New Zealand Adventures Part 1- North Island

Happy New Year everyone! (a few weeks late!)

After a previously discussed rough patch leading up to the holiday season, things took a turn for the better.  The hubby and I spent the holidays traveling all around New Zealand for a few weeks.  It was truly an amazing trip.  I'm going to have to split up the posts because of all the pictures.  Easiest way to get that done is having the first post be about the North Island... where we started the trip for the first 6 days or so.

Started the trip seeing this in the airport when we arrived bright and early for our flight.  

I love Australia.

We flew from Sydney to Auckland and stayed north of the city in a town called Devonport.  Super cute with lots of nice cafes, shops and views of the city.

View from walkway along the water.

Buildings in Devonport.

View from morning run up to a lookout point.

The following day we drove through Auckland on our way to our first destinations... really just to pick up some Dunkin' Donuts coffee.  Not the same as at home, and not really as exciting as in Bali... but still pretty good.

Also, let us take a moment to reflect on the prices here. 

The hubby was excited to see an actual Burger King and Wendys all on the same road.  Kind of like being back home :)

 

We drove all along the crazy winding roads to get to Cathedral Cove.  A short 45 minute walk down along a path gets you to a lovely beach area with beautiful rock formations.  

 One of the few pictures we were able to get without hoards of people... it was super crowded!

From there we drove to Rotorua.  Land of sulfur hot springs.  Yes it smells bad when you drive into town... a bit like rotten eggs.  But an interesting place to visit.  

There are thermal springs all around town where you can walk around.  Lots of danger and warning signs, which clearly I like.  It was pretty amazing to see parts where the water and sometimes mud was actually boiling.  The pictures just don't do it justice.

The hubby and I taking in the lovely smells of the hot springs.

This is where they do a lot of Maori cultural activities.  That night we did a show/dinner... similar to the luau we went to in Hawaii... it was a lot of fun and these guys taught the Haka to the hubby.

Next we were on our way to Waitomo.  Just for the night to spend time at an area where there are caves with glow worms.   Awesome I know.  First on our way we stopped off at a berry farm... yet another one of my newfound obsessions.

I got some homemade berry ice cream and made some friends with these two cute donkeys. 

Although, I believe they may have just wanted the ice cream.

 The area where the caves are have walking paths you can do during the day and at night.  We did both... I still have not mastered night shots with the camera, so no fun pictures of the glow worms.

We also did an actual cave tubing tour.  In doing so, got to wear these cool wet suits.  It was fun, and a bit claustrophobic for the hubby to be in the caves.  It was more intense than a similar cave tubing thing we did in Belize.  This one had us jumping backwards off small waterfalls into our tubes, climbing around in the dark... we also learned what glow worms actually are.  However, despite this new knowledge, I choose to think of them as the cute toys I had growing up.

This picture is just sunset from dinner at the place across from our hotel.

Next up we made the drive over to Lake Taupo... this is where we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas.  The area was quite nice, but the weather was a bit off for part of the time.

They had some trees at the lake decorated with baubles. 

The hubby was impressed by the McDonalds plane in town.

Sunset over the lake.

So here is the fun part... I am crazy and planned to do the Tongariro crossing walk on Christmas day. It is a well known day trek that takes you over volcanic craters and such... the second half has been closed due to volcanic activity, but you still do the first part to the emerald lakes and then back.  In total around 6-8hrs. The morning of the walk we left the hotel around 4:30am (I'm surprised the hubby didn't kill me with this plan) to get to the shuttle location for 5:45am.  It was a cool and raining morning and they gave us the option to not do the walk when we arrived at the National Park.  It wasn't too bad at that point where we were, but you could tell once we started up the trail to the mountains it would be rough.  Alas, it was our only day to do it and off we went.

The start of the day.  In our Santa hats, smiling and ready for a fun filled day of adventure!

 And a few hours later...

In between this there were some pretty cool sites.

