We're alive!!

Surprise, surprise! Seeing as how I haven't sent any of the Christmas cards that we've written yet I thought I would give everyone an early gift of a long overdue blog. I know, I know, it's been a while. In the last five months we've gone to Canada and back, been to the infamous Twin Hills Rodeo, finished school for the year and finished up the last muster of 2009. I would blog about Canada but most of you were there. I will just mention that Kelly was an absolutely blushing bride and the Van Dinthers are one of my two favourite newlyweds. I would talk about twin hills but unless you live under a rock you will know from Dan's facebook page that he rode the bullock for 6.9 seconds and got an 85 in his first camp draft and made it to the final. Well done Dan! You will all be pleased to know that Tom and Josie have passed grade 2 and prep respectively and are very excited to be on their summer holidays at the moment and away from their cranky home tutor...
What you WILL want to hear about is the past 10 days spent in Japan as landing in Tokyo - one of the biggest cities in the world - was a far cry from seeing the same 5 people everyday at Mellaluka. We arrived in Tokyo at around 11pm and followed the 'locals' to take the bus into town (they know best!). Dan was hungry after the eight hour flight so we snacked on some pre-packaged octopus on the hour ride into town and some sort of jelly donut that didn't appear to be cooked as it was chewier than a mouthful of peanut butter. When we arrived at our hotel it was a touch on the small side however had the one thing that Dan had been waiting for... the electric toilet. It comes complete with a heated seat, bidet, some other spray thingy and a fan to dry your bottom when all is said and done. Unfortunately Dan turned the pressure on the spray up to its maximum then called me in to check it out. I wasn't overly impressed to be sprayed in the face with toilet water but have to admit, in hindsight, it was rather funny. The next day we spent exploring the area we stayed in, Shinjuku, as well as Shibuya and Harajuku. There are loads of department stores in Shinjuku and we spent a good few hours exploring the store Tokyo Hands, which sold everything from 'smile straighteners' to butt lifting underwear and naughty santa suits. Once we had worked up an appetite we did what does us best and followed the locals to a cozy looking restaurant in Shibuya. It was a touch complicated as you order from a machine outside - this worked for us not knowing a word or symbol of Japanese so we picked the picture that looked like it had something interesting, paid, got our ticket and in we went. We were greeted by cheers as we went in and felt awfully important until we realized that the staff do that to anyone who enters - even if they just came in to use the toilet. We then sat in a circle around the kitchen and watched as they prepared the food which was pretty cool. Next came the difficult part, eating a bowl of soup/noodles with chopsticks surrounded by Japanese people trying not to make a fool of oneself. Fortunately for us, slurping is practically obligatory, as is shoving as many noodles in your mouth at one time so we did just fine.
We spent the next couple of days in Tokyo exploring the imperial gardens and the electronic mecca that is Akihabra. WE (note) bought a very reasonably priced ipod touch that proved to be quite the bargain however I haven't used it since nor have I seen or heard from Dan so I'm not sure it was the wisest move.
We then headed out of Tokyo to spend two days in the region of Hakone where you can get excellent views of Mt Fuji and stay in a traditional Japanese Inn. Unfortunately it poured rain the entire first day we were there. Not to be brought down by a tiny bit of bad weather (torrential downpours) we took the boat tour and the cable car up the mountain with the idea that it may clear up and we might get some hiking in. Sadly we saw no more than five feet in front of us and by the time we'd done these things we were soaked to the bone, carrying all of our things which were drenched and emitting a very questioning scent from our muddied shoes and socks. We prayed for better weather that night and woke up to clear skies! We went up the mountain for the second time and had a fantastic day taking loads of pictures of good old fuji and visiting Owakudani where there are 80 degree springs that they hard boil eggs in (although I am not entirely sure why). ANyhow, we enjoyed our black shelled eggs, which are said to add 7 years to your life which means that Dan will now live an additional 28 years as he scarfed four of them. We headed that afternoon for Kyoto which is quite famous for its traditional temples and Shrines.
More to come later!

Fun pictures

This is what you look like after Dan drives....


I'm not sure if this is legal but why not?

I definitely had a bruise on my shoulder after this.

Dan and I with Michael Jackson and Vicki.

Dan driving the Argo in the river.

Me burning some rubber with the kids in the back - scary!

