Establishing Roots

Mike and one of the Australia-sized trees across the street from our apt

We are establishing roots here.  We have friends, jobs and community activities.  It'll be hard to pull up come July!  

Much-needed shade!

Nina and Audrey have met a lot of really nice kids.  With friends from school they went to an "Under 18 Fest" that the city sponsored.  14,000 kids gathered in the Botanic Garden for 10 hours of loud music and carnival games and lots of water in the 90 degree heat.  They are still recovering.  

Australia-sized bubbles at a sculpture park

Our jobs are just getting started. Jill is involved with 2 different projects. One is with a non-profit that advocates for young people in aged care facilities. The government insurance puts long-term care patients together regardless of age or cognitive level which is far from ideal.  The other project is with a professor at the University of Melbourne working on international comparisons of health and well-being indices. Australia rates pretty high on all counts. Mike’s job involves supporting the director of the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation.  He is also trying to get some of his TED-inspired initiatives going here.  Even Audrey and Nina have jobs lined up for their compulsory work experience at the end of June.

One of our recent adventures was to the Moonlit-Sanctuary on the Mornington Peninsula only an hour from Melbourne. Our friend runs this special wildlife park where he gives tours to educate people about Australia’s indigenous, and often threatened animals. We crept around the property with flashlights and saw all sorts of animals including a wombat, betongs and a pair of Tasmanian Devils courting each other with hisses and claws. 

Audrey and Nina feeding a betong

We learned that some marsupials are pouch-up (e.g. betongs and kangaroos) and some are pouch down (wombats and Tasmanian Devils). The backwards-facing pouch protects the joeys when the mom is tunneling.

At the Moonlit-Sanctuary, Mike made friends with Australia's largest snake, a scrub python.  

Tastes like chicken!

Tastes like chicken!

We are amazed with how much activity there is here—people are out and about day and night.  There are lectures and architecture tours and art exhibits 24/7.  We went to a literary event at the town hall on a rainy Wednesday night and there were well over 1,000 people there.  One evening we went to Victoria Market (500 stalls selling everything from organic produce to knock-off Addidas).  At night it is an international extravaganza with live music from Africa and Indonesia and food vendors from all over the world (no American hot dogs though).  We are trying everything (at least once)!


There is so much to do here we can hardly find time for school and jobs.  Nina and Audrey have fit right in at Wesley College. There are not many students from abroad so most of their classmates have grown up in Australia.  The girls are liking the uniforms, mostly because they don’t have to think about what to wear in the morning.  They get up, dress quickly, eat their “brekkie” of passion fruit yogurt and muesli (no appetite for Vegemite!) and catch the tram to school.  Every day starts with “tute” (tutorial/homeroom) and then 4 or 5 long blocks instead of 7 or 8 long ones like home.  Saturday morning sports is compulsory so they have school-related activities 6 days a week. The girls say it's not too different from school at home only p.e.classes are more intense and homework is less (intense).  The kids are very fit but they have a lot of free time...  What a concept!


As Year 10 students, Audrey and Nina have a standard curriculum; specialization starts at Year 11.  At the end of Year 12, students take exams and university acceptance is based solely on a single composite test score; extra-curricular activities, essays and who-you-knows don't matter one bit.  Nearly all the local kids go to college in Melbourne and live at home.  

It's hard to ignore signs like this

Although the kids don’t move out of home until later, the drinking age is 18 and cafes and bars are a way of life here.  Driving age is also 18, so drunk driving is a big concern.  We have already driven through (and passed) several routine roadside sobriety tests. 

Sign like this are everywhere

City life has been exciting but we are happy to get out of town on the weekends after sports. Last Saturday we drove 2 hours south of Melbourne to part of the Great Ocean Road. The rocky  inlets and hair pin turns were remind us of Big Sur.   

