Xmas down under

Christmas is a time to come together with your family, sit around a Christmas tree, stuff your face with copious amounts of food and hope that it starts snowing so we can all have that magical white holiday every one is always raving about.

In Australia it is no different. Replace the snow with a golden beach and the pine tree for a palm tree and the Christmas spirit is all around you.

Although my ‘real’ family is on the other side of the world I feel very lucky to have found good friends here in Oz to call family too and they have made this Christmas the memorable success that is has been. I was lucky enough to have three dinners in the company of old and new friends.

The first one was an early one. On Saturday the 21^st of December I was invited to attend a dinner at Emily and Pierre their house. Two good friends I’ve met in Byron Bay 4 months ago. Maya, Hannah, Stephen, Megan and mixmeister Sam where also there. I helped Emily and Peirre prepare the food during the day before the others arrived. That was good fun. I had never prepared a full Christmas dinner before and neither had Pierre or Emily. So with each other’s help and that of google we slaved in the kitchen to make something beautiful. With a cold beer in hand and good music playing in the back ground Pierre and I focused on the mean course, while Emily was building an awesome 4 tier cake. And running around stressed out making sure that everything was ready and how she wanted it before the first guest arrived.

We made Turkey, oven baked stuffing balls, a glazed ham, sprouts with bacon, roast veggies, roast potatoes, cauliflower with a cheese sauce. We reduced red cabbage with red onions to make a deliciously sweet as a replacement for the cranberry sauce, Yorkshire puddings with gravy. And to top it off Emily presented her 4 tier, chocolate, cheese cake, banana cake cake. It all turned out amazing.

To quench our thirst mixmeister Sam, who is a bar tender and cocktail magician, made an amazing Christmas punch with rum and fresh fruit to wash down the feast.

The little ‘resort’ where Pierre and Emily lived was lit up completely. All the house where beautifully decorated. The one had more lights and propped up Santas than the other. That really topped of an amazing evening and made the Christmas feeling almost palpable. We ate and drank and laughed until we could eat and drink and laugh no more and went to sleep. An amazing kick off to the holiday season.

Two days later I had a Christmas eve’s eve dinner with some peeps from the dive shop. Colin, Becky, Matt Glenn and I where invited for dinner at Gemma’s place. I hadn’t seen most of them for 4 months and it was good to catch up. Gemma had made pigs in blankets, roast veggies and potatoes, Yorkshire pudding with beef and gravy and mince fruit pies with chocolate ice cream. Again a delicious meal. Instead of the punch we drank wine and listened to all the classic Christmas songs. Chris Rea, Mariah Carey, Wham!, the whole shebang. It was a lovely, low key dinner and a reminder to me how much I like hanging out with the people from the dive shop.

And then Christmas day came. The day of the big dinner at the dive shop with 13 people. Most of them new interns for their divemaster course from all over the world. By the time I arrived the preparation where in full swing. Colin was the chef and I the sous chef. Veggie where being cut, stuffing made, birds stuffed, salads prepared. It all ran very smoothly. Since we did not have an oven at the dive shop and we had two birds to cook, we used two ovens in two different houses spread across town. Christmas day is also about relaxing and having a few drinks during the day, so I sacrificed myself to be the designated driver and drive back and forth between ovens and dive shop to check on the turkeys. No drinks for me until the turkeys were done at the car safely parked back at the house. But Colin hooked me up and was waiting for me with a nice rum and coke so I could catch up with the rest.

We definitely had too much food. For some reason it always turns out like that when we make dinner at the dive shop. We had two stuffed turkeys, a honey glazed ham, roast potatoes, parsnips, pumpkin and carrots. Steamed broccoli, a spinach tomato feta cheese salad and pigs in blankets. To make it a real Aussie xmas, we had 3 kilos of shrimp for on the Barbie. It was nothing less then a feast. As desert there was pavlova topped with strawberries and blue berries. Becky had decorated the table and we had bonbons (crackers you pull apart with small toys and jokes inside).

After everyone was stuffed like the birds we just devoured, cleaned up and head upstairs for some good old drinking games. We drank and joked and laughed. It was an absolute success.

Since I am continuing my travels through Oz on the 27^th it was good to have these evenings and dinners with the people that are a travelers family. I’ll miss them, but I’ll be back in Byron Bay to have some more party and QT with these beautiful people I am pleased to call my friends.

Cairns Adventures

On the 25^th of August I arrived in Cairns to pursue a career in diving and escape the relative ‘cold’ winter in Byron Bay. It is the 17^th of December now and once again I’m on the move. This time to pursue my 2^nd year visa in the form of farm work and escape the hot, sticky and wet raining season of Far North Queensland. A new adventure lies ahead still to be experienced and written. This story tells the tale of my stay, adventures and shenanigans in Cairns.

When I first arrived in Cairns I had no job and little money. I stayed in a hostel named Globe trotters international for the first week. Apparently the hostel was popular amongst Germans, since they where coming out of the woodworks here and I decided not to linger there very long. I moved to Nomads Serpents bar in North Cairns and worked for my accommodation and meager meals as housekeeping at first and later as the shuttle bus driver. It was fun being in a hostel for a while. I’ve met many new people and had a few crazy nights out in town. But sharing your room with 3 others, sleeping in bunk beds and being kept awake by the noise at the bar outside my window grew quite dreary quick enough.

