First Tri in a Long Time

Somehow it has been over a year since I've done a triathlon. I went out in a blaze of glory though finishing Ironman Western Australia! For my return, I decided to start slow and get a good humbling experience under my belt while trying something new - offroad triathlon. the TriX-Series sponsored a race near the Dandenongs at Lysterfield Park and after some convincing from a work colleague I decided to enter. My expectations were quite low (as in my only goal was to finish) and I intended to just work out some kinks and be ready for when friend TriShannon comes to visit in a few weeks and I have to crank it up to keep up with her at the Gatorade Sprints. :-)

After hiring a mountain bike and digging out my cycling gear (took a while to find my helmet and shoes!) on Saturday we left the Flexi-car packed up and Sunday morning headed off to Lysterfield. The drive was quite nice and we pulled into the parking lot with plenty of time to spare. Kristi headed off for a morning run in the park while I got myself situated in transition and completed all the necessary registration information. The only minor hiccup was somehow I ended up with Kristi's wetsuit bottoms but I thought skinny and made it work. The swim was 500m, followed by a 21km mountain bike and then a 6km run on fire-trail track around the lake. The swim was very pleasant with not too many elbows and kicks - though my breathing really struggled and by the end my arms were really tired. (This does not bode well for the coming sprint). Transition was another interesting reminder of how far I've slipped - I think I spent a good 3-4min just staring at my feet wondering how to get my wetsuit off! Eventually I got it sorted out and was off on the bike. I knew the bike was going to be tough, but pedaling through sand directly out of transition was a very rude awakening. It took me over 5km to actually breath normally and I don't think my heart-rate came out of the red the entire ride. I learned on the morning of the race that part of the course would include the 2006 Commonwealth Games Mountain Bike course (check out the pics from that race here) - combined with log jumps and weaving through stands of gum trees the ride was beautiful, challenging, rewarding and scary. I only actually 'fell' off the bike once - though I did get off the bike quite a few times to avoid trees, ditches and more trees.

Once through the sand again and back to transition the easy part began - just a 6km run left to go! I met up with another guy coming out of transition and we had a great conversation through the first 4km - who knew that the economy, travel and run technique would prove to be so good for race conversation?! I really enjoyed the run, felt like I finished strong and had a great day out on the course. After a quick rinse off in the lake as a reward for finishing we were back in the car and off to find some breakfast. We were met with great success for food, finding a fantastic cafe in South Melbourne that we promise to show anyone that comes to visit! Next up we have some travels down to Coonawarra and shortly after that Shannon arrives - we're really looking forward to her visit and have lots of fun things planned!

Happy Valentines Day

This Valentines Day Josh decided to surprise Kristi with a dinner out. Eureka 89 held a degustation dinner with matching wines and Josh just couldn't pass up the chance to see Melbourne from the top of the tallest residential tower in the southern hemisphere. We got all frocked-up and hit the restaurant via red carpet and high-speed lift. Though the dinner started a bit rough with an "interesting" Oyster Gazpacho, the mains came out shining with a very tasty daube of beef and goats milk mashed potatoes. Finishing with coffees, chocolates and a chocolate soufle we took our time walking home enjoying the beautiful weather and lights of Melbourne. Check out Flickr for some of the pictures, the night shots from the restaurant show a great view of the city.

Hello RocKwizzers!

Over the course of our two years in Australia, we've become accustomed to the local television offerings such as Spicks and Specks, Rove, as well as Australian versions of So You Think You Can Dance and The Biggest Loser. One of the other standouts has been RocKwiz, an interactive trivia-challenge game that also involves live musical performances and a wide array of musical personae. Normally filmed in St. Kilda, this year is the 50th Anniversary of the Sidney Myer Music Bowl and RocWiz put on a special edition filmed at The Bowl. Being on the mailing list for Kwiz news and such, Josh got an offer of free tickets if he was one of the fastest responders to the invite. He sent in the form and didn't hear anything for weeks so we figured that we didn't get tickets - until they showed up in the mail a week ago! We were really looking forward to the show even though we didn't really know what to expect. What we ended up getting was a night full of great Australian musicians, some very entertaining trivia questions and two really really nice seats to watch the entire thing. We took quite a few pictures and have been able to trim them down to some of the highlights, have a look at Flickr to see the fun!

Aussie Bushfires

Many of you have written to talk about the bushfires that started in Victoria over the weekend. Thank you all for your interest and concern, we're as-yet unaffected by the many blazes currently burning around the state. It is really hard to know what to say at a time like this - Australia has never seen such devastation either man-made or natural in the past 200yrs. For those folks that would like more information or that want to get more in-depth reports, our primary news source online has been The Age - one of the main Melbourne newspapers. The general stats are that over 500,000 acres have been or are currently burning, over 1,000 structures (homes, barns, cabins) have been destroyed and 181 lives have been confirmed lost. The current estimate for total loss of life is expected now to top 300 as more areas are investigated and homes and cars discovered. Many many more animals, wild and tame, are also impacted and nobody has been able to put a number on that yet.

