It's a Cool(um) Christmas!

Or it's Christmas is so Cool(um). We have just spent our green Christmas in a little holiday town called, you guessed it, Coolum. It's about 1.5 hours north of Brisbane, not far from Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. A really delightful little place that comes alive this time of year with all the tourists for the holiday season. The waves here are great, the water is super warm, the shops are quaint and the Thai food restaurant is to die for. We found a great place to rent until the 27th and then there is 'no room in the inn'. Literally.

It was a different day here, that is for sure, as it approached 30 degrees and we spent a better part of the day at the beach. White Christmas indeed - white sand. They actually had a report on the news here about Canada having a cross-country white Christmas for the first time since 1971. Amazing. Weirdly enough we found ourselves missing that to some degree.

It was quiet day for us mostly as the girls received a few small things while Marn and I didn't exchange anything - we've kind of had a lot of giving this year already! We spoke to some family today (your Christmas Eve) and we will speak to more tomorrow, on your Christmas. It did dampen things a bit around here because you do realize how much you enjoy family and the traditions of the holiday season when they are there for you to enjoy. Sophie in fact had a good cry today because she wanted to go home to her blue house. It didn't last long as she got to head down to the pool and try out her new 'pool diver' toys. But, it did get us all thinking. No, we are not coming home yet but we did miss home today.

This evening we enjoyed Christmas on the beach. We roasted a chicken, made a salad, packed the drinks, the desert and headed down to take in a beach Christmas. There were tons of people still about on the sand at 5:45 while we ate and then I got in to catch a few waves after dinner. Sort of like sledding after Christmas dinner but you get sand down your pants instead of snow - it's warmer but still not lots of fun.

We have been so blessed this year and we hope you have been too. We hope that as you read this you are enjoying your Holiday, celebrating the birth of Christ and spending some great time with family and friends.

We definately know that Santa is on his way to you because he left his mark here...

Check out our Christmas Eve/Day pics HERE.

Love to you all,

The Martin's

The BEST time of Year.

That's right, it is the Surfing Santa

Merry Christmas to you all,

It is such a great time of year - family, friends, giving, receiving and of course, celebrating the birth of Jesus. It is different here being away from the snow and cold - which we feel makes it a very blessed time. But, the birth of Christ is the very same wherever you celebrate, cold or not, snow or not. Tonight we had that reminder in the most remarkable way as we celebrated in the Christmas concert at the Abrahams' church. Imagine Christmas carols where everyone shows up to church in their thongs (yes, they call their flipflops thongs) and short sleeves. Not only was the dress different but the sno-cones, animal petting zoo and sausage sizzle afterward where a bit out of our norm. However, the celebration of what this time of year really means transcends all the differences of our two countries. The service had incredible singing, wonderful musicians, awesome actors (Leanne's stirring vocalization of her part in the play included) and a very apt message. We were suddenly and remarkably brought to Christmas, which we had not been feeling in the heat. We drove from the church to Elanora's version of Candy Cane Lane and walked about on a lit up street, talking to people and enjoying the surfing Santa on the roof. It was awesome!

We have had another amazing stretch of time here with the Abrahams'. We lived a true cliche here last week when we saw 'Australia' in Australia. The movie, for those who have seen it, is meant to be a sweeping epic of Australian commitment, loss, gain and love. It's okay as a movie, but the way we saw it made it truly incredible. We sat in Gold service at the theatre. Before you go into your fully reclining laz-y-boy chair you order up your food and drinks. We basically used a menu to order and food was delivered to us as we watched. We had a beer and appetizers to start, popcorn partway through and coffee and desert towards the end of the three hour flick. VERY cool way to see this particular movie on this particular trip. Waiters at the movies...what will they think of next.

The pictures on this post include two different sets. One set includes, among other pictures, a number of shots from world famous (to all those in the surfing world) Point Danger. Cook labelled it on his voyage here in 1770. It is home to the border between New South Wales and Queensland states here in Oz and seperates D-bar from Snapper Rocks. Both beaches have some of the best suring anywhere and are a fixture on the World Surfing Tour. And, many of the top surfers from the area routinely hang here. Todd introduced us to the area and it is simply beautiful. We just happened to spot dolphins while there too, which is always a bonus. Australia Views

We have finally left our temporary home in Currumbin, but we did get a few more great days in while there. The 'Alley' is also a very famous surfing and kite surfing area and on one visit there were a couple of fellows really doing an amazing job. They literally 'fly' through the air. They get up to 50-60 feet in the air doing flips, slips and tricks before landing. It is wild. The second set of pics for this posting is filled with a schwack of kite surfing shots. Kite Surfing

I've finally tried my hand on the surf board and it wasn't pretty. Sort of like a fish in the bottom of a boat - that was me flopping around trying to get up on that tiny floating stick. I'll keep working on it, but man they make it look so easy here - and it isn't.

