Monday 27 January 2014

A Rat in the Mansion

G'day Mate!  What im about to share with you is by far the oddest sequence of events that has happened to us while travelling. Be warned.. There is graphic content ahead .. It actually all began back home when Ashton told his (50yr old) coworker that we were going to be in Australia. His name is Tom. Tom suggested that we meet up with his brother and sister in law, as they would be living in Australia at the same time and it would be really great if we met them. As it turned out, we were heading to Sydney and getting tired from the long couple days of driving. During the days, Tom and Ashton had been emailing back and forth, but now Tom was more adamant that we meet his brother Bob. ..in the meantime Bob began to make contact through emails and phone calls. (Now were thinkin " we must be pretty awesome people because they really want to meet us".. Lol..) Well anyways Bob assured Ashton that we could park our camper van outside his place and sleep for the night before entering busy Sydney...(so what the heck).. We needed sleep and thought we should probably actually meet this "Bob" and his wife. Still, at this point, we had no clue what to expect, all we were relying on was that Ashton's coworker is a nice guy who would not lead us in the wrong direction. .. So we followed Bob's directions and ended up meeting a white haired, Hawaiian shirt and khaki pant wearing 60 year old.


After brief introductions, Bob said "my wife and I are currently having supper with friends, but you're going to follow me a little ways out of town and get set up for the night. Then I'm going to come back here and leave you for the evening. We will go for coffee in the morning. "Oh, we didn't mean to intrude on your plans, we really don't mind doing our own thing or continuing on to Sydney" I replied, "no! Trust me, you'll like where I take you".."i trust you.. I don't know you, but I trust you.." I laughed. And with that we were off, to follow Bob, the posh looking white haired stranger. 30 minutes later we parked our donkey camper van and opened our door to A Mansion!!! I'm talking a 3.5 million dollar mansion on the beach, with each large window overlooking the ocean. "Omg! Your brother failed to mention that you live in a gorgeous home on the ocean. We had no idea! Ha ha.. It's gorgeous here!" (Picture Ashton and I stunned and now feeling slightly embarrassed by our dirty back packing clothes and uh.. Our beloved.. Donkey van!) hah a.. Bob remained stone faced as he watched our reaction and said "You can gather your stuff later, as you'll be sleeping in our place. We don't live here but we are part of a house swap and currently are staying in this home for a couple months. The owner's 21 yr old son lives in the basement. We haven't met him yet but his parents, are quite nice" and with that, Bob toured us around the mansion showing off the plush furnituRe, outdoor patios, and Buddha decor. (At first we felt like we walked into Indonesia, but after awhile the elephants and gold Buddhas were a little overdone).."here's the laundry machine..here's the shower, you can have our room, there is beer in the fridge and the tv is really simple. My wife and I will be back after supper. Don't worry about locking up. The pubs are a short drive away. Have a good night". ..(Ashton and I are still looking stunned and when he leaves we don't know what to say to each other except laugh. "This is strange. A man we've never met just gave us free reign of his place, which is a 3.5 million dollar home. What do we do first?).. 


