Survived three weeks in RI, but the bugs are trying to KILL ME!!!

Oh this will be good… I just need a moment of free time to type.  We are in the land of mosquitos, ticks (Lyme Disease ticks), flies, maggots, no see ums and more fun…  Don’t get too jealous now!

Kia Ora New Zealand!

Hello everybody!!!

Time for some sweet as Kiwi travel from the 19th of December to the 3rd of January, 2013!!

New Zealand Photo Album 1

New Zealand Photo Album 2

On the 19th of December, we left you in Sydney after returning our rental car/tent and heading to the airport. We arrived at the airport checked in and were glad to be on our way to Queenstown, NZ…or so we thought. We landed at midnight in Christchurch for our layover and had 8 hours to relax since Queenstown is a daylight only airport due to the huge mountains that surround it. We slept for a bit waiting for the check-in desks to open at 5 am and noticed that our flight was not listed on the departure board, but we figured to had just been moved to a later time that morning…no worries right? Well come 5 and Sam went and talked to the jet star agent and was told that jet star no longer flys to Queenstown anymore and that Casey at STA had been notified in September, well no one told us anything…thanks Casey….we were given the option of taking a twenty one dollar refund and trying our best luck to pay three hundred on Air New Zealand or hopping that their standby might get us there by the next day or being rerouted through Auckland or Wellington. After getting in touch with STA and being told they could do nothing we opted for the Auckland choice since it got us to Queenstown before any of the others, though that we still had to fight for since they wanted to put us on a much later fight. The new issue after dealing with all that at five in the morning was how to get word to Sam’s parents who were expecting us at the airport at nine though now it would be more like eleven. We called the hotel upon landing in Auckland to no avail, but left a message hoped for the best and ran for the gate. After arriving in Queenstown,exhausted and hoping to get a nap we saw no sign of the Garsons, we wandered around and started looking for a place to get change to call the hotel again, just as Sam was about to get change Dan and Deborah found us! All had worked out in the end. They had come to the airport and waited then come back to the hotel and gotten our message. We happily piled into the rental car and headed back to the hotel where Sam and Kailey took a much needed nap and got ready to explore the South Island with their new traveling companions. All in all it had taken over 24 hours to fly from Sydney to Queenstown….longer than it took us to fly from Seattle to Iceland or St. Petersburg to Bali.

Queenstown:
Queenstown is a nice town on the end of a long glacier fed lake surrounded by high mountains on all sides. Some of the mountains still have snow on the tops and it was beautiful to see such a contrast in land compared to what we had been seeing in Australia. We spent the days walking around with Sam’s parents (Dan and Deborah) and enjoying the sights. On our first night there after our much needed nap we all went to dinner and then to see the Hobbit. It was a good movie, but none of us realized that it was a trilogy until 3hrs had passed and they still had not made it to “the door”. Maybe we will see the others in New Zealand too… We went to a few local wineries and ate at a beautiful one for lunch that served all local and when possible organic foods. After lunch we stopped by a few other local wineries and tasted some of the wine. The next day we went out to Mt. Aspiring and Lake Wanaka which are as equally as beautiful as Queenstown (Kailey could live there). In the early evening as the sun was not setting until after 10pm Sam and I went to the Kiwi Birdlife Park in Queenstown and got our wildlife experience on, seeing Kiwis, Keas and many other New Zealand birds. Kailey had a goal to see a Kakapo, but they are so endangered that it was most likely not going to happen (We recommend YouTubing that one, there are some good videos out there with at least one that is not kid appropriate involving the famous Siscero giving a photographer some “special attention,” but it is rather funny too 🙂 ). The next morning we woke up, packed our stuff and hit the road to Franz Joseph. We stopped again in Wanaka for a delicious breakfast and stopped at a great local craft fair. Then it was on the road again to the glacier!

Franz Joseph:
We spent 2(?) nights here one of which included Christmas Eve. Experiencing the major holidays where the sun doesn’t set until 10:30 and it is in the 90’s temperature-wise was new for us all. It was nice to be able to spend the holidays in the sun and even Christmas Day on the beach (Kailey loved standing on the beach under a waterfall that hit the sand and rolled down into the surf). Since we were in Franz Joseph we also visited the glaciers. We could see Franz Joseph from where we were staying, but decided to hike as close as we could to Fox Glacier after taking a relaxing stroll around a reflection lake. Fox Glacier was awesome to see and we were probably within 75 meters from the face of it behind the safety fencing. We had a lovely Christmas Eve dinner at the local resturant called Alice Mays where Sam enjoyed his new found favorite dessert (he discovered this in the UK) Sticky Toffee Pudding. If you really want to cook him something… let it be this and you will be a good friend for a long time. We hit the road on Christmas Day, saying goodbye to our lodging host Jo (She’s pretty awesome) who was making sure to wish everyone a HAPPY CHRISTMAS :-).

Punakaiki:
We drove up the coast to Punakaiki known for it’s Pancake Rock Stacks. On our way we went through the sleepy town of Hotikpi (A side note of our trip was that we hit many of the holidays where things were closed the day of and often the day after) where the Jade shop was open and we went in to see all the beautiful things carved out of jade and other stones from the area. Kailey replaced her standard jade necklace she wears with a back up since she occasionally breaks them on tile floors. We stopped at the pancake rocks for lunch and had a picnic in the sun. Kailey met her new dream ducks (Wekas) that she plans on having on her own farm and we learned that Ice Coffee is not quite Iced Coffee as it was in Australia (this contraption involves an espresso shot poured over an ice cream sunday). The rocks were fun to walk around as they had a boardwalk set up and we even saw the elusive Hectors Dolphins swimming around them, thanks to some fellow Americans from Indiana who pointed them out. At Punakaiki we stayed at some pretty hippie cabins in the rainforest, but they were cool in their own way. After spending the end of Christmas Day on the beach (insert Kailey’s waterfall story from above here) we had dinner at the Punakaiki pub, only place open in town, before retiring for the night with visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads.

Nelson:
Good Morning Boxing Day… yes another holiday while traveling and yet again most things were closed. We were off to spend a couple days in Nelson, a stop Sam had experienced before when he was in New Zealand a few years prior with his brother. We stayed a little bit outside of town at the edge of wine country. We planned on spending one of the days touring wine country and the other half day kayaking Abel Tasman national park. The winery tours (we think we visited four) were a good introductory to what New Zealand has to offer. Our favorite location-wise was the one with the tasting room/cellar on top of a hill, but it was also in the hill to fit the landscape. Kayaking was fun too as Abel Tasman is this huge national park. We got to hear and see birds, New Zealand fur seals, a few fairy penguins and our guide was awesome. He was an environmental scientist with ornithology training and going back to school for his teaching degree. Sam and I may have nerded out with him a bit. We also won all the hit the buoy challenges with our excellent navigation skills. We had several good meals in Nelson, one at Hop Goods and the others at Cafe Affair. Hop Goods was recommended by Sam and his brother from their previous trip and it was delicious. Sam’S mom acquired her own “precious” after the original jeweler’s shop spoke to Sam and Kailey about picking one up. Those hobbits know what’s good! On our way out of town we also spent the morning at the farmers market where we all got some awesome New Zealand souvenirs.

Blenheim:
Blenheim is the center of Marlborough wine country and we took full advantage. The first day there, we did some research and checked out the town. After some grocery shopping, we bought dinner and cooked a grilled meal that was highlighted by some excellent local lamb sausages (Sam had recovered from the farm and was willing to eat lamb again…Kailey not so much). Sam had been to this area for a wine tour with Matt (brother) last time they were here and remembered one particular winery that was amazing. We planned out our route for the next day and got to bed early. The next day the weather was partly cloudly but cleared up as the day went on. The area is grape vines for as far as the eye can see and we drove through all of it. All told we eneded up visiting 7 winieries in the course of the day with a delicious stop for lunch at one that was highly recommended. Dan (Sam’s dad) bought his fair share of wine (translated: as much as he could legally bring back to the US) and Sam bought a few bottles for Matt as he had really wanted some bottles last time we were here, but ended up not getting any due to luggage space. After a very long day we returned home and relaxed, had leftovers from the night before mixed into some pasta and then happily fell asleep. The next day we woke up had a leisurly breakfast and made our way out to Kaikoura.