Audrey at the start of the Great Ocean Road

Kangaroos mowing the Anglesea Golf Course

We stayed at a friends’ home overlooking a golf course where kangaroos mow the grass.  Stray balls have been known to fly into the pouches and hit the joeys!  Along the beach we watched a "Surf Lifesaving" competition. The young children train for years; they start out as Little Nippers and learn to navigate the Rip (tide) to become an official Lifesaver.  It is an essential rite of passage for living on coastal waters as most Australians do.

Grown Up Little Nippers

While the girls are at school, we plan to do some volunteering.  Mike is networking with people from all sorts of local non-profits to see where he can help out or get new initiatives going.  Jill is getting involved in health care-related projects.  She is fascinated by the socialized medicine here; the government is very involved and invested in health promotion and disease/accident prevention.  Health care is controversial here too, but everyone gets what they need.

The City of Festivals

Touching the Dragon for good luck on Chinese New Year

The Gay Pride parade was miles long

Too many festivals, too little time!  Melbourne is the self-proclaimed Oceania* capital of arts and culture.  With that title comes the non-stop parade of festivals—and we plan to hit them all.  Last weekend it was Gay Pride Fest and Chinese New Year.  

Chinese is the #2 language here

We went to both parades and saw very different sides of this diverse city.     

Julian Assange rally

We caught the Left side at the “Send Julian Home” rally for free speech featuring Julian himself, via satellite.  It was an eye-opener into how some liberals in Melbourne regard US foreign policy.  

Despite all this emphasis on diversity and individual rights, the girls still had to wear their uniforms to school, which started Monday.

Summer uniforms on first day of school

Our view to the east

Driving on the left, during a recent flash flood

We are loving our window to the world (of Melbourne) from our apartment.  Most people get around by tram but to go anywhere fast, or to get out of town, you need a car.  We bought a vintage Saab which makes facing the aggressive Melburnians from the left (both meanings) a little bit more fun.  

*Oceania: not much competition for titles

Settling in to the City

We have a view of Port Phillip and the City



It has been an exciting week moving in to our apartment and exploring the neighborhood. The atmosphere around Melbourne is lively and cosmopolitan and we are living smack dab in the center of it all. 

One our observations, so far, is how “well-off” the Australians are.  The economy is robust and unemployment is under 6% nationwide.  We see no homelessness, no obvious crime, no poverty; education, health care and retirement are all guaranteed by the government.  Minimum salary is close to $30k which is called the “living wage.”  You can live quite well on that with no college debt, medical bills and nursing home expenses.  Immigration however is very tightly controlled so we won't be burning our return tickets.





Lamingtons and Pavlova for Australia Day

We connected with a few friends of friends who have helped us get oriented to the City.  On Australia Day, (like July 4^th without the parades and fireworks) we were invited to our first “barbie.”  The lamb and steaks were delicious (cattle is grass fed here: there is no corn and also no high fructose corn syrup).  Vegetables and fruit were super-fresh and full of natural flavor.  Dessert included traditional pavlova (meringue cake) and lamingtons (coconut covered petit fours).  



The Australian Open was exciting; Mike and Audrey went to one of the quarter-final matches with the 2-time winner Novak Djokovic.  The weather has been hot and sunny so we slather on the sunblock (the slogan is: slip (on a shirt), slop (on sunscreen), slap (on a hat). When it got really hot, 41̊ C (106̊F) we went to one of the many terrific museums.  We love how hands on the exhibits are and how direct the commentary is at the museums.  No ropes or guards keeping you 6 feet away and clueless.  On cooler days, we have been outfitting our new flat and checking out the gardens and markets.

 

As summer “holidays” come to an end we are joining the rest of the country in getting ready for school.  The girls will be wearing purple uniforms, which we’ll pick up at the school second hand shop in a few days.  We had to buy new shoes though, and the process was painful.  They need a very specific style that was hard to find and, as an understatement, hideous and confining after weeks of flip flops. 

