We've Moved!

We have now left Australia and have landed in Tucson, Arizona. We've signed a contract on a house and I will send around a change of address card when we move in next month. In the meantime, the blog has also moved. Please look out for us at http://susconnor.wordpress.com
Hope to see you there.

Susan, Tim and Elliott

The Final Weeks

After 3 years, our Australian adventure is coming to an end. We are now in the final few weeks. The movers come on May 7 and we fly out May 15. The closets are cleaned out and the suitcases are ready. All the electrical goods have to be sold becuase they won't work back in the US.

My little Toyota Yaris is sold - fingers crossed - the buyer is coming back tonight with the money. The usual last minute scramble...I left the overhead light on in the car by mistake. When I went to take photos of the car for the internet ad, the battery was flat. Luckily I have the auto service and they came out and sold me a new battery. The old one had reached the end of its life and couldn't just be jumped! Cha-Ching $AU 155. When you sell a car in Queensland, you have to provide a Roadworthy Certificate (provided by certified mechanic). Cha-Ching $AU 60. Well, then I needed 2 new tires. Cha-Ching $AU 200. We seem to have made a good choice with the Yaris though. Great little car. The phone has been ringing off the hook with people wanting to buy it. Even the mechanic that did the safety check on it was interested.

We have been waiting and waiting to go back to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. The weather has been so awful for weeks. The rain has been unbelievable! The dams are about 60% full and the water restrictions are being relaxed a bit more. Finally, last weekend was lovely and we headed over to take those last minute photos at Lone Pine. When we first arrived in Australia in 2006, we had some pictures taken near this board that shows how tall a kangaroo grows. I wanted to get a few shots to show how much Elliott has grown in 3 years. Elliott keeps insisting that he is as tall as Tim. However, with all Tim's big hair, it's hard to tell exactly. Nevertheless, Elliott seems to have grown as tall as an Eastern grey kangaroo. I am about the size of a common rock wallaroo.

It's hard to finally close this blog! I am going to publish the blog in a book form using Blurb.com. You can import your blog, photos and all, and have it made into a book. I'd like to get it sent off before we leave because all the spare photos are all on this computer, not on a laptop that we will carry with us. All you people who cried out for more photos...I see that now! I admit it - I needed more photos! I will keep that in mind for my next blog. Details to follow: something like Further Adventures of the Connor Family, or Repatriation of the Serial Ex-Pat.

Looking back over the 3 years, we have had a lot of interesting adventures. We got to see a lot of Australia, but there is still so much to see. A few places I'm sorry to have missed are the Kimberlies, the Bungle Bungles, and Lord Howe Island. I feel like we had a good balance of work, school and travel. Tim was busier than ever while we were here, but Elliott was so much less busy. The school was probably both a mix of good and bad. Elliott has made some very nice friends, but I do wonder what he has learned in his time here. There has been no academic pressure, no homework and no effort. The Australians do believe in letting the kids be kids as long as possible. I think that's why so many 20-30 year olds still live at home with their parents here. I hope when Elliott starts high school in the States, homework won't be too much of a shock for him! Elliott has learned to get around on the bus this year. He takes the city bus around to see friends and to and from school. I will miss public transport in Tucson. From what I can tell, there isn't much of it. It will be interesting to see what else we might miss.

It will be interesting to see how we go back in the US. We know a lot of people that have gone back, and re-entry seems a little bumpy. We are thinking it's definately for 4 years, then we'll play it by ear. We hope to retire in Tucson and stay there forever. But we have it in the back of our minds, that it's possible to head back off in the future...

Rainbow Beach

Elliott is again enjoying a few weeks off from school. All Australians celebrate Easter with at least a four day weekend. Most people head to the beach or go camping. It is a time to enjoy the pleasant fall weather - not too hot, and not too cold. However, this year, it is constantly raining! I wouldn't believe there was a draught here. The weather forecast in the newspaper looks like the ones from England with showers every day. The dams are still hovering around 51% full. They must be located in the only dry place in Queensland.

