Byron Bay was a Bust

This weather forecast might give you an idea of our time in Byron Bay. Now this is in Celsius, so it actually was pretty warm, but it rained. A lot. And the wind blew. Hard. We were getting the remnants of a cyclone occurring in Northern Queensland.

We still managed to get out and walk around the city (mostly because there was nothing else to do), but we wore our raincoats all day long and waded through puddles everywhere we went.




















Australia Day, a day meant for BBQs and playing cricket games on the beach, was basically rained out. The beach was closed, parades and events were cancelled, and everyone huddled in restaurants and shops looking depressed.

The streets and yards of Byron Bay were a mess. These were just a few of the branches on the ground in the backyard of our rental house.

We watched a lot of the Australian Open to pass the time, played some cards, and ate at various restaurants around town. There wasn't much else we could do. Our kayaking with the dolphins was cancelled. Our snorkeling trip to Julian Rocks was cancelled. Even our flight out of Byron Bay was cancelled, and we had to stay an extra night (the last thing on earth we wanted to do!). And then the power went out! So we ate and played some cards by candlelight for a few hours before it went back on. My poor parents and aunt and uncle had to miss the first day of their New Zealand trip.

My family finally did get out of Byron Bay the next day, but they had to take a shuttle bus to the Gold Coast airport and catch a connecting flight before they could go to New Zealand. On the way, they took a few pictures of the streets that were flooded. Meanwhile, Zack and I went to the beach one last time before heading back to Melbourne (of course it started raining while we were there), and we got a few pictures of some of the damage done to the big trees in the area.

So Byron Bay was definitely not the place for the glorious beach vacation I had envisioned for Australia Day weekend. We managed to make the best of it, eat some good food, and have some laughs, but overall, I'd say Byron Bay was a bust!

P.S. We did watch the movie The Impossible while we were there. It's about the tsunami that happened in Thailand a few years ago. That kind of put things in perspective!

Milford Sound

Milford Sound is considered a must-do when visiting the South Island of New Zealand. However, it's one of the wettest places in the world, and the day we visited was no exception to the usual rain.

Because our kayaking trip was cancelled, we took a scenic boat cruise of Milford Sound instead. When we saw these kayakers braving the cold, windy, wet weather, we were quite glad we weren't among them.

Milford Sound is beautiful, even in the rain. There are tons of waterfalls, enormous mountain peaks, seals hanging out on rocks, and gorgeous views along the whole trip. There's not much else to say about it, so I'll leave you with a few pictures of our wet trip.

The boat you can see (which is a large boat) might give you an idea of the size of the mountains.

Stranded in a Cyclone!

We are currently stranded in Byron Bay. Our flights were cancelled, there is no way for us to get to Sydney until at least tomorrow, and the rain and wind haven't let up for three days. Oh yeah, and the power went out about an hour ago. So much for our glorious beach vacation/ Australia Day/birthday celebration! I'm down to 7% phone battery, so I should go now. Hopefully we'll get home tomorrow and my family will be able to get to New Zealand somehow.

My Family Is Here!

My mom, dad, aunt, and uncle are in Australia! We are all in Byron Bay for the weekend...trying to have fun despite the rain. Today we hiked to the lighthouse. Lots more to come when I get back to Melbourne and my computer. Happy Australia Day!

A Day with the Elephants

So life has been pretty busy since we got back from vacation. I've been teaching all week in Bentleigh, a suburb which requires me to take a tram, then a train, then a bus to get to the school. I've been in a Grade 3/4 classroom, and it's been good. I just haven't had much time to do blog entries when my commute is over an hour each way. 

On top of that, one of our camera memory cards has an error, and it's currently being fixed (hopefully), so we can get our missing pictures from Thailand, including the amazing temples in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. Until then, I'll be doing random posts, but they won't necessarily be in order. This first one will be about our day with the elephants in Chiang Mai, which is in the Northern part of Thailand.

