Australia Trip 2010 - Take 4

The next few days were very photo heavy. Some of the photos were taken by Matt or on his camera, so I will give credit where appropriate.

Friday September 3rd: Following the Beast's hiccups of Tuesday, Liz and I decided to hire a car for a few days so that Mum and Dad could still use Bil and we would have something in case we wanted to go anywhere. We called a local car rental place and arranged to go pick up a car. They told us it would be a Corolla. Satisfied with that, Dad gave us a ride to the place, and they gave us a Hyundai. When all was said and done the Hyundai was fine - it was decent enough with gas and got us from point A to several other lettered points.

The first place we went in the car was into Newcastle, to the Wilderness Society where Liz did an internship while she was in Australia. We walked in there to find that the office renovations that had started while Liz was there were finished. Liz told the person working there who she was, and the guy started to go through all the people that would have been working there when Liz was there but had since left. In the end the last lady, the one Liz wanted to see, had resigned the day before. Disappointed that no-one was there, we got some magnets and headed down the street to Al Gator's - a food place that sells falafel. Now, we've been spoiled by having Layla's up the street from us, and they have great falafel. We double checked with the guy first to make sure there wasn't any gluten or dairy in the falafel before we bought anything. He pointed to something that didn't look at all like falafel and tried to tell us it had a small amount of flour, but that it was the tiniest amount. We snuck out while he was serving someone else. We walked down the street, but couldn't find anything that we wanted to eat. We eventually decided to jump back into the car, go to the supermarket and get some basic supplies to take to my grandmother's house and eat lunch with her.

We rolled up to the supermarket and bought some crackers, peanut butter and something else. My grandmother lives 5 minutes walk, if that, from the supermarket; we got in the car and drove to her house. Knocking on the door we heard movement in the house, but didn't see Nan. After what seemed like minutes she finally checked the back door and let us in. Nan hadn't finished her lunch yet, so we ate with her and hung out and chatted for a while. Apparently we made her day by turning up there, which was a pretty big statement. Dad had been there earlier, and he had brought her a potato pie for lunch. If someone had brought me pie I would have found that hard to top.

Nan lives not far from where I used to work, so we decided to drop by there to see if they had a spare power cable for the laptop to test with. They didn't, unfortunately, but I got to talk for a few minutes with the network guy I used to work with. He made fun of how I say "Australia". Bastard.

Next stop for us was where the camera started to get a little bit of use. We went to a park called Blackbutt Reserve. Blackbutt is a parcel of land in Newcastle which has been left as trees and bush. There are also some enclosures there for native wildlife so that people can come and see animals. They have a lot of different types of birds, but what really tends to draw people in are the wombats, wallaroos (a macropod between the size of a wallaby and a kangaroo) and, in particular, the koalas.

A wallaroo

The path at Blackbutt that goes through the enclosures is a circuit, that takes you past the wombats first, then the wallaroos, then into a flight aviary where the koalas are. We stopped for a long time with the koalas, we could only see 2 when we first went in there. As we got closer to the second one, Liz said "What's it holding?". From my angle the koala just looked fat, which, in my defence, is a fair assumption for a koala, so I said it was just fat. Liz swore it was holding something, and when the "fat stomach" moved I admitted she was right. The koala was holding a baby koala. We waited patiently for a while, but the baby didn't poke its head out, so we headed along through the birds.

When we emerged at the end of the birds, we could see the koala in the aviary moving. Figuring we might be able to see the baby now, we ran inside, and there it was, moving around, poking its head out.

Our paid time in the parking lot was about to expire, so we went back to the car and started driving home. Along the way we stopped in at a butcher in Warners Bay to take some photos of a sign that heped me come up with the AIM handle that I use at work.

The Beefprawn sign, with our rental car

Unfortunately, the place has redone the painting on the side of the building, and it just used to say "Beef    Prawn" and then have the prices beneath. Adding the "&" makes sense, but takes away from the effect.

