Home Wet Home

It has been a week since we arrived in Buderim. We’ve experienced extreme heat, extreme humidity and extreme wind and rain (AKA ex-cyclone Oswald). Having said that, we’ve been very fortunate.

We were greeted at the airport by Col’s shuttle and greeted on the lawn of our new house by Karen’s Mum and partner, Jan and Dave. Since the house had been vacant for almost a month, Jan and Dave busied themselves by removing all the creepy crawlies, dusting, opening windows, turning on fans and filling the fruit bowl full of delicious watermelon, cantaloupe, passion fruit, nectarines, avocado and a few others (we’re still not sure what they are called!) Jan and Dave have been wonderful to show us around Buderim and introduce us to some local Canadians. Karen and Gary also ensured their neighbors and friends called upon us. We’ve already made tentative plans to head to Noosa next weekend to meet one couple!

Our first weekend in Buderim was spent safe and dry indoors while ex-cyclone Oswald pounded eastern Queensland with rain, wind and more rain. We suffered a few down trees and a down fence and a lot of leaves in the backyard pool while others suffered extended power losses, the loss of their homes and all of their belongings. Some even suffered the loss of life. As Oswald moves south, New South Wales and Victoria residents are being flooded, evacuated and under water bans. Every television channel has footage of the devastation. Australia has suffered 9 natural disasters in the past 5 years at a cost of 6 billion dollars.

When the rain stopped we entertained some Aussie friends and some newly befriended Canadians with a backyard BBQ and dip in the pool. We plan on getting together with them again soon.

We’ve made several trips to various grocers, a trip to open a bank account and Fenton and Heather made a trip to the library and Good Life Community/Recreation Centre. Driving has been interesting but not too difficult. Thank goodness for google maps and directions which even tell you how many roundabouts to go through and which exit to take!

This weekend we travel to Brisbane for an exchange teacher meeting. We’re staying with some other exchangees and look forward to hearing their travels, their teaching experiences and their Canadian “accents”.

In summary, here’s a list of some good and some not so good things that happened in the first week of our new home.

The good things:

-tasty yummy tasty fruit – juicy cold watermelon, peaches, apples, passion fruit, avocado and other fruits we’ve never experienced

-tasty yummy tasty Australian wine – we’ve been buying it by the box

-tasty yummy tasty Cadbury dairymilk chocolate – we’ve also been buying in bulk!

-large warm backyard low maintenance pool with plenty of room and toys for Fenton to play with

-spacious home with plenty of room and toys for Fenton to play with 

-a backyard forest with plenty of kookaburras and cicadas chorusing throughout the night

-6 p.m. darkness – good for putting Fenton to sleep!

The not so good things:

-rain, rain and more rain and gale force winds – we had a big clean up to do once the cyclone finished dumping on us. And a big load of laundry! Nothing dries here – ever.

-Coackroaches, cockroaches and coackroaches. And ants. And spiders. And cane toads. And supersized grass hoppers. And geckos. Though I’m starting to like the geckos. Apparently they eat the mozzies.  

-Driving – can be confusing on the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road, with roundabouts instead of traffic lights. Expect to get lost at least once every trip, both directions. (If that’s all that happens, you’re doing well!)

All In All The Time

I never believed that I would experience any kind of culture shock in Australia. My mother was born there so I know most of the Aussie slang. I have traveled the country extensively and know many Australians. Most of the time Canadians and Aussies get along just great, so why would I need to worry about culture shock? Within a mere 3 days I have realized that there are many more struggles when one lives in a new place compared to simply travelling. To put it simply, everything is different, from turning on the light switch in the morning to driving to and from work. That being said… a difficult day here is in fact a difficult day in a tropical paradise. I’ve had worse. In fact, I know that when I return to Edmonton I will miss going into the pool, eating amazing fresh fruit every day, cycling all year, the wide selection of gluten free treats, and of course the people.

Heather and I landed on the morning of January 22. We were fortunate to have an incredible house to live in and to be greeted by David and Jan, the parents of Karen Turner. January 23 was my first day at work. Murray Gillis, a new colleague, picked me up and took me to school. We will be teaching Chemistry 11 together and it is a great opportunity to plan so closely with a teacher. It is clear that Gary and Murray have been extremely collaborative and I am very happy to continue that tradition.

After 3 days of professional development, meetings, schmoozing, and planning it is clear that teaching at Maroochydore is different than at Londonderry.