Never a dull Sunday at Mellaluka

I figured I might as well keep the blogging on a bit of a roll as I have been going through our photos and realised just HOW much time has past since we updated you! Now I am going back a few weeks after the droving trip, just before the July muster started at Mellaluka. (Basically we rounded up all of the cows on horseback and brought them into the yards to preg test them, vaccinate the young ones and decide the ones that have left us babyless are going to the meatworks.) Before these hectic two weeks started Sam and Bruce thought we ought to have a relaxing weekend outing to go koala hunting. As you all know Dan and I have been a few times to seek one out and are STILL waiting. The day was pretty much Dan's fantasy outing. We all squeezed into their Argo - a 6 wheeled machine that drives on both land AND in the water and the best part about it? It was made in a little place called New Hamburg, Ontario. We headed down to the creek for a morning breakfast of pancakes on the fire and set the net to catch a few fish. While waiting for the fish to swim our way we headed off into what Sam and Bruce call "koala country" to try our luck. After a few hours of craning our necks at every gum tree known to man Sam and I were about to give up when we heard frantic cries from Bruce and Dan's direction. It turns out they had stumbled on to a litter? (perhaps pod, who knows) of baby piglets, probably 8 or 9 of them. Then we did what every family in the bush does on your average Sunday - we surrounded them and tried to catch as many as we could. Needless to say Dan and I came up empty handed but Sam and Josie both caught one while Bruce and Tom came back with one in each hand. We decided to keep one to eat for Christmas dinner but then got into a heated debate over whether or not it would be lonely, so ended up trekking a couple of miles back to the truck with three tiny piggies in our hands. They were quite cute but of course covered in ticks and mine peed on me (a recurring theme with animals and me). We named them after the recently deceased Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson and named the third Vicki in honor of Vicki Goodson's birthday*. After dropping the pigs off to a safer location we went off for an afternoon of clay pigeon shooting (as I said, Dan's dream day). All went went well and I even managed to hit one albeit after firing a shot straight into the ground 3 feet in front of my feet. FOrtunately no one was injured during the escapade except perhaps a few earth worms.
As the sun was about to set we got back into the argo to check on the progress of our net ... and found one measely fish in it which we proceeded to take back home in an old potato sack. Bruce then forgot about it and left it in the sack overnight so although he ended up in the garbage we could still say we caught a doozy.
All in all it was a very exciting way to spend a Sunday and although I am not much of a shot Dan has been shooting at anything without a first name and is improving at quite a rate! Enjoy the photos and look for an update of our trip to the Whitsunday islands - coming soon to a blog near you! Much love, ash and dan xxoo

Drovin' pics

Blong over due...

THIS IS FOR YOU MOM! I had a rather curt email from my mom this morning claiming that her fingers were getting sore from checking our blog so she wasn't going to bother anymore - imagine that! So I have decided that since Dan has fallen off the blog wagon I will have to jump back on it for the both of us. I am going to go way back to the second week of June and give you all a long overdue update on the infamous droving trip!

Dan, Sam, Tom, Josie and I packed up our swags and horses and headed off early Monday morning to meet up with the rest of the drovers. In case you were wondering, Sam's father had donated nearly 1700 cattle to a local camp draft (rodeo style event). The drove consisted of walking these cattle from a station 80 km outside of Clermont into the showgrounds in the town. In total there were about 30 people involved (and over 50 horses) and Dan and I were very lucky to be the only foreigners so we really got the outback experience! I rode my horse, Gorie and Dan rode the new love of his life, Bow. In fact, I often found Dan snuggling and hugging Bow when he thought I wasn't looking but we won't tell anyone else about that.
We would rise every morning around 5 and be greeted by our cook, a lovely VOLUNTEER named Vicky who would cook 4 meals a day for all 30 of us on a camp fire. Pretty impressive work if you ask me. After a hearty meal involving as much beef as you could ask for we would set off for the day. There would always be 5 or 6 people leading the cattle, 6 or 7 on the end bringing up the tail, while others floated along the side to keep any strays off the road or to chase any back into the mob that were brave enough to escape. Needless to say I usually stuck to the rear (where the cattle were especially slow) but did manage to chase a few back in from time to time (which was pretty tricky as Gorie was more interested in eating than chasing). We would stop for a couple of hours at lunch time to let the cattle rest and would take turns eating and being on "lookout" for any wanderers. At this time I would get out of lookout duty as I would watch the kids while some of the parents would go back to our previous nights camp, pick up the trucks and any spare horses and take them ahead to our new spot so they would be there upon our arrival. We would usually roll into camp at around 5 or 530, just in time for a few beers around the camp fire and a necessary strech of the legs. It was definitely a shock to my system to ride a horse for 8 hours a day (considering I had been on one about 6 times at that point!). Sore knees and raw backsides are definitely an inevetible part of a droving trip. In the evenings Dan and I slept in our tent while other people slept under tarps or in the backs of their trucks which they used to carry their horses. It was definitely different to camping in Childers as we did EVERYTHING (and I mean everything) outside, including eating, sleeping and showering.
I think the highlight of Dan's trip had to be when a group of backpackers pulled over to the side of the road and asked if they could take a picture of us... as we had on our full bush get-up* we blended right in - I guess they didn't notice the accents.
After 5 solid days on horseback hearing Dan say "This is the life" we finally arrived in Clermont, very dusty, dirty, tired and in desperate need of a hairbrush (we lost ours a while back). We then headed back out to Mellaluka, enjoying the prospect of a bed, shower and toilet but very, very thankful for the experience and all of the amazing people we met along the way.

Needless to say a lot has happened since the second week of June and I will add some photos this evening of the trip and some more details and goingson in the world of Dan and Ash. Until next time ... the cowboys.

*When dressing in the bush it is compulsary to wear the following, with absolutely no exceptions: blue jeans, collared shirt, cowboy/riding boots, spurs, bandana around the neck for ladies, widest/biggest cowboy hat imaginable, leather belt.
It also helps to fit in if you have a sun burn/tanned skin on the lower half of your face and a stark white top half and say the phrase "fair dinkum" as often as possible.

Map of Mellaluka

So what i have done (mainly for Dads benefit) was plot on this map where we are and how much land it covers. Along with the neighbours places (both of which i have worked on). If you zoom in you will get the idea... it was just an experiment so hope it worked!

All the faint lines inside the boundary are fence lines, paddocks range from 9,000 acres down to 50 odd, and lanes.

