awoke to no rain! Was this really possible? Maybe we were all having the same exact dream. But no, this was real life and there was no rain! We could actually get to the stage and stay dry, and the mud was about 98% muddy still, but that 2% difference made it feel like dry ground.

We watched a few bands, one of which we felt was a cult as the lead singer was male and sang songs that sounded like Simon and Garfunkle and all the other band members (all 12 of them) were women, ranging in age from 13-25ish. Seriously. Okay, there was one other creepy guy in the band, but totally a cult, right?

And better than that, Steve was offered a porn DVD by some random guy. Steve said no and another guy near the porn DVD guy said, 'Don't worry, he's not in it.' I guess he was thinking that Steve would be interested if the guy offering the DVD wasn't in it. Still not interested. And so random!

Later down at the stage, we ran into the porn guy. He was wearing what can only be described as a 10-year-old girl's winter coat circa 1986 (bright blue with pink and purple flowers on it). And that's it! Nothing else. Seriously. I know this because he flashed us a few times. And this was earlier than 11am. He must have been pretty cold.

I sound so bitter, huh? I still had a great time and I would probably do it again next year. It can only go up from here, right? Just jinxed it! I had a really good time and left on a really good note-no rain! We were able to enjoy some of the music and got a ton of sleep! It was a good experience and I'm happy we went.

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!