Fitness In Australia Episode 5: Crabbing!

Attack of the killer blue swimmers

Hey Mate, why so white?

Bec Nelson

Willy, Bec and Lachlan ("fainting goats") Nelson, Andrew and Michelle Nelson,
JJ Cupples, Rob and the Indian Ocean sunrise.

This is months overdue, but here goes:

Giant-Australian-Outdoorsman-who-looks-like-a-cross-between-Paul-Hogan-and-Sean-Connery (His real name is Willy Nelson....no kidding) - "Hey mate, in for a little crabbing tomorrow morning?

Snorkel Boy - "Pardon?"

Willy- I say, you wanna come hunt some blue swimmer crabs with us tomorrow...great fun, very dangerous.

SB - I've been crabbing before, what's so dangerous about a crab pot?

Willy - Not a pot, mate, you use your hands. Just swim around and when you see one, grab it! Season just opened after a three-year ban. C'mon, it'll be fun.

SB - (After a change of undies) Um, how big are these blue-swimmers?

Willy- Aw the biggest are maybe a meter, tip-to-tip.

SB- What if they get ahold of your fingers?

Willy- Shouldn't let that happen, mate, they'll take it right off. But don't sweat it, as long as you grab 'em on the carapice, you'll be right.

SB- (Paralyzed with fear) Cara-which? What time do you head out?

Willy- Be on the beach by sun-up (0545).

SB- (mentally adding the 45 minute commute)(blood draining from face) - I'll be there.

So, as is becoming my habit, more out of fear of mercilous ridicule than being pinched to death by a giant crustacean, I dutifully set my alarm for 4am the next day.

Its important to pause here, and fill you in on a couple of other important details. Number one, all Australian men are tough. Even the clothing models. I think its just part of their DNA, or maybe because they start eating red meat at 18 months old. So when you meet a real "dyed-in-the-wool" outdoorsman, its best just to do what he says...arguing or showing any form of weakness can get you killed. Willy is one of those guys. I think he splits wood for fitness, and eats giant insects and kangaroo intestines. Certainly not the kind of guy whom you would walk up to and start humming "On the Road Again" just to see what he'd do.

Furthermore, when a genuine Australian "bloke" invites you to explore God's creation with him, its more of a statement of fact, than an invitation. That is, its not "Hey fella, would you like to come and have some fun fishing for crabs with us?", its more like, "We're going to go crabbing tomorrow morning at an unholy hour, and you'll be coming along, because real men, hunt, kill, and devour...then drink 6 gallons of beer."

So I went.

And, I have to say, it was absolutely superb.

We got to the beach, and Willy, his brother Andrew, a friend called JJ, and the biggest surprise of all: Andrew's wife Michelle, and Willy's two kids, Beck (11) and Lauglin (13), were all standing on the beach waiting for me. (For the record, I was vomiting in the woods, and needed a little time to compose myself).

Thank God for the women and children, for I now had someone to hide behind or cling onto.

Then, to my surprise, Willy threw me a pair of elbow length welding gloves...."in case you're too slow and one gets ahold of you!" (For the record, everyone wore gloves, so there!)

We swam out about 150 meters off the beach (still in waist deep water) and after convincing myself that surely a big shark would rather eat one of the girls or maybe JJ, I settled down and and began to take in my marine surroundings..the sun had just begun to angle down into the eel-grass above which we were swimming, and then the most amazing thing happened: The crabs just started to materialize out of nowhere! Everywhere you looked, they were swimming up for a morning tan, just above the grass! (According to Willy, they actually do come up and catch the sun for health reasons). It was fantastic!

Apparently, its at that point, while they're still a little groggy, that you want to grab them. But, as I quickly found out, they are far more aggressive than you would think. Once you try to grab one, and miss, they will frequently swim after you, snapping those 50psi claws at you the whole time.

When you do eventually manage to get ahold of one, they go down fighting! Snapping and dropping claws and wriggling around until you get them out of the water. Then they grab ahold of your welding glove until you finally shake them loose over the bag or box used to collect them.

After about 45 minutes we had caught close to our limit (10 apiece, or in my case, 3 to Willy's 17....even Beck, Willy's 11-year-old daughter caught more than me!)

Afterward, we enjoyed a traditional Australian "brekky"... fried eggs, toast and cheese, all grilled on the barby. Classic! Beck and Laughlin took thousands of pictures of me admiring my 3 crabs, then kindly donated another 3 so that the Mushen's could have a feed. And, let me tell you, it was the sweetest, most tender crabmeat I've ever eaten...delicious

One things for sure, I won't soon forget this marvelous introduction to Western Australian marine sports.

The question that lingers in my mind, is: In a fair fight, who would go down first, Willy, or a 6 foot blue crab.

I'm afraid if I blink it might be over...

Opa reading Charlie and The Chocolate Factory to Amelie outside on our front porch.

Nana and Opa at Leighton Beach, Fremantle.

Pieter and Nana at Hamelin Bay where we saw the huge manta ray.

3 generations in hats at Busselton

Ella reading up in a tree at our rented house in Margaret River.

One of Opa Hans' creative, delicious recipes: Chicken Under a Brick (Margaret River)

Where the oceans converge.

Opa Allan teaching Amelie's class circus skills.

Mom and I playing tennis at East Fremantle Tennis Club with Swan River in background.

The first and only wild poisonous snake we've seen so far. Under a rock at the beach on Rottnest!