We decided to head up to Rainbow Beach on the Sunshine Coast for a few days. We thought of more exotic locations, but Elliott didn't feel like going snorkeling. I'll always regret not going to the Kimberlies, but it's been impossible to find the two weeks needed at the right season. The idea of looking for Thundereggs up at Mt. Hay didn't seem so appealing after our last try at Mt. Tambourine. So...we ended up with a 1/2 price last minute deal at a beach resort for a few days.

The beach at Rainbow Beach was very nice. The colored sands of the cliffs along the beach give the place its name. However, we thought it got the name Rainbow Beach because it never stopped raining! Well, that is a slight exaggeration. There were a few brief periods where it wasn't raining. Elliott brought a friend along, which was great except for the fact the kid didn't like the ocean. Who ever heard of an Australian teenage boy who wouldn't swim in the ocean? It made for an interesting trip! We played a lot of games - Rummy-O, Boggle and also I Doubt It (Cheat). Elliott loves playing I Doubt It - something about lying to his parents and then trash talking appeals to him.

That was our final Aussie vacation. A bit anti-climatic really, after all the great vacations we have had in our 3 years here. The most memorable thing was going to dinner at the outdoor restaurant at the hotel and being swarmed by mosquitos. They kept 6 cans of bug spray on the bar to use, but everyone in the whole place kept slapping themselves for the whole meal. When we got home from the trip, Elliott had a whopping 51 mosquito bites . A new personal best!

Thundereggs

A thunderegg is a geological structure, similar to a geode, that is formed within a rhyolitic lava flow. (Whatever that is...) Thunderbird Park is down near Mt. Tambourine. At the park, you can climb on a tree-top adventure playground or trail ride on horses. Also, there is a mine where you can dig for your own thundereggs. You can get yourself a mining permit and head out with a small pick axe and a bucket to dig around in the "mine." It wasn't quite what we expected. It was more digging around on the slope of a hill really, than digging inside a mine. I had been warned that the thundereggs at Mt. Tambourine were inferior to the ones found in North Queensland, but we still thought it might be interesting.

We lasted about an hour and half I think. It was back breaking work and it was rather hot. Tim and Elliott were complaining about the blisters they were getting. I pointed out my hands were aleady tough from the work I do around the house, but they thought it was more the case I wasn't doing enough digging. The trick with the thundereggs is that they don't look like much before you cut them open. We found a few interesting rocks that we took back to the mining shed. They sort them for you and tell you what might be worth cutting open and seeing what's inside. So, of course, everyone has to have a look in a few just to be sure they didn't miss anything. We walked away with a few things that look nice-ish, but I'm not convinced they are even really thundereggs! But, I think the day was instructive. We learned it's probably not worth driving 12 hours to dig at another place we were considering.

We also stopped at a new tourist place called the Sky Walk. They built a walk way over the rain forest. We paid 45$ to go in. Of course, I'm so afraid of heights...I was grabbing onto Tim's arm so hard he claimed I cut the circulation off to his hand. We finished the walk across the walkway within record time since I wouldn't let anyone stop to admire the view. Keep walking! Don't look down! Needless to say, that's probably not another experience we'd repeat. Plenty of lovely walks around Mt. Tambourine that are free and remain on the ground.

Hope you used pencil in your address book!

Yes, we are officially on the move again. After 3 years in Australia, we will be returning to the US in May. It's been an interesting experience here, but I am looking forward to going back. When people ask if I'm excited or sad or nervous...I reply that I'm all three at once.

We hoped we could get something in Tucson because we would eventually like to retire there. When we were back in the US, we stopped there to check out some houses and the school for Elliott. We got stay with my aunt and uncle - it will be great to have family nearby. Luckily, Tim was able to sort out some work there. He'll work at home and then travel a bit. After being a housewife for so long, it will be weird to have Tim hanging around at home all day. Already, I'm thinking of how I can go back to school or work...

