Breasts or Thighs?

About two years ago, in the midst of saving our butts off for this adventure, our financial miracle worker told us in a meeting that we were entering the "rinse out your Ziplocs" phase of the saving process. We laughed. Being fond of Ziplocs, tupperware and any other type of plastic polymer storage container we were ready for it. If rinsing out our Ziplocs was going to save a few more pennies to put toward Oz, then we would gladly do so.

Fast forward two years and about four months later. The Ziploc rinsing has paid off but we haven't forgotten about the need to save and spend carefully. We still rinse out the odd Ziploc or hopefully its no name equivalent. We travel around the city on Sundays when it's cheaper. We have become members of places where we were sure to return. We walk everywhere and when we are tired we take the tram. When we need a hotel we try to get one with a fridge and stove so that we can have breakfast in the room and pack a lunch. Linton is a coupon collector and unashamed redeemer! Me, not so much. We slow down at windows that advertise 10% off. K-Mart and Target are our favourite stores.

With respect to the weekly grocery bill we also try to save a few pennies. But that's where it gets a bit trickier. When cost messes around with taste. For the most part food is more expensive in Australia and for the most part - banana for banana - similar in quality. We have taken a bit of time getting used to different tastes in the apple sauce or bacon departments, but for every weird one there is also a Tim Tam or some other tasty pastry making us cry out for more.

Which brings me to last night's dinner. We were having chicken thighs among other things because they are almost half the price of breasts, especially if the breasts are skinless and boneless. This is not a revelation to us, but in Canada with slightly more change in our shorts we would think nothing else of a buying a box of breasts - so to speak. But here in Oz, in a more cost conscious kitchen, chicken thighs are a "go to" staple. Now, we are both preparers of food more than we are cooks and so there was nothing fancy about these thighs - and as result they were blah - little meat, less taste. But I can't blame it all on the chicken as it wasn't my best effort. The roast potatoes were a tad burnt and the beans a bit limp. Regardless, the experience made us all pine a little for a nice, plump breast.

But that is another small part of what this year is about - choices. We chose to take a year off at the cost of missed income, delayed retirement, possible debt. We chose to adventure down under at the cost of missing people back home. We are in a constant dance between breast or thigh type decisions more than we ever have been and the process has begun to teach us what we truly find important and what we can indeed, live without. In the world of choices and chicken parts it is all about cost versus convenience. If a few more bland chicken-thigh a la James dinners are what it takes to keep the coffers full, then that is another choice that I can fully tuck in to.

Our ever expanding horizons...

As we slowly inch our way into Australian life we continue to make some significant headway in terms of making new friends. Well, let me change that slightly. Linton is making headway. The consummate PR pro has managed to get herself invited to mother's teas, coffees, lunches, track meets and most recently a very nice invitation to spend a day in Ballarat - a picturesque town about an hour outside of Melbourne. I haven't been quite as prolific in terms of drumming up new friends. The university crowd is about twenty years younger on average and typically going madly off in all directions. Maybe if I crashed a keg party I could quickly add a few more friends in my new friend column.

The kids are really the key to building a new social network. Between seeing how much of their lunch they didn't eat or peeling Colin off the handball court, the "pick up" and "drop off" routines in the playground now involve negotiating play dates and birthday parties with all of the subsequent toing and froing between parents that that requires. We have met some incredibly warm and welcoming people and families in the process and we feel fortunate to feel as accepted as we do. This growing sense of being part of a community is culminating on Friday with us playing host to several families at our first ever Hallowe'en party! Yikes! Not even in Hallowe'en crazy Canada would we have attempted such a cockamamie idea. (Please see previous blog for note about validating oneself through what we produce...)

Anyway, one of the families we are getting to know has very kindly thrown the keys to their extra car at us over the past few weekends. This has caught us slightly off guard and seriously asking ourselves if we would do the same back in the land of the true north strong and free. Would we just tap on someone's door and say our '97 Camry is all yours if you want - go crazy. I like to think I would. But...To save you wondering, we have in fact "borrowed" their car twice - once to drive to another zoo - the Werribee Zoo in Werribee and today we hit the local mall for a few more Hallowe'en party necessities. On that note, it is not nearly the event in Oz as it is back home. We doubt we will have trick or treaters and we're not even sure if we can buy a pumpkin. Sober second thought might judge that to be a good thing but try telling that to a six and a nine year old. So, we're having a party!

The car is a sporty five speed Holden and is the perfect car for zipping around the city or in the case of the zoo about 30 minutes outside. We had a great trip to Werribee with only a few tense moments around a toll highway and an exit that wasn't where it should have been. The beauty of the zoo, other than the rhinos, was that it was free with our other membership at the Melbourne Zoo. We are trying for a zoo record in terms of how many one family can visit in a calendar year. It was also great to get out of the city on our own in something that could do 0-60 in more than 30 seconds.

