Ewey and Sarah

It is not difficult to stumble into fellow Canadians in Australia. There are many of us out and about exploring the world (or sneaking away to become teachers). Kate and I decided early that we would make no special effort to meet Canadians. We’re here to see some ‘new stuff’ and make some Aussie friends.

That being said, these two great-white-north’ers were a very VERY welcome treat!

Andrew Ewert (a too-long-ago teammate from Queen’s) and his girlfriend Sarah are doing some serious traveling and they managed to squeeze in a few days in our humble little pad.

They showed up with Ewey’s brother Ben in this ‘wicked’ little sleeper van that the three of them had been calling home for a few weeks as they drove from the bottom to the top of Australia's east coast.

They had seen plenty of beaches but we had to show them one more.

We also hit up the Australia Zoo made famous by the late Steve Irwin. To no one’s surprise, we saw some animals. These little guys in particular are 'zoo royalty':

And I got to sit in Steve Irwin’s famous truck. It was good just to sit down. Zoos, much like IKEA, are pretty much all about endless walking.

Also, by spooky coincidence, I was experiencing some poorly-timed lower-back issues in preparation for my volleyball trip to Adelaide and Ewey and Sarah both happen to be very good (acupuncture trained) physiotherapists. They handed out some courtesy therapy which was super helpful and, as you may have guessed from my previous post, I was able to play in Adelaide completely pain-free (if not heavy-anti-inflammatory-free :). Thank you both.

Our little appartment is quiet again. Ewey's brother Ben has flown home and the adventurous pair have moved on to explore mainland Asia. They are recording some of their own travels here. It was great to see’em. Our next much-anticipated visitor, in just a few weeks, will be Kate's dad!