Of course, "The Move" is taking up all our waking thoughts. Also, we are now following the US economy with obsessive interest. Australians seem to think they will be immune to any downturn. Considering you still can't find a parking space at the mall in Brisbane, consumer spending still seems pretty good so far. Maybe that should be a new economic indicator - how long it takes to find a parking space at the mall.

We have done a lot of nothing now we are back in the school term. The only pictures I could come up with are ones of bizarre things that have wandered in our garden. One - a giant stick insect. Two - a blue tongued skink (a kind of lizardy thing with a blue tongue). The skink went into the pool and couldn't get out again so he was just hanging out on the pink raft. The bug - Tim found it already dead and put it somewhere to scare me. It didn't work though - it was so big I didn't realize it was a real bug.

With all the rain we have had over the last few months, things have settled down a bit in terms of water restrictions. You are now allowed to wash your car between 4 and 4:30 pm on Saturday afternoons - with a hose!! So, this was very exciting. We had to teach Elliott how to wash the car. It had been so long he had forgotten how it was done. (Yes, he has grown about 2 feet since we moved here!)

The only other thing I've been doing lately is sewing. I brought a lot of fabric from the UK to Australia and I decided I better use it up. I couldn't see dragging it all back to the US. I had come across a woman who collects quilts for the Linus Project, so I made some simple scrap quilts for the charity. I just dropped off eight quilts in all. I'm sure the Linus Project will find nice homes for them.

Last thing I'll say...3 YEARS on this blog and I still can't move the pictures around properly. My apologies - I hope you can tell the difference between which one is the skink and which one is Elliott.

New Zealand

For our annual Christmas trip back to the United States, we decided to make a stop over in New Zealand. It was a busy morning – closing up the house for an entire month is always a bit fraught. Tim added to the drama by breaking his toe on the bike stand just as the taxi to the airport was pulling in the driveway. The whole flight he kept telling us the toe was dislocated and Elliott and I were going to have to pop it back in place upon arrival at the hotel. Luckily for us, the toe did seem to pop back into place on its own, but poor Tim was a bit hobbled for the remainder of the trip! I will try and do more photos this blog, but I’ll spare you the ones of his purple toe.

Auckland itself was an interesting city. We had read the city was surrounded by many volcanoes, so we weren’t quite sure what to expect. We were slightly disappointed to realize they really were inactive and the grass had grown over them. Still, it was all very beautiful, but just not as thrilling as we first thought it might be! We went out to see a few of the higher volcanic areas – Mt. Eden and One Tree Hill. It was lucky that the Governor’s gardens were open to the public on the one day we happened by.

We also enjoyed the Auckland Art Museum. It had a very interesting display of Maori artifacts, including a meeting house and a war canoe. We were struck how different the Maori culture is from the Aboriginal culture in Australia. There were some very unusual Maori textiles that I had never seen before.

New Zealand is known for exciting and dangerous adventure holidays. A trip to the Sky Tower in Auckland is a good place to start. At 328 meters, it’s the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. We rode up in a glass elevator to the observation deck. My palms were sweating the whole time! Looking down, you could see a giant red bulls eye that serves as a target for the bungee jumpers. Tim threatened to do it, but I told him he’d have to make sure his life insurance covered it before he jumped. Elliott and Tim both enjoyed freaking me out by jumping up and down on the glass floor.

After exploring Auckland, we headed south. We had to stop in Matamata to check out Hobbiton. We felt we had to at least get a photo of the place for Uncle Shane – a big Lord of the Rings fan. Upon arrival, we found out you had to have a tour of the place, or else we really couldn’t see a thing. Luckily a tour bus was just pulling up as we arrived, so there was no time to debate the exorbitant price we would have to pay. The Hobbit scenes were filmed on a sheep farm so far in the middle of nowhere. There was only one tiny hay barn roof you could see in the distance. Other than that, there was no sign of anything man made as far as you could see in any direction. Lovely spot! We enjoyed the guided tour very much and loved hearing all the gossip about the director Peter Jackson. The tour ended back at the sheep farm where we got to see a sheep shearing demonstration. But the funniest was getting to sample the Hobbit beer. Peter Jackson realized the Hobbits would get quite drunk during the filming if they drank real beer. Another problem was that a lot of Hobbits were played by little kids and they couldn’t be giving little kids real beer. So he bought a brewery and had them make a 1% alcohol beer just for the movie. The beer is called “Sobering Thought” and is only available in Matamata. We had to try it out for ourselves of course…tastes just like the real thing!

