Hello from Nairobi!

Hello from Nairobi, it has been a while since I have posted and a while since my last adventure. Unfortunately this is an adventure I am making on my own this time around, although as my wife always tells me 'everything happens for a reason' and I think I needed to take this trip at this time and on my own. Since arriving back from our last adventure life has settled into a somewhat normal routine, kids in school, Bec back to work, me working, Gus entertaining all of us, and we have in the main settled into our new life in Mt Martha. There have been though a number of commitments we have made since returning that we are working hard to put into place. Firstly family comes first, our kids, our relationships are a priority in our lives and we build our lives around this not the other way around. Life should be less complex and we should live our lives simpler (this one we have had some wins and some challenges), be true to our Dharma (or our purpose in life), live healthy both physically and mentally, live in the moment (less focus on the past and less focus on the future). So how have we gone, not bad, not great but not bad. We have made some progress although we did get distracted by the concept of extending our house, and I have been challenged by the ever increasing work opportunities, and Bec has returned to work etc etc. The universe sent us a gift by delaying our extension plans and we got a breather there, I am coming to the end of some challenging work assignments and we are slowly getting into a routine around Bec being back at work. We have also both focused considerably more on our purpose around selflessly serving kids and improving the lives of disadvantaged kids. We are determined to make this a core of our life not just an add on.

So here I am sitting in a Nairobi hotel room blogging. The plane trip over was quite exhilarating for me. I was able for the first time in a while to catch my breath and revisit what is most important. Through a 36 hour journey it provided just the space I needed to refocus my energies and my life. I read this awesome book the Monk who sold his ferrari and it was like a gift in the way that it set out for me just what I needed to do next. It is all about controlling my destiny, ironically what I spend every day telling the people I coach, why wasn't I listening! Well I was I just didn't know how to take the next step. Within this book there are some beautiful and inspiring quotes that touched deep inside me and revived my spirit for living an authentic life. I once drew a picture of me as a man in a glass cube with wings screaming to people outside the cube to let me out, to let them know I was here but they couldn't hear me. What I didn't know at the time was that I had the key I just had to look inside to find it. The key was me, my self awareness, my vision, my purpose and my passion. I knew who I wanted to be and how I wanted to be I just had to find the courage to stand up and be me, face my fears and live my life.

Over the past 5-6 years particularly, Bec my soul mate and I have been on an incredible journey exploring our selves. I know it sounds a little selfish and it could well be argued that it is but I have grown to understand that unless you truly love yourself you can not truly love others. You cannot live an authentic life, you cannot live to your Dharma. Whilst I was happy with the family i was a part of, happy with the things we had, happy generally with the life we led, I was far from loving myself. In essence I could not kid myself any longer about how I was living my life versus the potential my life could be. It is all in degrees though. My life is in far better shape than it was, we have made some significant inroads to creating the life we want but there was another level we or I had to go to. The past 48 hours have realised an awakening of my spirit and I feel incredibly rejuvenated.

i read that the average person has 60,000 thoughts per day. I reflected that of those thoughts when times have been particularly difficult I would have wasted a large majority of these on negative thinking. I just couldn't help myself it was like a groundhog day in my head from the moment I awoke to the moment I went to bed and even in my dreams. Relationship issues, family issues, work issues, stress, worry and anxiety were a big part of my mind. If my mind was a garden mine was being overgrown with toxic weeds and I was letting it happen. I needed to start turning my attention to my purpose, not my past.

My authentic life, my lighthouse, my Dharma or purpose is about;
Being present, fun and free with my kids,
Being within a loving intimate marriage,
Selflessly serving kids,
Enabling others to reach their full potential,
Supporting and loving my family -
this is what my 60,000 thoughts should be focused on. Within this I want to create a level of boundless positive energy, valuing every precious moment, being physically capable to meet any opportunity, breathing deeply, expanding my mind through knowledge and experience and importantly laughing, talking and dancing (being free to be me). Don't think the last one, the dancing doesn't terrify me!

As part of this journey I am committing to the 10 rituals of radiant living, or at least my version of these. They include The rituals of;
Solitude (meditating every day, training my mind, cultivating my garden)
Physicality (exercising every day)
Live Nourishment (eating more live foods - vegetables and fruit)
Abundant Knowledge (reading and learning)
Personal Reflection (stopping and reflecting ever day)
Early awakening (up at 5am with the sun)
Music (listening to inspiring, relaxing music)
Spoken Word (positive affirmations aligning to my dharma)
Congruent character (living aligned to my principles and character)
Simplicity (living more simply).

For the next 21 days this is my commitment to lay the foundation for a radiant life, to be grateful for all the wonderful gifts my life has given me and to control my own destiny, reach my potential and live to my purpose.Two days in and the energy I feel is like nothing I have felt outside of an event. it is congruent with how I feel when I am in India, or having a great time with my kids, or selflessly serving others but I have previously struggled to integrate it into my everyday life. So far so good.

Today represents another challenge and opportunity. Today I go and visit some villages and local projects around kids. In the past I have always found this quite overwhelming and it has sent me spiralling into a pit of disbelief about how the world is the way it is. My challenge today is to stay above this personal and subjective reaction and to stay in the moment. To rise above the personal challenge and to draw upon my skills and experience to find the opportunity to live my purpose and make a difference in whatever way that I can. I will let you know how I get on.

As a final word I want to say thankyou to my beautiful teachers, my kids and Bec. Everyday my children send me lessons and everyday I am grateful for them. When I say my purpose is to selflessly serve children, it starts with my children and then others. They are the wonder of my world. Finally to my Yogi Bec, my wise and special friend. You have for so long been sharing with me your deep wisdom and insight and you have been standing in my lighthouse showing me the way. You are wise beyond your years and I am so thankful to have you by my side showing me the way, thankyou.

