Tasmania - Cradle Mountain

Our second day in Tassie was dubbed “Cradle Mountain Day”. We thought we’d head west from Launceston and check out Cradle Mountain which is Tasmania’s 5th tallest mountain. We plugged Cradle Mountain into the inboard GPS and off we went. We drove along happily for an hour or so, saw a sign that said “Walls of Jerusalem” and decided to head that way to check these walls out. When we got to the car park, we discovered the “Walls” were a 3-4 hour hike from there. Oops! Guess we should have stopped at what we call the iStore (information centers plopped all over Australia) before we got so ambitious. At least the scenery was lovely – both times we saw it.

We decided there should be no more detours and got serious about getting to Cradle Mountain. The road wasn’t as cooperative, though. It was all zigs and zags, speed up and slow down, and go up and then down – basically quite unpleasant for the driver. Fortunately for us, we had a very good driver as long as you don’t have him say out loud what direction you’re turning. For some reason, Eric has a tendency to call a left turn a “right turn”. It has to do with a left turn being the “easy” turn here like the right turn is back home. All I know is it makes for some interesting car conversation as I try to figure out what turn he’s “really” talking about.

After stopping along the way for a roadside echidna, we finally arrived at the entrance to Cradle Mountain National Park and got on the shuttle bus to go into the park. We signed up for the short hike to Glacier Rock and off we went. Glacier Rock is huge and, amazingly, you can walk out on it. (Mom, don’t read the next sentence, please). It’s amazing because there are no guardrails and it’s a long ways down.

We knew the full circuit hike around Dove Lake was 2 hours so decided to continue on. It was all going well until we got past the halfway point. The second half was just chock full of up and down stairs. By the time we got done my knees were not the only joints unhappy with me. I vowed again to get into better shape and not hold Eric and A.J. up so much as they much prefer turbo-hikes. Now I just need to figure out how to do that without my knees knowing.

On the way back on the shuttle bus I found another one of the wild quarry I’ve been searching for – a wombat! No, two, no three wombats! Woohoo! Another critter I can cross off my list. We even saw another one of the “rocks with legs” a bit later; it must have been a wombat convention! It was definitely a happy albeit exhausted drive back to the hotel.

Next up is Tasmania’s east coast.

Tasmania - Crafty Gorgeous Penguins

We left for Tassie (pronounced Tazzie) on Saturday the 3rd. The check-in attendant in Sydney said we were going to the “butt end” of Australia. I have to disagree whole-heartedly with his assessment of Tasmania. It’s more like the version of Australia that is greener and cooler and doesn’t look like it has spent forever struggling to survive.

One of the reasons we picked the week to come that we did was the “world’s biggest craft fair in the southern hemisphere” was scheduled for the first weekend. That meant our first day was craft fair day and so we spent a good portion of Sunday checking it all out. “Wow” is all I have to say.

They had a huge variety of crafts and even blacksmiths there plying their trade in what could only be a really hot, sweaty, and exhausting way of getting anything done. It’s probably a good thing anything I or Eric desired to buy would have to fit in an already pretty full suitcase. Especially since he was slobbering over some of the implements the blacksmiths created and I was secretly desiring some bags. This strange fascination with bags started some time ago, but is getting harder to ignore. I keep wondering if this is something I should be concerned about; you know, the slippery slope to fawning over lace doilies and stuff like that.

We parked at the showgrounds so we had the added benefit of getting to watch sheepherding dogs do their thing in preparation for the sheepherding championships. It was fascinating to watch especially as we got to see the young dogs in training and their “rough edges” which occasionally caused the sheep to bolt for it. It was an interesting slice of life in a place where they’ve got sheep everywhere you turn.

We ended the day with Cataract Gorge in Launceston. It’s a lovely gorge in the midst of the city. We hiked around to the bridge only to find that the way back was full of ups and downs – ups and downs that my knees were decidedly unhappy about participating in. I really hate this aging thing.

Even though the day was over, we had one more stop. For more than two years now, I have been stalking some very particular prey. I’ve seen penguins and wombats, but it has always been at a zoo. That is not the same thing as seeing one in the wild in my book so I have been looking avidly for these critters in the wild.
I’d heard there were penguins that frequented an area not too far from where we live. Heaven knows I have checked that spot a bunch of times with no success whatsoever. So when Eric wanted to know if I was interested in going on a penguin tour, it was clearly a rhetorical question. We drove all the way north to Low Head which is the Bass Strait side of Tasmania and home to a colony of fairy penguins. Oh yeah!