Kaikoura:
We only spent one night here, but we enjoyed the time we did spend here. Since it was New Years Eve we had a lovely family dinner at the White Morph after spending the afternoon walking a nearby hillside/seagull colony and seal haul out area. The town of Kaikoura is rather small and was full of holiday tourist as to be expected. We did not stay up to watch fireworks as there were no festivities to ring in the New Year and Sam and I were on a 7am whale watch trip to see some sperm whales.

Whale watching on Kaikoura whale watch was fun and interesting coming from a whale watching mecca. There is only one tour company and they have probably 5 boats. Their boats are the kind that you ride inside while they are driving to the location of possible whales, then you get to go out on deck and look around etc. We were super fortunate on our trip that we got to see 5 sperm whales, they are all males in this area as they are just passing through and feeding in the deep canyon that is right offshore. According to the boat crew, we were forunate to see 5 sperm whales as most people only get to see one or two and we were also lucky as we only were out about 1 mile from shore. Some days they have to go 12 miles offshore in order to see anything. We also saw the fur seals again, a few fairy penguins, and a whole school of dusky dolphins. Don’t worry we got it all on video and in piture 🙂 Check out our photo album!

Akaroa:
Getting to Akaroa is half the fun of the town, it is nestled at the base of some very large mountains that require some very long windy roads in order to reach. On the way there it was a roller coaster ride to arrive. Once in town we found our awesome bungalow perched up on the hillside over looking the town and settled in. We popped into town for some dinner and to check out this famed French town on the eastern coast of New Zealand. The town is very small but overlooks a beautiful bay. We had an easy dinner at a local pub that was extremely surprising with how delicious it was. The next day came into town to try and find some french pastries, which since the town is famed for being French we knew we would find easily….sadly we were mistaken as the town is really only French in name, the pastry and coffee selections were less than ideal (a letter is currently being written to the French government as they take affronts to their culture very seriously and we expect this issue to be rectified within the month 🙂 ). After a quick breakfast and seeing the arrival of 1000’s of tourists from a Princess Cruise ship we went the other direction and out of town. That night we had reservations at The Petite Bistro which was supposedly the best meal in town. After a great day of driving up and down the lake district and towns along the water we came back to our bunglaow, rested a bit and then headed into town for dinner. Dinner it turns out is where this place shines, the Petite Bistro was amazing. The food was superb and dessert was great, it was a perfect meal to end our trip on. That night we got ready for a good rest and quiet evening of packing up our lives to head back to America.

Nature however had other plans as a massive thunder and wind storm smashed through the countryside. We heard trees snapping, wind rattling everything and half expected the house to lift off the ground. The next morning on the drive out we saw the aftermath as livestock was walking the road due to fences being smashed by trees, limbs were down everywhere, and it looked like a hurricane had struck. On our windy way back up the hills out of town, Kailey made sure to alert someone about the cows and sheep that were loose on the roads so that they could find their way back home before being hit by a car :-).

Christchurch:
Arriving at the Christchurch airport was extremely surreal as we got our bags checked and prepared to board our flights back to the US. It took a bit of arguing to get our bags checked through since Air New Zealand had no idea how to handle an extra bag that was being then handled by Air Tahiti and wanted to charge a ridiculous amount, but that got resolved and we were on our way. Tahiti was weird as we got off the plane went through security (who made us dump our water that we had gotten on the plane so we wouldn’t bring it back on the plane?) and duty free, then hung out for an hour before getting back on the same plane into the same seats. There were even dancers and musicians welcoming us all to paradise as we were herded into lines. You were welcomed to come up and take pictures with it all as you wished. It was just odd for 11pm at night and the act was obviously paid by the airport.

Landing in L.A. was a good surreal feeling especially when we had to tell customs where we had been and for how long we had been gone. We spent four days acclimating to American life, cooler temperatures and visiting with Chris (Sam’s friend from college) and Brittany (his sig fig) who gave us the grand tour. We also spent some quality time with Greg (Sam’s other college friend) and even had an awesome dinner at the italian restaurant he works at. Lastly, we took one day for ourselves (for Kailey) and went to Disneyland and California Adventures. It was a long fun day, but worth it! Kailey even met up with her ballet teacher and his family who were on vacation there.

On January 8th we flew home to Seattle and were glad to be home and to see our family, friends and pets, It was cold and quite the adjustment to move back into our house joining society and jobs once again.

The journey has ended, but it was an awesome experience and we hope to continue to travel in the future. Thanks to everyone for reading our blog and keeping tabs with us as we traveled the world. We have finally updated our google map under MAP to include all the places we went. Enjoy the New Year. We look forward to seeing most of you in person throughout the days to come!

~K. and Sam

Ditched Angus for Merrida, and were in the Genther/Clarke wedding Australia 2012

Hello All,

Let’s see, we last left you in Eden where we spent one day wandering around town and the other on a super awesome guided tour on the town with Kailey’s friend and thesis contact Barry Smith and his dog Bonnie. Kailey had studied the special relationship of the whalers and killer whales in this town as part of her masters work. Since Kailey did not have any funding, this was finally her opportunity to see Eden and all it’s whale-ness in person. Kailey and Barry had not met in person until this day as they did most of their correspondence over the internet during her studies, so it was an exciting day for everyone and one that we will always remember.

Our tour of Eden began at the residence of the Davidson Whalers (the true story is very complex and we recommend that you google Killers of Eden and check out all of the information for yourself!) where we actually got to see it all in person, the try-works, their house, Kiah Inlet, etc. It was amazing. From the residence we then went to Boyd Tower and Leather Jacket Bay which are more historic places of importance from the whaling era. After wandering around outside all morning we then went to the Eden Killer Whale Museum, which is a museum devoted to the whole story as well as a few other local exhibits of the area. It was so cool to see he whaling artifacts and OLD TOM up close and in person. For Kailey it was like reliving parts of the story in person. Barry was an awesome guide and sooooooo knowledgable, there was not a question that Kailey could think of that he could not answer. We both enjoyed his company (and Bonnie’s) very much that we hope to remain life long friends. After living Kaley’s dream we all went to an awesome fish and chip lunch in town at the wharf which to this day was the best fish and chips that we have had to this point (New Zealand included). It was an awesome day and Kailey felt like someone should pinch her to make it even more real, meanwhile Kailey is even more inspired to keep up with her knowledge and studies.

Lastly while in Eden, Kailey rescued a baby bird at nightfall that thought her leg was an awesome tree to climb up. Poor little guy had fallen out of his nest in the high winds and ended up on the ground. After several failed attempts to get him to stay in the tree for the night we called the local wildlife hotline AT 10pm it was decided that “peter” would sleep in a pot in Angus with us for the night and be picked up by the wildlife caregivers in the morning. So in he went with a towel to keep him/her warm and a towel to cover the top. When morning came bright and early Peter woke up chirping away… so Kailey did what all good mothers would do, put him back in the tree that he came from. Luckily, Peter decided to stay this time and was soon rejoined by adult birds of his kind who gave him breakfest. After a while Peter hopped back up the branches (no feathers for flying yet on him) and hopefully made it back into his nest. The wildlife people called to check and were thrilled at the happy ending, Kailey was too!

