It's Not Winter

It Is Summer

A lot of things are different about Australia compared to the US. For example, they think everyone in the US is obsessed with the WWF...

www.wwf.org

   Unfortunately they do not mean this WWF, the World Wildlife Fund, which is what Google thought I meant. Thank you Google for thinking I care about the world, but not this time. I meant this WWF...

http://sportales.com/wrestling/where-are-they-now-remembering-the-wwf-wrestlers-from-the-80s/

Our Friday evening was spent finding ridiculous wrestling videos to show our roommates and trying to explain what the WWF is to our french roommate. If she didn't think Americans were crazy before, I'm pretty sure she does now.

  So, I am quickly learning that there are some things about my life now that I will just have to accept. The first being that people will make rash generalizations about who I am based on pop culture - who knew! (apparently from the 80's, is the WWF still around?) It also took me a little while to go to the correct side of the car as a passenger. The right side is for drivers now. Speaking of cars, this is what the standard truck (or Ute as they call it) looks like:

   I still giggle when I see them, but I'm sure this type of truck is useful here and functional for better gas mileage. If you're not all that interested in cars, and I try not to be, don't worry Australia has some amazing bike lanes.

http://www.cnngo.com/sydney/play/cyclists-revolution-bike-paths-cover-sydney-509438

http://www.sydneycyclist.com/photo/1321712:Photo:25659

  The bike lanes here are enormous. Cars still don't know what to do about a cyclist on the road, but the infrastructure sure helps.

   And then I see this sign and my brain feels like it needs the babel fish from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I think I might start carrying around my towel, just in case.


   Other things I have to get used to are the outlets, which have an on/off switch.

   I am still in shock about the price of clothing. I am not too keen on spending ~$400 on a pair of hiking boots. Also, I have noticed a lot of signs for arcades in downtown areas. At first I thought Australians must really like to play games, but an arcade is another word for strip mall. I did find my first outlet mall, Market City. There weren't too many shops and the clothing quality was not worth the prices.

    Then there is the food. We see advertisements for meat pies everywhere. John has had them before and so I gave it a try.

   I only had one meat pie, beef and cheese, and John's was beef curry, but let's just say I am not rushing back to have another.


   We are settling in though. Our room now has a few things of our own. We bought a wardrobe, because we do not have a closet. Apparently a lot of Australian homes do not come with built in closets of any sort. We also got a doona, formerly known as a duvet. When I first arrived, John and I zipped out sleeping bags together as a temporary comforter. Our new doona is a welcomed alternative and makes me feel more at home.

    Lastly, it is summer here. All of the blogs I read are talking about winter knitting, fall cooking, cyclocross races, sewing for cold weather, and preparing for Halloween (people don't seem to care about Halloween around here). I love winter, but I cannot fathom making a stew for dinner, or lusting over the newest patterns over at the Purl Bee. It is time to find some blogs that are experiencing the same weather as me. Recommendations are always appreciated.


Cheers,
Carrie

Rock Climbing in the Blues

First climbing trip, Blue Mountains, Australia

From our house in the far western suburbs of Sydney, it's a relatively easy 1-2 hour drive to the Blue Mountains. The Blueys aren't a majestic mountain range like the Rockies or the Sierra Nevadas- most of the "mountains" in the Blues don't exceed 2000 meters. However,  what these modest mountains lack in altitude, they more than make up for by being rugged and craggy. Sandstone cliffs in the 100 to 200 meter range are everywhere. 

One of many tempting outcroppings

Katoomba cliffs, with the three sisters in the distance to the right

The Wollumai wall of Katoomba Cliffs, with a nice waterfall

With so many cliffs in the area, it was a bit difficult to choose an area for our first climb. I bought a guidebook which describes ~3000 climbing routes in 45 areas, which the book describes as "just a small percentage of the quality rock in the Blues". That is a lot of rock to explore!

We settled on a climbing area called Mount Boyce, just outside Blackheath, because it had many highly recommended easy routes, and the guide had this to say: "Majestic Boyce. What a place. Expect to sample what the Blueys are all about; classic orange and grey sandstone walls with one or two pitch routes of just about every type and grade. This place will bring a smile to your face, and give you a chance to feel the soul of Blue Mountains climbing."

So we rented a car, drove the 80 km up to Blackheath, bounced along a gravel road next to the train tracks at the top of the cliff line, and parked at this majestic view.