With only $70 in my bank account and not a real lead on a job I got a call from Seastar Cruises. A small (35pax max) boat that goes out to the reef every day. I did two trial days and became the new scuba instructor on Seastar. Every day I would go out to Michealmas Cay, a sandbar on steroids inhabited by 20.000 odd birds. They are noisy and with a strong easterly wind also very unpleasant on the nose. Luckily I spend most my time under water, leading introductory divers around in the magical world called Ocean. The magic did fade after a while. Doing the same little circuit around the same bommies for the 100 time gets a bit old. Check out the giant clam here, say hi to Nemo there, pet the sea cucumber behind this rock. You catch my drift.

The second location we would go however did not get old. Hastings reef is a mini wall formation just covered in corals. At this site I also did over a 100 dives, but there was always something new. Cool swim throughs, cuttle fish, colorful hard and soft corals, a black sea cucumber named Bob, reef sharks. Especially with good visibility the site was an absolute pleasure to dive. Even with retarded ‘I can’t swim but still sign up for scuba anyways’-intros on my tail.

Shortly after getting the job on Seastar I moved from the hostel into a share house. Ian the land lord is by far the most relaxed landlord I’ve ever met. The only two rules in the house where: pay rent (not necessarily on time) and find someone to take your room when you leave. Too easy. The people in the house where awesome too. Froya a gorgeous, super cool, half Norwegian/half English girl that also worked on Seastar. Ash and Shona, a crazy couple from New Zealand that worked for Mike Ball (the best and fanciest live aboard in Australia). Dave, an Aussie bloke who embodies the definition of chilled out. Rasmus, a bloke form Estonia who loved to complain about the weather. Bryce, a dude from Melbourne and the first and only assistant instructor I’ve ever met and Corrine, a young gullible German girl with a wicked fear of cockroaches. 

Since I’m naming the people I’ve met and lived with I feel compelled to try to name them all. I will drop the description although a few do deserve special mention.

My captain Anthony, a 20 year old Aussie bloke, who became my singing buddy over the radios we used on the boat. Vinnie, a Brazilian divemaster, who is nothing less than an absolute legend. And Ellen a cute Aussie girl which I had the pleasure of getting to know a little bit better.

And then the rest: Pieter, Kiana, Tina, David, Steve, Spencer, Tony, Siabhon, Emanuel, Molly, May, Danny, Leigh, Clem, Paul, Rens, Shane, Mel, Klaas, Chanti and I’m sure I’m still forgetting a few.

We had many fun evenings at the Pier Bar, which was located at the Marina and thus a perfect local watering hole for all the people who worked on the day boats. We would start the evening there with 2for1 drinks, $5 pizzas and bowls of Cajun wedges. Only to end up at PJ’s the Irish pub or the good old Woolshed where people dance on the tables and act a fool. Or we would have a BBQ or birthday party at some ones house and slay bottles of Captain Morgan and The Glenlivet.

I’m not saying we went out and got drunk every single night. We all had responsible jobs and worked 11 hour days so often enough I passed out on my bed before 9pm, but we had our fair share of party and laughs.

This story I’ve put a bit more emphasize on the people I’ve met. It is always the people that make travelling interesting or special, how beautiful or ugly the place where you are may be. In almost 4 months’ time I’ve done a lot of cool stuff and can’t remember as much details as I would like to write about it. I did get a bit lazy in that sense. So instead I’ll try to summarize some of the things I’ve done in Cairns and surroundings.

I did over a 100 dives on the Great Barrier Reef, went down to Ayr to dive the famous shipwreck Yongala. I did a road trip to Mossman Gorge with my good friend Maya, went four wheel driving through the mountains and got lost in the rainforest only to find our way a few hours later. I did 2 midnight Halloween bungie jumps. Visited the Atherton Tablelands where I chilled underneath a beautiful waterfall in the middle of the rainforest. I ate croc and Kangaroo, learned that Indian people should not sign up for scuba diving EVER. Swam in a crater lake, touched a seas snake, raced shopping trollies, won at beer pong, played pub golf, learned to ride a long board, got attacked by a bird while riding one, got introduced to amazing new music (katchafire, six60, spoonbill, hilltop hoods), burned 50% of my legs and left with a brand new octopus inked into my shoulder.

I will definitely go back to Cairns. I’m not done diving the GBR. I aspire to get a job with Mike Ball diving expeditions. That company goes to Coral Sea and ribbon reefs, the Codhole and osprey reef. All dive sites that will blow your and my mind. 4 of my (now former) house mates work on that boat and the landlord knows everyone in the Cairns diving circles, so I’m confident to get a job after I have secured my 2^nd year visa.

The tropical temperatures are also a big plus. At the moment I’m waiting at Coolangatta airport for a bus to take me to Byron Bay and for the first time in 4 months I’m wearing a jacket and shoes. It is that I hate rain more than cold or else I would jump on a plane back to where the warmth is (read: over 25 degrees).

I will spend the holidays with friends in Byron Bay and then I’m off to a yet to be determined location for some back breaking ‘regional work’ so I can stay and have more adventures. Life should be a big adventure and I’m definitely in one!