First Week of School

The big exciting event this past week was that Cady and Asher started school. They are super brave and although it was something they were both excited about (Asher kept asking how many days until school starts!), it was also a nervous time for all of us. I won’t lie: the mornings were rough, especially day one when Asher, screaming and stretching out his arms toward us, had to be held by his teacher as we walked out of the classroom. But each day the kids came home chattering non-stop, excited to retell the events of the day. They love their teachers, they are making new friends, and every morning drop off gets a little better.

Every school child public and private in Australia wears a “uni.” At our school the colors are red and black. The girls can wear a dress or polo shirt, the hat is part of the uniform- kids can’t go outside for recess without it (too much UV radiation here), and everyone has to have black leather shoes and bring “runners” for PE.

Our school is very small. In total there are just over 300 kids from Prep year (kindergarten) to year 12 (senior year of high school). Although they are all at the same campus together, it is an outdoor campus – there are buildings for every cluster of years and so there is not much interaction between the high school ages and the primary ages and there are even different playground areas for the different age clusters. The “canteen” (cafeteria) and “toilets” (restrooms) are also their own buildings. Asher is in one of two prep year classes, with a total of 23 kids in his year. Cady fits in age-wise with the year 4 students but only had 4 months of 3^rd grade before we left Ohio. In consultation with the principal we put Cadie in a split level 3/4 class. (Year 3 and Year 4 have one other classroom each that are not split).  

The kids have “specialist” periods throughout the week where they go to different teachers: Art, Italian, library, PE and Sport. We haven’t exactly figured out what the difference is between PE and Sport although we suspect they will actually be focusing on a sport in “Sport” – including swimming!

Year 12 in Australia is not mandatory for high school students and usually is more like a trade school training year. There is a metal shop as well as an electrical shop on campus. Other students participate in 4-H type activities including taking care of the “chooks” (chicken) on campus!

On Thursday, one stage of a professional bike race, the Jayco Herald Sun Tour, rode through town. The defending champion, Chris Froome (also 3-time Tour de France winner) and his team were racing. The year 3-6 students got to walk down to the course and watch the race go by. The students made posters and brought flags. Cady made a poster for the American team, Team United Healthcare (UHC). 

We met Cady and her class and got some fun pictures of the cyclists racing through.

This picture shows the yellow jersey followed by a smiling Luke (from Australia and probably seeing kids holding "Go Luke" signs) followed by Chris Froome!

The other exciting thing that happened this week is that we secured a pedal bike for Asher. In Ohio he had only ridden a balance bike but he was able to hop right on this bike and take off. 

We did some practice trail and road riding across the street at the fair grounds and then on Saturday took a family ride to the library and park. Asher and Cady tried out the BMX park – we will have to get elbow & knee pads and lots of pillows before I feel comfortable going back.

Australia Day

Maren started day care this week – the first day was great, the next 2 were more difficult (at least for drop offs) as she realized what was going on. She has great teachers and a really neat outdoor play area – hopefully she will enjoy going as much as she did in Ohio.

The big girl on her first day of daycare in Australia:

We took the bigger kids on some errands and to the library so they could have something to read/look at while Eric and I got in some work hours. But we also got in some play time. We took a 20 minute drive south and swam at Lake Buffalo:

 

The school for the older kids (Myrtleford P-12 college) is on our road only 600 m from our house and Maren’s daycare is about 500 m beyond that so one of our “to dos” this week was figuring out bicycles for everyone. The house came with 2 adult bikes and we scoured garage sales, thrift stores (called “op” shops for “opportunity”), and roadsides for options for the kids. We ended up buying an infant seat to attach to my bike for Maren and got new helmets for the lot of us.

Maren and E’s wheels:

 

Cadie and Eric testing their brakes on our driveway:

 

Thursday (today) was Australia Day. This is similar to Independence Day in the US but commemorates the day that the first English fleet landed at Australia. We spent the day at the Bright splash pad and river park with new friends from church (and about 1,000 other people). Lunch Oz style: sausages grilled on the “bar-be,” watermelon, and pavlova (a cooked meringue cake topped with fresh fruit – today it was mango and passionfruit). The bigger kids and Eric tried out the water slide that dumps you in the river:

Maren was content with splashing and puddle jumping:

Celebrate with face paint!

Myrtleford: Our new home!

After 3 weeks of living out of suitcases we were excited and a little anxious to get settled somewhere. Although Eric is working with Charles Sturt University in Albury, his friend and sponsoring faculty there, Al Curtis, suggested that we find a home in Myrtleford, about 1 hour south of Albury. Al and his wife Marg live close to Myrtleford and he usually works from home. Eric expects to do the same, likely traveling into Albury once a week or fortnight. We have been in Myrtleford for a week now and feel right at home. Myrtleford is a small town (population 3,100) in the Australia alps. We live in a valley surrounded by industrial forest land and rolling green mountains. The movie "Man from Snowy River" was filmed here.

This area used to be the center of tobacco agriculture but in 2006 – really not that long ago – the Australian government shut the entire industry down amid widespread corruption. There are remnant tobacco kilns on almost every field but now those fields support vineyards and cattle. 

Asher in front of a log tobacco kiln:

The main economic driver for the area is tourism. Al calls Bright, the next town over, a suburb of Melbourne and tells us that on weekends the little town swells with Melbournians coming for the cooler temperatures and recreational opportunities.

