|
|
|
To all our friends and family in the States: Greetings from the traveling Matley family. We are having a fantastic time in Australia. Please forgive the form letter—just remember we miss and love you all and think of you often. Our exit from Chico was quite the challenge—I think that was more of an adventure than this trip! Well we left LAX on Monday July 30th at 10:55pm. Thank you to Granddad Brian for seeing us off. A bazillion thank yous to Marty for kicking us out of Chico in the first place—you are a wonderful person and we appreciate all your support. A really huge thank you to Tony and Denise too for all your help too—we love you guys. Our first impression is—boy, we brought way too much luggage. But the 14 hour flight was great. It was dark for most of the journey and the kids were just perfect. Corbin and Cole slept for most of the trip. We had quite a bit of major turbulence which spiced up our travels. I kept speaking to the children in a very calm voice, “Everything is going to be ok”, over and over. Finally Cailyn turned to me and said, “Mom, we are ok, really—you are the one freaking out.” Very true. Corbin was holding the emergency card and saying,”Mom, when do the mask things fall from the ceilings and we breathe into them. I can’t wait to use the slides to get out of the plane.” It all worked out and I realized how confident and capable my children are. Once again, I learn so much from my kids…….. We arrived in Sydney Wednesday morning (we lost Tuesday July 31st all together—how strange to completely skip over one day). Sydney is a gorgeous, clean, and sophisticated city. We took a Maxi Cab (we do not even fit into two cabs with all our luggage—note to self—lighten up next time around in the packing department). We spent Wednesday through Saturday with Janelle and Patrick; friends of my brother Jon’s and his wife Karen. Now they are our good friends now too. We adore them. They were incredible gracious hosts and opened their home to our clan. They live in an apartment across the bay from the Opera House—what a VIEW!!! We enjoyed walking and exploring Sydney. Sydney’s public transportation is great and we took ferries and trains everywhere. Tropical birds of beautiful colors are flying about. GREAT FUN! Saturday we flew from Sydney to Adelaide (again a little bit a turbulence occurred—this time I hid the emergency cards from Corbin). This is close to the area where Robin was born. It is a city of a million people and is surrounded by parks. It is full of statues and fountains—very pretty and has a university, so is full of young people. We drove to the beach and love the soft white powder sand. The shells are so unusual. We found the hospital where Robin was born in Elizabeth and stopped by the house where he had lived in Salisbury. Unfortunately, we have been unable to track down Robin’s Godparents. We will keep trying to find them. The great adventure here is we have rented a van and received a mini bus. This vehicle can transport 11 people (I think once again our luggage was the issue). Driving on the left hand side of the road is a trip—but in this bumpy bus, it is really a challenge. Cailyn tells us how “big, ugly and unmanageable” (totally uncool) we look—what else is new? We had dinner with Valerie and Roger here; they are friends of Anne and Alan’s. We enjoyed meeting and visiting with them. They have occasional wild koalas in their backyard in Adelaide. How cool is that? Monday August 6 th we went to Clelland Wildlife Park on our way to the wine country. This park was so awesome! We saw kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, emus, dingos, and wombats. The kangaroos, wallabies and emus roam around and you just hang out with them. We even got to hold koalas. What an incredible experience. It is now Tuesday the 7th and we are now in the Barossa Valley. It looks a lot like Healdsburg, CA (with a few more eucalyptus trees)—it is beautiful. We are staying in a little apartment at the Novotel Resort. We have a kitchen and we are enjoying making some of our own food. We are experiencing our first rain since being here. We have been so lucky with the weather up to now being this is wintertime here. Today it has been hailing and raining horizontally. Robin and I got a little wine tasting in while the kids stayed here at the apartment playing games. Corbin and Cole are dying to swim in the beautiful pool here, but it is just too cold today. There are daffodils and trees blooming here. Some of the eucalyptus trees have a beautiful yellow blossom too. Thursday we fly to Melbourne—another city here in Australia. From there we fly to New Zealand. Saturday evening we will finally be in the Auckland/Albany area in NZ. I feel so blessed to have this wonderful experience. We are learning so much. The people here are very friendly and most the time I can understand what they are saying. They have a lot of slang words I am learning. Their favorite saying is “No worries”. I really like that and plan to use it in my vocabulary too. The Australians are very laid back and really love to have fun. Most of the stores are closed on Sunday (everything but liquor stores and pharmacies) and if there is a football game during work hours during the week—everyone stops working. Thursday and Friday are major party nights, so work on Friday may only be a half-day. They often close a shop for 15 minutes to run and do an errand or get something to eat. Just a whole different work situation compared to the states. Well, that is it for now. Robin just arrived with dinner (Hum…..and he has red teeth. We all know what he has been up to now don’t we? He really likes these Aussie wines). His back has improved some, but he is still walking with a limp. Thank you to all of you who have inquired about his owwwie!! We are doing great. Our love to all of you. Love,
Catherine and family
|