Erika's Six Months and Beyond letter

Dear Friends,

"All roads lead home to Colorado" a favorite band of mine sings and I'm here to testify. I'm well and firmly home. A little more than 2 weeks after we got home, our sister, Kara, got married. This means that besides the odd day or two of work, most of my time was spent wrapped up in wedding preparations. We painted wall hangings, made pies, worked on the veil, made food for the many people who stayed at or around our house and built a gazebo near our new fire bowl (not strictly necessary but nice for the 20+ people camping on our land). Then we started the partying. We spent the whole of Labor Day weekend having one get-together or another--including a marriage ceremony. Although this resulted in some sleep deprivation, it was also incredibly fun for all involved. Some recovery was obviously needed after this much celebration but I worked some and squeezed in more friend catching up time while also spending time with the family and going over finances and pictures from the trip. Saturday the 11th was Jewel's and my birthday so we had a great shindig--complete with slip and slide, pinata and fireworks. Now things are settling down a little. All visitors are gone from the house, most traces of parties are cleaned up, I'm doing constructive things like washing my horse and canning zucchini soup and I've started job hunting. Ick.

When I last wrote, we were finishing up our time on a cattle station in Queensland. Working on stations and farms was deeply satisfying for me. It surprised me how much I enjoyed the experiences. I love being surrounded by people, innovative and exciting food, live music, coffee shops, art and history museums, convenient shopping and movie theaters, in that order. I didn't think that I would be so very happy with a few people, cows, dogs and vast open stretches, at least not for very long. To be fair, I was never as isolated as it is possible to be--even at Melinda Downs, our most isolated post, we went to a rodeo in the middle of our stay and met lots of people. Still, I loved riding or driving or walking after a mob of cows or sheep.

Our last month was really a beach vacation. We camped within a few minutes of the coast and swam, snorkeled and sunbathed. We didn't dive. There was just not enough money. Someday, we'll get back and dive in Australia. Beach bumming was a good substitute. We stayed with old and new friends along the coast and made many more among our fellow campers.

As a summary for this trip, I thought I'd share some of the themes of our trip.

Theme song: "Alright" by Ryanhood. Kristen and I chose this before we even left. We loved its reassurances. We also adopted "I Want to Be a Billionaire" We have a theme song for each trip. In case you were interested, Florida/Bahamas was "Here and Now" by Great Big Sea (it's about seizing the day), Thailand was "Banana Pancakes" by Jack Johnson (because we ate them every weekend) and the whole Ryanhood Forward album (because it's awesome), etc.

Motto: Say "Yes!" This was also decided in the planning stages. We agreed (and/or I convinced Kristen to agree with me) to go with every opportunity (that appeared decently safe) presented to us. This was definitely one of the defining factors of the trip. When people asked us home for lunch or to visit something with them or suggested a sight worth seeing, we tried to say yes as much as we could. It brought us so many amazing experiences we would otherwise not have had.

Secondary motto: "It's fine. Not ideal...but FINE" This one developed as we ran out of money and our clothes wore out and our ipod dock died and it rained a lot. We mostly kept positive attitudes.

Food staples: boiled potatoes, rice, porridge. Camping stoves like mine really only do one speed and that's boil. We had to come up with recipes to cook that fit this parameter! "less than ideal...but fine!"

Most re-hashed conversation: health care in the US. We were not bringing this up but lots of people have questions about what's going on here. Also, why our economy is still wallowing. The US is struggling a lot more than NZ and AU are.

Most prevalent name: Andrew and Hamish. We met tons of Andrews, in particular. Our new favorite comedians (AU) are even named Hamish and Andy.

Most consistent realization: How generous most people are. At every point, people offered us help, beds, food, drinks, rides, stoves, friendship and kindness. Perfect strangers took us into their homes and fed and sheltered us. One of our WWOOF hosts offered us his mother's beach house, another set us up with a night at a wonderful new friend's place in Sydney, our camping neighbors offered us a night at their place when we came through their town, grey nomads were always feeding us, members of churches we visited frequently offered us a meal or advice...all of this reminded us of the grace that is in the world. Without meaning to sound trite, one can become quite gloomy about the world in view of the horrible events that make the news but so much of the world is peopled by individuals who genuinely care about their neighbor in the broadest sense that Jesus taught us.

