Trip to Greenough with a Kiwi

Early in June, we met Noel. He's recently relocated from NZ to run a Communities and Technology project for Mid West Development Commission. He's nice guy (even though he's from Kiwiland) and what I really like about him is his contagious passion for photography. He gets on his push bike and travels around the town until he finds some pic opportunies. Then he stops, takes a pic and has a cigarette to gain more energy to peddle.

Look closely and you can see Noel right underneath of the sun

Three weeks ago, we went to Central Greenough settlement village where we took some pics. The scenery was just amazing to watch during sunset. For those of you who've been in Australia since 1993, this place may sound familiar due to the tragic event featured on the Australian TV show Crime Investigation Australia - Greenough Family Massacre. 

 St. Catherine's Hall

 St. Catherine's Church

 Hackett's Cottage 

We also went to the Walkaway Wind Farm that has 54 wind turbines and is WA's largest renewable energy project. Unfortunately, it was little bit late for the sunset photoshoot as the sun was already coming down. Therefore, a couple of weeks later, we decided to make another trip there. This time, we had to get up at 5.45am (on Saturday) to be in the Wind Farm for a sunrise  photoshoot. I think, it was worthwhile.

 Rob and turbines ... and the wind! 

 The sun is trying to find a way up in between 54 turbines

Upside down turbine blade..

What else is new? We have new friends (our neighbours) in Drummonds - Rachael and Garry from the UK. I'll write more about them in our next blog. Until then have a great time wherever you are. 

Gero is my oyster

Things are looking up in Gero -- I'm more contented with our new hometown and our current lifestyle--despite the fact that I'm still wanting some things to happen faster. I'm finally beginning to accept somewhat the WA="Wait Awhile' state of mind and just realise there's not a lot I can do about it. On the other hand, I love having a free hand to take on new challenges like teaching Pilates at a health and wellbeing retreat, mastering my culinary skills in the kitchen, meeting new people (online and offline) and exploring further my great passion -- photography.

Rob is posing for me during the sunset

Sunset in Drummond Cove, WA

Last week, we stepped into what is the Geraldton version of "Indian Summer" that is just a beautiful time of the year here. Still hardly any rain after the storm a few weeks ago. Warm and sunny days, and tiny bit of rain definitely helped our garden to look more greener than last week but still needs watering a couple times a week. We hope to start our first harvesting soon with bok choy but the rest of the group will take a bit longer.

Corn is doing really well

Bok choy, tomatoes and black kale

Next week, I'm looking forward to new challenges or opportunities, including the commencement of a brand new website. Stay tuned and thanks for reading!

“The world is your oyster. It's up to you to find the pearls.” 

Chris Gardner, The Pursuit of Happyness

Week 10--a taste of winter...

Resisting the temptation to plant the entire garden after watching it grow like crazy for the past few weeks. Bok Choy, Kale, corn, spinach, beetroot, carrots, rosemary, basil, rocket, and on and on...Rain came overnight, the water tank must be getting full by now. Sunsets continue unabated -- not that I get to enjoy them except on the weekends but it's worth the wait. Big storm cleared out all the bushes along the beach -- as well as the basketball court. Kinda enjoying the cooler weather this week--"down" to 21C tonight, feeling a bit "wintery".

 Yeah, we definitely had a bit of wind today...

 

Yep, windy.

Gero sunsets -- can't beat 'em!

Mmmmms

Garden. Growing.

No Basketball today

Watch yer step

Ahhh. Bit of bad design work.

Woof.

Beach hangout at the end of our street

Ditto above

Gav's and Heike's place.

Autumn is here

Autumn! Cool nights, a few showers -- well, actually, a few totally crazy storms! Half the beach washed away last week in a big swell and storm, but along with it all the ugly bushes so now we have a better view of the ocean!

The garden is growing, the farmers are happy and the rainwater tanks are filling up. And no more 45C days! The rain is actually kind of nice for a change. It never sticks around for long so the sun is never far away. The cool air is refreshing and we're even wearing our Ugg boots!  Mmmmmm!

Well, the sunsets just keep coming. Almost every day. Wow. Never get tired of those amazing red sunsets. Oh, how's this rainbow from this morning out our front door?

In the meantime, I've been trying to master the latest social media platform Google+ that is apparently not as easy to understand for women ..? By the way if anybody is going through the same learning curve as me make sure you read What the Plus? by Guy Kawasaki. I can recommend this book/ kindle to anybody who's trying to figure out what "the plus" stand for and how to use it effectively on this platform.

Last weekend, I went to the Orchid and Garden Expo where they allowed me to take some pictures of flowers (orchids) that were grown by local people .. aren't they just beautiful.

Socialising again

KAT SAYS:

We (FINALLY) moved into our new house on April 3rd. Took forever to find the right one but it was worth the effort -- 2x bdr, 3x ensuite, studio for Rob, office, Pilates studio for me, massive garden and shed, 2 minutes walking distance to the beach ... well what more to be said "it was worthwhile waiting". In addition, there are lots of fish in "our back yard".

Jewfish that was about 1m long - a beautiful catch. 

Rob says, he'll catch one like this for me one day. 

Two weeks later, all boxes have been emptied and things put in the right place. We still need to buy some things that we left behind and these are not required right now.

