Blue Mountains Excursion

After a few somewhat routine days in the office, it was time for some more adventure. Bright and early Saturday morning we headed up to the Blue Mountains to do some camping and find some mammals. No weekend-sleeping-in when there’s exploring to do! And beautiful weather, too!

In Katoomba, we had a bit of a stroll around town – mostly just long enough to find food. There’s a great bakery that’s really hard to resist, with things like roasted pear and almond cream turnovers. We also found this amazing tea shop, and although Ingrid was tempted by the Chinese Gunpowder tea, she decided upon Summer Pudding tea. Fully replenished, we headed to Echo Point and hiked down to the Three Sisters.

After that we drove up to Jenolan Caves on a mission to find a platypus. Ben and I were aware of the caves but had never been there – turns out it’s a really cool place! (…and this time of year I mean that both literally and figuratively.) You drive down into this pretty steep valley on a narrow winding road, then you actually drive through a cave

and pop out on the other side in front of this big lodge, and it really feels like you were suddenly beamed into the Swiss alps or something.

We went on one of the cave tours to check out the underground scenery. I think we were a bit hungry because all of the formations looked like food to us - bacon, cottage cheese fountains, etc. And Ingrid figured out what she wants to be when she grows up. She's going to be an electrician so she can climb the really tall ladders that disappear into nowhere and change light bulbs. Dave and Karen - aren't you glad she came to Oz to figure out her future?!?

Then we got stuck into our platypus hunt. We still hadn’t had any luck by 4:30 when the sun started going down (and it was really cold), so we decided to skip camping and stay at the Caves House to maximize our platypus opportunities. We ended the day without a platypus, but we did manage to find swamp wallabies!

Caves House has lots of accommodation options, and we decided to go for the cheapest “hostel-style” option. It was a pretty bare room with 1 set of bunks and 1 double bed. And it wasn’t exactly the warmest room I’ve ever stayed in (although through a twist of events we ended up with our own column heater in the room, so that helped).
(Stretching contest in the room)

But they only have one dining option, which is the award-winning Chisolm’s Restaurant. So instead of eating canned soup cooked on a camp stove as we had planned, we found ourselves eating fresh Australian damper with eucalyptus butter, egg ozen linguini with truffle oil, roasted lamb with balsamic caviar and ratatouille, and crispy pork belly. Gotta go with the flow, right? Just to add to the atmosphere, an opera singer started performing at the end of our meal. And they had lap blankets to help keep us nice and toasty during dinner (…because in Oz, even fancy places are built like crap and are hard to heat).

After dinner we waddled back to our room for a game of cards. Turns out none of us are exactly card sharks, and we had a really hard time coming up with games that could be played with 3 people. We had fun trying to make up rules to games we half remembered and ended the night with a hilarious round of BS. We learned that Ben sucks at lying (although that doesn’t deter him), and Ingrid can be pretty sneaky (but buckles under pressure).

The next morning before dawn, we rolled out of bed and straight into every layer of clothing that we had to resume the platypus hunt. We got to the lake at the crack of dawn, and sure enough! - there was not one, but TWO platypuses!! Gratifying reward for getting out of bed really early on a really cold morning. They are still the funkiest animal ever.


So our morning was a success, even though it was freezing. The low was -3!! (Yes, that’s Celsius, but it’s still cold!) There was a pretty thick layer of frost on everything… thick enough that you could make snowballs and ice skate down the street. I know that’s exactly what Ingrid came to Oz for.

With our platypus mission accomplished and our winterland fun finished, we headed off to our next destination – the glow-worm tunnel.

It’s an old train tunnel that is U-shaped, and it’s so dark at the bend that glow worms can thrive. It’s a bit remote and only accessible by dirt roads, so it’s a hot spot for 4-wheel driving. But our little Mitsubishi Mirage (“Mitty”) held his own! It was a beautiful day for a hike, and it’s a pretty cool hike – glow-worms, tree ferns, cliffs, great views – good times!



And on our way back out of the forest, we spotted some Eastern grey kangaroos – third mammal of the trip! We stopped by the zig-zag railway in honour of Grandma Connie / Nani, and then puttered our tired selves home. And thus ended our 36-hour whirlwind tour of the Blue Mountains.

Visitor!!!

Woohoo!!! Ingrid’s in Australia!!!

So flights from California land in Sydney at ~6am, and the theory is that the best way to get over jet-lag is to stay awake and active all day. So we made sure Ingrid stayed active all day. Really active.

The first stop was Bondi beach. Sydney had come through with some beautiful weather for her arrival (which was fortunately just before the airport was shut down due to the Chilean volcano ash). And there’s supposed to be a really good whale migration this year, so we were hoping to see some whales. Sure enough – we had barely stepped out of the car before we saw several whales swimming along – probably humpbacks.
Somewhere in the background are whales

We did the cliff walk between Tamarama and Bondi beaches, watching whales and some intrepid surfers. We stopped by a beach-side café to get some tea and coffee (to warm us up) and decided since we were there we should get some fig toast and corn fritters with bacon, poached eggs and lime yogurt. And of course, we enjoyed the sunshine.

Next stop was home, to show Ingrid where she’d be hanging out for the next month (and so she could shower! :)

And then we were off again. We took the ferry down the Parramatta River to Circular Quay (which is pronounced “key,” as Ingrid now knows quite well after an extensive conversation among some tourists in front of us). We got some gelato and walked around the Opera House. Then we headed into the Botanic Gardens on a mission to have Ingrid mobbed by birds.

She seemed to be OK with it. We also found mammal #1 – flying fox (the largest bats in the world).