Number of pictures taken: 6,000. Give or take.

Videos that show how crazy we are: 15 or so. Depends on what you call crazy!

I can't even tell you how fun this trip was. I've only got 2 continents left but I don't know how anything can live up to all of this. Of course, I won't be able to afford anything else while the memories are anywhere near fresh!

Love from Colorado,
Erika

Here's some links to pictures. Caution: there are a lot of these pictures! Roughly 10% of the total.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047347&id=59401624&l=a158f16aab

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047367&id=59401624&l=69999f9825

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047369&id=59401624&l=470ab54c2e

Leaving Oz

Our great hostess Karla Knight and her cute puppy Pip on the day we left.

Hyperventilating about going home and leaving a six month vacation behind.

Enjoying the culinary delights of Sydney

They did eventually get in the water

Our last weeks

Learning to surf

They looked awesome

You might not be able to see it but there is a Koala in this tree!

Washing the Duck to return him in a little bit better condition


In the rainforest on the east coast

AU east coast

Our last night camping in Australia!

Jewel with our 'Sydney or Bust' sign on the Ducky

My birthday cheesecake!

Erika tackeling the 33' crocodile statue- the real size of a croc they killed in the north of Australia

The croc gets the better of Kristen

Sydney and Home

Kristen writes;

We're back in the States!
But let me back up.

Erika and Jewel took an afternoon and took a surfing lesson, a fun and thrilling event to be sure. Just not as 'successful' as you might hope. They had a great time and did get up on the board a couple of times. I decided not to participate in this as we had been swimming a couple of days before and it was freezing! Not to mention the idea of being slapped in the face by the ocean isn't always my favorite. I acted as paparazzi instead and enjoyed watching the two of them attempting something that requires a lot of coordination.

We camped our last two nights, once at a loud and obnoxious rest stop on the side of the road. Free camping on the coast is not the same as free camping in the center where people stop driving at about sun down and there aren't many of them anyway. Our very last night we were at a beautiful lake front spot in the national park and had a very relaxing goodbye to life in the tent.
Of course, one of our motto's through all this 'cheap living' is to never eat a meal that made us lose the will to live. Our last night camping we came very close, using up all the remains of our food items. Thankfully after a soup that had us groaning we had chocolate to wash it down, topping up our desire to live.

Getting back to our friend Karla's place in the northern beaches of Sydney was great! It was so good to catch up with her and tell her all about our trip and talk about our trips coming up. (She left the day after we did to visit her family in New York so we all had a long trip coming up.)
We spent our last few days eating our way through Sydney. Enjoying the culinary delights that have been brought in by the immigrants; Thai, Chinese, and Greek. And the chocolate of the country that made a very big impression on us, Haigh's- a local, free trade organization that we toured in Adelaide, and an awesome chocolate bar that served up pudding as though it were hot chocolate.
We visited the water front, taking in the opera house and street fairs, went to the Art Gallery of NSW and enjoyed the speakers corner set up in the park outside the museum, attended service at the Anglican Cathedral and enjoyed their choir and visited almost every op shop (thrift store) that we passed in an effort to find Erika a dress to wear in our sisters wedding coming up soon.

Leaving each other in the airport to go to different destinations was one of the harder things we've had to do. We've become accustomed to having all three of us less than an arms length away at almost all times. Erika and I left at about two p.m. Wednesday afternoon, she got on the plane, ate, took her sleeping pills, put on her eye mask and went to sleep. I got on, ate, watched a couple of movies and proceeded to throw up the rest of the trip. We got in to Los Angeles at ten a.m. Wednesday morning. Hello international dateline! Wacky!
The good news about being ridiculously sick is that you get through customs quickly and easily.
Our next flight went well and we got in to Denver at about four.
Jewel threw through San Francisco and spent her eight hour lay over sick as well, but we weren't there to comfort her which was hard.

Now we're back with the family, working in the garden, hearing all about the wedding plans, unpacking and all the rest that comes with coming home.

