Homeward Bound

From sunny beaches, to sunny slopes.  

Twenty-four hours after leaving Australia, I'm Vail, Colorado, spending two weeks on a ski holiday before going back to Boston.  Leaving Brisbane was sad, but I had been preparing myself to go home for so long that it was a relief when our plane lifted off.  Over the past eighteen months I have really come to think of Brisbane as home, and I know I will be back, so leaving was not too upsetting.

What was upsetting was getting out of the plane in the freezing cold in Colorado.  I've certainly become acclimatized after not having a proper winter for a two years.  When my toes stepped off the plane and into that freezing-cold Colorado air, it was a shocker.  However, despite the cold, I was just as excited as the kids I'm travelling with the see our breath puffing into the winter air.

When I woke up the next morning, I was in a winter wonderland.  Vail looks like a gingerbread village, with adorable buildings, lights in all the trees, and smoke rising from chimneys.  Even though this has been one of the least snowy winters on record in Vail, the mountains that surround the village have trails of white where the skiers shoot down, and the trees have at least a dusting.  

Being back in America is very interesting.  Australia and America are quite similar, and it's the small differences that define each place.  Coming home, it's the small differences that are reminding me how long I've been away, like Christmas lights in all the trees (the Aussies don't embrace winter lights like we do), or asking for "ketchup" rather than "tomato sauce".  Or the fact that my sandwich comes with "fries," not "chips."  My first few days in Vail, I kept hearing American accents, and thinking "gosh, I don't sound like that, do I?"  The Aussies I heard sounded more familiar than the Americans.  

However, some things I have been missing!  Eating my first slice of a large, doughy American pizza was excellent.  Going to the grocery store, I felt like a kid in a candy shop - "Oh, apple sauce; half and half!"  Having a proper cup of coffee with cream rather than a cappuccinno is wonderful, and so is being able to go to the shops past 5 p.m.  

So please excuse me while I brew come coffee, put Pandora on the country station, and listen to a sweet welcome home.  

Summer Storms on Straddie

One particularly nice afternoon, we decided to have a family picnic on the east side of Straddie, where the beach stretches for miles against the open ocean.  On the radio we heard a severe storm warning - typical of Queensland afternoons - but it was too far south for us to have to worry about.  We piled into the four wheel drive, and made the two trips needed to chauffeur everyone to the beach.  We arrived to this beautiful, blue-sky afternoon:

Yet, minutes later, when we looked down the beach, we saw storm clouds and rain.  When trucks began driving up the beach and toward the exit with their lights on, we got mildly concerned for our afternoon of swimming and playing catch.  In the ten minutes it took for us to realise that the storm was not headed out to sea, as we had hoped, but rather was coming straight for us, the sky had darkened to black.  To my left, it was daytime.  To my right, it was night.

When the thunder and bolts of lightening began, even the Aussies were concerned.  There was no way that we were going to be able to make the two trips needed to get everyone off the beach safely.  So, my family-in-law made a decision that would make my Barry family proud.  Into the car piled the grandparents, parents, three daughters, and two dogs.  The two boys and a girl that were left over hopped on the running boards, and we were off.  It only took us a few minutes to get off the beach, heavy as we were, but the storm kept up with us - in fact, it was moving faster than we could drive.  

The best part?  By the time we were home and settled on the porch with a drink, a rainbow was out.  And they say that New England as spastic weather. 

Beautiful end to the storm

Holding on tight (note the beer in hand!)

Stradbroke Island

In Australia, Christmas falls right smack in the midst of the summer holidays, which makes it one of the busiest vacation weeks of the year.  Like the Fourth of July at home, everyone in Australia packs up for holidays on Christmas.  For many Brisbanites, the Christmas holiday is synonymous with Stradbroke Island, or Straddie as it is known locally.  