Anyway, all is great here, we are off droving on monday for 4/5 days. What we are doing is walking 2,000 head of cattle from a station into town on horseback across the old stockroutes. Its around 80km and involves camping out, really looking forward to it. We have both been getting our horses and ourselves ready for it this week. We both have new horses; Ashleys is called Gory (a moody and grey horse that kicks up often but she has been cantering this week!!! sammy is very proud!) and mine is a large palamino horse (sandy colored) named bow (who walks faster than all the other horses trotting due to his size).
Nonetheless we are pumped up and ready to go!! Another once in a lifetime experience!



View Map of Mellaluka in a larger map

Just your average Sunday morning....

Well we have been lucky to have a long weekend off as Sammy took the kids up to Townsville to visit Bruce for the weekend. They left Friday morning and after Dan and I finished our work we decided I needed a bit of practice on the motorbike so we headed off to the airstrip to do some figure eights. I think Dan will attest to how unbelievably good I am at riding it and once I return home I will not say "I told you so" to everyone who thinks I need to improve my driving skills but instead will point out a certain sister of mine who backed into a car in the Tim Horton's parking lot. Her name starts with a Court and ends with a ney. After our very successful driving lesson we headed off in search of koalas. We have yet to see any of these furry little fellows and were told that they live in and around a creek on the property. Sadly we still are yet to spot one though we did see a bunch of wild baby pigs .... and got out of there pronto before their mother returned.
Today we headed over to the neighbouring station just to pick up a few things... or so we thought. When we got there Bluey (pronounced BLOO - ee), the owner, was just about to milk the cow - not like at the Van Dinther farm, the good old fashioned way. Of course he made us have a go and Kelly, today, I milked a cow. I must say it wasn't enjoyable as the cow peed while I was mid-milk but I managed keep the situation under control. I must also add that those teets have incredible range as I was sitting up on a fence about 4 metres away and still managed to get sprayed at one point. Just when I thought I had had enough excitement for one day good ol' Bluey told Dan he needed a little help with the pig. Doing what you might ask? Just a little old fashioned castration. I didn't really help with this too much except to hand over the scalpel and disinfectant but Dan had the admirable task of holding the pig down during the "operation". I must say that if you think you have ever heard a pig squeal you haven't heard anything until you have heard it squeal whilst losing its manhood. My ears are still ringing.
As our morning was so action packed I think it is about time for me to head off and relax with a book; that is, if Dan hasn't hidden it on me again.
Much love to everyone, ash and dan xxoo

Teach and be taught

Mellaluka Station

What a life! After 3 weeks WWOOFing (volunteering for room and board) on a cattle station in central Queensland Dan and I hit the jackpot and started a job at a nearby station working as a governess and a stationhand. We are working with an awesome family and I am teaching the kids, Tom -7, Josie -5 while Dan works with the cattle. The people we work for are Bruce and Sammy and they couldn't be more accomodating. Sammy has been working with me in the school room for the past couple of weeks helping me get the hang of the distance ed system the kids use as they are 150 km from the nearest town. Dan has been busy working for the station next door as Bruce has been away getting his pilots license. In fact, tomorrow he is working for yet another station and is getting picked up for work and dropped off in a plane. Needless to say he is pretty excited and we are thoroughly enjoying ourselves. We work from about 7-6 and have the weekends off though tend to spend most of our time playing with the kids and learning more about the station life. Last weekend we headed off with Sammy and the kids to set some red claw traps. To me they appeared to be a cross between crayfish and lobster and were mighty tasty. All was going well as the first three traps we set caught us probably 50, however, the 4th trap was stuck to something on the floor of the river bed. Now one might think that Dan would wade in to get the trap out, but no, he sent me out on a log to try and fish it out. My balance isn't the best and of course I fell in - but not up to my knees as expected, up to my neck in muddy brown river water. Now grandma, don't fret as there aren't any crocs up here but I will tell you it was disgusting!! Fortunately I was able to get the trap out and as you will see below Dan didn't help, he just snapped pictures.

Yesterday was especially exciting as we saddled up the horses for the first time and got to ride! As Dan has slightly more experience :) than me he was allocated a lovely mare named Gemstone while I got to ride Tommy's horse named Goldie. Goldie is 20 and very gentle so she was wonderful to learn on and now I can trot! Believe me, it's not as easy as it looks but I feel as though my days at the VanSlittenhorst farm are long behind me.

Needless to say we are having the best time and really enjoying living in "the bush". It is unbelievable how skilled you have to be to survive out here and everyone at home would be shocked to see how often I drive - manual AND offroad, sometimes while dragging dead cows - it's an interesting life. As you can imagine Dan is in heaven with the 4 wheelers and motorbikes as well though I tend to stick to 4 wheeled motorcars.

We aren't sure how long we will be here at the moment but for a few months at least so if anyone cares to contact us our number is +61 749835002 and if anyone cares to send us anything our address is

Mellaluka Station

Clermont

Queensland

4721

Much love, ash and dan xxoo

Backpacking to Outbacking!

So this is just a quick message to all those we havnt managed to get hold of. The story is that we are on a cattle station. It has no phone , tv or radio so the rest of the world has been a mystery. We are 200km from the nearest town and the neighbours fly in via planes and hellicopters. it is certainly different to st marys and bromyard.
It is amazing though.... i have accomplished a childhood dream and am a real life cowboy! Mustering 100s of cattle! Ashley has been mastering her off road driving (there are no roads) and drives the big tractors. She and I also have butchered cattle and pigs (little gory i know). The wildlife is amazing everywhere you look there is something new.
Which btw....I did shoot a 7 foot kangaroo (very proud of that)...(they are a major pest here like rabbits or raccoons in uk and canada)!
But the station lifestyle is great, looks like we are taking a road train with some of the animals soon....over 50 meters in length!
There is so much to tell you but i literally have no time this connection only comes on for few mins at a time!! will update later;
we are safe and loving it!!

