The Plunge Down Under

A Marvelous Week With Cousins

Tomorrow will mark one week since we welcomed my cousin Suzanne and her two daughters to share some of our adventures with us in the land of Oz.  It would be hard to argue that the weather could have been any more perfect for their visit, and it seems certain they will return home with the best of impressions of this beautiful country.  We have been far too busy touring and sightseeing to spend much time composing blogs, but hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of pictures have been taken, and it seems a shame not to share some of our favorites with you.

In a nutshell, we have taken them to St. Kilda Beach, Healesville Sancturary, downtown Melbourne, the Mornington Peninsula, Cape Schanck, and a two day trip to Phillip Island.  Somehow we managed to squeeze in shopping in our local suburb, afternoon tea at the manse, and swimming with our fellow American Heinz expats in their beautiful pool.  There has been lots of reminiscing for Suzanne and myself, the pleasure of seeing our children become well acquainted, and plenty of challenges keeping six children reasonably clean, safe, fed, and motivated to to cease bickering with their respective siblings even whilst crammed shoulder to shoulder for hours in the back two seats of our station wagon.  The good news is that I lost James only once, late on Friday, at the Churchill Island Heritage Farm.  The workers congratulated me on dressing him in bright clothing, but I suspect it was the loud crying that allowed us to locate him so quickly.

I will begin with some of my favorite pictures, but I will not guarantee that I will get them all in on this post.  Tomorrow we plan to wake up early, hop into the car and head for the Great Ocean Road.  The best part, glory be, is that this time it will be just Suzanne and myself in the car. Ross has volunteered to manage the home front after deserting us for a quick trip to Florida during the week.  We are imagining many things, including but not limited to, stopping for coffee whenever the notion strikes, pulling over to take pictures at every scenic overlook, a leisurely lunch at a cafe overlooking the ocean, and perhaps best of all, no complaining or fighting coming from the back two seats.

Healesville Sanctuary, on Sunday afternoon:  We were convinced this koala was deliberately posing for us as she adjusted herself several times, looking directly at our cameras.

This koala woke up just enough to shift to a more comfortable positon, from this:

to this:

Our afternoon at Healesville was hot, hot, hot, so perhaps it was not surprising that the marsupials we were there to see behaved as marsupials are meant to behave.  By and large they were sleeping soundly just like the wombat below:

One of the best parts of a visit to Healesville is the drive through the fertile Yarra Valley.

The next day brought a quite different adventure as we boarded the train and headed for the CBD.  It wasn't long before we realized that we needed to adjust our expectations as to what we would be able to accomplish.  During our first hour and a half, we managed to admire the outside of Flinders Station and Federation Square, but spent the remainder of the time locating necessary rooms (two separate times) and then food for our hungry bunch.

Since the Victoria Market was closed, we opted to see the Old Melbourne Gaol, and this proved to be quite popular with all of the kids.

The scaffolding can be seen below. Ned Kelly, the infamous Australian bushranger, was hanged in the Melbourne Gaol in 1880.

Our visit included the opportunity to be locked up.  James sensibly refused, but he did allow a mugshot.

By the time we reached Flinders Street Station for the second time, we concluded we had better call it a day.  This time we boarded a tram, a slower way home, but with a convenient drop off point about one block from our house, a very good thing when there is a tired four-year-old in tow.

The four-year-old is not the only tired one in the house tonight, so I'll call it quits with two out of six days covered.  Stay tuned for gorgeous views of Port Phillip Bay, a beautiful sunset at Cape Schanck, and wallabies in the wild on Phillip Island.

 

Kiteboarding at St. Kilda Beach

Our first trip to St. Kilda Beach, subject of a previous post, falls into the unplanned category.  We set out after a leisurely lunch shared with our American friends the Kellers on the Monday following New Year's Day.  Our original destination was an adventure playground, but as it turned out, the playground was closed due to the holidays.  This sort of things happens to us fairly frequently, but that may be the subject of another post.

On this day, we settled on Plan B, St. Kilda Beach, since it was close by.  Prepared we were not for the cold winds off the bay, but we improvised with what jackets and blankets we had in the car, marveling at the athleticism of the kiteboarders who took full advantage of the wind to perform what looked to me like suicide jumps.  Kiteboarding combines elements of snowboarding, windsurfing and kite flying.  It must require a fair amount of wind, becuase on our second trip to St. Kilda, a calmer day, we didn't see a single kiteboarder.

Once we fought our way to the end of the pier and went down over the other side, we found shelter from the wind and warmed up enough for the children to go wading.  We also passed the home of a baby penguin whom we could just barely see in the rocks. Approximately 1000 Little Penguins call the rocks at St. Kilda Beach their home.