We spent a day at Thai Elephant Home. This is something I booked online before we left, and it was one of the activities I was looking forward to the most. It didn't disappoint. A van picked us up from our hotel in the morning, and we drove up into the jungle/mountainous area outside of the city. We changed into our snazzy blue outfits and Joe, the owner, taught us a little bit about elephants (Asian vs. African, physical characteristics, etc.). We also learned a few commands, but that would prove pointless, as the elephants only really listened to the mahouts (their trainers).

After our briefing, we said a short prayer to the elephant god and fed the elephants some bananas. I guess this was so we could get comfortable with them. We were each assigned an elephant and rode around the grounds in three circles before heading out on the real trail.

They bend down nicely so you can climb on!

We rode through the jungle on our assigned elephants, passing through a shallow river and going uphill. Zack had the biggest elephant of all, and he was first in line. I was right behind him on a normal sized elephant. It was kind of like riding a big horse. I tucked my legs in behind its ears, pressed my palms on its head for balance, and it was all good!

We stopped somewhere in the jungle for lunch, which was pad thai wrapped in banana leaves. It was still warm. Yum! And we got to feed the leftovers to the elephants; those animals like to eat!

After riding a bit more, we stopped at a mud pit and spent some time covering a few elephants with the black goop. They loved it! I guess it's like a spa for them...really good for their skin. They just flopped right over and let us dump the mud all over them. They kind of got it all over us as well!

Zack's big elephant and the beautiful jungle.

We bought bananas and sugar cane along the way to feed our elephants.
Here's my view when mine was wanting a treat!

My favorite part of the day was next. We went back to a deeper part of the river, and we got to swim with our elephants! They loved it too; they were splashing and ducking their heads underwater and playing around. Doesn't my elephant look like she's smiling in the picture below?

After playing in the river, we got back on our elephants for a bit more riding back to the camp. We got some rainy downpours, but we were wet anyway, and it kind of fit in with the jungle atmosphere, so we didn't mind at all. Back at camp, we took showers, ate fresh pineapple, and soaked our feet in herbal water before they drove us back to our hotel. What an amazing day and an awesome once-in-a-lifetime experience!

Full disclosure: As incredible as our day with the elephants was, my ankles did break out with these strange (extremely itchy) red bumps the next day, which we have since determined must be mite bites that I contracted from my elephant. Both ankles (which were exposed and tucked behind the elephant's ears) were affected, and I have one bite on my wrist. Zack has a couple on his legs as well, but I definitely got the worst of it. Nearly three weeks later, I still have about thirty big nasty itchy scabs that won't go away. Oh well; my day with the elephants was worth it!

Uluru in the Rain

Well, since my computer's still not working, I'll start the Uluru posts I've been saving for awhile. This one has been in draft form for awhile, so maybe it'll upload and hold you over until I get things up and running again. I know you've all been missing my posts terribly-hahaha! 

After my parents and brother and sister-in-law left in mid-November, my sister Morgan stayed an extra week in Australia. We took a short trip to Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, which is a huge sandstone formation in the middle of the Outback. It's over 1000 feet high and two miles long, and it's pretty darn famous.

No, Uluru does not usually have a big cloud over it!

Anyway, we checked the weather report before leaving, and it said there would be rain showers. Now, you have to understand, this rock is in the middle of the desert. Yulara (the "city" that Uluru is in) regularly reaches temperatures near 100 degrees (Fahrenheit) during the day at this time of year. So we packed mostly shorts and tank tops, threw a pair of pants and a raincoat in our suitcases for the rain shower we expected would pass through quickly to cool us off, and called it good. Little did we know we would be wearing the same thing for three days straight and that the rain would never really stop.

Morgan says, "What is up with the rain in the desert?"

We got there on November 20. As we were landing, the thing that struck me was the bright red color of the dirt. I'd say it is even redder than Moab, Utah, and that's pretty red! Also, I was surprised at all of the plants, bushes, and short trees that covered the land. I thought it would be more barren.

The walking "trail" around the rock.