One of the first lessons that Ashton learned about Chelsey.. Keep her fed! .. Or else! Haha So we ran out to our donkey and drove to the nearest take out and liquor store. We picked up a sub and beer and headed back to our mansion...;) (Okay how crazy is this so far? I hope I'm painting you an accurate picture of this situation.. Let me emphasize... A stranger met us, drove us to his 3.5 million dollar mansion on the beach.. Gave us full reign of his house while he was out for the evening...) Part two.. It was 8 pm and getting late, we walked back into the mansion with food and booze in hand. Flicked on the lights and jumped a foot! ..there in front of us, on The kitchen counter was..a RAT! I'm talking a stinky, dirty rat big enough to be a small cat!! This rat was so gross with a long tail and scurrying around. .. Ashton and I both jumped up onto the leather kitchen chairs. We went from being terrified (cuz we both hate rats,) to laughing (of course this would happen to us!) to being mad (stupid rat is taking time out of our night in the mansion). Alright, there is no way we can stand on these chairs all night. .. What are our options... We could call Bob!.. (Nah what good is he 30 minutes away. ) We could stand on the chairs until he come home or the rat leaves.. (Nah we could be here all night.).. So I came up with a brilliant plan.. . Why not bait the rat out.. I started throwing pasta onto the hardwood floor making a pathway to the outdoors..(comeon you stupid rat, hop off the counter and smell my bait and scurry on out!!)... The rat was too smart for my trick and I was just making a mess on the kitchen floor. So attempt number two... Go get the guy downstairs to fend off the rat. . Ashton hopped off his chair and ran downstairs' to get help, Up walked "Randall" the 21 yr old, blonde hair, tall muscular lifeguard. (Without a shirt on) omg! Haha, even Ashton admitted he was cute ;).. He grabbed a towel and was going to use it to catch the rat... (Ashton and I were still on the chairs cheering on Randall. ) he took two steps towards the ugly rat and it scurried out of the mansion!!! Yay!!! We did it!! We'll, Randall did it!!


After introducing ourselves and chuckling over the situation, Ashton offered Randall a beer to thank him. ;)..the next hour was spent visiting with the Aussie lifesaver.Er lifeguard. Lol..  (OkAy, What a weird way to meet your Aussie room mate! ..Randall ended up being a really nice guy and we had a good visit. If it weren't for the rat,we never would have met him),.,like I said, an odd sequence of events  Soon after all the chaos, Bob and his wife came home and we continued to visit.. So moral of the story, if you have a friend who insists that you met up with their family .. Trust them! It'll be worth your while. We enjoyed our stay in the mansion! And met some really nice people! (Despite the whole rat situation, we had a wonderful time) Stay tuned for more exciting adventures with Chelsey and Ashton Xox 

Tuesday 21 January 2014

and were off..Great Ocean Road

Good morning! How are you?hope Saskatoon is treating everyone well. We saw that it's only -18'...must have warmed up since we left the minus 40 weather...Kristen if your reading this, know that we are checking your curling status every chance we get. Wishing you lots of good curling ..from down under. ;) Just need a couple more wins to get into the playoffs. You can do it!! How are you liking Halifax?? I'm finding it difficult to find free wifi fi around here which is why I'm not texting and emailing as much as I'd like. Ashton bought a SIM card for his phone, which we have been using lots to call campgrounds or check Kristen's curling and to look up travel stuff,..he can send the odd email, but we are watching our internet use, as we have 3GB of data, and whenever I hotspot my iPad it takes up a lot of data..again the reason why I can't receive texts and emails.
Anyways we are doing really well. Since the last blog, we went and watched the Aussie tennis open..which is an international tennis competition that is on tour here in Australia (Melbourne) once a year... It was such a great experience. Kinda funny to watch, because the ball boys and refs take their roles very seriously. When it rained, the game we were watching paused and the tennis players left the arena. When the rain ended, the ball boys/girls used push squeegees to clear the court of water. Then a whole crew of them got on their hands and knees and mopped up the drops of water that were remaining on the court. The crowd took pictures of the ball boys and cheered them on, as they waved and bowed. Hah a..then the game resumed 30 minutes later. Really cool experience to be in the centre of all the hype.








Next day we set up our camper van.. The "budgie".. Aka the Donkey Punch?. Random..yes. We are like the only weird looking budgie on the road. Lol The first couple blocks were quite scary, as Ashton was learning how to drive on the left side of the road while driving manual in the city of Melbourne.
 ..not to worry, he had it figured out time we hit the highway :) he's been doing great ever since. Ashton said his goal is to teach me how to drive standard. Omg.. News flash.. Since typing this.. Ashton taught me how to drive. Within minutes I was in a highway. Hah a.. We skipped the whole, practicing on a dirt road or in a parking lot, .. No.. I was able to drive on the HiGHWay!! But the roundabout scared me, so I let Ashton take over... Hah a..  Speaking of amazing race, sometime we are corny and pretend we are on the race.. Like yesterday we wanted to catch a ferry but weren't sure how far away the ferry was.. So we drove like mad trying to reach it, but then we must have plugged the wrong destination into the gps as we "arrived" at our destination..but were no where near water. LOL.. Time we backtracked and found the ferry, we watched the last one of the day drive away. We missed it by 10 minutes. ...FAIL. Lol.. Guess we missed all the ferry signs and relied on GPS too much. Maybe amazing race wouldn't be so awesome for us ...

