We got our boxes !

We got our boxes delivered this week. I can't even remember what is in them, nothing that we can't do without, but still the cutlery was nice to get, we finally got rid of our green plastic camping gear. We also got our computers in, so we unpacked them and now we can sit behind a keyboard instead of a laptop. I won't update the blog as much anymore, since we arrived and everything is just fine over here. About once a week / two weeks is about it. It's sunny again, it's sunny everyday and it makes such a difference. It's getting warmer now, but still very bearable. We had 1-2 days where we really thought it was hot, but they are always followed by cooling showers in the afternoon, so the evenings are always nice and cool. When there's a breeze ( almost all the time ) the windows are open and it's really nice outside and inside.

Yesterday we did the Maroochy River walk, a very nice walk which reminded me of south of France actually. We swam in a little lagoon at the mouth of the river, Scamp really enjoyed himself he loves to swim and play : We're glad we could bring him along, both Tizz and Scamp are fine they love the nice weather. Tizz is usually sleeping on the veranda under the table and Scamp is usually barking at the birds passing by and playing with sticks in the garden.

Our first dive into the Pacific ocean.

We went to Coolum Beach today for our first Pacific Ocean swim ! Both Kim and me have never in our lives swam in the Pacific Ocean so today we had our Pacific cherry popped. The weather is just perfect right now : It's about 28 degrees and the humidity isn't nearly as bad as everyone keeps telling us. Perhaps it's due to the fact that we don't have airconditioning in our rental place that we got used to the heat. It feels warm but not clammy like it did in Thailand for instance. There's also a constant breeze that cools the air, so it feels cool. The ocean is a warm 24-25 degrees, like a home swimming pool. It's actually just about as clear as a swimming pool, you can see the bottom crystal clear. The waves today were about 2 meters high, and that means lots of fun !
We decided to go to Coolum Beach because of the flags that mean that the beach is patrolled. Helicopters and planes scourge the coast all the time for shark alerts and stingrays etc... so swimming in the sea really feels very very safe, safer than anywhere I have swam before. I always wear shoes when I go into the sea, something I learned when I was about 10 years old and stepped onto some sea-pricklies, a lesson that I still remember today. However, I wouldn't mind going into this sea bare feet. The bottom is pure sand, no stones and no nasties. We had a good time swimming around in the waves. We just took a shower and we're back at home enjoying the nature in our back garden, it's a lovely day.

We went kite-surfing

Today both Kim and I went kite-surfing for our first time ever : A little indulgence for Lex's birthday. It was great ! It was very tiring too, but we feel like this could be the sport for us. We had our lesson with Mike from Kitethrills. He's a qualified kite-surfing teacher and he won the first prize at the Coolum Beach Kite Festival this year, so we couldn't really go wrong. We went for the two-hour lesson. He started out by explaining beach safety and choosing the right location for kitesurfing. I won't go into the details but basically wind direction should be opposite from swell direction ( water flow ) and it should be as empty as possible. "And don't forget : Never kite between the yellow flags !". One thing that keeps amazing me over here is that Australians like to adhere to the rules. Even the kite-surfers ( who by nature are a bit anti-rules ) try and make life of other beach-participants like surfers and swimmers as easy as possible. In Europe there'd have to be rules for everything, here they just use their common sense and teach people how to behave correctly. I like it, less rules, more common sense : Makes sense to me ! Anyway, so we learned about the different beaches and starting points and wind direction and now comes the fun part : The powerzone ! I can't really explain it but generally the kite will try and fly away from you in the same direction as the wind, however, the more "central" it flies away from you, so not in the edges or high in the air but low in the air and straight in front of you, the more POWER your kite generates ( lift ). This is what you want ! You can feel this effect really well on the smaller kites ( 3 and 4 meters are relatively small but they will still pull you away from your spot in the powerzone ! ) So the trick is to get the kite in the powerwindow, but it will only stay there for a few seconds, then turn it by pulling on one side, back into the powerwindow, so generate traction. After that we learned how to use this powerwindow to let the kite pull us up from a sitting position ( which is the position you will be in when you put on your kiteboard ). After that the last 15 minutes were with a REAL KITE ! It was 7 meters but it packed a lot of power. I even got as far as doing jumps ( all on the beach ofcourse, we never got into the water : That's lesson two ) as high as 2 meters up and about 5 meters far. I didn't want to stretch my luck because the landings can be tough, so I only used about 20% of the kite's power to lift me up in the air. Mike gave me compliments on how fast I learned the skill-set : "You're a natural". Not sure if the compliments were included in the price of the lesson but still it felt good. Kim's still a little unsure about the control of the kite but she loved every moment of it. I think the next step will be the actual kite-surfing, I am sure I'll love the feeling of being in the sea and hanging in the harness, I think it's a bit like sailing but without having to buy a boat. A complete kite-surfing set will cost about 2500-2800 dollars per person, which I think is reasonable considering that after the initial purchase the wind is free. We loved spending the day on the beach being active, it was a real nice day again. Glad we put up loads of suncream because the sun can be burning. The wind keeps things cool but we'll definately be looking to buy some wetsuits for the bluebottles and more importantly the sun. A hat or cap is advised also, to protect against sunstroke. And ofcourse sunglasses, but you don't go anywhere without them here anyway. If you ever get the lucky chance to visit the Sunshine Coast, I definately recommend spending a few dollars on a lesson with Kitethrills.com, they're really good fun and you'll enjoy every moment of it.

Lex's Birthday, and our first kite-surfing lessons !

Today is a first : It's Lex's birthday and the weather is nice ! No falling leaves, no autumn storms, no rain, no overcast and no winter looming. The weather is nice, it's warm today ( it feels like 27 degrees ) and there's a blue sky as far as we can see. Kim bought me some thongs for my birthday, nice leather ones that feel really comfy, I'll be wearing those a lot around here. Now before you think I turned gay and like wearing leather underwear in public : Thongs = slippers = flip flops = shoe wear, not female underwear.

Today is also the day that we will have our first kite-surfing lesson ! Well, hopefully anyway because the wind needs to pickup a little bit. If there's no wind, we'll have to postpone it to another day : It's in the hands of the wind-gods at the moment. Kim and I are both going to try it out, see if it's something that we'd like doing as a sport around here. We need to do something in the water we're pretty sure about that, and fishing isn't exactly our cup of tea. When you mention kite-surfing around here they all say "sure is an extreme sport, that". Not quite sure what they mean with that but what better way to find out than to try it for ourselves I say. People in Europe say that snowboarding and motor riding are "extreme" too, and we like doing both, I presume this will be the same. I might be positively surprised though and it might really be an extreme sport, something that I personally look forward to. It will be nice to be doing some outdoor sport activities again after years of sitting on the couch watching the gray skies from inside the house in Europe.