Liz drove home from the butcher, and along the way drove through a police speed trap. There were 3 cops standing on the side of the road, one of them armed with a radar gun (he was probably also armed with his regular gun, but he didn't have that out, pointed at cars). Liz was under the limit and on the right side of the road, so she was allowed to continue on.

Saturday September 4th: Saturday September 4th, 2010 will go down in history as a day of awesomeness. It was a day so awesome, that it needed photos from multiple sources to capture all the awesomeness. It started out like 90+% of days; yep, with waking up. We went to Wicked in the morning and then tackled the mall.

We called Matt to find out what he was up to, and when nothing was his response, he swung by my parents place. One of the places Liz wanted to go back to in Australia was the Bogey Hole. The Bogey Hole is a pool that was carved out in the rock at the base of some cliffs along the Newcastle beaches. It is filled by ocean water, is quite deep, but is also very dangerous. People have been killed or paralyzed at the Bogey Hole, but it looks cool. So Matt, Kel, Liz and I loaded up in the Hyundai and headed into Newcastle.

It was a good time to go to the Bogey Hole - it was very overcast out but there was a slight break in the rain. The ocean was rough and choppy because of the weather, and the water was dark. I thought it all looked angry. We walked from the car park down the stairs to the unused roadway at the top of the Bogey Hole. Heeding the signs to not go any further, we stayed at the top and watched the waves crash into the rocks and cliffs around the Bogey Hole.

Wave crash at the Bogey Hole (photo by Matt)

(Photo by Matt)

Liz photobombs a (photo by Matt)

Kel wipes something off his shoe on the railing (photo by Matt)

Slow shutter wave crash

We stayed for about half an hour before jumping back in the car and heading for the grocery store. The plan for the evening was to have a pizza night. Basically, people come over, bring ingredients for pizza, everyone makes pizza and then eats together. We got to Charlestown and Matt started talking about how he could really go for tacos. A suggestion was made, and it was born.

What do you do when you're having pizza for dinner but have a craving for tacos?

You have both. Combined. To make Taco Pizza.


Yes. Taco Pizza.

We hit the grocery store and bought the items that we would normally put on tacos. Liz got regular stuff, because she didn't want a full taco pizza. All the basics were there - ground beef (aka mince), taco seasoning, cheese (not on mine), corn chips to act as taco shell replacement (I used regular corn chips, Matt and Kel used some form of Dorito), salsa, jalapenos and refried beans. For a while Kel disappeared, but when we found him again he was carrying 2 2-litre bottles of LA Maxi Ice soda. LA Ice is a generic cola beverage that tastes absolutely fantastic, and Maxi ice is the sugar free version. Not liking the list of ingredients on the Maxi Ice I thought my chance to drink the sweet nectar of the cola gods was lost. After some time searching the store though, I found the regular LA Ice and was fine with the ingredients on it. Dinner was starting to take shape - good food, good beverage.

Once back in the kitchen Liz made a dough for the 2 of us; the others were using store bought crusts. I put the LA Ice in the freezer, knowing that the colder it got the better it was, before snacking on corn chips, dipping them in the salsa. My corn chip eating was foiled by the chips being too large for the opening in the jar... I eventually stopped due to a mixture of small opening frustration and to ensure adequate levels of salsa and chips for pizza. I prepared the meat - cooking it in a pan and sprinkling the Old El Paso seasoning over it. Leaving it to sit and soak in its delightful taco gravy juices, attention moved back to what else was going on these taco pizzas.

(Photo by Matt)

(Photo by Matt)

Chip foiled! (photo by Matt)

Jonathan and Terri arrived, bags laden with ingredients, announcing that they had extra brocollini if anyone wanted it. Pfft! There was no, and never will be, room on taco pizza for ingredients like broccolini (but thanks for offering, despite the pfft). I layered a little tomato sauce, then copious amounts of refried beans (why do I keep typing "refriend beans"??). I smeared some salsa on the beans, then dumped on meat. Lots of meat. Between the 3 pizzas made, we used a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of beef. That's almost the same amount of beef that would go into 9 quarter-pound beef patties. Or the same amount as would go into one 2.2 pound beef patty. I threw on jalapenos, which were hotter than I expected them to be, before adding some crushed corn chips. Into the oven it went with its brothers (and the inferior regular pizzas).