We spent 3 days driving the Great Ocean Road. 


It was a fantastic drive. Beautiful view and windy road. Fun FUN!
Our first touristy stop was the Twelve Apostles. A famous formation of 12 rocks which have separated from the main land over time.

The campsites along the GOR were very basic.. But we always make the best in our camper van. Nights have been spent bundled up, cuz it's chilly down south here.. Using our propane tank to cook up noodles and drinking wine while figuring out where to drive next. Our first night was cold and rock hard. So we sucked up the money and bought an air mattress. Let's just say the $60 purchase was gold. Hah a.. Our backs are thank ful. Anyways, great journey down the road. Today we are catching a ferry (yes, the one we missed last night) and then will continue up the East Coast. Thinking of you all. Lots of love. Hope your doing good.

Sunday 19 January 2014

Let the good times roll..

We have embarked on our journey down the Great Ocean Road!!..
First stop.. small town Lorne ( 2 hours along the road- south of Melbourne)
We found a campsite and then ventured out to explore the beautiful area...





a little nature walk and a big-as tree!!..



A viewpoint on top of the world ;).. And Chelsey"s favourite.. Waterfalls!!, "Esky waterfall, outside of Lorne"





Make sure to check back on our blog.. to join us on our road trip down the Great Ocean Road

Meet our Donkey Van

Check out our sweet ride for the next 43 days. We can drive it, sleep in it and eat out of it. Can't lie... The first few blocks were pretty scary!..not only is our ride a stick shift, but everything is backwards here in Australia..the driver is on the right of the vehicle and we drive on the left side of the road! Lol.. But, Have no fear, Ashton will successfully drive us 200km on the "Great Ocean Road"! cannot wait!!


Already we LOVE our donkey!! the amount of people we have met, and the conversations we have had about our van have already been priceless ;)...




Hostel Extreme

Our first three nights spent in a hostel room that slept six. During the extreme heat in Melbourne, our room was hot and icky!..

Thursday 16 January 2014

Melbourne

Pretty awesome city. It's very vibrant with lots of hustle bustle and travellers roaming around.



 We are located in the central area of Melbourne, which consists of wall to wall buildings, restaurants, shops, coffee shops, tourist information places etc. it's not loud or overwhelming, it's clean and exciting.
Nobody seems to be in a rush, locals and travellers are all smiles. Trams and trolleys are the main form of public transportation.  After using free wifi at mcdonalds, We ventured to the local hot spot yesterday..a half hour tram ride to St.Kilda beach. Packed with local students and travellers on summer holidays. Majority of people brought two things to the beach... Suntan lotion and a cooler of beer. So naturally we had to hop on board. First we walked along the beach searching for shade which was either non existent or already packed with people. Finally we found a tiny spot in a bush to strip down and slather up, making sure to chug water as it was 45'C and no breeze. After cooling downin. The ocean we decided to head back 5 blocks to the liquor store where we bought some drinks.
It's legal to drink in public and on the beach, as long as you drink cans-no bottles, and no public drinking from 9pm to 8am. Nice laws hey! We hung out at the beach until 9:30. Can you believe the beach was still packed at 7:30 As the sun was still out and hot hot hot.