Our first order of the day was to go to a meeting. The Principal, Boyd Jorgenson spoke at length about the school focus. “All In… All The Time”. Mr. Jorgenson was in an interesting role last year as a curriculum auditor and had the opportunity to visit many schools in the Queensland area. He believes that the most successful schools have policies that all staff understand, buy into, and implement consistently. The analogy is two parents who have the same rules for their kids versus those that are inconsistent. Teachers at Maroochydore have a certain degree of professional freedom, however, it is clear that consistency is a strong value here.

All teachers of a particular course must follow the same unit plan. For example, all of us in Science 8 are expected to cover lab safety, lab equipment, and scientific method in the first week. Each week is planned out and all teachers of the same course follow the plan. Teachers may experiment and try unique methods of delivery, however, the timeline must be followed as set.  The plans are handed out to the students each term and the format of the plans is consistent – same cover page, layout, font, etc.

We all implement the same rules. All students are expected to line up outside the door before each class (every day all year) in alphabetical order. The teacher will greet each student at the door and check to make sure that he/she is wearing the correct uniform, has all necessary equipment, and is sent to the correct seat in the seating plan. These are just a few of the many examples of “All in all the time”.

I have never taught in a school like this, so it will be very interesting to experience such a high degree of structure. It may even be difficult to go back to the Edmonton way.

There are more differences, but I would rather wait until I teach some classes before reporting on them. The purpose behind doing a teacher exchange is to put ones self out of the comfort zone in an effort to learn something new. This will certainly be a year of discomfort and learning and I look forward to it!

Bad News

Heather woke me at 3:45AM. In 15 minutes, the Australian High Commission (AHC) will open in Ottawa. I must call them to determine if we can enter Australia or if we must fly to Aukland and visit the AHC there. In our hotel we had an internet limit of only 25GB (about 30 minutes of average internet use). When I logged in it was essential that I conserve my use to checking my email account to see if we had been granted visas and to call the AHC in Ottawa if no email was received. My heart sank when I saw no new messages in my email account. I was nervous about phoning Ottawa. It was not very likely that they could do anything for me and we had accepted the idea that we would not be permitted to board the plane to Brisbane that morning. A woman named Charmaine answered the phone. In my most polite voice I asked if she could check the status of my visa. She was not very friendly. In fact, she was quite perturbed that I had not memorized the number of the application form and that she needed to use my name and birth date to determine my visa status. Not a good start. She informed me that the visa had not yet been processed. In fact, she said that it was “nowhere even close” to having completed the three steps necessary to receive a yes or no. I informed her that I was leaving to the airport in an hour and a half and that it needed to be processed by then. “What can I do to make this happen?” I said. After a long discussion where I needed to explain the consequences of missing the flight, we realized that I needed to speak with a supervisor. The supervisor had obviously been informed by Charmaine that I was an unhappy applicant.

When I was in Human Resources, I spoke to many unhappy applicants. I think that the most important thing to do in the supervisory position is to listen very carefully to the applicant, make sure that he/she realizes that I understand their position, and then be completely honest about possible options. The supervisor did none of these things. She informed me that I needed to make “alternative travel plans” and that I could not leave Canada until I received word that the visa had been approved. I explained several times that I am in New Zealand, not Canada. In a teaching job one cannot make “alternative plans”. The kids show up on the first day of school and we must be there. This is not a start date that can be moved. She remained firm that it was highly unlikely that the visa would be processed in one hour and that I should not attempt to enter Australia until I have received confirmation of a positive answer.  This was very bad news indeed.

I have been in many situations when a person close to me has given advice contrary to policy and I have never yet regretted following such a path. Heather thought that the best course of action was to go to the airport and take our chances. We just might make it through after all. It seemed to be the most logical thing to do. If we follow the recommendation of the supervisor, we may miss out on the opportunity to enter Australia on time if the visa does go through. That being said, we may jeopardize our chances altogether if we are caught trying to enter the country without a visa.

So I used Skype once again to phone Carolyn Freed, the International Educational Exchange Program Liason in Edmonton, and let her know what we were going to do. There was no answer, so I left a voicemail. Off we went to Christchurch airport to try to board the plane.

We arrived at Christchurch airport, checked our bags, and headed off to security. There was no drama during security. Even Heather managed to get through without having to be scanned. Things were looking up… until we got to customs. Heather turned to me and for the first time she looked stressed. “Are you ready for the hard questions?” Heather and I had rehearsed exactly what to say as if I was a witness in court.

