Australia Part II - Day Two

WEEEOOOOO!!!!WEEEEEEOOOOO!!!!

Nope, not our alarm clock set for 7:30am. The hotel fire alarm at about 6am. I had to explain to a very befuddled Scott what was going on. Fortunately, it was probably just someone trying to take a shower (there were warnings posted in the elevators explaining how showering might set them off) and not an actual fire. Just drifting back to sleep when the alarm clock went off. We had to get a bit of an early start in order to see a bit of Sydney before driving down to the timeshare, so we got up and decided to hit the Krispy Kreme next door for breakfast.

We decided to take the back stairs down into the parking lot instead of the main stairs through the lobby. WEEEOOOOO!!!! WEEEEEOOOOO!!!! Whoops, that fire door wasn't labeled as having an alarm. Go, go! Walk away, and try to look normal. Doughnuts were pretty delicious although two of them was probably one too many.

O.K. Let's get outta here! We loaded up the car and headed out to the Sydney Opera House and Royal Botanical Gardens. The day was a bit...moist...and we were sadly lacking in bumbershoots and jackets but that's O.K. It just meant that the attractions were not nearly as crowded as they could have been.

People walking to the top of the harbor bridge.

We saw A Folly for Mrs. Macquarie and her Chair. Also many beautiful flowers and birds.

Not to mention cool trees. This one had fallen over and could not be stood back up without risking breaking the trunk.

During a particularly moist time (A.K.A torrential downpour), we took shelter in a gazebo by the rose garden.

Very neat greenhouse.

Mrs. Macquarie's Chair. This was as far away from the garden entrance by the Opera House as possible, so as we were sloshing along, a common phrase was, "This better be one awesome chair." It was O.K. but the view was a bit lacking due to some tree growth and dock building since Mrs. Macquarie's time.

This cheeky guy really wanted a bite of our toasted sandwiches.
"Wild" cockatoo.
"Wild" parrot?

Weird succulent flower.
Government House.

Sadly, we didn't have too much time to spend as we still had a four hour drive down to the timeshare we were staying at in Tomakin, NSW, so we grabbed a quick bite at the Opera House outdoor cafe and got on the road.

You may notice from this picture that we are getting on the harbor bridge. This is a little odd since the bridge is north of Sydney and we wanted to go south. Navigation fail. Also, we expect to receive a toll bill in the mail any day now since you cannot pay cash for the toll, but instead must purchase a pass ahead of time. Too bad we didn't plan on taking a wrong turn that left us no choice but to go over the bridge. Trust me, we tried to pay this fee while still in the country, but the whole toll "system" is very broken. Do not get us started...

Just in case you needed verification that Australia is an enormous country/continent, this sign says 939km to Melbourne.
Dark City anyone?

It was a looooonnnng and pretty dull drive south along the coast although I did see three echidnas (although sadly got no pictures) and we stopped at a roadside stand to buy fresh mangoes.

Finally made it!
Lovely view of entrance.

When we first arrived, we were a bit nervous because the property at the entrance was under construction and made it look like a bit of a dump, but once inside the Moorings, it was much nicer. The resort had a small indoor pool, "hot" tub (not actually hot, just bubbly), a tennis court, small playground, a game room, an "adults only" game room, docks, boat rentals, and BBQ's (actually outdoor gas griddles).

Living room of timeshare.

The actual condo was also quite nice, but I'll post more pictures of that later. After we unloaded the car, we again were pretty hungry and needed to stock up on some food. We were directed by the check in desk to a relatively close IGA (I have only seen them in northern Michigan until now, but apparently they are in 45 countries) in the neighboring town of Surf Beach which was blissfully right next to a pizza place. The pizza was quite good although they did not use mozzarella cheese. I also got a "spider" to drink which I thought was like a root beer float, but ended up being a pink drink with ice cream in it.

After eating and shopping we were pretty tired, so called it a night, but we did see some kangaroos on the way home! Again sadly no pictures.

Australia Part I - Day One

O.K., so we have finally put this off long enough, and any longer and we will never post this blog.

December 3rd, 2010.

We woke up early after staying up late cleaning the house and working on my thesis to finish cleaning the house and finish packing for our trip to Australia. We had to leave the house looking decent because the darling, baby princess (a.k.a. Crunch) was going to be looked after by a friend of ours and we didn't want her to think we live like we do. Ahem. Anyways, we actually finished things up way before our airport shuttle (a touch of brilliance on Scott's part, since taking the Airbus from our house is kinda a pain) was due to arrive and were patiently reading to pass the time when we realized that it was a bit past time for the shuttle to show up. Scott pulled out the reservation from a neat stack of travel papers and saw to our dismay that the shuttle was actually scheduled to pick us up to TAKE us to the airport a few days after it was scheduled to pick us up FROM the airport. Ooops. O.K., no problem, we still have plenty of time to catch our flight we thought. We'll just give the airport shuttle people a quick ring. So we did, and they assured us that they would be able to pick us up soon and get us to the airport on time for our flight. Long story short, too late, we did make our flight, but thank goodness we didn't have any checked baggage. Although since we didn't have any checked baggage, we forgot to not bring "liquids" over 100mL and Scott lost his sunblock and shaving cream. Whoops. Off to a great stop.