Our new home is the last house on the street across from a golf course. The morning after we arrived we met our neighbors to the North: a mob of red kangaroos, cattle, kookaburra, and flocks of galah and cockatoo. We peek over the fence every morning in wonder of what we will find. (As long as it is not snakes.)

Our home (with kids taking my picture). 

No houses to the left of our house, just forest and fields and animals. Cattle (and a sneak peak at our "flash" new set of wheels):

But more often than cows we have roos in the field!

Al and Marg have been so generous and done much to help us settle in. We had breakfast at their farm one morning and Al drove the older kids around in a gator to move his cattle. Marg had a goody bag and flowers waiting for us when we arrived and dropped by one day with a large empty appliance box for the kids to play with.

Kids and Al with the gator:

We have been busy with the details of a new move: meeting with the principal, finding a doctor (getting immunizations!), visiting the library, shopping for school uniforms, etc. but we have also managed to do a bit of exploring. We went hiking at Mount Buffalo National Park, played at a splash park in Bright, picked berries in Stanley, swam at the local pool, and tried out the local parks. Maren starts daycare next Monday (Jan 23) and so we have one more weekend to enjoy before getting into a regular work/school schedule. Pictures:

It rains (or should I say monsoons) here! Notice the golf ball on the roof of the club house across the street? 

Cady and the big dump bucket at the Bright splash park:

Tomans on top of Mount Buffalo:

"Mom, can I please put my swim suit on?" Cady just before completely dunking herself in the cold mountain lake in Mount Buffalo National Park.

Blueberries!

Tasmania

Tasmania is beautiful and wild. It reminds us of the Pacific Northwest but with fewer people and weirder wildlife.

We started our Tassie trip staying at a beach house 40 minutes outside of Hobart. We arrived a little early for check in and so we walked to the beach to check it out. It is impossible to keep our kids out of water when they see it and so I suggested to Asher to take off his shoes and roll up his pants to dip his toes into the water. I turned back to find him running straight into the ocean wearing nothing but his t-shirt. I had him put his underwear back on before taking photos ;) Later on we visited the beach with boogie boards!

We spent the next day at Port Arthur – the site of an old (early 1800’s) reformation prison/camp. Our tour included a harbor cruise – a real highlight for me.

Next we traveled up the eastern coast to a very rustic farmhouse near great beaches. The home was likely built in the mid 1800’s and had some charm and some quirks but it was a very quiet and relaxing base for us for the next 4 days as we soaked up sun and searched for shells – trying out different beaches each day. Although it is prime tourist season we usually had the beaches to ourselves, I’m not sure where everyone was! We also spent a day at Freycinet National Park where we did a 11 km hike: a circuit that took us over a mountain saddle to Wineglass Bay, one of the most photographed and picturesque beaches in the world, then across the peninsula (through swamp with loads of misquitos, “mozzies”) to Hazards Beach and then back along a hilly trail that followed the ocean back to our car. Eric says that this day deserves its own blog post – it was definitely one that we want to remember. The older kids walked the entire way, I carried Maren on my back, and Eric carried all of our food and water. Cadie and Asher had some complaints and tumbles but pulled through and really were rockstars. We ate lunch at Wineglass bay and played in the water there but if I had to do it over again I would head straight for Hazards Beach. Wineglass was more crowded than Hazards beach (most people turn around at Wineglass) and Hazards was just as beautiful with finer sand.
Wineglass bay:

Hazards beach:

Also whilst (trying out some Aussie phrasing here) staying on the east coast we took a penguin night tour in Bicheno, an hour north of where we were staying. It was this windy road trip that Asher choose to get car sick and vomit all over everyone 5 minutes from the destination. Luckily the send-off point for the tour was a surf/beach shop that sold clothing. Unluckily, the clothing was $$$. Asher will now be wearing his million dollar sweatpants everyday until there are only threads keeping it together.

We cleaned up as quickly and best as we could and spent an hour watching little blue penguins come back to their burrows from sea. The tour guide even opened up some of the burrow boxes and we got to see penguin chicks. (Photo courtesy of our tour guide.)

We ended our Tassie trip inland at a cottage northwest of Hobart. We spent one day at a wildlife rehabilitation center where we fed kangaroos, pet a wombat, and watched a Tasmanian devil eat a dead chicken.
Friendly roos:

Devil himself:

The final full day was spent in Mount Field National Park where we did another long (but shorter) hike to 3 waterfalls and through a grove of really tall swamp gum trees. Many of the trees were over 400 years old and are among the tallest hardwood trees in the world. In a meadow area just off the car park we found some pademelon – the smallest of the macropods. Despite their size they could hop quickly and I had a hard time getting a photo.

We were in Tassie for 8 days in the middle of summer but it never got very hot – there was only one day where I felt like it was warm enough for me to put more than toes in the water (Although the kids had no problem getting soaked). In our last cottage we even needed the heaters on at night! The climate is very mild with lots of vineyards, orchards, and fruit farms. We were able to pick cherries, strawberries, nectarines, blackberries, and a raspberry variety (tayberry) at one U-pick farm. It is not a place I could live (too cold) but wow was it beautiful and unspoilt.