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| The Christmas Tree! We arrived on xmas eve fresh from Singapore/Malaysia |
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| The Headlands near Bermagui - Camel Rock - Southern Coast of New South Wales |
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| Two sistars by a stellar sea arch |
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| Hiking in the Highcountry of Australia - the Snowy Mountains |
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| Fresh hidden water gems everywhere! |
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| The Crew! |
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| James and Kayla enjoying life at the hottest Sydney restaurant...if only I could remember the name... |
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| Yep, a movie screen that slowly came out of the water, as we watched from shore, over the harbour! |
The Aussie chapter started with a familiar feeling-airport greeting with my sister. She and I have lived in separate countries for maybe 10 years now, and we are lucky enough to have had the privilege of having visits often; so the airport hellos and goodbyes are familiar. This one was special, my sister and brother in law were welcoming me and my sweetie (whom they have never met) to their beachside home for three weeks over Christmas and New Years.
We arrived to a warm-ish summer day, and a completely tidy and stocked apartment, complete with a Christmas tree (a decorated branch from the headland National Park area that they live beside), cupboard full with bulk foods, counters brimming with market fruit and veg, a neatly made guest bedroom, and a fridge full of celebratory bubbly bevvies. My sister and brother in law are such amazing generous hosts, and they were very excited to have us there, which felt so nice.
It was good to be home! In my sisters beautiful home!
Christmas was full of epic delicious food consuming marathons, beach running, yoga mornings and smooches with my sweetie. We spent the week after Christmas adventuring. We headed down to Tua's parents place on the New South Wales coast, a popular holiday spot, but super chill vibes, as there are enough locals to outnumber the holiday goers. We checked out some beautiful sea stacks and headland walks, spent time in town at the bulk food/health food store, and went kayaking on the lake that they live closest too (with its extremely abundant jellyfish, we were unwilling to fall out!)
From Bermagui, we ventured onwards to the Snowy Mountains, otherwise known as Kosciuszko National Park, and also known as the Aussie Alps. While they certainly aren't as tall as the Alps (Mount Kosciuszko is the tallest mountain in Australia at just 2228 meters above sea level.) The park is at an elevation enough to yield the best ski conditions in Australia and cross-country skiing & camping is a favourite activity of some Australians in this park. Since it is summer now in Oz, we were treated to the high country feels of relatively barren landscapes, save for the stunning carpet of multicoloured flowers that pop up everywhere on this landscape of bogs, braided streams, (invisible until up close because of the built-up squishy flora that is the ground we walked across). Actually, it's quite a stark landscape, full of ancient looking gum trees that have remained standing even though they have died in forest fires. The result is twisted silver coloured standing relics of a forest that once was. Errie at times really.
In traveling to the snowy mountain area, I'm reminded of my appreciation of what my friend calls the high country at home on Vancouver Island. A landscape that is unique and more vulnerable to variable weather then lower elevations. One that has a brave and hardy ecology that can withstand the climate of higher elevations. It's special, unique and different than where people generally live. I'm inspired to get back out to the high country this summer at home on Vancouver Island.
After our time in the snowy mountains, we rang in the new year and celebrated Kristas birthday by going to a yummy Sydney restaurant and cruising around downtown.
In the first week of January, while scheming and dreaming about what I want to manifest in 2018 James and I had another camping trip. This time we made use of the interconnected rail system around Sydney, and we camped in the Blue Mountains. Later that week we had quite an entertaining camping expedition with Krista in the mix as well in the Royal National Park. This one again made use of the well-designed rail system to get out to the trailheads, where we hiked camped and hike on out to another train station! Brilliant low impact camping no car required. Both trips were super special and super unique. The Blue Mountains aren't the blue hued giants poking up from the earths crust that you might imagine. More truly the region is a massive canyon. We hiked down, down, down, beside waterfalls and along rivers, around unidentifiable snakes and plenty of sneaky lizards, into the Blue Gum forest, a preserved patch of old growth gums that we camped near, along with thousands of extraordinarily loud cicadas. Eating dinner with earplugs in was a first for me! Lucky for us, they sleep at night. Unlucky for us, we were hiking along (at first unknowingly) in a light mist of mysterious liquid, soon we were told it's the urine of these cicadas. Ha! In the hot Australian sun, we hiked up the red soil back up and out of the canyon. A really sweet adventure with a really sweet man.
Our adventure into the Royal National Park was full of deep belly laughter, dry waterfalls, and wet ones too, massive lightning strikes and rumbling thunder, waterbeds and delicious nougat (pronounced new-ga in case you were curious ;)
My time with my lovely sister, my caring bro in law and my beloved James finished up with some rad city events. In their typical generous fashion, Tua bought the four of us tickets to the Green Day Rock Opera in none other than THE Sydney Opera House! Little known fact, I used to be a massive Green Day fan, so I found myself singing along enjoyably to every song.
We also went to an amazing Asian food restaurant in a trendy area of town before an epic theatrical variety show by a crew of Irish artists who said it like it is. It was a part of the Sydney festival, an annual showing of talent from across the world.
Top this off with an awesome picnic and movie in the botanical gardens overlooking the Sydney harbour bridge and the opera house, I felt like a well oriented Sydney-sider! James and I took Krista and Tua to a Rising Appalachia show, to give them a dose of hippy, and the following day we had the pleasure of participating in a voice and movement workshop, with the sisters who are behind this rootsy activist number.
Sydney for me was punctuated by great runs along the ocean, great food consumed, great swims at various beautiful (stunning!) tropical beaches. Unfortunately, my dear one succumbed to a virus which kept us from adventuring together that last week, a sad thing, but also just what was. I have great faith that there are many more adventures to be had with him.
I boarded the flight to Hawaii after teary and smiley goodbyes with my sister. She took some precious time off work to hang with me on my last two days and we had fun duking it out with the Sydney winds! I'm so grateful we have another visit to look forward to, another time for us to connect woman to woman, sister to sister. Endless amounts of gratitude going to Krista and Tua here, for their generosity and care toward both James and I, and for the way they so openly welcomed both of us into their lives for our time in their home. And endless amounts of excitement that the 5 week adventure with James was completely enjoyable. We got along well, navigating all the ups and downs of travel in foreign lands. I'm so confident in our ability to travel with one another, and I look so forward to many adventures to come.
K, better get back to that Hawaiian sun!
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