This is pretty much where I tucked my camera away the rain was coming down so bad.  Overall, it was indeed an adventure.  A wet and sometimes scary adventure.  At one point it seemed we were walking through a cloud on top of the crater and couldn't really see a few meters in front of us.

On our way back down the weather of course started to improve slightly and we saw a few rainbows.

Well, the weather back there was still not so great.

The day would not have been complete without an intense danger sign.

Mount Doom.

Happy post trek despite the weather... next years Christmas card?

A well earned drink later that night before an epic Indian feast in town for our Christmas dinner.

Last stop on the North Island was Wellington for the night...

Some nice scenery while driving.

They are a bit obsessed with Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit there.

Pretty busy sounding trip... and this was the more relaxed part of the trip!  I will try and get the South Island post up in the next day...

When being an expat stinks

I’ve talked about the stupid things that really were not easy for us when moving overseas… all the really trivial stuff that just takes time to get over and adjust to.  Up until now the only really crap stuff we have dealt with was missing out on life event such as weddings and births back home.  This has been hard, but really nothing compared to what we had to cope with before Christmas. 

Before the move to Sydney, we both were aware (maybe more so me) there would likely be a time while away we need to deal with more serious stuff. 

The week before Christmas and us leaving for holiday, I got an early morning message from my sister saying my grandfather wasn’t doing well.  Not a good way to start my Monday morning.  I did my usual run to get to the train station on my way to my nanny job… sobbing most of the way.  A few difficult days later, he passed away. 

Like I said before, I knew there was a good chance something like this would happen while away.  Being “aware” did not make it any easier at all.  There is no way to explain these types of situations except that they suck.  Being away from family, feeling helpless, being on the otherside of the world and the sense that you are not “there” even though everyone knows you are going through the same emotions is a terrible situation for anyone to be in. 

We talked a lot about going back for the funeral, but after discussions with family were encouraged to stay in Sydney. I still feel slightly torn about the decision- even through I know Grampa would have not wanted me to fly back for it (I can hear his voice yelling at the hubby and I for spending money on such things), and the last time I saw him I think I knew it was a last goodbye.  My parents in particular have the thought that life is about the time we spend and memories we make together, not about what happens after that matter most.  We were very fortunate to have him in our lives for the time we did and for him to be involved in so many of our major life events is priceless.  Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our wedding day with Grampa…

I wrote a short reading for the funeral.  Not an easy thing for me, as I am terrible with putting feelings down on paper.  Also not very easy to share with people, but I figure if I am going to be open about the happy things in life and living an expat life, I should also be open to sharing the tough times as well.  Here it is...

Grampa was a great man and a wonderful grandfather.  He was quick to joke, always had a comment about Boston sport teams, supportive of all we did and loved us unconditionally.

I grew up very close to my Grampa, due in part to spending many long summer days at his house during my childhood.  I have memories of him at every major event in my life, be it dance recitals, graduations and my wedding day.  I am not very good at putting my feelings down on paper, but I have tried my best to put together my thoughts on what I will remember about Grampa and those memories I am thankful for.

Thank you for the support you offered throughout my life: whether it was encouraging my early baking skills and always saying it was delicious, providing me with confidence to get through my many years of nursing school, or cheering Rikhav and I on when we decided on one of our big life moves to Australia.  Of course being sure to warn us of the dangers of sharks, crocs and poisonous snakes.  Thank you for teaching me to be a compassionate, self-aware and caring person by living your own life in this way.  Thank you for always being there during the good times and supporting me through the bad.  Thank you for sharing your amazing life stories with us.  I will cherish all the tales you told us about growing up, experiences during the war, and all the life and travels tales with Nana.  Rikhav and I promise to make our way over to all those islands you were always telling us about. Thank you for the support you have always given to all of us over the years.  Thank you for helping to shape our lives down the many different paths we have chosen.

I also thought this reading puts it into words much better than I ever could, how I feel Grampa encouraged us to live our lives.

Live a Life that Matters by Michael Josephson

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end.