Some interesting factoids...

As many of you know (or many of you don't) our next plan of action when the planting ceases is to head into the Northern Territory of Australia which is widely considered the almighty Outback. Now I have been reading Bill Bryson's Down Under (for the second time) and he points out that in spite of Australia's size we pay very little attention to it in the western world. Case in point, who knew that in 1967 the Prime Minister of Australia (whose name has escaped me at the moment) was washed out to sea with a strong rip tide never to be seen again. I bet not many of you! How many people knew JFK was assassinated?!?!
Furthermore, to illustrate just how enormous Australia REALLY is, in 1993 there was a seismic event quite similar to an earthquake in the Western Australian outback. The few people anywhere near the event claimed it caused "beer cans to dance off tables" (a quote straight from Bryson) and a few truckers claimed to see flashes of light in the sky. Scientists pondered the phenomenon for a few days as the activity they recorded was nothing at all like a typical earthquake and they couldn't find any crater to indicate that an asteroid had hit the earth. They mustn't have thought about it very long and the mystery event never made front page news. 5 years later they discovered that the same Japanese terrorist group responsible for releasing poison nerve gas into the Tokyo subway system in 1995 owns a 500,000 acre plot of land in Western Australia... and conveniently employs two former soviet nuclear engineers. So in short, the world's first non-government nuclear bomb was launched/deployed/set off in the Western Australian outback and there wasn't a soul that noticed - except for the guy whose beer fell over. That's Australia for ya!

Turtles...

Some random guy snapped this photo of me with the Turtles..Just thought should share with the world!!!

Great barrier reef (enough said)

We decided to really splash out on Monday and headed to Lady Musgrave island (google it!), one of the southern most islands and areas of the Great Barrier Reef, about 75 miles off shore of the town 1770 (where Captain James Cook first landed in said year). It was quite the adventure from the start as we were warned repeatedly that at least 5% of us would get sick on the 2 hour journey to the island. We heeded the lady's advice as we had had to rebook the trip as it was too stormy to go on Sunday as we had originally planned. So ginger tablets in our stomachs and the thought of being sick fresh in our minds we headed off.... only to find that about 5 of the 20 people on the upper deck where we sat were sick within 2 minutes of starting the journey.... I think the 3 m waves contributed to that. Lets just say it was a rocky ride and my knuckles were white by the time we got there but Dan and I both managed to hang onto our breakfasts (and ironically he had become hungry...). That brings the sick count of the trip to Dan: 1, Ash: 0 (I won't go into too much detail but Dan wasn't feeling so hot on a bus one day in LA after a night out...)

Anyhow, the sight when we arrived made it all worth while and we were set free to do all of the snorkelling and exploring we could.

It really was amazing as we were expecting a few blocks of coral and the sighting of a few fish but were delighted to find a 3000 acre lagoon which we could calmly snorkel in as it was protected from the ocean by the reef itself and a large sand barrier. Dan jumped right in and I followed rather tentatively. We snorkelled around the edge of the reef for a while and were absolutely amazed by the thousands and thousands of fish we saw, some in schools of hundreds and some lone narfish which scared the living daylights out of me. The tide was beginning to lower as we arrived so when we ventured further into the reef there was only about 1.5m of water between the reef and the surface of the ocean. After swimming calmly for a few minutes with Dan I suddenly realized I was far too close to all of these fish and the things that suck the dirt off of the coral for my liking and I was getting the hell out of there. It is rather difficult to communicate with a snorkel and mask on, plus Dan was ignoring my frantic gestures so all he saw was me motor off into the safety of the deeper waters of the lagoon. He found this quite amusing and proceeded to tell everyone else on our boat how I "panicked". I have no shame as I had a childhood fear of leeches and as I wasn't wearing a wetsuit all I could envision was one of the footlong "suckers" (as I called them) stuck to a place where I did not want him.

The rest of the day was pretty spectacular as you could feed the fish off of the landing and they came in droves to eat. The highlight was definitely finding the elusive sea turtles which were huge (about the size of a dustbin, according to Dan) which we were able to swim right up close to. Dan got a great shot of me with the turtles on our underwater camera and I got a great shot of his legs swimming up to the surface with the turtle nearby - I will send that one to you Vicki! When we were all snorkelled out we took a glassboat tour in hopes of finding George, a 4 ft cod that hangs out in some coral not far from the island but alas it wasn't meant to be.

Fortunately for all of us the ride back from the island was much calmer and all in all it was probably the best day of the trip so far. Our time off is coming to an end and we are back to the grind of tomato planting in the next day or two. We have made some great friends at our campsite and recently have had the addition of some new people that are nice enough, but ask us on a continual basis whether or not we are leaving our jobs anytime soon.... they must be the new cherry tomatoes pickers as I can see the desperation in their eyes.

I leave you all with a picture of a GIGANTIC kangaroo that we saw on the way back from the island - he was very kind and posed nicely for us. We are in the midst of planning where we will head next as our days of planting may be numbered. We recently joined WWOOF, willing workers on organic farms which allows you to do free food and accommodation on farms in exchange for 4 hours of work. The descriptions of some are astounding and who knows, in the upcoming month we may be blogging from a crocodile farm in the Northern Territory or a 2442 km squared cattle ranch in Western Australia. Only time will tell....