We're back! 2011 is the year of "Living Large" and the "Big Hairy Audacious Goal" (BHAG)

Yes the Petrucco family are at it again! "We have a dream" and yes in true Petrucco style it's a big one! As a family, and with Nick's family we are planning to walk "Coast to Coast" east to west, across Southern India, to be more specific, from Mangalore (just south of Cochin) to Chennai, a mere 776km's. The goal? To further our fundraising efforts with the Agape Grace Orphanage in Chennai. As those of you who shared our blog last year may remember, we raised enough funds to rebuild the Orphanage school to year 2 level. This year we want to build the school right through to year 12, and build a Community Centre. So when and how is all this going to happen? We will head to India in early December to commence our walk. We should complete the walk in about 6 weeks (early to mid Jan 12) We will have a full time walking team, Big Nick and Little Nick, AKA Nick Petrucco and Nick Gyss, and a part-time walking team consisting of India, Maggie, Gus, Bec, Jen, Kate and possibly Alice and Max (our niece and nephew) The part-timers will also double as the "support crew" for our full time walkers.

We have created our "Project Team" and have begun our planning and brainstorming sessions. As you can appreciate, there is a tonne of work to be done in terms of marketing, advertising and promoting our event and our cause so this year is shaping up to be a Big one! So stay tuned, the countdown to "Coast to Coast... a walk for the kids" is underway!

Bec

The Trip of a Lifetime….

So here we are, several weeks back into normal life and reflecting back on what the past 7 months have been about for our family. For many years I fantasised about a trip where we just jumped in the car and took off, leaving our cares behind us and only the road and great beaches ahead. Was it all worth it, would we do it again? You bet we would, in a heart beat! As a father, whilst I have probably spent more time than most with my kids and Bec I still hadn't had that 24/7 opportunity to just be there for an extended period of time. This was the highlight for me. Every morning just waking up with my family, no real plans for the day, starting with cuppas on the beach, watching Gus run free along the water's edge, exploring with the girls, having quality time all together. It really doesn't get any better than that. Truth be told we could have been anywhere but the scenery just added to the magic of it all. We have always been a close family, gee for years we all slept in the same room, single mattresses on the floor next to our bed, but this trip somehow brought us even closer together. You get an opportunity to see your kids differently when you have that much time together, you get to know them better, understand the intricacies of their personality and build even stronger relationships. For Bec and I we have had some challenging times that we have lived through in the past so for us to have this time, with no real hassles, just an opportunity to be with our kids, creating a loving environment for us all to share it was pretty special.

Favourite memories, every day really, how do you pick. It wasn't so much the big days like seeing the great barrier reef or doing the sky train in Cairns, it was probably more the quiet days, exploring depot beach, exploring Pambula river mouth, walking along one mile beach at sunrise, nights in the camper watching episodes of seachange, cooking our favourite prawn and fresh pea risotto with a glass of shaw & smith sav blanc, while the kids ran around the park. This being like groundhog day for us and was just so satisfying and ofcourse incredibly enjoyable. This after the challenges of East Timor, the cultural journey in Thailand and the life changing experience of our second home in India. There are days when I have to pinch myself that we have actually done all of this.

For me having had an incredibly busy 10 years, well 20 years really, to have this time with really not much to occupy my mind was very stimulating. There were so many ideas, reflections, dreams and possibilities that came flooding in and out of my thoughts. For many weeks I let them come and go and despite feeling a little pressure to record them I just sat with them for a time. Toward the end of the trip I found the motivation to sit down and write. I wrote about what I felt I had done with my life to date and what I still want to achieve. I wrote about what I stand for, which for me is a big thing because I have spent the past several years just trying to escape the conflict we had been experiencing and now finding that spirit to want to stand up again and fight for what I believe in, was incredibly liberating. I was able to capture a vision for what would make my life ideal, listen to Bec's thoughts about the same for her and see how our vision for the future was now so well aligned.

On a practical level I was able to finalise a draft strategic plan for my business which has provided me with a sense of purpose about my work. Interestingly I have been without business cards for about 5 years, not sure if this was my own passive aggressive resistence to my work or what it was but I return with new cards and a new plan and the energy to put it into place. Whilst in many ways I have been very successful at what I do, there has always been a sense of a lack of confidence, or a lack of belief in my ability to meet the constant needs of the people I was working with and due to my energy being very low I just couldn't chart a course out of the mire I had entered. It has been a bit of a Tom Cruise Mission Statement moment, about less clients and more attention, less work and more learning, less quantity and higher quality.

I read in a book that Bec had purchased about the power of meditating on your death. Sounds dark, but not really. It encouraged me to think about dying and what it was that was important, what I had done, what was it that really mattered and what was it that would matter in that moment of death. For so long I have been terrified of the thought of dying, of a life that never quite reached its potential and the decisions I had regretted and the time wasted and not well spent. It was so compelling for me to be able to put myself in that space and feel like I had in recent times made some really big and important decisions, felt really comfortable with where our lives were at, comforted by the time I have spent with Bec and my kids and knowing they are well on their way to growing up to be happy and confident and feel like we have been able to leave a legacy that will live on well beyond our time. For the first time in my life I felt completely at ease in who I am and where my life has come. Now don't for a minute think this means I am going anywhere because now that life has purpose, pleasure and is incredibly enjoyable I just want to revel in being happy. It is so great to feel genuinely happy. To be so in love with my wife, to be so connected with my three beautiful kids and to feel a real sense of meaning in our lives. My relationship with important people like my mum and my sister are very close and becoming closer and to feel so comfortable with these relationships is like a chapter in my life that is very important to me and is now giving me so much pleasure.