There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days. All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten will pass to someone else.

Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.

Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear. So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to do lists will expire.

The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.

It won't matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end.

It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant. Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought but what you built, not what you got but what you gave.

What will matter is not your success but your significance.

What will matter is not what you learned but what you taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage, or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.

What will matter is not your competence but your character.

What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone.

What will matter is not your memories but the memories that live in those who loved you.

What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident. It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice.

Choose to live a life that matters.

Thanksgiving Down Under

Way behind on posting per usual.... this has just been sitting on my desktop since the first week in December.   Life got a bit crazy mid-December (more of that in a bit) and then we have been traveling on holiday.  So here we go...

Thanksgiving.  I think I’m having flashbacks to last year when times were tough.  Although, when I really think about it, I think being away at Thanksgiving is the hardest time of year for us.  Yes, more so than Christmas, Easter, birthdays… I have always loved the big family dinner, no stress to buy all sorts of gifts like with Christmas, pumpkin desserts… It is really difficult being out of the US for this holiday as well because NOONE else knows.  It is like any other day for all our Aussie and other expat friends here.  Pretty much on Thursday, the hubby and I woke up, smiled and said happy Thanksgiving to each other, then had to go about the day as usual.  With the time difference, it really wasn’t til our Friday that we knew everyone back home was all happy in their little food comas… and it was just another day for us again.  It sucks… sorry no other way to put it really.

Now, per usual with things that were and probably will continue to be difficult while living here (ie Thanksgiving) I feel it best to take a comic look at it all… because really it is all a bit funny in the end. 

Last year was truly a hot mess.  I was sad about being away for the holidays, poorly adjusted and pretty much a miserable person to be around.  Despite this, I decided to take on cooking a full Thanksgiving meal.  Yeah, I did that. 

The first issue was finding a turkey.  As I said, noone is looking to roast a turkey in November here in Australia.  It is getting hot, and they may have that for Christmas, but they are not readily available in most stores.  I ended up getting a frozen turkey from Aldi- Oh the horror!  Don’t get me wrong… I love Aldi.  This was the first semi-affordable market chain I found here.  But, frozen turkey!?  I should explain myself and my family are what you may call turkey snobs.  Anyone who grew up in Southern NH or even North of Boston has options for good turkey farms… ours was Raymonds.  Oh man.  They actually slap on stickers to the turkeys and turkey pies that say “Fresh Killed Turkey” (sorry to all my vegetarian friends out there!).  They are massive and oh so good… and I’m not sure what they put in their pie crust (I’m assuming just lots of Crisco) but it is amazing.  Needless to say, going from some fresh killed turkey to frozen from Aldi I felt a bit Australia’d.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dandaninc/8200566533/

The other ridiculous moment from last year was not very funny at the time (at all actually!) but now is a bit comical.  Anyone who has lived away from home knows it can be very difficult at times.   Not only that, but random things bring up all sorts of emotions… it can be a song you here, smells of certain foods, taking out certain holiday decorations…  Anyways, I had never cooked an entire Thanksgiving meal on my own and had never been in charge of many of the family recipes.  Well, I took on my nana’s pork stuffing that we have every year.  Holy mother, all I remember was adding all the different spices to the mixture as it cooked over the stove and starting to sob.  Sorry to those who came to Thanksgiving dinner last year, I think some of my tears were in that sutffuing.  It is still so crazy to me that just smelling that cook was able to bring back so many memories and emotions.  So there I was, by myself, cooking this out of control meal in 85 degree weather with the harbour bridge just outside the window.  Yeah I know, life is hard… but at the time, I really couldn’t get past any of these emotions to enjoy the awesome experience yet.

In the end, our dinner ended up being wonderful.  We ran our first 5k together that Sunday morning (dressed as Santa) and had a couple of friends join us for dinner.  One other American and a South African who now lives in Sydney.  It was lovely and really does go to show you that although holidays are very different when living as an expat, can be great.