The penguins are out feeding all day and don’t come back in until after dark. The tour people had us stand quietly on the beach and wait. They had special lights for looking since the penguins don’t have eyelids. It wasn’t long before they started trickling in. I could hardly suppress my giggly delight; they are just so darn cute!

We watched them on the beach a bit and then headed to the nearby brush which was their rookery. I was surprised they allowed us to go there. We stood to the side of the path and then waited. They waddled by as they headed to their burrow. It’s a good thing there was no moon or they might have been bothered by the reflection off my ear-to-ear grin. Again, they’re just so darn cute! They’re also really loud. Apparently catching up on the day’s news with your mate is a pretty noisy affair. I could have sat there all night, but the tour didn’t offer it. Dang!

Seeing penguins in the wild – cross that off the list with a big ol’ grin!

Junk In the Trunk

Life here has pretty much returned to "normal" and, no, I really don't understand normal anymore. I returned to Oz solo a month ago and I'm still wondering how it can feel like I got back last week, but the calendar confirms it has been a month.
As always happens, my luggage weighed more coming back than it did going the other way. That would be all right if it weren't for the extra pounds that weren't inside the suitcase. Ugh!
It's one of those things that happens when you do a lot of visiting over meals and just "have to" frequent all those eating places we love that haven't made it across the ditch. Like Starbucks, Arni's, Frozen Custard, Chik-fil-A, and much to my own amazement - Taco Bell. I've never been a "Taco Hell" fan, but even that sounded good for some reason. I guess things seem better when you can't have them. Did I mention Starbucks?!
I came back from the States alone because Eric decided to stay two more weeks and paint the house. He had his Aussie buddy Andy fly over to help in this project along with the two conscripts living in the house (Ethan and A.J.). The house became a testosterone pit and with all the hard work going on, the beer was flowing pretty freely. As a matter of fact, there was a bottle of beer lurking somewhere in about every picture I saw of the painting project in progress.

The pictures of the completed project are proof that they did a great job and didn't overdo it on the beer front. Even better, no one got hurt and heaven knows our house is a real huge challenge with half of it being three stories. That was a welcome answered prayer.
They have plenty of stories to tell not the least of which is how Andy drew a crowd to him everywhere he went. People were all agog at meeting a real Aussie bloke and Andy is, admittedly, a bit of a character. He and Eric are great "mates" and we are thankful for his and his wife Jan's friendship.
Now we're missing our family and friends back home in the USA. At least we'll get to see most of them at Christmas as we've bought our tickets for the next visit. Now I just need to divest myself of those extra pounds from the last trip before we leave because experience tells me I'll be bringing back some extra junk in my trunk.

THE REALLY GREAT BARRIER REEF

Oh my goodness! Oh my double goodness! Beauty! Brilliant! Sheesh, I can’t find a word awesome enough to describe THE GREAT BARRIER REEF!

It takes almost two hours to get to the reef during which time we were given a typical Aussie breakfast (bacon and egg roll), briefed to death, and given the opportunity to sign up for an introductory dive. I wasn’t so sure about doing the dive, but it was free so you just have to give it a go. Eric and I were assigned to Dive Group 4 which meant we had time to snorkel a little first. I had serious issues with my mask leaking and was still fighting that problem when our group’s number came up. I had enough trepidation about scuba diving that the mask issues just about sent me over the edge. I didn’t want to look like a chicken, er chook, though, so I swallowed down my fear (and some salt water) and took my place.

I let them put all the gear on me and the next thing I know Eric and I were in the water trying desperately to remember all the instructions for clearing the mask and regulator and equalizing – not to mention the hand signals. I think I only retained two of them – "okay" and especially "not okay".

The dive instructor got me down a few feet and I was still gamely clearing my mask of water as best I could. I was starting to think this was maybe doable in spite of the leaky face mask. Quite unfortunately, there was more than one leak. The other leak was my head and some of the instructions were now lost at sea.

Clearing the regulator requires you to take a breath in from the regulator, take the regulator out of your mouth, do a little pbtt like a raspberry, then put it back in your mouth and say “two” really loud and semi-violently through the regulator. Not terribly complicated unless you forget step one and go straight to step two which is that leak I was talking about. Talk about a panic! I did a little pbtt and then realized there was nothing left in the lungs because I hadn’t put anything in them. In that brief moment I went, “uh oh, must breathe in, can’t breathe in, ack!” The ensuing panic included a surface assessment (as in how far is it and can I get there if I bolt for it right now), drowning, not wanting to drown, and then quite belatedly, “oh, put the regulator back in your mouth and breathe you idiot!”