And speaking of zoos, I stood in line the other day for tickets to the Australian Open. We are going with my parents who will be here in January. In actual fact it was a very civilized and orderly process, no camping out in sleeping bags or anything. I managed to get tickets to the mens' quarter finals and womens' semi-finals! We may not be going to the Melbourne Cup and will probably miss the F1 race but the Open was a must. We're hoping the tennis parties are just around the corner!

The things we miss...and don't (so much)

Over dinner recently Alex mentioned for the first time that he missed home. More specifically, when we nervously dug for detail, he said that he missed the cottage and Collingwood. Grandparents take note! We had talked in bits and pieces in the past about missing family, special friends, the odd food group, or a specific toy, but this was the first time that one of the kids had volunteered this information unprompted. There were even a few tears! We both winced. Would this be the beginning of a long and protracted 'missfest" that would need hours of counselling and the consoling that only ice cream could bring? We weren't sure. But despite our immediate misgivings, we were suddenly throwing caution to the wind and opening up the conversation to list all of the things about Canada we all missed. I believe drive thrus, Tim Hortons, girls nights, and hockey night in Canada were all part of the discussion.

On another level, Linton was recently reading a book about an Australian woman's experiences after having quit work to travel Europe for six months with her husband. In a conversation with a friend she talks about the fact that as a professional, she was having trouble with the concept of not producing something on a daily basis. Her life had been defined so much by what she created at work and the responsibilities that came with a successful career that a life without those types of realities seemed hollow and vague - despite the travel, food, and chance to enjoy a bottle of wine every night! She was missing the personal validation that work gave her.

In my organizational learning class today, (my final class of the semester) we were talking about how one measures whether or not people have learned things in an organization. The conversation went around things like key performance indicators and performance reviews as the obvious ways that employees are motivated to learn and grow in ways that are beneficial to the company. Personally, they seem more like whips and carrots rather than anything that is linked to real learning or real personal growth. Very few organizations it seems, due to time constraints, competition, money, or a lack of resources can ever afford to let people grow at their own pace in their own direction. That is of course very logical but also a bit...sad. Our professional growth never really allows us to fully grow as a person or one often comes at the cost of the other.

And so we get to a point with our work life where we feel unfulfilled. If we can, we jetison ourselves away from work into adventures and experiences that will hopefully allow us to expand our lives in a way that work could not or would not. We travel, we change our look, we take a masters, we raise our kids, we have more kids, we reno our house, we take up a new hobby, we get a dog, we do something to add to our life in a way that hopefully teaches us something about the world that work could not (but might still be valuable to someone and look good on a resume when we finally come running back to the office in a year's time). And yet, like the woman in Linton's book, just when we get far enough away from work, in both time and space, a tiny little voice in the back of our head says - 'I miss working". And so in some sort of mad moment of pure self-important delirium we imagine what all of our colleagues are doing through every moment of the day and the chaos that must be ensuing because we are not there, we check our emails, we talk to colleagues, we read old files and write new ones in our heads, we do a million things like that just for the sheer need to know that we are still connected and that we still matter. And yet...when one of our trusty old colleagues finally does have enough time to get their head up from the grind to fire us off a three line answer to our "How's it going?" subject line from three weeks ago - we suddenly realize that the place hasn't changed, it's all still there, you're not really missed, and all of the reasons that you left in the first place are just under the surface if you care to scratch it.

And so while, like Alex, we will continue to miss our family, our friends, the cottage and Collingwood and maybe even a little Timmy Hos, we are fairly certain that we can avoid missing work - at least for a few more months. We know it' still there, somewhere, and when we return to it, it will be very much like the work we left just a few short months ago. Indeed, what we are slowly beginning to learn in our little organization called a family is that this is a year where we are defined, not by work, but by who we are as people, as parents, as a husband and a wife. Roles that we may never have more time to learn about, than we do this year.

Oct 3-4 And finally Seaworld!

Seaworld represented a sort of final oasis in our long and winding road trip. As we tossed our bags into the room and flaked out onto the beds, we were immediately at ease - content to be free of all the driving, maps, connections, and chaos. Not even our beautiful view of a construction site right outside our balcony could dampen our enthusiasm for the limitless possibilities that Seaworld (which included a beer and burger at poolside) seemed to offer. A very "grown up" dinner in one of the fancier dining rooms was a great treat for mom and dad as the boys were extremely well behaved and perhaps a little tired after several hours of swimming and playing in a very cool splash pad.

But, as Alex would say the ``chillaxin`` didn`t last for long as the next morning we were up and at'em early, ready to attack Seaworld for all we were worth. Catching the monorail from right outside the hotel, we were quickly into the park and taking in as many rides as we could before the place filled up. A few tame but fun rides for the kids and then a thrilling warm up on the rocking pirate ship set the stage for dad and Colin to hop aboard the Corkscrew rollercoaster - clearly any lingering hangover from Dreamworld`s Reef Diver was gone. Colin came away breathless and ready to go again while dad traded nausea for a sore neck! The dolphin show was next and really cool -for a dolphin show. Then we were into a 4-D movie, the Viking log ride and something called the Bermuda Triangle that scared Alex so much he was literally shaking with fear as he dug permanent marks into Linton's left arm. A really cool, somewhat creepy ride that even had me wondering at one point if we were going in the right direction!