We are headed North from here in the next few days and will spend Christmas north of Brisbane. We will be hooking up with Todd, Leanne and family over New Years and we are looking forward to that.

The big news is that we are heading North because we bought a car. A 2000 Camry that Marnie made a great deal on. She left me to deal with all the 'used car salesmen' crap afterward - it was nasty and will make a great story when I see any of you face to face again - but the bottom line is we have a great little car that we hope will get us all around this great country. 'Rita, as she has been affectionately dubbed will get a workout, but having a car certainly gives one a sense of freedom. And, poor Todd and Leanne can go back to their regular life by having their car back that we keep borrowing.

So, for now we just want to say again that we wish you all a very Merry Christmas. Have a wonderful holiday time, enjoy your families and may you all be blessed.

Love to you all,

Jp and Marnie and Ayden and Sophie.

G'Days with the A's

First off, we just want to say thank-you again to all of you that have responded to our blog by either making comments or emailing us directly. We appreciate all the comments - it makes it fun.

Well, we have to admit that Australia has blown us away. We have been walking around with our mouths open - this place (the Gold Coast) just keeps astounding us.

Todd and Leanne Abrahams, whom many of you know, have been our hosts/guides/interpreters since we arrived and it has been fantastic to really reconnect with them. The kids are having a such a great time with each other - it is really great to be a part their friendships, just seeing it every day so far.

The A's have led us to many great spots here already, from outstanding beaches (like Currumbin, Fingal Head, Burleigh Beach and of course, Surfers Paradise), to super fun parks (Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, Lamington National Park and Dreamland Theme Park), to great food and even to our amazing accomodation - Right on the beach in Currumbin, just north of Coolangatta (Such cool names here).

We have seen many of the fascinating animals that Australia has too. We have felt very fortunate to have seen wild Dolphins about 4 times now, giant spiders, Bearded Lizards, Cookabura birds, Parrots, Wallabees (all in the wild) and tons in the wildlife sanctuary like Kangaroos, Fresh and Salt water Crocs, Dingos, Snakes of all kinds, Wombats and tons of birds.

I have to admit my Australian is really poor. I'm not kidding either, I just don't understand what they are saying very well -it's so different. Yes, I know it is English but trust me it is different. Time is flying by here, basically because we are filling everyday with some kind of big activity, in fact, today is the first true rest day since we have been here - and even then I hit the waves for a while, we worked out and the girls swam in the pool for almost two hours!

We are looking at moving this Saturday, either a little more north of here or even renting a car and going quite North to perhaps the Sunshine Coast. We will let you know. We may have a line on a cheap cruise over Christmas too. We'll give it a shot!

There is a link below for a crop of new photos. I don't have captions or a commentary but certainly if you are curious about any, just ask and we will get back to you. I haven't put any up in a while but hopefully you will enjoy make your way through the maze.
Click HERE for the current album of pictures.

I've removed the image of Marnie's New Do on the bottom of the blog and replaced it with, well...you'll be haunted! But most of you won't be able to stop yourself from scrolling down to the bottom of the blog to have a peek.

Take care everyone,

The Martin's

Out with the Cooks, In with the Oz

Funny, this travelling to different parts of the world. Funny, like 'aluminum'. We've all stumbled over the word at times, maybe even joked about its pronunciation. But did you know that down here, below that magic line that divides our world in North and South, they have a whole different pronunciation compared to what we are used too? You know why? It's a different word. Spelled completely differently - it's 'alumin-I-um'. A-loo-min-e-um. Crazy. And, we all know they drive on a different side of street but did you know that the light switches are flicked down to turn on and up to turn off? Weird. It's 'take-away', not take-out, 'chips' are fries, pannini's are 'turkish melts', Wednesday here is Tuesday at home, and of course there is no big dipper to be found anywhere! But....seriously there was nothing more strange than watching a guy dancing around in his Santa outfit on an ad on TV for the 'Raro-Mart' (Rarotonga's version of Wal-Mart)to the tune of 'Santa Clause is coming to Town" - and it being 30 degrees outside.