Erika writes--

Yep, the beach is good. The thing about the beach, of course, is that there is not a lot to say. We swim (swam, this is past tense because we've come far enough south that it is pretty chilly now), sunbathe, read a lot, walk, watch sunsets and sunrises, camp and generally relax.

Right now, we're with an old friend (we knew each other as kids in Roanoke, Virginia) in Caloundra in the Sunshine Coast. We're enjoying catching up with each other and reminiscing about old times. We're doing a little shopping, walking around town, eating what Sarah cooks for us(!) and enjoying the hot tub (!!!). Today, we drove up to Noosa Heads to see KOALAS. We walked out to a headland along the coast (in the rain, it's pouring today) and peered into a certain kind of eucalyptus trees and eventually found a lump on a branch. A couple of little koalas were huddled up together and were adorable. We thought we'd do a scenic drive but it's hard to see very far when the rain is pelting down on you so that plan was nixed. Still, you can't hope to accomplish much more than koala sighting in just one day.

We're visiting some new friends in Brisbane tomorrow and flying out in a week. How could that be possible? We'll fly for 40 hours and arrive around the same time that we left Australia. Oh, int'l dateline, you are so strange. And a six month trip being over after all of what's happened is even stranger. So we'll see how that goes.

This is how we camp. It's a pretty good life.

The video is of life in a Hyundai Getz.

Seriously, there's so much nothing

Camel Race in Alice Springs

Kristen branding

Underground house in Cooper Pedy

Uluru in the rain

Helicopter ride!

Kristen mustering the cattle with Barry by motorbike

Us with a group of grey nomads

This is a sport called a campdraft. They direct
steers around poles.

The Breakaways, rocks near Cooper Pedy

Dear Yous,

That is seriously used here. Where someone like me would say y'all, people down under say yous or yous guys. Like Jersey, man.

Month five has been pretty thrilling. We visited Adelaide, which was a very cool city and seems like it would be a nice place to live but was cold and rainy while we were there, and then stocked up on supplies and drove up through the Center. If you are familiar at all with Australian geography, you know that this means a whole lot of nothing. We drove through the Flinders Ranges, which are some pretty hills, visited the town that's the base for the missile testing site (Woomera) and then drove for hours through the Outback. And hours. And hours. Then we visited Cooper Pedy, a small town that exists solely for opals. And now for tourists like us. It gets so hot there that the houses are mostly dug into hills. The only thing to look at are rocks that are different colors from all the other rocks. So we did that. To their credit, they are very pretty rocks. Alas, we did not find any opals, despite some (decidedly lackluster) attempts. We did camp underground, visit the home of Crocodile Harry (probably the guy Crocodile Dundee was based on) and look at lots of opals we couldn't afford.

It turns out that along the highway out here, there are rest stops and it's A-OK if you set up your camp there. There might be water, there might even be toilets and there are usually neighbors in caravans. We've gotten to know a lot of retired Australians in this way. They are called the "Grey Nomads"--a generation of people traveling around their country, seeing the whole thing. We have really enjoyed sitting around campfires and chatting with all of these people on the move.

Picture this: 3 girls, 3 backpacks, food for 2 weeks, 20 liters of petrol, 5-10 liters of water + books and other entertainment, all in a tiny car, rolling down the 2 lane highway through miles and miles of desert, reading out loud or trying to remember the words to songs all the way through because there's really not any radio stations in the middle of nowhere and our ipod dock is buggered and won't charge our ipod. Got that picture? Now add a heavy dose of crazy. Add a little more because we spend a lot of time together in very small spaces. And add another few drops because it's getting warm now but air conditioning will cost us more very expensive petrol. Yep, that's about what it's been like for the last few weeks.

We got to Uluru (Ayer's Rock) and the surrounding gorges/rock formations just as the Northern Territory experienced its coldest night on record. We were in our tent. The good news about that is that we've seen water in places most people never do and have a totally different view of the place to most. It was fun. We celebrated the 4th of July around a campfire in Curtin Springs, eating kangaroo sausages and drinking ginger beer and then rum with some boys from Sydney.