Today I went to India's assembly at school. She was invited to give a talk to the whole junior school on her trip overseas. There she was our little moochie, up the front microphone in hand, confidently sharing her experiences of India, the orphanage and what we were doing to help. You know when I was 11 I never would have been in a position to do what Indy did today, she was amazing. Since we have been back we have had a number of people come up and tell us how great our kids are, how easy they are to talk to and how knowledgeable they are and it just makes Bec and I feel great to see our kids so happy and confident in who they are and what they have experienced. The other day I put our photos on a revolving slideshow on my laptop and it was amazing to just watch photo after photo come up and reveal another page in our life story and the experiences we have shared together. There is no doubt that over the past couple of years we have truly committed to the spirit of adventure and whilst it has had its moments of worry it has created a wonderful environment of learning and experience for our family. To do this together has been priceless. I am incredibly proud of my family, my wonderful wife, Bec, my deep thinking oldest girl Indy, my special fun middle one Maggie and our little man of the house, Gus.

It seems like only yesterday Bec and I watched Julie and Julia and got inspired to start our blog just days before we headed off overseas. I think this has provided a great way to keep in touch with friends and family but also will provide an incredible keepsake for our family to look back on for years to come. I have enjoyed the challenges of putting my deepest thoughts and feelings on a page and whilst in some regard it is quite indulgent and perhaps even narcissistic, it has been very therapeutic and liberating. For those of you who have shared this journey with us, thankyou for listening, thankyou for your very kind words of encouragement that enabled me to be very honest and feel safe to write from the heart.

Our spirit of adventure trip may have ended but in many ways our life has entered the next chapter, what it has in store for us only time will tell but whatever it is we will face it together and seek to enjoy every minute.

Nick.

Winter has arrived!

We are certainly not in Cairnsas any more Toto! Yes we have moved from the tropical weather of the north to now be experiencing -4 degrees in sunny Canberra. Our little heaters have been working overtime and we are using every spare bit of clothing and all of our rugs in an attempt to keep the icicles at bay. We have also been a little slack at our blog postings and have to admit we are on our way home mentally and soon to be physically. We have decided to push home a few days earlier to enable me to prepare for a return to work and also to finalise the renovations on our home. Last time I wrote we were in the gold coast awaiting the arrival of the Harry clan. It was fantastic to have some time with Kate and Matty and the kids. The cousins were all so excited to see each other, they had been counting down the hours until they arrived. We all spent the first two nights together in the camper which was very cosy but also a lot of fun. I imagine the kids will have great memories of bunking down together in the cammie. The kids went with Kate and Bec to dreamworld and whitewater world and had an absolute blast. The weather was a little cool for the waterslides but the rest was great. Indy our resident adrenaline junkie showed her courage yet again with two rides on the rollercoaster and even Maggie had a go second time around. Bec had to go on first time around and is still putting her vital organs back into place even now after two loop the loops! After our second day on the goldy it was time to head to Byron where we stayed in a beautiful home in Tallows right on the beach. The kids had an awesome time and loved the space of a large home to explore. Gus just kept running around in circles in the lounge room again and again, it was like a wild caged animal that had been let loose for the first time. The beach was incredible and just a short walk out of the back yard. We had a bonfire on the beach the first night and then the kids made this huge cubby house on the beach the next day which stood there until we left, much to the annoyance of a few of the Byron locals! My little nephew Maxie showed he is our very own Bear Grills. We had some great activities for the kids on the beach and also in Byron itself, it was a great time all around.

We left Byron and the cousins struggled with their goodbyes. We initially headed for one mile beach, about four hours away but as we took the turn off realised it was an 80km round loop of our route and decided to push forward towards Canberra. On the way it started to get dark early and the weather was coming in so at the last minute we decided we would stop at a place called Norah Heads. We drove in the park ready to set up and noticed we were on a boggy grass site that just wasn't going to work for us. So we stood there in the lightly drizzling rain, darkness approaching very quickly and pondered our options. Well not really, I said "we're not staying here" and got in the car ready to drive off, Bec just kind of stood there trying to process our options. So we were in the car again, after about 7 hours of driving and heading in the general direction of Canberra with the rain coming in heavier and approaching Sydney's peak hour traffic, only we could put ourselves in this position. We were well on our way to Canberra when we realised that the parks may not allow us to check in after dark and sure enough a couple of quick phone calls confirmed there was no check in options available to us in Canberra. In desperation Bec pleaded with one of the parks for some guidance and they suggested we bunk in at Goulbourn for the night. Good old '1234' and we were connected with a Best Western that had one family room available for the night and plenty of parking space for cammie. Do you think we were all happy to arrive and just be able to put the kettle on, have a hot shower and get in to bed after 10 and a half hours of driving! And that's what we did. Next morning we had a very short 40 minute drive to Canberra and proceeded to try to find a decent park. After about the fifth park we drove into we realised that this was an impossible task and we settled for what resembled an old drive in movie theatre, the Canberra motorhome park.

Canberra has been really great and we have had fun filled days packed with various iconic venues and experiences. Over a few days we visited the National Gallery, the national portrait gallery, the war museum, questacon, parliament house, the royal mint and frequented many nice eating places. Canberra is an awesome city to take the kids and for the most part these amazing attractions were free, a very different story to our experience up North. We caught up with the Wade family (Bec's cousin and her family) which was fantastic and the kids loved playing with the big kids. We decided to push straight for home, shave a couple of days off our trip and get ourselves organised for the challenges ahead assimilating back to 'normal' life.

Buddhists, Burglars and the Beach…..

