Thoughts of gratitude...

Sitting at the library in Mt Gambier feeling so grateful for everything that this journey has brought us. We have been working for a few days, picking and packing cherries. The work is okay, but what makes it all so amazing is the people we live and work with. Such wonderful people. We have made some good friends, and I am so grateful that all that have happened so far has brought all of us together to share this experience. These people have given us the opportunity to open up to others and they are so open minded and accepting that it feels so natural to be ourselves around them. I have never felt so at home with a bunch of strangers before, and it is just amazing. I guess I have learned that if I'm not trying to be anything else than myself, people will accept me and like me for who I really am (and if they don't like me for who I am, I shouldn't bother anyway). I don't have words to describe how grateful I am for these new people in my life. They are like angels sent from heaven to teach me to be open and honest, and to show me how much love and cohesion it is possible to feel with people I just met. For me that's a gift worth more than anything. I don't know who to thank, but I guess thanking the Universe should cover it all :)

I would like to share some photos from our trip to Blue Lake (the lake provides lots of houses in the area with drinking water so there was no swimming) and from our Christmas celebration at Pete's Fish farm. Pete and Kaye made us all lots of food and Santa Claus came with presents to all of us on Christmas Day after we had a great day at the beach in Beachport. Such wonderful people! Such a wonderful life!

Lotte

Before we started working we spent our days enjoying country life and relaxing in the sunshine :)

Blue Lake is acctually more blue than it looks like! Absolutely AMAZING!!

Christmas Eve party! Higher dimensions joined us as well (the orbs) :)

The great Christmas gifts we got from Ann.

 Christmas Day dinner with all our new friends :)

 Santa brought us all presents :) JT looks very happy about the antenna flag (unfortunately we can't have it on our antenna because the antenna folds in when we turn the engine off, but we'll find a good spot for our Australian flags)

Christmas Day

Tuesday, December 25^th, 2012

We started working on December 23^rd. We woke up early and thought to ourselves that there was no point in waiting around here so we got in our car and decided to go to Beachport. We hadn’t even got halfway when we got a text message from Pete, saying that we were needed at the cherry farm. We turned around and went straight to the cherry farm where we started off in the packing shed. We spent the rest of the day sizing and grading cherries. Yesterday we started work at 6am (also packing) and worked a good 9 hours. As we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve in Norway it was unusual for us to be working, but since it doesn’t really feel like Christmas anyway it was ok.

After work yesterday we all (all the backpackers here on Pete’s Fish Farm are working at the cherry farm) went home and had ourselves a little Christmas Party. Today we have the day off so we didn’t have to get up early, but we actually woke up around 6am anyway. Last night was a perfect night. We got to get to know the other backpackers a lot more, and it turns out that we have a lot in common. I thank the Universe for bringing us together. This experience wouldn’t be the same without these wonderful people to share it with. I thought that it might be weird being with strangers on Christmas Eve, but the evening was so full of love and fun that it didn’t feel like they were strangers anymore. What a wonderful gift to be with such a great bunch of people on an evening like Christmas Eve. Even though it wasn’t like the usual sense of Christmas, the real Christmas spirit was truly present; love, peace and lots of joy.

This morning we made ourselves a cup of coffee and sat down outside the kitchen to read a book when Ann, a former teacher that now travels Australia and are now working here at Pete’s Fish Farm, came to us with a Christmas gift. It was an envelope with a rose attached to it and with a few beautiful lines from a Shaber Hymn called “Simple Gifts”:

‘Tis a gift to be simple

‘Tis a gift to be free

‘Tis a gift to come down

Where you ought to be

And when we find ourselves in the place that is right

It will be in the valley of love and delight

Such beautiful words that got straight into my heart. And as I am writing this I just saw that there is something inside the envelopes as well! There are two lottery tickets, the kind where you scratch the game panel and you can win up to $20,000! I was so happy to get the kind words that I didn’t even think that there would be anything inside the envelope. Ann is such a wonderful and wise woman that I admire and respect. We see things eye to eye, and it’s so great to meet people that also live for the moment and for the simple joy of living.

I don’t know what today will bring (it’s only 8.30am), but I guess time will tell. We might try to go to Beachport again, or maybe just hang around here with our new friends…. Tomorrow it’s back to the cherry farm to do some picking J

Life is good J

It’s my niece’s birthday today. With all my love; happy birthday, Emma! I love you so much! You have become such a beautiful young woman and I wish you all the best for your journey through this lifeJ

Live life and love it.

Lotte

Still no work... still enjoying life...