"Class. Dignity. Taco Pizza." -Matt Bibby

(Photo by Matt)

Time to serve. Rather than damage the beauty that was taco pizza by attempting a move to a plate, I ate my pizza straight off the oven tray. Sipping the cold LA Ice, we raised our trays and toasted the incredibleness that is Taco Pizza. People who were eating regular pizza were jealous - Liz had a couple of mouthfuls of mine - Jonathan and Terri tried some of Matt's. That much Taco Pizza leaves its mark though - my stomach felt increasingly close to exploding the more I ate. But I didn't stop. I ate it all, and the warm satisfaction of Taco Pizza, or was it jalapenos, stayed in my mouth as I started to digest.

My Taco Pizza

Matt's Taco Pizza (photo by Matt)

Now, with a full stomach, it was time to Wii.

I lost...

Terri got tired after a while and left, but I was wired - I don't know if it was taco pizza or LA Ice keeping me going. Jonathan, Matt, Liz and I kept playing the Wii and listening to music, before it got late for everyone and the curtain fell on Taco Pizza night. But there will certainly be encores - Liz and I have already made taco pizza since returning to the US.

Sunday September 5th: Today was actually Father's Day in Australia, so we celebrated by giving Dad a card and some chocolate. Our big plan for the day was to go to the Jets game. The Jets are Newcastle's team in the A-League, which is the highest level national soccer competition. I had never been to a Jets game - I had only been years ago to either Breakers or Newcastle United games, which were pre-A-league teams. There were 6 of us: Mum, Dad, Kel, Rach, Liz and I.

Photo by Liz

This was the seat that I was holding the ticket to:

Luckily everyone was able to move down a seat. We were in the third row, right near the benches where the coaching staff and reserves were sitting, so we were close to the action. Our focus was stolen occasionally by birds. There were some small falcons flying around and sitting in the construction work taking place in one of the grandstands.

At the end of 90 something minutes it was Jets 0, Brisbane Roar 0 - the kind of game that Mike would say was typical soccer. The Jets had the better chances, but they couldn't score, and Brisbane came close once, but the Jets 'keeper made a good save.

Some highlights from the game were the Jets' mascot, the little kids playing at halftime, and the crowd. I've never been to a live sporting event outside of Australia, so I don't know how biased and vocal other audiences can be, but Newcastle crowds are very vocal. I did watch a World Cup soccer game in a bar in England - they spent most of the game yelling how terrible their own players were and questioning their parents' marital status when they were born. Anyway, the crowd was yelling all sorts of stuff. One guy, a European guy, yelled out "Kick the ball.", while Liz' favorite was when a kid yelled at the ref "Why do you have to be such an idiot?!".

After the game we barbecued some burgers and sausages. The sausages were awesome - Australian sausages are different to American ones (Liz thinks they are more like breakfast sausages), so it was great to have something that I grew up with. I had them with large amounts of tomato sauce (ketchup), because that's the way to eat them. It wasn't just any old tomato sauce, though, it was the good stuff - Fountain. There were also leftover sausages - breakfast for the next couple of days!!!

Australia Trip 2010 - Take 3

Time to put on the walking or hiking shoes... 


Tuesday August 31st: We all got up early and set out for our walk through Glen Rock State Conservation Area. Glen Rock is a large area quite close to Newcastle, and has a cool walk through it. We took 2 cars - Kel and I took the Beast while Mum, Dad and Liz jumped in Bil. We all went to Merewether first, which was where we would be ending the walk. After deciding to leave Bil at the end, we all piled into the Beast and went back to the start of the trail. Starting out we could hear and occasionally see Bellbirds. Not far into the walk we crossed paths, literally, with some kind of stick insect, which Liz took some photos of:

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The walk must have been annoying for some of the walkers, as Liz and I kept stopping to check out birds, insects and the like... there are kookaburras all over the place, but we still wanted photos of them when we got the chance.

