Lemon Sours

A couple of weeks ago, Garrett and I wandered into a lolly shop.  I was in the mood for something lemony sour.  The girl at the shop said they had some that were tart and sweet, and then there were others that were so sour that you would wonder why anyone would make something that sour.

Now when she said that, I assumed she was over exaggerating, like when many other Aussies complain that mild salsa should actually be called hot salsa.  So I went for the more "extreme" lollies.  Let me just say that the lolly chick wasn't over exaggerating.  She was spot on.  Here's the proof:

Note to self:  Trust an Aussie when they're talking about sour lollies.

Danae Brook Canyon and Thurat Spires

A few months after Jacquie and I arrived in Australia my mom sent me a National Geographic magazine (Oct 2011) that had recently come in the mail. She sent it because it had a write up about Australia's slot canyons, the majority of which happen to be a short two hour train ride west of my current location. She said "check this out!"

She was probably thinking the same thing as when she bought me a rock climbing helmet for my birthday a few years ago. "Here's a helmet. Don't use it." Though by saying that she didn't mean 'Don't wear it', but 'Don't get hit by a rock while you are wearing it.' So when she told me to "check this out." she may have merely wanted me to see the great pictures and to know that such great places existed so near to me. Since sending me the magazine I have been able to do about a dozen canyons in the blue mountains and they have all been pretty amazing but I haven't been able to stop thinking about the huge canyon I saw in the article.

Last weekend I went with three fellow canyoners and we checked it out for ourselves. We went down Danae Brook canyon and then exited via the daunting Thurat Spires route. The 19 hour trek was exhausting but well worth the effort. Pictures and a more detailed description of the day can be found if you click the link below.

http://lostbymoonlight.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/danae-and-the-spires/

And here is a video (taken by a different group) of the abseils.

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/the-magazine/the-magazine-latest/ngm-australia-slot-canyons/

Wellington to Buller Gorge, New Zealand

At the beginning of October Garrett had a road safety conference in Wellington, New Zealand.  Once the conference was over we decided to make a holiday out of it and explore the beautiful south island.

If you're not familiar with New Zealand geography, Wellington is at the south end of the north island.  In order to get to the south island we decided to take a 3 hour ferry from Wellington to Picton through Cook Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound. 

Lucky for us, neither of us got sea sick.  Many other passengers weren't so lucky.

The main point of taking the ferry was to get us from Point A to Point B.  But the scenery between those two points was incredible, crossing open ocean and making our way through the fiords of Queen Charlotte Sound.



Once we arrived in Picton our rental car was waiting for us....our little gold Nissan Sunny...

This was our first driving adventure on the wrong side of the road.  Blinkers and wipers are swapped.  And we decided to throw the stick shift in there, too.

 

One thing that I looked forward to most on our drive was seeing green grassy fields full of grazing sheep.  And oh, did my wish come true.  There was no shortage of my "sheepies" along our drive along green hills, across bridges, and over countless streams and rivers.  

On our first day of driving we stopped at the Buller Gorge Swing Bridge, the longest swing bridge in New Zealand.  I'm not terrified of heights, but I'm not a huge fan either.  But this thing was so narrow and looked kind of sketchy.  But we're alive.

 So, that was Day 1 in New Zealand.  There's so much more to come.

Wildlife spotting - did you see him?

For those of you who couldn't make out the little guy in the picture on my last post, as he was very well camouflaged, here are highlighted and magnified views. This is the scene we were looking at when the guy next to us says, "I see one!" and then he tried to explain to us where the penguin was. "Just to the right of that rock..." It took us a little while to find him, but we finally did.

We were lucky enough to see 6 of these Fiordland Crested Penguins. They thought that this little guy was lost because they had never seen them on this part of the island before. The skipper drove the boat up as close as he could and we watched him waddle around for a few minutes.

Here is a closer look at some other penguins we saw the next morning.

Wildlife Spotting

Jacquie and I had such a great time in New Zealand that we wanted you to be able to experience some of our favourite moments too. So, in order to feel like you are there with us, imagine the sounds of crashing waves, the boat rocking back and forth, and the smell of the ocean and keep an eye out for rare animals.

The "Where's Waldo" of the wild.  Can you find it?

If you really want to feel like you were there, put on your rain coat and have someone spray you with the hose. 

Tickets Just Came in the Mail

Living in Sydney, going to a performance at the opera house is kind of a must.  So a couple of weeks ago Garrett and I bought tickets to "Planet Earth in Concert" at the Sydney Opera House in October.  And guess what came in the mail today.....

We love Planet Earth and can't wait to hear the beautiful music in concert....at the Sydney Opera House!