We were then on the road for a 7hr drive to Sydney where we spent 3 days getting organized and ready to return Angus to Wicked, find Kailey’s parents who had just arrived from the states and head out to “the Farm” outside of Tarago, NSW for Kailey’s brother’s wedding. The days were busy but we did get some time to enjoy Sydney and farm life a bit.

In Sydney (Monday, Dec. 10th) the first night we met up with Sam’s Nautilus colleague Daniel and his wife and had a great dinner while playing trivia at a tap house called The Local. This is a place in Sydney where there are 20 beers on tap. Sam enjoyed a sampler flight of 5 different micro-beers and during trivia Kailey won us another two free pints (Yea for the one who does not like beer to win us more! :-)). It was an awesome evening of catching up, having fun and experiencing a local side of Sydney. The second night after a day of errand running and laundry we had dinner with Kailey’s parents and also checked out their hotel room which was pretty awesome in our opinion after camping for a month. They had a nice shower that Kailey took advantage of and carpet that we stretched out on. We sat on their couch and watched a little TV. It was nice and good, yet surreal to see her parents on the other side of the world after 4 months of traveling. That next day we all met up with Kailey’s grandma’s cousin Howard and his sailing crew (Lee and Janice) and we went sailing on the Sydney Harbor. Both of us have been to Sydney before so this was an awesome day to do something that the locals would do. Our Sailing day started out a bit grey and raining, but soon broke into blue skies and sun which quickly gave us a “red sparkle” enhanced by the water and we hoped that is would go away by Saturday for the wedding. On thursday we returned Angus, it was a bitter sweet departure and picked up Merrida, our Toyota Carolla 4 door hatchback with a pop up tent on top (not sure we got a picture of our new ride), but we rode in Luxury to the farm with power windows, AC that didn’t warm the engine, cup holders and more. Kailey’s parents followed us out to the farm and we had a good drive seeing the sights on the way. This was Kailey’s dad’s first time driving on the left side, so it was “interesting” to watch them in the rearview mirror.

The farm, known as Pine bank is a 2500 acres ranch basically with cows, sheep, peacocks, farm stuff and is out probably 18km from the small town of Tarago. This is where the wedding was to take place in the garden and festivities to follow. Kailey’s parents, us and our friends/photographers for the wedding Rae (Same person who traveled Italy with us) and her husband Andy were staying at the neighbor’s house, Nick and Joy who live in a house completely off the grid with it’s own solar power and filtered water. Considering where we were, it was no surprise that they were living like this, but cool to see how it all worked. Nick and Joy are awesome people and super hospitable and helpful.

Thursday and Friday were spent working hard preparing everything for the wedding. The dining hall was the work garage all emptied out, cleaned up and made to look all fancy for guests while the ceremony and cocktail hour were out in the back of the farm house in the gardens. One issue that had to be sorted out was that the bridesmaid dresses did not fit and were all too small upon arrival 3 days before the wedding. One of the 4 bridesmaids decided to squeeze into hers, one made her own and the two others (Kailey, who had no chance of fitting into her super child size (think size 8-10 child American) and the Jr. bridesmaid Juliet) had to go find new dresses the day before the wedding in the closest town of Canberra. Luckily, they found something and they were even almost the right color to match. They also didn’t cost an arm and a leg like they were expecting they were going to. The dresses ended up being an awesome deal at only $35 AUD! SUPER LUCKY!

Saturday, December 15th, GENTHER/CLARKE WEDDING DAY had finally arrived. It was a bit of a surreal moment for us as this was one of the main reasons that we planned our trip around in the first place. The wedding was an amazing ceremony and it was amazing to see how everything came together. The amount of work that everyone from Pen’s parents, brother and sister-in-law, Nick and Joy, and everyone else put in paid off and the wedding was beautiful (Go check out Fancy Fin Photography in a few weeks to see what we are talking about). The ceremony was excellent and really showed a lot of who Pen and Chris are, I mean, Pen-Alope and Chris-towfer. After the ceremony we had some family photos and then it was on to the cocktail hour where we all mingled and chatted the early evening away. This was shortly followed by the dinner which was an amazing feast of lamb, kangaroo, roasted veggies and salad. The delicious meal was followed up by speeches, music and dancing. We each gave a speech and we are pretty sure most of the crowd was moved to tears, though mostly from laughing at Sam who spectacularly spilled his wine glass right at the end of the toast. Lots of us stayed late into the night to celebrate what was an amazing day for two amazing people. We will not mention the fact that Sam may or may not have checked out a bit early to take a “nap” in the grass (dehydration mixed with wine is a dangerous combination 🙂 ).

Post wedding we spent a few days at the farm still hanging out and cleaning up. We also toured the whole property and spent a day in Canberra touring the national parliament and having lunch at the yacht club. While in Canberra Andy, Rae, Kailey and I also went on free camel rides in the town square. For Kailey it was not her wild camels, but she still got a bit of her camel fix.

We ALL (Kailey’s parents, Pen’s parents, Pen, Kailey’s Bro, Pen’s brother and his family, Rae, Andy and us) left the farm on Tuesday for a few days at Bateman’s Bay. We only had one day there, but we had a good time with family and friends. As of Wednesday (Dec. 19th) we (just the two of us) are off again to return Merrida and fly to New Zealand where we will be meeting up with Sam’s parents for a two week trip around the South Island all together

~K. and Sam

Welcome To New South Wales!

Oh There You Are Peter!

Davidson Family Homestead

Try-works

Kiah Inlet

Boyd Tower

Looking Out Over Twofold Bay

Kailey and Our Guide Barry In Front of Old Tom

I JUST WON TWO PINTS OF BEER!!!! (Here Sam…)

Kailey Taking Us Out On A Three Hour Tour…A Three Hour Tour…Of Sydney Harbor

Sam Relaxing With The Opera House In The Background

Kailey’s Parents and Howard At The Helm

Kailey Relaxing On The Boat

Our Note Forever Marking Our Trip In Angus

Kailey, Pen and Juliet at the Wedding

Sam and the Flower Girls

One of Pinebank’s Resident Peacocks

The Bridesmaids

Pen and Chris Exchanging Vows

Pen, Chris and Kailey Ready to Party

SISTERS-IN-LAW!!!

Sam on his Hog

Sunset on Pinebank

Kailey and Andy on a CAMEL!!

Sam and Rae racing their Camel

The Boys on the Couch

Sam, Kailey and Rae Racing To The Airport!

Three weeks in Angus with Herbie, Squeaky, Kai, Ace and Sam

Hello All and Happy Channukah!

We have had a good week in Angus and have seen and done a lot. This past week was definitely a week of scenery and animal spotting as we slowed it down a bit and spent time along the Great Ocean Road, Melbourne, Phillip Island and Wilson’s Promontory National Park.

Our first discussion shall be on the weather in Australia this time of year. Overall the weather has been alright. When Sam and I were planning this trip we initially were like summer in OZ, it will be sunny most of the time and hot. Boy were we wrong! For the post part medium to high winds have followed us everywhere we have gone (it is SOO fun eating dirt and sand with your meals), but there have been those exception days where the wind has paused and we have been able to sit and not worry about being blown away. We were also wrong about the SUN part of the trip. This past week alone we have experienced the coldest temperatures yet in this country to the point where we had to dig out our remaining winter clothes, hats, gloves etc. to stay warm and get some sleep at night. Gratefully we purchased an electric kettle for $7 back in Adelaide which has been our savior for making hot drinks, hot instant oatmeal, and hot water bottles (we use our nalgenes) to keep us warm at night. One of us has more of an issue with this than the other since Sam is part polar bear and has only been cold one or two nights thus far, never resorting to the hot water bottle. Luckily, as we write the sun and warmth are trying to return and our bodies are trying to recover from a bit of a sun burn from hiking a mountain yesterday.