After that we needed a break for lunch which we followed up with an aquarium, cable car ride and a visit to shark bay - easily the best display of fish and sharks I have ever seen in my life. They had to drag me out of there! We were then into the water park where we all experienced some of the biggest waterslides of our lives. The kids approached them with all of the exuberance of youth, while I continued to temper my enthusiasm with a healthy dose of parental caution. In my mind I had Alex doing everything from being blown off the top of the tower while waiting for his turn to somehow being the first person to slip right over the edge of the slide (despite the successful negotiation of the same edge by at least a few million people before him!) Oh well, at least he will always know his dad's got his back covered! Of course this was all capped off by the three boys climbing up 5 stories of stairs only to plummet headlong down The Plunge - a giant slide in a raft thing - with dad screaming all the way! I love amusement parks, I really do! We capped things off with a somewhat cheesy waterski show and then walked back to the hotel. In true CarterDarling form we were closing the place and feeling good in the knowledge that we had ``done`` Seaworld in a big way. A less than quality seafood buffet followed by some serious drama over a stuffed toy in the games room and then the day, mom and dad, and the holiday were officially done.

Bags still had to be packed and planes had to be caught but as we trundled back to our room I reflected upon all that we had done and seen over the past two weeks. 2300kms from Cairns to Byron Bay and many points in between had opened our eyes to the vastness and beauty of this country. In many ways so similar to Canada but so often, so surprisingly different. As always, it won`t necessarily be the big things we remember but more often, or more probably, it will be those glorious, small moments - a walk, a snorkel, a sunset or a slide that will remain etched in our memories forever.

Oct 2 - Byron Bay and back to Brisbane

If the Big 4 Caravan Parks had been the Hilton, then the Beaches at Byron Bay was the Holiday Inn. This last camp site would indeed be memorable in our minds, but for all of the wrong reasons. Having started with our brush with the brush the night prior, we awoke to the fact that we were indeed feet from the faces of our fellow sleeping, snoring, and in the case of the mothers beside us, screaming campers. My personal "hate on" for public toilets would continue with the foul state of the mens washroom where I became a recent convert to the paper-on-the-seat-first philosophy.

The best thing about this site was the proximity to a gorgeous beach only a ten minute walk away. Once again, Linton and Colin did the early exploring while Alex and I had our morning coffees. Upon futher review it was decided that we should all travel down to the water to have a look, though this was definitely not first on Allie's to do list. It was a beautiful walk in spite of the sobbing and once we were on the beach the sights and sand took over and we were all able to relax for a moment or two - simply soaking it all up.

Unfortunately, as far as I was concerned, it was a fleeting moment. Of course, the boys wanted to go swimming and being the total nervous ned that I am I was freaked out by the size of the surf. There were boys playing down the beach who seemed fine and yet I could not get that niggling feeling out of my head that this was not a safe place to swim. So after about ten nail biting minutes I promptly yanked the boys out of the water, declared the beach unsafe, and insisted we all go back to the camp site. Seriously, I did. Needless to say this was a tad off-putting for the three other members of the family - Alex again having the worst time of it. Eventually, we re-grouped back at the camper and made a plan to head to town to find calmer waters and hopefully a calmer daddy!

We were able to find a parking spot right off the main beach and headed down to see if the surf was to dad's liking. It was great(phew!)with awesome views and fun waves and we spent an hour or so building sand sharks, boogie boarding, and soaking up the scene. Soon the need for some retail therapy dragged us off the beach and up into the many cool shops and bistros lining the main drag to see if we needed anything they were selling. Linton and Colin poked around the Rip Curl and Billabong surf shops while Alex and James wandered through the milk bars and bookstores. A great black and white photograph of the Byron Bay surf for our wall in TO was the highlight of the trip. We couldn't seem to convince the boys that we needed to stop for a cool beverage and a basket of fries on one of the many cool patios that dot downtown Byron Bay and so we headed back to camp. Because we were returning the camper in the morning, tonight's menu would be a clean-out-the-fridge dinner including microwaveable cheeseburgers, Doritos, leftover Chinese food,and pasta. Yum!!!

We awoke early, not because of indigestion but with a million things to do, not the least of which was to somehow drop the camper off at the Apollo rental outlet on the far side of Brisbane by 11:00 am. Things went smoothly until James needed to complete the final "swish" of the onboard commode and we spent half an hour simply trying to find the right pipe to flush it down. Finally on the road, we raced (not quite) toward Brisbane needing two gas stops, a successful negotiation of the toll bridge, rush hour traffic, and a couple of fairly useless maps to all go in our favour in order to make the connection - and they did! With nary a cross word between us! Even better was the fact that we were going to receive our deposit back despite the small matter of the cracked tap in the shower. We heaved a collective sigh of relief. We had managed to travel 2300kms safely arriving at our destination with ourselves and the damage deposit all in one piece! After waving goodbye to our winnebago, we had just 20 minutes to get to the airport to catch a reserved shuttle. And so one more stressful connection, a cab ride to the airport, saw Linton and the kids smothered in luggage. And then, finally, we were there, waiting breathlessly for someone else to wisk us away for 36 hours of real relaxation - back over the toll bridge -at Seaworld.