As I write this blog it is Friday morning and we have arrived in Main Beach on the Gold Coast. Since our last blog we have travelled form Yeppoon to a little town called 1770, named after Captain Cook and his first contact with Australia. The park at 1770 was named Queensland's best park as it is situated right on the beach front. Whilst we had escaped the crocs and stingers of the north we were now confronted with the presence of stonefish and were discouraged from swimming or even walking in the water without footwear. 1770 though had the most beautiful sunsets you can imagine. There was a pilgrimage of campers at around 4.30pm in the afternoon as people headed on mass to the beach to sit and watch the sun go down. For the next 60 minutes or so there was the most amazing range of changes in the sky as first the sun set and then there were the ever changing shades of red and blue as the glow of the setting sun transformed the sky, even the kids were impressed. We had some nice walks along the beach, Indy's pancakes at the park one morning, and some good park time with the kids along the 1770 beachfront. We also had a nice beach day over at nearby agnes water where we were able to swim again. The water was crystal clear and beautiful. On our final morning we were packing up the camper, Indy had taken Gus for a short walk to the beach and everything seemed fine. Next minute we hear Gus walking up the road followed by a young lady with Indy and Mags nowhere to be seen. The lady had seen Gus walking up the road by himself and apparently asked him where he was going and he replied "I am going to see my mum" and he did. It turned out that Indy had decided to take Gus down to the park, got sidetracked in a game with Maggie and Gus decided to head off for a walk. Fortunately no damage done but a constant reminder of the challenges of a wandering 2 year old. I recalled the time when I was about 2 or 3 and apparently I walked almost a neighbourhood away, crossed a busy road to see the horses that lived nearby to our home. Gus wasn't quite this dramatic but remember he is only warming up.

From 1770 we headed back to the sunny coast and our stay at the lovely Coolum Beach. The drive went well and we arrived to our campsite again right on the beach at Coolum. After setting up Bec headed down to the beach with Gus and Mags and Indy and I did some shopping, picked up a bottle of bubbly and we enjoyed this on the beach as the sun was setting. After all of our trips to the sunny coast we had never been on the beach at Coolum and it was incredible. The next day the Westys arrived to stay at our neighbouring campsite. We had a great few days with Dave, Dan and the kids and some great waves at Coolum Beach. As you may recall from a previous blog Dave is affectionately known by Gus as 'Dragon Man' due to his dragon tattoo on his arm. Dave was very thoughtful and bought Gus a dragon tattoo to sick on his arm and Gus instantly became Dragon Boy and thought he was very tough. The weekend though was not short of its dramas. On the Saturday night at about 12.30am I was sleeping with Gus and I heard Bec in a very manly voice yelling "GET OUT OF THERE" and it was one of those surreal moments. I had no idea of where I was or what was happening. At first I thought Bec was calling to a possum in our bin but she was far too ferocious for that. It turns out Bec had earlier caught someone in our annexe going through her box of clothes and she banged on the camper and he had run off. She sat and watched for a minute as she had seen someone else out the corner of her eye. It turned out that this other person was scoping our car and just minutes later she saw the light come on in the car and a guy trying desperately to turn the interior light off, without success. It was at this point that big mama got out her man's voice and scared the intruder off. By the time I had worked out what was going on and had gone out to inspect there was not much to be seen. We did a quick pack up of anything valuable, locked the car, something we had gotten very relaxed about whilst up north and went back to bed with an ear to the outside. As it happened Dani had been going to the toilet a little later and saw a man in her car which she had assumed was Dave. She said to the guy (thinking it was Dave) "what are you doing in there?" He replied to Dan, "this is my car". At this point Dan realised it wasn't Dave and proceeded to have an argument with the intruder about whose car it actually was. He was in the process of trying to steal Dave's surfboard. Fortunately Dan managed to scare him off before he completed his task. So whilst the big boys slept our little women were on the job scaring off intruders and keeping us all safe! It turned out that several campsites were visited in the night and also the next night. Fortunately for us we didn't lose anything this time around. During the day the kids had some great time with the Westy boys, playing in the park, on the beach, and at the local park. Maggie just loves playing with other kids and Indy loves being in charge and being the oldest she had reserved the right to be leader of the pack. We played lots of games on the beach with the kids, sandcastles, flags, catch, beach cricket etc, and had a great time. One last little story, Gus was swooped by a small bird which actually cut his eye lid (only a small scratch) but certainly gave him a fright. Little man is certainly experiencing a broad range of experiences, some good, some not so good.

One of great highlights for us on this trip was our trip to Australia Zoo. Again for all the times we had been up here I hadn't had the opportunity to go, the girls went some years ago but the zoo had grown significantly since their last visit. It was amazing. The park was built so well and the range of things to see kept us busy all day. From the minute we arrived there were keepers standing just inside the front gate with baby crocodiles and lizards. Within 60 seconds of entering Gus and the girls were patting a baby crocodile and a lizard, it was just incredible. The kids had been watching the croc hunter movie all the way up so you can imagine there excitement at patting a croc! We patted kangaroos, saw snakes, crocodiles, amazing birds, alligators, lizards, elephants, echidnas, and an amazing tiger exhibition. There was just so much to see and do. We saw the show in the crocosseum which was just amazing to see the crocodiles in action. Indy and Mags and even Gus all had their photos taken holding a large python. Indy and Mags were exhilarated by the fact that they were brave enough to do this by themselves and as Gus woke up just as the photos were being taken we also got a photo of Gus and the girls holding the snake. After a day of walking around non-stop we visited the animal hospital on the way out. This facility was built by Steve in dedication of his mum Lynne and treated injured wildlife. We were able to walk around the hospital and through glass see the ER in action as animals were brought in. The hospital treated hundreds of animals every month and even had a koala ICU. The trip to Australia Zoo was just incredible to see a family who were so dedicated to their passion and mission in life. To think that a guy who liked to catch snakes and crocodiles had, through his passion for his cause, been the catalyst for the building of this amazing legacy. It was such a highlight to see the work of Steve Irwin and his family, it was almost unbelievable to see how all of this had unfolded. As Bec and I walked around the park we had the inevitable sense of sadness at what a loss his death was. It is so pleasing to see his legacy though continuing on through his zoo and ofcourse through the work of his family. What a great person he was and we felt very fortunate to be able to experience his work first hand.