Biking on Rottnest Island, February

Rob hypnotizing a bold quokka at a cafe on Rottnest

Ella, Amelie and Pieter's first day of school Feb 1, 2010.

Pieter with Uncle Nick and Pba Ann at Australia Day fireworks down at the "North Mall" with beautiful ship in background.

Opa Allan going for a ride with Steve Irwin at Caversham Wildlife Park

Ella playing cricket on Rottnest

Dad and Maureen walking the kids to school with Perth skyline in background

Communion service at the beach at Busselton church retreat

Amelie and Charlie on the croc. at their 7th birthday party

Our pool with Mom, Allan, Nick and Ann.

February and March Highlights:

Once again, the time is going by way too fast. I'm waking up each night feeling like I HAVE to update the blog before I forget everything so hopefully I can do a good job at recapping the past months. These past 2 months have involved 1. us moving, 2. my mom, Allan, step-bro Nick, and sister-in-law Ann (visiting from Thailand) visiting for 6 days, 3. kids starting up with new year at school (including Pieter - kindergarten!), 4. Mom and Al returning for a week, and 5. my Dad and Maureen coming to stay for 2 weeks.

It was great to finally meet Ann, my sister-in-law from Thailand. What a sweet and wonderful person she is. The kids absolutely loved her! Nick has been teaching English as a second language over there and loves his job! While they were here, with Mom and Al, it was very hot! Thankfully we had the pool and the beach. Actually, as I write this, I'm remembering that Ann was actually cold at times because it cooled down a bit at night and it's very hot in Thailand 9 months out of the year! We took them all to Caversham (the wildlife park) and they got to hang out with all the native animal, went to King's Park in Perth, went shopping in Perth, swam in the river, had an amazing Thai meal cooked for us, watched (way too much) Australian Open tennis, learned again to play Cribbage (Nick LOVES cribbage), had a wonderful dinner at Sardellos, and just hung out. It was a really great time and fun for all of us to meet up in Australia of all places! At the end of the 6 days, Nick and Ann went back to Thailand and Mom and Allan went to visit Uncle Frits and Aunt Els in Bali.

The kids started school on February 1st. Ella is now finally in 4th grade and has Mrs. Weston again :/. We were a bit disappointed by this because we thought it would be nice for Ella to have a different teacher. Also, she got separated from her great friends Samantha, Olivia and Millie. She's still in Tia and Tara's class, though. I went and talked to Mrs. Weston and said that she really needs to challenge and engage Ella because she loves to learn. Now Ella and 2 other girls go out of the class to do 5th grade math and Ella has asked for a report topic because the pace in the class is a bit slow. Not quite what I meant when I spoke to Mrs. Weston (having the girls teach themselves), but better than utter boredom in the classroom. Thankfully Ella is super self motivated and did her report(on Christopher Columbus), does Mathletics on-line and does a workbook daily. She never ever has homework that comes from school. When we return to the USA this summer Ella will be starting 5th grade so we really need her to know what she's doing.

Ella is really enjoying gymnastics, guitar, tennis, soccer and swim training. I don't know what happened but all of a sudden she's involved in all these things and loves every minute of them. Swimming is 2 days a week before school down by the river at Bicton Polo Pool (ending next week) and Tennis is 1 day a week before school (at the school). The swim training was for the school Swim Carnival, which was today (I'll talk about it later). Ella originally didn't want to do the swimming and now she's suddenly addicted. She wants to go again tomorrow morning (at 6:45) even though the carnival is over and she doesn't need to train for the Inter-school Carnival because she's not in it. Gymnastics is almost over and Soccer just started. They are just overlapping for a couple of weeks.

Amelie is in 2nd grade (!) and has Mrs. Maloney and Mrs. Button (whom she has called Buttmon for the 1st month because it said she was the teacher "Button - Mon and Tues" and she put them together thinking her name was Buttmon!!). The are both fabulous teachers. She was placed into a class with a wonderful group of girls who are much more like Amelie than the girls last year (here in Australia). They like to play pretend, do ballet, play with stuffed animals and dolls, and like the color pink! She's been having tons of play dates and hasn't mentioned home in a long time. Amelie is continuing to play catch-up in respect to school, as you can well imagine, and she's trying really hard. When Maureen/Nana was here (a retired elementary school teacher after 45 years of teaching), she worked each day with Amelie on math and really helped her and taught her in a much more patient way than I am capable of. She does a couple of pages of a math workbook every afternoon and also goes on Mathletics. Amelie is also taking swimming lessons and loves it. She's a great swimmer.

Pieter started Pre-primary, which is equivalent to Kindergarten! He can go to school 5 days a week from 8:45-3:00! It's non-compulsory so each week varies as to how many days he actually goes all day. He's totally thriving there and it will be difficult to recognize him when he gets back to the USA. He started off trying to be very brave, but just broke down each morning when it was time for me to leave and at lunchtime (because he missed ME...so cute). Now I've completely lost my status as "Mommy is the best" and it's all about Daddy! The teachers have been really wonderful to him understanding that a lot has been going on such as moving across the world, moving to a new house 1 week before the start of school, being the baby of the class, having a lot of visitors, etc... He made some really good friends: Matty, Joey, and Lucas D. who would seek him out and try to draw him in so he wouldn't be sad. NOW, he is loving school and every once in a while needs the teacher's aide or roster mom to sit with when I leave. He's actually become a real boy and has become a bit wild at times with all his new buddies. Then, other times I see hints of my sweet little boy who used to mostly had girls for friends. He did initially become friends with a little girl Bonnie and he said to me "Now I don't know who I'm going to marry, Julia or Bonnie?". Then 2 weeks ago he came home saying that he's realized who he is going to marry and "it starts with an L". "Elizabeth" is his new love and she is a beautiful sweet girl. Too funny that he even thinks about this at all. Pieter has been loving doing his math books and has been sounding out 3 letter words. He loves to learn! He's also an amazing little swimmer and can do a beautiful freestyle and backstroke!

