Kangaroo point

Just a quick note. There were no lectures today so we decided to check out Riverlife Adventures on Kangaroo Point. It's a part of land along the Brisbane River with 20 meter cliffs. They have lots of choices: rockclimbing and renting bikes and rollerblades. We decided to rent kayaks for 90 minutes and then abseil for 90 minutes. The kayaking was peaceful, so beautiful to see the city that way. The abseiling was intense, but we all did it and enjoyed it so much. Adrian was our trusted instructor. We went up these steep steps to get to the top and then he showed us how to repel down the cliff. Erik went first. He actually should have had an extra twist in his rope because he was sliding the whole way down and unable to stop himself. Made for a quick trip and his glove was sure hot by the end with the friction. Erik went a 2nd time and they got it figured out and he liked that better! Bryn and Ryan soon got the hang of it and went 3 times each. I did it too! Just one though. Can't believe it. It was so hard leaning enough to get over the edge, but once you got over the edge, it was really easy and fun. We're all tired out tonight!
We enjoyed some pizza, the first time we've gone out for pizza in nearly 2 months. It was at Johnny's Pizza-one of our pizzas was Tropical with ham, pineapple, green pepper and prawns! ( I remember we did have Domino's at Jeff and Faye's-that was good too.) All for now.

Brisbane

Hi,

We are now settled in Brisbane. It's a gorgeous big city, similar to Portland. There is a large river that snakes its way thru the city. It's called the Brisbane River. It meanders thru the city more than the Willamette does in Portland. One thing that is great is that there is a ferry system to get people from one side to the other and on down the river. They use speedy catamarans and they call them the city cats. They also have bridges, but not enough for the 2 million people who live here, according to one person we talked to. The city cats are part of the transportation system along with busses and trains. Last night, Erik, the boys and I rode down the river on one and saw the city lit up. It was gorgeous and such a nice evening.

Let me back up and fill you in on what we've been doing since Tiona. The miracle of packing to fit into our smaller rental replacement was that we got rid of some things. We went to Forster and dropped a pile of things off to Salvos-Salvation Army and we mailed a box of things back home. That helped. Erik got more oysters and said they WERE the BEST he's ever eaten. Thanks for the heads up Dad. We ate at a nice cafe, the waiter was an older man who was super nice. I had a sandwich with toast, fried egg, bacon and banana. Believe it or not, it was yummy!

We headed to Tamworth which was about a 5 hour drive. Along the way we stopped at a McDonald's, our first time eating there, but as in the states, they are the main option along the highways. The Aussies call it Maccuhs. Two things we like about Mackers, as we would pronounce it, is that they have free wifi and McCafes. A McCafe is inside a McDonalds and has rollup sandwiches, coffee, teas, and yummy desserts, like cakes and lamingtons. One McCafe I was in in Sydney only had the cafe sandwiches and chicken, you couldn't even get a burger!

As we drove along, Erik spotted our first wild kangaroo. They were out in a farmer's field. We turned around and went back to get a better view. So exciting. As we drove along we saw a gorgeous sunset. The sun was behind some big clouds and I got several pictures that all look unique. That was a fun thing to do as we drove along.

It was so awesome to be with Mem and Norm, they are wonderful people. Their home was very nice. We stayed there in Tamworth for 2 days. We went to a great wildlife park in Gunnedah, about an hour from Tamworth. Mem warned us that it "was run on the smell of an oily rag." But it had lots of Australian animals and birds. We got to go right in near 9 koalas. Some were asleep and others were awake. We got to pet them. There were two who were squabbling at each other, that was interesting to watch. There was also a baby one, which was so cute. It was about a foot long. We also saw kangaroo, a wombat, wallaby, ring tailed possum, dingo, fallow deer, and the ground where an echidna lives. Mem said he'd be burrowed under the ground away from the heat. We also saw lots of birds: several kinds of cockatoos, a wedge tailed eagle, a tawny frogmouth-my favorite, it looked just like a branch of a tree, parrots, lorakeets, emu, ostrich and more. If it wasn't such a hot day, I'll bet we would have stayed even longer. Mom and Dad, I think this is the place you told us about, we loved it.