I planned to stay in Rotarua just for one night. I had heard the town was quite odiferous due to all the thermal activity. I booked a hotel right on the lake thinking how nice and scenic it would be, not realizing that it was the lake itself that stank. If you stay in Rotarua yourselves….don’t choose the hotel with a view of the lake! They say you get used to the smell, but I’m not convinced. It was stinky, but it was interesting! We saw a lot of bubbling mud pools and hot springs.

Rotarua has a large Maori population. There are many opportunities to visit Maori villages and eat a Maori feast. We went one evening to Mitai Maori Village where they prepared us a ‘hangi’ – a feast prepared in a pit. They also did some traditional songs and poi dances where the women do some twirling thing with flax balls. It’s hard to describe, but it was fun to watch. The highlight, of course, would be seeing the Haka, the traditional Maori war dance. The All Blacks Rugby team still does this before every match to intimidate the opposition. The next day, we went to Whakarewarewa Thermal Village. Yes, that is what it’s called – no typo. It is a Maori village with a lot of thermal activity. I think we would have enjoyed that day more, had it not rained quite so hard!

On our way to Lake Taupo, we stopped at Waimangu Volcanic Valley. This was created during an eruption in 1886, so it is relatively new in geological terms. There is a lovely walk that heads down into the volcanic valley. You walk by all these thermal hot springs and geysers. The photos will do it more justice than my telling about it. Luckily, there was a free shuttle bus that picked you up at the bottom of the hill and took us back up to the top. To be honest, by this point, Elliott was getting a bit fed up with all the walking. Seen one hot spring, you seen them all!

We stopped in Lake Taupo for a few days. Luckily, the weather did clear up. We have gotten soft after living in Australia. We have realized tramping about in the wet is not nearly as fun as in the sun! One highlight of the area was “The Craters of the Moon” – yet another hot springs, volcanic area. But this one was relatively unspoiled by over-development and we enjoyed a good hike around.

Our guide book was a second hand Lonely Planet that Aunt Becky had used a few years before. There was some confusion about her notes in the margins. Did the star mean she had been there and it was good? Did it mean she had wanted to go but hadn’t made it? What was the X? Too expensive? Or fully booked? Well, we went to one starred place in the guide book: Taupo Hot Springs and Health Spa. It turned out to be a public swimming pool where most of the pools were fed by hot springs. It wouldn’t have been so awful if there weren’t signs posted everywhere saying “Keep Your Head Out of the Water to Prevent Amoebic Meningitis.” Yuck! There was a water slide that Elliott and Tim couldn’t resist, but Tim got a bit worried when he kept getting a nose full of water every time he crashed into the pool! We had a few worrisome days wondering how Amoebic Meningitis would present itself.

Next stop was Tongariro National Park. This park was another Lord of the Rings filming location. Mount Doom in the movie was really a composite of several of the mountains here. Some of the Orc fighting scenes were filmed at the Whakapapa Ski Field. The first afternoon we arrived, the weather was clear and we had some great views of the mountains. Sadly, the next day, the mountains were barely visible under a heavy cloud cover. We had only one day to try to do the Tongariro Crossing – an 18.5 km hike that takes you over the rim of the crater and down over some spectacular lakes. We hiked in for about 8 km, but going thru the South Crater visibility was very poor. As we climbed up the rim, it was very windy and rainy. We couldn’t see anything over the side – very scary for a person afraid of heights at the best of time! We turned back at that point, figuring there was not much point in torturing ourselves for a great view when there was going to be no view in the fog anyway! It was disappointing though to only have one day scheduled to do it.

