Quick Note from Downunder

We arrived safely on Wednesday morning but feeling a bit out of sorts after 26 + hours of traveling. Eric and Helen picked us up at the airport and had us back to their place in no time where the kids were there waiting for us. It was a wonderful reunion – they hadn’t forgotten who we were.

Yesterday we hung around their house, took a walk with the kids, took a drive to one of the wonderful local wineries and just relaxed. We have few plans other than visiting Bill and Sue in Dixon’s Creek, Jenny and Gary towards the end of next week and Fergus’ interview on Tuesday. We want to do a little sightseeing of some places in Victoria that we didn’t get around when we were here before.

We saw an echidna in the wild yesterday when we were driving around. I will post his picture in another entry.

The weather has been good, a bit colder than Kansas and today it is a little misty but we are well and happy to be back. I have limited access to a computer and the internet so I will try to keep you posted if we have any exciting news.

Flower Beds and Fences

I continued to work on the flower beds I created from the torn down chicken shed. I fenced it in and planted some spring bulbs and fall pansies. Two of the beds on the right are vacant and I will plant some shade flowers in the spring. The dark spots without mulch still need some tall growing bulbs.

The old chicken shed/new flower bed.

Pansies for fall - bulbs for the spring.

We are going to Australia next week for Fergus’ interview with the Australian College of Emergency Physicians. They told him that it could be as long as three months before they can tell him their decision. We decided to bring the dogs back to Kansas since it might be three months and no telling how long the immigration process may take. It is too much to ask BS and Cooper’s foster families to care for them any longer and we miss them too much to go for possibly another 6 months without them.

So I decided we need to fence the yard. They have lived in a fenced yard for over a year and 1/2. I worry about Cooper chasing cars down the driveway like he use to and getting hurt now that he is older and not as likely to recover from any injuries. I also worry with potential buyers coming to look at the house that he will be too aggressive towards strangers.

We put up a nice decorative fence at the driveway and an almost invisible wire fence around a large area of the back yard. I hope this will stop them from roaming too far from home once they return. No “walkabouts” allowed in Kansas.

Rod Iron fence near the driveway

The fence is almost invisible from the house.

The wire fence is attached to the five trees in a row in the background. I hope it will keep them safe. Of course they like to dig so we will have to make sure they don’t go under like in The Great Escape.

Fostering the Fur-dales

Our last day in Canberra was Monday. After packing the SUV and doing the final cleaning of the house we hit the road. We loaded the kennels and boxes on the roof of the car, the back was filled to the ceiling with suitcases and there was enough room for the kids and their beds. We drove to the small town just over half way to Helen & Eric’s town and spent the night. It was a truckers motel, a bit shabby but it allowed two dogs and the owner was really very nice.

Are we there yet?

 

The next morning we headed towards Woodend – northwest of Melbourne – where Helen and Eric live. They have two Airedales, Teddy and Emma. They have a lovely house in the hills with a view of Macedon Mountain area. They have chickens and ducks and alpacas as well as many wild Aussie animals. Bean Sidhe got on well with her new foster brother and sister. Emma is two and a bundle of energy – she will be a good playmate to keep BS young – Teddy will keep her in her place.

Bean Sidhe's foster family

 

Helen and Eric have an In-law unit attached to their house where we spent the night so we had our last night together as a family. We kept Cooper away from Teddy since Teddy doesn’t like other male dogs on his property. The next morning we drove to Lilydale which is east of Melbourne with Cooper and all his bedding and supplies.

Bean Sidhe loves to play with Emma & Teddy but Helen & Eric feed her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jenny, Gary, Trent, Adam and Lorna are a wonderful blended family who have a perfect house in a new housing development. It has a small yard but that’s great for Copper since he isn’t much for spending time outside. They have lots of loving hands to pet and massage Cooper. They all get down on the floor and give him the time and attention he needs to help him feel safe and secure. Adam is working on getting Cooper to sleep with him and I don’t think it will take too long before that happens. Cooper will thrive with this family.

Lilydale family -Trent, Lorna, Cooper, Daisy (the fuzzy non-dale), Fergus (yes that's his name), Gary, Jenny and Adam in the back.