Glen Rock has had some work done to it since the last time I was there, and we seemed to be walking along a newer trail. The older trail, as I remembered, seemed more rugged, and so when we saw something that looked familiar to me, we turned off and went the more fun way. It took us down to a rocky area, which had a small stream running over to it. Looking downstream I saw a new bridge, and before telling Liz to look at the bridge because it was new and we would have gone over it, I realized Kel was mooning us from the bridge. I instead warned people to look away. Taking the path less travelled was cool, because we saw the stream, more cockatoos and also a currawong:

While we were hanging out, watching the birds Kel and Dad opted to take a break at a picnic table. We were probably 1/3 - 1/2 the way through the bush part of the walk, and there was still beach walking to go, so it was probably good that they rested while there was the chance.

Following the newer trail again, we made our way to the lookout, passing some very dry waterfalls on the way. Once we got to the lookout we got our first view of Glen Rock Lagoon and the ocean beyond it.

Family photos are awesome...

We continued towards the sand, and saw a tree on the way that had been dramatically hollowed out. It was large enough for Liz and I to stand in, and here's proof.

Not too much further along the trail I found another reason to stop. I love mimicing signs, and found a hiking sign to copy.

Within a few, well, probably 20, more minutes we had made it down to the beach. The view from both directions is cool - one way you have cliffs, the other way the sand stretching towards Merewether, and the waiting Bil.

There used to be a mine (colliery) near the beach here, so along the way you could see old, rusted out relics of the mine which were pretty cool. There was also some animal life that caused some havoc. Liz and I had fallen behind, and Mum started walking back towards us with her hat in her hands. I knew she would have something in the hat, but I didn't know what. Putting the contents on the sand, we saw a crab. Taking some photos, I was totally engulfed and not concentrating on what was going on. Mum and Liz tried to warn me, but I was too distracted - the wave broke closer than the others and my legs ended up pretty wet. In an effort to get away from the water I ended up stepping on the crab... but it was on sand, I'm sure the crab was fine.

Crab - you got me wet!

Mum continued her tour of the ocean's animals when she found a cuttlefish further along the beach. It was the biggest cuttlefish I had even seen, and was so new to the beach that Mum had to strip it's skin off:

Getting closer to Merewether, the sandy beach was starting to give way to cliffs, rock ledges and shells. Mum and Liz scoured the beach for shells, so while they were doing that I walked out on to the rocks. There were some Oystercatchers out there that I took a couple of photos of, but I was more interested in the waves. Figuring I was already wet, I got as close to the edge of the rocks as I could without endangering the camera. The waves breaking weren't the biggest I've ever seen, they were far from it, but the splashes were cool.

Oystercatchers

After I had taken a lot of photos of waves and gotten my feet ever further drenched, we figured we should try and catch up with Dad and Kel, who would have been at the car by then. Along the way we stopped to see a sea slug before jumping in the car to head back to the start of the walk.

Once we got back to the Beast, Liz and I went to Wicked Chocolates while Mum, Dad and Kel went and got themselves some lunch and went home. Wicked Chocolates is a chocolate store that we used to go to while they were in downtown Newcastle. They moved though to Warners Bay, so we wanted to get some dairy free chocolate and see what the place was like. When we arrived though a sign on their door told us they were only open on Saturdays, so we disappointedly started heading home. In Eleebana, the suburb next to Valentine, the Beast started to shake violently approaching a red light. When we stopped, so did the car, and it refused to start again. The light went green, but the Beast still sat. Liz waved people around us, but only one car went. After 4 failed attempts, the Beast roared to life and burned rubber (more just squeaked it's tyres/tires) as it hauled away from the light. It shook again turning in Valentine, and then stopped when we made it home. After that we decided not to go anywhere in the afternoon...