Our last couple of days at Coolum were pretty quiet but nice. I was able to have a great surf to finish off a great surfing stop. We picked up some fresh peas at the supermarket, one of our favourite vegetables, and made a beautiful fresh pea and chicken risotto. Whilst we have been living life on the road our housesitter Maree has been busy managing our renovations at home. We have been getting a wall knocked out, new kitchen and flooring put in, ensuite retiled and new toilet installed and Bec had been managing this all by phone and long distance. So far so good and Marie has been a saint. We are assuming ofcourse that they have knocked out the right wall!!!! Bec was able to have a very inspiring visit to the Buddhist temple in the mountains behind Coolum with our good friend Amber. As I wasn't a party to this visit I will hand over to my beautiful wife to share of her experience….

On Wednesday Amber came and collected me from our Park to chauffer us on our beautiful scenic drive meandering through the hills to the Buddhist Retreat Chenrezig. Whilst I was so excited about our destination, the drive and some quiet time and space to be with Amber and chat was just what I needed! As we arrived the peace and tranquillity was palpable and you couldn't help but slip into a calm state. I turned my phone off and was ready to soak up every last ounce of this opportunity. As we walked into the grounds we came to the little café first. The café was filled with training Monks, Nuns and every day Joe's like me. You had to book well in advance as there was limited seating and they only made a certain amount of food and once that was gone, there was no more! Amber and I collected our lunch (there is only one option on the menu!) and went outside to find a quiet spot amongst the trees to enjoy a delicious vegetarian meal. (as you may not know Buddhists don't believe in harming any animals, hence vego only) After our lunch followed by delicious desert of chocolate brownie and pecan pie, we headed off to walk down our sumptuous feast and explore the amazing facility. We explored the prayer wheels, shrines and Temple which was a spiritual and visual treat with it's array of bright colours and textures. We then ventured down to the gift shop and mooched around exploring the great collection of reference and reading books, prayer flags etc. Amber and I both added significantly to our current collection of Buddhist literature and Amber very generously gave me a gift of prayer flags and a book on how to meditate, both of which I shall make excellent use of. On our drive home Amber took me past her, and her husband Corey's, home that was being built in Buderim. The views were incredible and their plans for their home are awesome! Back to the park to reunite with the family, recharged and refocussed after this special experience…Thankyou Amber!…..

Me again….things are going well for us. The trip north was a little draining but now we have relaxed and are definitely enjoying our time heading South. It is getting cooler, especially at night and Bec has even had cause to get the heater out on occasion. We have been keeping up with Master Chef, usually via the internet watching episodes as we go. Things are slowly becoming clearer for us in terms of our work and life choices we plan to make back home. Whilst taking the best part of 6 months off was a huge risk when you are self employed it looks like the work is starting to trickle in for when I return with numerous requests for support coming in over recent days. Bec is likely to start back at her nursing 1 or 2 days per week when we return although she is primarily focused on her full time role, as keeper of the house and all things family. Despite the opportunity to expand into other areas it is clear to both of us that Bec loves being a mum and loves the opportunity to be at home and look after us all. We all realise that she has an absolute talent for this and our kids (and me) are certainly better for it. I imagine Bec will venture into some form of counselling or therapy work as the kids get older and she is loving her research into building strong and happy families and sharing her own personal growth experience with others is something I am sure she will put to good use in time. As a family we are very excited about returning home to start our vegetable patch. We have resisted up until this point due to our travels but having watched Kosta's odyssey on SBS last night we are all very pumped up about getting our vegie patch going again. For me professionally, I am committed to rebuilding my people development business having taken my eye off the ball for a while and feeling absolutely drained of energy it is time to crank things up again. I am also starting to build a vision for what I would like to achieve with my life and the work we have all done at Grace Agape in India is hopefully just a start. I want to make an impact on the safety, health and education of kids and I want this to be significant. In this day and age it is unthinkable that hundreds of millions of kids are deprived of an education, that kids are exposed to wars and violence and that thousands of children every day are dying from things like diarrhoea. How to make a difference that counts, that is the challenge. What this ultimately will look like I am not sure but our work in India has provided an example of what is possible with help from friends and family. I am likely to head to Africa for work in 2011 and I have a feeling that this might provide us with our next opportunity, stay tuned for more details.

Not long now until the Harry's arrive. The kids have been counting down the days and it will be great to have the crew all back together again. We plan to spend the first couple of nights in the camper which should be cosy and a lot of fun and then we have rented a house outside of Byron Bay. Signing out for now, Nick Bec, Indy, Maggie and Gus.

