Rein and Silka's New Hobbies

Rein is workin' his new skateboard and Silka is determined to become the neighbourhood scooter girl. What are the chances that Hidden Valley Lane will be paved when we get back?

Our First Week in Perth,Australia - Our new Home!

Our new house in North Perth

We arrived in Perth on January 12th at about 4:30 p.m. After a few long lines through customs and baggage inspection, we finally walked through the arrival doors and were greeted by Steve, a good friend of the Tippings. It was 40 degrees and when we stepped outside we were hit by a wall of heat that almost took your breath away. Tom says it felt like a guy was following us around with two hairdryers blowing at the "scorch" setting. It didn't take us long to  cram our luggage into Steve's Statesman and we were on our way.

Scarborough Beach - Big Waves!

Daddy and Silka getting ready to Boogie Board on Scarborough Beach

 When we arrived at the house we were welcomed by close friends of the Tippings, Cindee & Chris and their kids, Georgia and Jackson. They were wonderful! They all stayed and had a drink or two with us - Steve is a fountain of information and it was great to get the inside scoop and some history about the city. When they left we all fell into bed exhausted from jet-lag.

The E-Shed Market in Freemantle, south of Perth

How would you like your Ostrich Egg?

Sword swallowing pirate in Freemantle

We spent our first full day doing laundry and unpacking. In the afternoon we headed for the beach - Scarborough Beach. It was beautiful and they just happened to have the Western Australia Beach Volleyball Championships going on in the outdoor Amphitheatre on the beach. The waves were big and intimidating so we didn't do much swimming.

Hangin' out at Mettam's Pools

The next few days we spent touring around different areas and checking out other more kid-friendly beaches which weren't hard to find.
We got a quick glimpse of Freemantle, a town south of Perth, which is really funky. We will be spending more time there.
The kids have spent some time at the neighborhood  playground and have met some of their classmates. There is a cafe right there which is great for Mom and Dad.
Rein has cashed in his "Santa Coupon" and got a skateboard. Silka has yet to decide.
We had Steven Tipping's parents over for dinner last night and they are great people. Silka and Harvey hit it off.

Next Stop - New Zealand's South Island, January 4th - January 12th, 2011

QueensTown, January 4th

Had a fantastic time in New Zealand - just a breathtakingly beautiful country. It was all of Canada scrunched into a thousand kilometers. We rented a car for the week and explored as much of the south island as we could. Highlights were seeing Fox Glacier, the Pancake rocks and paddle in Punakaiki, and seeing the seals and walking the shoreline of Kaikoura. Wish we had more time.

Minus 5 Degree Bar in Queenstown- Gotta good laugh seeing this. Patrons get suited up in parkas, toques and gloves and head into a "cold" bar...

Just some of the beautiful scenery....

Sheep, sheep and more sheep!

NZ has fantastic "holiday parks" with full kitchen, washroom/shower facilities. Great if you are camping. We stayed in these for a couple nights in their 4 bed dorm rooms. The rest of the time stayed in what they called "kitchen cabins" or standard rooms that were fully equipped with kitchen facilites and sometimes a separate bedroom for the kids.
We never drove a road that wasn't curvy or winding it's way through mountains or along the coastline. We quickly learned how to drive on the opposite side of the road. Would like to come back and explore the rest of the South Island that we missed and even take in some of the North.

Monstrous tree in Te Anau

A stop while on our way to Wanaka

A lunch stop on the West Coast

Kids at the Pancake Rocks in Punakaiki

Pancake Rocks

Paddle in Punakaiki

Fox Glacier

Weke - just one of NZ's flightless birds

The toilets in Wanaka's Puzzle World

Kaikoura

"Indiana Rein" with his kelp whip in Kaikoura

Kaikoura shoreline

Seals basking in the sun in Kaikoura

Sea kelp on the shores of Kaikoura

Kids climbing rocks on Kaikoura's shore

Cows grazing on a hill in Kaikoura

Christchurch's Central Square

Christchurch's countdown to Rugby World Cup 2011

Kids at Christchurch's Art Gallery

A year in Perth, Australia - First Stop, Raratonga, Cook Islands

We left Canada with hurried, tearful goodbyes to our family at Pearson International Airport on December 26th, 2010. Laden down with a huge suitcase and a substantial carry-on each, we collected our boarding passes, made it through security and we began our journey to the other side of the world.  

We flew to L.A. and rushed through security again to get on our next flight on Air New Zealand to Raratonga. Tom lost his bottle of single-malt (he refers to it as being robbed) to  U.S. Customs. This wasn't the first time.....

After a 10 hour flight,  we arrived in Raratonga, Cook Islands on December 26th at 7 a.m. where we were adorned with fresh leis, packed into a bus and driven to the Pacific Resort. 

We loved Rarotonga - Island life is something we can all benefit from. In fact, after weeks of stressful preparations for this year long adventure, this jewel of a place was just what the doctor ordered. With Rein and Silka packed off to Kids Club everyday, it didn't take Tom and I long to kick back and truly relax for the first time in a long while.

We toured all over the island with our rented scooters. You all would have chuckled if you could have seen me doing my scooter driving test. It consisted of me driving down the laneway beside the police station and then driving back zig-zagging around some pylons. I passed and Tom and I soon bombed around checking out all the hot spots for snorkelling. Well, you can imagine how excited the kids were to be riding on the back with the wind rippling through their hair - helmets were not available, of course. Tom and I have kept our Cook Islands Driver's Licenses as souvenirs.

Soon our week was up, we were well rested and ready for the next leg of our trip. New Zealand here we come!

First Christmas at Home - 2009

We decided to start our first year at home for Christmas. We thought it was time for us to start a Buck Lake tradition. We decorated our home with lights, cedar boughs and our first real tree. We had many visitors to celebrate with us - Uncle Steven, Papa and Gramma G and their gang, and a surprise visit from Gramma Aida all the way from Florida - Aunt Tacos and Uncle Garry snuck her in! We look forward to the next Buck Lake Christmas...