Wow we have been on the road for 75 days! Every day has been incredible. Since I last made a journal entry we have experienced, so much more. We arrived in Melbourne December 8 and stayed in the city 2 nights to arrange transportation for the days following here in Australia. Since Australia is as big as the U.S. the best way to get around is an automobile, but not as easy buying a car in Australia as it was in NZ and we only have a month. After talking with other travelers we decided to rent a campervan; it's similar to a VW van with a small table that comes apart and changes into a bed and a small sink and counter in back. The company is you can check out some of the pictures and get an idea of what we are driving around. The van we actually rented is not shown on the website but it is painted in a football theme. We get some very odd looks while driving down the road. It is a very old van and squeaks and creaks a lot, but it gets around just fine when Pat is not getting us stuck in ditches on dirt roads. Well actually it only happened once and after the 1 1/2 hours that he spent digging the van out using a saucepan I don't think it will happen again. In addition to the shaking and squeaking of the van our radio/cassette player has a short in it so when we change the station it gives off an incredibly high pitched squeal until if tunes into a station which it doesn't do very often. Because of the limited stations that actually come in we decided to buy a cassette tape of NOrah Jones at the gas station and then while at the Salvation Army we came across some old tapes, so now in addtion to Norah Jones we listen to Kenny Rogers (greatest hits) and Anne Murray (greatest hits)!
The campervan is not the only thing interesting though. The wildlife here is great and so abundant. We have seen koalas, kangaroos, wallabies (a smaller kangaroo), goanna lizards, parrots (cockatoos, and lorikeets mostly), their is a really cool bird here called the Kookaburra it laughs and when you get a bunch of them together they laugh so hard that we can't help but laugh also, some other wildlife include possums, and emus and luckily no snakes or spiders yet. The kangaroos are so abundant it's like seeing deer crossing the road at home. We saw one Eastern Grey Kangaroo he was about 5-6 foot tall but we mostly see wallabies about 2-3 foot tall, some are timid and others don't care we got as close as 5 feet to one while on a short walk to the beach. Unfortunatley you see them dead in the road every now and again.
We have seen some beautiful beaches and very remote National Parks with diverse vegetation and wildlife. Melbourne was a nice city, and Sydney is very cool we actually stayed with some friends that we had met in Fiji, while we were in Sydney. They rented an apartment right across Manly Beach which is a surf beach just 10 minute drive out of Sydney. We stayed with them for two nights had a great visit and good meals. They are from England so we will visit them again in London towards the end of our travels.
It sure doesn't feel like x-mas. It is very strange since it is 80 degrees and sunny. Christmas songs played on the radio are the same as the ones we hear in North America and it's odd to hear "I'm dreaming of White Christmas" while in Australia in the summer time or even funnier is a couple we saw carrying a Christmas tree across the beach yesterday. We are not sure where we will be for christmas, probably out in the woods somewhere. We'll be thinking of you all and wish everyone a very merry christmas and Happy New Year!
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