School shoes



Melbourne: our new "home"

  

 Tickets to the Australian Open  Our new home city is so full of life--the human kind. Evidently we have to go outside the suburban ring for kangaroos and wombats, but we saw enough marsupial life to hold us for a while. Melbourne, from the 5 days we've been here, appears to be all we hoped it would be.  The first thing we did after settling in our temporary rental was go out and explore the funky neighborhoods, cafes, gardens and cake shops:  all of which Melbourne is known for.  We can't possibly do it all in 5 months but we'll try!  House hunting was the real priority and we fell in love with the first place we saw! The apartment is in a stunning high rise a short tram ride from school. The views from our 16th floor flat are spectacular and the space feels right. We are so excited to move in and unpack after 40 days and nights on the road!   Our new home at 350 St. Kilda Road, Melbourne   Wesley College  Wesley College, where the girls will attend school, is right in the middle of the city.  We got a tour and learned that they will be in Irving House (very Hogwarts). There is a huge cricket pitch (cricket wicket?) in front of the school.    Cricket pitch at Wesley  And speaking of sports, the city is overtaken with the Australian Open right now. We've gone to see several matches and been part of the international crowd of fans in the stands.    

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Kangaroo Island

   


 

Atop Mount Lofty with KI in the distance



 





We flew from Canberra to Adelaide which is along the south coast of the country.    The city is small and pretty and much of the architecture is a cross between Victorian and cottage vernacular.   

Adelaide architecture



The city was overtaken by bikers for the Tour Down Under so we headed out of town to the Adelaide Hills.  The country drives were spectacular and we went strawberry picking and found a local cheese maker who let us sample the herby goat and sheep cheeses.  Lunch of fresh strawberries and cheese—perfect.     

Pick one eat two





From the peak of Mount Lofty we could see the whole coast, including the beautiful shoreline of Kangaroo Island.  On Tuesday we went back to the airport for the 20 minute flight to the Island.  The island is about 30 times the size of Nantucket but has only 4000 year-round human residents.  Marsupials, however, are all over the island.  Kangaroos and wallabies live off the inland grasses and koalas devour the eucalyptus groves.  Eucalyptus is also a native to Australia and comes in hundreds of menthol-scented, flowering varieties.  Koalas are very particular about their leaves they eat which the only thing they consume:  no water or protein.   We spotted several of the koalas munching away, seemingly oblivious to our presence.  This was really neat but nothing came close to the experience we had playing with the orphaned baby kangaroos. 

 

Roo-B is as soft and sweet as she looks



Most people here consider the kangaroos and wallabies pests, eating their crops and denting their cars in the all-too-frequent car versus roo encounters. 

We seriously considered adopting one of our own until we witnessed the power of their legs when they play fight! 



Small hands, big feet

The rugged coast of the island was spotted with rock formations (called the Remarkables).   

Mike, crossing a chasm of The Remarkables




 After a few days on Kangaroo Island, we felt ready to leave the country life and head to Melbourne the next stage of our adventure:  living in the big city and getting back to school. 

Blue Mountains and Canberra

There is nothing unclear about how Australian sites are named.  Some have Aboriginal names, which usually have symbolic meanings, and others are literal descriptions.  The Blue Mountains are truly blue:  the eucalyptus forests create a haze over the striking hills and gorges.



The two sisters in front of the Three Sisters formation in the Blue Mountains



Cockatoos swarming our yard

We stayed in a charming town about 2 hours outside Sydney.  Our house was a civilized Victorian cottage with a tile veranda separating the perfectly civilized house from the wild jungle of a garden. Outrageously colored parrots flew around the yard, and cockatoos perched on the power lines much to our delight. 

We could picture the turn-of-the century Colonials trying to tame the Bush.  One of the thrills was a scenic railway (called the Scenic Railway) that took us down the mountain at a frightening 52 degree angle –a thrill-park ride down an old coal mining track.  The parrots and kukaburras calling through the rainforest made it sound like a Tarzan movie set.