We've both signed up to give blood in the coming weeks once the blood banks have an open appointment, and we're going to be looking for ways we can donate time as well. If anyone is interested in supporting the victims, a fundraising effort has begun and I'm sure donations of any size are appreciated. Many of the Australian banks have opened fundraising accounts, some accepting donations include Commonwealth Bank, Bendigo Bank as well as the Australian Red Cross. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the firemen still out there battling, with the survivors and their families and friends, as well as with those that are still in the path of these destructive fires - we encourage everyone to please think of and pray for all of them as well.

Another form of Cricket

One of the things that Josh will miss most about Australia when we make our way back to Denver permanently will be the amazing array of sport to enjoy in person and on TV. One that he has really begun to follow is the sport of Cricket. Starting with matches his first year in Oz, he has now been able to get Kristi hooked on the sport as well! We've now been able to see every version of international standard cricket available, 20/20 (Kristi), OneDay (Josh and Kristi) and Test Cricket (Josh and Kristi on Boxing Day). We haven't been able to see a Beach Cricket match yet, but don't expect to see much of that in chilly Victoria. (Maybe up on the Gold or Sunshine Coasts). Each is a different flavor based on the same rules and guidelines, and each has a different set of tactics to be enjoyed. 20/20 is great for its 'smash and bash' style of scoring and risk taking, Test Cricket is amazing to watch for the patience and planning required to be successful while One Day is a polite mix of both - more risk required than Test, but more tactic required than 20/20.
Though not one of the more famous matches of the season, Josh was able to get some special tickets (a Melbourne Cricket Club member hooked us up with Visitor passes) to see Australia take on New Zealand in the second OneDay of their series. New Zealand had won the first in Perth and the Aussies needed to exert some dominance to get back into the match-up. Expectations were low given the Aussies are in a rebuilding period, but most locals were hopeful for a victory on the hallowed soil of the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Kristi and Maria again started the day off since they were able to leave work a bit early, and Josh and his colleagues joined at the end of their workday (still a bit earlier than normal). We really had a good time in the Members section of the MCG, even with the dress code it was a fantastic setting with amazing weather and an entertaining game to watch. In the end, Australia's batting just didn't set the bar high enough and New Zealand was able to chase and gather the victory with 6 balls to spare. We may not make it to another match during our time in Australia (though Josh is still holding out hope for Beach Cricket at some point) but our sporting days will continue with at least two more AFL matches planned and the possibility of seeing the Australian national soccer team take on Japan in a few months! As usual, our excursions will be posted here (though also as usual we may be a bit behind) so keep an eye on the blog and Flickr for the updates.

Australian Open 2009

We've gotten a couple of queries about the Australian Open 2009, and yes we did go to 'The Tennis' and had a great couple of experiences. During Kristi's first week in Australia back in 2007 she was able to score a grounds pass and go watch the tennis while Josh was at work. This year we went a step up and bought tickets to Rod Lave Arena for a set of night matches during Round 2 of the tournament. We were hoping to see some of the big names like Nadal, Federer, Murray, Rodick, Williams.....instead we saw a couple local names which was sort of a disappointment but also provided some pretty good tennis. The first match was Jelena Dokic vs Anna Chakvetadze - Dokic was the Aussie, unranked and hadn't played in the Aussie Open in 8yrs but she put up a great fight and came out ahead. The second match was another Aussie, Bernard Tomic vs Giles Muller from Luxembourg. Tomic was the youngest man to ever win a match in the Aussie Open, but he was definitely young and didn't have an answer to the massiver serves of Muller. Its hard to win a match when the opposition is drilling 210+km/hr serves past you. Everyone was really supportive of the Aussie and it was a great experience for him to play on the centre court but he went down in 4 sets to Muller. Dokic ended up making it all the way to the quarterfinals of the tournament which was a fantastic effort so it was exciting to be able to say that we actually watched her early matches. Keep an eye out because she really seems to be putting together some good games and has started out 2009 really strong.

Our next experience with 'The Tennis' was on finals weekend, when they took the second court at Hisense Arena and turned it into a concert hall for two days during the mens and womens finals. One of our favorite Aussie bands was on the stage for the last day and the concert tickets also got you into the tennis area to be able to watch the mens final on the bigscreen outside the main court - music and sport on the same ticket, what a deal! The mens final ended up being the match that everyone wanted, Nadal vs. Federer so our inexpensive concert tickets ended up getting us into the main event and the buzz was really electric. The first act of the concert was teen sensation Gabriella Cilmi (pronounced Chill-me) who put on a decent show with some of her popular songs and some popular covers. Soon after though was what brought us there in the first place, The Cat Empire! This is the kind of band that Josh and his friends would have put together back at Luther, with some amazing horns, super-awesome drums and a middle-eastern/latin flavor for rhythms and melody. In short, these guys are danceably awesome. We had a great time grooving along with them and their hour on stage passed in the blink of an eye. Once the band left the stage, Nadal and Federer were starting their warmup so it was time to stake a claim to some space on the ground in front of the bigscreen with 4,000 of our closest friends. Every point was hard-fought and everyone in the audience outside gasped and cheered with the hits and misses going on inside the stadium. We didn't end up staying the entire time and watched the last couple sets from home with Nadal outlasting Federer in the 5th set.