Lots of love to everyone, ash and dan xxoo

Finally some Down (under) time!!!

Right, sorry for the delay but we have been flat to the boards working for the last few weeks. After 3 straight weeks of planting and vigorous tractor driving we have some time off, which we have both used very wisely and have done loadsa shiz!! First off, as requested from england here is the newly modified house;

Please note the spacious living quarters, storage room and porch. Along with off street parking!

And to give you an idea of the working day. Here is where big Ash parks her behind for up to 11 hours a day.

And here is the selection of beasts that I roar around the plantation on. (Have already had a stern warning about my speed between farms!But a guys gotta get something out of the job!!).

Right enough about our crib and the humdrum of tomato picking because got alot to fit in. So with our first day off we ventured out of the Childers area and to a different beach and body surfed in the 1/2 meter waves created by a cyclone just off shore!! A place called Bagara beach (apparently have to write that). Then as we were driving back we stumbled upon a rugby league match...which although clearly amateur the standard was immense, it was like 2 teams of those big black ozzys and kiwis that seem to regularly pop up in the english leagues that us mere mortals have come to fear!!!! big hitters and big shiiters!!!

Next day we went to Snakes down under and had an almost personal tour of the park by the owner and local snake catcher!! Loads of reptiles and the 5 most deadlly snakes in the world...not to mention the 5m crocs!

We also got to handle a couple of them aswell; (course i was cool and calm but ash was in a state of panic...(which was a big feature of the next day).

Ill let ash do the next day (shes makes better with words than me)!

Love to all!!

weathering cyclone Hamish...

First things first: thanks everyone for all of the very wonderful birthday greetings! I received many lovely messages and a very amusing e-card from Vicki! I would have said so sooner but we have now moved on from the world of picking tomatoes to planting them (via a week of lemon picking but I will fill you in on that a bit later). Gone are the 4 hour work days and sweltering heat as we are currently in the midst of waiting out a cyclone off the northeastern coast of Queensland. We are in the target area though we live about 50 km from the coast so hopefully we will just have a few more rainy days with a touch of wind :) We have been evacuated from our campsite (our tent doesn't keep the rain out too well let alone falling branches) and are staying at the very accomodating motel Panda. We even got our first day off in 10 days on account of the storm so it really hasn't been too bad thus far.

Anyhow, on to the money making! We received the good news last week that spaces had opened up picking lemons and that we were to start the following morning - good bye tomatoes forever (or so we thought). That was great news as some friends from the campsite had been making good money doing this by filling as many meter x meter x meter (couldn't figure out how to make a "cubed" sign there) bins of lemons a day at $100/bin. Dan and I managed a hefty 2 and a half per day so would take home $250 dollars (and a few scratches from the thorny trees). After a fulfilling 5 days doing that we learned of a new job planting that would require us to stay on for a minimum of 6 weeks. After about a 10 second deliberation we decided to go for it as that would give us ample money to do a trip to Fraser Island and hopefully some snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef which would be a very welcome break after the rigors of picking/snipping/planting. The only catch was that we found this news out at around 9pm amidst a bit of a celebration that the weekend had arrived and we had to be at the place by 515 the next morning.... oh boy.

When planting we work in teams of 3 with one man driving the tractor and 2 lovely ladies sitting on these little seats behind planting the tomatoes in rows. Now Queensland is rather sexist as they balk at the idea of a girl driving the tractor or a guy planting but I put it down to the fact that anyone can drive a tractor in a straight line but it takes a lot of precision and technique to get the plants in just so :) I plant with a lovely Korean girl named Eun Ju who speaks about as much English as I do Korean so we tend to run out of things to talk about after a while but the days go by quickly in spite of the repetetive nature of the job. Yesterday morning in the beginning stages of the wind and rain of the cyclone things were a little tough but fortunately we were allowed to leave at 10 and today have the day off to catch up on some things!

We are really enjoying our stay in Australia so far as it seems very much like a home away from home and the people here are extraordinarily friendly. We haven't been taking as many photos as we would like but we will try and get some up in the next week or so of our campsite, the town of Childers and some of our friends here as well. To tide you over for now I have included shots of me at the beach, one of the many "beware of the roo" signs, Dan and the dreaded cowboy hat and the cyclone watch program on the tv!! Hope everyone is doing well and thanks for reading! Lots of love, Ash and Dan

A day in the life of a cherry tomato picker...

4:30 am - alarm sounds
4:31 am - spend next 15 minutes rummaging around in the dark to find the flashlight/car keys/sanity etc. etc.
5:15 - arrive at work to be greeted by 15 other tomato-picking comrades (NB: to pick cherry tomatoes you must be one of two things 1. backpacker 2. Over 40 Australian male with a beer belly, mustache/goatee, and say sentences composed primarily of expletives)
5:30 - pick red/orange/yellow and a few green tomatoes off of vines and put them into a 4 gallon pail ensuring the top layer is primarily red
6:00 - decide it is getting hot
7:00 - decide your back aches
8:00 - wonder why the Australians aren't covered head to toe in red dirt but you are?
9:30 - finish early - AGAIN!
9:35 - wonder what you are going to do for the rest of the day??!
10:30 - showered and (somewhat) clean, watch morning Australian television (almost as bad as Canadian broadcasting)
11:30 - desperately try to find somewhere in the shade to lie down where you won't get eaten alive by bugs or pooped on by a bird
12:30 - hone your table tennis skills
1:30 - another shade break
2:30 - more table tennis
3:30 - talk to the germans for a while
3:35 - decide you have nothing to talk a bout with the germans and play more table tennis
4:00 - go into Childers to use the (free!) internet at the library
5:00- head to the supermarket to buy your 4th loaf of bread this week
6:00 - eat dinner
7:00 - watch Simpsons
8:00 - lights out

