Byron Bay and New Years!

After meeting up at the Los Angeles airport, Kersti and I took the long flight back to Australia. We stopped in Melbourne for only five hours, just long enough to go home and repack for our trip north to Byron Bay!

We flew to the Gold Coast, then drove south to stay at our beautiful and remote resort in the Byron Hinterlands as an early celebration of our second anniversary. We were caught in a huge thunderstorm during the night drive to the resort, but Kersti did a great job in getting us there safely despite our obvious tiredness. The resort was set in the rainforest of Northern New South Wales, and the weather was fantastic. The next day, we made the short drive into Byron Bay. While crowded, we had a lovely time hiking up to the lighthouse and enjoyed lying out on the beach.

The next day we drove down to Yamba, where our gracious host Byron had generously opened his beach house to our friend for New Years. Yamba is a quiet beach town, in a gorgeous setting. There, we met our friends Tyler, Andrea, Sophie, Lisanne, and Matt, as well as Byron and his family (it was a touch crowded). We had a fantastic New Years, hanging out on the beach and watching fireworks. While I was up my usual antics, fortunately Kersti survived unscathed. We spent the next couple days hanging out on the beach, body surfing, diving off of the rocks, and taking a tinny up the river to see dolphins and kingfishers. We then sent to Byron’s family farm in nearby Grafton. Their house was a beautifully renovated farmhouse, and we spent the day on the river tubing and trying out wakeboarding.

Byron’s family was so welcoming, and we had a fabulous time. Byron will be heading to the States in June on a Fulbright, so hopefully we will get the chance to repay the favor and host him in the States at some point!

Byron Bay, not bad for a hippie hangout

Enjoying the sunshine in Byron Bay

The beach of Byron Bay, with the lighthouse in the distance.

Hiking up the lighthouse

The view from the hike.

A goanna

The trees overhead

It was an easy, if hot hike

We made it!

The storms rolled in very fast..

Hanging out by the pool at our resort

Kersti showing off her new swimsuit.

Kersti showing off her cut knee, a result of my throwing her in the pool...

Back in Australia!

Billy and I have safely arrived back in Melbourne... and we easily survived the 15 hour leg from LA to Melbourne. We have 3 more hours to relax and pack, and then it's back to the airport for a flight to the Gold Coast :) I just realised we never rented a car for our drive from the Gold Coast to Byron Bay ... so hopefully there is still at least one car available, or else the 2 hour drive will be a long walk.

Anyway, we had such a wonderful time in the US for the holidays! We wish everyone a happy new year!

Cheers,
Kersti

Merry Christmas from the US!

Kersti and I had a wonderful, relaxing time back in the States this Holiday season. It has been two years since we have both been home, so catching up with family was priority one.


Kersti and I both spent the first week in Florida. Life was well on the Peter Compound, it was reassuring how much things were the same (besides the impressive pool my Dad put in the back, I think our back pool patio is as big as our house now!). The weather was unbeleivably nice, I told Kersti to pack jeans and sweaters, a lot of good it did in the 80 degree, sunny weather. We played lots of tennis with the family, got in a couple beautiful sails on the Shearwater, explored the mangroves by dinghy, and ate lots of great food. We caught up with my cousins' kids, with five of them around things get pretty chaotic at times! And we celebrated my Grandma's 92nd birthday for the third time (there is some confusion about her age), and I got to spend quite a bit of time with her over the trip.


Kersti went back to California for a week to spend Christmas with her families, but we are meeting up in LA to fly back to Australia together on the 27th. It was sad that we couldn't be together for Christmas, but this way we both got to see our families (only fair after being overseas for two years). When we get back we turn right around and fly up to Byron Bay to celebrate New Years with friends, should be a good beach bumming holiday.

At home with the parents

Kersti and I heading out for a dinghy trip on Sarasota Bay

Kersti at our launch dock through the mangroves in front of the Peter Compound

The Peter Compound, not much has changed at Old Oak!

My cousing Bill and their beautiful daughter Gracie

The graceful elder of the generation - Emma

Of course I had to make a sand ball on Siesta Beach..

Sunset at the new bridge

Walking across the bridge


Cammie, who was just a baby when I left!

Kersti playing the part

A virtuouso peformance

Heading Home!

Kersti and I are heading back to the U.S. for the holidays this Saturday! It will be my first time home in two years, so I am really psyched to see the extended family. I think I will be in for a shock when I see who much my nephews and nieces have grown! Kersti will also be coming down to Florida for a week, where we celebrate my Grandma’s birthday before she heads back to California for Christmas. It is then back to Australia to celebrate New Years at Byron Bay, so a nice three week break for both of us. I can’t wait to see everybody!