In March, I was doing a Portrait Photography course, amongst everything else and I must admit that it's not easy to produce a satisfying portrait shot. However, here is one of my pictures that I took  during this time and I like it.

Rob with the Monster look. 

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Perth where I did a course "Pilates for Pregnancy" with Pilates International. It was nice to be in a "Big Smoke" again (not that we had time to do much) and Rob was very happy to go back to our little town. We stayed with Melanie and Christopher while in Perth and finally, we met James Baudia, their ten weeks old son (no picture to show this time).

Last weekend, we had Robyne Glover and Don (Chris Plaat's parents) popping in while they were passing through Geraldton. It was nice to have them with us, even though they stopped only for a quick visit. They're now somewhere around Carnarvon visiting stromatolites, and hoping to dive with Whale sharks in Ningaloo Reef on the Coral Coast of WA.

ROB SAYS:

Nice to finally not be living from a suitcase after nearly 9 weeks. Was almost like Christmas finding all the stuff in the boxes we hadn't seen for so long. The movers however were bad news in every way imaginable (except for the local guys here who were great) but at least the stuff finally arrived--albeit half of it trashed. Allied Pickfords=BAD news. 

Work hours not improved much but did manage to get on the water last Saturday for a couple of hours with the small kite -- though the locals tell me that the season is already over.  Hoping to one day get a chance to explore the region a bit beyond the local spots. The area to the North looks fascinating and am told you can 4WD all the way to Coronation about 25km along the beach. 

Great to see Robyne and Don. Delivered big hug from Chris. We had a chance to have breakfast and a good chat and waved them off toward Ningaloo way as they kindly left us some fresh green coconuts and Champagne!

Looking forward to seeing them again on the way back in few weeks.

Visitors!

KAT SAYS

Last weekend and also Easter weekend, we had visitors -- Sarah and Silvan popped in and stayed with us in our latest "temporary accommodation" -- with an astonishing ocean view. Their visit was a reason for some further exploration of local restaurants and bars. We went to the Indian Sunset restaurant and also The Provincial wine bar.

During the Easter break, we didn't do much and Rob managed to squeeze in two (three) kitesurfing sessions in Coronation beach and The Moore Point Lighthouse -- he's now very happy boy.

I've started to teach Pilates and so far, I've been getting very positive feedback. I'm starting to run my regular Pilates classes in a local Medical/Health Centre. In addition, I've also started leading one walking group that is targeting people lacking any movement.

In the meantime, I've also started to work on my logo and website for marketing consultancy for local businesses. It's been a full-on week, In particular, dealing with 28 designers and revising/commenting on 175+ designs got a little bit overwhelming. However, the contests will go for another two more days and I'm now dealing with six designers only to polish their final submissions. I promise to show you the final design in my next blog.

What else is new? Next week, on Wednesday April 3rd, we're finally moving into our new house - 3bdr + study, theatre room, 2 bathrooms, double garage, backyard and also MASSIVE shed. The only thing that's missing is an ocean view. However, the house is located about 2 mins away (walking distance) from the beach where we can (according to the locals) catch lobsters so, it's not bad.

Kalbarri National Park

KAT SAYS:

Another week has gone and we've finally found out about our new house. Deal is done! And this finally means the end for living from a suitcase! We're moving in hopefully at the end of the month.
And here it is!

Last weekend, we decided to drive to Kalbarri -- a coastal town in the Mid West region located 592 km north of Perth. The driving was so easy as we hardly had any traffic on the way. 

The main activity on Saturday evening was a silhouette photo-shoot during the sunset and fishing ... and we (Rob) caught THREE fish.

On Sunday, we've drove back to Geraldton via the Kalbarri National Park. The major geographical features of the park includes the Murchison River Gorge which runs for nearly 80 kilometres on the lower reaches of the Murchison River. Spectacular coastal cliffs are located on the coast near the mouth of the Murchison River and the town of Kalbarri.

ROB SAYS:

A relief to finally get the house thing resolved.  Can't wait to get moved in and find out what's happened to all our stuff. 

http://goo.gl/maps/dNEVW

Don't expect to see anything on Street View -- when the Googlecar passed here it was only a blank lot!

When I moved to Australia 22 years ago, everyone thought I was moving to the end of the earth.  Yet, Sydney with its population of 5+ million is hardly what you would call "out there".

The most recent move is a bit different.

Our new suburb is Drummond Cove, the northernmost "suburb" of Geraldton, and our street, Wavecrest Circle, is amongst the northernmost part of Drummonds. After that, the next settlement is Kalbarri, 160 km away. This time we really ARE at the end of the earth.

Perth holds the distinction of being the world's most isolated city. The nearest city to Perth is Adelaide, at about 1500km away. Geraldton is 450km north of Perth and the only population centre north of Geraldton is Exmouth about 10 hours drive to the north, with a couple of thousand people. After that it's mostly just ocean and a bit of Indonesia until you reach Singapore.

In Drummonds, theres no traffic, no noise, no rubbish trucks, no drunks--yet it's only a 10 minute drive from Geraldton and virtually anything you could want from cinemas, cafes, bottle shops; even a JayCar shop, Target, Coles, Woolworths, IGA -- anything you'd want!

So, here we are, GERALDTON. Bring on the next adventure!