I must admit I was pretty spooked at this point. I found out later Eric did the very same thing (forget step one) although his description of his predicament didn’t seem quite as panicked as mine. Our dive instructor took us down soon after that. I’m really not sure how she thought I was okay to go as my wild eyes had to be a dead giveaway that I was not teeming with confidence (now there’s a classic Aussie understatement for ya!).

She had to pretty much pull me (and Eric, too) down as we both seemed to start floating upwards whenever she let go. Apparently she’s done a lot of dives with people who are just one small step from losing every ounce of courage they’ve mustered. That meant she was willing to hold my hand just about the whole time – what can I say, nine meters down is a long way!

After I finally realized I probably wasn’t going to die, I managed to start enjoying the totally amazing view down there! Such awesome critters, completely amazing coral, ridiculously sized clams, and a husband who had his wetsuit halfway zipped down. What?!

Now that was a puzzle. No bling had appeared around his neck so I was pretty confident that being 9 meters down hadn’t suddenly caused a mid-life crisis. It wasn’t exactly hot down there so it couldn’t be that. I realized I was going to have to abandon solving this oddity as I just didn’t have the spare capacity to think on it. Funny how breathing, clearing one’s mask, and equalizing your ears can be pretty doggone all-consuming thoughts at that depth.

We got to dive for about 15 minutes and in that time we saw so much stuff it was just plain overwhelming. Truth be told, I was a little relieved to be back at the surface because even though I was starting to relax a bit, I was still pretty wrung out from the beginning terrors. They had us climb out of the water and I was stunned at how heavy that tank was on my back. I struggled up the 3 or 4 steps and was dang thankful I had just enough strength to make it. Then the guy pointed up the next set of stairs and said, “Go on up there and they’ll take the equipment off”. For a brief moment, I thought I was going to have to play the charming Granny card and get some help because I wasn’t sure I had it in me to get up that next flight. But I knew the self-recriminations later would not be pleasant so I did it (yes, it was feebly slow and pathetic, but I’ll mentally rewrite that part later).

As it turns out, Eric was not having a mid-life crisis or hot flashes (that would be my department anyway), he just had a wetsuit zipper that was determined to unzip itself at any and every opportunity. We got to snorkel the rest of the afternoon and see even more way cool fish and reef until I had prune fingers to the max. I thought that was going to be my only temporary souvenir, but I discovered later the leaking problems had started long before I got in the water. Missing putting the sunscreen on the back of your legs is really a bad idea.

Next on the agenda is seeing crocs. I don’t think I’ll be swimming for that experience.

Home, Home, and Home

It blows my mind to realize I haven't posted anything for a year. I'm not even sure why I stopped except I started thinking the oddities of life here were becoming less strange and remarkable.

I noticed just recently that driving on the left side is now normal as in the other night I had a dream and in that dream I was driving on the left side of the road. I admit that freaked me out a bit when I remembered it later. I'm also finding I have to think hard now to remember which way to write a date (it's done 22/7/12 here). I mistakenly signed a U.S. medical claim form with the Aussie version the other day. Fortunately I caught it before I sent it off or I'm sure they'd have rejected it (heaven knows they use any excuse to deny a claim).

Those are confusing things of the head; I'm now finding I have another situation going on with my heart. Australia has become home. But, Seattle is home, and frankly, Indiana has never stopped being home. So, in just a short while I'm leaving home to go home, then visit home, next head back home, and finally return home. I guess I could describe it best by saying my heart is confusing my head by thinking of everything as home, but it is what it is.

I'll miss my Aussie family terribly while we're gone, but I so can't wait to see my stateside family! I can't believe it has been a year since I've touched U.S. soil and in just a week I'll get to do just that. Best of all will be to give a huge hug to my family! And my friends! And the dog!

I'm looking forward to having a chat to you all soon and spending time with the other best people in the world. See you soon!

Hats Required

Last weekend Eric and I got to go to our very first bush dance. It was an absolutely awesome event to celebrate the 50th birthday of a dear man of God from our church. Our invitation said "hat required" so we knew it was going to be special. We got Eric a true Aussie hat - an Akubra - as an early Father's Day present. He looks pretty smashing in it to be sure. I got a cheap variety as I'm not one for hats. Armed with our gear (or should I say headed?), we took off for this new adventure.

For appetizers we had barramundi which is a favored fish found here in Australia and crocodile kebabs. We were thinking this was pretty special to us Americans until we found out that many of the Aussies had never had crocodile either. Maybe it isn't often eaten because it doesn't go well with Vegemite?