 

 

Pushing though the K’s

We have made it all the way through to Yeppoon a town just out of Rockhampton after two fairly long drives, the first from Cairns to Airlie Beach (9 hours or 600km) and then to Yeppoon (6 hours or 500km). On our last day in Cairns we visited Karunda and boarded the sky rail trip which took us over and through the rainforests to Cavonika lakes. It was an incredible experience and the kids had a great time. Bec had a few wobbles on a couple of the high points, particularly when the carriage would grind to a halt and we were floating what seemed like a mile above the rainforest floor. The waterfalls were incredible and considering it was the dry season I can only imagine what it must look like in the wet. Popsy took the car and met us at the bottom which ended up saving us quite a bit of money as the round trip ticket was quite expensive. We decided to head into Palm Cove for a bite of lunch which was only 20k's from our location and a nice drive. Palm Cove is one of those idyllic esplanades with all the up market hotels and day spas and very nice restaurants. We decided to head to Nunu's for lunch, one of mum's favourites and had a lovely meal. For a change Gus was quite well behaved at the lunch and we all had the opportunity to enjoy our meal and the food was very nice. After lunch and the inevitable icecream stroll along the esplanade we headed back to Sue and Erics for an evening of homemade Pizzas and a few hands of tropical scoppa. The next morning Indy and I got up at 5.30am to take Jen and Nick to the airport before returning to say our goodbyes to Sue and Eric, pack up and head for Townsville. Sue and Eric had a lovely home and they were very generous hosts who went to a great deal of trouble to ensure we all had a lovely stay. At their home we saw these amazing green tree frogs that had made their home in the eaves of their home, there was also a beautiful little bird that made this incredible nest hanging from the clothesline. It looked more like something that had washed up on the beach than a nest bit there was at least one little baby in the nest and the mother constantly coming back to feed it. Gussy also enjoyed the baby lizards running around the ceilings and all of the kids loving having the two beautiful golden retrievers Harry and Topie to play with. It was interesting reflecting on life back in a house and both Bec and I thought we would love getting out of the camper and into a real bed in a real house but strangely we missed Cammie and were excited about getting back on the road and back into our camper. That isn't to say we didn't enjoy being at Sue and Erics because we had a lovely time with them and ofcourse with Nanna and Poppa but this trip was about being on the road and having some freedom and we were all very excited about getting that sense of freedom and adventure back again. What we weren't excited about was the 1700km drive back to the sunny coast.

We decided just to head to Townsville, about 5 hours away and stay for at least one night. On the drive Bec is doing reno's on the road. Whilst we are away we are having our dilapidated kitchen replaced and our bathroom that we are unable to use because of dodgy tiling replaced. Fortunately we have an awesome housesitter and a very friendly and capable builder working together to get all of this done while we are away. Having slaved through two renovations in the past few years we certainly understand the value of getting this all done whilst we are away and being able to walk back into a renovated home when we get back. We also had the bank change over our credit cards while we are away and the first we found out about this was when our card was declined at the store. Fortunately Maree our housesitter sent the cards up to Cairns and we were right to go again. We had to however redo all of our direct debits that Bec had painstakingly set up before we left as all of this had also declined for the month. Anyway it all gave Bec something to do on the drive. The kids for the most part have been so good on the drives, it is not all that much for them but they have been excellent and aside from a couple of meltdowns towards the end of our long drives they have been great. The other activity Bec usually does whilst we are on the drive is to find us a place to stay. We decided on Rowes Bay caravan park which looked like a very nice spot in the brochure. As we pulled up we noticed the pool was being repaired and not available, the sites were dirt, not grass and the whole place had a very average feel about it. One drive through the park and we were back asking for a refund and off to Bowen. So after 6 hours we decided to push on another 90 minutes to Bowen, a beautiful seaside town south of Townsville. On the way there Bec rang ahead to check availability and to our surprise for the first time on this trip the park was booked out. The grey nomads from down south had arrived on mass and we had no other option than to push on yet further and head back to Airlie Beach to one of the kids favourite spots. We arrived just on dusk and arranged to have the same site we had last time which was nicely tucked away with an ensuite attached, very nice. It was out first night set up and after 9 hours driving we were mainly operating on auto pilot. Whilst it was a long drive we knew we had covered a lot of ground today and were well on our way to getting back down south. We decided to stay for three nights after our long drive and let the kids relax a little before our next drive. We spent a day heading in to the airlie beach lagoon, this massive lagoon style pool on the esplanade which was great fun for the kids. The rest of the time we spent around the pool, playing mini golf, on the jumping pillow and basically taking it very easy. It was also great to be back in cammie and we had the opportunity to watch our final two episodes of our series Sea Change. Having sat through 3 series and about 3o episodes this was quite an event and the crew were all disappointed to see the end of our much loved series. It was quite special to be watching this series as we were in the midst of our own mini sea change!