2 days after school started, Mom and Allan returned from their 5 day trip to Bali. We had lots of fun going to play tennis several times (as the kids were all at school now), going to AQWA (an amazing aquarium up north), going on a Fremantle Prison tour (now a historical museum (stopped having prisoners only 15 years ago)- which I had to leave because I got a call from Pieter's school that he was inconsolable), going out to lunch, buying souvenirs and going to Rottnest Island.

Amelie's 7th birthday was on February 5th so we decided to go to Rottnest Island for the night. This is 17 km off the coast of Fremantle. We took the kids out of school at 11:00 to catch the 11:30 ferry (Rob was arriving on the 7:30 ferry). When we got to the parking lot I could not find a spot anywhere and we were running out of time! In the end, I had to park the car in a random lot, didn't even have the chance to pay for any kind of parking ticket because I'd run out of time, left the door unlocked with the key under the mat and ran as fast as I could to get on the ferry. I just made it! Now what?? I called my friend and saviour, Janelle, and she drove down to the lot, moved my car, fought over a parking spot and found and paid for an ideal spot! Thank God for mobile phone and amazing and willing friends!!

To get there we took the highspeed ferry which got us there in 45 minutes. This is an amazingly beautiful, tropical and extremely expensive place. The 7 of us rented a "Villa" for the night in Longreach Bay. We took the bus to Longreach, the only free thing on the island, got off and immediately saw some wild quokkas. Quokkas are little marsupials, the size of a rabbit, which are very cute and very tame. We pet them until we read the signs that said "Don't touch or feed the quokkas". Amelie got her greatly desired camera from Oma and us and took many pictures of the cute little guys. We then walked to "The Basin" (about 1 km from our place). This was a bay that had all kinds of limestone in the water that you could snorkel in and cool limestone formations along the shore that Ella read in and under. It was spectacular. The water was so clear and an aqua color. I couldn't believe that we could be experiencing such beauty and snorkeling so close to home and in February!!

We were going to eat dinner at the local cafe and then decided last minute to take the bus to Thompson Bay where we had first arrived. I looked at the bus schedule and realized it was leaving NOW and then not again for another hour. I told Ella to run out there and hold the bus (half joking, but deeperate). Mom and Al were half dressed and struggling to hurry up. The bus actually listened to Ella and waited! By the time we all got on, which felt like an eternity but was probably 3 minutes, everyone clapped and was laughing. Apparently, the bus had picked everyone up at the stop and was leaving when Ella came along and said "WAIT!" and then took off again to tell us the bus was waiting. Came back with most of us and the bus went to leave again and she said "No, there's more". Anyway, this is such a perfect example of Aussies for you: they are so laid back and have a great sense of humor. We thanked them profusely and the of course said "No worries" and thought the whole thing was hilarious!

Anyway, we had a nice bday dinner once Rob arrived, with quokkas wondering around our feet. The little kids and I took the bus back and the rest walked under the beautiful moon. The next day we all rented bikes (Piet and Amelie in a bike trailer), except Oma who wasn't feeling great, and had a blast exploring this beautiful and hilly (!) island. We stopped at this one bay and did some amazing snorkeling and finally saw our first real venomous snake in the wild. It was hiding under a rock on the beach. It wasn't little at all! When Ella and I snorkeled out along the rope we got a bit freaked out and had to swim back. I am WAY too terrified of sharks.

When we were waiting for ferry at the end of the day, Rob, Al and Ella were sitting on a ledge watching some guys play cricket. The ball flew in Rob's direction and he caught it so they were all invited to join in on the game. It was so fun! When we entered the Swan River on the way home we saw a few dolphins in the river. So incredible.

In the 2 1/2 weeks after Mom and Al left and before Dad and Maureen arrived we had BBQs with friends, lots of plays with friends and lots of swimming in our pool, made dinner for the teens at church and ate with them, had all Pieter's new buddies and moms over after school for swim, and had Amelie's birthday party. For Amelie's 7th birthday we had a joint party with her friend Charlie as their birthdays are just 1 week apart. We had it outside at the Fremantle Leisure Centre pool with 30 kids. This will probably be Amelie's only outside summer February birthday party as a kid. There was a huge blow-up crocodile that the kids climb on, over and slide down. It was a perfect day and the kids had a blast and got way too many presents!

We also went to Bussleton (3 hours south of Perth) for a 3 day weekend family church camp. I can't even begin to describe how amazing this was in all ways. First of all, the government gave all these religious organizations a plot of land, right on the ocean and a 100 year lease. They call this area "the Holy Mile" because it's just church camp after church camp for about a mile. At our camp there were several dorms with individual rooms with bunks for families or friends and 4 self-contained cottages for families with very young children. There was a large female and large male bathroom facility, dining area and kitchen, great room with ping pong and tennis courts. Best of all, we were right on the beach!!! Soft white sand and super clear water. The theme of the weekend was "The Amazing Race" and Rob and I were responsible for 6 different challenges to help people earn points. This was just amazing weekend with our fabulous new friends, beautiful surroundings, gorgeous weather, and great challenges and Bible Studies from Andrew.