 

We couldn’t have found better families!!! Sue Forrester’s Airedale Rescue contacts have truely been a wonderful help for us. After we left Cooper on Thursday morning we went back to Dixons Creek, Wombat Bend to see Sue, Bill and the four ‘dales. It was so good to see them again. So much has changed in the four weeks since we were last there. The silt from the billabong was spread over the property, the billabong was filled, the grass is still growing. It was colder than last visit because winter is coming.

Wombat Bend billabong now

 

 We enjoyed our visit with Bill and Sue. We couldn’t have done this without their support and help. On our last visit we didn’t get a picture of the entire gang so here they are.

The Wombat Bend Family

 

We only spent one night and then it was back to Lilydale to see Cooper for about an hour, then to Melbourne for the day. We had dinner at the Blue Fire – a Brazilian BBQ – for our 16th wedding anniversary – we almost forgot with all the activities. Then we drove back to Woodend and spend two more nights at Helen and Eric’s. We were able to visit with Bean Sidhe. She is coping really well with her new surroundings. Helen gives us frequent reports on her – BS sleeps thru the night and gets plenty of exercise during the day.

Today, Sunday May 3, 2009 is our last full day in Australia – for awhile. We said our final farewell to Bean Sidhe and the Woodend family, drove to Lilydale to say bye to Coop – and his foster family. Sue met us there so we were able to say good-bye to her. I had a nice good-bye call from Carole Polson.

The next stop will be the San Francisco Bay area to see Fergus’ parents, and my brother Danny and his family for a few days. We fly back to Wichita, Kansas on May 7. I will continue the blog with our trials and tribulations as we go through the process of making a permanent move to Australia. In upcoming blog entries I will keep you posted about Fergus’ dealings with the Australian Medical Council, selling the Benton house and trying to get ourselves back to the “kids”.

Thanks to all of you who have traveled with us on this amazing Aussie Adventure. I loved getting your emails, reading your comments posted to the blog, and having connected with friends and family during our time Downunder.

Love, Anne Marie

Click Your Heels Together…

If  it was only that easy. We have been agonizing about what to do regarding returing to the US. We love it here. For the first time since I’ve known him, Fergus is happy to go to work. He loves teaching medical students, the hours are reasonable (no 24 hour shifts or over nights), he gives lectures, has PAID time to prepare his lectures, PAID time off for vacations, holidays off when everyone else is off, reasonable patients, no worries about paying malpractice insurance. He goes to work early and comes home not so crabby.

I love it here because I can teach drama to students who want to learn drama and not have to deal with grades or discipline problems. I can work part-time, I can work with young adults on productions without having to worry about how to fund it. I could get involved with all types of theatre groups here – just haven’t because of all the travelling we have done.

We like Canberra because it is a big city but feels like a small one. Lots of parks, shops, theatre and things to do. We have met some pretty amazing people and have done some amazing things while we have been here. The weather is a lot like Kansas but no snow. And there is still so much we want to see throughout Australia.

Several months ago Fergus decided to see what it would take for us to stay. We thought once we find out then we can decide if it is worth staying or just go home to the US. Well, the medical board has had his paper work for fours months now and it seems every week they want something new – silly things like proof that he speaks English. We were hoping the hospital would extend his contract but because of the finacial situation they don’t have money to extend the contract but if he got the approval of the medical board and then the College of Emergency Medicine (the board the governs the standards of Emergency physicans) then they could hire him. Well, we are still waiting for the medical council to forward his paperwork to the college. His contract was up at the end of March. We are living on his paid vaction leave money. Once we knew this decision was not going to be made before the end of April we realized how much we really did want to stay.

In the meantime, reports back on the house in Kansas are not good. The renters were having problems with the sewer system, leaking pipes and aging water heater. Either way I was going to have to go home and get those things taken care of. And then there is the issue of the dogs. We know that if we fly them back to the states – at great expense and major trauma for them in a kennel for 20 + hours, we would never bring them back here again. It seemed that we had to resign ourselves that we were going back to the states.

Our friend Sue said that if we needed to go home and are sure we want to come back to Australia that maybe she could find someone from the Airedale Rescue group who could foster care them for a few months. Then Fergus and I could return to Kansas, he could work, I could get the house fixed and put up for sale and we could come back once the paper work here in Australia gets sorted out. That’s it in a nutshell.