It was very strange. The customs official was confused that we were Canadian, yet our customs form had indicated that we were moving to Australia for a year. “Are you Canadian or Australian?” she asked. Did she not have our information in front of her on the computer screen? I smiled and explained that I am on an international teacher exchange. She said “oh… what a wonderful opportunity! Have a great flight!” There were no high fives, no acts of relief, not even any discussion about the situation. Not until we got to the gate. At that point we didn’t want to show any signs of celebration. What if someone found it suspicious and decided to investigate? We decided that it was best to contact Carolyn ASAP and let her know what we had done. Visions of being deported or hauled off the airplane - with all of the other passengers watching - went through my mind. When I connected to the WiFi at the airport, my mail program made that dinging sound indicating that I had mail.

Dear GREGORY PATRICK WONDGA

Notification of grant of a Temporary Work (class GD) International Relations (subclass 403) visa

I wish to advise that a decision has been made on this application and visas have been granted on 21 January 2013 to the applicant(s) listed in the attached Visa Grant Notice, which contains important information about your visa.

Please keep a copy of this letter and the Visa Grant Notice in a safe place for your reference.

Unbelievable.

Another email came from Carolyn Freed

I received your voice message that you were enroute to Christchirch airport not knowing if you would be on the plane or not.

I persisted with AHC, spoke with another agent this time, and I have word that you will be on that plane to Australia!  A decision was made in the last 2 hours I was told, directly from the Dept of Immigration in Australia, not Ottawa. Talk about the 11^th hour- it was processed directly in Australia, not in Ottawa apparently accordingly to the agent I spoke with. (which perhaps explains why Ottawa told you they were nowhere near processing your application) Hopefully the call last week helped push it through.

Please let me know once you have arrived and your heart rate has returned to normal.

I am glad this has worked out, but it was too close to the wire for my liking.  I can’t imagine your stress levels.

Hopefully you are reading this email from Australia!

Regards,

Carolyn

Currently we are in the Turner’s home. It is a beautiful place. The first thing that we did was swim in the pool. A kookaburra, only meters away, made its classic hilarious laugh from a gum tree.  Fenton, Heather, and I looked at each other and erupted in our own laughter and the high fives followed.

Chalkboards

For our last night in the Batmobile, we haded to the beautiful Banks Peninsula for a day on a boat. The peninsula is a former volcano that has eroded down to one third its height. The first European settlers were French, who later lost their claim to New Zealand’s South Island in exchange for Fiji. The French community in the Banks peninsula is still strong and most of the street names are in French. We stayed in Akaroa and took a nearly three hour boat ride to see penguins, cormorants, seals, and dolphins. Fenton spent the entire time in a backpack and ended up having a long nap. We enjoyed having the time to focus on wildlife rather than his needs but regretted this long slumber when he resisted going to bed that night. Trade offs.

We had a wonderful last dinner with Stefan and Heike, exchanged some pictures and Skype addresses, then headed to our final New Zealand destination, Christchurch.

12 years ago, Christchurch was much different than it is now. The city was devastated by an earthquake February 22, 2011. Until today, I had not appreciated the extent of the damage. The city was completely unrecognizable. In fact the entire vibe of the city has changed. Christchurch was once a vibrant city with a youthful spirit thanks to the University there. Today, the entire city centre is closed off and construction is ongoing to rebuild. The cost to the economy of the city is incredible. Several buildings had messages on the sides where the people of the city are encouraged to add their thoughts in chalk. One message was “Before I die I want to…” Many answers were scrawled in chalk, some were inspiring, others were silly. Another message was “I hope Christchurch will…” The walls ask the people of Christchurch to find hope, set goals, and create a new and better city. I hope that if I ever visit this great city again, it will live up to its dreams.

Tonight is our last night in New Zealand… or is it? We have still not received any notification from the Australian High Commission that we have permission to enter the country. They have spent a long time processing our application, and despite numerous calls, there has been no promise that a visa will be in place by the time of our flight. It is one of those things that are beyond our control, yet by not having a visa, we are forced to stay in a hotel ($$), change our tickets ($$), call up my new principal to arrange for a substitute teacher ($$), and possibly travel to Auckland to speak to someone at the embassy there ($$). We will not know until we attempt to check in at the airport. May the force be with us.