Jill looks so natural holding the parrot





Jill fulfilling a life-long dream:  glassblowing



We drove from the Blue Mountains to Canberra, the capital of the country.  At the turn of the century when Australia became an independent nation, they had to pick a capital and Canberra was chosen as a compromise halfway between Sydney and Melbourne.  It is a planned city designed by an American architect (Chicagoan Walter Burley Griffin) and much like D.C. is filled with great museums and showy embassies.  We toured the Australian Museum (see what we mean about the names?) where we learned more about the early settlers and the treatment of Aborigine people.  We took a break from museums to continue to fulfill our new years' promise and try something new: glass-blowing. 

 

Just outside the wide boulevards, however is rough country.  We were invited to dinner at a friend of a friend’s home in just outside of town in the bush.  We spotted the alpacas in the yard as we drove up the dirt road. 

Audrey with the alpacas

By the end of the evening, we had seen all the fauna of the region except the poisonous snakes which our friend assured us were closeby.  The ant mounds looked like shepherd's huts across the way and the sunning lizard we stumbled across looked like a baby croc.  We felt like kids at an open-air wildlife park--which is what Australian bush is.  

We were too awe-struck to take picture when the  "mob" of kangaroos hopped across the road in front of us. 



G'Day and Welcome Home?

We spent our last few days in NZ in a(nother) laid back lakeside town called Wanaka. The quirky local attractions included a funky movie theater where you sit on mom’s old couch while you eat your meat pie or in the seat of the convertible car that has been parked in the aisles. The other must-do was Puzzleworld—a unique museum of optical illusions and an immense high-walled maze that took us an hour to get though. We loved all the stunning scenery of NZ but we were ready to move on. So, when we landed in Sydney, we were all excited about the next phase of our trip.  

We made it and so did all of our luggage!

 Our hotel looked out on to the iconic Sydney Harbour and the Opera House.

We asked the concierge for some local cuisine and he sent us to a Chinese place right in the middle of the action along the promenade. Live lobster was on the menu and when we asked the price, the waiter said “$270.” We thought he was kidding (not). Fortunately, we opted for an even more authentic (and cheaper) dish: crocodile. 


see the crocodile scales?


 The Australian dollar is one of the strongest currencies in the world right now-- so even crocodile is expensive. We explored all the famous sites of Sydney. The town is bustling and we were a little overwhelmed by all of the people after the quaint little towns in NZ.

As part of the annual Sydney Festival there is a temporary interactive art installation in front of the Opera House that we went into. It is an inflatable sculpture that is like a psychedelic maze inside. 

Inflatable sculpture in front of Opera House



At the Aquarium and the Wildlife World we finally got to see some of the odd and exotic indigenous creatures. While NZ has mostly peaceful birds, cows and sheep, Australia has abundant poisonous reptiles, colorful and dangerous fish, giant insects, multiple marsupials, egg-bearing mammals and all sorts of strange looking nocturnal creatures like the wombat. We got to see our first koala in a rare moment of wakefulness (they sleep 20+ hours a day). 

We will not be going north of Sydney to the Brisbane area where the floods are.  The weather here is mostly hot and very humid which is partly due to the whole El Nina effect. 

Our paragliding and luge adventure topped off our adrenaline for a few days so we were ready to head out of thrill-seeking Queenstown.  The countryside is so vast and without getting out of the car, you lose perspective on how truly big the mountains are or how expansive the sheep pastures can be.   We found a stable for Audrey and Nina to explore the area on horseback.  

It was a rainy day, so the girls put on "bush ranger" coats and trotted off with their guide who had been a cattle-wrangler in the Aussie outback.   Mike and Jill nervously watched the girls disappear with strangers into the rainy wilderness so it was their adrenaline that rose this time.   

Jill and Mike found their own adventure trolling the grocery store, where they found tasty local lamb, fresh herbs and salmon for dinner.  They were amused by the shelves of vegemite and the entire sausage cooler.   

NZ has lots of sheep intestines available for sausage casings

 From Queenstown near the center of the South Island we drove to the west coast to the spectacular region aptly called Fjordland.  On the way we passed only 2 towns—each with a population of under 200.  We certainly did see some sheep, although Audrey says “the lack of sheep is the least disappointing disappointment of the trip.” 