Second discussion our animal count: No, this is not the number of animals that we have hit with our vehicle (not covered by our insurance here for Angus if we do hit one), nor is it the number that have tried to kill us (still stand at two with Sam, his Emu friend and the spider, but we have yet to hit the farm for the wedding). Our animal count is just a list of what we have seen in the wild as we drive and explore. We have seen: Kangaroos, Wallabys, Koalas, sheep, cows, horses, an echidna, cockatoos, crimson rosellas, galahs (still Kailey’s favorite), rainbow lorikeets, emus, kookaburra, lizards, a skink, bats, penguins, wombats, dolphins, crabs, and many other water and terrestrial birds and insects. Still on Kailey’s list is to see camels. We searched hard in Western Australia, but never saw any, even when we crossed the desert and there were signs for them being a road hazard. Sam’s list includes seeing a shark…hmmm not sure what kind or how big, but a request for a shark there is. We both would like to see some whales off the coast, but it may be the wrong time of year for that.

The Great Ocean Road:
Is just as magnificent as Kailey remembered it and Sam was in awe by it. We will let the pictures do most of the talking, but we highly recommend this drive! We started it at the beginning in Warrnambool and broke it up in chunks staying the night in Apollo Bay and Angelesa. We did most of the tourist lookouts from The Grotto, the 12 Apostles to Gibson’s Steps and several others in between. We walked the beach at Apollo Bay and were entertained by Kangaroos around Angus and us in the evening as we ate dinner in Angelesa.

Melbourne:
We spent one day in Melbourne and were mainly there to see our Aussie friend we met in Florence, Italy, Danielle. Danielle was traveling Europe when we were and we ended up following each other throughout Italy most of the time we were there. We also found Starbucks in Melbourne and preceded our awesome river side dinner with lattes :-). Dinner was a lot of fun since we went over to Federation Square to meet up and found it full of Christmas trees and a giant jumbotron that showed the view from a camera angled down at the square. Quite a bit of playing around and taking pictures of the jumbotron followed. Danielle then met up with us after we told her to find us amongst the trees and we walked down to a restaurant by the river to have a bite to eat and catch up. After dinner we all walked along and got a brief tour of Melbourne and the Remembrance Memorial before heading back into town to catch our respective buses. On the way back we walked past city hall and saw that it was all lit up to look like a holiday present! We stared a bit more and noticed that in fact a laser light show was being projected onto city hall that included musical accompaniment and laser animation. It was a holiday show and it was awesome! We stayed and watched it two times through blown away by the cool, fun, and impressive show that was just being put on for free and for fun. Good on ya Melbourne!

Phillip Island:
We arrived in Phillip Island hoping to escape some of the crazy weather that we had been witnessing the last few days. Our hopes were not rewarded, the wind picked up and the clouds rolled in during our arrival. We drove around the Island to start our adventure and headed out to the very end of the Island which is a national reserve known as the Nobbies. It is a spit of land where you can see Australian fur seals a lot of the year, but today all you saw was wind and driving rain! We returned back to our caravan park and settled in for the night not knowing what was about to unload. Now it’s not like we had not been in wind and thunder storms before, but this one was ridiculous. I swear we survived a mini hurricane in the van somehow and thankfully we were alright, but sleep deprived come morning. Fortunately we did not have to drive anywhere and could sleep in and decide what we wanted to do for the day before our date with the little/fairy penguins that evening. We ended up spending the day taking little hikes around the island and we went back out to The Nobbies without the driving rain and walked around in the wind there. By the time evening came and it was our time to see the penguins (you’ll have to google them as no photography or video is allowed due flashes of any sort damaging their eyes) we were all bundled up for winter again and excited. We did the Penguins plus package that got us a better viewing spot, a free warm beverage, free guide books and half price on our green screen photo. It was Kailey’s second time seeing the penguins and to her it is one of the best things in the world. Sam also thought that the whole experience was super cool and seeing them in the wild definitely beat seeing them in any zoo or wildlife park until this point. At the Penguin Parade we also picked up Squeaky (a little stuffed penguin) as he had a sweater on that was knitted for the oiled penguins that they rehabilitate ever year (yes all you knitters we also picked up the pattern of how to knit them. Now I need to learn to knit and we can all make penguin sweaters… maybe in all sizes for all 17 of the penguin species… I am imagining a whole factory here 🙂 ).

Wilson’s Promontory National Park:
After two days on Philip Island we then spent two days in another favorite spot of Kailey’s Wilson’s Promontory National Park. It is a whole peninsula that is an amazing wild experience. In 2011 they unfortunately experiences massive flooding and landslides (this seems to be a theme around the world lately) so part of the park is still closed as they rebuild and recover more. The closures didn’t affect us at all though. You could still get out and hike mountains, walk the beaches, go swimming and go wildlife spotting. We did all of the above and it was just awesome and relaxing. In this park alone we saw: crimson rosellas, wallabys, kookaburras (they sound like monkeys at night), a skink, lizards, galahs, cockatoos, and WOMBATS :-). We had a short but good time there and Sam is already talking about “When we go back… :-)”

Angus got a boo boo:
Yep, it finally happened today as we were driving the Alpine highway from Willson’s Promontory to Eden (7hr drive). There was significant roadwork going on and cars were not paying attention to the speed reduction signs. We were going the required 40km in the work zone and zoom past us goes a car in the opposite direction throwing gravel everywhere that was loose from the workers fixing the road. Angus got one right in the lower center windshield (called windscreens here) and it made a divot and has a nice star cracking that we suspect will only increase in the days to come. Fortunately, we are covered by the fancy insurance plan that covers windscreens so all is well and Angus will get a new one when we return him in 5 days for his mini counterpart.

Currently we are in Eden, New South Whales (our 4th State) and we have driven 7150 kilometers. We have stopped in Eden because this is one of the places that Kailey researched in her masters work and being that she had no funding during school we just had to go see the place and all it has to offer since we are in OZ. She’s been planning on going here ever since we started planning the trip. To make Eden even more awesome, she has kept in contact with the Eden Killer Whale Museum and we are being showed around town tomorrow to see all the whale stuff with an awesome museum staff member. Kailey is super excited, so look for a possible blog on this adventure alone!

~Kailey and Sam

A Friendly Wombat Enjoying Dinner at Wilson’s Prom

This Place Is Full of Reba’s Cousins…

Kangaroo’s Hanging Around Our Van In Angelesa

Kangaroo Saying Hi

Surfer’s Judging The Waves At Bell’s Beach

Kailey Thinking About Going Surfing

Sam Thinks The Water Is Slightly Chilly

Wallaby In The Grass

Koala Taking A Nap In A Tree By The Side Of The Road

Down On The Beach At The Twelve Apostles

When Kailey Gets Hungry Any Snack Will Do…Even Dead Blowfish

Kangaroos Hanging Around Our Van In Angelesa

Melbourne City Hall Gone Full Holiday Celebration

Happy Holidays From Melbourne!

Cold Weather Gear While Hiking On Phillip Island….So Sad

Kailey Getting The Shot At The Nobbies

It Was Super Windy Out On The Point

Please Don’t Run Over Penguins!

The River At Tidal River, Wilson’s Prom

Kailey On Top Of Mt. Bishop

We’ve Gone From Cold To Hot and Then Hiked A Mountain, Sam Is Sweaty

Evidence Of A Successful Endless Summer

Kailey Among The Rocks At Squeaky Beach

RUN AWAY!!!!!

Crimson Rosellas Having A Snack

Woke Up This Morning, It’s the FIRST Day of December!!!

