Author: Oliver

Posted in Nature activities, Northern Territory

Cruising the Mary River

Posted on by Oliver

Rather than giving any material gifts to the kids for their birthdays, my father decided he would give them experiences instead – specifically tours he had done on previous visits to Australia and which he found exceptional. One of these was a boat cruise on the Mary River.

The Mary River is famous for the large amount of crocs – both “sweeties” and “salties” – lining its banks and inhabiting its waters. However, the floodplains are impossible to navigate by land, which leaves the water the only way to get close to these primal beasts. Continue reading “Cruising the Mary River” →

Posted in Nature activities, Queensland

Diving the Great Barrier Reef

Posted on by Oliver

As we wrote in one of our earlier posts, diving the Great Barrier Reef was one of the items that were on my Things-To-Do-In-Australia list. And, over the past three days, I have been able to do just that.

The one luxury accommodation we had booked on our Good-Bye-Australia trip was a 5-night stay on Heron Island. Sitting towards the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, it houses a luxury resort and a research station, as well as being home to a lot of coral, mantas, rays, sharks, turtles and a huge variety of other marine and avian life.

It was here that I was able to enjoy five dives – the first dives I have done in almost 10 years. Continue reading “Diving the Great Barrier Reef” →

Posted in Moving

The sellout has begun

Posted on by Oliver

They say that time flies when you’re having fun, and this has certainly been the case with our stay here in Australia. I woke up this morning only to realize that there is little over three months left of our Australian Adventure and it is time we seriously get on with preparing our departure.

Next to the obvious stuff, like flights, accommodation, schools, jobs and so on, there is also all the sh…tuff we have collected since moving here. We had considered sending some furniture back via container ship, but in the end decided against it. There is still enough of that sitting in storage in the Netherlands, and I don’t think our house there will be big enough to cater for all of that.

So it’s time to turn back to our old friend: Gumtree. Continue reading “The sellout has begun” →

Posted in Asia, Travel

Cruise Port – Koh Samui on a rainy day

Posted on by Oliver

Our first stop in Thailand today was Koh Samui, a small island towards the South of the country. It is a prime vacation spot, with kilometer-long beaches and the hotel-chains to match. Tourism is the biggest industry here, followed by coconuts.

As this island does not have a pier to dock cruise ships, this was to be our first (and only) tender port on this trip, meaning that the ship would anchor in the harbour and the guests (and some of the crew) would be brought to shore in smaller boats. In this case, the boats were provided by a local company, as they were bigger than the ones carried by the Mein Schiff 1.

Continue reading “Cruise Port – Koh Samui on a rainy day” →

Posted in Asia, Travel

Kuala Lumpur – Batu Caves by train

Posted on by Oliver

The last stop of our cruise in Malaysia was Kuala Lumpur, the capitol and largest city of this country.

Well, I say Kuala Lumpur, but what I actually mean is that we docked in Port Klang, roughly 50km away from the center of KL. And even that is misleading, as the cruise terminal in Port Klang is located in the middle of nowhere. The only chance to get away from there is either one of the pre-arranged tours from the boat, or taking one of the numerous taxis waiting there for you. Continue reading “Kuala Lumpur – Batu Caves by train” →

Posted in Daily life

Junior League Finals

Posted on by Oliver

After about three months of competition play in a round robin format, Kai’s team in the Associations Junior League made it to the finals as second on the ladder in the 12B division. To determine the actual winner for this season, the first two teams play a finals of four singles and two doubles. And that finals match was happening today.

…at least that was the plan.

Continue reading “Junior League Finals” →

Posted in Daily life

Runners up

Posted on by Oliver

This weekend is a long weekend in Melbourne – because of a horse race. And while that still sounds weird, it is reason enough for a lot of tennis tournaments to be scheduled in and around Melbourne, most of them across three days.

Since Kai made some big improvements in the last few weeks and months, we decided it was time we try this tournament thing again: the 2017 Better Tennis Frankston Cup. And for the doubles we enlisted the help of Seba, one of his classmates and previous doubles partner.

Continue reading “Runners up” →