This is what I shared with a couple of friends after the weekend about what I'd learned: "We've been studying Habbakuk. This weekend we studied Habbakuk 3 and praising God in spite of your circumstances. That when we get discouraged we should think about the fact that our names are written in Heaven and that that is real approval! We need to remember and keep repeating the great truths of God over and over until they penetrate our souls and minds. We need to remember who God is always and then rejoice and trust in His divinity and His plan. Reading the Bible and all the tough things that people went through makes you realize that in the end God's plan was always achieved and always the best. Then we went to 1 Peter 1 and that in order to be a Christian, we must be born again; a new birth into a living hope. That Jesus should become our joy and delight and that He should be the one who makes us full. Then our pastor talked about idols that we have right now that we think will make us full: house, job, electronics, etc... and I realized that I have made my kids my idols. That it is through them that I feel "full" or "empty". When they behave well, I am so full, when they don't... You get the picture."

The day after the retreat Dad and Maureen arrived for 2 weeks. We had a great time seeing the sites, going to The Shipwreck Museum (Dad's favorite), galleries, The Round House, Art Museum in Perth, souvenir shopping, the Fremantle Markets (searching for pink peppercorns), Dad cooking amazing meals, a real Aussie barbie at the park with friends using the public grilles, and the beach. We also went to Margaret River (down South) and rented a great little house for the weekend. We went down to Augusta where the Indian Ocean and Southern/Antarctic Ocean converge! That was really cool. Went to Hamelin Bay and immediately saw a HUGE manta ray swimming along the shore. On Sunday we went to a vineyard called Knee Deep, saw wild kangaroos and had fish 'n chips in Busselton. During their time here, Maureen was a fabulous help with laundry and doing math with Amelie. She was much more affective and patient with Ams than I ever am! Dad, as I mentioned before, made some delicious meals for us and also shared a lot of family history, which I loved! He even emailed me a few of the stories so that now I can have them forever seeing that my puny memory is not so good. Dad also read to Pieter and Amelie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at night. I remember him reading this to us as kids and my brother, Pieter, saying he wanted 5 Oompa-Loompas for his birthday.

Now I'll go on to the next entry: Turning 40 and going to EXMOUTH!

posted by Marileen

What an incredible month!

Christmas Caroling and picnic dinner at the Fremantle Art Centre.

Night walk with "Bat Man", Joe Tonga looking for bats and eye shine.

Pieter, The Star of Bethlehem, at his Christmas Nativity concert.

Pieter and Marileen on a camel ride, Family Day at Perth Showgrounds.

Ella with some friends. Last day of school.

Christmas concert at the Leemings. Ella on guitar, Abby on flute and Jess on piano.

Christmas at Port Beach, Fremantle.

Christmas Eve dinner at our house with the Duncans

Amelie as an angel for the Christmas school assembly.

Happy 2010. Wow! It's been so long since I have sat down to write on this blog. It truly has been a full and incredible month. I hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Since I've last written the kids finished up their school year and they each finished well. Pieter's class put on an amazing Christmas concert which included acting out the Nativity story. Can you imagine that they actually allow public schools to retell the birth story of Jesus?! Pieter was the star of Bethlehem and led the wise men onto "the stage". They also sang in Italian and used sign language, and did an Aboriginal dance. His concert was held outside and everyone brought picnic dinner and just had a beautiful night. The girls each had Christmas parties at school and each class read lots of Christmas stories. So refreshing!

We celebrated Christmas a day early because we left for New Zealand on Christmas morning. The kids had their pictures taken with "Father Christmas", while wearing tank tops and shorts, and we asked him if he'd be willing to come a day early. He was very kind and said that would be no problem. We had our friends, the Duncans, come over for Christmas Eve dinner (12/23) with us. We had a BBQ, which is the Aussie way, and we had a really nice night which ended with us singing Christmas carols to Ella and Janelle playing their guitars. The next morning we woke up and had the best Christmas that I can remember. Everyone was in such a good way and we just took our time enjoying each moment. Rob and I had decided not to get each other anything and it was really nice to not have to ooh and ahh over my own presents. Ella got her own acoustic guitar (which she loves!), Amelie got lots of littlest pet shops (which she continues to love!), and Pieter got an "electric" (battery operated) guitar, microphone and speaker from Mia and Papa (which he loves!) and spent the morning singing "Our God is an Awesome God".

Then, we went to the beach. That's what Australian's do on Christmas. The beach was beautiful and we all made sure to have a swim. Early evening we went to our friends from church, the Leemings, who have 3 girls all one year older than each of our kids. Their girls put on a Christmas concert for their neighbors each year and invited our kids to join in with them this year. They had so much fun preparing for this in the days leading up to the concert. They did a wonderful show with songs, poems, dances and musical instruments. It was completely put together by the kids without any influence of the adults. There were probably 20 people in the audience to watch.

Next we went to church for the Christmas Eve service. The kids from church had written a sort of Nativity Story rap song. All the kids from church dressed up (Ella and Amelie were angels and Pieter was the star) and sang this song. Then we sang a bunch of Christmas songs in a very lively way. There was this overwhelming energy of excitement at church that night. It was really fun and really felt like a celebration.

