We are here!

Hi friends and family. We are here... in Ferny Creek, in the Dandenong Hills of SE Victoria, about 40 km from the big city of Melbourne. This apparently counts as one of Melbourne's outlying suburbs, but we were surprised to see that we are living on the side of a gorgeous, eucalyptus and fern tree loaded hillside, surrounded by cockatoos, rosellas, at least 2 kinds of possums, and other assorted wildlife. There are signs posted on the road that we are watch for wallabies or small greys (a kind of kangaroo, I think).

So far we have travelled through Honolulu (it was gorgeous -- more later, with pics when I have some time), parts of the North Island of New Zealand, and a bit of the South Island. NZ is also as wonderful as I remember, and we just didn't have enough time. People have been friendly, welcoming, and most in NZ realized we were Canadian, not "American".

We arrived in Melbourne on the evening of the 20th, and promptly got lost on our way here... our hosts took us down another highway, and we, being new in the land, didn't know. The joke now is that we were on our way to Sydney, but it was more in the direction of Adelaide... Maria and her sister got us here after a while, and we had a quick evening meal supplied by Maria (thanks to her!!) and hit the comfortable beds. ... only to be awakened by a raucous, snarling, hissing possum fight above our heads... the possums live up there somewhere, and as Kai said, "One alpha male was letting another one know what was happening!"... or something else, I figure, as they apparently have several batches of young/year. The possums are protected, so we will learn to enjoy the nightly escapades. Some new friends across the road feed them, and they invited us over last night to watch and pat the friendliest possums.

The next night, other than possum partying, we were awakened at 5 a.m. by an emergency siren... the other excitement here is that we are in a bush fire danger area, and the day had been very windy (more than 100 km/hour), and temperatures close to 40C, if not 40. So the potential of fire is real, and the sirens are there to alert us of an emergency. I checked the website, and nothing was listed, and there was no smell of smoke in the air, so we went back to bed. Later we heard it was a car accident.

I've managed to get lost every day... being used to right angles, and straight roads doesn't prepare you for roundabouts, direction changes as you drive around the hills, and new places. However, this apppears to be a way to learn where we are going (!). Had to have a little cry twice, especially the first time when I ended up on some tram tracks in downtown Melbourne, where I was NOT supposed to be... in some places you drive on the tram tracks, but not there. Oh well.

The kids and I spent that day in the Melbourne Museum and Tom met up with the other international teaching fellows who are here for the year. Then we had a lovely picnic and party to meet the other families. We did get home without incident or getting lost!

Tom has already met up with some of the Beaconhills staff, and will have more to do with them next week when they start back to work. Gabriel, Kai and Nicole will start school on Feb. 2, so we will go to meet the Principal of Ferny Creek Primary School next week and find out all about uniforms, times, lunch, etc. The walk to school is about 2 km, and up a steep hill on the way there. Views are spectacular, and it's beside a horse paddock, so it's all very scenic. The flock of cockies we met were on that road.

Today is our day to relax and enjoy the gorgeous sunshine... tomorrow is Australia Day, so we should take some time to have a barbie. Tom spent time on our roof this morning sweeping off the leaves, to reduce fire hazard, and will take time this afternoon to put together a composting pile... maybe the possums, who are fruit, veggie and seed eaters, will spend some time there and chill out when they get back home at 4 a.m. ... too full to fight!!

Pictures and more stories will show up very soon!