The tennis this year brought some great stories, such as Dokic and Tomic, some great matches like the Nadal/Verdasco slugfest and the music that went along with it was the icing on the cake. The Americans also performed well this year with Serena Williams taking the women's title, the Williams Sisters taking home first in the womens doubles, and the Bryan Brothers winning in the mens doubles. It will be hard to beat the experience and we can't think of a better year to have experienced everything the Australian Open had to offer.

Lake Mungo

Our third Australia Day in Melbourne brings the first true long-weekend of the year. We found out somewhat late that Josh wouldn't have to work so we decided to take the opportunity to explore another part of Victoria - North! We had read and heard about another World Heritage-listed park near Mildura and thought the middle of summer sounded like a perfect time to visit the outback desert. (Please note the sarcasm!) Amazingly we found accommodation and flights without too much trouble and were on our way!

We left on Saturday morning, arrived easily in Mildura, found our rental car, stopped by the visitors centre for some maps and food suggestions, and began our exploration. First stop was one of the many tasty-looking roadside fruit stands where we found fresh grapes, plums, and rock melon (cantaloupe). We then hit the grocery on our way out of town to pick up other breakfast, lunch, and snack supplies for our drive to the park - Wilandra Lakes National Park. The most famous part of the park is Lake Mungo, an ancient dry lakebed where one of the worlds oldest human specimens was discovered in the 1970's. Lake Mungo is also home to the Walls of China; earth formations created over thousands of years by wind and weather eroding the ancient lakeshore. During mid-summer there are not many visitors as the temperature is generally above 40C with prevailing westerly winds. It didn't get that hot for us but we did try to either stay in the shade or the car when possible during the day. With not many tourists around, the wildlife was everywhere and we were able to see plenty of grey kangaroos, a few large red roos, and were also surprised by wild emus and lizards! We hadn't seen wild emus or red roos and happily took more than a few pictures to remember them. The only wildlife that they said lived in the area that we didn't see were echidnas - not surprising given how long it took us to see our first echidna (1.5yrs!) We did also see the expected domestic cattle that now graze just outside the park, and yes we took pictures of them too. :-)

Our first day was spent mainly on the road as the 110km trip from Mildura to Lake Mungo includes 90km of washboard dirt roads. We took it slow and safe, making it to our accomodation (just outside the park) with enough time to explore the visitors centre and surrounding buildings as well as scope out the Walls for future sunset pictures. The sunset at the Walls of China is one of the main attractions and we were able to enjoy the experience both nights we were there. Not quite as amazing as Uluru or the Bungle Bungles, but an outback sunset always seems to provide us with great light for photos. In the sunset, even the local outhouse becomes more interesting!

The second day we packed a lunch and took off on a self-drive tour of the park. The 70km route is intended to take 2.5hrs, though with photo stops and walks it took us closer to 4.5hrs - the views and wildlife were worth the extra time! After that much time on dirt roads though it was time for a nap to recharge before the second sunset in the park. We took some different perspectives for the second sunset but it took some major restraint to not take more pictures of the outhouse on the way back the lodge.

We headed back to Mildura for Australia Day - not realising how quiet the town would be on the holiday we ended up doing quite a bit of window shopping before lunch as the shops were all closed. We drove along the river to one of the local wineries - the area is known for high quantity not quality when it comes to wine, but it was a pretty view and was air conditioned so fit the bill perfectly for the afternoon. We also made the side-trip to Orange World and had a great chat with Mario about Mildura oranges and sucked down one of the best glasses of orange juice that either of us has had in quite a long time. We now know that Australian oranges that are green on the top are actually ripe, just protecting themselves from the hot outback sun - like sunscreen for oranges! We ended our Australia day with a great meal at the Mildura Brewery - watching tennis and cricket on the big screen TVs with a cool beer, steak, and prawns. We flew back to Melbourne on Tuesday morning, stopping briefly at home to clean up and then heading to the office to face one of the hottest weeks Melbourne has had in over 100 years. We're still working on getting all the pictures up to Flickr - they should be there by next weekend, so keep checking back if you get the time!

UPDATE - the pictures are up on Flickr now (have been for a while if you already looked) so check them out when you get a chance. Plenty of Aussie wildlife to see!