Oct. 1 - Dreamworld and Surfer's Paradise

Today's itinerary was dominated by our choice of several possible theme parks in the Brisbane - Surfer's Paradise area. There was an endless list of options including Movie World, Wild Water World, Dinosaur World, The Great Australian Outback Adventure World, etc. and yet our choice was never in doubt - Dreamworld would be the place where we would part with our millions. A mere 25 minutes drive from our campsite we started the day with a swim, a longer-than-Dad-wanted play in the games room, and a special chat with Nannie in Canada. But then we were blasting out of Brisbane and before we knew it wheeling our way into Wally World. I affectionately dubbed it that because I have never felt more like Clarke Griswold than I did pulling into that parking lot.

Once we were in the park we were immediately in ride-mode and hurried over to the Runaway Raptor roller coaster for what would be the most serious coaster experience of the boys' young amusement park careers. I must say they were amazingly patient in all of the lines we stood in and their reward was an admittedly exhilarating, but way too short, screamfest on a smaller version of the Top Gun coaster at Canada's Wonderland. After getting quite "stoked" by that ride they were keen to keep going - unfortunately the next ride we tried broke down just before take off and Allie had to be consoled with a good long session in the Nerf Ball Shooting Gallery. Then we were off to Goldrush town and the wild water raft adventure which was another interminal wait. Why we do these parks to ourselves, I'm not really sure. If ever you wanted to feel like a lemmming...a hot, tired, broke, greasy, impatient lemming...Anyway, while daddy was just able to grin and bear it, the kids were once again patient and composed. And once again, the pay off of the ride was great fun for all and we found ourselves again running through the park looking for the next best "experience".

And this is right about where it got interesting. Alex and Colin soon found themselves on a spinning, whirling, rocking thing on which they had a lot of fun but mom and dad took a pass. Unfortunately, that only inspired them to greater literal heights and dad suddenly found himself strapped into the Reef Diver doing inverted 360 degree spins with Colin screaming "Cooool!" For this 42 year old brain it was far from cool, and as I waited for the agony to end, all I could think about was the strategy of staring straight ahead at something that was not spinning like a figure skater in a death spiral. Sooner than later it was Linton's turn to accompany Alex on the same ride and much to the same effect for her. Given his performance on the Great Ocean Road I was certain Alex would lose his lunch high over Dream World. Fortunately, it didn't happen but mom and dad's heads and stomachs would not be the same until several hours later. A safe train ride and a somewhat soothing slime show later and we were soon out the door walking to our ridiculously far away camper keen to leave the dizzy and less than dazzling sights and sounds of Dream World.

We were now off to our last beach in Byron Bay which would hopefully be about one and a half to two hours south of the park. On our way we decided to drive right through Surfer's Paradise which was a good and a bad decision. It was good because I got to see the unbelievebale development and endless rows of condominiums as well as drive the camper through the tight and trafficky streets that were set up for the upcoming Indy car race. It was bad because I got to see the unebelievable development and endless rows of condominiums as well as drive the camper through the tight and trafficky streets that were set up for the upcoming Indy car race. Surfer's reminded me of a Fort Lauderdale or Miami Beach with little in the way that felt like Australia and a lot in the way that looked like money.

After breaking through the endless strips of tattoo parlours and cheesy motels, we finally got ourselves back on the M1 headed south for Byron Bay. We were quickly into some very picturesque rolling hills and dales and suddenly keen to be back in the familiar and comfortable environs of a trailer park. Byron Bay is famous for its laid back, "hippie" lifestyle and we certainly got a sense of that negotiating the roundabouts and side streets on our way to the campsite. One minor wrong turn later and we were finally turning in to Beaches at Byron Bay. Unfortunately, perhaps because my head was still recovering from its earlier battle with Reef Diver, I took a corner too sharply and managed to slide the roof of the camper along the side of a foolishly placed tree. Linton stopped me in the nick of time and we managed to reverse oursleves out of that potentially deposit clearing altercation. Once parked, albeit very close to everyone on all sides, we fell into our table/bed with dreams of a great beach day to come.

Sept 30 - Australia Zoo and Brisbane

Hervey Bay would be our last official beach stop, at least for a few days, as we entered the theme park phase of our travels. Today's itinerary would take us into Brisbane and beyond but not before we made a small detour to see Steve Irwin's legacy at the Australia Zoo about an hour outside of Brisbane.