Wednesday, we headed out with Mem and Norm, for Brisbane. We stopped along the way several times to see gorgeous canyons and waterfalls and rivers, some with water in them and some without. We spotted several kangaroo along the way and also an eagle. We stopped for the night at Ballina in a nice caravan park. The 6 of us stayed in a cabin together, ate a makeshift meal-which was great, swam in the ocean and the pool and played games. It was a fun evening. Thursday we went north to Pimpama where Bryn and Ryan took 3 rides on the ZORB. It's a huge ball, and they add water to it and roll down a large hill. They had a blast and we had fun watching. Mem and Norm went on to visit his sister and we went on in to the city. We stayed in a nice hotel in Brisbane, near GED-Global Education Design, where we were to meet up with the college students the next day.

Friday afternoon all 15 students arrived, during a downpour-another reason Brisbane feels like Portland. They had all had good experiences in different parts of Australia, conducting their research for the Contemporary Australian Studies course. After a bus tour of the city, their homestay families came and collected them and we came to our apartment. It's in a nice section of the city called New Farm. It's a gorgeous apartment, we feel spoiled. It has air conditioning, which is rare for Australians and it has wifi, a washing machine, stocked kitchen, and we love it. It's near a big park and only about 15 minutes walk from 2 city cats.

On Sunday, our friend from back at Graceland and Ann Arbor days, Todd Houston, picked us up and took us to church. Fun to see Todd again. He looks the same as he did 20 years ago, not fair! We met several others who knew of us, at church. Two women have been pen pals with Shirley F and Veryl and several knew Erik's parents. The service and class were very good. One funny thing happened. During the service, a gecko walked across the rostrum. I've never seen that before. After church, Shirley and Dave Judd, Val Shaw and Jim Ireland took us out to lunch and ice cream. We had fish and chips and Baskin Robbins. They showed us around too and we saw some beautiful sites. So nice of them to spend their afternoon with us.

This week Erik and sometimes Bryn have been attending the morning lectures. Today, Erik and the LC students are visiting the parliment building. Parliment isn't in session, but it will be later in our visit and they can visit it again then if they want. Ryan and Bryn have both been working on their math homework, trying to get caught up. It's tricky trying to do it. The boys are taking a break right now and playing cricket in the big park near here. They are also trying out a new boomerang they got. They did well with one that Uncle Mikey had made at the Aboriginal camp, but not sure how this one will work.

This coming weekend we all will be taking a boat over to N Stradbroke Island, or Straddy as the Australians call it. It is completely sand and has mangrove forests that we'll be studying. I hear we need to have lots of mozzy spray (for the mosquitoes).

We're so grateful for this Awesome Australian Adventure.

We're back online

Dear family and friends,

I see that it's been a while since I've written. We've been away from internet, a strange feeling. Bryn did well surfing that last time in Manly. He got up more than 5 times, I hear. Friday, our family went to Coogee beach one last time, the water there is so amazingly blue, green and gorgeous. We had some amazing fish and chips (fries). One of the cafes there is called "Chish and Fips"! We had lots of fun with the waves.

The next day we planned to pack and get ready for our camping trip, but the boys talked Erik into taking them to another beach: Bronte. Maggie went along also, she feels like a big sister to the boys. She's great. The other LC students have been awesome as well. They treat Bryn and Ryan so well, and help them feel part of the group. I’ve been so happy about that! Especially after Andrew and Kari left, I didn’t know how it’d go, but they are an awesome group of people. I hear that the waves at Bronte were great, Erik said the 2nd best after Coogee the day of the King Tide! I stayed home and packed and did laundry as we had to pack up everything to take with us. We said our goodbyes to Arundel house. It was a very good place to stay.