Hello World,

We woke up this morning and somehow it was December 1st and we have been living in a van for two weeks. It was a very stark reminder of how long we have been gone and how close we are to the end of our journey when we both realized yesterday that November was ending and December was around the corner. We have had some hints since arriving in Australia as to the season since the first store we went to in Perth did have Christmas decorations all over already. Regardless, it does come as a bit of a shock as to the distance we have travelled and the time we have spent away…

Back to catching you up on our road trip with Angus, the Worms themed van and Herbie the Van Mascot Super Hero. We have done quite a bit of driving in the last week as well as learning about Angus’s quirks. Alright Blokes and Sheilas, get out your Aussie maps and follow along on our driving adventure… (Hint Fremantle is on the west coast a tiny bit south of Perth and we went east, then south again).

We last left you on Thanksgiving in Fremantle, after that we drove out to Kalgoorlie which is an old gold mining town out in the arid plains of Western Australia. We arrived in the afternoon set up our camp and made some dinner before collapsing exhausted from a long day of driving in the sun.

After Kalgoorlie we made the drive out to Balladonia which was the first town on the crossing of the southern end of Western Australia. This crossing is covered in large part by the Nullarbor Plain (bonus points if you can decipher the meaning of Nullarbor). Balladonia was a another very small town mostly there to service the road-trains that are constantly hauling across the country. One note on road-trains, if you are unfamiliar with this Australian invention, it is two to four semi-trailers hitched together and pulled by a giant semi-truck. These often come by you pushing a wind gust that rattles the windows of the van and your bladder. Even more fun than these however are the “Oversized” loads that trucks carry. Given the sheer number of these I am thinking that they should just widen all the roads. We have even come across a few that took up the entire highway in both directions and your only recourse is to pull off onto the dirt next to the highway while some massive piece of mining equipment or a whole house go flying down the road. That night in Balladonia we were treated to a spectacular sound and lights show in the form of massive thunderstorms that threw some pretty amazing lightning across the plain. We were both pretty excited about the chance to sit in the safety and comfort of our van as the storms raged.

Balladonia to Eucla:
The next morning we woke up and got the van all set to go and proceeded to head out on the road just as the sky decided to open up and the thunder storms continued. Now watching storms from the comfort of your van is one thing, driving for six hours through a near constant downpour is another. The lightning was still cool to see since it was so close, however after about three hours we were both ready to switch back to the blistering heat and sun of the previous days. We even got to drive on the “Straightest Road In Australia” for 145.6 km (96 miles) all the while under a storm. Eventually the storm did let up and we able to drive in peace, though the horizon was a mix of dark clouds puncuated by flashes of light. We then were able to drive the rest of the way and arrive in Eucla. One note when we mention that we arrive in places, it’s not like we pull into a town. These “towns” are really just trucker rest stops along the highway so everything from Balladonia to Ceduna are really just rest stops that you pull into for the night.

Eucla to Ceduna:
This stretch was another long haul, and come morning we were greeted by rain again that fortunately burned off into sun. Eucla was also very windy which has been another theme of driving around Australia. We had breakfast at the truck stop cafe in the morning (we both got eggs benedict which was good and a nice treat for us). The drive was long, windy boring at times, but near the end it went along the bottom edge of a ridge and Ceduna was a nice town to come into. Ceduna is small, but it is important to stop here as you can get your Nullarbor crossing certificate from the Tourist office (Guess what we did). In the future, options for crossing the Nullarbor on this certificate include, roller skates, bike, walking etc… which we both think would be insane. Apparently walking is popular with the Asian population that come to visit. We celebrated making it across the Nullarbor that night with some wine in the van after walking the long pier.

Ceduna to Port Augusta:
We were on the road again. We’ve been driving bits each day but we are hoping to be rewarded from our driving dedication when we get to spend a few days on Phillip Island, Willsons Promontory and in Sydney. This drive was our first back into civilization since Fremantle which is a bit shocking, but we were able to get some things done in town, groceries, internet check etc. Internet is still sparse in Australia and for us the only reliable and somewhat decent connections that have been free have been at McDonalds. So we share a McCafe beverage and use their internet. Those golden arches have a new meaning in our life now :-). Port Augusta is definitely a working class town and there is also a good side and bad side of the tracks from our perspective. We stayed on the wrong side of the tracks, FYI.

Port Augusta to Adelaide:
On this drive it got HOT at least 38 C and only to get hotter in the days to come. Between the thunderstorms and rain it has been warm, but not this hot and we definitely were happy to jump in the pool at our caravan park. Adelaide is another big city but the people were nice. Our caravan park was also really nice (We’ve been trying to stay in a chain of Big 4 Holiday Parks throughout our trip. They also tend to give us discounts which is awesome!) and we were greeted with several flocks of parrots, ducks, and other birds chattering in the trees, bushes around us. Kailey played National Geographic photographer a bit and took photos of all the wildlife. Kailey also got stung by a bee at the pool as they were trying to get drinks too, but she is not allergic so all is well in the end.

Adelaide to Robe:
Sianora HEAT!! We intentionally got up early and it was already hot and hit the rode to get to Robe. Robe is a tiny town on the coast, but it seems like a nice retirement place and the people we talked to were friendly. We found free wifi at the library and took a long stroll on the beach that was across from our caravan park. We made ourselves fancy taco salads for dinner and then hid out in the van for the evening as another set of thunder storms passed us. There definitely seems to be a pattern in the weather, afternoon/evening thunderstorms after warm days.

Robe to Warrnambool:
Try saying Warrnambool fast five times in a row… We decided to go to Warrnambool because it is the largest town on the southern coast and is the beginning of the Great Ocean Road. We are planning to drive the Great Ocean Road tomorrow (Dec 1st). The town is nice and seems to be really outdoor activity friendly. Our caravan park is right next to a giant park filled with kids play areas (We need to bring jumping pillows to America, they are pretty cool and fun!), bridges, ponds, fields, courts, mini golf, a maze etc. It seems pretty awesome. Currently in this area of the state of Victoria no one has power to their land lines as the big phone company caught fire and there was no back up plan… whooops. It has made things interesting with making reservations, but luckily we see to be traveling before the high tourist season hits and have not had a single problem getting a place anywhere. A stress reliever for us is that we have all of our accommodations booked for the rest of our journey around the world. PHEW!!! In Warrnambool we spend the late afternoon at the Flying Horse Microbrewery where Sam sampled a few of their beers on tap and we relaxed with some bar food and in comfy chairs. We also hijacked MCDonalds wifi again to check up on things when the sky decided that it was time for the thunder and lightening storm of the day. We were glad to be inside, but we still needed to get to the caravan park, make dinner and get set up for sleep… again in the rain. I am grateful that the showers were hot and we made it to bed at a decent hour. In the morning on our way out of town we went through the local state park/wildlife reserve which is free to the public (Tower Hill). What is cool about this is that it is an old volcano crater turned wildlife reserve. We saw some Emus, other ducks and birds and our first KOALAH :-). We still have not seen any kangaroos, wombats, echidnas etc, but hopefully that will come in the days ahead. We have been obeying the rules and not driving at dusk, night, or dawn when most of these guys are out and on the move.

Throughout this past weeks trek we have definitely seen Australia’s farm and range lands…LOTS OF IT!!! We know where cows and sheep are raised, where the wheat, barley, hay and other crops grow and even where some of the pine plantations exist. We’ve seen lots of farming equipment and still wonder what some of it does. Perhaps at the upcoming Genther/Clarke wedding we will learn more about farm life in person :-).