Isaac!

Kersti and I are again a proud Aunt and Uncle! My brother Max and his wife Amy recently had their second boy, Isaac Christian Peter. We are very happy for them! And just in time for my parents visit for Thanksgiving, as well. We can't wait to see our nephews when we do get back to the States!

Isaac, the latest Peter boy!

Max, the proud father.

Kersti already thinks that his brother Leo is the cutest kid ever, so we have high expectations for Isaac.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy thanksgiving to everyone back home in the States! It is sad to not be home for thanksgiving, but at least we will get to head home soon (only a couple weeks now!). Fortunately, I was able to get my tryptophan fix: our American friends Lindsay and Andrew graciously hosted us to a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner last weekend. Kersti prepared a delicious pecan pie and yummy yams, and despite some difficulties with our less than stellar oven, the food was a success as it always is. Plus, now I have some delicious left-overs!

The girls hard at work in the kitchen preparing delicious food. Our hostess Lindsay is third from the right.

Getting ready to carve the turkey, pathetically my only contribution to the cooking.

Kersti enjoying the thanksgiving cheer.

Lindsay and Kersti putting on the finishing touches.

Our friend Andrew sporting his "Movember". Strangely, Kersti did not want me participate in this event.

Day trip to Hanging Rock

Yesterday we drove about an hour north-west of Melbourne to Hanging Rock, near Woodend in the Macedon ranges. It was a wonderful day! The weather was perfect and the area surprised us in its beauty and peacefulness.

Hanging Rock is a volcano that has been eroded away over time to leave a labyrinth of rocks at the top of a small hill. At the base of the rock is a park that has been used since the late 1880s as a recreation area. There are large lawns, cricket ovals and a racecourse that is still used today.

We enjoyed hiking around, climbing in and around the rocks, and seeing the wildlife. We saw Kookaburas and Rosellas (both birds), and an echidna even presented itself right along the path. No koalas or roo's to be seen, which was a bit of a surprise. Oh well, we were very lucky with the echidna.

Click here to see all the pictures on Picasa Web Albums

Kersti Finishes & An Exhibition

Kersti has completed all her school work for her masters! She will find out her final marks on December 12th. She'll miss graduation but will try to postpone until the March graduation dates. She jokes that the only person who needs to be at her graduation is my dad, Tom Peter, because her dad, David Miller, was my only friend/family member at my masters graduation!

Kersti's project was awarded 'honorary mention' and displayed as part of an exhibition for the Architecture, Building and Planning faculty. It was quite a shock because she did not submit anything to the competition! You can't see it, but her bits are above her head to the right. (The are extracts from an urban design framework.)

And here are all the people that came to see Kersti's posters...

just kidding

Billy's Birthday Celebration in Torquay

This last weekend we had a lot to celebrate, including my 30th birthday and Kersti handing in her last assignment for her Master’s! So we rented a beautiful house down in Torquay, a beach town about an hour and a half out of Melbourne. About 15 of our friends came down for the weekend, and we had a blast with excellent meals, time at the beach enjoying the sun and the boogie boarding, and just a little bit of partying at night as well. It turns out that I can still party like I’m 29! The weekend was an amazing success, no surprise given Kersti’s careful planning as always.

Kersti and I at our lovely house in Torquay

Our team: sophie, lisanne, brian, and Kristen

The other team: byron, Lindsay, james, Carmen, Andrew, and Matt.

Trust fall!

Light as a feather, stiff as a board…

Kristen giving Byron a little shove…

Cooking some steaks

Trying to get a better view

Andrew proud of this water drinking abilities

Sophie, Kersti and Kristen proudly displaying the birthday cupcakes they prepared.

Andrew and Matt at the beach, we were lucky with great weather

Lisanne doing some cartwheels with plenty of room to play cricket on the beach

Kersti proud of her clean and tidy kitchen

What can I say; we had a lot of margaritas…

Melbourne Cup Day

Melbourne Cup is Australia's most important horse race... it's so famous that it is even a public holiday in our state of Victoria. As it was the day before my 2 final projects were due, we didn't go to the races... but we did go to a quick party at Ormond and watched the race on tv.

Literally 6 minutes before, I was wearing sweats and working hard in the computer lab.

Here I am wearing my fascinator (from last year)... with Inis (who is visiting with her professor husband from Vasser)

After watching the race, which ended in a PHOTO FINISH! (the closest race they think of all time), we took 'the long route home' around the building to enjoy the roses.

Dad, these are the chocolates you sent me!