Cool appetizers aside, the meal was wonderful and we got to sit back and enjoy the presentation of Dave's first 50 years. It was lovely and we appreciated seeing his journey to the present.

Sadly, it was at the end of the presentation that I realized I was completely out of oomph and needed to get to a horizontal surface sooner rather than later. I was terribly bummed because I was dying to do some bush dancing, but knew it would have been something more like "bushed dancing" if I'd pushed myself any farther.

The last few weeks have been an interesting odyssey that, frankly, I really could have done without. In addition to the horrible pain attack, I've been on the wrong side of normal - the way wrong side. I have been to the doctor, had tests done, and enough blood drawn to keep a vampire in fine fettle. It has finally settled into four things. If you don't like listening to people carry on about their medical issues, you won't like reading about them either, so please stop reading now. Otherwise, sorry to bore you, but it is a bit cathartic (for me, not you!).

To my credit, I had realized one thing was not right and had already been to the doctor the week before the attack. While investigating that one, they found a contributing factor that needed to come out so I got to have a day surgery on June 20th. This was the second event where a hat was required. The nurse called it a "party hat", but it sure looked like hospital netting to me. Anyway, the uterine polyp is history - good riddance I say.

While that was all going on, they determined that my thyroid was really on the fritz - no wonder I was so dang tired. That one is a "better living through pharmacology" solution so I now get to start my day with a pill (and no I don't mean Eric!). After a week and a half of the pills I am definitely starting to see the improvement and am realizing this has been going on for some time to a lesser degree.

One of the things they discovered at the emergency room was my liver numbers were quite high. The doctor looked at me with a bit of a smirk and said, "you like your red wine, do you?" and when I said I didn't drink, well, pardon the pun, but that sobered him right up. Armed with that new information he said those numbers are "off the planet for someone who doesn't drink". So, he referred me to an gastroenterologist and I finally got in to see him on Friday.

After a very interesting education on the liver, pancreas, and bile ducts, his conjecture is the pain was probably due to a piece of bile grit that can't get out and in this instance, temporarily blocked the duct exit which really, really got my attention. So, another procedure to verify this and fix if it is the case is coming up in a week and a half.

I'm beginning to think my great visions of touring Australia have somehow been subverted into touring every doggone medical facility they have. All I can say at this point is if that's what gets me well again, then I'll put it on my list of "things to see and do" and count my blessings.

I'm full of blessings - a great husband who has cared for me so diligently (although I'm still wondering what he meant when he implied the sicker me was less feisty!), a wonderful church family here, and a family back home that I will very soon get to see again. We have our tickets for 3 1/2 weeks of glorious family time beginning July 13th with some time in Indiana so we can see everyone. Just got to hold onto my hat for 2 1/2 weeks and we'll see y'all. Yeeha!

The Return of Keith and Laurie

There are times in life when you really need a lift. Thursday morning was one of those days. Wednesday found me checking out another facet of the Aussie health care system - emergency rooms. The attack of excruciating pain that sent me there was, thankfully, something that has thus far not come back. While that is a good thing, I was left feeling like I had been beat up from the inside and no answers as to cause which was the state I found myself on Thursday.

Thursday morning was sunny and quite pleasant for winter. The good Lord knew just what He was doing when he dispatched a few of our winged friends to our doorstep - what a day brightener! We suddenly heard loud chirping from the deck and, what do you know, it's Keith and Laurie sitting on the chair trying to get our attention. We obliged them quickly and greatly enjoyed feeding them. We learned from our Aussie friends that they love wet bread so our "special of the night" was just what they were looking for.

Eric and I discovered over the next few days that we are very trainable and they can be quite demanding. They and their would-be friends have come back every day and we have been fascinated by the social (or not so social) world of lorikeets. Our pair Keith and Laurie do not like to share their restaurant at all. The two of them would take turns eating while the other was chasing everyone else away. They nearly drove themselves crazy trying to run back and forth when Eric and I decided to stand at opposite ends of the deck to see what would happen.

The interesting thing is a few days into this and Keith and Laurie are not nearly so rigid in their selfishness and there was much more group dining today. We also had a couple scaly-breasted lorikeets come. They are almost completely green. We captured some of our fun times and they're here - June 2nd, June 4th (scaly-breasted lorikeets), and June 5th.

I am finally starting to get some answers on what's been messing with me, but no firm leads on the cause of the killer pain. We are truly fearfully and wonderfully made and even though we think we're pretty smart, we still don't really understand the human body. It sure can be a mystery, that's for sure.