Though his death was tragic and you may not have agreed with his particular approach to conservation - the Croc Hunter's legacy in all of its "materialness" is nonetheless impressive. His Australia Zoo is by all accounts an excellent facility that beautfiully showcases this country's varied and very threatenend wildlife. We spent the better part of the day trolling the cages and enclosures and were impressed by the Komodo Dragons, Tasmainian Devil, Dingos, Koalas, venomous snakes and countless crocs. The show in the 5000 seat main stadium was very cool with a trainer standing three feet from a croc and feeding him chicken bits by hand. Worked for me.

What's at the same time both kitsche and cool is the way Irwin's wife and entire family have continued to roll his legacy out into a million dollar empire. In one of the biggest gift shops I have ever seen, you can buy Steve Irwin games, hats, action figures, surfwear, footwear, fridge magnets, playing cards, shot glasses and virtually anything else your heart might desire. I was taken by the stuff more than the rest of the family - though Alex managed to negotiate a metre long rubber snake - and for whatever reason (that Linton still does not quite understand) I bought a "Steve Lives" surfwear t-shirt. I guess I thought it was unique and I liked the sentiment. I guess. My favourite part of the park was the snake display where we saw 9 of the 10 most venomous snakes in the world which all conveniently reside in Australia! Our trepidation was only slightly abated by the reassurances that these snakes would be no threat as long as we left them alone...

After a few more crocs, a few birds of prey, and a wombat or two, we felt we had "done" the park pretty well and stumbled into our camper around closing time, giving ourselves just two hours to get across Brisbane. Unfortunately, Brisbane is a big city, with lots of construction, thousands of commuters, and we were entering the fray at rush hour. This would be the challenge for which the crack team of Carter and Darling had been training and we would need all of our split second decision making and clutch grinding, blind-spot-checking abilities to negotiate successfully. Fortunately, we were finally driving on the first 4 lane highways of our trip allowing us to speed up a bit and for me to feel like I could worry a little bit less about oncoming traffic! The toughest part might have been the Gateway bridge which links the airport to the rest of the city. It is a humongously high toll bridge that effectively siphons thousands of cars down to 8 lanes and then back out again. We managed to not drive off of it, to pay the right toll, in the right lane, not crash through the barrier or make any bells go off, and leave without incident. I certainly breathed a sigh of relief after hurtling that particular barrier that reminded me a ton of paying the toll on the Champlain Bridge on the way to Magog.

Thus, having cut off only a hand full of irate Brisbane commuters we eventually found our Caravan Park on the southern side of Brisbane and rolled into our site but not before loading up on some wicked Chinese food and a few more groceries. Patting oursleves on the back for traffic well negotiated and another day of surviving the busier roads of Australia, we tumbled into our table/bed tired but content, with visions of snakes and traffic snarls swimming in our heads.

Time to smell the roses...and to take care of sick children

It is time for my regular update, Linton here. As I write this entry, Canadians are heading to the polls for the national election, world markets are hopefully rallying, the US is in the last month leading up to their election and I am sipping coffee, watching daytime tv and waiting for my sick child to wake up. This is one of the luxuries of this year - simplifying life and being able to stay home when the boys are sick. Unfortunately, this is the fourth day Alex has been sick in the last 10 days....So yes I am a little bored but still appreciating the time that I have to be with the kids and to be a stay at home mom.

Just last week, I was invited to another mom's house for "morning tea". About 10 other moms were there and we sat down with formal china, scones with jam and cream and party sandwiches. Very lovely and nice to be included. The conversation was about all the usual topics - kids programs, renovations, private schools, holidays, in-laws, etc. Minus the Australian accent, I really could have closed my eyes and felt like I was with all my TO girlfriends. Amazing really. I would equate our neighbourhood in Melbourne (Carlton North) with the Annex in Toronto. Because of the proximity to the University, Carlton North is filled with professionals and individuals working either at one of the hospitals/universities. There is a mix of double income families, single parent families and stay at home moms with working dads. But I have been told by a few parents that most of the kids that attend our boys' school (Carlton North Primary School) will go on to attend private school in Year 7. So there is definite wealth in the neighbourhood. Like the Annex, Carlton North has mostly older houses and shops but this is part of the charm of the neighbourhood.

Our life in Carlton North has changed a bit now that it is Spring and the weather is "fine" outside:
* The local Y's outdoor pool has opened so we have starting swimming there (the boys start swimming lessons in November)
* The school has launched their SunSmart program and all kids must wear a wide-brimmed hat whenever they are outside (so now both boys have bucket hats that they have to wear everyday). We continue to be told how strong the Australian sun is.
* Visits are more frequent now to our local park's playground. Saturday mornings are full of the kids' activities that all take place from this park. Tennis at the courts in the park and soccer on one of the fields within the park.