Having said all that, what an experience so far! The Cook Islands have disappeared for us in a long day of travel that took us to Auckland and on to Brisbane where our good friends, Todd and Leanne Abrahams, along with their kids, Jayvin and Kylie, were waiting for us at the airport. It was so great to have familiar faces greet us and to see Todd whom we hadn't seen in just about two years. In a short 24 hours here in Australia we have fallen head over heels. It is amazing here. They live south of Brisbane by about 45 minutes in a place called Elenora, just south of Surfers Paradise. We, because of some massive time change brain warps, were up early today and in the water in their local beach by 8:30 am. Simply a breath-taking spot of the world. For those of you into 'Google-Earthing'or 'Google Maps' check out Palm Beach, QLD, Australia - Wow!

The public school kids are in school for another week and a half before the summer break starts and prices on accomodations reallys start to go up. So, we are looking at renting something here for a week or so to take advantage of lower prices and then organize the next month or so after that. Brisbane, Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast area is chock full of tourist type stuff that we are going to mess around with before the break starts - Wet and Wild Park, Dream World Amusement park, WB's Movie World, and the list goes on and on.

Thanks again to all of you that have posted comments on the blog or got back to us on email. We read it all and love the posts. There is another batch of photos ready to go too. You can check them out by clicking on the following link - here.

Just click on the first photo and then scroll through the rest to view in a bigger format. Enjoy.

All the best to you, God Bless,

Jp, Marnie and Girls

ps. Anyone notice how in love with the 'comma' I am when I write?

Raro Update with Pics

Hello All,

There is a scene in the Tom Hanks movie, Castaway, where the character waits for the shifting of the wind to make his escape off the island he is stranded on. He builds a makeshift ‘windsock’ and waits. He feels something change in the air one day and watches as the sock drops, only to be picked up by a new wind coming from a new direction.
I’m not suggesting that we are ‘stranded’ but we certainly have felt the shift of the ‘Trades. It was remarkable actually. For those Socials/Geography geeks out there we watched an amazing sheet-lightning storm roll past south of Rarotonga and the wind became calm. There had not been much wind in the first five or so days here anyway but then… Within moments the wind shifted to come out of the South East, which is where the Cyclones develop out of here, and in a rush it hit. No, not a Cyclone (they usually don’t appear until January or early February), just some strong Trade Winds. Our extremely flat, idyllic lagoon has turned on us. We are still enjoying every minute of our beach but if we want flat lagoon area to snorkel or explore we have to go to the west of the island which now lies leeward.
The girls are doing great! They have ‘school’ each day and are in the water constantly. We bought a Tropical Fish water card and have checked off about 15 fish from its list – the water is clear and the fish are everywhere – lots of them. Snorkeling has definitely been a highlight here.
It’s day 9 here for us and we are starting to get tanned, we are learning to relax and finding out the ‘tricks’ of hanging out on a South Pacific island. I’ve made friends with a Kiwi fellow just down the way who has graciously given us his password so that we can use his internet. A great guy who is on a long-term rental of a gorgeous house as he runs his Cook Island travel magazine called ‘Escape’ – Pretty apt isn’t it? Everyone seems to want to ‘escape’ here. So we are able to catch up a bit now with on-line activities, like posting more pictures.
Not only do we have the blog but I will be posting pictures from time to time too. Click on the following link to see some highlights of Rarotonga so far – http://picasaweb.google.com/SoJAYMM/Rarotonga1?authkey=HLqrYLAohLM#Thanks so much for all of you that posted a message to us on the blog or have emailed – keep them coming as it is a great way to at least feel a little connected with each other.
More to come…. Kia Orana

Cook Islands....Paradise Found

Hi Everyone,

Sorry this took a while to update for the first few times but we are having trouble with internet - so finally....here we go. We got here realtively easy and Air NZ was really great. Stepping off the plane we hit warmth! Ahhhh, just what we were looking for. The Cooks are pretty well visually stunning. It is very warm, with some great rain downpours but lots of sun. Unbelievable oceanscapes and we have absolutely the best place on the Island - and I'm not kidding. The beach, water and snorkelling couldn't be better. I'll attach a few pics to let you see. I will also update more at a later time but for now this will have to do.

Day One!

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to our Blog. We are sitting in the Vancouver airport waiting to take off in the next hour or so. After such a long time of waiting our trip is finally here! We are going to try and update this page as often as possible and fill you in on our happenings.

Sophie and Ayden have been such great troopers. Marn and I are very proud of them for all their patience. They teach us so much. We are sure hoping that this next 6 months or so will build memories that will last a lifetime and, perhaps, change their lives.

Thanks so much to all of you that have been such a big part of the build up to this adventure. Off we go....