Wednesday September 1st: One of the places Liz and I wanted to go for a day trip while in Australia was Myall Lakes National Park, which is about 2 hours north of my parent's place. The two of us went with Dad, and headed for the parks information office to get some maps etc on where we could go hiking and what we could see and do. The parks office ended up being past the national park, so we had to drive a little further to get there. They showed us some places we could walking, all in the south end of the park. We noticed a "Be Dingo Aware" pamphlet, and asked if there really was a risk of encountering dingoes. The lady told us that if we were going back to the park we were pretty much guaranteed to see a dingo. Kiss of death, that one - "never give a guarantee" is what I thought. Before getting back in the car Liz and I quickly checked out a beach, Booti Booti, which looked nice.

We headed for the south end of the park, going to a small area known as Seal Rocks along the way. We had to go past an HR (hazard reduction) burn along the way. I say HR (hazard reduction) because that's how the guy directing traffic referred to it. Dad and I talked a bit after that about why you abbreviate if you're just going to say the whole thing afterwards. Seal Rocks was cool - a few houses, a store and some caravans near the beach, with lots of rocks off the coast. In the not to distant distance, we saw the large form of a White-Bellied Sea Eagle flying over the water, which was cool. We headed for the lighthouse, which we all thought could be cool. We parked the car in the lot and started the walk, which was along a bush road. We started to hear birds, which meant Liz and I were scouring the trees. While we were scouring, Dad announced "Dingo." We both turned just in time to see the dingo walking quickly down the path we had just walked along. Tempted to run after it I thought better of it and kept going with Dad and Liz. Before the lighthouse was a cool island type thing of cliffs with water all around them, then a walk up a very, very steep slope.


The lighthouse itself was really cool. It is the shortest lighthouse I had ever seen, but when you see where it is you can tell that they didn't need a big lighthouse, the cliff provides the height. They then explained that on an informational display around the lighthouse. People with binoculars were pointing out to sea, at first I thought whale, but I didn't see anything, save for an osprey flying near the lighthouse.

The lighthouse and rocks behind it

The beach next to the lighthouse

The steep slope was much better on the way down

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, there were no more dingo sightings on the walk back. We jumped in the car and went further south to The Grandis - the tallest tree in the state of New South Wales. The Grandis is 76m tall, which is around 249 feet. The was a viewing platform quite close to the tree, which made it hard to take a photo to show how big the tree was.

The Grandis

By this time it was early afternoon and the snacks we had brought weren't easing our hunger. We stopped in a small town called Bulahdelah to see what they had to eat. Deciding against stopping at the first store we saw, we drove closer to the highway, and to what was the bustling main street. Dad got himself something from the bakery while Liz and I went store to store to see what they had. Only one place had stuff that we either could eat or wanted to eat, and they had turned off their grill, so we wound up going to the supermarket. It was a typical small town, small chain supermarket, and it was great. We got ourselves rice cakes, peanut butter, potato chips and, best of all, a gluten-free, dairy-free cocoa puff breakfast cereal called Cocoa Orbits. They were absolutely delicious.


We left Bulahdelah, Liz and I eating in the car on the way. We didn't have utensils, or at least I didn't bother to check if there were any in the car, so we were spreading peanut butter on rice cakes with our fingers. The peanut butter stopped me from getting a shot of a pheasant coucal that was crossing the road in front of the car, but at least we saw it with our own eyes. After 20 minutes of driving we were stopped at a ferry/barge, the shortest that I have ever seen. We had to wait, and while we were waiting we ran around with the camera and binoculars, seeing cormorants, a spoonbill and also a raptor I haven't identified yet.

The ferry we waited for - you can see the other side...