The next morning we left for New Zealand! I need to back up, though, and explain what happened leading up to Christmas. In the beginning of December, my friend Kate stopped me one day to say that they may have an offer for us to rent their house the second part of our year in Australia. Our current lease did not end until end February, but Kate and her family were moving into a new home, trying to sell their house without success, and knew we would be needing a new place. Also, our landlords of our current house were returning mid-January and would love to move back into their house, if possible, and not stay with their parents for 1 1/2 months. So the weeks leading up to Christmas also included going back and forth to Kate's house, figuring out furniture rental (as the house was minimally furnished), signing a lease and PACKING! Here I had been looking forward to having a calm and peaceful Christmas time and instead it was a bit chaotic. However, we knew that this was such a blessing and that we (I) should just be so thankful. So to fast forward a bit, we returned from New Zealand on Jan 16th (Deena's 40th!), finished packing on the 17th, moved on the 18th and 19th (in 105 degree weather with no A/c!!), and received my Mom, step-dad, step-brother and sister-in-law on the 21st! Thank God for the pool.

Our house is gorgeous and a little slice of paradise! It's bigger than our old house, it's also in East Fremantle, it is a closer, albeit all uphill, walk to the kids' school, closer to the river and has a fabulous pool! I also need to mention that Kate (our landlady) was the first person I ever had contact with in Australia before we moved here. She helped in the uniform shop and made sure that we had uniforms for the girls waiting on our front porch when we arrived here back in August. She is also a good friend of Janelle's and Narelle's (our old landlady) and I've been running with her quite a bit. God works in wonderful ways.

I will sit down and write highlights of New Zealand soon. That will take a while and as it's 4:00 AM, I think I should probably try to get back to sleep. Otherwise, I'm not going to be a very nice Mommy in the morning. Night night.

posted by Marileen

New Zealand: Part 2

December 30, 2009

Woke up in Waitomo at The Waitomo Lodge Motel around 8:00 AM. Had a good night sleep. It was a bit hot in our rooms, but very comfortable beds. Were planning to leave around 9:00, but that’s just not possible when repacking the bags for 5, showering and eating breakfast. And, like Rob says, “We’re on vacation”.

Mark and Erin decided to take off while we finished getting everything together. While repacking we realized that we didn’t have Ella’s coat. So, we backtracked to Waitomo and Spellbound, playground, Curly’s Pub and swings, but never found the coat. Bummer!

The drive to Rotorua was beautiful with green pastures, rolling hills, cows, sheep and horses. It looked a bit as I would expect Ireland’s landscape would look. It was a 2¼-hour drive. The weather was perfect. Blue sky, 70s and big puffy clouds. We finally bought an IPod adapter for the car so that we could listen to music and it significantly changed the kids moods. Yahoo! They were all singing the different contemporary Christian songs and loving life.

As we arrived in Rotorua, we immediately came upon the Kiwi Encounters, which was exactly where we wanted to go. They gave us a bit of a deal on the tickets with the “Family” rate and having an Entertainment Book coupon. This was 45-minute tour explaining and showing the kiwi life cycle and the efforts to build up the kiwi population. The kiwi birds were pretty much becoming extinct as a result of predators so there are these organizations that take the eggs from the wild, hatch them and keep the birds until they are about 6 months old. Some interesting things about kiwis are that they are nocturnal, flightless, the size of a chicken, their egg is the size of an ostrich egg (15% their body weight) and they have a long, pointy beak with nostrils at the end of it. They have a big plump body with a tiny little head and they walk very funny.

After the tour, we went next door to the Skyline Ride. First we had lunch on the lawn under some trees and a glass/cup of wine. Then, we went up the mountain in a gondola. This was a much different experience than the last gondola ride that we had with Jeremy Anderson in Stowe Vermont, bundled up in snow gear and face masks in 0 degree weather. The view on the way up and at the top was beautiful. You could see Lake Rotorua and rolling green hills down below. When we got off the gondola we went over to these big bins and found helmets to fit each of us. I continue to be a bit hesitant to put much used helmets on our heads after the whole “incident” this summer, but we had no choice. Then… we got on our carts to go down the Luge!!! Ella went in her own cart, Amelie went with Rob and Pieter went with me. This was amazing! None of us had ever done this before and then to do with such an incredible view! We first HAD to go down the “scenic” route, which was a blast, and then hopped on a chairlift back to the top. On the way back up, Ella said she would only do the scenic route. Then I heard a small voice coming from the chairlift in front of me, “Fine! I’ll do the intermediate one.” So, next we went down the “intermediate” route. This was faster and steeper, but oh, so fun!!
Our plan was to meet Mark and Erin at Rydges Rotorua, our hotel, around 5:00. When we got there, they weren’t back from their stuff yet (thermals and massages) so the kids and Rob went swimming in the pool. The pool was connected to the hot tubs so the water was very warm. Pieter spent the whole time doing dives/belly flops into the pool. I bet he has a bit of a red belly right now.