Mount Boyce- cliffs everywhere. I was like a kid in a candy store.

Carrie at the top of the escarpment, at the rappel entrance to the climbing area

One of the many new things about climbing in the Blues is that most of the cliffs are accessed at the top, so you start your day by rappelling down to the cliff base, and then climb back out. This makes it particularly important to plan an escape route- you don't want to rap down into an area where all of the climbs are too hard, making it too difficult to get out. You can always climb up the rappel rope with prusiks, but that's not easy either. We weren't too concerned about this because we knew that there were many easy routes on this cliff.

The start to our day- rap down the pink rope.

We spent some time orienting ourselves to the cliffs and selected our first climb, a relatively easy 2-pitch route called The Eyrie.

Our first route in Oz- a two-pitch mixed route called The Eyrie (grade 12)

Carrie relaxing in the shade at the cliff base

Racked up and read to climb

The Eyrie was a blast- the rock was quality sandstone that took solid gear and had lots of fun features to climb. Chicken-heads and jugs galore, which was a stark contrast to the smooth granite of New Hampshire and Yosemite.

Somewhere on pitch 1. I was having a blast!

Carrie was belaying for me from the bottom while I lead and installed the gear for our protection.

Carrie's down at the bottom, belaying in the shade

The first pitch ended in a cave (!), where I set up a station to belay for Carrie as she climbed the pitched and cleaned our gear. We finished the second pitch, rapped back to the cliff base, and scoped out our next climb.

Snickers and a climbing guide book. Ahh, good times.

We decided to do a bit harder climb next- at grade 15 called Another Man's Juliet. According to the book, this climb has a "scenic belay" and a pumpy overhanging second pitch.

John at the belay station

Silliness at the belay "ledge"

Together at the belay ledge. Without planning or coordination, Carrie and I managed to buy the exact same shoes- La Sportiva Mythos in orange. Yes, we are dorks.

Another aspect of climbing in Australia that was new to us was the carrot bolts. Many climbs all over the world have been bolted, which means that someone (normally the first ascensionist of the route) has installed very strong bolt hardware in the rock to make it possible to climb more safely. In the US, we're used to stainless steel expansion bolts or glue-in ring bolts, both of which have a fixed hanger, so all you have to do is clip the bolt with a quickdraw and you have a very secure piece of protection. Bolts in Oz are different- they often just a steel machine bolt hammered into the rock, called "bashies" or "carrot bolts". These don't have a fixed hanger, so you have to bring your own.

The rusted bit is the carrot bolt. I installed the steel hanger around the bolt, then clipped a quickdraw biner to the hanger, twisted the top biner so that it sits gate up, and then clipped the rope through the bottom biner.

Two bolts for our belay station. A modern glue-in ring bolt (left) and an older carrot (right)

A secure belay. Two bolts in the rock clipped with locking biners.  Double slings are rigged to these biners in a self-equalizing arrangement and then connected to a big central locking biner. Two additional locking biners are used to secure the climbers to the central biner.

  

The start of the pitch 2 overhang. Carrie took this photo while belaying for me, which is either impressive or scary, depending on how you look at it.

I did not appreciate the extra step of installing the bolt hangers on this overhanging pitch. Imagine that you've climbed 5 m above your last solid piece of protection, your forearms are screaming with lactic acid, and you're desperately trying to clip the next bolt. If you drop, you'll freefall for at least 10 m before the rope begins to catch you. You first have to unclip a fiddly little hanger from your rack, manage not to drop it, slip it over the bolt, and twist it around. Then, you need to unclip a quickdraw from your harness, clip the hanger, and rotate the biner to sit gate-up. Then you have to pull up some slack on the rope and clip the rope through the bottom biner of the quickdraw. My forearms are burning just thinking about it.


We were worn out after two longish climbs, so we took a well-deserved break and enjoyed the view. We'll definitely be back for more.

A Day at the Beach - Manly, NSW

Manly Beach 22 September 2012

John and I took a train into Sydney, walked around a bit, and then took a ferry out to Manly for an afternoon at the beach.

The beach was cold! Still, there were a ton of people at Manly because it was the first 'warm' Sunday of the season. This was my first Saturday in country and so we had to check out some of Sydney's tourist spots.

 

This is John at an Irish memorial downtown.

 We found a really big flower at the Botanical Gardens.

 ... And a pool. Yup, that is the ocean in the background. The pool backs up to the Harbor.