Like Fraser Island, Stradbroke sits in the waters off the Queensland coast.  Although long ago the island was a glorified sand dune, it now teams with life.  Most of the island is national park, but unlike Fraser there are paved roads and a few settlements on the Northern End of the Island.  For the summer holidays, and especially for the seven days between Christmas and New Years, people from Brisbane flock onto the ferry and over to Straddie to surf, swim, and sunbake.  

The house that we stayed in had a beautiful view of that marine park off the shore of the island.  At low tide we could see the reefs and rocks that are home to fish, turtles, rays, and sharks.  The waters around Straddie are known to have quite a few sharks, but since the Aussies maintain their respect for the water - staying out at dusk and dawn, and not swimming when there are lots of fish around - there hasn't been a shark attack for many years.

Roads will get you around Straddie, but the best way to see the island is on foot.  Each morning, Mark's sister and I took a massive walk through the bush and along the coast of the island.  We would find great lookouts, and amazing views over the water.  Once, I nearly stepped on a three-foot-long snake skin (luckily, however, I kept up my record of not seeing any live snakes in Australia).  Another morning we spotted a pod of dolphins surfing the waves and playing in the water.  At one point I looked over my shoulder, and a dolphin had jumped clear out of the water ahead of a massive wave.  It was a Hollywood moment that was over in a split second, but amazing none-the-less.

When you remember that Stradbroke has formed entirely from sand, the cliffs, hills, and valleys on the island are even more breathtaking.  One stunning feature is the gorge, two inlets where the ocean has carved right through the rock.  Walking around the gorge, you are mesmerized by the turquoise water and white foam.

But if you're able to look closer for just a minute you see something even better - sea turtles coming to the surface for a breath before diving beneath the waves.  It's hard to believe that these creatures are endangered when you see so many of them!  The gorge provides a protected place for the turtles to hunt, without having to worry about becoming a shark's breakfast.  

Can you spot the turtle?  His head is just about center of the photo.

As you can imagine, I was sad to leave Australia after nearly eighteen months.  However, spending a week at Straddie was the perfect place to bid farewell to my surrogate home.  

Christmas Down Under

Merry [belated] Christmas!  

Last year I posted about the different ways Aussies celebrate Christmas.  One of the biggest differences is that Aussie Christmases almost always involve the beach.  And that was certainly true for me this year.  On Christmas Eve we packed up the pressies and the prawns, and headed to Stradbroke Island, a summer oasis.  

After a year and a half in Australia, I was more prepared for my second summer Christmas.  I accepted that a "real" Christmas tree wasn't in the cards this year, and embraced the scrawny, plastic tree in our lounge room.  I even began to think it was cute, in a Grinchy sort of way.  I came to peace with the fact that I couldn't make marshmallow wreaths, because in the Queensland heat, they came out more like marshmallow mush, and I looked up some new recipes for Christmas cookies that could survive the summer.

Although I don't think a mid-summer celebration will every feel truly Christmasy to me, a celebration on the beach with fresh fruit and fresh seafood was wonderful.  But I must admit, I was dreaming of a white Christmas.

Is This Your Australia?

When my mother and sister came to visit, they just couldn't believe how different Australia was to their expectations.  "It's so mountainous!" they exclaimed.  "It's so beautiful!"

As the week went on and this comments came with more frequency, we asked them what exactly they had been expecting.  "Well," they said, "like the movies."  Hollywood's version of Australia involves lots of red sand and flat plains, and this is what they had been expecting to see when they arrived down under.  

Of course, the reality is that Australia is diverse.  It is mountainous.  There are rainforests, deciduous forests, and places where you can't see a tree in any direction.  Even the famed Australian "Outback" is more than meets the Hollywood lense.   "The Outback" can refer to almost anything on the interior of Australia, the "2.5 million square miles inhabited by less than 60,000 people."  Although you're unlikely to see many other people in the outback, you might see desert, sheep stations, tropical waterholes, or massive crocodiles.  If you're lucky you may even get to see the World-Heritage-Listed Uluru, and other majestic sand formations.  