Here we are a year later ready to do it all again (Santa fun run included)!  I know I keep stating how much difference a year makes, but it truly has been a different experience this time around.  No tears in the stuffing (thankfully), a few more friends to share the meal with (now that I know I can manage it), and a new outlook on life.  Not to get overly sentimental, but I am very thankful to have this opportunity to live overseas.  I am thankful for the overall life experience this has given me over the past year… helping me to grow as an individual, understand myself and the world in a new way, and for me and the hubby to develop an even stronger relationship. More than that, I am thankful for new friends I am able to share this experience with and old friends and family who put up with our crazy life/travels and always make us feel they are still there for us and ready to welcome us home.  Most of all I’m thankful for the hubby… being patient with my crying, occasional yelling, irrational anger regarding Mexican food, and buying me $12 pints of Ben & Jerry’s as needed.  Okay.  Maybe I just shed a tear.  But definitely not into any of the food this time around.

This is what happens when I put the hubby in charge of taking food pics while I finish cooking... he gets it done, just after it has been devoured :)

Pumpkin cheesecake before being all plated up...

Our Thanksgiving table set up in our living room!

Sister bonding time in Australia!

Per usual, it has been a crazy couple of weeks for us here.  My sister came to visit for 2 weeks and we have been just running around like crazy!  Meghan is our first family member to visit and as a result we got a little carried away with planning out the time (well, I did anyways).  I will give a quick recap of the time because we did travel a bit while she was here as well.

I have mastered getting overseas visitors adjusted to the time difference and over jetlag.  They don’t like me much the first day, but it works.  Pretty much after over a full day of traveling through airports and sitting on a plane, I make them stay up the whole day exploring parts of the city and then keep them up past 8pm.  Not fun for them.  But in the end it makes the rest of their trip better.

So on my sister’s first day, we hung out around Mosman, walked around Balmoral and went to dinner and a show at the opera house at night.  Yeah, I told you it was crazy.  The show was pretty epic… the Sydney Symphony was playing music from Pixar movies with movie clips to go along with the arrangements.  It was magical (my go to descriptor for anything exciting involving Disney).

We dragged her on a fun run.

Here she is with the hubby and his stache.

Then there was the Melbourne Cup.  It is hard to explain to Americans (or any non-Australian for that matter) what this day is like.  I feel the closest we have is the Kentucky Derby… but it would be as if the entire country shut down to watch it and then just eat and drink the rest of the day.  Last year, as I was still in my “negotiation phase” and not really enjoying/accepting life here.  I remember thinking at the time the whole idea of getting dressed up to watch a horse race (and paying a lot for tickets for lunch somewhere) was just crazy.  Fast forward one year and here I am all dressed up with my fascinator.  Life is crazy.

If you look closely, you can see our hair pieces.  I should have done a better job snapping pics of some of the really impressive ones other women were wearing... epic fail.

We also took a trip up to the Byron Bay area.  It was mine and the hubby’s first time there and we really enjoyed it.  Byron itself is kind of a mecca for backpackers and old school hippies.  My high school wanna-be hippy self approved.  However, we stayed just south in Lennox Head, which was a bit more low key and our speed now. 

Here are some highlights from the trip including surf lessons, bush walks and beach time.

Walking around Lennox Head...

On one of the bushwalks we did near Minyon Falls.  

Lennox Head

Pre-surf lesson.  Crazy surf instructor who kept talking to us about the curse of the bambino in a super heavy aussie accent.  Then we were surrounded by backpackers the whole time.  Quite the experience. Meghan and I both managed to stand up.  Mission accomplished. 

To close out my sister’s Aussie trip, we went to Hunter Valley for a girls night.  I had the bright idea to hire out bicycles for the day to get around the wineries.  It ended up working out okay, but I will say that there are quite a few decent sized hills in the area!  I think every other time I have been carted around by the hubby and really paid no attention to hills.  It was fun and definitely built up our appetite for some nice cheeses with our tastings and a lovely dinner at night.