I continue to religiously watch the exchange rate between Australian and Canadian currency. Because the Australian dollar has dropped in value significantly against the Canadian currency (approx 20 cents), I have been booking the rest of our year's travel fast and furiously to take advantage of the cost savings. My representative at the local Flight Centre thinks she has died and gone to heaven with the amount of bookings I have put through her in the last 2 months. Just yesterday, I started booking our flights home, if you can believe it...We are flying direct from Perth to Johannesburg on July 3rd to have a visit with Sarah and her family. Very exciting that finally we are taking the boys to see their cousins in Africa. Then we will go on from there to hopefully see more cousins and friends in London, flying from Joburg to London July 13th. I am waiting to book the London-Toronto leg until we figure out what we want to do in London and how long we will stay. The plan is to return to Toronto in time to enjoy the August long weekend with family.

Future travels include:
* Sydney-Ayer's Rock-Alice Springs-Adelaide (November 15-27)
* Hong Kong (Dec 3-7 Linton only!)
* Great Ocean Road, Lorne-Mt. Gambier then meeting Jane and Peter Darling in Adelaide, Apollo Bay then back to Melbourne for the Australian Open (Jan 18-Feb 3)
* New Zealand - Christchurch, Franz Joseph Glacier, Queenstown, Te Anau, Dunedin (April 4-14) with Mom and Bill

I know, we are so lucky to be doing all this! Can't wait...

Personally, I am between fundraising contracts. Just waiting to see if Children's Miracle Network needs my services over here. So for now - I continue to do my fitness class, volunteer with Alex's class and at school events, run, and manage the household activities. I do like the slower pace and the simplicity of our daily life but look forward to our upcoming travels...

Sept. 29-30 Hervey Bay

On our way out of Yeppoon we decided to wander a little further down the coast to check out a sculpture called The Singing Ship that commemorated James Cook's exploration of the Australian east coast. It was situated in a uniquely named place called Emu Park on a bluff overlooking the ocean and an absolutely gorgeous view. We took pictures with the ocean in the background but I was having a bit of trouble mustering a smile having moments before been dived bombed by an aggressive magpie and quite literally pecked in the head! He or she almost got Colin too and necessitated a wary and hasty return to the camper.

Once we were on our way we had another longish slog ahead of us as we were attempting to get ourselves to the home of Australian whale watching - Hervey Bay - about 440kms away. Highlights of this drive included: sidestepping places like Rockhampton which has a very western feel and apparently 2 million cattle in the surrounding area, stopping for lunch in another information kiosk in a place called Miriam Vale, and making a detour outside of Childers from some excellent macadamia nut ice cream. The ice cream stop had two types of drama; the first was my second momentary lapse in terms of the right and wrong side of the road and the second was the very surreal experience of eating ice cream on a bench while watching My Fair Lady on a huge flat screen tv in the backyard of the ice cream shop. In spite of both experiences, we left no worse for wear and in no time we were wending our way through Hervey Bay in search of the next Big 4!

Now that we were "pros" at setting up camp, the kids were quickly in the pool as Linton booked our whale watching tour with the front office. We decided to do a half day trip on the newest and biggest boat in the Hervey Bay fleet - The Spirit of Hervey Bay. This trip would take us about 50kms out to sea and up the coast of the world famous Fraser Island which at 120kms long is the largest sand island in the world. We were after the Humpback whale which is "forced" into the area around Fraser Island in their annual migration north from the Antarctic to Indonesia.

But before the whale watching we decided to treat ourselves to our second non-camper dinner of the trip and settled on a funky place our Lonely Planet guide recommended called the Black Dog Cafe about ten minutes from our Caravan Park. On the way there we had a neat conversation with our cab driver who told us of his son who was a school teacher and a snowboarder working in Fernie BC who didn't seem to ever "want to come home". In this land of paradisical beaches that seemed hard to fathom and yet, for us skiers and Canadians we could understand the attraction. The dinner was a tonne of fun. Maybe it was the great food, or perhaps the Shrek and Simpsons figures by the kitchen, or maybe even the goofy presence of Owen Wilson in a signed photograph beside our table - whatever it was, we were all in a great mood as we walked the abandoned beach strip before hailing a cab home.

In the morning Linton showed me up in the extreme with an early morning run and then a walk on the beach with Colin. Allie and I chose to "lounge" about the camper if that's possible and I eventually made my way down to check out the beach with Colin after coffee. We had great fun "fossicking" in the tidal pools looking for starfish and hermit crabs with one wary eye on the lookout for swooping Magpies. An Ibis and an Osprey were our more friendly companions.

Our whaling adventure departed at 1:00pm from the main port which was at the opposite end to Hervey Bay from where we were and required a 20 minute shuttle bus ride. Once there we had more than an hour to kill so we wandered around the quaint harbour eventaully having a pre-trip beer and Calamari plate to toast the weather and the whales to come. In actual fact we were going to have to deal with some fairly rolly seas again so we all dutifully popped our motion sickness meds in the hope that time spent at the lee rail would be for the whale watching - only! Soon our ship was ready to board and we were off on a 50 minute cruise up the coast of Fraser Island and in search of humpbacks!