Finally got on the relatively short 3 hour flight to Sydney which was fairly turbulent, but got us to Aussie is one piece. Once there we picked up our rental car keys and GPS system (expressly rented to do some geocaching, but we'll get to that part later) and headed out to find the rental car. Well, long story short, too late, there were actually two parking areas where Budget had its cars and if it were not for a kind Avis? employee, we wouldn't have found the car before the pouring rain started. As it was, we managed to find the car just before the rain started and after some horrible navigation on my part that got us turning around and honked at a lot (impatient Aussie drivers!) we finally made it to our "still inside the airport proper" hotel.

Now granted, when we realized that our flight was going to get into Sydney pretty late (i.e. around 7:30pm) and that Scott didn't want to be driving 4 hours after a 3 hour flight in the dark, we did just want a place to crash for the night, nothing fancy. Well, let me tell you, the Formulae One more than lived up to the expectation of "nothing fancy". In point of fact, it was seedy and overpriced complete with a "shower" that was simply a curtained off part of the bathroom, a propped open fire door, and no hand towels.

We arrived, were underwhelmed, and immediately our thoughts turned to food. There was a Krispy Kreme and a McDonald's next door, but we were hoping for something a little more Aussie and a little higher class, so we consulted the touristy Guide to Sydney that we'd picked up at the airport. Hmmm. Nothing there. Odd. So we then consulted the GPS. Restaurants-Near Sydney Airport. A Peruvian BBQ restaurant? Sounds good! Off we go!


Finding the restaurant was a bit tricky, but finding parking was even trickier as it was a hopping Friday night in the Sydney suburb of Newton. We chose a semi-legal spot in an alley beside the tram tracks and set off on foot (about a 5ish minute walk) to Inca's Restaurant. The outside of the restaurant was quite humble and there was only one patron in the whole place despite the sidewalks being crowded with people. This almost put us off and sent us to a much more bland, but busy cafe next door, but thank goodness we decided to "stick with the plan". Inca's was awesome!!! The waitress/owner? was very kind and attentive and spoke fluent Spanish and the atmosphere was very, well Peruvian. Anyways, I had goat with white beans and fried cassava and a house Peruvian cocktail made with pisco (a pisco sour). Scott had a pork dish and a Cascade Lager (an Australian beer which he gave a 6/10). All was fantastically delicious! Sadly, we had to pass on dessert (even though they had creme brulee, my favorite!!!) because we were pleasantly stuffed at that point and didn't want to get sick from eating too much wonderous food. It was also pretty late and we were fairly tired from our long day.

So it was back to the car which was still there with no damage or parking ticket and back to our crummy hotel.

Christmas Letter 2010

Christmas Letter 2010

Jennifer Haeger & Scott Favre

Christmas carols in the air and a few well-traveled holiday cards rousted me from my thesis-induced coma to find that it is the eve of Christmas Eve and nary a Christmas greeting has been sent out from 58 Greenpark Road, Penrose, Auckland 1061. So here it goes…

This past year began with me back in Michigan visiting friends and family over the holidays and leaving poor Scott to fend for himself back in New Zealand. I traveled back to New Zealand with a much greater appreciation for our friends and family who showed me nothing but warmth and hospitality despite the fact that we abandoned them to live halfway round the world.

The first order on business when I returned was our first tramping (i.e. hiking) trip in the NZ bush in Kaimai Mamaku Forest Park. This was the first time that either of us had done any serious hiking (i.e. overnight hiking necessitating packs filled with clothing and food). This was an excellent experience highlighted by 12 hours of solid up and down hiking on the second day. I honestly thought that I was not going to make it to the hut, and we actually ran out of water, but luckily found a stream to refill with our filter pump. For full details please see our blog postings "Jen and Scott Tramping Trial" and "Kaimai Clarifications" from January 2010.

Next on the agenda was starting my Masters degree in Forensic Science through the University of Auckland at Environmental Science and Research (ESR). This was only made possible due to the generosity of ESR in the form of a Graduate Scholarship. My project entitled “The Transfer and Persistence of Hair during Laundering and Characterization of the Extent of Degradation of DNA” will (God willing and the creek don’t rise) be completed in February 2011.