There's still no work, but we continue to enjoy life and our freedom. We went by the cherry farm to see if there would be some work for us soon and they told us that we're next on the list, so that's all good:) Since there was no work today we went down to Mount Gambier to have a look at Blue Lake. We just stopped by the library to check our mails and to post a little something here for you to read. After I've finished drinking my iced chai we'll go down to Blue Lake, and if it's possible we might take a swim as well. We're totally free so we can do whatever we want!! 

Live life and love it:)

Lotte

Enjoying life at Pete’s Fish Farm

Friday, December 21^st 2012

We were supposed to start working yesterday, but the cherries are not ripe yet so they don’t need new people over there just yet. At first we were a little annoyed that we couldn’t start when we thought, but it turned out to be a blessing. When we got back from the cherry farm after doing the paper work required we just sat down relaxing and didn’t really know what to do. Then Kaye, Pete’s wife, came and asked if we wanted to go fishing with her. We were happy to have something to do so off we went on the tractor out on the fields to the ponds where they place the fish they breed. We had a great teacher so we learned the way to gather the fish in the net and then get them into a tank on the tractor before we drove back to the farm to place them in different containers (I think it was according to size). It was really interesting to see how a fish farm works and what these people do every day. We were so grateful that we were able to have that experience. The cherry picking will start when the time is right.

Today we woke up early to be ready to work if they would call us. We relaxed in the morning sun, having a cup of coffee and reading a book. The sun was warming us up from a very cold night out in our car. Ann, an Australian woman that works here, told us that it was only three degrees out this morning, so if was REALLY freezing!! But today the cold night turned into a very warm and beautiful day. When we were sitting there Ann came to us and asked if we wanted to come fishing Yabby (a lobster like creature) with her. We were happy to say yes, and to be able to learn more about this farm and the work they do here. We went out on the fields again to the lakes where they had put out crates to catch the Yabbies. We emptied them, but in new bate, and through them out again. It was great fun except from when we found a couple of dead turtles in some of the crates. But all in all another great day! What a gift!!

Tomorrow Pete and the cherry farmer said that we probably would get to work from noon, so maybe the time is right nowJ

We’ve got to meet some very nice people here as well, so this turned out to be a wonderful and quite perfect experience, at least so far. Nature is all around us and the scenery is just a wonder. We are so blessed to be lead to this special place. We thank the Universe for all the “coincidences” that brought it all into our experience on this wonderful planet J

Lotte

The working begins

We made it to Pete’s Fish Farm yesterday. There were other backpackers here already, some had started working, and some were waiting like us, and some arrived just after us. Tomorrow we start picking cherries, which is kinda funny since I have cherry blossoms tattooed on my leg:) 

There’s no internet here so we’ll have to update the blog in bulks whenever we have the time to go into town, but we’ll do our best to write some words on how this new way of life of picking and packing seven days a week turns out.

It’s always funny when you start something new. You know that things will be familiar after a while, and I find it funny to remember that when I’m at the beginning and see everything as new and unfamiliar. As for us now; we’ll get to know these new people in our lives, we’ll do work that’s well known to us and everything we learn will be integrated so seamlessly that we won’t notice until we give ourselves the time to think back on this moment of unknowing. But for now we’ll stay in the state of not knowing (until we suddenly know)…

Lotte

Along the Great Ocean Road there are lots of tourist attractions. The coast line is just amazing! We took the time to stop at every sight we passed yesterday:

The Arch:

London Bridge: 

 The Grotto:

Bay of Martyrs:

And there was another sight, but we can't remember what it was called:

Let go and everything works itself out…

Tuesday, December 18^th

When we came to Werribee on Monday, December 10^th the job hunting started. We spent every day at a café that offered free wifi trying to find a fruit picking job nearby. As the days went we started to get more and more frustrated and old doubts and fears started to turn up in our minds and made us insecure. We didn’t understand how we were suppose to go about it all and we didn’t know if it was a mistake to travel all the way south (cuz there were no jobs around that we could find). We tried to call different people but nobody answered, but finally we found something called Harvest Labour Assistance, which is a government thing where they help people to find farms that need help with their harvesting. We called them up and thought that now we have finally found the way. But when they answered we were not so sure. In Victoria there were no jobs (not in their listings anyway) and the only job they knew of was in South Australia just on the border to Victoria. We called them up, and left a message, and decided to call it a day. On Friday I called them up again and they told me that they were a Hostel that arranged work at different farms. They had to check if there were any jobs available so I had to wait for them to call back. Again we felt insecure… But then we had a talk that changed everything. We had been thinking about what to do and where to go but we couldn’t figure it out. Then we decided that the way we felt about it all would not help us to find the right job for us. We simply needed to feel more relaxed and enjoy life instead of getting caught up in this small drama that we actually made up out of nothing. We decided that we would go back to Heyfield to visit our friend Jude and then just go with the flow from there. The next morning we packed up and went into town again to find Jude’s phone number, and then, while we were sitting on the café, the guy from the “working hostel” called me! He said that from Thursday he had work for us over in Penola, South Australia, and all we needed to do was to get there by Wednesday. We were so happy! It’s so obvious that when you let go you also let whatever you want into your experience. We knew this, but I guess sometimes we need a reminder. Anyway… We decided to go to Heyfield, even though it’s not on the way to South Australia. The time we spent with Jude was absolutely amazing. I felt like something was lit up inside me again and I was reminded that it’s all love and as long as you believe, everything is possible. Yesterday, on Monday, we drove off with a burning fire of belief, knowledge, and most of all, divine love in our hearts. And the funny thing was that as we backed out of Jude’s driveway, she looked in her mailbox and there was our tax file numbers that we thought would be another obstacle cuz we didn’t know if we would get it in time. So once more letting go revealed its power.