Mark and Erin came to our room. They’d had a great day and looked very relaxed. We had a beer and played Bananagrams while Erin showered and then headed to The Amazing Thai Restaurant on Fenton Street around 7:00 PM. Amelie was kind of falling asleep on the bed before we left, but rallied to go and then Pieter fell asleep in the car during the 5-minute drive! When we got there, Pieter cried for about 10 minutes “I want to go to sleep!!” I felt like a bad parent, but knew we all needed some chow. Once Pieter got over it all, it was Amelie’s turn again and she cried the whole time their about how she wanted to go back to the hotel and go to sleep. We had an amazing dinner, none-the-less. I got green chicken curry (yum, yum), Rob got some amazing beef curry, Ella and Erin got tofu pad thai and Mark got some chili chicken dish that was so spicy I felt like I was burning my mouth with fire when I took one bite. It was too much for Mark, but Rob loved it. I left as soon as I was done with my 2 tired chickens who did actually fall right asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. Poor kids getting dragged all over the place and are completely off their schedules!

Another totally awesome day in New Zealand!

Well, tomorrow is New Years Eve. We might have to make sure some naps take place so that our kids don’t fall apart again.

Christmas and New Zealand: Part 1

Coromandel

Pieter and Uncle Marky in Whangamata

Whangamata sunset

Our B&B hosts in Whangamata

Ella on swing over the ocean

Uncle Marky

Driving to Coromandel Peninsula.
Jackaranda flowers and Auckland skyline in background

Pieter on One Tree Hill with a Pahukakawa tree

Mark, totally petrified of the cow (pretending to pet it, might I add!).

New Zealand: December 25, 2009 – January 14, 2010.

Merry Christmas! It’s 5:00 AM , our flight lvs at 8:00 AM. We’re all happy and excited. Uneventful flight to Brisbane. Difficulty with customs there because of our Australian visas. Confusion over Rob’s work visa. Takes lots of time to sort out, but people are super nice and helpful. Kids are amazing on next flight, again. Land in Auckland 12:05 AM on12/26. Stand in line for a while to rent car. Drive ½ hour to Waldorf Apartments. Clean, modern, bright, cozy. Somewhere are Mark (my brother) and Erin (his girlfriend). When we will see them? I go to buy some food. Come up on elevator, door opens and there stands a couple. I weakly smile at them and then realize it’s Mark and Erin! Awesome to see them.

Go for a swim in crazy long skinny pool at hotel. Go out to see Auckland. Have lunch. Unsure what we should do. Auckland lacks heart. Walk towards needle. Come across market with great sketches. Wish I’d bought more. See people do a form of bungy jumping off needle. Plan to go up at night. Decide to drive up to “One Tree Hill”. See cow pasture which we can go in. Ella goes right up to a cow and pets it, not Mark. He’s having flashbacks of when the bull tried to impale him in the Azores…hilarious! Memorial at top of “Hill” with a great 360 view of Auckland. Pahukakawa trees all around (NZ’s “Christmas tree” – huge with amazing red blossoms). Mark, Rob and Ella climb one. Sheep and goats sprinkled on the hill. Fun to explore. Dinner at Portofino. Delicious. Kids run around outside restaurant and Pieter trips and smashed back of his head. Thankfully OK! Too late and too tired for night ride up needle.

12/26 Pick up M&E’s car. Start driving to Coromandel Peninsula – 3 hour drive. Scenic route out of Auckland. Beautiful Jakaranda trees, Pahuckakawa trees and Agapantha flowers everywhere. Lots of racy road signs warning you of various consequences of bad choices. Get in huge traffic jam for an hour. One way bridge that they don’t organize well. M&E start digging into the 6 packs of Tim Tams that we brought them. Once through, amazing curvy, cliff side drive along the water. Spectacular views. Pieter spills his yoghurt all over himself and carseat. Stop the car at rest area. Happens to have a swing that swings out over the water and a stream with tunnel under road. Spend almost an hour there having incredible swings. Lv the coast and head inland across to Wangamata. Amazing green mountains with steep cliffs, no guardrails. Around every corner is another breathtaking view. We start to realize that this is what New Zealand is all about. One breathtaking view after another and they are all different! Reach opposite coast – are now on East Coast. Drive to Bed and Breakfast. Randomly in neighborhood. The Bed(s): we have double bunk beds in ours with bottom bunk queen sized. Go down to harbour to playground. Have cheese, crackers and wine. Dinner across the street.

12/27 The Breakfast: toast and cereal. Hmm? We were thinking pancakes and French toast. Maybe not the kiwi way. Off to the hot water beach. Geothermals under the sand heat up the water to “wicked hot”. Tons of people down there digging holes/hot tubs. It was amazing. You needed to let some cold water in so you wouldn’t burn yourself. At first Pieter wanted nothing to do with it and didn’t even want his suit on. In the end he was all bathered up and was “swimming” in the tubs.

A Simply Amazing Night

A couple of weeks ago, we found out that our kids' school was going to put on a movie "under the stars" on the evening of 12DEC. Parents were encouraged to come, bring a pizza and a bottle of wine and enjoy a Christmas movie just after sunset on the "oval"...the ball field next to the school. As the day drew closer, the weather forecast called for the hottest weather we've seen yet: 100 degrees. Unlike New England meteorologists, these guys seem to get it right most of the time, and they were spot-on yesterday...100 degrees on a cloudless, mostly windless Perth summer day. We spent most of the day at a birthday party for our neighbor Samantha (9), swimming and jumping off the jetty, and "fishing" for anemenmenemenemonies.

As evening approached, the faithful "Fremantle Doctor" (a refreshing sea breeze that blows in most afternoons) cooled things down to about 85 or so, and we packed up our "beach rug" (blanket) and "esky" (cooler) and headed to the oval.

