Holy Cow! Got dropped off at Heathrow (London) dressed in every stitch of warm weather gear we own. Got on a plane and landed in Summer, tomorrow. Literally. It was 2 days hence, but only 23 hours of flying and 4 hours lay over in Manilla. How does one manage daily medication? Well I guess I get an extra day out of my prescription. And it is officially Summer here. Not Winter in a temperate area, but actually Summer. And they are celebrating Christmas as Australians do – a Summer vacay. We have experienced some culture shocks, but this is a good one. Another culture shock – it’s expensive here. Actually that is more perception than reality. Since they use the dollar symbol, but their dollar is about 66 cents. 1.5 liter of milk is over $4. Things are more expensive here than in Europe, and a little more than England, but not as much as it looks. We would pay about 4 pounds (I can’t find the pound symbol on my (computer) for a pint in a pub in England. That is about $5 (US) and here it is 8 or 9 (AUS) or about $6 (US). Probably would be $6 (US) in USA. It is hot. And the country is burning. We will not find centuries old architecture. It’s a lot like home. People here are even more casual than San Diegans, and if anything, more adventurous.
There was a volcano eruption in New Zealand the other day. Why does that always happen when we’re there? When we went to Nicaragua, two volcanoes, one supposedly extinct erupted. The extinct one hours after we were at its rim (18 inches from the crater). We heard the rumbling, but did not really understand the danger – extinct volcanoes shouldn’t be doing that. If you like volcanoes, Nicaragua is the place to go. But we were planning to visit the one in New Zealand. That may be impossible now.
We have spent a week here in Brisbane taking in a mixture of scenery and wildlife in the surrounding regions, and Christmas celebrations, markets, parades and light shows. We have already seen some unique animals and birds. Almost nothing, even the birds are the same as the northern hemisphere. We have encountered 3 pythons already – maybe 12-15 ft. And a zillion spiders. It is disconcerting not knowing which spiders and snakes are dangerous yet. But most are they say, so I am steering clear of 8-legged and no legged fauna. One excursion was to a fresh water perched lake that has Australian tea trees all around. Perched means the lake is above sea level. The leaves and roots have gotten in the water and made it like tea; it looked like tea too – brown. It is supposed to be good for your skin to soak in it. So we did; I did not notice anything miraculous. On the shore, a 2 meter monitor lizard called a Goanna walked right by flicking his big reptile tongue. Climbed a tree a few feet away, and eventually came down, walked through another group’s picnic and disappeared. Rented scooters got us around this island and to get to this lake. While scooting along, low and behold, a kangaroo hops across the road in front of us. We have seen several sulfur crested cockatoos, numerous other parrot species, unique forest birds, falcons and other birds of prey. And lots of dolphins (they look the same as our dolphin). So far we have not spotted a koala.
Tomorrow we head north to Hervey Bay where we will be pet sitting a staffy over Christmas. This area is closer to rain forest and should provide lots of wildlife opportunities. Our main job is to keep the dog from licking cane toads. I’ll find out more of what that entails when we get there and I am sure it will be postcard worthy information.