We spent a few days in an outback town called Cloncurry, watching a horse competition called camp drafting and camping at the dam. It was really beautiful but we had to keep an eye out for crocs. We got to be friends with the ranger and his family and had a barbecue with them.

This last week, we've been working at a station north of the 'Curry. We've mustered (I love working cows on horseback! Why haven't I been doing this all along?), branded, drove (moved the cows from one area to another) and drafted (separated cows into groups). We've had an awesome time and have loved living with our current hosts. Queensland is pretty different to other places we've been in Australia and I like it.

We're off to the coast to celebrate Kristen's birthday. We'll try to brave the crocs, sea snakes and stingers to dive the reef and then work our way down to Sydney, where we'll fly out home. It seems unreal and I'm sure it will stay that way until I start looking at my credit card bills! I probably won't have much access at all to the internet until I make it home so I'll update you from there--after a little recovery time!

Erika

Recent Big Events

Camel Cup; We went into the camel cup pretty excited about the whole thing, I mean, how often do you have an opportunity to see something like that?! To say that we were most excited about the bucket we got as a door prize would be an exaggeration but not a big one. The camel races were awesome, don't get me wrong, they start lying down and have to race around a track, a lot of camels pull up fast, walk the whole way, leave behind riders and all sorts so it's a fun race to watch. The problem is they are few and far between and the thing lasts all day. We spent a good part of our time there on our other favorite sport 'people watching'. As to the bucket it has become a coveted possesion serving as a great container, a stool, a chair, a wash bucket etc.

Stockmans Challenge; the challenge was really interesting and a lot of fun, it was also the same two activities for four straight days. Seeing all the different horses compete in the same thing, often with the same riders was sometimes amusing but we enjoyed it, and the fact that it was free entertainment we could come and go from at our leisure.

Quamby Rodeo; was more along the lines of something we knew and recognized, there was all sorts of events and we understood most of them. It's not a pro rodeo and some of the things that went on were a bit sketchy but entertaining none the less. We had a great time hanging out with our wwoof hosts, meeting new people (Erika especially, our hosts are still making fun of her for meeting some guy named 'Tom the Pom' (POM being a term for English people) they thought it was especially funny as she's 'Erika from America'), and watching events we knew and understood. There was some great people watching here as well as it's a big social event for people from hours around to see their neighbors.

These are our big events of late.

post from the bush

Erika writes--

G'day. I have no idea whether I can sum up what we've been doing in the last month or so since the last post. We've had no access to the internet since leaving Keith and the farm there. Sometimes, we didn't even have access to grocery stores. We carried enough water for a couple of days, food for a week and a tank of gas. How we got all of that into our little car beats me but we've really needed it all. One time, we didn't get to somewhere with water we could drink for so long that we had to break out the purifier. We've paid to camp in Adelaide, King's Canyon and in Alice Springs for one night but for the remaining time we've been all in the bush. In Australia you can camp along to side of the road or in rest stops, no problems. It's awesome. Somewhat purposefully and somewhat by happy coincidence, we timed the majority of our outback time with a new moon and have been seeing the most incredible night skies ever. I would never have believed how well one can see the Milky Way here.

So here's what we've done:

• saw Adelaide (toured museums and listened to lectures there, toured a chocolate factory and enjoyed samples, toured the Botanic Gardens, etc)
• camped underground in Cooper Pedy (opal mining town. It gets so hot there that they build/dig their houses underground. Also, their churches and everything else.)
• saw the big red rock (Uluru/Ayers Rock. It was cloudy and cold)
• and the Olgas (great, very cool rock formations) and King's Canyon (an oasis that must have looked like paradise to early exploreres, actually part of it is called the Garden of Eden) and the West MacDonell Ranges (beautiful gorges).
• went to the Camel Cup Races in Alice Springs. It was quite the spectacle.
• visited the Devil's Marbles (most of what there is to look at in the Center is rocks of an unusual shape or color. These are giant spheres.)
• went to a camp draft (horse event where you cut a steer and direct it around a course) in Cloncurry while camping out at the dam. Beautiful camp spot and we made friends with the ranger and had a BBQ tea with him and his family several nights. Got to know a few jackaroos.
• At the moment, we are jillerooing at a station north of Cloncurry. Yesterday, we mustered a mob and drafted them to wean the calves. I worked cattle on horse back and had a great time.