Sunday morning at 9 we loaded up a 20 passenger bus with a trailer and headed to the bush. We were about 2 ½ hours outside of Sydney. The nearest little town was Wiseman’s Ferry. We were in the Dhurag National Park, staying at a Buddhist retreat center. But the leaders of the camp were aboriginal elders, called uncles and aunties. Uncle Wayne and Aunty Jody, a married couple, were in charge of the camp. They are awesome people with so much knowledge, gentleness and compassion. We all fell in love with them! Uncle Wayne’s mom, a sweet, kind Aunty Lorna, and a 16 year old gorgeous fun girl, we called “G” were there as well. Also from further west in New South Wales was a young man, who was an amazing dancer, named Uncle Mikey and another man, so empathetic and kind, named Uncle Rob. We had a Swedish chef, named Ula, who we all loved and we’re fortunate to have her cooking again in Queensland. Derrick, a man from Queensland, a laid back Australian, also joined the camp. Uncle Dalles and Aunty Margaret joined us for a day too. Nat and Marta, leaders of Global Education Design rounded out the participants.

We were roughing it. Outhouses/no electricity/solar powered lights/fire warmed hot water/lots of dust and heat, but extreme beauty all around. They treated the camp as an immersion and thru lots of role playing, yarns (stories), dreaming stories, creating artifacts, etc. we learned much about aboriginal culture, their protocols and some of the struggles they have had to face over the years. We experienced wide ranges of emotions: frustration, joy, laughter, sadness, fatigue, compassion for each other and more. It’s really hard to explain our experience, but just know, overall, it was amazing.

Several of us had to face fears. One girl hates spiders and saw several huge ones called Huntsman spiders. Their bodies are over 2 inches in diameter. I’ll try to upload some photos as soon as possible. One girl hates ants and they have huge bull ants there, about 2 inches in length-many were bitten by them and it hurts bad! Thankfully the pain lessens after about 30 minutes. I, of course, hate snakes. So I was the only one who saw one. I was trying to be brave and headed to the showers one morning by myself and saw a red bellied black snake on the path about 15 feet ahead of me. He slithered off and I went the other way around, after getting Erik to walk with me. I happened to have a black and red shirt on and Aunty Margaret said that I thought I chose the color of my shirt that day myself, but…. I didn’t get a picture of the snake!

We also took a very long hike in the bush, where we got lost and ran out of water and were challenged by the heat and the length of the trip. Thankfully we found our lunch and more water after about 5 ½ hours. And we got to see some aboriginal carvings that were on a huge stone tabletop ridge. So impressive and special. They are between 35,000 and 55,000 years old. Not many have seen them as they are hard to find and behind locked gates.

We learned many songs and dances, Uncle Wayne is very professional at the dancing and singing. It was great fun to learn the songs and we had a big celebration late into the night our last night there, with 5 campfires burning around the circle. After the celebration we ate potatoes, yams, emu, kangaroo and quail that had been roasting in a pit in the ground, yum.

We drove back to Sydney Friday afternoon and got to eat supper with Gwen, Brian, Faye and Jeff at Flying Fajita Sisters, where the chef is from Seattle. Quite yummy, different than Mexican food in Portland. They put beet root and pineapple on the fajitas.

Saturday we rented a car and headed to Tiona, near Forster, Australia. It’s the resort that has been our church’s campground here for many years. It’s an amazing place with the ocean several hundred feet from our cabin and Lake Wallis another hundred feet or so in the other direction. They have a green cathedral, church under the cabbage palm trees and we were able to worship there today overlooking the lake, so wonderful.

We’ve learned a hard lesson though. In Australia, you need to always use the hand brake. We never use it in Portland unless we’re on a steep hill. And you can remove the keys without putting the car in park. (Can we do that in the states?!) We had just unloaded our things at our cabin and Erik went back to the main office to see if they had a fan, our room was pretty hot (thankfully it cooled down beautifully after sunset). He stopped the car in front of the office. It’s nearly a flat surface. Either Erik didn’t put it in park or it popped out of park and it rolled about 20 feet and hit a pole in the nearby playground. We’d had some trouble with the transmission slipping all the way here, but don’t know if that was what happened. 2 kids were playing on the equipment and weren’t hurt or hit or upset by it. Erik felt absolutely awful. It’s taken nearly 24 hours of calls and waiting, but they’d just now come with a new car and a tow truck. Yikes. As first they said that they weren’t going to give us a replacement car, but a nice person at Avis changed their minds. This one is smaller so we will need a miracle of packing to fit everything in. But we are so glad no one was hurt. It’ll cost us $2650 Australia. As I said, Yikes!