The bicycle hire was through Grapemobile Bicycle Hire in Pokolbin.  They were great and I would highly suggest booking through them if you are planning a trip to Hunter and want to bike around (and not have to worry about someone driving!).  They also run Pokolbin Brothers Wines, so you can start the day with a tasting (they have wonderful Chardonnay)!  Here is the link to their website for anyone interested... http://www.grapemobile.com.au/

After making it to Peterson Champagne House.  It was a bit longer a ride than I thought.  

And up some of those hills.

Sorry Meghan.

Some small grapes on the vines.

View from the ride.

Sunset from the B&B.

It was strange and exciting having one of our family members finally come visit.  It is so different to have them in our element here versus us just going home to visit.  For me, it was nice to have her see what our lives are like here first hand instead of just listening to me talk about it.  I’m sure I will have more thoughts on this as I have time to process it all.  Until then, I am off to gather up some fixins for our belated Thanksgiving meal this weekend!

MOVEMBER

I forgot to add this to my last post, but big news... the hubby is doing Movember.  What is that you ask?    A charity event (pretty popular here in Australia) where guys grow out mustaches throughout the month of November to raise money for men's health.

Anything to raise money for charities, particularly ones that don't typically get as much publicity such as men's health is a great thing.

However, I will be suffering through his mustache growing for the month.  I am a bit scared, being that we are only 5 days in and he has a pretty good shadow of a stache already!  The hubby knows I have never been a fan of facial hair on him and was nice enough to have a discussion with me before he decided to do it.  I told him as long as he worked really hard at fundraising, I was all for it.

That being said, it is gonna be ridiculous looking in about, oh I don't know, a day.
He (and myself!) would appreciate any help raising funds!  As with any charity, any little bit helps!

Here is the link to his fundraising page... I will add some pictures later.  Prepare yourselves.

The Hubby Does Movember

A bit overdue... Here is a pic of me with the hubby.  We were seeing Coldplay here in Sydney.  I'm still not happy with the stache.  Luckily, the fundraising is going well!

Halloween Down Under

So Halloween is not a big deal many other places outside the US.  It is starting to get bigger here now, but they still need to send out neighborhood reminders about trick-or-treating and putting out special signs if you want kids to stop by.

Doesn't stop my love of Halloween and treats with it.  I mentioned before the hubby and I planned a housewarming/halloween get together for last weekend.  The initial plan was to barbeque... this was a fail as we didn't get our act together to get a grill in time (oh but don't worry, we bought it the next day).

This meant a bit less picture taking for me as I reverted to plan B of food ideas and made a bunch of small appetizers and finger foods to go along with baked treats.


As promised: Pumpkin Cookies!  I was originally planning on decorating them with maple icing to look like pumpkins, but time did not allow for such things.  

Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe from Susie (not sure of original source, but I have changed some stuff...)

Yield: 3-4 dozen cookies

Ingredients

2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour

1 ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice

(or if you are down under like me... ½ tsp ground cinnamon, ¼ tsp ground ginger, 1/8 tsp nutmeg, 1/8 tsp all spice)

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp sea salt

¾ cup butter softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 can (15 oz) 100% pumpkin (you can also use fresh made pumpkin puree... since canned pumpkin is a  bit hard to come by in Australia)

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups of mini dark chocolate chips

Directions

- Preheat oven to 375ºF (190º C)

- Combing all dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

- Beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy.

- Beat in the pumpkin, eggs and vanilla extract until smooth.

- Gradually add in the flour mixture at low speed.

- Stir in chocolate chips.

- Drop by rounded 1-2 tablespoons (I usually make them closer to 2 tablespoons with my cookie scoop!) spacing about 1 ½ inches in between cookies on the cookie sheet.

- Bake for 15-18 minutes until the edges are lightly brown.

- Cool on baking sheets 3-5 minutes before removing to cool on wire rack.