We grabbed a fast bite and then went to hear Jane Goodall speak about her life as a biologist – could you ask for a better start to a biology internship? And Ingrid even managed to stay awake through the whole talk – take that jet lag! We didn’t have a book, so Ingrid got a t-shirt autographed by Jane.

I think we finally got Ingrid to bed at ~11:30pm. So 20+ hrs of travel followed by a full-on 17 hr day – welcome to Australia, Ingrid!!

Lingo Lessons: EOFYS

I'm not sure whether it's officially in the dictionary, but this is an actual word here. It's pronounced pretty much like it looks. It stands for End Of Financial Year Sale, so it's all over the place (usually in the context of an annoying jingle) during June. If you want a taste of what you're missing out on, you can see a video here.

So happy EOFYS everyone!

Winter

Winter is here again. It's that time of year when everyone from North America laughs at us when we whinge about how cold it is. But once again, I remind you that houses here are built like crap. Insulation, doors and windows that seal properly, vents in the walls that close -- all completely foreign concepts. That's fine for spring and fall, but it turns out Sydney has 4 seasons. We have recorded indoor temperatures below freezing and above 100F during our time here in Oz. A lot of houses (like our first house) don't even come with any heating/cooling options. And central heating??? - forget it, unless you're insanely wealthy. Lots of layers and blankets - that's how most people make it through winter. One friend makes her kids put on their down coats if they get cold (yes, they got down coats just to wear around the house).

When we moved to Dubbo, we were excited because the house had a fireplace... which we were forbidden from using. :( But this house has a great wood stove that we're allowed to use, and has become my new best friend!!


Bring it on, winter!!!

[PS - It was just announced that this was the coldest May in 41 years! Makes me love our wood stove even more!]

Another Visitor!!

Yay – someone else is coming to visit!! That will bring us up to 4 visitors in 3 years! (Unfortunately that includes Stan the Man – a paper doll.)

My cousin Ingrid is coming over in June for 4 weeks, and we’re really looking forward to it. Theoretically she’s coming over to get some science experience, and Ben and I have outlined a project for her to work on… but my mind keeps turning to all the fun things we could do with her, instead!

Our families have had some great adventures together – a long-standing Thanksgiving tradition, summers in grandma & grandpa’s pool, family reunions in Hawaii, lots of hikes. When Jen and I were in high school, we visited them in North Carolina over spring break and took a road trip out to Cape Hatteras.

My most vivid memory from that trip was on the drive home – Ingrid’s stomach was having a rough time, and after the second or third time that we stopped, her loving brother Carl said “Why don’t we just hang her out the window – then she can ralph all she wants.” Don’t worry, Ingrid, I promise we won’t hang you out any windows.

And when Ben and I were working in Alaska, they came up to visit us in Kantishna. And even though they were attacked by giant mosquitoes while trying to make a cast of a bear print, they still seemed to have a good time.

So we’re looking forward to more good times with Ingrid, and excited about showing-off Oz to another visitor!

My Birthday

Another year done-and-dusted!!

It was a low-key celebration this year, but we had a surprise delivery from "Mum" (whoever that is) and Dad :)

Lingo-Lessons: Pear-shaped

I’m learning that many of our “Aussie lingo-lessons” are actually “Brit lingo-lessons”. But we’re learning them here, so I’ll continue to attribute them to Oz.

So for me, “pear-shaped” means that something is shaped like a pear.

Here, it is used when things have gone wrong, or not quite the way you planned. As in “The date was going really well, but then his ex-girlfriend showed up and things went a bit pear-shaped.” Or “The Tigers just keep narrowly loosing – this season has just gone all pear-shaped for them.”

I forget which natural disaster it was recently – the floods, the earthquakes, the cyclones, the bush fires – but for one of them, I heard a news reporter state “Things have gone all pear-shaped in (wherever), with the body count continuing to rise.” I’m obviously not that comfortable with Aus-speak, yet, because that totally didn’t work for me - it just seemed to trivialize the whole disaster.

Flat Stanley

Another visitor!!! Yes, he may just be a paper doll, but we'll take anyone we can get!

Flat Stanley is a children's book about a boy who was accidentally squashed as flat as a piece of paper. The advantage of being flat was that he could put himself in an envelope and mail himself anywhere in the world. This has led to the rise of a popular school project, where kids mail their Flat Stanley out to learn more about different places in the world.

So my wonderful cousin (second cousin? cousin-once-removed?) Molly

decided to send her Flat Stanley to us!

And Stan the Man arrived just before we left on holiday to Tasmania, so we had a great time travelling around with him! He was good about keeping a journal to tell Molly about all the things he learned. And we did our best to take lots of pics to share with Molly.

Apparently Stan the Man traveled further than any other Flat Stanley in the class. The downside is that he was the last one to get home. But the upside is that it further boosted Molly's popularity - which was already sky-high, but a little more coolness never hurt, right?

Movin' right along... again

Surprise surprise – we’ve moved again. We are self-professed geographic sluts. We have once again erased all trace of ourselves from one house and started "scent-marking" another house - replacing the remnants of someone else's dirt with our own.

On the road again

Kerry's contract at the zoo ended and Ben needed to run some more experiments for his PhD. So we’re back in Sydney, now. Ryde, to be specific. And with Sydney just announced as the most expensive real estate in the world, couldn’t be a better time to move back! Yay!

So you should help us take advantage of all this money we’re spending on rent and come visit us. :) We have 3 bedrooms, so there’s plenty of extra space. And we have a great back porch, with a view of the city (and any fireworks that might be going on in the greater Sydney area). And we’re within walking distance to some great restaurants and nice parks. And shopping, if that’s your thing. So let us know when you're on your way!

Ani overseeing the unpacking process