We were the first ones to arrive (one of my many, annoying habits is a pathological need to arrive early for everything), followed shortly by our friends the Duncan's. So we got prime seating, right in front. As the guys were setting up the screen (a blow-up, bounce-housey type contraption) and sound system, they played an old Simon and Garfunkel concert from the 70's and we listened to "Me and Julio" and "The Boxer" float up into the warm evening air....and it occurred to me just how simple and sublime this all was.

Imagine: With "only 12 shopping days left", a couple hundred people, relaxing under a brilliant, starry night, eating pizza, watching a movie together....I must say, even at 85 degrees, yesterday really felt like Christmas.

It's almost Christmas!

Hello again. We have had such a great time over the past few weeks. They definitely flew by way too fast. On Saturday, November 20th, Rob's family arrived in Perth after spending a few incredible days in Sydney. They also fell in love with Sydney. Our first official visitors consisted of Mia (my mother-in-law), Papa (you figure it out:) ), Auntie Emily and Uncle John Ross. We wish that Jen, Bruce and kids could have come, but it just didn't work out...this time.

It was so wonderful, and so normal, to have them all here with us! Right away Ella whisked Mia off on a "world tour" on bikes. She took her to The Oval, Richmond Primary School, our church, the Swan River and everywhere in between. Next, it was Emily's turn. As you can imagine, Ella slept very well that night! The weather was gorgeous so everyone swam in the pool and we could have dinner out on the deck. I don't think I've ever seen John Ross look so happy!

On Sunday, we walked to church. There was a baptism service that was to be followed by a baptism down at the ocean. The 2 girls (mid 20s) who were baptised gave their testimonies which were pretty amazing. One of them, Kaori, is a girl from Japan who came to Australia for a year to help out at a school. She's been attending our church for almost the whole year and became a believer about a month ago. She shared her story about depression, suicide, and despair and now her new hope. It was really incredible. She's leaving to go back to Japan today where no-one that she knows is a Christian. We had a little send off for her last night back at the beach and she looked both happy and afraid. It would be great for people to pray for her adjustment back into Japan and her continued hope.

After church, we went into Fremantle and had a delicious lunch at Mia's new favorite place - The Fremantle Bakehouse - and we went to the Fremantle Markets, which is always a treat. A great place to buy good quality souvenirs.

During the week my in-laws would walk the girls to school in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon. They (and I) loved it! I think that Mia and Papa would probably say that that was their favorite part of their trip here.

Pieter and I also took them to Caversham Wildlife Park (which I've mentioned before) to see all the native Australian wildlife and to pet koalas and kangaroos. We got to see a joey, the size of a cat, in his momma's pouch and then drop out. It was amazing. We couldn't believe that he could actually fit in their. At one point he tried to get back in but couldn't really find the opening. The momma just lay there all relaxed as she couldn't help because her arms were too long and don't bend that way. Hmmmm? Maybe kangaroos are onto something us human mommas aren't... Anyway, it wasn't hot at all (only like 93 degrees) and the flies definitely weren't annoying (right John Ross?)! There were also these hillarious emus that had their jaws hanging open and looked so excited to see us. That's what we believed anyway. We all agreed that it was very fun and totally wonderful time despite the heat and the flies.

One day, our friend Jenny Deeks took Mia and me to these amazing rose gardens. We had lunch there with a few of Jenny's friends. Jenny and a couple of her friends are also past and present submariner wives just like my mother-in-law. This was an incredible place with such beautiful and nice smelling flowers.

And, of course, we had Thanksgiving! We sent the girls to school anyway, but Rob took the day off. Ella had made a diorama of an American Thanksgiving feast to bring to school. She also wrote a little blurb along with it explaining what Thanksgiving was all about. It was really cool and all self initiated. We (mostly my mother-in-law) spent the day cooking and preparing for our Thanksgiving meal for 16 people. The day before Mia and Papa went to the grocery store to get the ingredients and discovered that there is no such thing as a unfrozen turkey. They decided to get a small turkey that would be sure to thaw out AND a leg of lamb (lamb is huge here). A great opportunity to let our two worlds/cultures collide. It was a very fun night with lots of food and our Aussie guests were excited to have experienced an "American Thanksgiving."

We rented a beautiful perfect house in Margaret River (3 hours south of here) for a weekend. We were told that there were resident kangaroos living there! That truly sealed the deal for us. Once we made our reservations on-line we were given the property manager's bank account # and asked to deposit a large amount of money into it! Being the cautious, slightly suspicious Americans that we are, we all hesitated and thought "Wait a minute! This could be a scam!" Well, we wanted it too much and decided to trust that this was all legit. and it truly was amazing! There were actually resident kangaroos which wassooooo cool and a frog pond. We spent the weekend playing Monopoly, Bananagrams, hunting for kangaroos (and frogs) on our long walk, going to The Mammoth Caves and seeing incredible stalactites and stalagmites, walking through a magical forest which really did have fairies (Amelie), going to a couple of vineyards, seeing tons of wild kangaroo along the roadside and spending an afternoon at the most beautiful beach with pristine water. The weekend could not have been nicer. Auntie Emily was the life saver by keeping Amelie entertained with hangman and "Miss Mary Mack" the whole way home!