We really are quite excited about moving on from North Qld, whilst it was great to do and to show the kids it is not really our sort of place. Between the midgys, the crocodiles and stingers, the beaches you can't swim in, the lack of a couple of seasons in their calendar (only dry and wet), and the huge distances involved in travelling up here we were reminded of how lucky we are to live in a beautiful town like Mt Martha. When we left on this trip we were really not sure what the result would be. Would we want to live and work overseas, live in one of the towns we encountered on our travels, return to Middleton or head home to Mt Martha. Over the past couple of weeks things have slowly started to become clear for us and we are enjoying every minute of what life is providing for us currently as well as feeling like we have a plan for the future. As always with us it is a work in progress but it is very satisfying to see the plan start to come together. We are reminded constantly of just how fortunate we are to have found a place like Mt Martha to live and we are becoming more excited about heading home at the end of our trip. It has been an incredibly exciting 18 months for us but also a time when we have been very unsettled. Leaving Middleton was an incredibly difficult experience for us for lots of reasons and it is only now that we are starting to really start to look forward. For the first time in a long time I have curbed the need to constantly be travelling and spend most nights of the week at home. I am building new plans for my business and Bec and I are building plans for a business we want to develop together and we are excited about building our charity and continuing to make a difference in the lives of disadvantaged kids. We are committed to ensuring Indy and Mags get very settled in their schooling and are likely to enrol Maggie at Toorak from 2011 or 2012, a couple of years earlier than what we were planning, and we believe this will be a great opportunity for Mags. Bec is so excited about being able to nest, build what she calls an authentic home for all of us and make it our own. Our place in Mt Martha is certainly doesn't have the grandure of Middleton, or the beach views but is has a heap of character, is a really funky little place and makes an impact on anyone who visits. We also back on to a beautiful nature reserve, surrounded by amazing trees and greenery and only a short walk to one of the most beautiful little beaches in the bay. After all of the travel we have been lucky enough to do in the last few years we are now looking forward to getting home and putting down our roots and just settling, focussing on the kids schooling and activities and building our life in Mt Martha. It feels good to be arriving at a stage in our lives when we are now ready to look forward and plan for the future. Middleton was probably my favourite place on earth, I loved the beach, I loved our house, I loved the early days there when we lived in our little 2 bedroom place, it was also where I grew up as a kid with heaps of special memories and I enjoyed our life of being what was basically semi-retired. Middleton for a time allowed us to catch our breath and create some space and meet some wonderful people. Bec and I have never had so many friends as we had in Middleton. We needed that space in our lives for a period but we always worried about our work options and also what opportunities were available for our kids and knew that inevitably they would need to move away from home at sometime for either school, university of work. That is one of the considerations of where we are now, plenty of schooling options, unis and opportunities for work for both us and the kids. We miss our family and friends from Middleton but we are also not that far away from our friends and family in Adelaide and this allows us still to keep in close contact which will be even easier when we get home and settle into a bit more of a normal routine. Bec and I strongly believe that everything happens for a reason and for lots of reasons our life has taken a series of turns that has provided us with the motivation and opportunity to travel overseas, to have the courage to go on this amazing journey and to move and establish a base in Mt Martha. This trip was about refocussing, reenergising and finding a path forward to the future for all of us. We believe that we are finding that path now and that life has some wonderful opportunities in store for us when we return home. We are also excited about spending some time with our friends and family in Melbourne when we get home.

On our final morning in Airlie Beach we awoke and pondered about whether to stay on another evening or not. What was really on our mind is the stretch we aptly named the 'suicide stretch'. Basically from Airlie beach to Noosa, nothing but sugar cane and bitumen for about 1200kms. The thought of packing up was a little difficult to process, but after some breakfast and a coffee we were up and away. The beauty of the ensuite is the kids can have a shower together while we are packing up and also Bec and I get a quick shower in after packing up and heading off on the road clean and fresh. So off we go again, this time hoping to make it all the way to Yeppoon. On the way we stopped at a park in Mackay for lunch and a play at the park and pushed on to Yeppoon. For the second time on this trip we were playing with our petrol supplies and watching the distance to location and the kilometres of fuel left. There was only a few kilometres in it and we were down to our final 20kms of fuel when the service station appeared just short or Yeppoon on the horizon and we were able to stock up again and finally make it to our destination. Having just arrived last night the town looks very nice and after our homeschool this morning we plan to head in and have a look around. The park we are in is very nice and set on about 130 acres of fairly lush grassland and tropical trees. We went for a nice walk this morning, Indy is doing her project on Buddhism and Maggie is doing some spelling with Bec. Gus is driving his cars around the camp kitchen. Every day we say a little thankyou for how lucky we are to be on this trip and have this very special time together. Well time to get the kids out and head into town, that's all for now…..Nick, Bec and the crew.

Reaching the Halfway Point

Leaving Mooloolaba seems like a long time ago now as I sit here typing this blog in Cairns. We travelled the 1680km and finally arrived in Cairns on Sunday to meet with Jen and Nick and have a few days out of the camper at Sue and Eric's lovely home in Edgehill in Cairns. Last time I wrote we were on the verge of ticking off one of our 'bucket list' items, visiting the Great Barrier Reef. We headed out at 7am by courtesy bus to the marina where our large cruise ship was awaiting to take us out to the reef. On boarding the ship we all rushed quickly to the top deck (of three decks) to get what we imagined would be the prize spot to sit. It was a beautiful view from the top deck as we slowly meandered through the marina and out of the harbour of airlie beach heading for hook reef. Once clear of the marina the captain put his foot down and fired up the large engines and we were off. Our prize location quickly became a very windy and very cold spot to sit and we all ventured back down in to the lounge deck for morning cuppas and to hear a little more about our journey. The trip to the reef was to take 3.5 hours via daydream and hayman islands and one other resort before landing at the pontoon on hook reef. On the way out there the crew briefed us on what activities were available to us to experience. If we were prepared to pay for it we had the option of a helicopter ride over the reef, a massage, a guided snorkel tour and a scuba dive. Bec and I reviewed all of the options and decided we would give the girls a guided snorkel tour and Bec and I would do a scuba dive. Remember this is the girl who was terrified of snorkelling only a matter of weeks ago now signing up to go up to 6 metres below sea level on a scuba dive. We had a briefing on the ship which was a bit of a challenge with Gus clearly not interested in what the gentleman was trying to explain but we managed to get the gist of it. While we were receiving the briefing the girls were visited by the onboard marine biologist who sat with the girls for quite some time answering all of their questions and pointing out some facts about the reef and what to look for when they go snorkelling.