Angus’s quirks…

Angus is a 2007 (believe that…) Mitsubishi Express Starwagon Satellite (oooohhh, ahhhhhh)….van thing that has been converted into a campervan. We are grateful for Angus as he’s gotten us many a places and spent quality time with us on the road (we’ve almost traveled 6000km). In our time together we have learned that his battery is not that reliant as issues have come up and we have had to have him jumped twice by nice Australian people (once a set of grandpas, the other a group of college aged surfers). These battery jumps may have been induced by us, we know that at least the second one was as the driver left the lights on :-). We have also had to reset the radio a few times after disconnecting the battery which requires a code to get it to turn it back on. Where does that code exist? Logically the glove box with the owners manual right? Nope we had to call the Wicked hotline and learn that it was written in sharpie on the inside of the passenger side sun visor. The other morning while driving to Warrnambool Angus’s windshield wipers went out. Luckily it was not raining at the time, but we feared that the rain would come by that evening and pulled into a gas station to figure out what was now going on. We had somehow blown a fuse. We bought a 5 back of new ones, replaced it and we were up and going again. Angus’s most quirky issue is that he does not like the heat especially if his fuel is 1/4 tank or less. Maybe it is car acid reflux, but we rolled into the Adelaide Wicked Depot fearing something horrible was going on with our van (it was shaking jerky anytime we tried to accelerate and change gears), but of course Angus behaved for the mechanic and we learned that sometimes in the heat, vans like ours get hot air locks in the fuel system. This may be Angus’s problem, so the solution is to turn him off, let him rest then try again… Hmmmm not quite the solution we were looking for. We have also decided that Angus is not going to get a lot of air in his fuel belly so we now always refuel at half a tank.

~Sam and K.

Embarking on the Nullarbor Crossing, First Stop Kalgoorlie

Which Way To Go?

Daily Start of the Day Photo

Daily Start of the Day Photo

Things To Keep A Close Eye Out For

The Straightest Road In Australia….In The Rain

We Made It To Balladonia!

My Mother Would Not Approve Of This Driving Day Weather!

I Don’t Like Thunderstorm Driving!

Directions and Distances To Anywhere

A Thorough Explanation of the Nullarbor

A Snapshot of the Nullarbor

GIANT GALAH at Kimba!

Celebrating a Successful Crossing.

Someone is Relieved to Not Have Super Long Drives For A While

Real Galahs Hanging Out With Us

Herbie is Keeping Everyone Safe

Sunset In Port Augusta

Made It To Adelaide!

Parrots in the Trees Drinking Nectar Made Adelaide Extra Cool

Galahs In Adelaide.

Kailey and Herbie Walking The Beach At Robe

Blog Roll Call

Hello All,

After close to three months of blogging and traveling we are curious about how many people are actually reading, following or stalking us through this blog, so in the comment box below sign your name or initials and let us know.

~Sam and Kailey

Happy Thanksgiving from Down Under!!

Number of animals we have tried to kill: 0
Number of animals that have tried to kill us: 2 (a spider and an emu both went after Sam)

Hello Again!

Happy Thanksgiving from Australia, we just finished the first leg of our Australia (covering some of the state of Western Australia) road trip by driving from Perth up to Shark’s Bay to go to Monkey Mia then back down to Fremantle. We stopped in Kalbarri on the way up and Geraldton on the way down. We are currently in Kalgoorlie where we are preparing to cross the Nullarbor (A huge wide expanse of nothing along the southern coast) After we cross the Nullarbor we will then be in Pt. Augusta and the state of South Australia.

Since we have become mobile campers we have learned and adjusted to camping life pretty easily. Our camper van is equipped with a sink with a water can that you use via a pump to get water, basic pot/pan dishes and utensils. We have a single burner on top of a small propane tank, stowage in the main van area behind the front seats, and sleeping mats. Our camper also came with two stool chairs and a small cooler to store cool items in. It is bare bones, but we are getting by with some enhancements. One of the other things that our campervan comes with is 250,000 Km worth of graffiti and writing all over the inside of the van. A lot of the previous residents have left their mark (literally in sharpie) on the inside of the van, the dents on the outside are also evidence of previous adventurers. We do have our own sharpie and are planning out the message we shall leave the next people who take over our van, which we have named Angus. We have decided that it is also nice to have the following for your Wicked Campervan Experience:

– An outdoor extension cord, splitter and adapter (You still need to charge stuff when traveling)
– Food storage bins (to keep the ants and other bugs out of your stuff)
– Ample easy cooking and non-cooking food (when it is windy our single burner doesn’t really work).
– Water (lots of that, there is not always drinking water where we are going)
– Basic cleaning supplies (we don’t need to make ourselves sick from our situation)
– Get crafty and make screens for the passenger and driver side windows so you can have fresh air when you want it. (we veltcrow those to the outside of the van when we are stopped for the night)
– A Fan (YES, we got a fan and when you are in 100+ degree weather you will want some sort of fan too so you can sleep a bit at night instead of sweating/baking to death in our tin can)
– A little battery opperated lantern (it was a last minute buy, but we use it every night as apparently our interioir lights drain our battery although they are not supposed too)
– Mosquito net, seriously no one wants to catch a deadly disease from a mosquito, and there are quite a few nasty diseases that the little blood suckers carry around this area.
– EXTRA FUEL (We are carrying 40L, two big cans as sometimes it gets a little scary as to where the next fuel station is. We hope to not have to use our fuel until the end and just because we have it to use). Along with this we have extra coolant, oil, and our van came with jumper cables, breaking down in the middle nowhere does not sound even remotely like an adventure that we want to experience.
– Van Mascot, this is essential to any road trip as without one you are simply a couple of people driving a ridiculous distance. However, with a mascot you are now an awesome team of adventurers! Our mascot is Herbie the stuffed toy hamster we found in a clearance bin at the grocery n store for 1 Australian dollar.
-Pillows, for the demanding sleeper in us all, a good pillow is essential for a good nights rest inside the van. Even better is if the pillow then converts to a quilt to help with those cold desert nights.
– A mini flexible cooler is nice to have along as well for some cold drinks while you roast in the sun.
– Sunscreen and bug-spray are a must as well. Sunscreen since there is no where to hide when you are in either car seat and the sun is cooking you on a 6 hour drive, and bug-spray is needed unless you plan to only eat raw foods at night while hiding in the van.
-Sleeping bags/sacks are good too since really the mattresses are there so you don’t realize you are sleeping on particle board.
-Stereo to Stereo adapter cable to plug in an ipod to the stereo, since the CD player does not work! This is a huge problem to discover after you find the coveted John Williamson CD of Australian folk songs that you are dying to rock out to.
– GPS, buy one for way cheaper then renting one and you will hopefully never get too lost driving on the left side of the road.

Other than our supply list all is well in OZ. Perth is a nice city that has a very Seattle feel to it especially the waterside suburb of Fremantle. There are a lot of open spaces, walking paths and parks for all to enjoy. Kalibarri was a very pretty beach town and where we saw our first wild pink gallahs (a parrot type bird found all over in Australia, Kailey secretly would like one as a pet). Sharks bay and Monkey Mia Resort are amazing and the laid back low-scale resort pops up out of nowhere. Sharks Bay is a World heritage site and was on Kailey’s bucket list. We did see the dolphins while there which are famous and we also saw the stromatolites (google that one peeps). Kailey also got to meet and chat with Dolphin researcher Richard Connor who has been studying the dolphins there for 30 years. Good times had by all marine biology dorks on this trip = us :-)! On our way back down we stopped over in Geraldton for the night after sweating to death in 100+ degree weather on our drive back down. We were greeted in Geraldton by a nice thunder and lightening storm that thankfully cooled off the place.

We spent Thanksgiving in Fremantle where we treated ourselves to a lovely fish and chip’s dinner at an establishment that has been around for over 100+ years. It was good and we were super full afterwards, but it was worth it. Our camping meals have been good and well balanced, but it was nice to not have to cook for ourselves for the night.

Currently we are getting ready to leave Kalgoorlie to head to Balladonia and begin our trek crossing the Nullarbor Plain (code for an aussie desert). In a few days we should be arriving in Port Augusta and making our way towards Sydney.

We are still working on the photo albums and finally have things organized and almost fully edited and ready to post more albums. Internet in OZ is not as readily available as it is in America so you just have to be patient to see what we have seen.

Have a good weekend and following week.