Mmm there they are on the left.  My favorite cookies ever :)  The candy corn ones on the right looked fun (and were many friends first taste of candy corn!) but really wasn't the best recipe, thus does not deserve a post!

One more yummy recipe from my baking extravaganza... I wanted something apple flavored (again going with the New England fall stuff despite the warming weather here...) and decided to do a combination of recipes to make some caramel apple cupcakes.  Umm yeah... they really are that awesome.

Caramel Apple Cupcakes

Cinnamon Spice CakeAdapted from Annie’s Eats
Yield: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
4 large eggs
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- Preheat oven to 350°F (177ºC).

- Prepare muffin tins with cupcake liners or oil spray. 

- Heat milk and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until butter melts. Remove from heat to cool slightly.

- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

- Beat eggs and sugar with mixer until thick ribbons form, about 5-7 minutes. Add flour mixture and beat on low just until incorporated. Add milk mixture and vanilla, and beat until blended.

- Divide the batter evenly amongst prepared baking tins. 

- Bake for 16-18 minutes and cool in pans for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Apple Filling (my own recipe for applesauce slightly adapted for filling)

Yield: 2 cups
Ingredients
4-5 medium sized apples, peeled, cored, and finely diced (I used pink lady)
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1 Tbs warm water

Directions

- Mix apples with sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon in saucepan.

- Cook over low- medium heat for 10-15 minutes until liquid is absorbed but apples are still holding their shape. 

- Remove from heat and stir in cornstarch mixture.

- Cool until room temperature.

Vanilla Bean Buttercream Frosting (slightly adapted from my Mom's recipe)

Ingredients

2 sticks of butter softened
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
2 tsp vanilla extract
2-4 tablespoons of milk or cream

- Beat Butter and scraped out vanilla bean with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy (about 3-6 minutes depending on mixer)

-  Add the powdered sugar and beat well until mixture is thick and paste like. 

- Add extract and 1 tablespoon of milk/cream. Beat well. 

- Slowly add more milk 1 tablespoon at a time to get proper consistency.  Frost cooled cupcakes as desired.

Putting it all together....

- After cupcakes have cooled, use a paring knife to cut a small cone opening out of the top.

- Press down slightly to make a larger hole in the center.  

- Fill with approx 1 tablespoon of apple filling and replace top.

- Frost with the vanilla buttercream.

- Drizzle caramel to top (I was lazy and used store-bought)

And there you have it.... super yummy... although this picture does not really do them justice!

Random pic from the week... with the warming weather, we can now enjoy coffee and other more exciting drinks on our patio.  Good times!

I'm off, but will have some fun posts from Sydney activities soon.  My sister just arrived from the states 2 days ago and we have been running around like crazy!  Show at the opera house, sightseeing, fun run... she is going to need a vacation from this vacation!

Enjoy the weekend!

Outback Adventure Time! (otherwise known as trip to Uluru)

So we finally made it to the "outback" after living in Sydney for close to 15 months!  We planned this trip when we first got back from traveling back to the states in June and realized how quick our time here was going by.  We left on Friday morning and came back to Sydney Monday evening.  I think it was the perfect amount of time to spend in the Uluru area.  Although a lot of people do a mini-road trip from Alice Springs, which would mean more time is needed.  

Really the only consensus we had from people was that the trip would be expensive.  The set up just makes it that way... it is in the middle of nowhere and there is one "town" that has all the different levels of resorts.  However, they are all owned and run by the same company, keeping costs pretty high for everything.  I will say I did not have as much "sticker shock" as I thought I would.  I guess because Sydney prices are so high, I really was not phased by the cost of food in the Uluru area.  Anyways, we knew it was going to be a costly trip, but it was completely worth it! 

We spent most of the time exploring the national park areas- we did I think all the walks that could be done.  We also spent some down time at the hotel just relaxing and reading.  You can fly direct from Sydney to Uluru, which is what we did due to limited time.  The airport is what you would expect on a small island- one tiny landing strip and a very tiny terminal.  It is nice how quick you can get in and out of airports of this size though.  Then a 10 minute (if that) drive to the hotel and you are all set!