With vivid memories of a very cool and rough whale watching trip in Tofino that had little in the way of actual whales, we were keen to get close to a whale this time and after about one hour of searching we were handsomely rewarded. Eventually, we would follow two different mothers with their calves and the second pair was spectacular with many breaches, some fluking? and about 30 minutes of a show that would make Seaworld drool! This was followed up with some playful antics from another juvenile and we turned for home fully satisfied. A smooth return trip under a slowly setting sun made this day on the water forever memorable.

A Tooth, a Turkey and a Ten K Trot!

Taking a break from the minutiae of chronicling our travels on the highways and bi-ways of Queensland, I wanted to be sure to clearly record October 12 as a day of truly momentous occasions. This was the day that Linton and James would successfully complete their first 10km race together. This was the day that Alex and Colin would successfully negotiate the perils and predicament of "hosting" a teenage babysitter. This would be the day that we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with a lovely dinner once again hosted by our friends Alex and Simon Davies. And this would ultimately be the day where Alex Darling, with the help of a healthy bite into a Macintosh apple, would lose his first tooth! And that was only Sunday!

Having had a less than stellar morning on Saturday trying to get the guys going with tennis lessons and a soccer skills clinic we were hoping that Sunday might not repeat the drama. Mom and dad were going to be off early, cabbing it downtown toward the MCG to try and successfully realize the end of what had been a fairly relaxed training regimen...or in James's case get this darn 10k out of the way! We were leaving the boys with a babysitter for certainly the first time in Oz and for one of the few times ever in their lives where that person was under thirty. The sitter was a teenage neighbour of ours from around corner who had actually been friends with the previous tenants. We were very confident in her abilities - certainly moreso than our own ability not to worry. Nevertheless, it had to be done and after an endless series of instructions we raced downtown to join the 20,000 other runners competing in the various events connected to the Melbourne Marathon.

My nerves about surviving and completing the run were not helped in anyway when literally the first image we saw after stepping foot outside our cab, was parademics giving first aid to a runner who had collapsed during the half-marathon. A few blocks later there was another young runner losing her lunch at the side of the road...I was beginning to wonder what I had got myself into. After warming up for twenty minutes and convincing myself that I did not need to use the port-o-john, we got into position on the startline with five minutes to go. Only when we had no more than about three minutes to go did my bladder decide it was, in fact, full. But then we were off. I would have to deal with such things later.

The run itself was a lot of fun. Linton and I both felt strong after some significant carbo-loading the night before and no doubt our superior training program - not! We managed to work our way through a very clogged route without losing each other or our respective lunches. The route was flat and scenic and our only complaints would be the limited access to water and a few logjams where we actually had to stop running. Having been at one time in my younger, apparently much wiser years, quite opposed to the life of the runner, I must admit to getting quite into the whole scene. In particular, I found the need to pass slower runners and a growing obsession with my finishing time as things that propelled me down the course well out of my projected pace and making my full bladder a distant memory. Despite the odd moment of wondering when we might make the "turn for home", we eventually made a very exciting turn onto the field of the MCG with several thousand people cheering us all on. If there was an extra kick in the last 400 metres then I would admit it was all for the fans!

So we did it. And so did the boys, as we arrived home to hear that things had gone swimmingly and that there was a good chance that sitter and sittees might all agree to do it again some time soon. We didn't have much time to lose however as we needed to shower, shave and prepare the carrots for our trip down to Toorak and dinner with the Davies. This was another splendid occasion and Alex had gone out of her way to make a turkey dinner complete with stuffing, gravy and pumpkin pie. The boys were very well behaved - veritable princes in their Thanksgiving day outfits and thrown into a mix of four little girls under four all in their respective princess oufits. We had the pleasure of meeting Simon's parents, brother and sister-in-law and their two gorgeous daughters and the feeling of family around the table complete with witty banter and family memories gave us a strong feeling of family that we miss back home.

The surprise of the night was when Alex Darling appeared in the kitchen with a rather surprised look on his face clutching the first ever baby tooth to depart from his face. Thanks to a big bite of apple the tooth had been rather violently coaxed into a public appearance and Allie looked quite confused by the whole concept. Once we were home and safely tucked into bed, the tooth was safely stowed under pillow along with a wonderfully innocent anticipation for the arrival of the tooth fairy. This was a neat moment to watch and listen to as Alex, in a way that only he can, described exactly the conditions that were necessary for the safe and successful exchange of tooth and toonie. Priceless - as was this whole day. A day that in many ways seemed only able to be manufactured in Melbourne, Australia.

Sept. 27-28 Yeppoon

Having “sold” the previous drive to the boys as being the longest of the trip, we were almost forced to eat our words and to supply copious ice cream bribes when today’s journey looked to tally 5 and a half hours of driving. I was nervous. A little traffic, a wrong turn, a misplaced cassowary and we might be looking at some seriously put out passengers hungry for some “mint-chip” blood!