We decided to take the Great Ocean Road along the south-west coast of Victoria. We got to see the 12 apostles (the most photographed tourist attraction in Australia) at sunset. Nature is truly amazing!! We then went to Port Campbell, where we are right now. Check out time is close and I need to take a shower so I guess this have to be it for todayJ We’ll probably get to Penola today, and then the working starts on Thursday. We are excited and back to loving and enjoying life again J Everything is always good, even though we can’t see it…

Lotte 

Victoria - the job searching starts

11.12.2012

We arrived Werribee yesterday, we are going to stay here for 5 days and look for jobs, if we are lucky we extend our stay here. Since we were in Durras we have been driving 980 km. Our first stop was at Lake Tyers Beach. Here we got to see the most beautiful sunset, standing on the beach. We had a 180 degrees view of the sea, nothing in front of us, we felt like we were looking into the eternity. The sky had so many colors and together with the clouds it was a picture to remember. We took some photos but we didn’t have the skills with the camera to capture the whole scene.

The next day we drove to Blairgowrie, between Rye and Sorrento, arrived late so we had just time to make dinner and then it was bedtime.

Yesterday when we arrived here in Werribee we tried to call someone who had put out an ad about jobs when we were in Queensland deciding to head south. But they didn’t pick up the phone. After several attempts reaching them we decided spending the time on getting us a tax file number. We got help at the information center and at a news agent were they have the forms, but we ended up applying on the internet at a library where we got free internet access. We are staying at a caravan park in Werribee South, there is no internet access here so that makes the whole searching for jobs a bit harder because we have to get into the town center to get on the internet and to use public phones. And since we have a tent outside our car we have to pack everything up and down just for a trip to town. But that’s the charming side of camping life. Everything is taking a bit more time…

JT

12.12.2012

The job searching continues. Yesterday we got to send some mails and are now hoping for positive feedback. This morning we met a Danish couple in the caravan park where we are staying. They were on their way home after 3 months here. We got some Christmas decorations and some supplies from them so now our car got a hint of Christmas inside. It’s getting warmer, something we are very satisfied with, but the mornings are still freezing so we are not up when the birds start singing like earlier.

 JT

Pebbly Beach and Durras

Yesterday we woke up freezing (the second day in a row), and as JT wrote we started to question our plan of going south. After we passed Sydney the temperature started to feel more like a Norwegian summer (or maybe we just have gotten used to the heat up north?). It has been a bit cloudy as well so that might have something to do with it… Since it’s just the beginning of summer we are hoping it will get warmer…

We went for a walk around Pebbly Beach after getting packed up, and finally I understood why it got its name. The beach close to the camping area is a sandy beach, and I couldn’t see where the pebbles were supposed to be. When we went hiking we got to the ACTUAL Pebbly Beach, and I got it right away; the beach were full of round stones – pebbles – and they made the most beautiful and magical sound as the ocean drew the waves back from the shore. All the pebbles, big and small, dancing together in the waves! It was just marvelous!

We also went to other sites around the area. Such a beautiful place to be. The ocean is so powerful and yet it doesn’t struggle or work hard (even though the waves are many meters high). It made me feel humble and great gratitude towards Mother Earth and The Creation.

All around Pebbly Beach there were lots of parrots and kangaroos. We could walk right up to the roos and they didn’t bother at all. That was so amazing, but the best was yet to come… We went on to Durras after our walk and checked in to a camping ground called Murramarang Beachfront Nature Resort. When we found our site all the sites around it had a lot of poop on them (luckily ours were perfectly fine), and we started to get the picture; the kangaroos are here as well! We knew that Durras were suppose to be full of kangaroos – that’s why we wanted to go here on our way south – but we read that they would go to the woods in the Christmas season, so we were not sure that there would be so many left. But there are plenty left!! They jump around the tents and caravans, eating and enjoying themselves. They don’t mind the people at all. Yesterday when we sat outside in our tent, there were a couple of roos just behind the tent. When I went to pick up something in the trunk I had to walk as close as under a meter away from them and they didn’t even look up! Later, when we had gone into the car (it was a bit cold outside) one of them got into our tent! I also saw some kids petting one of the smaller ones – still not bothering!