We plan on making this quite an evening, so before the show starts we'll be eating here; a restaurant at the opera house. 

This is going to be such a great experience!  October 27th can't come soon enough!

My Personal Sewing Machine Mechanic

When Garrett and I moved to Sydney we left everything we owned behind....everything that wouldn't fit into our 2 checked bags and our carry-ons, that is.  Everything is in storage.  We were starting from scratch.

While we were packing our bags the night before our long voyage across the Pacific, I had a meltdown.  What do I take?  Clothes...done.  Family photos...done.  But what about my all of my crafty things?  If you know me, you know that all things craft or "home-ec" are what make me, me.  Stand mixer...too big, too heavy.  Fabric and notions...we don't own enough luggage.  Recipe books...alone they would go over the weight limit.  ALL of my cake decorating and baking tools...need  a lot more luggage (although Garrett generously donated some of his luggage space for some of my cake decorating tools in attempt to calm his fragile wife.  And because he dearly loves her.).  Sewing machine...too big, too heavy, and is dying on me anyway.

I was crushed.  Soon after we finally found an apartment and I found a job, we bought me a stand mixer.  I was, and still am, one happy girl.  Just look here.  But I was still in search of one more important item.  The sewing machine.

So, I searched everyday on Gumtree (Australian equivalent to American Craigslist).  There wasn't much out there.  I then came across an ad for an old Bernina sewing machine for $60.  The owner admitted to not being a sewer, but she was pretty sure it was broken.  The fabric wouldn't feed through on its own, but I was more than welcome to come take a look and see if I could find the problem.  So, Garrett and I went to look at the machine.  I thought I knew what was wrong.  I was certain I knew.  But it turned out that I was wrong.  Still broken, I turned it down, being very disappointed.

Later that day the Bernina owner emailed me to say, "I'm never going to be able to sell a broken sewing machine, so if you'd like to take it for free and pay for the repairs yourself, you're more than welcome to it."  Free sewing machine?  I accept.  I picked it up, called the repair man and scheduled for him to pick it up the following day for a tune up and repair.  And then steps in my husband.

Lucky for me, my husband is a mechanical engineer.  Garrett has always been the type to take something apart, see how it works and fix it if needed or remove unneeded parts, and put it back together again, return it to perfect working order.  The night before the repair man was scheduled to come, Garrett sat down to "look" at my machine.  But before he even had a chance to take it apart, he found the problem.  And boy did I feel stupid.  Do you know why the fabric wasn't feeding through the machine?  The stitch length was set to zero.  Zero!  *sigh*  Well, I got a free sewing machine, right?

When I sat down for a real sewing project I started having problems.  The thread was winding and getting jammed around the bobbin every time I back-stitched.  I soon gave up on sewing.  But Garrett decided to take things apart.  And what can I say?  The man is a genius.  My sewing machine is working again.  I pulled it out last night to complete a little project that's been sitting on the table, all cut and ready to be sewn.  The pillow project turned out better than imagined, and my machine is now perfect!

How lucky am I to have my own hunky personal live-in sewing machine mechanic?

Quick Trip to Melbourne

A while back (actually about 7 months back...I know, it's been too long), Garrett and I had the opportunity to take a quick trip to Melbourne (pronounced mell-bin; they don't always say their "R's" down here).

I call it an opportunity because I was asked to go with the family that I work for to care for the baby while they attended the Melbourne Cup (a big horse race), dinners, and parties.  As a form of payment for my time on the trip, they offered to pay for Garrett to come along on the trip as well, which was great because 1.) neither of us had been to Melbourne, and 2.)  Melbourne was on our list of places to visit in Australia. Two for two!  We accept.

Here is me and the little reason we got to go on the trip...

At this point, the little one was only 4 weeks old.  Because she was so little we couldn't stray too far away from the hotel and to the outskirts of town like we would have liked to, but just because she was with us (or I guess we were with her) didn't mean we weren't going to get out and explore the city.  I strapped her into the Baby Bjorn, packed the bottles and nappies, and we were off!



On our walk we came across St. Paul's Cathedral.  I love the tile work and high ceilings or cathedrals, and the same applied  here.  Beautiful.



Melbourne is a beautiful city with a funky vibe, which I love!  You've got to keep an eye out as you're walking around because there are a lot of cool little shops and cafes that are hidden in the alleys.  One of the alley-hidden treasures that we found was an alley where the buildings were covered in graffiti.  But this alley hadn't simply been tagged.  It had been covered in works of art.  It was amazing and I loved it.



As much as Garrett and I would have loved to go to the Melbourne Cup, we enjoyed ourselves none the less.  We plan to head back to again soon and discover the rest of Melbourne...and maybe go to Melbourne Cup.