We also went to The Shipwreck and Maritime Museums in Fremantle. I'm very excited to take my Dad to the Shipwreck Museum (if he ever makes his reservation :) ) as it's mostly about the Dutch settlers here and how Australia used to be called "New Holland"! Mia, Papa, John Ross, Pieter and I had the most peaceful and beautiful lunch at "The View" which is named that for the _ _ _ _ of the Indian Ocean. Wow! The next day we were going to go back to the Maritime Museum so that I could finally realize my dream of touring a submarine with my father-in-law, the submariner, AND because he/Papa had also never been on this type of submarine, but the museum was closed. It was a disappointment, but Papa told us all about the outside of the sub and another man came along and joined in on the conversation. This man's father had been on

some sort of surface ships (from Germany) during the time of Hitler. He said that at this time Hitler would not allow them to listen to certain types of music. So the ships would go out to sea and blare swing music and they would all dance!

We sadly had to say goodbye to our family on 12/3. They truly spoiled us with their love, generosity and service! They were off to New Zealand and we were back to being 5. It was so nice to finally have had the opportunity share our Australian life with family from home.

I'm going to try to do this last bit in a bit more summarized fashion or else I'll never get it done. The past 2 weeks have continued to be fun and busy preparing for the last day of school (12/18) and for Christmas. We've been to the East Fremantle Festival, made/decorated a gingerbread house at Jenny Deeks' house, been to parks with friends, heaps of swimming in the pool, birthday parties, swimming down by the River and jumping off the peir, and the outside movie that Rob already blogged about.

Some things to expand on were the Family Christmas Day at the Showgrounds. They opened it up to businesses who could then invite friends to come ride on the rides all day. We went with about 15 other friends from Rob's work. It was a super hot day, but the Fremantle Doctor saved us once more. Ella got to hold a gigantic boah, the kids road on ponies and camels, saw a circus and went on lots of bouncy houses. Ella and I went on a super spinning ride and I wound up extremely dizzy and extremely sick. I spent a lot of time in the bathroom and lying on our "rug" outside. Very pathetic :) Needless to say, we really did have a great time.

Pieter's class put on the most amazing Christmas Concert. Again, another beautiful day. We all brought picnic "tea" (dinner) and watched his class sing lots of songs, act out the Nativity Story, sing an Italian Song with sign language and do an aboriginal dance with didgeridoos. All 24 kids participated without tears and without shyness. It was so fun. This all happened outside on the lawn. The amazing thing about Western Australia is that you can totally depend on the weather. It just doesn't rain in the summer, especially if there is no forecast calling for it.

On the last day of school for the girls the entire school (400 kids) met out on the quadrangle to do the final countdown. Mr. Keady, the very cool music teacher, hooked up his acoustic guitar to an amplifier and the whole school sang the school song that he wrote: "We are Richmond Primary School. Where the teachers and the kids are oh so cool. Monday through to Friday we get out of bed. Can't wait to get there...yeah, yeah, yeah..." It was so neat. It got me all choked up, which of course isn't all that hard. Then at the end they rang the outdoor bell and summer vacation began!

Our huge news is that we are moving...again! Our current lease doesn't end until the end of February. The original plan was that Narelle and her family (our landlords) were coming back mid January so that their girls (6 and 8) could start up the school year here in February and they would just live with her parents until our lease was up. Well, our mutual friend, Kate, just moved into a new house and has had her house on the market for a while and it hasn't sold. She approached me a couple of weeks ago to propose us renting her house. Her house is in East Fremantle, is partly furnished and has a pool. It's a gorgeous house. This house is available now, so we decided we might as well move out so that Narelle and family could get back into their own house. We leave for NZ on Friday so we'll move a couple of days after we get back and then my mom, Allan, brother Nick and wife Ann will come visit a couple of days after that. It's not quite the peaceful week leading up to Christmas that I was so looking forward to as we have to pack up this house and get everything set for the new house, but we feel really and truly blessed that this has literally fallen into our laps. Our main sadness is that we will really miss the proximity to our neighbors, the Tongas. Ella hangs out with Sam and Natashia all the time riding bikes, catching tadpoles or swimming in our pool and we really enjoy hanging out with their parents.

Speaking of the Tongas, Joe Tonga, the dad, does a lot of research and work with bats and bat boxes. He also has a business that involves him taking people on night walks to see the nocturnal life here in Australia. A couple of nights ago we finally got to go with just our 2 families. He took us to this gated bush area where he has a lot of bat boxes. Unfortunately, a lot of the bats weren't around, but we saw lots of "eye shine" from wolf spiders and frogs. The kids got to hold lots of frogs, which they totally loved. Just before we got there Joe had seen a tiger snake, 2nd most poisonous in Australia. We never saw it. Part of us wanted to see it just to see it, but the other part of us was very happy to have missed it. We did see a few bats flying overhead using Joe's bat detector. Our kids were in their glory as they are such nature kids.

The last cool thing that I'll mention is on Sunday night about 300 people went down to the Fremantle Art Center lawn for Christmas caroling. We all arrived early and brought picnic dinner. They had a large stage set-up with a singing group. At 7:00 pm we all started singing lots of Christmas songs. It was a beautiful evening, with an incredible sunset and the moon right over the stage. When we sang "Silent Night" it sounded like angels singing. So beautiful.

We're off to see Mark and Erin in New Zealand in 2 days. Can't wait!! We'll be back in Australia January 16th.

Well, we wish you all a blessed and wonderful Christmas. We've been thinking and talking a lot about the wonder of Christmas. There is a lot to think about. The kids really have enjoyed this and gotten into it. I pray that you will each experience the wonder of Christmas this year. Much love! Merry Christmas and Happy 2010!!!