We’ve still been able to enjoy the ocean, ping pong, and the pool. In fact, we’re off to the beach again. It’s so nice here with a breeze and the cool ocean you can hop into. It was supposed to be 110 degrees in Sydney yesterday. They are having very bad bush fires in Victoria. 26 people killed already, so sad. Yesterday was the hottest day in February on record for Melbourne-117.

The plan is to drive to Tamworth tomorrow and see Mem and Norm Dudley. I knew them in Bozemen, MT when I was in 4th grade and have met them again more recently as they knew Marge and Tore and visited us in Portland. Then we all will drive to Brisbane as we have to be there by Friday the 13th at 14:00 to meet up with the students. They are all doing their independent research this week in different places around the country.

This has been quite a great adventure, thanks for reading. Email us and let us know how life is where you are: nilsen6@comcast.net

Love,

Carla

Australia Day and such

Well, we ended up going to Manly beach on Saturday and it ended up being 108 degrees near where we stay!! Yikes. We were so glad we were at the ocean, where the water was quite cool. It felt so good. We found that there was a fish and chips restaurant with Air conditioning, not common here. We had a great lunch there before heading to the beach. Oh yeah, and before that I had some amazing chocolate, banana crepes at a place called, "the Bald Guys chocolate" or something like that. Yum.

At the beach they were having a surf carnival, with lots of races going on. Fun to watch, Erik had wanted to see one! There were also lots of strong currents so there was only a small area flagged off for swimming, but that didn't deter us. There was a place to rent surfboards and boogie boards, so Andrew tried surfing again. I thought he did great. He said it was challenging with the currents. Bryn got a strange painful rash on the back of his knees. We don't know what it was, but it went away after about 30 minutes, we're calling it a jelly or a blue bottle! Sounds better than sea lice or some such.

On the way home, Andrew and Bryn really wanted to eat in Newtown at Thai riffic, they had gone there once before. After a train ride and some walking we found it about 9 p.m. It was a great place and amazing food.

Andrew and Kari finished packing and getting ready and left via taxi with Erik about 1 p.m. on Sunday. Sadness! It was so fun to be together here. Erik thought he could easily take a train back here, but it didn't work out well, he ended up in Bondi and it took him over 2 hours to get home, with lots of walking. He got turned around at Town Hall and was going the wrong way for awhile, that doesn't happen often to him, he's great at figuring out where we are. Andrew and Bryn are good at it too.

Andrew and Kari emailed that they slept nearly all of the 19 hours to Chicago, yay for Unisom! They went from 108 degrees here to about 8 degrees in Iowa, what a shock!

Monday was Australia Day, 220 years from when the British landed in Australia. First we went to an aboriginal festival, they weren't celebrating the same thing, but celebrating their survival despite of it. Ryan got to play some footie, Australian rules football with some kids, mostly they were practicing their kicking, fun! And then we went downtown and saw the fireworks and show at Darling Harbour. It was raining, but a warm rain. I think it kept the crowds down some. We enjoyed it and were home before 10.

Yesterday we spent at immigration getting Bryn and Ryan's visas figured out, hopefully all's well now. Whew.

Today, Erik, Shane, Bryn and Ryan went to Manly beach. Bryn rented a surfboard, but I haven't heard how that went. I'm off to see a movie with the students, called Ten Canoes. All for now,

Carla

Friday report

Hi,

First of all, Erik is better. Yeah! His fever finally quit yesterday after 6 days. He's pretty wiped out, but keeping up with the kids and students pretty well. Also, Andrew decided not to stay the extra two weeks. He was bummed, but it would have cost an extra $1000 and that is a bit much. I know Kari's glad to have him with her on the 19+ hour flight to Chicago and on to KC. We will sure miss them here. It's really been such a chance of a lifetime for us to be here as a family. They are such great kids, we are so blessed. Tonight we went to a nice bistro so the kids could try some lamb shanks before they left. I got prawns which were yummy.