As you can see our day is very complex as it takes a very creative mind to fill a 12 hour day on an Australian campsite in teh middle of nowhere when your tent is in the 35 degree sun all day! Luckily we have a table tennis thingy and some friendly European companians!
The tomato picking itself is quite alright however the crop is not quite ripe enough to work full days so we usually find ourselves finished before 10 am. This wouldn't be so bad but our wages depend on how much we pick... and we could use a couple of extra hours to put a few more "0's" on the end of our paycheques . Nonetheless we are having a great time and the germans aren't really so bad at all :) We are weighing our options as to what to tackle next and are hoping to have a new job next week with more regular hours and the opportunity to make a few more bucks. We haven't ruled out working on a ranch and are going to contact some people this afternoon and will let you know how everything pans out! Lots of love, don't hesitate to call, Ash and Dan

I blog from a land down under

First things first... what the hell happened on February 20th? If anyone has any exciting or extraordinary tidbits of information Dan and I would really like to know as this day did not exist in our lives, or should I say, we ceased to exist on February 20th? We left LA on the 19th and arrived in Nadi, Fiji on the 21st at 615 am Fiji time. As we didn't fly to Brisbane until 1pm we decided to have a bit of a look around. We hired a taxi who was kind enough to take us to a nice beach resort (as he thought the local beach might be a bit much for us as they drink, swear, steal and smoke somthing that I think started with an M). We then sunned ourselves, had our first dip in the Pacific, got bit by a crab (Dan), and had a crab try to drag my bra into a hole. Very interesting and funfilled topped off by a lovely continental breakfast at the resort. We can now say we have been to Fiji! We arrived later that afternoon in Brisbane to 30 degree weather and the aim to find a job as quickly as possible. We didn't exactly blow through our money in the states quite as mom predicted but we decided that we might as well get busy and make as much as we can. We were in bed by 9 on both Saturday and Sunday nights.... slightly jetlagged and decided Monday would be our best bet at finding a job and getting out of Brisbane. It wasn't that Brisbane wasn't a nice enough place but we had spent the last 3 weeks exclusively in cities and decided to hit the country.

This next bit might be a bit of a shocker to my family... the ones who though I would never get a job, or accumulate any assets... well boy were they wrong. Day 3 in Australia Dan and I made our first major purchase together... a sweet, gold 1989 Volvo something or other that we affectionately call Vulva. She cost about 800 bucks and has so far got us 500 km up the coast to a lovely town called Childers. We parked last night at a truck stop (not sure if you are allowed to do that, but we survived) and pitched our 2 man tent (also a new aquisition) that neither Dan nor I can fully stretch out in. Today, after Vulva's first 500 km trip under her belt we arrived in a lovely town called Childers about 100 km south of the Tropic of Capricorn (slightly hot here as well). We got ourselves situated at a nice camp site a few km out of town and start our first job as tomato pickers on Thursday courtesy of the lovely English lady who runs the campsite. As long as we stay with her for 3 weeks she will continue to find us work with all of the local farms. We are hoping to do the tomatoes for about a week or two before moving onto the big bucks that are avocados. A lot of these jobs pay piece work but if you get lucky you can make up to $17-20/hr which ironically the Aussies aren't too keen to do. I would have given my right arm for a job that paid that well in highschool or university (or now for that matter) so we are ready to get started. We have a day off tomorrow (a day off from what I hear you asking...) so are kitting our tent out with something other than the one blanket we currently have.

In response to my yellow coat (which I will not be wearing for some time I might add) Dan has made the effort to one up me infinitely by purchasing a cowboy hat which he refuses to take off. Very urban cowboy, we just need the shirt Chris wore to his wedding :)

We should be able to post frequently over the next few weeks as we will be working 530am-130 so keep checking! Lots of love, ash and dan

PS we also acquired a mobile phone - we are unsure if we get charged if you call it, but as Harry Hill would say - "There's only one way to find out...." so the international code in Australia is 61 and our number is 424894802 (so I think the dialling goes something along the lines of 01161424894802 - if that makes sense).

We have uploaded various photos of Vegas, LA, the grand canyon, Fiji and our beloved vulva so enjoy

What happens in Vegas stays in..... (oh forget it ill tell ya!)

So after LA we head to vegas in our slick white chevy cobolt....(its a lame duck). But after the 4 hour drive through the amazing scenery and straight roads of the Mojave desert we come to the lights of Sin city. It was a breath taking sight after 4 hours of the same joshua tress and rocky mountains over and over again to see the lights of the MGM grand and the Vegas strip.

Las vegas didnt let us down, the weather on the whole was good and the lights and the atmosphere were everything i had imagined it to be. Just walking the strip itself is worth every minute of the drive and so much more. But other freebies we took advantage of were the Belagio fountain display, the mirage volcano, the MGM lion habitat, the Fashion shows (The girls from runs house), the grand canal at the veniatian (a mock indoor venice), the flamingos, and of course the free booze whenever you sat down at a slot machine!!! ( we would play with $1 for 5 min get two drinks and move on to the next casino!!!)