 We had to take our picture in front of the Sydney Opera House or as my niece calls it 'the orange peels'.

 John wants to go climbing so badly that he jumped at the opportunity to walk along a sandstone crevice.

 The orange peel up close.





After a nice afternoon of walking around Sydney, we made it to Manly Beach. We touched the ocean, but definitely did not go all the way in. It was too cold for our swim suits. Also, these pictures do not accurately convey the number of people at the beach. There were a lot! Although, we had been warned that this was a pretty touristy beach. It will be interesting to see what happens in the summer.

On a side note: Yogurt is no longer spelled that way, it is now Yoghurt. Also, favorite is now favourite. It is going to take some time to get used to British English.


Cheers,
Carrie

Nice Is an Understatement

At the first glimpse of Australia, it looked a lot like anywhere else I have flown.

Clouds

 However, I have quickly realized it is unlike anywhere I have ever lived.... Australians are the nicest people on the planet....

Experience 1: I went into the Apple store looking for an aussie adapter for my power cord. Of course Apple only sells a world pack with a whole bunch of them (When am I going to China or Europe in the near future?) -- So the employee just gave me one, said it was laying around!!! That would never happen in a US Apple store!!


Experience 2: I am looking for a bike and have gone to a bunch of stores to try out different ones. Yesterday, one shop owner let me take a bike home, saying I could try it out for as long as I like. He didn't care to take a deposit or photo copy my license/passport or anything, all he has is my phone number! 

This is awesome.

Hiking in the Blue Mountains

      John and I rented a car on Saturday and explored the Blue Mountains. This was my first time driving in Australia, which was surprisingly easy. Although right hand turns were a bit tricky. I turned out to be on the cautious side, probably waiting a bit too long to make the turns. Neither of us hit anything all day, though, so we did good.

      We began the day by driving from Windsor through Richmond, so that I could see where John worked, and then up to the Blues.

Here is a map of our trip from Windsor up to Katoomba.

     Getting to Katoomba was insanely easy, follow one strip of road and you're there. We stopped once on the side of the road to admire the view.

     Once we got to Katoomba, we walked around, window shopped, and got a snack. I am pleased to say that I tried my first Flat White at a cafe. This tasted surprisingly like a latte and looked like one too. This is curious because lattes were also on the menu. Next time, I will get a latte and make John get a flat white so we can figure out the differences. We also went to an outdoors shop and discussed good climbing destinations with the owner... John really wants to go climbing!! So much so that all day he kept saying I could climb this and that and so on... Even when we were underneath a waterfall. Granted it was a weak one, but the rock was still wet and full of moss. None the less, I got the message. We may have to go climbing next weekend.
  
     After getting a feel for the town and having a snack, John and I went on a hike called the Devil's Hole Track. It was roughly a 1.5km round trip hike down a valley. It was incredibly beautiful. The hike began on the side of a road, walking slightly downhill into the forest. There had been a recent forest fire and so everything looked dry and somewhat singed.

     As we descended into the Valley, the climate totally changed. We went from an arid sun dried landscape to a wet almost rain forest gully.

    

 Note the rock formation that I am standing under. John was salivating the whole time!

      As we got closer the the opening of the valley into the forest the climate changed again. Now it seemed like we were in a forest and desert at the same time. Here is a view of the side of the cliff and and dry weather adapted tree. I have no idea what it is, but the colors are fabulous.

      Walking along the cliff, we occasionally went under roofs of rock that looked like this:

      We couldn't figure out what type of erosion was going on here. They obviously weren't water pockets because this is on the underside of a roof. I will have to look into that.

     After the hike, John and I decided to drive to see the Three Sisters. A very touristy and famous rock formation in the Blue Mountains.

     These peaks were once a popular climbing destination, until it was banned in 2000. Initially, a 5 year ban was placed on climbing the Three Sisters for environmental reasons. Climbers were contributing to erosion by causing damage to plan life that could hold together loose rock. Then in 2005 it was determined that the Three Sisters held cultural significance to Aborigines and climbers disrupted that. (See reference)  Needless to say, John was not able to do any rock climbing here. Maybe one day.

    That was our Saturday. After a long day of walking and driving, we came home, did a little grocery shopping, and passed out.

Cheers,
Carrie

Carrie is in Australia.

