End of Summer!

If this doesn't sound like a Mastercard commercial, I don't know what will: "Having endless open ocean to look out upon and warm sunny temperatures - $2150 a plane ticket. Quick high waves wash up and soak your shoes and picnic blanket - replacement value $235. Having sand blow on your sandwich and into your bean dip making a gritty lunch, but having an entire beach to yourself - PRICELESS!

We have now been in Australia for a month and loving the extra 'summer' holidays. The last few weeks before school starts up again, our family explored a little bit more of the Southwest using Harvey as our home base. We camped two nights in Wellington National Park, about 45 minutes away. We remembered that tent walls were very thin as the noisy Kookaburras, crows, ducks, and magpies woke us up when the sun came up around 5 o'clock in the morning. During the day we went bushwalking on some great trails, but the highlight was swimming in Honeymoon Pool's cool and refreshing river waters.

Another trip was to Fremantle for Becky's Birthday. We swam at a beach, went to the docks, fishing harbour and toured Fremantle Prison. No trip to Australia is complete without a convict history lesson and gaol tour. This was Western Australia's first convict prison. In 1857 the first prisoners (men, women and children) arrived from England and Ireland and only recently closed in 1991. Below is a replica of the first cells, our little jailbird Jackson, and above right is 'the yard'.

Jackson's 4th Birthday - January 17, 2011

It's my birthday and I want to see dolphins!

Before we left Canada we asked our boys what they wanted to do for their birthdays in Australia. Birthdays spent in the opposite season are special. How many Canadians born in January can say the celebrated it swimming at the beach? Jackson wanted to ride a dolphin! We did the next best thing and took him to Bunbury Dolphin Discovery Centre where wild dolphins often come to visit. We waited 3+ hours, but eventually one did come and wish wee Jack Jack Happy Birthday.

Dolphin sighting and petting a starfish.

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Petting a sea urchin and just hanging out at the beach.

Happy Birthday Jackson!

Ocean Swim and Kangaroo Sighting

On our 'Big Day Out', we started at Harvey Dam to do some bushwalking, play at the playground, climb the stairs to the top of the dam to view the lake and to see how low the water levels are in the Southwest, and to have a 'Sausage Sizzle'. At the dam, there is an amphitheatre and beautifully maintained gardens with native trees and flowers, plus a picnic area with free electric barbeques. Aussies love their bbq and no bbq goes without sausages! A new friend and Harvey Senior High School colleague, Colin Newton and his wife Miho were our cooks and tour guides today. Next stop - the beach. A short scenic drive to the Indian Ocean. Harvey is 18 km from the seaside, so I can't complain. The wind was up so the waves were rough, but it was nice to be at the beach in January. I believe that the water on the west side was warmer than the Pacific side beaches in Sydney. Caleb and Jackson had a blast being pushed over and up the beach by the incoming waves. They would be ankle deep one second, and then up to their armpits the next. After a picnic on some locally produced cheeses, meats, and fruit juice we headed home along the Old Forest Road. To cap off a wonderful day, Becky spotted some Kangaroos. I braked hard to make the approach and quickly turned into a farmer's side road to investigate. Our first Kangaroo sighting was a good one - 11 roos in the mob! It was a good day:)

Walker's Down Under New Car

This past week I bought a vehicle, so we can be more mobile during our stay in Harvey. We looked in the classified ads newspaper 'The Quokka', but most were 140 km away in Perth. The local dealership in town and a used car lot up the road provided a small selection to choose from. No vans (people movers in Aussie slang), a couple sedans, one uniquely Australian Ute (a truck/ car that range is size from a small compact to a full size pickup), and one SUV. We bought the SUV, a 1999 Suzuki Grand Vitarra SUV complete with a Roo Bar. It has 5 seats and quite a bit of room in 'the boot'. I drove it off the lot and straight home. The plates are good until May 11, 2011 and for a 12 month renewal it will cost less than $400 AUD! Once we had wheels - we have driven to Bunbury [a nearby city of 60 000], Harvey Dam [a forest park and picnic area], Mylup Beach [an Indian Ocean beach 20 km away], and around town several times; discovering a winery on 3rd Street, a fruit and veggies stand with a honesty paybox, and orange orchards with Harvey's giant orange.

A few driving in Southwest Australia notes: always drive on the left side of the road, shift gears with your left hand, don't wait for pedestians - they wait for you, signal lights are called indicators and are on the right side of the steering wheel, windscreen washers are on the left side on the steering wheel [got that one mixed up several times], Give Way means yield, and the speed limit means the absolute limit of your driving speed - even 4 km over can get you a speeding ticket.

Blue Mountains

One of the outings on our list of things to do was to get out into the countryside and explore the Blue Mountains National Park. We took a train from Sydney out to Katoomba for a day of hiking and cranky kids. (And a cranky wife...once the kids were happy, mom was happy too.) Once we got to the Prince Henry trail head, the boys we very excited to set off. The highlight of the hike was seeing our first Australian animal along the trail-an echidna. We had a great time bushwalking for 3 plus kilometres, part of that in the rain. The views were spectacular, and you could see how the name Blue Mountains came to be.

Sydney Vacation Part 2

One of the reasons we decided to come at this time was to witness the New Years celebration and fireworks. Upon arrival we found out that 1.5 million people would be watching it live throughout the harbour area. The prime spots, i.e. the Opera House and north Sydney parks are filled up by morning. So... we walked 10 minutes to a nearby park and got a back side view of the harbour bridge, but with no choreographed music:( Good thing there was a 9 o'clock family fireworks display as Caleb and Jackson wouldn't of lasted until midnight. So this is what the Walker's saw. Kinda funny... we travelled 14 000 miles to watch the midnight fireworks display from our hotel room television. At least we could say that we could still feel and hear the booms as we watched it "live" on tv.

On New Years Day we visited the Royal Botanical Gardens. The trees were amazing and one could spend all day discovering new and wonderful things. Here are some of the things we saw. 1) Flying Foxes - giant bats hanging upside down vampire-style in the trees. 2) Caleb's new best friend. 3) The most amusing event of the day for Jackson - spitting down a storm drain and on bird poop. (Whether it is a good immune system, the tetnus, or Hep shots, nobody has been sick, considering the licking of bus stop windows/ playing with chewed gum/ touching everything everywhere in public bathrooms.)

Sydney Vacation

Arrived on December 29, 2010 in beautiful and sunny Sydney. Our hotel was an International Guest House in Glebe (about 10 minute bus ride from the downtown centre). After a 15.5 hour flight all we did the first day was get get some Subway sandwiches with raw bacon and veggies (capsicum, carrots, cucumber, wilted lettuce) and play at a nearby playground.

One of the many awesome things we did in Sydney included swimming at Bronte Beach. We picked Bronte out of the many, many sea side beaches Sydney has to offer because Lonely Planet guide book stated it was the best for families - not too crowded, shallow rock pool, not too deep swimming area, shady pines to spread a blanket and a playground (essential when traveling with 3 & 5 year olds). The boys had a blast jumping/ slpashing/ being pushed around in the cool ocean water. Hey, we're Canadian, it's warm once you get in!

Attached is a video of our Bronte beach excursion as well as some pics.


And of course we have to attach some iconic Sydney sights - Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, both are truly impressive.

Arrived at our new home.

We have finally arrived at our new home in Harvey, Western Australia. I am having difficulty uploading our photos at the moment, so you'll have to wait. But, we some good pics from our Sydney holiday to post in the near future.

Aha! I gots me a photo of me house ->.