The next day, we went to Waitomo Caves. We went to check out the Black Water Rafting thru the glow worm caves. After I read the waiver and something about jumping backwards over a waterfall, I decided to let the boys do this adventure on their own. I was still shaken from the Tongariro Crossing! I stayed dry up top while Tim and Elliott donned wet suits and got into inner tubes. It sounded like I missed a great trip with spectacular scenery, but when they mentioned floating on their backs thru a tiny little cave opening – faces an inch from the rock wall – I think I made the right choice.

In Waitomo, we stayed in a hotel listed in the outdated guide book. It was possibly the worst hotel we had ever stayed in for a variety of reasons. When we got to the US, we checked out the latest Lonely Planet guide book. Sure enough, the hotel review had been re-written. It was something like…If the Bates motel from “Pyscho” and the hotel from “The Shining” had a bastard child….this hotel would be that offspring! Too right! Note to self….buy an up to date guide book!

On the last day in New Zealand, we went to see a Kiwi bird. As they are nearly extinct, there are very few around in the wild. We really enjoyed the Otoronhanga Native Bird Park. Kiwis are a very strange looking bird. It is easy to understand why they struggle in the modern world. They just aren’t equipped to fight off any introduced predators. On the way back to the Airport in Auckland, we stopped at the Hamilton Botanical Gardens. It was a lovely sunny day and the gardens were very well done. The last day was totally unplanned, but we were lucky to stumble across two great things to see.

If you look at a map of New Zealand, you will realize we didn’t cover much ground. We stayed only on the North Island, and didn’t even see all of that. New Zealand has so much to offer that we didn’t want to rush it. That leaves us with another trip to plan someday…a tour of the South Island.

*Editor's Note: The pictures are a pain to move around in this blog format - so I apoligize they're not exactly in the right place. No matter where I moved the photos - I still get a wierd paragraph format!

Thanksgiving Lawn Bowls

First off, I'd like to say hello to anyone that read a Christmas Card and decided to check out the blog. I picked out those cards in the sales after Christmas last year. After looking at them now, I can't imagine why I ever thought they were funny. After 3 years, we are heading into the end of the blog. I imagine one more post about New Zealand, about Easter vacation and maybe one to wrap it all up. Seriously, I think we are moving back to the US next June. It will be 16 years abroad by that point.

Several of the Americans that have been in Brisbane with our group have gone back to the US already. So we were a smaller group for Thanksgiving this year. Someone decided Lawn Bowls would be fun to try. It was a bit of a hard sell to get Elliott to go, but in the end, I think we all enjoyed it. Elliott won a bottle of wine, which he dutifully turned over to me! A couple of the families leave in the next few weeks, so it was a bit of a good-bye celebration as well.

The Lawn Bowling itself was harder than it looks. There is a little round ball, but it is weighted so it will always curve. First, you throw a white little ball down the perfectly manicured lawn. Then you take turns rolling your ball, trying to get it the closest to little white one. The gentleman who gave us lessons and supervised us split us into two groups - men and ladies - so the ladies could have a "shorter game." I guess he was worried we wouldn't have the strength to roll the little ball far enough. The length wasn't really a problem, but I should have paid more attention in physics.

The other exciting thing I've been doing, besides lawn bowls, is Bridge. I am now taking up all activities suitable for those over 60. If we end up in Tucson with all the "snow birds," I want to be able to fit in with the Senior Set. It has been really good fun. I play with a lady I know from tennis. They say you should play with someone that is smarter than you are...I chose well! We've been playing once or twice a week. I would like somehow to indicate we have won 2$ on several occasions, but I'm worried about tipping off the IRS.

Well, that's all the news really. For the next few days, it will be scramble to get everything sorted for our Christmas trip. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!