Yesterday afternoon we walked down to the Seafood Market, several miles away. It was quite impressive. Think of Pike's market and times it by 6! They had so many varieties of seafood. About 10 varieties of prawns and lots of lobster and the strangest huge giant crabs and blue crab and on and on. We saw a lobster whose body was 2 feet long. Maybe bigger. Erik was practically drooling, he loved it so much. We bought our supper-some rock lobster, banana prawns, and New Zealand green mussle, plus a gorgeous loaf of Damper bread. Erik and I brought the food home to the fridge and worked on paperwork while the kids took the ferry to Manly and played for several hours in the waves. We had a late yummy meal!

Today we left with the group this morning for the Australian Museum. A very interesting museum, I think you would love it if you have time when you're here, Pappa and Patricia. It was air conditioned and had lots of artifacts and samples of the interesting birds and animals in Australia. It also had a great Indigenous Australian exhibit.

This afternoon we spent at the Art Gallery of NSW. It was interesting too. We walked thru the Royal Botanic Gardens, they are gorgeous. We saw a Wollemi pine that was older than the one we saw at our lodge in the Blue Mts and lots of flying fox, huge bats. I mean huge! Their bodies are the size of squirrels.

We did some souvenir shopping and are back at "home" now. The kids are at the park playing cricket, rugby and frisbee. I'm doing laundry and such. Tommorow is their last day here and we plan to head to Coogee beach. It's supposed to be 95.

Hope all's well with you, send me an email and let me know if you're reading. nilsen6@comcast.net I am curious.

Carla

Blue Mountains, etc.

Hi all,

It's been a week since I last wrote, wow time is flying by.  You might think we just sit around with nothing to do, but so far, that hasn't been true.  Although we have had time for a few pinochle games and some Bananograms.  I'll try to hit the highlights of our week.

Last Thursday we did play a Nilsen game of modified cricket.  Fun!  Bryn got me out the first try.  I think he called it a golden goose, or something.  Kari says it's a golden duck!  It was so hot, nearly 100. We thought we'd play a little and then cool off in the pool.  Well it started to rain and cooled everything off, so we didn't swim.  We ate dinner at Flying Fajita Sisters.  The chef is from Seattle and Jeff and Faye know him.  It was a great meal.  They have a "Wall of Pain" which has different hot sauces on it.  You can't even take the ones off the top shelf without first checking with the waitress.  Bryn tried one from the middle shelf, "baboon sauce" and it was hot, he was hurting for a while!

Friday after lectures we went to the Taronga Zoo.  It was amazing, our first look at Australian wildlife except for the cockatoos and cat birds and lorakeets we saw at Jeff and Faye's.   We saw Wallabies, Kangaroos, Koalas (They get such little nutrition from Eucalyptus leaves that they sleep 20 hours a day.), Snakes (I didn't look at them!), Kookaburra, Echidna, and so many more.  There was one animal that grows a flap of skin to protect its babies, it doesn't have a permanent pouch.  They also had lots of other animals.  Erik, Andrew and Ryan went to a talk on spiders and saw them feed the koalas.  They had lions, tigers and bears!  Also, giraffe, elephants, snow leopard, seal, fairy penguins, otters and more.  It was very enjoyable.  We took the ferry to get there, kind of like a harbour cruise every time you take a ferry.    Mom and Dad, we didn't take an official harbour cruise but have been on ferries to 4 different stops so feel we've seen a good amount.  We used your Christmas money to buy entrance to the Aquarium, so thanks again!

Saturday morning we left for the Blue Mountains.  We had a scientist along, Howard, who was so knowledgable about Australia's history and the aboriginal culture, animals and plants and so much more.  It was great learning from him.  He told us about the amazing discovery of the Wollemi pine-in 1994.  They thought it had been extinct for 60 million years.  There are 100 or so trees growing in a remote area of the Blue Mountains  and they have done tissue samples and grown more of the pines and you can buy them from the Botanic Gardens here.  Pretty amazing.  We went to Scenic world and went on a short railroad ride straight down a hill where it used to be a coal mine.  It felt straight down, but was 56% grade, the steepest in the world.  We hiked around the forest and Ryan spotted two lyre birds, they mimic other birds and sounds.  They have a gorgeous tail sort of like a peacock.  We took a gondola back up the mountain and went on another hike and saw all sorts of interesting plants and trees.  Then we went to an ecolodge, a very gorgeous  place with wonderful food and accomodations.