In general, life is awesome. We're going to the rodeo this weekend. Next week, we're heading to the coast to be there in time for Kristen's birthday. Hopefully, it will be warm and sunny and we'll dive on the Great Barrier Reef. Hopefully, we won't be killed by: 1. sharks 2. jellyfish 3. sea snakes or 4. saltwater crocs. I'm afraid of all of them.

Jewel conquered driving a manual in this ute

The baby lamb we rescued. We found her an adoptive sheep mother.

Recording weights and fat counts for the lambs

In the tractor.

Kristen and the big ole tractor she's been driving the last few days

Me crutching a sheep (shearing just its hind end)

Kristen cutting a lamb's tail off.

Lambies in a cradle

This is a wombat--did you know they looked like that?

This is the toy car fording a river!

Me bottling beer at Wayne and Angela's

At the craft fair--that's hand stitching

Ladies with whom we attended craft fair--that's our host,

Karla next to Jewel

4 Months In

Erika writes--

I was surprised to realize that yesterday was four months into this trip. Although our first week in Australia just dragged, the weeks since have really flown by with my noticing. I'll be home in 7 weeks or so, now. It is really surreal to think that. On one hand, I cannot wait to see my family and friends and catch the end of summer in Colorado. Two weeks after we return, my sister is getting married so I'm definitely excited about being home for that. On the other, I'm planning what we'll still do here in Australia and realizing there is not enough time (or money, as always!) On top of that, I miss New Zealand and I wish I could go back--already! It is a country that exerts a strange hold over anyone who ventures too close.

Our time in Australia so far has been quite varied. The first week was a little miserable. We were camping in Jervis Bay where we hoped to dive and hike for the week. It rained the whole time. We moved over to Canberra where it was predicted to be a little drier and we could do indoor activities. It rained more and was colder. Our tent was surrounded by a puddle--and inside, we entertained ourselves with reading out loud and Bananagrams and general ridiculousness. We spent far too much time solely in each other's company. We became even weirder. Honestly, it was hilarious and fun. But I was not sorry when we saw the sun again and when we slept in beds.

We have wwoofed (volunteered on farms in return for experience, accommodation and food) on three farms since. We spent some time on a biodynamic beef and ginseng farm, a sheep farm working towards self sustainability and are now on a large sheep and crop farm. It has been incredibly fun and educational. This week, I've cut young lambs tails off, shot vaccinations into them, ear tagged them (didn't help to castrate) pulled lambs from ewes after chasing the ewe down with a ute, driven a tractor with hay and helped to weigh and measure fat on yearling sheep. We've learned about bottling beer and making wine, gotten great recipes, moved cows, poured footings and chopped out tussocks. We have stayed with some wonderful, kind and generous families. Without exception, they have welcomed us in and taught us about Australian life and everything else we could think of questions about (how many kinds of football are there here? how does this government work? what is your relationship with England, anymore? why do you hate these tussocks so much?) It's been great. A system like this requires so much trust on behalf of both parties and proves that the world and people are so much better than we often believe.

One of our hosts introduced us to a wonderful woman in Sydney who welcomed us into her house when we had to go back there to change some arrangements. We were only planning on staying a night but she enticed us with a craft fair so we joined her and two of her friends for a show in Sydney Harbor. We saw an incredible display of quilts which would have made our mother very jealous and bought a few things for us all to do in the car and in the evenings. Too much, probably. More darling people and more great memories. We are looking forward to flying out of Sydney, just so we can see them again and tell them all about our trip. Here's a depressing thing about this trip--winter in the northern hemisphere, winter in the southern hemisphere and home just in time for winter in the northern hemisphere again. Incidentally, I am something of a summer girl. I live for those long, hot days and camping in the mountains and gardening, etc. We're in the south of the South Australia right now and even though it is a fairly mild winter compared to Colorado, it is pretty chilly. We are definitely going to head north after this. The north of Australia is in the tropics so we're going to try to find some tropical weather and enjoy that. All we need is the right beach. Right now, though, I'm going to go curl up in front of the fire and read "Eucalyptus", an incredibly Australian novel about a father who says he will marry his gorgeous daughter to the first man who can name all the gum (eucalyptus) trees on his property where he's collected all the known species. Did you know that there might be up to 900 species of eucalyptus?