Morgan and I got our rental car and headed out in the rain. Yes, rain. Lots of it. Never-ending (seriously). And it was kind of chilly. But we were in the middle of nowhere, and darn it, we were still going to walk around the rock. So we did the six mile hike in the pouring rain. At some points, we literally had to wade through knee-deep water. But it was worth it. There were hundreds of waterfalls pouring down Uluru, and it was amazing. Apparently only 3% of people get to see Uluru in the rain, so we were lucky. Over the next few days, we didn't always feel that way, but I'll admit it was pretty incredible. And from some searches I've done, some of the pictures we were able to get are pretty rare. My good camera actually got so wet it stopped working for awhile (yikes!), so some of these are actually phone pictures or taken with Morgan's little point and shoot camera.

If you happened upon my blog somehow and want to steal some pictures, please don't. :)

The Aboriginal people still own and live on this land. We actually saw a couple of Aboriginal kids playing around the rock, running barefoot down the path and under a fence (they can go wherever they want!). The visitor's centre had all sorts of interesting information about the history of the land, the food and tools of the Aboriginal people, and their beliefs about Uluru. This is a picture of some rock engravings we found while on our walk.

Green trees in the Outback-who knew?

After our walk, we set up camp in the back of our car (thank goodness we got an upgrade to an SUV!), since the campground at Ayers Rock Resort was flooded. We cooked up some chili and tried to stay dry. Ayers Rock Resort is really the only manmade thing that you can find in the vicinity of Uluru. It's a complex with a campground, cabins, fancier accommodation options, a few touristy stores, a post office, gas station, medical centre, grocery store, a couple of restaurants, etc. The campground was $36 a night (ripoff), but at least we could warm up in the showers and dry a load of soaking wet clothes.

It rained all night, but we slept decently well in the back of the SUV. In the morning, we put on the same pants and raincoats and headed out for our next adventure. Stay tuned for more!

Zack Yo-Guessed-It!

Over the past twelve weeks, we've had a good time making use of a Groupon-type coupon I bought for us each to get one frozen yogurt creation per week. This place, called Yo-Get-It, is on Fitzroy Street, and it's kind of like Yogurtland in Denver, where you pick your flavors and toppings and pay by weight. The fun part is that if "yo-guess-it, yo-get-it," meaning that if you guess the weight of your creation exactly, you get it for free! We've been trying for weeks, and we've gotten sort of close a few times, but last night, on our last visit using our coupon, Zack guessed his dessert's weight exactly! We were so excited, as was the cashier. She took his picture, and soon it'll be flashing on the TV screen inside the store. This is my horrible phone shot of my winning husband, complete with his sunburnt face. Since he was getting this one "free" with our coupon, he actually got a second one for free last night. He had no problem with finishing both!

The weather has been strange lately. One day it's hot and sunny and the beach is packed; the next day it's gray and rainy and cold. This picture, taken from our balcony, is just a small sample of the craziness that is St Kilda on a warm day, especially on the weekend. We spent Sunday afternoon on the beach (hence Zack's sunburn), and we definitely weren't alone. Today it's been raining all day-ugh! Later in the week is looking nice again; I'm just hoping we have good weather when my family gets here. And yes Dills, we'll take you to Yo-Get-It!

I Got Swooped!

In Australia in the springtime, some birds (especially magpies) are known for "swooping." Basically, during the breeding season, the birds want to protect their nests, so they dive bomb toward people's heads. There are stories on the news of certain streets to avoid that have particularly violent birds, and there have actually been injuries because of this.

I guess this swooping thing happens a lot with bikers, so you see some people that have twist tie thingies sticking up from their helmets with the thought that the birds will swoop those instead of their heads (since they swoop the highest thing). People who do this look like ridiculous aliens. Anyway, I digress.

So yesterday when the rain seemed to have stopped, I headed out to grab a few groceries and pick up some dry cleaning. When I got out of Woolworth's, there was a downpour. My hands were full with grocery bags, and I of course hadn't brought my umbrella. So I got soaking wet while walking toward the dry cleaning place. While speeding down the sidewalk, I suddenly felt something hit me. It kind of side-swiped the back left corner of my (wet) head. It didn't hurt, but it surprised me. I looked up, and a squawking bird was perched on the wire above me just staring at me. I realized I had been swooped!