~ K. and Sam

Packing Up Our Home

Our Sweet Ride, Worms Anyone?

Back Of Our Van!

Chef Sam At Work

On The Road Again….And Again….And Again….

Stromatolites! (google it)

Bucket List: Visit Monkey Mia and Their Dolphins and The Researchers….CHECK!

Sam’s Frenemy The Emu

Niki and Her One Week Old Baby Calf

Dr. Richard Connor and Kailey Saying Hi To Lynne Barre

Happy Thanksgiving From OZ!

Kailey Spread Some Thanksgiving Cheer To The Road With Her Sign!

Thanksgiving Dinner A La Fremantle

Herbie The Van Mascot/Superhero Depending On The Situation.

Two Months Gone, Say WHAAATTT?

***NOTE WE ARE HOPING TO GET PICTURES POSTED IN PERTH, WE HAVE RUN INTO A SPACE ISSUE ON THE IPAD COMBINED WITH SLOW INTERNET CONNECTIONS***

Cooking School In Bali

Kai (brown tabby) and Ace (black and white tabby)

Blaze (our Sun Conure )

Salutations and good tidings,

November 10th, 2012 is officially two months of travel for us. We have been gone 61 days and Kailey is in desperate need of a “Biggie size” Soy Chai Tea Latte from Starbucks. It’s really the little things you miss the most, like our animals :-). This is the longest that either of us has ever traveled continuously and it’s a learning experience to say the least. I don’t think that the trip is what either of us imagined it to be, not to say that in a bad way but we just didn’t have any real way of truly knowing what it would feel like to travel continuously for so long at a fairly brisk pace.

We leave in 5 days for the second to last leg of our journey the drive from Perth to Sydney and it blows our minds that we have come so far across the world. At this point it now it feels like we are officially heading back TOWARDS home as opposed to AWAY from it. It is a very surreal feeling to look at an Ipad full of photos, and blog posts detailing the last two months where a lot of it has become a slight blur. We definitely developed the ABCs in Europe (Another Bloody Church/Castle/Cathedral/City), but then Rae showed up and was so excited over old stuff that she cried, which in turn made us excited. Even though the days of week have long ago faded away to meaningless words (A common morning discussion is: What day is it? What is the date?), there have been experiences which will always be good memories and even better a lot of these we can share with friends that we will talk to and see back home.

It’s a humbling thing to take yourself and throw yourself from one foreign experience to another. You begin to realize just how fortunate we are to have the things we do at home and how different and amazing the world can truly be. The Discovery Channel got it right, the world is just awesome! While it is very easy to get wrapped up in the things at home that seem so important and forget how big the world is. Your worries and problems, when put in the context of everything else that is out there really aren’t that big. This trip has definitely helped Kailey and I as we figure out the whole being married thing, and also made us realize how lucky we are to have such amazing friends and family. Everyone that came to our wedding and agreed with us that this trip was a worthwhile cause will never know how much we appreciate you, though you can expect us to say it a few times once we get back and hopefully we have sent you a post card. Let us know if anyone else out there would like one!

We are now faced with a three week drive across the south coast of Australia before a rendezvous with a lot of family and friends for Kailey’s brother’s wedding, Christmas and New Years. It will be a nice way to end our trip with the people who we miss and getting some quality family time in. We could write more about the emotions we are feeling or the experiences that have meant the most to us, but I it is hard to put it all in words. Don’t worry we will keep writing and re-writing if WordPress continues to eat our blogs. Currently our best advice is if you want to know what this feels like to travel the world like us then make a plan to do it and stick to your plan. It took us a lot of pre-planning and it was hard to believe until we actually landed in our first destination and time began to pass, but take 4 months or more, pack your bags, watch out for bed bugs, walk out your front door, good luck and have a wonderful journey!

~ K. and Sam

Bali or Bust

***NOTE WE ARE HOPING TO GET PICTURES POSTED IN PERTH, WE HAVE RUN INTO A SPACE ISSUE ON THE IPAD COMBINED WITH SLOW INTERNET CONNECTIONS***

Hello All,

Total travel time to reach our first hotel in Bali:
16.5 hours on planes
5 hours in airports
3 hours driving

It’s a hike to get here, but its nice, hot and humid once you arrive. We spent the first day sleeping off and relaxing after our marathon travel. We stayed in Tulamben which is a very small area on the north of the island. We are in diving paradise and that is all anyone around here really does. Lots of diving and snorkeling. You walk into the water (10 meters from our door), and you are on a coral reef known as the coral garden. We stayed at the Paradise Palms Beach Bungalow which is a collection of little bungalows that are really quiet and peaceful (leads to lots of sleep).

After we got our bearings the first day and slept a lot. We got out, walked around and had some good Indonesian food. We also bumped into a few people who kept asking about my uncle Roger who may or may not be some sort of local legend here….either that or a boogeyman type story, tough to say for sure. We ended up talking with one of the local dive shops and decided to go snorkeling the next morning on the USS Liberty shipwreck which was only 150 meters down the beach. The wreck was absolutely amazing, you are swimming along a coral garden when all of sudden you are looking at the stern of a ship, iron everywhere. You can then swim along the entire breadth of a very intact warship, complete with a few machine guns sticking out and one very large barracuda swimming around. It was a really awesome sight to see, and the crowd of divers swimming in and around the wreck threw off a huge mass of bubbles which were also fun to swim through. On the swim back we ended up among a huge school of Jack Fish which was another surreal moment as these hundreds of fish swam all around you and the light cut through the different density layers and cast some pretty amazing lines and shadows. We got out after a nice long snorkel and proceeded to just relax, soak up some sun and enjoy the rest of our day.

The next day Arca picked us up and we headed out for Ubud, where we would be staying for the next four days. The three hour drive was a very nice way to see some scenery and landscape since it had been dark when we arrived. The massive volcano was the first surprise coming up over the first hill. After that we settled in for a nice relaxed tour of the Bali countryside. We arrived at our hotel, met Wayan (another friend of Roger’s) who was extremely nice and helpful, checked in and arrived at our room. This trip is technically our honeymoon since we never got to take one and upon our arrival in our room we found flowers and a heart made of rose petals on the bed (awwwww). We took pictures and then got settled took a quick nap before Arca was to take us out to a monkey temple on a cliff.

On the way to the monkey temple we stopped at a village made famous by Julia Roberts in “Eat, Pray, Love” and went down to see the white sand surfing spot. It was crowded to say the least and apparently all due to the movie since prior to that it was fairly empty according to Arca. We saw some surfers and people hanging out and even got a chance to walk in the water a bit which is very nice and warm. We then climbed back up as we didnt want to miss the sunset at the temple.

The monkey temple was an interesting sight and we made sure not to wear any earrings, sunglasses or shiny objects as the monkeys apparently cannot resist taking them and will take them no matter how strongly you protest. We walked around the temple with Arca filling us in on the culture and history behind it and then made our way to the farthest edge of the cliff in order to watch an amazing sunset, while some fire dancing went on behind us. After our temple visit we headed to the beach to a restaurant Arca knew about that served great seafood. He wasn’t kidding, the only thing on the menu is several types of seafood and you just pick which type you want, how much and how you want it cooked. The fish is still in the container from the boat which probably arrived a few hours before we did. They then simply clean the fish and cook it whole before serving it to you will rice and some delicious sauces. After this we were thoroughly tired and headed back to the Hotel in order to get some rest before our early morning the next day when we would be doing a cooking class.