Pi Day

After leaving Milford Sound, we drove through Invercargill towards the Catlins, an area of New Zealand that very few tourists visit yet holds rare beauty. There are no tourist buses and very few people, yet the beaches, wildlife,  and ocean views are stunning. The Catlins boasts one perfectly circular beach with perfect sand after another.

To experience the Catlins you must drive along the Southern Sceneic Highway and stop off at the numerous places along the way. In order to experience every stop that the park has to offer you would need at least 1 – 2 weeks. We only had one day, so we picked 3 special places to see.

Our first stop was Curio Bay. The beaches there are picture perfect. They are so perfectly circular that you could calculate the length of each beach using pi. The special aspect of this bay, however, is not the beauty of the beach. Hector dolphins enjoy surfing in the waves there. These dolphins are extremely rare and are typically only seen along the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island. Unfortunately, the perfect beach was all that we saw. As we enjoyed walking along the beach it was clear by the exposed coral that we were at low tide. This meant that it was imperative to reach our next destination quickly.

We boarded the Batmobile and headed off to the Cathedral Caves. Here you enter Maori land, pay a small fee, and hike down a 15 minute path of dense old growth forest to the beach where the caves reside. The beach was, of course, perfect and there was no one on it. We were very fortunate to arrive when we did, as the tide was coming in and we only had an hour before it would be too dangerous to stay in the caves. The caves are very tall and deep. One could walk into the caves quire far, and if you have a flashlight, you could squeeze into some small gaps in the rock and find new halls to explore. Given the short time period and having a 17 month old on my back (who was scared of the dark) we decided to keep our visit short, walk through the now ankle deep water and head back to the beach.

Our final stop was two bays known as Nugget Point and Roaring Bay. They are situated quite close to one another and they both promise views of penguins, dolphins, seals, and possibly sea lions. The yellow eyed penguins were far away, however, their stance was recognizable as they hung out in crowds along the rocks. Seals played around in the kelp and would sometimes climb up onto the rocks to sun themselves. Every so often it was possible to see a small Hector dolphin jump out of the water. There were no seal lions, however. This was actually quite strange as they typically hang out in droves on the beach. It would be like going to Jasper without seeing Wapiti.

After Milford Sound, almost anything would seem mundane, however, it was special to see so much wild life and to be away from the crowds of tourists (and sand flies). Our final stop was in Ashburton, a small farming community just outside of Christchurch. We had only two more nights in the Batmobile.

Horseshoes

The night that we arrived in Milford Sound it was raining. No, that is an understatement. Rain at Milford is a constant, much like cold is in Edmonton during the winter. When Edmontonians say it is “cold” what we really mean is that skin will freeze in seconds if exposed to the air. This is not the same definition that others around the world have for the same term. In Milford Sound, when you say it is raining, what you really mean is that buckets of water are pouring on you. I went to the Batmobile to acquire a few things for dinner and I arrived back at the Milford Lodge as if I had come out of a shower.

Milford Lodge has not changed in the 12 years since I had been there last. It is a hostel and campground. There is a dining room, kitchen, and a lounge. My memories of the lodge from 12 years ago are fond. A young man went to the centre of the room filled with guests drying themselves on well-used couches and began to sing and play guitar. I saw that same guitar sitting in the same makeshift guitar stand made from part of a tree. I simply did not have the courage to pick it up and play it. I could not in any way repeat the magical moment of 12 years ago and I did not want to even attempt to do so. Fenton, however, immediately walked over to the guitar, strummed it, picked it up, and dragged it along the ground to a place where he could use it as a bongo drum. It is scenarios like these when you wish that you didn’t teach your children such inappropriate habits.

That night, the rain settled down so that I could roll Fenton in the Chariot so that we could be in bed early. The experience of walking with my son in such a place cannot be described in words. The scenery is truly magical. One can only see majesty in every direction. Waterfalls are everywhere and the trees are large, old Gnarled, and a bright green. The issue with so much rain is that clouds are opaque. The scenery cannot be enjoyed when clouds stand in the way of their glory. I was worried that we had come all this way and that we would miss out on seeing all of the beauty that the sound had to offer.

Horseshoes are symbolic of luck. When a person nails a horseshoe to the the door of their home it is very important to make sure that it is a “U” with the open end facing up. This way it can capture and hold all of the luck. An upside down horseshoe would allow the luck to spill out, so it is important to use many nails. For some strange reason, people refer to lucky individuals as those who have these iron “U” shaped structured embedded in their rectum. Why a person would be considered lucky in this situation I cannot understand, however, the morning that we woke up we realized that we must have horseshoes up our (insert filthy inappropriate word here). There was no rain and sky was blue. We boarded our ship to cruise Milford Sound on a clear, sunny day. This is a rare event that few people ever get the opportunity to experience.

