Lucky in Oz

NSW Trip

Ok, this is purely for documentation and mostly just a placeholder - I'll add links and photos and such later (probably). We left on Friday a.m. (the dawn patrol, as my dad would have said) to fly to Newcastle, NSW (north of Sydney). From there:

• Snack in a cafe in Cessnock
• Hunter Valley Zoo - petted roos, wallabies, and saw various other marsupials and other native fauna
• Lunch and playground at Hunter Valley Gardens
• (Sadly, no wine tasting in perhaps the preeminent wine region in the country. Alas.)
• Horse riding at Hunter Valley Horse Riding & Adventures - Kid rode her own HORSE (not pony), with no lead rope and we trotted a lot. And we saw roos.
• Headed to Terry and Irene's [sheepless] rural sheep station. Whilst there we saw more roos, tons of kookaburras, a couple of dragon / lizard thingies and the practically tame possum that comes to the veranda for snacks, who let Kid pet it.
• Oh, at Kid's suggestion, we also had lunch floating about on a raft in their pond - it was about 22 and sunny. Nice!
• Checked out Tea Gardens and Hawksbury and the [gorgeous] beach.
• Had a nice lunch at Nichole's in Tea Gardens. (Aussies do great salads. I had roasted sweet potato, rocket, feta and pine nuts.)
• They dropped me off at the train station and I got on the train down to Sydney. Parts of the ride were truly spectacular (like, I really didn't know that there were parts of Oz that were THAT beautiful) - i.e. around Woy Woy.

And now, I am here in the Travelodge on a work / consulting gig in North Ryde Sydney and Kid and Guy are back home in Melbourne.

Coonawarra Trail Rides

 

Last weekend we drove (and drove and drove ... it was kind of far for an overnight trip ... ) east into Gippsland towards Bairnsdale & Alpine National Park to camp and go on a trail ride. Kid was, as a totally horse crazy almost-seven-year-old girl OVER THE MOON. Coonawarra Trail Rides is on a little road that runs past Mitchell River National Park up towards Dargo - very hilly and fairly verdant and pretty. We camped at Blue Rock Pool - a nice little campground with toilets, picnic table, fire pits and level tent sites, but no potable water. Quin woke up every time a wallaby hopped by - the "thump thump thump" of common wallaby hops sounding a lot like human footsteps ... this woke me up too since he was sleeping practically on me (he is the only one who doesn't have his own thermarest and it got cold), so it seemed like every 15 minutes. In the a.m. - after coffee, tea, cocoa, muesli - we drove to Coonawarra and saddled up. Kid rode behind Ron, our leader. She had her owns reins but he had her pony on a lead rope. She ended up trotting way more than anyone else though since her pony needed to keep up with our big horses. We went over hill and dale, so to speak - even crossed a stream in which the horses got a drink. As we rode along Ray regaled Kid with tales of the ACTUAL, REAL LIFE Saddleclub horses ... turns out he used to board them for the TV production. She was elated - naming horse after horse (Comanche? Garnett? Belle? Patch? ... ) with Ron replying "Yep, I knew him". Now, when she grows up she wants to work at Coonawarra Trail Rides. On the way home she mused that maybe she can work there in the summer when she is eight. We checkout Bairnsdale on the way home (well, it was a bit out of the way, actually). Pretty town. We stopped at an AMAZING playgorund that had a big zip line and a looooong tall tunnel slide built into the hill - these are popular playground features here in Oz (Vic, at least). Then the long drive back towards the city. We crashed hard once back home after generous doses of Advil for our sore bottoms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not an Auspicious Beginning

I just wrote this great post about how I am changing the format of the blog to give you a window into our lives in Oz ... it was brilliant. It was pithy and smart, but not too. Trust me. Because Typepad ate it. So, we are off to a fine start in terms of the actual move (Kid and I are in Auckland after a not horrible flight from SFO) - we board for Melbourne in an hour ... but the new blog. Not a great beginning. Oh well. I'll try again when I've had more than 4 hours of upright sleep in row 56.

Upload Photos. Check!

Jesus, do you people have ANY IDEA how busy I am these days? For the love of God we are moving halfway around the word (if it were any further it would be closer) in a few months and I have, well, buttloads of stuff to get done. Trust me. Don't even make me enumerate the tasks; it is crazy-making. People are all like "OHMIGOD! Aren't you so excited! You're moving to AUSTRALIA!" and they want to hear all about it and I'm all like, yeah, whatever, get outa my way, I need to fax the dogs permit application to USDA. (I am not making that up. Government Agencies - of two governemnts! - are involved in getting the dog (I just typed god) from here to there.) So yeah, I am beyond the excited phase and well into the hair-on-fire-project-manager-with-no-slack-time-in-the-Gantt-chart phase. We have been planning this all for ages but many people (including everyone at work) is just finding out about it ... so they are a little confused as to why I am not giddy. No time for giddiness, people!

But yet! I took the time to upload the photos of our February trip! Follow the link up there in the right-hand corner, or this one, or just look at these greatest hits. (Not only do I upload the photos, I give you choices!)