The next morning we woke up and had a traditional Bali breakfast which was awesome and then made our way over to the cooking class. The class was awesome the woman that taught it has been working here for 10 years and have lived in Ubud all her life. She was a great cook, halarious and really fun to cook with. It was also nice since she really focused more on the culture behind the food and the ideas behind Balinese cooking rather than just a recipe. She would discuss the reasons for each ingredient, what to do if you can’t find it (Uajimaya here I come) and how everything we made was what people in Bali cook for everyday meals. The menu we prepared was a sweet and spicy salad, fish wrapped in banana leaf, fish cury, spinach tomato sambal and fresh sambal. It was all super delicious and really fun. After the class Kailey and I spent the afternoon relaxing, reading and taking it easy till the sun went away and we could head out into the city to wander around. We were so full from lunch we skipped dinner got a bit of Gelato and then headed home to happily fall asleep.

We woke up later on again had breakfast and then to the city market we went. The actual market is under construction but there is a temporary market filling up an old building next door. We wandered from stall to stall taking in what can only be descried as a giant flea market crammed into a space much too small to contain it, but it was a neat experience and after a morning of wandering in the heat (did I mention its the hot season here?) we headed back to the hotel for some swimming and sun. We decided that with the heat and the many options available to us that river rafting was probably the most enjoyable way to spend our last day in Bali. Wayan helped us to book a good company and even got us a pretty sweet discount to boot. We relaxed further that afternoon and then went out to a local restaurant that our friend Anna had recommended from her time in Ubud.

The next morning we woke up had our breakfast and then were picked up by the rafting company and drove out to the outfitters headquarters in order to get suited up and ready to raft. Sobec rafting is a really nice group of people and we spent 2 hours on the Aryung (sp?) river heading through some decent rapids. Our guide Jackie was a really funny guy and we had a very good time going back and forth with the other boat, our boat somewhere along the way got the name of “Business Class” since we were the better boat and always out front, of the other “economy class” boat. Jackie luckily was there to protect us from the various crocodiles and monitor lizards that we came across in the river (this was really him just slapping the water as hard as he could with his paddle and screaming either “crocodile” or “monitor lizard” to make us all jump with fear). He also treated us to several rousing renditions of “row, row, row your boat” on our merry cruise downstream. After the raft we got to have a good Balinese lunch and then when we were quite full we headed up the 200 steps back to the pick-up point.

On the way back up Sam was walking behind Kailey when all of a sudden the bushes on the side of the path rustled and then a creature sprung forth! Fearing for her life Kailey screamed as the vicious chicken made its way quickly across the path. Kailey and Sam were highly amused as was their guide Jackie who made it quite clear how funny he thought this was. The drive back was good and the rest of the afternoon was spent, planning, blogging and trying to get everything up to date before we reached Perth!

The next morning we were greeted after breakfast by Arca, who was ready to take us back to the airport and send us on our way to Oz. We loaded the bags said goodbye to Wayan and headed out. We made it to the airport and checked in, with a few hidden fees assessed by the Balinese government as a kind goodbye.

Honestly we are not sure what to think about Bali. It has some very nice parts, lots of tourist traps, a significant amount of poverty, and lots of stray animals. The stray animals really got to Kailey and we attempted to visit a Bali Street Dog Rescue Sanctuary called BARC. Unfortunately they had just moved to a lager piece of property and were not yet set up for visitors. They still need a lot of donations and after seeing many stray dogs, we are planning on helping them out with a donation when we get home. Feel free to check them out online yourself! Another thing that disturbed Kailey to tears thanks to Dubai and the National Geographic Channel was that Indonesia uses elephants in their tourism industry. Although we do not know how the elephants in Bali are kept or specifically treated, we did watch a special on the elephants of Indonesia from our Dubai hotel. There was this super horrible part of the show where they showed a YouTube video of “Breaking the Spirit of the Elephant” where the newly captive creature is put in a pen where it can not turn around or get away or stand on it’s hind legs and for 7 days it is starved of food and water while it is continuously beaten with chains, sticks, hammers, nails etc until is practically collapses… all to teach it that humans are in control and forever it’s boss. For both of us this was definitely one of the worst videos we have seen in a while. In the end we could not stomach it and had to change the channel, even though we both like to be informed of the realities of situations. We vowed from that point on that we would do nothing with elephants or monkeys while in Bali.

We boarded our plane with a bit of anxious excitement and headed off over the water to Perth. Australian road trip HERE WE COME!!!

~ Sam and K.

Dubai Debacle

***NOTE WE ARE HOPING TO GET PICTURES POSTED IN PERTH, WE HAVE RUN INTO A SPACE ISSUE ON THE IPAD COMBINED WITH SLOW INTERNET CONNECTIONS***

Hello all, well this ought to be good:

We landed a little before midnight and knew that we had to clear customs, get our bags and then would soon be off to our hotel in the airport for some good rest for the night before we fly again. On the flight Kailey was worried that we had not booked enough time at the hotel but Sam assured her that it was a traveling hotel and all would be OK. So we land, get through customs with little hassle then get our bags. We had to get our bags no matter what as our connecting flight was over 24hrs later. After we got our bags we saw no sign for the hotel and upon asking we were then told we should not have gone through security to get our bags, which means that we thus were exiting the airport. AHHHH, but we didn’t know and we had to get our bags… who knows where they would have ended up. So to the Emirates desk we went to speak to a supervisor as we were then told that maybe they could get us back in to our hotel.

As a side note, the Russian Emirates person who checked us in was a super stickler for the rules, we think because of who we were and our carry ons were weighed and we each had to practically empty them to make them each 7kg. It was a little bit strange, as clearly many others in line could go through with well over any weight limits and our carry-ons were not even full.

Back to our story. We are up at the Emirates counter speaking to the manager who it turns out can get us in, but we can’t take our bags with us as it is carry on luggage only. This would have been nice to have seen somewhere on a website how this hotel works and what the rules were. Who knows how the russian check in lady would have dealt with us then, but at least we would have packed our carry on accordingly. At this point Kailey was practically in tears and so tired, that she was ready to just sleep on a chair in the airport lounge for the next 24 hours.

We could raid our luggage and grab what was needed to get us through the next 26hrs, locking our luggage with the Emerates desk at the airport. This also meant that we would have to clear security and customs again of which we just go through and do the exact same thing (out and in through security and customs) 26hrs later. Argggg what to do.

So we decided to not leave our stuff at the airport and play the crazy customs security game and cancel our hotel reservation making it that we then had no place to stay or sleep. Our next move was to go to the hotel reservation desk and book a room at the Holiday Inn express which we saw upon landing and almost booked at initially. We found an agent to help us, and at 1:30am it was booked up.

Now working on plan C or D we were then told to go to the last booking person at the end of hotel reservations and speak with them. We got there and spoke with the person who had two rooms left… we would have to book two nights though which is what Kailey was worried about in the beginning and thus her intuition was right. Two nights with half a night already gone and leaving a half a night early. At this point thought it was what it was and we were exhausted. The booking person kept giving us discounts on our stay and I felt like we were back to bartering in Russia.

Finally though we got a room and there was free car service to and from the airport so all we had to do was wait to be picked up, check in and soon sleep as long as we wanted.

After some sleep and room service and naps we are off to the giant super mall to find some dinner and apparently find Starbucks!!! We were going to the City Centre Mall which is one of Dubai’s big Super malls. We go there and immediately were greeted with familiar shop names which made us miss home a little less at this point. There were all the major clothing stores, pink berry fro yo, many restaurants we recognized and even a Borders bookstore (they apparently still exist overseas). Just about everything was in English too which was another blessing. After hitting Starbucks and getting Latte’s we were then off to Borders where we found some more Nicolas Sparks romance novels, and an awesome guide for Australia called Backroads Australia that has different drives for driving across Oz, which is what we were up to. Until this point we did not really know how to specifically go about planning our Aussie road trip other than we were going to do it. The book also came with an awesome map and overall the book has pretty much been our bible since landing in Oz. For dinner we got much desired mexican food and then we went back to the hotel to gather our things and wait for 2am to depart to the airport for our flight.

Bali here we come!

~ K. and Sam