The children found lots of sea stars in the water.  On a subsequent trip to the Melbourne Aquarium, we learned that they are considered a pest to the waters of Port Phillip Bay as they have no predators, allowing them to multiply unhindered.

The sun and the water, as well as good company, soon reconciled us to the initial disappointment of the closed park.  I believe it was Crystal Keller who told me when we first arrived that flexibility would be my best friend down under.   This is no doubt true of any new culture or country, and her advice has served us well thus far.

Water Victory

I think I can honestly report that today marks the first occasion in which opening a utility bill caused inward exultation.  Regular readers may remember the frustation I experienced last year over our conscientious but completely unsuccessful attempts to conserve water and meet our target daily usage of 155 litres per household member.  We were so far above the target usage, in fact, that the handy, guilt-inducing graph so kindly provided with our water bill didn't go high enough for me to calculate at a glance how many people should have been living in our house.  It turns out we were using the amount of water allocated to a ten person household.

We fretted, we stewed (more accurately, I fretted and stewed), called the water company, talked to neighbors and fellow Americans living in Australia, brought in the plumber, all to no avail.  After the second discouraging water bill, I had the plumber come back to fix a leaky toilet, and about halfway through the quarter, I turned off the irrigation system, which was supposedly only dripping a tiny amount of water daily.  We also spent several weeks out of the country, but even combined these differences from last quarter don't seem to fully explain how our usage dropped to 111, from 253, litres per person per day.  Ironically, this quarter's bill doesn't even mention the Target 155, perhaps because the water shortage is no longer so crucial. According to the Yarra Valley Water website, current storage levels are at 53%, up from the low of around 25% in June of 2009.  In Queensland, where the worst flooding has occurred, levels are at 100%.

It is just as well that this particular utility bill is significantly cheaper ($190 compared to $490 last time), because I have a feeling we will use most of the savings to pay our electric bill.  I have also turned the irrigation system back on after consulting with the gardener who worried the garden would be completely brown by February if I did not start watering it.  We shall see what happens in the next quarter's bill, but at least for now I can relax somewhat.

Beautiful Afternoon at St. Kilda Beach

The good news is that Suzanne and the girls arrived safe and sound today around noon.  The bad news is that while her daughters managed to sleep for about three hours of the thirty hour journey, Suzanne slept not a wink.  They fought through their fatigue, however, and made the most of our gorgeous afternoon.  Just about the time they felt like crashing for the night, we loaded them into our cars and headed for Melbourne's most famous beach, St. Kilda, a location that some argue has a similar history to that of Coney Island in New York City.  There was just enough of a breeze to make the air quite pleasant, and it turned out to be a great day for wading in the water, people gazing, and birdwatching.

We crossed the street from the carpark with a bride and groom, accompanied by their photographer.

First look for our guests at Port Phillip Bay, from the ground at least:

Halfway down the pier:

A Pied Cormorant

Diving: 

I noticed this little guy in the rocks at the end of the pier and managed to get a decent picture (without using the flash):

A refreshment break to help our visitors over the hump (that provided a convenient excuse at any rate!):

Back to the beach:

I managed to take his picture before he frowned and turned away.  Some day James is going to inquire about the lack of pictures of him in Australia compared to his siblings.  I will have to inform him that he did his very best to thwart every opportunity.

Perhaps one day that will be our family sailing into the sunset.

 

Notes From the Cricket Pitch

It is Friday night around 8:30 pm, and that means we have just returned from a cricket game, a subject I have mentioned before once or twice .  Tonight we had the unusual experience of celebrating a win, leading to an extra cheery atmosphere as the younger two get ready for bed.  We are also greatly looking forward to welcoming our second set of visitors tomorrow, my cousin Suzanne and her two daughters.  They are over Hawaii as I type, and we hope they are all sound asleep.

Socializing at cricket remains a challenge for me despite the friendliness of the other parents.  Three and a half hours would probably be too long even in Cranberry, PA, but fortunately tonight I had my camera, giving me something to do as well as talk about.  It was passed around so that all could have a look at the spider found in Katie's hair to try their hand at identification.  No luck there except the agreement of eight adults that it was not a white-tailed spider.  The general feeling was that it was probably venomous, and all offered Katie their sympathies and recommended that any spider found indoors be killed on the spot. 