This is something that Zack and I joke about every time we see a magpie. "Watch out; you'll get swooped," we say, but we never thought it would actually happen. The bird that swooped me wasn't a magpie though. From what I can tell from my internet searching, I think it was a myna, which can also be spelled mynah, which may come from the word "miner" said with an Australian accent.

Anyway, who cares? The darn bird, whatever it's called, swooped me! It did another swoop down toward me, squawking the whole time, but it didn't hit me the second time. I got a little scared then (I didn't want my brains pecked out!), so I started walking in the street, and it seemed to leave me alone.

Part of me wonders if I was especially vulnerable because my wet hair looked like a nest? Check out the embarrassingly lovely picture below to see what I mean! So yeah, I've been swooped. Does this make me officially Australian?

Soaked and Swooped

Random Stuff on a Rainy Day

I found this spider on the wall above our bed the other day. It was super tiny, about the size of a fingernail, so I wasn't scared or anything. But you hear about all sorts of deadly spiders in Australia, so I researched what kind it is...turns out it's a green huntsman spider (not dangerous).

Vanilla slice is a popular dessert at all of the cake shops on Acland Street, so I decided to make a batch at home yesterday. It's basically puff pastry sheets with a custard layer. The strawberries are my own touch. It was quite yummy if I do say so myself (and I do).

Yesterday was the wettest day in Melbourne in over fifty years! There was thunder and lightning, and this picture of a rainbow is not from yesterday, because once the rain started, it never stopped. This was taken from our balcony last week. I'm not sure if you can see it from this picture, but there was actually a faint double rainbow. No, it was not a "full on double rainbow all the way across the sky." If you didn't catch that reference, go visit Youtube sometime. Hilarious.

So yeah, today looks like another gray, cloudy day, and the sideways rain just started up again. Fun. I guess I'll go do laundry now. Oh, you wanted another sunset picture? Okay, if you insist!

Freezing Fall

Pretty Fall Leaves in Front of a School

In Australia, it is autumn.  Actually, we're heading into winter very soon.  And I'm not going to lie-it's cold here!  Yesterday, the high was only 8 degrees Celsius, which is 47 degrees Fahrenheit.  It also rained on and off throughout the day, and the wind never stopped blowing.  Today's not supposed to be much better...about 52 degrees.  I'm not complaining, because I know people will be thinking, "You're in Australia-poor baby-just be quiet."  But I'm just reporting the facts.  I know people will also be thinking, "52 degrees is not that bad.  You lived in Denver for Pete's sake."  However, it's different for a few reasons:

1.  Denver has sun.  300 days of it every year.  Sun helps it feel warm even when the temperature is cold.  It's pretty darn cloudy here every other day or so.
2.  Rain makes it feel colder.  There's a wet, damp coldness to the air that you just can't shake.  In fact, our bath towels never get completely dry from day to day-only when I do laundry and they come out of the dryer.  My umbrella has seen more use in the few weeks I've been here than in my entire seven years in Denver.  Seriously!
3.  My body is craving summer.  I like all four seasons, but in order.  Coming from winter in Denver back into fall/winter here is a bit brutal.  We're hoping to start traveling around Australia soon.  Maybe we'll get to somewhere warm for our anniversary in July?
4.  It is really windy.  Maybe it's because we live right on the bay, but there are some serious wind gusts going on these past few days.  That makes it feel colder too!
5.  I didn't pack all of my cold-weather gear.  Sure, I've got my sweaters and sweatshirts (or jumpers as they would call them here).  And I have my North Face fleece jacket, which is pretty warm.  But I only have one light set of a dressy hat/scarf/mittens.  Maybe I should have brought my snowboarding get-up!

You can all remind me of this post when I'm writing about how hot it is in the summer, but for now, I'm curled up in bed, and I don't want to move from this nice warm spot.  However, there are some killer mid-year sales going on right now, so maybe I'll do some shopping today.  The stores should be warm, right?