    Woo! I am in Australia. I don't have much so say yet because I have only been here for about 27 hours. My flights from Chicago to L.A. and L.A. to Sydney were actually pretty pleasant. John even took the day off work and was right outside of Customs to meet me. It was so nice to see him right away, and not just because I needed help with my luggage! Instead of John renting a car to get me, he took the train. This meant that we had time to relax together on the hour train ride to our new home, which was so much nicer than jumping right into Australian driving.

    Besides that, we got lunch and a few groceries and then passed out around 7pm. Here are the few photos I have taken so far...

This is Trevor.  He is a yellow lab living with us. He belongs to Michael who owns the house we are sub-letting. He knows so many tricks, especially being a ham!

Here is my first orange that I picked from our orange tree in the back yard!!!

 And this is my desk set up in our room. The fresh air is so wonderful. Although, I don't know how much work I will get done when I can see the beautiful weather right in front of me.

 

That is all I have for now. John and I are planning to go on a ferry ride and to the beach this weekend. More photos and stories soon...

How to rent an apartment in Sydney

Sydney's rental market is much different than anything I've experienced in the US. The short story is that Carrie and I decided to bypass this crazy system for the time being, and we've rented some rooms in a share house for a few months. This will give us a place to stay when Carrie arrives in a few weeks, after which we can look for a more permanent place together. I'll post later this week with pictures of the house and a description of the area where we've decided to live, at least for the short term.

I pieced together how the Sydney rental market works from talking with many recent immigrants from the US and Europe. So if you found this page because you're moving to Sydney, this will give you a short introduction to finding your own place. If you're just reading this for fun from the US, maybe it will be interesting to hear about a system that is so different.


How to rent an apartment in Sydney

(1) Take a deep breath, and prepare yourself for battle. This is a competition. There is incredible demand for rentals in the Sydney area, and this has a large effect on the market.

(2) Compile a list of potential flats in your price range- useful websites are realestate.com.au, domain.com.au, and gumtree.com.au. Prices are listed per week. Take another deep breath, and let the sticker-shock pass. Carrie and I were looking in Richmond, which is very far from downtown Sydney, and crummy-looking 2 bedroom apartments were generally $400pw. That's quite a bit of money for not much apartment, but that same average 2 bedroom could be $1200pw in a popular Syndey neighborhood.

(3) Call the realtors and find out when the open house is scheduled. The flat will only be open for 15 minutes on a single weekday afternoon, and the realtor will not be willing to show you the place at any other time. You must go to this open house, or you just won't get the place. I heard a story from another recent US immigrant- he arrived 5 minutes late to an open house, but the realtor wouldn't let him see the apartment. She said "I already have 25 applications- I don't need 26."

(4) Prepare a rental application tailored to the apartment before the open house. The rental applications are quite involved and you won't have time to do it all after the open house, as you need to submit the application within just a few hours. You will need letters of recommendation from previous landlords, a copy of your employment contract, copies of a few pay stubs, evidence of your visa status, and possibly a bank account statement showing your balance. Privacy, apparently, is not valued.

(5) Go to the open house, and don't be surprised when 30 other couples or families also show up. You've only got a few minutes to decide if you want the place, so go nuts. Try all the light switches, check the water pressure, and pound on the walls in search of insulation (generally, there is none). It's very strange to look at an apartment like this while a bunch of strangers are mentally arranging furniture in the living room, but get used to it.

(6) Think about sweetening the deal, based on the competition and how much you want the place.
 Apparently it's common to offer 10% more than the asking rent, and to offer a substantial amount in advance (e.g., six months up front). This will help your application float to the top of the stack. Put this offer into the cover letter of your application, and turn in your application within a few hours of the open house. I talked to a woman who had filed 27 applications and had never been selected by the relator, possibly because she is poor, disabled, and on government assistance, and thus couldn't compete against other applicants that offered more money. The system is tough and arguably discriminatory, but there's not much you can do about it.

(7) Sit by the phone. The realtor will probably offer the place to three different applicants, and the first applicant to pay a deposit (normally 2 weeks rent) gets the place. You must act fast.



This system, from my perspective, is absolutely mad. But don't lose hope, most everyone eventually finds a place. At the very least, understanding this system may make you feel better about your experiences in other, more reasonable regions of the world.

Carrie and I decided to sublet a room in a house for the time being, mostly so that we can navigate the Sydney rental system together. In the next post, I'll upload some pictures of the house and the area where we've decided to live for the next few months.