A cormorant

A spoonbill

The raptor

The best part of waiting for the ferry though was the old man. He and his wife (I assume) were towing a caravan and waiting for the ferry as well. Liz got out of the car when we first arrived, cocoa orbits in hand, munching from the box. The old guy walked up and asked if she was going to eat all of them on her own, and went to reach in and take some! Shocked, Liz recoiled and pulled the box away. She asked if he wanted any, and he formed his hand into a bowl. Liz started to pour into his hand, but he apparently wasn't happy with flow, and went to put his hand in to hasten it up. Not wanting old man hands touching the precious cocoa orbits, Liz again had to take them away. The wait for the ferry was about 20 minutes, and the crossing took about 2 minutes. I checked on Google Earth - the water we crossed was, at most, 100 yards across.


After the 2 minute crossing we drove to Mungo Brush to go for a walk. We saw some Yellow-faced Black Cockatoos and some Brush Turkeys. There was also a squeaky old windmill that I liked the look of during the walk.

Brush Turkey

Yellow-faced Black Cockatoos

It was starting to get late in the day, so we drove to Hawk's Nest and took a quick look at the beach. We jumped back in the car, I drove this time, and headed back home, ate some dinner and then went to bed.


Thursday September 2nd: Records from this day are non-existent. We took no photos, and honestly can't remember what happened. I think we took it easy given that we had had a couple of big days before this, perhaps did more laundry or something...

450

Yesterday Baconisgreat celebrated 450 days, as long as my and Excel's math is right. Thanks to everyone who reads it and puts up with my stories. It was coincidental that the 450th day happened to fall on hot dog game night. Hot dog game night was a celebration of hot dogs and games - we grilled up some dogs with Erin, John, Kirsten and Matt and tried different toppings and stuff on them. I'd been hanging out for hot dogs all week. Once hot dogs were down the games could begin - last night we played Taboo (winners were the team of Kirsten, John and myself), Say Anything (I believe Erin won), then John, Erin, Liz and I rocked out some charades (I think Erin and I won that). But it wasn't about who won and lost, it was about having a good time, which I think we all did. I want to publicly apologize again to Matt and Kirsten about leaving half of their Tofu Dogs on the grill - I swear, I didn't know they would stick.

Hot dog game night may have marked the end of summer even more than the equinox did on Wednesday because we ran out of gas/propane for the grill. I don't know if we want to fill it up just to have the tank sit there with lots of propane in it all winter, so the grill may (or may not, no decisions have been made) be finished for the season. We saw the Harvest Moon on Wednesday night - I guess looking at the attempted photos I can see a slight difference in color over the regular full moon, but I couldn't notice it much at the time.

Fall started with the equinox, and, with fall, new shows have been on TV. Liz and I have never been caught up enough on The Office to be able to watch it on TV as it is aired. It started on Thursday, and a week before it started we were 23 episodes off being able to watch it. We tried, but fell 3 episodes short of our valiant quest. Not to worry, we'll start watching it next week. The Amazing Race starts tomorrow, and if I ever see another minute of the fat people show that is on CBS, Mike and Molly, I think I'll go insane. I was disappointed to hear that there is a show on called "The Event". It seems like some event occurred, and now the series is about investigating the "event" and working out who was behind it etc. If network execs believe that people want to watch these types of shows, why didn't they just pick up FlashForward? Idiots. Star Wars The Clone Wars has had 3 episodes, all of them just ok - least ok was the Jar Jar one that we just watched. The trailer for season 3 holds so much promise, so it should pick up. But I can't really complain - 3 episodes and no Ahsoka.

Liz and I got ourselves a bread machine last weekend following the raging success of Aussie bread baking. The first loaf came out OK, but not as good as the Australian loaves did. The Australian machine used a general white bread mix, while this one used a gluten free setting, which seems to have made the bread more like the gluten free loaves we buy here. We weren't going for that, so we'll try the ingredients again, but on a white bread cycle and how we did it in Australia and see how it comes out. The first loaf was interesting - the kneading blade baked into the bread, which was unexpected. It was easily removed during slicing.

Speaking of Aussie stuff, there will be a new post soon with more Australia trip photos and stuff. They take a while to write because of the photos and remembering...

Off to the beach!