Now, I should really back up... Before we enjoyed bevys on the beach we spent hours researching, planning, and deciding a rough itinerary. A lot of this research could have been done at home, but as you may know things were a little busy for us.Back in stoon, All of our time was consumed with moving out of our apartment and into Kelly and Dans, preparing for and enjoying Christmas with family, cheering on Kristen at curling provincials in north battle ford, saying farewell to friends, and getting in the last few work Hours. .....any hoodles, that's a small glimpse at what kept us busy leading up to the trip,, not to mention the hours spent making sure we left everything in order while were gone (phones, cars, bank,employers,etc)

Along the ocean boardwalk, we laughed at this random amusement park entrance.


guys will be guys..(I'm pretty sure they spent more time drinking beer and talking with ladies,
 then they did fishing!!!)


Like I was saying, yesterday we spent hours in mcdonalds on the wifi trying to plan out the next 6 weeks in Australia....then a couple hours with a travel agent at our hostel... And here's what we figured out....  We are renting a camper-van for the next 43 days!!!! This way we have transportation and accommodation and a kitchen all in one!! We can go at our own pace, and get off the beaten track (don't worry mom and dad, when I say off the path, I mean we can stay at villages and towns and camp sites with hundreds of other backpackers also travelling Australia through the van camper experience) . It's a very popular way to travel as a couple. The hostels are cool and all but we want to have our own real adventure Chelsey/Ashton style... Anyways we are ecstatic!! It's an amazing opportunity. We will receive a huge book with maps, campsites, 24hr roadside assistance, insurance, itineraries, recommendations etc. we are going camping on the east coast of Australia for 6 weeks!!!!omg. .. Okay I hate to cut this short, but we are gonna roll out...it's a tid bit HOT out today (49'C)  YO-LO. (You only live once!) ...the heat created a beautiful lightning show!...

Arriving in Melbourne, Australia

We have arrived to Melbourne! And surprisingly our backpacks made the long trek without us having to see them since Saskatoon airport.
We flew west jet Saskatoon to Calgary, to Vancouver. then China south airlines to Ghaugia, China, then finally Melbourne. The 13 hour flight to China was pretty Long since the Boeing 777 was an older model with outdated TVs which didn't work, and Loud interior during the turbulence. Very rough flight. But hey the meals were ok and we made an adorable new Chinese friend, Four year old Ophelia was very entertaining. :) Ophelia was chipper and excited the entire 13 hours. From playing leapfrog to Rock Paper Scissors to trading stories, Ophelia was a gem. 12 hours into the flight her energy was still on high as she was running laps around the plane. She constantly said "hey guys" to us whenever we would try to sleep. Hah a.. She even taught me how to say thanks in Chinese. When I asked her if she was teaching me a bad word, she responded "what the hell is a bad word"lol....
In china we had a four hr layover which felt like forever since it was early am our time and we were quite tired and hungry. The newer model plane we took for 9 hours from china to Australia was very smooth and quiet. But Chelsey missed Ophelia. After our smooth landing we had no trouble picking up our bags and going through security. (We previously obtained an electronic holiday visa to enter and travel in Australia for up to 3 months). We even booked a flight out of Australia in case we we're questioned. The only questions the border patrol asked were "where are you staying" response : uh a hostel. We have nothing pre booked. "Up don't have accommodations for tonight? You do realize the world tennis tour has begin in melbourned for the next couple weeks and it's our summer months so it'll be difficult to find open accommodations"...oops. But no need to panic. A nice lady at the airport booked us into the Discovery hostel in central Melbourne. We're boarding with six roomies for $40 a night per person. Anyhoodles it's 6 pm, we are fed, showered, and napped. Time to go check out this city. Cathchya later

Blog Entry #1

I did it! I started a blog. Thanks for tuning into Chelsey and Ashton's worldly adventures. I can't promise you this blog will be my best work.. I probably won't update it like I should, there will probably be lots of spelling mistakes..and I still don't understand how to put a picture on the blog. So that's goal number one:figure out how to post pictures from our travels onto our blog. Goal number two: limit time online. Everyone is TOO connected. It's been sort of challenging to meet people, since everyone is on electronics. ..like me.. Right now lol... Anyways it's nice to update everyone at home, and reassure you all that we are healthy, happy and safe...also that we are having a. Blast. Any hoodles.. Enjoy our blog. Feel free to comment... Lots of love from down under ;)