Erika

PS. I saw white kangaroos today. They were special bred.

postscript #2: answers to earlier questions are--maybe 4: Rugby Union, Rugby League, Australian Football and Soccer. too complicated to tell you here which is good because I don't know if I totally understand it all but historic events unfolded before our eyes yesterday when Julia Gillard became the first woman PM here and overthrew a sitting PM. nobody knows--there is a Governor General who represents the queen (and once kicked out the whole gov't) but she was appointed by Australians! the bad tussocks are called serrated tussocks and were an import from South America--stock can't eat them but they tend to take over paddocks, especially when drought weakens other grass. We hated them, too, very quickly.

Jewel Sayings

Kristen writes;

We've found ourselves becoming much more humorous the more time we've been spending with each other. One thing you can't fail to notice about our cousin Jewel, after spending any amount of time with her, is the incredible one liners she comes up with. We really had to share these, you might not find them as funny as we have given you weren't there at the time but it'll give you a little insight into our trip.

"I'm very in-harmony with myself."

"We really need to just record ourselves all the time. Can we just hire a little Asian man to follow us around?"

"Can you imagine when the cave man first tried sugar? 'Holy shit! Can you believe I've been eating sticks and stuff?'"

"Sometimes I just want to follow myself around to watch- then I remember; I get to be ME!"

"Prostitute your affection for food!"

"I don't want to lick the knife clean cause it has a real metallic taste. Also it wasn't clean when I started. (spreading peanut butter onto your food)"

"I never really know what's going on in all parts of my brain. I use that to my advantage."

"Also, sometimes I wonder what my head would look like shaved."

"I have spent so much time, so much of my life really, wondering why I felt so uncomfortable around the Raggedy Ann doll."

"Now, when I make a peanut butter and honey sandwich it's like a painter mixing a perfect pallet."

"Guys, I just figured out why I like peanuts so much! They taste like peanut butter!"

"People don't know what they're missing by not traveling with us."

"At any point you can take; who we're traveling with, what we're doing, how we're doing it, what we're wearing, who we're with, or what we've been talking about and independently draw the conclusion that we're weird."

"That lemon juice is destructive! I would not underestimate it!"

"Did I really just say that? I think I'm developing Turrets... Jesus, please take away my Turrets."

"I'm trying to make them get on the bus with my mind."

"I just really love shower time. I mean, you get to get naked in hot water!"

"Also, somethings going on with my kidney."

"You're tongue is all over this country."

Talking about being a guru- "You have to be true to yourself... Something I learned from Free Willy."

"I'm going to put my pants on so people know I'm serious."

"My glee burst from me so quickly, I didn't have time to prepare my mouth."

"I'm developing an extreme fondness for sheep."

"Also Andrew Zuppaccich reminded me of a stocky little super hero."

"This is the land of peanut butter and honey."

"A foot is just such a good thing. If you tell me it's so many hundred centimeters I just get tired and want to take a nap. I want to stop talking to you."

"Shh, don't tell anyone, cause if there's anyone left to impress I want to take a stab at it."

"Dear Australia- take us to your sheep."

"What's up with these people? Fairies and rainbows and chocolate!"

"Put some peanut butter on that shit!"

"Lets make a game plan..."

New Zealand Words and Phrases

Kristen writes;

And now for something a little bit different.
One thing we've loved, traveling in the southern hemisphere, is the odd and unusual sayings and words they have here. We've been keeping a list and thought we might share some of our favorite New Zealand ones with you.