Whatever Australia is, it certainly isn't uniform.  When I arrived I wasn't sure what to expect, but I now know that whether it's beach, mountains, or bush, it's probably going to be strikingly beautiful.  

Australia Post

By now, I've blogged about many of the small differences between Australia and the USA.  But one difference that has managed to escape me so far is the Australian Post.  Like the US, they can get your letter just about anywhere, quickly and inexpensively.  But how they do it is different - instead of hoping in the mail van or setting off on foot like mailmen in the US, the Australian postmen set out on their scooters to deliver the mail.  That's right - scooters!  Rain, shine, or magpies, the postmen zip along the footpaths (sidewalks) delivering mail into everyone's mailbox.  You can imagine my shock the first time I saw that high-visabilty, sun-safe scooter whipping along the walkway!

The Great Barrier Reef

Where does one even begin to write about visiting the Great Barrier Reef?  Perhaps by saying that this is something that should be on everyone's "bucket list."  If you're afraid of the 25 hours of travel to get to Australia, let me assure you - a day of the reef makes it all worthwhile. 

The reef stretches 1,800 miles along the north-east coast of Australia, and is the only living thing visible from outer space.  Although the system is considered one entity, the Great Barrier Reef is actually made up of over 3,000 individual reefs, and hundreds of coral islands.  

On this visit, we went to the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef, which is off the coast about 6 hours north of Brisbane.  Lady Musgrave Island sits in a coral quay - a protected lagoon surrounded by coral reef.  Because the lagoon is protected, it is the perfect home for a variety of sea life; but before we could enjoy the beauty, we had to travel over 50 miles from the Town of 1770 out to the reef.  

Lady Musgrave Island 

We had been warned that the trek was over open water, and may be rough.  The crew was even kind enough to demonstrate how to use the "just-in-case" bags that they had provided everyone.  Well, those bags were for more than "just-in-case" - about three-quaters of the passengers on the boat were sea-sick, and one woman even fainted.  Luckily, the Sullivan girls felt just fine, although Mark wasn't so lucky.

After about 90 minutes we finally reached the reef, much to the relief of everyone on the boat.  Right away we could see we were in for something special.  The water in the quay is an intense blue, with spots of turquoise showing you were the reef is.  As we were pulling in to the quay, through a small opening in the coral, two dolphins swam in front of our boat, and we could see hundreds of birds circling above us.

Once the boat was settled, the first thing we were invited to do was take a glass-bottom boat ride over to the island.  In the boat, our guide took us over a "turtle wash" - a coral where sea turtles stop to rest and be cleaned by one of the fish on the reef.  Low and behold, there were two sea turtles resting up as we drove over.

Lady Musgrave Island is surrounded by an ocean wonderland - but the island itself can't be overlooked.  When we visited, the tiny island was home to 100,000 nesting migratory birds.  Everywhere you looked there were birds' nests - in the trees, in logs, even buried into the ground!  Somehow, we managed to walk through the island without being pooed on, which was a minor miracle in itself - but that wasn't the biggest danger lurking!  When we made it out to the other side of the island we saw a school of reef sharks fishing in the shallows. 

When we returned from the island, it was time to get in the water and snorkle.  Although we had seen turtles from the boat, I didn't think we would be able to actually swim with them.  Boy was I wrong!  Mom was the first one to spot a turtle, sitting on the bottom the the reef and having a rest.  After we knew where to look for them, we saw them everywhere, even coming up for a breath right behind Mark!  Turtles weren't the only wildlife - there were sea stars, sea cucumbers, sting rays, and heaps of fish.  We even found Nemo!  Can you?

I'm a writer, and I like to think that I have a good handle on words.  But I struggle to explain how it feels to be out in the ocean, inches away from plants and animals you've only seen in a book or on television.  It really was an awesome experience, which Mom summed up perfectly, when she said, "I'm glad we did this on the last day, because there is no way we'd be able to wake up and top that!"

Tropical Paradise

Snorkling