Well, last night we got the final word that we have found two families willing to take one dog each – they already have dogs so the two of them would be a problem, one family has a male dog who wouldn’t be happy with another male around and the other family has a small dog which we would be concerned that Bean Sidhe would see as a snack. The two families are willing to make sure they visit each other and with Sue there as a guardian we think this will be a reasonable solution. It won’t be great leaving them but our hope is that it’s only for a few months.

So everyone we are coming home in May. We will stop in the Bay Area to see our families and then head back to Wichita. If all goes well with selling the house and with the paperwork here in Australia we will be coming back. I know this might be a shock to some of you who had no idea we were thinking about staying but I didn’t want to publish anything until we decided for sure. We have flights back on May 4, 2009. I will have time to write another update. We will be driving to Melbourne with the kids and spend a few days there to make sure they are settled in.

So the Australian Adventure will continue with reports from Cooper and Bean Sidhe signing in for me. I hope to see many of you when we return to the states. There will be a major yard sale going on if you’d like to visit Kansas for some shopping.  Look at it this way – if you didn’t get a chance to visit us while we were here this year now you’ll get another chance.

A Few Words About Melbourne

We hadn’t plan to spend three nights with Sue and Bill but we were enjoying our time with them that I’m glad we did. So we spent only three nights in Melbourne. We found a rather old but clean B&B on the east side of the city – walking distance to the downtown area. We walked a lot in Melbourne and they have a wonderful free tram that circles the major business district. Melbourne is on the south coast of Australia and it reminds me of San Diego quite a bit flatter than Sydney. It is a very nice city, clean, modern but still with some of that old world Aussie feel – pubs and gardens and Victorian/Edwardian townhouses.

The Melbourne International Comedy Festival runs almost the entire month of April so we went to two comedy shows in two nights. During the day we did the sightseeing things; the old gaol (that’s how they spell jail), Victoria Markets, the parks, Rod Laver Area where the Australian Open is held. The grand prix had just completed the day before we arrived and we were able to drive the course while they were dismantling the grandstands.

Although we enjoyed Melbourne we were a little down knowing that our time in Australia is almost over. Major decisions need to be made and then there is the packing and the travel plans back to the states. All of this was weighing on our minds and putting a damper on our time in Melbourne. In an upcoming (not the next one but the following one) blog entry I will tell you what we are doing about coming back to the US of A.

A Visit to Wombat Bend

We finally got to Victoria and visited Bill and Sue and their four Airedales at Wombat Bend in Yarra Glen Valley east of Melbourne. It was a fantastic time. We spent three nights with them and were able to hear all about their battles with the fires. 

 

Their B&B is so cute. It’s a one bedroom and bath but it has a large living room and kitchen – the place is bigger than our house in Canberra if you exclude the extra two bedrooms. It was so peaceful and quiet. One early morning I heard and saw the hot air balloon go by –  it was magical. We were surrounded with Airedales, birds I hadn’t seen before and the billabong was full of ducks. In these pictures you can see their round house and the B&B with it’s surrounding veranda.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They are still doing a lot of cleaning up and also having their billabong dredged since the water is so low due to the drought. The silt that they are digging out of the billabong will be spread out over the property and the grass will eventually grow.

 

With the help of a neighbor they were able to save all their buildings, their cars and many trees but manyof their fence posts were gone. When we were there it was seven weeks after the fires and a soft covering of grass was visible in many of the burned out fields we saw. In these pictures you can see how close the fires came to their house and the B&B. The fences are their property line.

This isn't Fall color - it's burned leaves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 These pictures are just a sample of the area around Sue and Bill’s house. We took a ride throughout other areas where entire hills and houses were burned to the ground – it was very sad. For those of you who where in the Bay Area during the Oakland Hills fires you will remember the look of the devastation – multiply that by acres and acres and that is how this area looks.

I was so relieved to see Sue, Bill and the dogs safe. It is scary to see how close they came to losing everything. It wasn’t luck however, they have been prepared to fight the fires for years because they knew it wasn’t a matter of if there would be a fire but when. Years of drought and a history of bush fires has made them even more vigilant. This is Australia after all.

Seven weeks after the fires the eucalyptus trees have already begun to sprout new branches from their charred trunks. More about our trip in upcoming blog entries.