From there the talk naturally turned to preventing spider bites and how they are rather rare.  I think the other parents were trying to be comforting, but I can't say I left feeling any better about spiders in Australia than when I arrived at the game.  Spiders in general don't particularly bother me, but I didn't like the oft-repeated remark tonight that they prefer dark, cool places such as the insides of shoes and pots in the cupboard.  One woman casually explained that after a while you get used to checking your pans before pulling them out to use them.  I believe the intention was to make me realize that we won't often notice them indoors, but frankly, I would rather they preferred bright, sunny spots so as to make them as conspicuous as possible.

I also heard tonight that redback spiders often live in garages and in the roof.  One woman related the tale of finding redbacks in their roof and calling out an extermination company to spray.  About thirty hours later, they awoke to find four baby possums dead in their back garden.  Apparently the babies had been overcome by the fumes, climbed out, and fallen to their deaths.  The family had no idea, of course, that the possums were there or they would not have sprayed and risked the possibility of heavy fines.

When I mentioned the possum Katie discovered earlier in the week in our front garden, I was told that it likely fell out of a tree.  If this happens during the day, the possum wakes up rather dazed, and as it is a nocturnal creatures, it can take up to an hour to become oriented enough to make its way back to its tree. 

At about 9pm tonight I remembered the laundry hanging on the line.  As I opened the back door, there was just enough light for me to catch the last half of a possum scurry down the drainage pipe next to the clothes line.  I paused for a moment, but decided I really wanted the clothes to come in, so I proceeded, figuring the possum would not likely make an appearance while I remained outdoors.  It didn't.

But enough about our recent experiences with antipodean animals.  I return to cricket and tonight's photos.  Cameron's team, home for the game this evening, chose to field first.  This involves mostly standing in a circle around the pitch doing not very much unless it is your turn to bowl.  First, a closeup of a pitch in a batting cage, and then a few of Cameron in the field.

A rare moment of action (fielding a ball)

While the boys were hard at work fielding, their "tea" was being prepared for them by designated mothers (not fathers, at least so far in my experience) from the home team.

Not yet, boys!

Finally the order is given to fall in:

Lamingtons, sponge cakes dipped in runny chocolate icing and then coated in coconut:

I am sorry to report that in Melbourne, Master Foods tomato sauce is preferred to Heinz Ketchup:

After tea, our team had its turn batting.  Cameron was third in the lineup, and although he scored eight runs, better than he does normally, he lost his wicket fairly quickly (the bowler from the other team hit one of the three upright white poles behind him with the ball), meaning he had to sit out the remainder of the game.  Fortunately some of his team mates stayed in long enough to bring home a win.

Running to the opposite wicket after a decent hit (this is how a run is scored)

Not only did we have the privilege of ending the game on the winning side, I came home with a new vocabulary word:  rashie is short for rashguard (swim shirt) as in, "Hugo, Where did you put your rashie when you got out of the pool?" I'm pretty sure I heard several more abbreviations, but I didn't manage to commit them to my long-term memory, something that seems to have reduced its capacity over the past year..

Sea Gulls at the Nobbies

Before our evening of penguin gazing that I wrote about in my last post, we spent some time on Phillip Island at two rock islands called the Nobbies.  Because nesting season for the gulls was in full swing, we were unable to walk out to the islands themselves, but we spent an hour or so admiring them and their inhabitants from the boardwalks provided for that purpose.  This was my first chance to try my hand at photographing birds with the new camera, and I had some fun with it.  I overheard a fellow tourist wonder why there was so much fuss over a bird as common as the seagull but I begged to differ.  Common, perhaps, but quite pretty in their own way, and smart enough to have chosen a gorgeous spot to build their nests.

If you look closely, you can see two gulls soaring in front of the breaking wave below.

We were regularly scolded---for getting too close perhaps?  This is one place that is even noisier than our house when all the children are squabbling or clamoring to be fed.

Feeding their young:

A fledgling:

Brown seals inhabit the island in the distance (we didn't see any however).

Waiting for James to catch up:

Our cultural trainer informed us last September that Australians love to dispense with shoes in the summer.  We saw plenty of evidence in spite of the cool temperatures and sharp wind.

We hung out for some time at the end of the boardwalk chatting and enjoying the view.

 

 

Penguin Parade at Phillip Island

Two days after our spectacular drive along the Great Ocean Road we made yet one excursion, this time in a different direction.  Our destination was Phillip Island, famous for its colony of 60,000 Little Penguins.  We half regretted our decision to purchase tickets for the penguin viewing ahead of time as the jet lag had caught up with all of us, but it turned out to be a beautiful day, and the trip well worth the effort.  Again, it is a place to which we plan to return when we have more time to fully explore the areas least frequented by tourists.

