BACK ONLINE!!!!

Well, here we are, back again. Sorry for the long delay...you've probably given up on us!!! :)

Since our last post on March 30th, we've moved house, lost the internet for more than a month (ahhhhhh), bought a new laptop. and a lot of other boring stuff like that.

On the exciting side, we had our special meetings and 3 of the workers came to stay with us! Our four workers were Gary Packard and Winnie Melville from WA, Linda Larson and Pauline Turner from SA. (It is about equal distance for each pair to come up here.)

Here is Gary in his nice apron, our chef for the night! Eldon and I are with Linda Larson (Eldon knows her and her family quite well). The last picture is the four workers; Gary, Pauline, Linda, and Winnie. We felt very privileged!

We are loving our new little flat...pictures to follow once I get it clean enough :) .....and our lives are going along pretty normally.

We've adopted a cat, or rather it has adopted us! We are really just like grandparents; invite it in, give it a pat, and send it on its way again! His name is Buster and he's very much like our cat at home, Hugo. He lives in a flat just down from us, and he is very, very friendly!!!

My studies are getting along just fine. I'm into the practical portion of the course, and I have a feeling I'll be there for a little while!

Eldon is working flat out, as you can see. These pictures are from his week at Drysdale Station, where Alligator Airways base a plane in the dry season.

I'm not sure what kind of spider this is...but it sure made Eldon forget about going to the toilet! It is sitting on the cistern at Drysdale Station.

These are amazing falls...King Falls I think. An American actress was killed by a crocodile under these falls in the '80s.

Now that we are into our dry season, these bush fires will happen more and more. Some are accidental, some are not.

Well, that's a quick update in our little lives. I'll try to be better at posting new stuff on here!

Hope everyone is well!

Works Tour with Eldon!!!!

Sunrise at Alligator Airways

For the first time in a few years, I went on a flight with Eldon!

The company he works for, Alligator Airways, does a scenic flight called the "Works Tour". The company is really good about letting wives and family of pilots on the flight for a reduced rate if there is a spare seat. So I managed to get myself a seat last Saturday! It was a really good day for a flight...not too bumpy! It's technically still the "wet season" so there was plenty of water on the ground and flowing in the rivers. The waterfalls were pretty spectacular!

Waterfalls off the Berkley River

Mitchell Falls

King George Falls

The tour is about 4 hours of flying with a stop at Kalumburu (an Aboriginal community) for a ground tour and lunch. We were given a tour of the museum by the local Catholic priest. They have a really interesting collection of all sorts of things from around the world. Kalumburu was bombed during the second World War and he has things from that.

Lunch at Kalumburu

OutBack refueling!!!!!

We flew down the Ord River to do some croc spotting and then out to the coast where we saw 2 huge crocs swimming! We were going a bit too fast for me to get pictures of them though!

Eldon talked the whole time about the different areas and things to watch out for....he is really very good at his job as a pilot/tour guide! It was so good to finally see what he really does all day! :) :)

Berkley River...beautiful!!!

Ord River and Ivanhoe plains just outside of Kununurra

These are only a few pictures from our flight...to view the rest go to Our Pictures

Red Shoes on Valentines Day

Ok, so it's past Valentines Day by more than a month, but I've been promising my mother a picture of my new red shoes. So here they are!!!

My darling (and Very crafty!) mother also made me a nice heart swag with family pictures on it to hang on our otherwise bare wall! Don't you think it goes nicely with the sag in our "couch"?

Trip to Darwin

Well, we are back from our lovely long weekend to Darwin in the Northern Territory. Darwin is about an hour flight from Kununurra. It was very humid and warm, and we had lots of rain while we were there! We stayed at a flash hotel/casino and had a really nice room and all the goodies that come along with it. We caught up with some pilots that Eldon knows from Kununurra and met a really nice group of friends.

This is the hotel from the beach at night. You can see a nice storm brewing behind it.

I loved the pink sailboat!

Our friendly neighborhood goanna walking across the lawn by the pool.

To view the whole set of pictures, go to Our Pictures

Finally, a storm!!!

Well, for the wet season, it's been pretty dry. We had our first major rain in weeks last night which knocked out all the power for an hour or so. I love storms! Anyway, tonight it is just breezy and cool with lots of lightning shows around us...here's some cool pictures from my weather-loving husband!




This was taken from the park next to our house. Lightning is amazing stuff!




For more interesting photos of our weather, click on "Our Pictures" under Link of Interests on the right side of our blog, or go to www.picasaweb.google.co.uk/ozpattersons