Scuba-Doo

After two days in Townsville we headed south to Airlie Beach our jumping-off spot for the Great Barrier Reef. Airlie Beach is a cute beach town catering to the young beach bums and bunnies. Shop after shop sells beach clothes and souvenirs. The restaurants have sidewalk or balcony outdoor seating since the weather is so good.

Leslie and Manu stayed in a backpackers inn right on the main road through the town, Fergus and I picked a cute B&B with ocean views in a quiet neighborhood. We spent most of the afternoon deciding which reef/island cruises we wanted to take. We finally settled on a FantaSea Reef Sleep cruise.

So early Thursday morning a bus picked us up at our B&B and took us to the harbour where the boat launched. It was a bit of a bumpy ride  out to the reef which was about two hours out to sea. It was a windy and rainy day but since we were going to be snorkeling and scuba diving it didn’t really matter. Just as a precaution I took some seas sickness pills but they didn’t work for me. By the time we got to the reef I was feeling very green.

The boat took us out to an anchored pontoon barge equipped with sleeping cabins, all the snorkel and diving suits and equipment needed for lots of people, a kitchen, dressing rooms, picnic tables, and a sun deck with deck chairs. Unfortunately it was raining most people where trying to stay under the awning or on the boat. I was still not feeling great so I tried to stay dry while Leslie, Manu and Fergus went snorkeling.

In the afternoon we got our scuba equipment and had a lesson for what is called a resort dive. I did this twenty years ago and remembered it being one of the most amazing activities I had ever done. I was going to pass on it this trip but decided to try it again and I’m glad.

At first I felt a little claustrophobic. The instructor reminded us that it is important to keep breathing. It seems like a stupid thing to be reminded but it is easy to hold your breath especially when you see awesome giant clams or the colorful fish among the coral. The time passed too quickly. This has to be high on the list of 100 things to do before you die.

Around 2 pm the “day trippers” had to get back on the boat back to the mainland. That was about the time the weather improved. We got to stay on the pontoon with another couple from Germany. Marcus and Julia are about Leslie and Manu’s age and the six of us had a great sunset dinner cooked and served by the crew. It was wonderful being surrounded by the sea, no TV, no COMPUTER, just good food, nice wine and great company. I slept the best I have in months. The gentle rocking of the barge put me out of the entire night.

The next morning it was rise and shine by 8am for breakfast before the “day trippers” of the new day arrived. Leslie, Manu and Fergus did another dive but I hung out on the sundeck and read my book because the weather was so good and I wanted to get a deck chair before the boat arrived. All in all it was a great trip.

We spent Friday night back at the B&B and Leslie and Manu at the backpacker inn. We had a flight back to Canberra the next morning while Leslie and Manu will continue to explore the Queensland Coast before coming to Canberra before going back to Belgium. We had a wonderful time with them. Here are some picture of our reef trip.

Tropical Queensland

You really start to realize how big Australia is when you fly from one state to another. As I’ve mentioned before, Sydney is much like San Francisco in feel and climate. We flew to Townsville on Monday morning and even though it isn’t the northermost city in Queensland – it felt like we landed in Hawaii. It was warm and humid, there were palm trees and fanigipangi trees everywhere. And it was very green. They have been having extreme rain and flooding for weeks and we were concerned that this might not be a good time to visit but the only visable signs to us was extensive street erosion which they were working on repairing and areas of standing woater along sides of the roads.

Our first day in Townsvill we took the ferry over to Magnetic Island. There wasn’t much to do but hike the nature trails but once we got there it started raining. Fergus and I sat in a pub to weather the storm while Leslie and Manu attempted to brave the storm. They were soon back because they found out it took 1/2 hour to get to the trailhead from where we were and then the trail walk takes two hours. We had to catch the ferry back to Townsville  in less than an hour so they decided to postpone the hike.

Seeking shelter from the storm.

Good thing they did because we decided to come back the next day and I’m glad we did. It turned out to be a beautiful clear day, not too hot and no rain. We had the best time. The nature walk on Magnetic Island goes up to the ruins of an old WWII ammunitions lookout. The trees were a combinations of tropical and eucalyptus trees. The best part was that we finally saw koalas in the wild for the first time. Now they don’t look much different but there is just something so great seeing them resting on a tree branch within arms reach. We saw many three or four just along the path. You have to keep you eye out for them because they don’t move much and their grey coloring really makes them blend into the tree trunks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is a myth that koalas are drunk on eucalyptus leaves – the truth is that there are very little nutrients in the leaves of the eucalyptus and so the koalas have to sleep to reserve their energy. They are nocturnal so you rarely see them moving around during the day the best time to see them moving about is early morning or late evening. This little fellow moved his head a bit and his arms just a little the entire time we were watching him. He wasn’t frightened by our voices nor when we got close to take pictures.

