Blue Mountains

Noel and I finally had a day off in Australia! For our first day of vacation in Australia, we decided to visit the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. The Blue Mountains are about two hours west of Sydney by Train and are home to one of the most dramatic landscapes in Australia.

Before heading to the Blue Mountains, Noel and I met up in Sydney for a night in the big city. Noel had been working in Sydney that week which made travel just a bit easier.

To make things interesting, we decided to stay in one of the oldest hotels in the Rocks district – the Lord Nelson Hotel AND Brewery! Yes, not only was this a hotel centrally located, it had the added benefit of being a brewery – a tasty one at that.

After some fine micro brews and a good night’s sleep we headed out for a side trip to Watsons Bay. Out day tripper tickets included all day transport, including the two hour ride to the Blue Mountains for just $15.00. Cheap but nice rides all around.

Watsons Bay backs up to the entrance of Sydney Harbour. Even though the weather was dreary, The cliffs and Ocean were still quite stunning.

Overlooking Watsons Bay and in the distance Sydney CBD.

We arrived in the Blue Mountains, unfortunately, the weather was no better than Sydney – wet and grey. The hotel was fantastic. It was built in the 1880’s as a Mountain resort.

The next morning we took a 3K hike to the three sisters range (pictured below). Since the weather was cold we decided to explore the valley floor .5K below.

The only way down was a massive set of stairs that hugged the cliffs. Though most of the route had handrails - some did not. It's times like this you realise the difference between Australia and the states - think legal action.

We reached the bottom and decided to take a long valley hike. Noel though it might be more fun doing cart wheels the way down. After hiking some 1 ½ hours we came across this sign, apparently designed to “prevent foreign tourists from getting lost”

A little bit on we came across this area called Laura Forest which felt kind of strange. Apparently the place used to be a picnic spot. Huge rock formations and large clearings made it look a little mystical.

After a few hours of hiking we made our way back up the Mountain. By this time our legs were really feeling it.

Some 1000 steps later we made it back. Our 16-18K hike felt good but really tiring…the views and the experience well worth the effort.

On Sunday we headed back for the cliff walk trail. The skies cleared (somewhat) for our final day in the Mountains.

Our First Party

Happy Halloween - welcome to the Ho-Down!

Hey y'all! After discovering that Halloween is not celebrated much here, we decided to have a Halloween party. We combined it with classic southern-style bbq. Everyone was a really good sport, and we had some great costumes!

Howdy!

Noel's favorite costume - a genuine Florida Gator! (go Gators!)

We all took turns carving a jack-o-lantern (another novelty here)

This is G.I. John

Kristy "give me a P" Moore (cheerleader)

Pete "call me Hank" Williams

Super Girl

Mark ... I'm an American?


Our bbq feast!


After dinner, Martijn (a Dutch Vampire) made traditional poffertjes


Group picture!

Happy Halloween y'all!

Great Ocean Road trip

Hey all!

Noel and I had a great time the second weekend of September when we attempted two great feats: driving on the left, then using our new driving skills, navigating one of the curviest and most beautiful drives in the world. The great ocean road is a two lane road from Torquay, a famous surfing town, and Warrnambool in Victoria.

Torquay was a short 2 hour drive from downtown Melbourne. Noel and I stopped for lunch and visited the headquarters of surfing company Ripcurl. Torquay is a really small but beautiful surfing village. The entire town revolves around surfing and was featured in the move point break. After a quick bite to eat and a t-shirt or two, we moved on to the start of the great ocean road.

We pressed on from Torquay for another 2 hours to the city of Apollo Bay. The road hugs tightly to the coast almost the entire drive to Apollo Bay. Views of the Southern Ocean were absolutely spectacular.

We arrived in Apollo Bay to find our hotel. It was a little cabin up on the hill side. While small, the atmosphere was very welcoming and the morning sunrise was second to none!

We continued our trip down the great ocean road to the twelve apostles. The twelve apostles are a series of six rock formations. The remaining six have fallen over time, but those that remain were quite a sight.

We made it!

Cheers and see you next time!

Pete & Noel

Work Life Balance

Hello! It's been awhile, but we're still here ...

This time we decided to post some pictures of us and our co-workers, the office is very social, and we arrived just in time for the social event of the KPMG year - but more on that later ...

First, as promised, is Noel's favorite piece of public art, Cow Up a Tree!

This giant cow is just outside our front door, as the centerpiece of the Harbour Esplanade waterfront :)

Also, we've been enjoying the sunnier weather - last weekend we went to Daleysford, a small wine and spa town about 1 hour outside of the city. This picture is at the top of the lookout tower in the botanical garden. It was a good day trip, and nice to get out of the city.


Also occupying our weekends is Pete's new hobby of beer making. We'll be having the first batch at his birthday party ... We'll let you know how it turns out ...