We had some morning tea on the trip and did our best to evade the oncoming sea sickness, the girls were fine but tired after the early start. After what seemed like an eternity we finally saw in the distance the pontoon appear like a mirage on the horizon. There was an immediate buzz in the cabin as people started jumping up to get a headstart and get on board. We were very fortunate only to have about 50 people on board a ship that caters for over 300! Bec and I had received our scuba dive times, unfortunately we had to go at separate times due to having Gus on board. We arrived at the pontoon and immediately went on the submerged boat to have a tour of the reef. After this the girls went on the glass bottom boat and I went for my scuba dive. The dive was pretty exhilarating, the fear of doing something you have never tried before combined with the obvious lack of skill and experience should something go wrong down there. We got our stinger suits on, our tank, flippers and goggles and heading down the stairs into the scuba chamber to have a quick briefing and test session before heading out down to the reef. The dive went for about 30 minutes and was amazing to get down below and see what happens under the surface. The reef had been quite badly damaged by a recent cyclone and the overall visibility was relatively poor but nevertheless the whole experience was one that Bec and I had wanted to do for a long time. It was amazing. After I returned Bec was pretty much straight into her dive and went through the whole routine. She had a few nervous moments waiting for her instructor and another nervous diver who eventually pulled out after several attempts to get started. I think this probably helped Bec take the focus of her own worries as she watched this poor lady battle her fears. Bec was a champion as always and handled the dive like a seasoned professional, coming out of the water with a smile from ear to ear. Meanwhile the girls who had spent their whole time going up and down the on board water slide had to get ready for their guided snorkel tour. They were very excited and had a lovely young girl take them out to the reef with their snorkels, goggles and flippers on. They had a great time and learnt a lot about our precious reef. The water was a bit choppy, the wind quite cool and the visibility average but the day was still a day to remember and one that we were very excited to have had the opportunity to experience. We packed up our gear and boarded the boat for the long road home. The crew put on the movie Nemo which kept Gus quiet for most of the way home as Indy stretched out on the couch upstairs and took a little nap.

The next few days in Airlie Beach were fairly quiet and recovering from our big tour of the reef. The park was good for the kids and they enjoyed the water slides, the park, the mini-golf and the outdoor movies. We packed up cammie and decided to push up towards Townsville. We made pretty good progress and upon arriving in Townsville decided to stop for a quick lunch and stretch stop and then head on to Mission Beach. All up it was a 6.5 hour drive, our longest yet but we were pleased to get the distance covered and to pull up at Mission Beach. As always the internet images filled us with great expectations of what we were to experience. The park was set on the beach only a road width away from the beach. The park had some good facilities for the kids and overall the park was fine. The beach was beautiful except for the fact that you couldn't swim there due to the presence of crocs and stingers. Mission Beach is famous for the presence of the Cassowary. All the way in on the drive are signs asking people to slow down and warning of cassowary crossings. After several days with not so much of a sniff of a cassowary we thought it was all a big conspiracy to lure in the unknowing tourist. We spent a day heading out to Tully and visiting the large golden gumboot. On a flight several years ago I was fortunate enough to see the documentary on the making of the gumboot which was a seachange meets grass roots (both ABC television series) documentary of a small town trying to make an impact on the tourist market. It was very funny and provided a special flavour to the visit to Tully. The gumboot stands over 6 metres tall and represents the highest amount of rainfall experienced in one year in Tully. We were able to walk up the gumboot to the top and look out, it was good fun. We also decided to go for a drive to Tully Gorge about 50 kms out of Tully. It was quite a drive but well worth it. Tully Gorge national park was an amazing sight with this massive wall of water meandering down amongst the rocks and trees. After spending some time on the coast it was refreshing to see a natural freshwater spot like this which was just beautiful.

As we drove back to Mission Beach we had nearly arrived when out of the corner of my eye I saw it, they mythical creature, the never to be seen Cassowary. It was slowly walking along a driveway with its two young birds in tow. Bec, like Peter Parker jumped out of the car still moving and ran into the bushes after the cassowary camera at the ready. She managed to get some photos and we had our cassowary experience, quite unexpected. The next day for homeschool Maggie wanted to research the cassowary to find out a bit more about it. It turns out that they are quite rare in Northern Queensland and were in fact badly affected by motor vehicle deaths, hence all the signage. They are apparently one of the most dangerous birds alive having even killed a 16 year old boy. The boy happened to be trying to beat it to death with a club when the bird in defence cut his throat with its very large and sharp claw. The boy died from his injuries. They are also very protective of their young and it was advised to keep your distance. Fortunately for us our naivety didn't cause us any damage and we survived our cassowary experience, more luck than good judgement. Peter Parker always gets her shot though, even risking life and limb to get it!

We met up with a family from the UK who we had been running in to at several places on our trip (one mile beach, Emerald Beach, Airlie Beach and now Mission Beach), they assured us they were not stalking us. The kids were building a good friendship and we asked if they wanted to join us for a bbq that evening. We had a lovely night and the kids had a great time. Stef and Clare and their kids were nice people and we all had a good time together. The next day it was time for us all to push on. We did the usual photo taking and sharing of details and we were off to Cairns. Mission Beach was okay but really didn't make a huge impact on us as an experience. Tully Gorge was a cracker and I think next time we would choose to stay in the National Park there. Because of our efforts to push up to Mission Beach we only had a short drive in to Cairns that day. We timed our trip to arrive at Sue and Eric's just after Jen and Nick got in from their flight and everything worked to plan. Eric had prepared a nice late lunch for us and we all had a great time catching up. That night we slept in a real bed and were glad not to have to set up and pack up cammie for a few days. The next day we ventured down the esplanade at Cairns which despite the lagoon being closed for maintenance there was more than enough activity to keep all of us entertained for the afternoon. The following day we all had a quiet day, Gus was overdue a good sleep and the girls were getting tired after their late night 'Barry Evil' exploits with Popsy and tropical scoppa marathon. We have a couple more days in Cairns before turning and slowly heading for home. Bye for now, Nick, Bec and the crew.