The first day we landed and were at the hotel by a little after noon. We went to pick up food supplies for the next few days (you know important stuff like peanut butter, nutella and bread).  After check in we drove over to Kata Tjuta (formerly called the Olgas). 

Quick little observation/commentary here.  So for those of you not in Australia and don't know a whole lot about the history here, there has been and in many ways still seems to be a lot of tension between Aboriginal people and other Australians.  This particular area is not Aboriginal land again.  However, this is all relatively recent when the land was "handed back" to them in 1985.  When white settlers first came they had renamed Uluru to Ayers Rock and Kata Tjuta to the Olgas.  Many people still refer to them by these names and have still not transitioned to calling them by their traditional names.  There is part of your history lesson for the day!

Okay, so we went over to Kata Tjuta and did a short walk called the Walpa Gorge Walk.  My pictures don't really do any of this justice, so you will just have to take my word that the land here is special.  I have never seen any landscape that looked anything like this anywhere.  It really was amazing. 

The Gorge.

I added this more as a reminder to myself when I look back... but any time you stopped to take photos or just look around, you were attacked by flies.  Not the type that will bite you, but super aggressive ones that just will not leave you alone!  I  stopped for the hubby to take my picture and they swarmed. 

This photo was from the hotel the next day as we were heading out.  These are early days here as it does get hot.  Even though it is just spring time now, temperatures were over 100 each day.  They suggest being done with any bush walks by mid-day.  Some of the longer walks, like the Valley of the Winds that we were doing this day will even close at 11am when the temperatures are too high.

Here we are on our way!  This was the first lookout point on the Valley of the Winds and where it closes later in the morning on hot days.

Random bird.

 Here was the second lookout point of the walk.  This isn't a really challenging walk by any means, but there are a couple tricky parts where you are just walking up steep parts of rock.  This was at the top of one of those slightly tricky parts of the walk.  Worth the effort.

The hubby- ready for a day of hiking in the heat.

Oh.  Hi kangaroos.

Sunset at Uluru.  There were bushfires all around while we were there and it made the sky look really hazy.  

The second full day we spent at Uluru.  We started with the Mala Walk where if you go early in the morning, there is a free guided tour by one of the park rangers.  It was great to have a bit more of a discussion about the importance of the land and history (besides what we had read about at the cultural center).

One comment about pictures of Uluru... because it is a sacred site, there are many parts of the rock that you are not allowed to photograph.  None of these pictures are from those areas.

The hubby contemplating life.

Another soap box commentary by yours truly.  The picture above shows the climb up Uluru.  This has been open for years and due to many reasons remains open today.  It is incredibly disrespectful to the Aboriginal land owners for this climb to be done.  This land is considered sacred and it is just in bad taste to climb it.  We discussed it during the morning tour and because of pollution from people making the climb up the rock, all the watering holes in the area are now contaminated with ecoli and many of the animals that had lived here are now gone.  The government is planning on closing the walk I believe she said in 2015, but they are trying to get this expedited.  Part of this is by proving less than 20% of visitors to the park actually climb.  By not climbing, you are in fact helping to get this closed sooner.  Okay off the soap box now :)

Sunset at Uluru- better than yesterday.

Our last night we did stargazing, which was incredible.  It ended up being a private tour because they initially thought it would be too hazy from the smoke.  It was hard to see along the horizon, but otherwise beautiful clear sky.  I am not skilled enough to have good night pics with the camera yet :(  I'm working on it.

The following morning we woke super early to drive out and watch sunrise.  Really pretty spectacular with all the smoky haze.

 Yay!  Outback adventure accomplished.  This will be a busy week for me.  Prep for our late housewarming/halloween party (which means if I am not too rushed while baking, several recipes) and then my sister is visiting the following week! So much fun stuff going on I can hardly contain myself!  

Hope everyone has a great week and check back soon for some more updates on life and fun halloween recipes.