While using this ingenius system we managed to win $50 dollars from 40 cents!!! So that was the next couple of days covered!!! We are dam lucky!! The next day on the 6 wheel I also won another 35 dollars from $1 dollar... again paying for the days ahead... turns out by the end of our time in the casinos and with the food, drinks, gambling and show we only REALLY spent around $75 over 4 days....not too shabby eh?
The show we went to see was the Mentalist....for the brits he was just like derren brown, a mind reader kinda guy, it was mind blowing! not to mention that i was pulled on stage for his grand finale....predicting the lottery numbers...it was amazing!!! (youtube him if u have a spare minute).

Ash did manage to drag me out of the city to both the Hoover dam (which again was a site that needs seeing to believe.) and to the Grand Canyon, which was petrifying....the area we went to was the one with the skywalk which is run by the native indians...who seem to have no regard for health and saftey....you could just walk right up to the edge where there was a mile drop straight down!!!! Oh and it was a rip off, those buggers!! But, macho aside i was nervous leaning over the side......(the photos show this and will add in OZ).

Anyway to summerize VEGAS ROCKED MY WORLD...i did a hell of a lot of woooooing and whooping down the strip..(was the done thing after midnight) much to ashs embarressment...hee hehehe.

Further good news is that the yellow coat has been put to retirement due to the improvement in the weather.....however an aqua blue zip up top has replaced it. (not sure where this neon fashion trend of ashs is going next but ill keep you posted). Its my theory that this is what attracts the bugs!!! (which ill never hear the end of!)

Right now we are killing time on Venice beach before we fly to Australia.... My time is running out yet again..so ill catch up with you all soon........

OUT.

West coast tourin'

San Francisco was definitely a change from the hustle and bustle of the east coast however for me it had one major downfall...I was eaten alive by bed bugs - AGAIN!! Last time this happened in a very budget/sketchy "hostel" in Cinque Terre, Italy so I was not too surprised however the hostel in SF was by far the nicest we had been at thus far so I was not too impressed. 2 tubes of cortisone cream later and the ones on my face are finally fading so that I no longer look like a pubescent teenager.
One of the best parts of SF was meeting a very lovely couple from New York named Jess and Tom on the boat back from Alcatraz. They were heading to LA the following day as we were so offered us a lift (instead of taking the bus) so we would have been foolish not too accept. The ride was amazing and we were up to altitudes of over 4000 ft through the mountains. To be honest LA has by far been the biggest disappointment of the trip. It is really spread out and can be tough to get around if you don't have a car. We stayed in West Hollywood so had quite easy access to the sunset strip and Hollywood Boulevard however there are two things worth noting 1. NOBODY walks in LA so every five steps taxi's are pulling over to see if you want a lift and
2. It POURED rain for the majority of our time there. One rainy day walking down Melrose a seemingly nice chap stopped to chat with us. His name was Darwin and we soon found out he was the be all and end all of Los Angeles, not to mention he had been part of the Montreal Ballet and had lived in Vancouver, Denmark, New York, had a brother in Perth etc, etc. This all seemed innocent enough until he started telling us how he had lost 150 million dollars because someone had stolen the songs we had written for Leona Lewis, Beyonce and Amy Winehouse. Didn't you also know that he introduced Brad and Angelina?!?!? I should have known this would happen because Dan tends to attract crazy people (a ninja on an LA bus to name another) and before I knew it Darwin was dragging us by the hand into fancy boutiques and shops trying to get me to try on Isaac Mizrahi shoes (a very fancy/expensive designer grandma). Had I not been soaking wet, wearing hiking boots, smelly socks, my stinking yellow coat with bed bug bites all over my face this might have only been slightly embarrassing however I was mortified. Dan on the other hand was enjoying this man's craziness. We managed to lose him just after he told us what Oscar party he was attending.
The rest of our stay in LA was enjoyable enough and we did enjoy a nice walk down Santa Monica beach the one day it was sunny (and a not so brief stroll down the side of the Pacific Coast Highway but that's another story). We then headed to pick up our rental which ironically, was almost exactly the same as Courtney's.... good thing I have practiced driving on hers many times so I will be an old pro...
Happy birthday Jim and Jenn! love ash and dan

(photo thingy wont work...will post later)!!!

Chi town and California Dreaming

The Whirlwind across the US of A continues as I am writing this from the not so sunny Californ IA. (but more about that later...need to get the blogspot fans up to date with the trip so far).

In Chicago, we continued our sightseeing by ascending the highest building in the Western Hemisphere...Sears tower, as you can see the views of the city and of the lake were amazing. As it was clear we were told that we could see 50 miles in any direction. Unfortuneatly, that meant we still couldnt quite see our hostel....which im pretty sure was in a different state!!!

Once returning to earth we mooched around and took in the citys atmos, seeing the must sees and stuffing our faces before our flight. (with $2 dollar beers and $1 cheesburgers...the Manhatten prices are long behind us now).

So later that afternoon we flew 4 hrs to sunny San francisco...where it was raining..apparently my fault due to listening to Rhiannas Umbrella on the plane. (gotta stick wit ma girl R during these tough times). Worse news still than rhiannas slap was that once again it was time for the Yellow coat to rear its ugly head. With the rain and the coat we looked round the city and got a bite to eat then hit the sack.

Today, weather on and off all day, we went to Alcatraz which probably was the highlight of the trip so far. Amazing tour and experience...all done in a classy way (not that flashing lights and neon signs typical of america)...One thing to note was that we met an ex con...one of the 5 surviving people to have served time in the prison.....MAN was i excited, he had a book to promote and he had been hyped to be a great guy....(sorry for this Barb) but he was a real penis...grumpy and short wouldnt answer any of my questions!!!! tosser!