The three bears

The great koala scouts have another sighting.

It was a trulyexciting adventure being this close to these unusual animals. We didn’t see an wild kangaroos for Leslie even though the bus driver said there were plenty on the island. Well Leslie and Manu have three weeks to see one. Next stop The Great Barrier Reef – not many ‘roos there but lots of other amazing things to see and do once we get there.

Meeting Leslie & Manu in Sydney

Leslie and Manu flew into Sydney on a Thursday night so we gave them Friday to rest before we flew up there to meet them on Saturday. The last time we saw them was when we met in New York on Spring Break several years ago. They look great and it was so much fun getting a chance to catch up while visiting several Sydney sights  – some we have been to and others we hadn’t.

Our first dinner together in Sydney.

Our first venture was to take a bus to Circular Quay and then walk to The Rocks and visit the street market. It started to rain after a while so we stopped for a light lunch. We caught a ferry to Darling Harbor so that we could go to the Aquarium. It is a nice aquarium but expensive. The best part is that they have these plexiglass tunnels that go under the big tanks so you can see the fish swim over you. These aren’t just pretty fish – they have sharks and stingrays and sea turtles. Very cool. It was a lot of walking so afterwards Fergus and I headed back to the hotel while Leslie and Manu stayed to see more.

Sydney has great resturants and we found two Spanish Tapas Resturants, they happen to be two doors down from each other on the same street. There aren’t many places in Kansas that you can get Spanish food – good Mexican but not Spanish. Our first trip to Sydney we went to one these tapas resturants and this time we tried the other. Both are really good.

Leslie and Manu

The next day we went to the Toronga Zoo. You take the ferry from Circular Quay to the Zoo Dock. The zoo is on the side of a hill across the harbor over looking downtown Sydney, the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. The giraffes have the best view of Sydney. This visit took most of the day and we didn’t see all of it. We consentrated on seeing Australian and African animals, too many reptiles for my tastes but lots of birds which I really enjoy.

Fergus and I

 

 

 

We had dinner at a Chinese resturant that didn’t have red wallpaper and dragon designs everywhere. We had an early flight because the next morning we had a 7 am flight to Queensland. I still haven’t seen everything I would like to see in Sydney so I’m hoping we get at least one more visit before we fly back to the states.

Maori Hangi at Wairakei Terraces

One of our final experiences in New Zealand was to go to a traditional Maori Cultural Center and Hangi Feast. The area was given back to the Maori tribe of the area and they recreated the geo-thermal terraces and build traditional Maori huts and demonstrated Maori arts, crafts, and music. We learned quite a bit about the Maori Culture when we spent time in both the Christchurch Museum and The Te Papa (National Museum of New Zealand) in Wellington.

 

It was good to hear Maori history from the descendants of New Zealand’s indigenous people. This performance group where all related: brothers, sisters and cousins, a group of young people sharing the language, dance and music of their ancestors. To learn more click here. Dinner was fun and Fergus was pulled from the crowd to dance - I guess all that bungy jumping brought out the Maori warrior in him.

Boogie Woogie Bungy Boy!!

The week before we had dinner at a castle on top of the hill in Wellington at a place called Sign of the Takahe. As many of you know I have this thing about King Arthur and anything about medieval times. I had Fergus take a ton of pictures of this restaurant just in case I ever build my own castle (miniature).

The Great Hall

There was no performance and we had a early dinner because the place was reserved for a really large party that night – how cool would that be? Great place for a Renaissance Faire or Medieval Theme wedding. These are some examples of how diverse the cultural experiences we had in New Zealand were I can’t wait for our next visit.

My knight in a button-down shirt!!

The views from the windows were beautiful. The windows were also beautiful. This is a must visit even if only for a drink in the pub, a cup of coffee in the afternoon or an elegant dinner.

My knight in shining armor - a little late.