Little Penguins are the smallest of the world's 17 types of penguins, and the only type to breed in Australia. From 100 to over 2000 come ashore every evening after fishing out at sea.  Their reasons for returning ashore include, depending on the time of year, maintaining their burrows, breeding, feeding their chicks through regurgitation, or moulting.  They stay out at sea for one day to up to four weeks at a time, and when they return, always land on the same stretch of beach shortly after the sun goes down.  The little creatures follow well-worn paths to their burrows, and rely on landmarks and the calls of their mates to help guide them.

The following photo is courtesty of wikimedia:

People have been watching the penguins on Phillip Island since the 1920s, and currently more than 500,000 come annually to witness the parade.  At some point the government stepped in to protect them and now tickets must be purchased in advance for the privilege of walking the boardwalks to the viewing area along with thousands of other spectators.  The whole experience can feel a bit commercial, and a friend of ours questioned whether the government is exploiting the penguins.  Perhaps, but it is clear I think that the penguins and their habitat were in need of protection.

On our chosen night the predicted time of arrival was a quarter past nine in the evening.  Hoping to secure a front row seat we trooped down to the stands shortly after 7pm, meaning we were in for a long wait.  Poor James, so thrilled at the prospect of seeing penguins, was thoroughly fed up with the whole idea long before they landed.  Even now, more than two weeks later, he will tell you that he is not the least bit interested in hearing about, seeing, or watching any kind of penguin ever again.  Ah well, life can be tough when you are four.  The rest of us found the wait more than worth while.

The most trying aspect for me, even surpassing the crowds of people, was the ban on photography of any kind.  Apparently the penguins do not appreciate having their picture taken, and I can't say that I blame them.  This did not stop a surprising number of tourists from shooting away on all sorts of cameras and recording devices, and the harried park rangers more than had their hands full trying to stop the more obvious offenders (video cameras held high up in the air panning the entire beach, flash photography etc.).  After watching all of our neighbors pose for pictures while they waited,  I did take one picture of Cameron and Sophie down on the sand.  I was so thoroughly scolded by Katie for this infraction of the rules, however, that I quickly put the lid back on the camera and kept it hidden away in my purse where it stayed for the remainder of the evening.  The picture was taken long before there was any chance of disturbing a penguin, but I confess that I probably should not have done it.

Fortunately the wind was fairly moderate that evening, and we were almost comfortable in our jackets.  About an hour or so into the waiting period, an Australian Fur Seal appeared to entertain us, diving, jumping and swimming to the accompaniment of oohs and ahhs from the appreciative crowd. 

(Above photo also from wikimedia).

After this diversion, the second hand on the watch crept by even more slowly than before, but eventually, the first groups of penguins surfaced as promised.  They swam toward shore, then let the water carry them back out to sea.  In again they came in a seemingly endless cycle until the first few tentatively stepped out of the surf.  We knew ahead of time that the Little Penguin is well, little, but as they began to emerge, it was a bit shocking to realize they were no bigger than the nearby sea gulls.

Their lack of stature did not appear to diminish the enthusiasm of the spectators.  Predictably, just after they began arriving, James needed to visit the restroom.  Inwardly groaning, I herded him back up the steps toward the boardwalk, apologizing to those whose toes were unavoidably bruised in the process.  This interlude did prove to have its advantages, as I soon discovered.  During the time we had been waiting at the viewing area on the beach, the chicks had emerged from their burrows inland by the hundreds and were now crying out for their dinners from beside and underneath the boardwalks.  They sounded strikingly similar to hungry human babies and were cute beyond belief.

We continued to watch and listen to the penguins for an hour or so as they waddled awkwardly toward their homes.  It is incredible they can go so far on land given their body shape, and it is no wonder they consume one fourth of their body weight daily in fish.  We duly followed the admonitions to check under our car for penguins before backing out of our parking space (there weren't any hiding there), and within minutes of entering the car all except Ross were sound asleep.

 

 

Close Encounter with a Ringtail

One of the first things we learned about Australia a year ago or so was that it rarely receives even a passing mention in American news sources.  That has not been the case lately due to what the prime minister of Queensland has called the worst disaster to ever hit the state.  Officials are hopeful that the flood levels in the capital city of Brisbane have peaked, but yesterday they said it was too early to tell.  Regardless, much damage has been done already.

Rain continues to fall in southern Australia (where we live).  This morning I heard flood warnings for our state and the one just north of us on the news.  The Great Ocean Road was closed due to mudslides and many were evacuated from their homes during the night.  I don't believe we are in any danger, but we are, like everyone else, more than ready for the clouds to clear away.