In spite of these concerns we rolled out of Airlie beach full of gas, the liquid type, heading back to the A-1 in search of the endless white beaches of Yeppoon. The countryside offered more of the spectacular same - constant mountain ranges, sprawling cattle stations, signs warning of imminent death unless we were to stop and rest every 2 hours, and always and forever big trucks roaring past or up our backsides. I was getting used to them actually and had taken to throwing on the hazards every convenient moment, slowing down, pulling over and letting the big boys pass for which we would often get a friendly toot of their horn. In addition, I was also getting nervy enough to pass the odd doddler in front of us, which were the few times I saw Linton grip her door handle a little tighter.

Once again the journey was divided into stages – settling on stops that had an information kiosk, gas, or a picturesque place to have some lunch. The beauty of the camper-life can also be realized in the fact that it is a rolling canteen and so appointed we had several nice languorous lunches parked in the cosy confines of a fairly deserted tourist kiosk parking lot.

It was after one such stop on this day’s travels that I made my first blunder in terms of the right or wrong or left side of the road. In a half-hearted and admittedly lame attempt at pulling into a gas station I managed to get us lined up on the right side of the road – nowhere near anything but the imminent threat of oncoming traffic. Three three-point turns later we were safely in front of the diesel fuel pump around the corner, on the correct side of the road and with only 3-4 harsh words spoken between driver and navigator. I was amazed and shocked at how logical this little brain fart had seemed at the time and the shot of adrenaline (or was it the scream in my left ear?) I received when I suddenly realized my mistake would be enough to keep me wide awake well into the following day’s drive. Thankfully, no harm, no foul and with a $100 more gas in our tank we we’re off again. The boys quietly convinced that our arrival was imminent and Linton and I plotting how we were going to sell the next three hours of driving to our restless, rolling natives!

It must have been around 4:30 when we finally began negotiating our way through the many roundabouts of Yeppoon. We must have been tired because our normal witty banter and surgical decision-making became decidedly short, to the point, and...less than surgical. Finally, after cresting a hill and seeing one of the most beautiful vistas of beach I have ever seen anywhere, we stumbled into the Big 4 Caravan Park in Yeppon intriguingly named Capricorn Palms. We learned later that we were on the section of Queensland coast called the Capricorn coast because we would soon be driving across the Tropic of Capricorn – hence the name. Again, despite some early trepidation upon first appearance (think trailer park at the end of undeveloped subdivision) this park would prove to be a good follow-up to the paradise that was Airlie Beach as it had a lot of the same things (though thankfully the boys never discovered the games room!) There was a jumping pillow, movie nights, and pedal carts all of which we made good use of including Alex’s small accident in a pedal cart which we didn’t see but about which he claimed to have “gone the wrong way and hit something”.

Unfortunately, perhaps the worst thing that happened on the entire trip was the attack of the no-see-ums, particularly for Colin and Linton. Thankfully, I don’t have the sweet blood that they do and was relatively immune to the bugs but Linton especially got as much as she could handle. She was a total trooper throughout, with nary a complaint, but we did need to hit the chemist in Yeppon for some drugs and cream to try to relieve the itch. When all you really want on your skin is some warmth and some colour and instead you are putting on anti-itch cream and bandages, it can really take the wind out of your holiday sails but thankfully after a day or so the medication started to work and Lint could spend less time scratching her countless bites.

We often spend time recounting our favourite parts of the trip and our day on the beach at Yeppoon ranks right up there for me. Warm water and gentle surf allowed for endless play and the fact that we were able to park the camper right beside the beach made the convenience of lunch, changing, and bathroom breaks all the sweeter. Colin, Alex, and Linton all managed to ride the tube and boogie board with great success whereas I managed to merely drown it. I like to think that it was a surf thing versus a weight thing but somewhere in the middle of it all was a buoyancy issue. Between dips we strolled the strip topping up our beer supplies, groceries, sunshirts for Colin and dad, and negotiating the correct word search book to buy with Alex. I still don't think he knows what "conglomerate" means! No matter, the best highlight of this day might have been the fact that it was Saturday and the day of the Aussie Rules Grand Final with Geelong facing Hawthorn at the MCG. Knowing this we managed to find a pub and a big screen tv mere seconds away from the beach! So, while Alex did a word search, we ate chips from a machine and drank glasses of Sprite and small “pots” of 4X Gold cheering on our mates Buddy Franklin, Luke Hodge, and Cyril Rioli to a well deserved championship. Tonnes of fun and a great memory!

In spite of the fun, grandparents will be pleased to note that we were a bit hesitant about exposing the kids to a full two hours of life at the local tavern so we bailed out at half time content to let the Footy gods have their way with our Hawks. Soon we were back down on the beach for more of the sun and boogie board beaching. We finally pulled back into the Capricorn Palms in the late afternoon, only to see that the movie that night would be Ice Age 2 (one of Allie’s faves) and thus a really great day ended triumphantly on one, even slightly higher, more glorious note.