Times running out.....but after we caught the tram and rode up and down the streets and hills of San Fran... Here comes the first shot of the Coat;

Anyway,,,,times up but all is good and loving San Fran...its alot less serious here than on the East coast, lots of smiles and laughs.

Peace!

the goings on of Dan, Gary and Todd (and I suppose me too...)

After the adventures of the White House, the Pentagon and all the gloriousness that was Washington DC we hopped on a night train yesterday afternoon headed for the windy city.  The trip started off relatively uneventful however at around 830 or so there was some commotion at the front of our car involving a black lesbian couple (I only mention they were black because of an upcoming quote).  Apparently keys were stolen from a dining car and the employee pointed the two of them as the culprits.  You can only imagine the drama that then ensued when the "train police" asked to look through her bag and she dumped the whole thing on the ground and then proceeded to tell the "racist" employee to sift through the stuff herself.  These ladies brought a whole new meaning to the term attitude.  All the while her girlfriend proceeded to list off how much money they had and why she wouldn't need to steal from the train.  The quote "Go ahead and call my momma - shit, go call Obama" was one of the lines of the night.  Needless to say they were escorted off the train somewhere in Maryland and we continued on our journy.  During this escapade Dan and I struck up conversation with our surrounding train mates, Gary - a four time divorce and self-proclaimed cowboy from Northern Idaho and Todd, some guy who kept hinting at Dan to buy him beers (thankfully I have a bit more backbone than Dan in times like those).  They regaled us with great stories of women, bar fights, Gary's battle with "copper tunnel"and what it is like being forty-five and never having left the US of A.  I went to bed at the decent hour of 1130 as Dan had found a new BFF in Gary.  After quite a wild night we arrived in Chicago this morning.  After two amazing days of sun and warmth in Washington we arrived in the windy city to some pretty dreary weather.  We wandered around Millenium park and the magnificent mile before eating the BEST deep dish pizza ever at some place called Giordanas.  It has to be good because Oprah eats there.  We have another full day here tomorrow before we fly to San Francisco tomorrow night.

A Capital Letter.....

First time "Blogger" so bear with me........ This morning after 5 days and with mixed feelings we left NYC for Washington DC. I say mixed feelings because New york has been pretty good to us, in fact it has been great...we did so so much, however the color of Ashs' coat has meant that she has been mistaken for a cab far too often. (LOTS OF WHISTLES AND HOLLERING). Our time came to leave and we decided on the chinatown bus. This was one of the most random and surreal experiences thus far, we were accosted by a woman yesterday who it seems had supernatural senses and knew that we were travelling to DC so sold us the ticket: $20...we thought bingo, strange being chased down the street by someone knowing what you wanted and when....but convienent to say the least.

So today, with a little hesitation and no more than an address as to where the bus would be we arrive in chinatown and find an unmarked bus at sed place. There was a gathering of 4/5 people all of whom seemed to have the same idea as to the protocol we did....NO IDEA... there was no REP no Driver and noone who could guarentee where the bus was going.... so we get on around 20 min before the bus was to depart and wait it out..... 5 min later driver gets on... and leaves. Shouting in broken english (after departure 15 min early that it was indeed the DC bus).
this was the first of a comedy of errors...but my time is running out.....eeeeeekkk

Anyway, we are here in DC. And have seen most of the famous sights already... White House, Bank, Washington Monument and Capitol Hill... all while the sun was setting!! (bit of a bonus).

Tomorrow the mission is to buy Ash a Barack Obama t shirt.. :-S

Welcome to Queen's Boulevard

After visiting Madison Square Garden this morning for one fantastic tour (and the meeting of the Knicks dancer's as you will see from the great photo I snapped of the two of them - Dan thinks they look like a couple ... I beg to differ!) we headed out of Manhattan to visit Queens and Brooklyn. As you can see from the photo above Queens was definitely a far cry from the skyscrapers and many parks of Manhattan... it was more graffiti, derelict buildings and 75 cent coffees. Not that we were complaining though as we are on a budget and still had a good time getting off the beaten path. Brooklyn was amazing, full of neat shops, boutiques and cafes though Dan couldn't help but point out that we stuck out like "diamonds in the rough", and he constantly badgered me that my fluorescent yellow coat didn't help us fit in any better. We walked across the Brooklyn bridge back into Manhattan and that was definitely worth the hike.

Yesterday we toured the New York public library which was beyond amazing and puts both the Bromyard and St. marys libraries to shame as you can imagine. Last night we went to a Snowboard half pipe contest that red bull put on in the east village. The constructed a huge hill for the snowboarders to do tricks off and trucked in heaps of snow. It was pretty cool and we saw Sean White who is rather famous. Unfortunately Ross Rebigliatti wasn;t there and I have yet to hear of him since his gold medal at the olympics many moons ago. Perhaps he hangs out with Michael Phelps now ??

We are off to Washington DC tomorrow and are catching a bus from China town so hopefully dan won't get distracted by all of the "great deals" they offer us on the way by. As you can see I am not very good at posting the pictures (they are dan on the brooklyn bridge, queens graffiti and dan and the dancer - professional dancer, not stripper). Thats all for now! Have fun in Calgary mom and dad and say hi to Chris, Marla and the Rubster for me - and Kent! Love Ash and Dan