Togs- bathing suits
She'll be right- general statement of content
Saussies- sausages
At the end of the day- everything will be alright is what you are left to assume.
The game was the winner on the day- still not completely sure of the meaning but said a lot by cricket players.
Jim-jams- pajamas
Jandals- flip-flops
Goodonya- good job
Brekky- breakfast
Squeeze of the cow- milk
Slicker pads- ice packs
Pudding- any kind of dessert
Go like stink- very fast
Oldies- parents
Chilly bin- cooler
Dear- expensive
Singlet- undershirt
Pikelet- pancake
Pash- make out
Trundler park- shopping cart parking spot
Batch- holiday house
Bonnet- car hood
Boot- trunk
Windscreen- windshield
Ta- casual thanks
Serviette- dinner napkins

Back to Sydney

Kristen writes;

I believe we've mentioned our love of food. I want you to appreciate when I say our last wwoof host was one of the best cooks we've stayed with so far I'm giving great praise. We arrived in time for a going away dinner party they were having for a friend and enjoyed some of the best food ever! It didn't go down hill from there. One night we mentioned, accidentally as it is a taboo subject, our love of Mexican food. Wayne immediately decided we should cook a Mexican meal and did everything in his power to make it possible!
We were overwhelmed! We made beans, salsa, guacamole, tortillas, chimichangas, enchiladas and even a syrup we served over ice cream that we made from prickly pear fruit that we got from the back of their property! It was so much fun to be able to share our love of Mexican/Indian food with other food lovers and to be able to cook for someone that appreciated it. In fact, appreciated it so much they let us cook it another night, we had a dinner party for our going away as well!
Leaving Wayne and Angela's we traveled back to Sydney where we had to trade in the toy car for another car from a different rental company. They were nice enough to call a friend and ask if we could stay with her for the night we had planned here.
We liked Karla so much and got on so well with her that we ended up staying. The truth is she invited us to go to Sydney's largest craft show with her and her friends the next day so we took a day to explore the north beaches of Sydney and today spent several hours wandering a wonderful place! The problem with craft fairs is they make you feel so very crafty and you immediately start planning all the projects you want to do and of course we're traveling. We still managed to spend quite a bit more than we planned and now have a couple of things to keep us busy on the long car rides we'll be on.
Tomorrow we head off again in the direction of Broken Hill.

toy cars...and wwoofing

Erika--

We are at a new wwoof hosts' farm near Bega (on the coast east of Cooma). We came here on Sunday straight from the last farm. We decided to drive on slightly smaller roads from Braidwood here. We figured we could avoid the highway and see a little country. We were in no hurry. We ended up taking our toy car (no power at all, barely fits us and our bags) through streams and over a 4WD track. I told the girls at one stage, "this is exactly how those 'stupid tourist' stories usually go. I'll definitely show you guys pictures of this later but rest assured, everything was fine and we got here only slightly later than planned.

One of the things I love about wwoofing (volunteering on farms) is that we learn about such unexpected things. We have primarily chosen farms that raise some type of stock and are pretty large so that we can learn about meat and wool production. Along the way, we've learned much more about biodynamics (someday I'll try to explain here, for now google it if you want to know more!), solar power (measured and poured footings for solar panels), strawbale houses (last family had built theirs) and brewing and bottling beer. Yesterday morning, we helped Wayne bottle his latest batch of homebrew. They are trying to be sustainable/self sufficient and part of that process is making everything they consume. I have loved that idea since I was a child. Anyone want to move back to the land with me when I get home?

Going backward in time to some great stuff. This is a fence

of shoes in New Zealand--I miss you, Paco
And favorite thing ever: Hot Water Beach. At the top

there? Yeah, that's the OCEAN. The water is boiling out

of the sand. I love you, Mother Nature

Fencing today. Kristen stringing wire.
Kristen learns to drive the motorbike. Exciting and scary

for all.
Pouring concrete yesterday for the new solar arrays

being installed soon.
I'm supervising
Measuring for the footings.

Welcome to Australia. Complete with a baby in the pouch. Is that awesome or what?
Priceless.

This is one photo for the food record. That's hotdog burrito with Sunshine Brewery

beer. Good news: we made tacos last night for our host family and they were pretty

great.
Cathedral Cove. Lovely.
That's the arch at Cathedral Cove. Jewel and KR underneath.