Having dipped my toe very gently into my Masters project and with Scott working hard at his new New Zealand firm “Right Hemisphere”, we decided it was time for a well-deserved vacation. This time we drove 5 hours south of Auckland to Mt. Taranaki in Egmont National Park for a four day tramp over the Easter holiday weekend. This particular tramp also had a notable day two with me literally telling Scott to leave me and “go get help” as I struggled to remain upright with a net upward movement on some seemingly endless fields of scree on the side of Fanthams Peak (a very small peak on the slopes of Mt. Taranaki). If you are not familiar with scree, it is loose rock. When it is located on the side of a mountain on a steep angle, it means that you are far more likely to go down the mountain than up it despite your attempts to go up it. Fortunately outside help was not required as my husband is beyond awesome and simply scaled the peak alone, then dropped his pack and returned to take my pack and RESCALE the peak with my pack. Amazing! Again, for a full account of our adventures please refer to our blog or ask Scott sometime about the best can of fruit salad in the world.

In the fall, I began thesis lab work in earnest and we discovered the joys of the feijoa, a small guava-like fruit of which we have a baby tree in our yard. I also officially graduated from the University of Auckland with a Postgraduate Diploma in Forensic Science. But more importantly Scott and I took a long weekend over the Queen’s Birthday in June to have a second honeymoon in Christchurch. Not terribly keen on tramping in the wintertime in the South Island, we instead stayed at a hotel and just did some day excursions. These included revisiting the Moeraki Boulders in the daytime and revisiting the Whitestone Cheese Factory and the Yellow-Eyed Penguin Sanctuary in Oamaru. We were again rewarded for persistence and patience at the penguin sanctuary and saw three or four penguins and took more blurry, bigfootesque photos.

July not only brought with it my birthday (a poker and AH party), but also ESR’s mid-year party which was an American cowboy themed event. It was very educational and hilarious to see a New Zealander’s version of this.

August was Scott’s birthday and his second Super Secret Birthday Adventure. This took place at a venue called Adventure Waikato where sheep farm meets adventure park. We began with abseiling (i.e. rappelling) down into an ancient collapsed cave system that is now a valley rich in native flora and fauna. Next was hiking the valley and exploring some caves (one with glowworms). Then we rode a flying fox (i.e. zipline) and finally did some orienteering.

September and October were when the thesis panic began to set in, so I have very little recollection of these months, except for Halloween. On Halloween, Scott and I participated in the Auckland Marathon with Scott running the Quarter Marathon and me running the Half Marathon.

We hosted an American Thanksgiving in November for some of our friends. This was complete with organic turkey, stuffing, Polish kielbasa-like sausage (actually Danish Rookworst and South African Boerewors), and pumpkin pie. We also played a version of Alice’s Restaurant and tried to explain this particular Thanksgiving tradition as best we could.

The beginning of December we finally decided to take advantage of the cheap airfare to Australia from NZ and of my family’s timeshare week swapping option in order to spend a week at a resort near Tomakin, Australia. This is along the east coast of Australia about 4 hours south of Sydney. We flew into Sydney and proceeded to do a lot of driving from there including another 4 hour journey west of Tomakin to Thredbo in order to climb the highest peak in Australia, Mount Kosciuszko. It was springtime in Australia and the mountain still had a little snow on it, so we at least touched snow in December this year!

This brings us full circle to the present. I am a little excited about my first Christmas and New Year’s in NZ and barbequing instead of baking. This will be Scott and my first Christmas on our own together, but we will spend most of Christmas afternoon and evening at our friend’s “Strays and Waifs” Holiday Party. This is specifically an event for those without family in the greater Auckland area who could not make it home for the holidays, and where Scott spent last Christmas.

The plan is to return home to the States in July 2011. I can give no further details.

Now I will leave you with the following:

“May your days be merry and bright!-And may all your Christmases be white.”

“I’ll be home for Christmas.-If only in my dreams.”

Happy Christmas, Seasons Greetings, Happy Hanukah, Merry Winter, Joyous Yule, Happy Holidays, Wondrous Solstice, Happy Kwanzaa

And

A Happy New Year!

With Love,

Jen and Scott

Australia, Part 0

So we know that you probably want to hear about our trip to Australia and our adventures on Mt. Koskiuszko. Instead, this post is about a day trip Jen and I took to the Tahuna Torea Nature Reserve.

The plan was to bus hop over to the east side of Auckland, where the park is located, and spend the day poking around seeing what was to be seen. Being seasoned users of Auckland public transit, we dutifully found a set of buses we could use that would take about an hour to get to the park.

Of course, since this is us, things rarely go as planned: through a combination of missing buses, walking between bus stops, buses being canceled, and tertiary plans being enacted, we managed to make it to the park in 2.5 hours (a mere 1.5 hours longer than planned).

We grabbed a bite at a cafe near the end of the bus line and then headed over to the reserve on foot. It was a lovely little park, nearly devoid of annoying humans but full of interesting birds.


We walked along the beach and waded out into the warm and very shallow water. While sitting in the water, we got nibbled on by some tiny crabs and observed a fierce territory dispute between two of them played out over the course of several minutes.

This trip was also another excuse to bring out the KFK and his new friend the Kiwi Fruit Echidna.