At night there are other animals here as well. There are rabbits, and I saw a possum when I went to the camp kitchen to fill up my bottle with water.

We like it here so much that we decided to stay another night, so tomorrow we’ll head further south again (if we don’t decide to stay even longer). It’s hard not to like a place where you live right at the beach (even though the water is icy cold) and the kangaroos are right outside your door when you wake up in the morning.

Life is good, and I enjoy being able to live like we do. I am so happy that I went out of my comfort zone and took the chance of living my dream. Life and this wonderful planet we live on have so much to offer, and I’m not willing to sit by while this life passes me by. I want to LIVE my life fully, with joy and eagerness for what the next moment will bring! Life can only be as good as you allow it to be. I will only allow the best J

Live life and love it.

Joy is the key!

Lotte

 

A parrot in Bulli:

 

 

Pictures from Pebbly Beach:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pictures from Durras:

They have organic purple carrots!!!

Change in plans: We're heading south!

Heading south, 02.12.2012

We spend two nights at Tannum Sands and there we got to experience the start of the summer heat. So we decided to travel south and to head north again sometimes in the autumn. Our plan now is to travel south and get jobs.

We drove 662 km the first day of driving south. The car handled the heat very well. But right before we came to Murwillumba long queues started. We were driving in 2km/h for more than 2 hours. After that the car struggled with the heat and we decided to stop along the way to let it cool down a bit. Then the blinkers stopped working, closed circuit after one part of the lights electrics melted. So after sleeping on a free camper spot we went to an auto mechanic in Tweed Heads. There we got help and on Monday we have an appointment to get the blinkers fixed and a full service on the car. We have learned that air conditions in older cars doesn’t work as good as newer ones, it’s more like it doesn’t work at all, hehe. So when they put A/C in the car ad when we bought the car they used the term A/C to its widest extent. So when we got two days to wait for our car appointment we drove to Nimbin again thinking Tweed Heads was too big a place as we were looking for a smaller and calmer place to be.

 

Car repairment, Tweed Heads, 04.12.2012

It was summer in Nimbin also, so hot that we spend the time swimming in the pool, drinking cold beverages and sitting in the shade looking at all the people enjoying the skating park there. The skaters impressed me, skating in the heat, I had problems just thinking without breaking a sweat. So our activity level wasn’t high this weekend, but we enjoyed our stay there very much this time as well. I just love the atmosphere in Nimbin, everything is so relaxed and lay-back there. We woke up 05.30 on Monday, packed our things and headed in to Tweed Heads for our car appointment. First we went to a car electrician and they did some testing and change a part and then the blinkers were working again. Then we went back to Tweed City Auto and John that had helped us on Friday. He made time for a quick check-up on our car even though he was fully booked and very busy. He checked the car and fixed some small details. He said that the car was in very good conditions for its age. Then we got some tips on what to look out for in older cars and how to drive wisely in the heat. For all this work and service both days and the car electrician’s services it cost us all together under 80 dollars. That surprised me, because Australia is according some experts I saw on TV the third most expensive country in the world after Norway and Switzerland. In Norway you won’t even get to know the name of the person who is fixing your car for 80 dollars…

We got on our way again by 11.00 and had our coolest day driving so far, we drove totally 630 km this day and it was cloudy all the way. Sweet! We stopped and slept in Forster, beautiful area right before Port Stephens. We are planning to drive a bit along the cost today if it’s possible before taking the motorway through Sydney.

 
Pebbly Beach, 05.12.2012

We drove 360 km yesterday, slept in a town called Bulli, drove 200 km today and are now camping at Pebbly Beach near Durras North and Durras South. The beach is a part of Murramarang National Park. The nature never stops to amaze me. We have been driving along the North Coast and South Coast these days and this is really a scenic route. One view after the other takes your breath away. We have just been walking along the Pebbly Beach, it’s so beautiful here. The nature is so grand that it makes me emotional. I just stood on the beach looking at this amazing scenery wondering why nature isn’t used more in health work. When you are places like here it touches something in you and it’s really impossible to be sad, angry, depressed, hateful or any other negative feeling. What I felt standing there was calmness, gratitude, humbleness, love and I was totally at ease (as in the opposite of disease). There are also a lot of kangaroos here, we have just seen a few yet, but the few we saw were grassing right beside our campsite. Tomorrow we are going hiking to see more of this park and wildlife.

06.12.2012

Freezing two nights in a row, have we made a wrong decision heading south?

JT