When we arrived at Te Anau, we dumped our stuff and headed for the weird but intriguing sounding Glow Worm Caves.  We took a boat to the other side of the lake where we met a guide who told us about these strange insect larvae that live on the ceiling of the dark caves and emit phosphorescent blue light to attract their prey.  We then crept through the wet cave for about 15 minutes until we reached a cavern.   Then, admonished to be perfectly quiet, we got in a gondola and floated into the absolute blackness.  But it wasn’t completely dark:  above us were tiny twinkling lights like the crowded constellations of the southern hemisphere sky.  Weird but marvelous.   

The Glow Worm Cave felt like a Disney ride

The whole town glowed

That night, at about 9:30 pm, the whole town strolled down to the beach and we saw the most beautiful sunset we've ever seen.

The next day was highlight of the trip to Fjordland.  We got up early for a full day expedition that started with a boat ride across Lake Manapouri, then a bus over the Wilmot Pass, and finally another boat for a 3 hour cruise experiencing the beauty and majesty of Doubtful Sound.   This inlet along the ocean, like its cousin Milford Sound, in actually a fjord.  (A sound is formed by rivers cutting through the mountains, a fjord is formed by retreating glaciers.)  

Doubtful Sound--so named because you doubt you'll every find your way out

The extremely steep mountains were punctuated by occasional waterfalls that fill the lake with fresh water that floats on top of the dense salt water.  At one point the captain turned off the engines and we could hear only the rushing of the water and occasional bird.  It was majestic and definitely worth the special trip. 

At the end of the boat ride we stopped at the remote hydro-electric power plant that supplies power to the South Island as well as all of the energy needs for an aluminum smelting plant several hundred miles away.  This engineering masterpiece was built to utilize the energy from the drop between the mountain lake and the sea level fjord.  Bauxite from mines in Australia is shipped to New Zealand to be processed by this cheap source of energy.  The carbon emissions from the plant "disperse" across the sea.

Enjoying the fruits of the Islands

Actual size!

The fresh produce here is amazing.  The fruits, salad greens and vegetables taste fresher and more intense than anything we have at Dominick’s or Whole Foods.  We may become locavores but we’d have to move to California to get the variety we get here.  Last full day on the North Island, we stumbled upon a family-run orchard.  We went wild picking ripe apricots, nectarines, peaches, plums and early apples right off the trees.  Our chins and forearms were covered with sticky stone and pip fruit juices.  Many foreign backpackers make up the farm labor in these parts.  

You don't have to be 16 to drive a tractor

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Nina learning to use a picking basket

They offered Audrey and Nina jobs

Some buildings were by FLW disciples which seemed too much like home

The nearby fruit-shipping town of Napier was completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 and rebuilt entirely in Art Deco style.  And this being New Zealand, nothing has changed since then.  So, it is like a movie set and the people are almost as attractive. 

Fresh produce and clean air certainly help keep Kiwis healthy.

Reluctantly, we made our way to the tiny airport to fly from the North Island to the South Island.  No security at check-in helped expedite the travel.  We flew to Queenstown and the topography changed from hilly to mountainous.  This is the adventure sports capital of the southern hemisphere and it attracts an even younger, healthier and thrill-seeking crowd, especially on New Year’s Eve.  The party-atmosphere was calmer today so we headed up the mountain to supposedly just take in the view. 

Before we left home we told the girls that they were not allowed to bungee jump.  Paragliding off the top of the mountain however hadn’t occurred to us, and we were so taken by the view we said yes.  What were we thinking?  We must be used to the Kiwi "no worries" slogan.

When the girls got back from their adventure we all took a couple of runs on the “luge” which was tame but hardly safe and easy.  

You definitely need abs for the luge

No liability waiver or guard rails, but we made it unscathed and definitely pumped with adrenaline.  One of our New Year's Resolutions is to push our comfort zone and try new things.  Day One--January 1, and we are successful so far!