Saturday we went to Jenolan caves and had a 3 hour tour.  It was great.  It reminded me of L&C Caverns in MT, except it was bigger and older (the oldest in the world at 450 million years) and had lots of white crystals.  Very interesting.  We had a picnic afterwards by a little river and some of the students and our 4 jumped off a rock cliff into the water.  As we were walking back, Ryan was a ways ahead of us and he saw a platypus, we could see the bubbles where he'd gone under, they are hard to see, so that was cool.   Saturday night we had pavlova for dessert with passion fruit, kiwi and strawberry.  Yum.  We had a campfire, shared a favorite childhood memory and learned some new songs.  Then we went to a clearing away from the trees and looked at the stars.  They were absolutely gorgeous.  We saw the southern cross and the crab nebula and a very bright, long lasting shooting star.  What a night.

Sunday the students took a 5 km hike down to the Grand Canyon.  Ryan and I stayed back with Erik.  He'd been sick with a fever since Friday night.  We went to a hospital there, Katoombah, and he has a UTI.  The meds haven't knocked it down yet and we were at a hospital here yesterday.  He got a second antibiotic and is marginally better.  He was well enough today to go reef fishing about 5 miles from Sydney.  He and our boys and 5 students rented a fishing boat.  They caught 16 keepers and we had a fish feed tonight.  It was yummy.  They caught a pig fish, a breem and quite a few fat heads.  5 of the 9 got sea sick.  Luckily Bryn and Ryan escaped it.  They got to see dolphins, including a baby one, and fairy penguins.  I'm envious of that!

The gang is at a play right now of Edgar Allen Poe, Tales of a tell tale heart.  Ryan and I decided to hang out here instead.  We're exhausted.

Andrew is trying to work it out so he can stay 2 weeks longer.  It's only $100 to change his ticket and he'd love to be here for the week at the Aboriginal camp.  He'll miss the first 2 weeks of classes, but he feels it'd be worth it.  It's been so good to have he and Kari here with us.  They've become good friends with the LC students, who are such a great group!  Kari's not looking forward to the 19 hour flight by herself, can't blame her.  She leaves on Sunday.

Well I am sure I am leaving out so many great things, but I'm falling asleep.  Check out my pictures, I keep them pretty up to date.  www.picasaweb.google.com/carlanilsen

All for now,

Carla

  

Beach Fun

Hi,

I've added new photos from our day at the beach so thought I should tell a little about it.  The nearest ocean beach to us is Coogee.  It's also where our friends, Gwen and Brian, live so we'd been to it once before.  It's a great beach.  We rented 2 maxi taxis to get all the students out there together rather than take the buses.  On Tuesday, it had been a King Tide, the highest tide in 20 years, so yesterday it was still pretty high and the waves were immense.  Playing in them could easily knock you over.  I got a pictures of some crazy guys jumping off of the nearby cliffs, although that was a restricted area and they announced over the loud speaker that they couldn't do that.  The beaches are well patrolled, they have certain areas that they watch over, you stay between the yellow and red flags.  Kari saw one blue bottle jellyfish yesterday in the water.  I guess sometimes there are too many of them so you can't swim.  There are great restaurants and shopping right near the beach.  We found a deal.  You had to buy a soda, $4 and then you got a $2 steak and a $2 salad and fries.  So for $8, (about $6 something US) we got a great meal.  Most everyone is a little sunburned today, even though they put on lots of sunscreen, and tired!  It takes a lot out of you dealing with all the sand, sun and waves!  Don't you feel sorry for us!!!  

Today the students and Erik are at lectures until noon.  The boys and I are doing laundry and math and then may head to the mall.  We think we might play cricket this afternoon and then go in the nice pool right across the street from us.  Sounds fun to me!

All for now, must go eat breakfast before they put it away.

Hope all's well there with everyone reading!

Carla