The boat ride was magnificent. Fenton slept in a backpack on Heather’s back for almost the entire cruise - which allowed us to stay on the front of the boat, in perfect position to see seals, dolphins and waterfalls. We started off the boat ride witnessing a young seal feeding on a fish in the harbour. We didn’t see any dolphins but saw hundreds of waterfalls – some we got a little more acquainted with than others (i.e. we got wet.)

Pictures do no justice to Milford Sound. When we left, it was too difficult to accept that we may never return. Despite the sand flies, whose bites still itch weeks later, this is a place that leaves a strong impression in your heart. One is never the same after witnessing the sound.

Approaching Fangorn

Leaving Greymouth was not difficult to do. The weather was horrible; although I must admit, Edmontonians would not agree with such an adjective. To be anywhere in January where the temperature is above the freezing point of water is a wonderful thing. Despite the incredibly drab “greyness” of Greyouth, I do believe it has significant beauty. The perfectly sorted and smooth grey rocks on the beach are… nice to look at. That being said, we were excited to head south towards the fiordlands of New Zealand.

Once on highway 6 heading southbound we were surprised to see how quickly the terrain and the weather changed. Suddenly, we would see people on the sides of roads getting out to remove layers of clothing. The trees became larger and the forests were clearly much older climax communities. Green mosses and lichens coat every tree and the trees are large.

 Having done nothing but sightseeing, driving, eating and drinking, we were glad to get out of the Batmobile, stretch our legs, and do a little tramping. (For those who don’t know, tramping is what New Zealanders refer to as hiking. And like farmers who make hay while the sun shines, we made the most of it while Fenton, the weather, and landscape permitted. We managed to tramp to both the Franz Joseph and Fox Glaciers and did a little tramping at night to see glow worms. King Tut was carried by backpack to the Franz Joseph Glacier and stayed awake long enough to hear and mimic birds that sang in the forest. Every time he heard a bird sing he would call out “cuckoo cuckoo!” like the cuckoo clock in our Edmonton house.

We spent the night at the Fox Glacier. Once dark, we walked with the Chariot along a popular 25 minute path to view the infamous glow worms. These animals aren’t actually worms, rather insect larvae. At night they glow a dim green and in an old forest like this one, it is like seeing a forest of Christmas trees. We re-tramped our steps the following morning and found it much more difficult to find the animals – they only glow at night. We did see their webs and managed to get a picture or two. It was very interesting to have tramped the same trail by day and by night.

The next morning (January 15), we headed to Wanaka. This is a small mountain town situated over a pristine aqua coloured lake. As much as we would have liked to stay there, we knew that to save a day would mean two days in Fiordland National Park. So we continued on to the famous Queenstown to spend the night. Queenstown is ike Jasper with all of the beauty and town character. It is also situated on a large lake with a fabulous mountain range of sharp peaks. The next morning we continued on to our destination of choice, Milford Sound.

 Oftentimes we have discussed whether certain scenes from The Lord of The Rings was filmed here or there while we travelled the beautiful New Zealand countryside. Once we entered Fiordland, we were certain the majority of the movie was filmed here. What a remote mystical destination. You truly have to see it to believe it. Heather kept expecting little hobbits to go skirting across the road in front of us but needless to say, we didn’t see any. Once you enter the Fiordland National park the field meets a dens old growth forest, much like when the Fellowship of the Ring approached Fangorn Forest. The trees are so old and mangled with mosses and lichens covering them like carpets. Milford Sound is not actually a Sound. It is a Fiord. Fiords are different from Sounds in that they are inlets carved by the glaciers. As a result, steep mountains emerge out of the ocean. As stated earlier, the west side of the country receives much more rain, so there is a constant mist hanging around. There are many places in the world that are beautiful, but Milford Sound is far beyond such a description. It is somehow magical and could be compared to places like Machu Picchu and the Grand Canyon. There is no place that I have seen that can match its natural beauty.

Tomorrow we will take a cruise down the sound and then head back to Te Anau for the night. Perhaps we will see some dolphins play along the front of the boat and with any luck the weather will be in our favour.