Oh yeah - we saw this in the liquor store, and figured you wouldn't see this in the US ;)



Okay, on to the main topic ... Work Life, well actually just the fun parts:

A few colleagues were in from Sydney, so there was a dinner organised. We went to Chinese Supper Inn, and no this isn't just a bad picture - the place is totally dodgy! Melbournians love their flash restaurants, but they insist the best food is at the dodgy restaurants ... the jury is still out on the food here (I think they went a bit heavy on the MSG), but it was heaps of fun!



After dinner we headed over to a typical night club, which means down an alley, around the corner, and past the dumpster. This place is Croft Institute, it's a medical laboratory theme and they brew their own vodka ... interesting place:

Lucky for us, the highlight of the KPMG social calendar is the ball, which is held at the end of July. We are very glad we made it here in time for this event. It was over-the-top to say the least. The theme was Masquerade, and everyone had to come w/ a mask!

This is a picture taken by the photographers of the room set-up, there were over 1500 in attendance:

Before dinner there were live performances, starting with the stilt walkers to Phantom of the Opera music:
Next were the trapeeze artists:



... and then ... well, we're not sure what to call these performers ... but they definitely got the crowd cheering ...

Here we are in our super special ball masks:

This is Roopa and Martijn. Martijn is on Secondment from Amsterdam.

Me and Roopa

Me, Jacinta, and Amanda

Okay, last of the girlie pictures

At the End-Of-Financial-Year Dinner (unfortunately we forgot our camera for that one), Pete challenged Roopa to a "Dance-Off" ... don't ask, it started w/ some friendly teasing, some South Park references ... and turned into something I dreaded having to witness at the Ball ... however, I think they actually combined their individual powers of dance into quite a cute performance ... see for yourself







A great time was had by all! Pete says "see ya next time!"


p.s. We miss everyone terribly!! The homesickness has begun setting in, not so much for places, but for our friends and family - we are thinking of all of you every day, and hope everyone can come and visit!!

Love & miss,

Noel and Pete

Finally - proof that we're actually in Australia
... and not just hiding out in South Beach :)


Koala!!
These first pictures are by far the highlight of our time here so far. We visited an animal sanctuary, about an hour outside the city. This koala was raised there, and is used to being handled. He climbed on the keeper as she was walking by, so she brought him over for us to pet.

Noel and koala:

Pete and koala:

Us and koala:

He was actually very soft, and smelled a bit like eucalyptus.

Footy!
(Australian Rules Football)

Our apartment is adjacent to the Telstra Dome, one of the 2 major footy stadiums in the city - they love sports here. AFL is played throughout the country, but mostly in Melbourne. There are 12 teams in the city alone, one for each suburb. At the recommendation of a co-worker, we attended the St. Kilda Saints vs. Collingwood Magpies game. The crowd was very spirited, and we learned a lot about the game from their colourful commentary ;)

We decided that we liked the Saints so much, that Pete got the official scarf (or maybe it was just b/c it was very chilly). They won by a landslide. Unfortunately, our allegiance is somewhat fickle; we went to another footy match this past Friday and barracked (we would say "rooted" - but that has a very dirty connotation in Australia) for the Melbourne Demons, they were also victorious and we'd like to think we're good luck!

Pete - the Saints fan:

The view from our seats. Those are the goal posts, and different amounts of points are awarded depending on which set of posts the ball is kicked through.

Fans leaving the game, also, the view from our balcony :)

Art
The Melbournians love art, modern art mostly. There are more public displays of art here than I've seen anywhere else. Actually, as they would say ... "the most public art in the southern hemisphere!"

This past weekend was a modern design celebration week, which included a "ready-made" show on Sunday. We went to see the cool stuff from young designers, hoping to pick up some funky stuff to decorate with ... Unfortunately, they are serious designers, and a bit pricey - but it was fun nonetheless. Here's a picture Pete took of me shopping for elephant outlines printed on various pieces of fabric. If the surrounding looks a bit dodgy, that's b/c the exhibition was held in the car park (parking garage) ... strange, but it worked:

And for the finale ... Pete's favourite public display of art thus far - performance art nonetheless ... the one and only:

Sonic Manipulator!!

Yeah - Pete loves this guy. He's dressed in a "space suit" and "raps" about the "martians that are coming to drink all our beer". He appears on weekends, on busy street corners. He has an album, which can be purchased through his website - you can google it yourself, if you're really that interested ;) Melbourne, while a large city for Australia - isn't that big. You see the same street performers every weekend, sometimes they move around, but there are only 6 or 7 ... so, this guy stands out!

That's all for now, the next blog will feature some of the "small, but noticeable" differences b/w here and the US ... it's the little things that count ... Also ... more photos of public art, including "Cow Up a Tree", Noel's local favourite!