In the meantime we are spending most of our time indoors.  Yesterday morning, however, when the rain had slowed to an intermittent drizzle, Katie wandered out into the front garden.  She reappeared quickly, yelling for me to come see the possum.  I grabbed the camera on my way out the door and found this little guy under a bush near our front gate.  This was unusual as possums normally sleep throughout the day and wait until dark to feed and caper about the trees.  Several magpies circled just abover our heads screeching, and that made me all the more worried that the possum was about to draw his last breath. 

A possum in our yard is not an uncommon event, and I suspect that several of them live closer to us than we would wish.  During winter and spring the children frequently went outdoors with Ross just before bed, and more often than not they returned from a thirty minute walk reporting that they had counted several dozen of them hanging in trees or walking across power lines.  It soon became clear to us that they are considered a nuisance by the average homeowner.  Apparently they like to pull tiles off rooftops and make their homes inside of human habitations, living in roofs or in the walls themselves.  For this reason Ross insists that we close the windows in Sophie and James's room every night before we go to sleep.  He is worried a possum might pry off the screen and pay them a visit.

We have noticed at least two different kinds of possums near our house.  According to my brief internet research, the one in our yard this morning was a Common Ringtail, so named because it curls its white-tipped tail while sleeping.  It is a tree-dwelling creature, making up to five different nests in the wild, often in tree hollows, and it is the only known type of possum that has been observed to have the father help care for the young.  Along with the kangaroo, koala and echidna, it belongs to the order marsupalia, and can be found in New Guinea as well as Australia.  The other possum we see when out walking is the Brush-tail, and it is the more destructive to people's homes.  Both are protected (I believe that all marsupials are), and if a homeowner does capture one, it must be released close to the place where it was taken.

While we waited to see what the possum would do, I took a couple of pictures around the yard.

Fortunately after a few minutes, the Ringtail dragged itself to the grassy strip close to the road.  We eventually went back indoors, and within ten minutes it had disappeared completely.  We hope it made its way back to its nest in a tree (and not anywhere within the confines of our house).  I will say that when I went outdoors later in the afternoon, I heard a noise similar to moaning in the tree in our front yard unlike anything I have noticed before.  I wondered if it was related to the earlier episode. One webiste I consulted said the Ringtail has a soft, high-pitched twittering call.

I am back to finish this post at 3:30pm on Friday, and am happy to report that the sky is a very welcome shade of blue. The humidity has vanished along with the rain, the windows and doors are opened, and I feel a celebration is in order, especially as Cameron's cricket game was canceled earlier today during the worst of the rain.

 

 

 

Come for a Summer Stroll in our Suburb

Today I invite you to take a walk with me through our suburb, now in the full glory of summer and still mostly green thanks to the rainiest July to December on record in Australia.  I am remembering back to the many gloomy days we had this past spring when I so appreciated photos of the beautiful autumn enjoyed by my friends in the northern hemisphere.  I therefore dedicate this post to those who are living in the depths of winter, not with any intent to cause jealousy, of course, but to return the favor so to speak.

Evening has always been my favorite time to be outside, and I absolutely love the rays from the setting sun in summertime.  We haven't seen much of the sun lately, however.  No doubt many of you have heard about the flooding in northern Australia.  It is much on our minds, although it is far from us distance wise (similar distance as Pittsburgh to Orlando).  Northern Queensland, where all cities have been completely cut off from the remainder of the continent, is even further.

I rang our pastor's wife today and asked about her family whom I thought lived in Brisbane, the area most recently flooded.  I found out that her mother in fact lives in Toowoomba, where the devastating flash flood occurred yesterday (footage can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYUpkPTcqPY). Thankfully all family members are safe, but their continued well-being remains a matter of concern and many prayers.  Food supplies have been affected throughout the region, and produce prices have begun to rise in our supermarkets. Some have called it the flood of a lifetime, and in some cases, the worst ever depending on the exact region of Australia being discussed at the time.

 

 

 

 

Another Day, Another Trip to the Beach

Ross heard so much about our wonderful beach experience on Thursday that he wanted to head there first thing this past Saturday in spite of a predicted high of 35 degrees C (95 F).   It was hot, hot, hot even with the considerable ocean breeze, and so we spent our time either huddled under the umbrellas trying to escape the penetrating rays of the sun, or freezing in water that stays chilly year round.  By late afternoon the air temperature dropped to 72 degrees F with light rain.  I don't think we will really ever get used to the weather changes that are so much a part of the way of life in Melbourne, but they do keep things interesting.

There won't likely be any more beach visits in our immediate future as heavy rain is in the forecast for the next seven days or so.  It would appear that lego projects, scrapbooking, and library visits will be on the agenda.