Hugh & Justine’s Excellent Adventure

Well, it's been a month since my last blog entry and there are so many different things to tell you - I can't think of a unifying theme for the title! So I just went with "goanna" because there are lots of critters in this post. I think my last blog covered the first...

When I come across neat facts, I make notes of them on my phone. When they correspond with photos I've taken, they get into the blog pretty quickly. But when they don't, they sit as notes waiting for a day when I don't have many photos. Well today some that have been...

Before I jump back into things Australian, I realised I forgot to tell you a few things about New Zealand that were interesting, so let me wrap up that story first. The south island gets 4-7 metres (yes, METRES) of rain each year! No wonder it's so lush everywhere....

I meant to get the NZ Part 2 post up a week ago, but work has been a little crazy lately so am just getting around to it now - and of course, there are more Aussie stories to add in at this point too! Let's start with some of the fun plants and animals in NZ. My...

OK so who correctly guessed that we were off to New Zealand? Liz guessed Tasmania, and given the chilly temperature forecast I posted last blog, it could very well have been. But we were on the other side of the Tasman Sea, in the Land of the Long White Cloud...

Hard to believe it's January 2025! It was 2 years ago at this time that the immigration lawyers in Australia were guiding me through the work visa application process - and strongly advising me to not quit my job in Canada or sell my house until the visa was...

...Rainy for a Week It is unusual that we have many grey days in a row here, but we did have a week where it rained most days. One night we got 80mm in a few hours - which is nothing compared to what some areas a few hours north of us were getting. In Canada, 80mm...

In Australia, it's now the "silly season", as in the lead-up to Christmas with lots of frivolity and parties. "Silly season" seems to originate in the UK referring to a time in the summer when there's not much news going on. In Australia, with summer starting on...

I apologize for being a week late with this week's episode! Mom and Andrea were visiting for a couple weeks and we had such a fabulous time! They returned home on Tuesday and I've been back in the deep end at work. The good news is - I actually didn't work for the 2...

So I had no idea about the big comet event last week until my friend Ray emailed last weekend to ask if we could see it Down Under. I looked it up and it was going to be reasonably visible for a couple days and we have a good view to the western sky from our house, so...

Yes indeed, we got our second lemon from our lemon tree! The lime tree is slow to produce gin and tonics for us, so far just that one lime ages ago, but the lemon tree is going strong. The big decision was of course what to make with our second ever home grown lemon -...

Once again, I seem to have too many things to share! It really is such a tremendous privilege to live here and share our new experiences with all of you! Last weekend, a curious phenomenon occurred - we had a major wind shift bringing hot, dry air from the west (west...