Postcrossing Blog

Another exciting report from our dear little mail carriers! Australia is so big that they’ve decided to stay a little longer there, and visit another friendly postcrosser, Smileyfflagge! Meanwhile, they’ve been on newspapers headlines and gave radio interviews… seems like everybody wants to meet them! :) Read their story below:

We left Mundoo in South Australia on Thursday 23 June 2011 and arrived in Coffs Harbour NSW on Monday 27 June 2011. Smileyfflagge got a big surprise when he opened his mailbox this morning!

Smiley lives at Upper Orara, which is about 25kms west of Coffs Harbour. There is no town of Upper Orara; it is a “locality”, a name given to a district for land record purposes, and so people have an address. There are about 800 residents in the area, and they have fat cattle farms or dairy farms. Upper Orara is very pretty and is situated in the Orara Valley.

Smileyfflagge’s little house is situated right in the middle of a huge dairy farm and sometimes the dairy cows come right up to the boundary fence to see what is going on.

Australians love BIG THINGS and the very first Big Thing built in Australia was the “Big Banana” which is in Coffs Harbour, so we went to see how big it really is.

There is a café near the Big Banana, so we looked at all the postcards they had for sale before we had our afternoon tea.

Smiley took us out into a banana plantation so we could climb a banana tree. The blue plastic bag protects the bananas.

Another day we went to look at the view over Coffs Harbour from Sealy Lookout but it was closed for refurbishment. We found a little clearing in the trees so we could take a photo of the view looking north and while we were there we met Claude and Barbara, who were visiting Coffs Harbour from Western Australia, so we had our photo taken with them. We are hoping that they will join Postcrossing after meeting us!

On Wednesday 13 July we went to the Coffs Harbour Jetty for a newspaper interview. We were met there by Gemima Harvey, a journalist with the “The Coffs Coast Advocate”, and her photographer Bruce Thomas. We had a very nice interview and Bruce took our photograph with glenasena and Smileyfflagge. The newspaper printed our story on the front page! And it was on the front page of 9 other newspapers right up the coast from Coffs Harbour to Gladstone in Queensland! And in the papers in the inland cities of Ipswich and Toowoomba in Queensland. We sent Gemima and Bruce a postcard to say “Thank You”!

On Friday 15 July we went to present our credentials to the Mayor of Coffs Harbour, Councillor Keith Rhoades. Cr Rhoades signed our travel documents for us. The Mayor is a very busy man and we are grateful that he was able to take the time to meet with us. We sent him a postcard to say “Thank You” too!

The following Friday (22 July) we went to the “ABC Radio Coffs Harbour” studio for an interview. We went on air and tried to chat with Katya Quigley from “ABC Radio Port Macquarie” on her morning program. She couldn’t hear us, even though we were talking as loud as we could, so Smileyfflagge had to do the interview on our behalf. This next photo shows us in Liz Keen’s studio in Coffs Harbour.

On Monday 25 July Smiley drove us all the way up to Ipswich in Queensland, so we could visit our dear friend crizle who has been very ill in hospital. She was very happy to see us and is now home and very much better.

The next photograph shows us at the beginning of the boardwalk at Urunga, which is about 25kms south of Coffs Harbour. The boardwalk now goes right out to the end of the training wall, and the second picture shows us waving to all our postcrossing friends in New Zealand, which is out that way somewhere.

Smiley took us to the Post Office in Urunga to meet the Postmistress, Christine. She stamped our travel documents for us.

Here we are looking out over Park Beach on a cloudy day. In the summer months Park Beach is full of people enjoying the sunshine and the surf.

Our very last photograph shows us looking out over the marina at Coffs Harbour, with Muttonbird Island in full view. Just to the left centre of the photograph you can see the Coffs Harbour Jetty, where we had our interview for the newspaper.

Now we are getting ready to leave Australia for…

Exciting news, everyone! We just got a big letter from the little mail carriers travel diary… they’ve been to Australia where they were hosted by Mundoo! Here’s their latest report from the road:

G’day Mates!

Here we are in Australia or 'down under’ as many of the Northern Hemisphere mates refer to Oz . We are visiting Mundoo or Vicki as she is also known. Vicki lives on Hindmarsh Island, which is in the estuary of the Murray River (the longest river in Australia) where it exits to the Southern Ocean. She lives in the state of South Australia .

We got our first look at an Australian Post Box and offered to deliver some mail. They have a bright red post box here.

This is where Mundoo posts her Postcrossing postcards at the Goolwa post office.

We don’t know what it is about Hindmarsh Island but the sunrises and sunsets are just spectacular. Vicki’s house in on Mundoo Channel (that’s where she got her membername from) which is part of the Coorong National Park.

Hindmarsh Island used to be accessed from the mainland by a ferry but about 10 years ago there was a bridge constructed joining Hindmarsh Island and the mainland at the inland Riverport of Goolwa.

You all know about the Sydney Harbor bridge, well Hindmarsh Island has the Hindmarsh Island bridge. We sat at the Goolwa wharf with a paddle steam boat, the OscarW tied up there and with the Murray River flowing past under the bridge. There is a strong paddle-boating history at Goolwa from the early days of Australian history before the railroads were built. Paddle-boats were the only way that cargo could be transported down the Murray River and they landed at Goolwa for loading onto ships.

We visited some Australian animals. We get our first look at a kangaroo. Vicki said this wasn’t a big kangaroo, it sure looked big enough to us!

Then we got up real close to a koala. Gee he has big claws but then we suppose he needs them for climbing gum trees all the time looking for food. Did you know that koala's only eat eucalypt leaves?

A kangaroo came over and gave Little Ana a big kiss as a welcome to Australia. Little Paulo was very happy it wasn’t him being smooched.

We saw a Joey in it’s mother’s pouch. He looks too big to fit in there we thought but he looked quite happy even with a leg sticking out. We didn’t get too close because we didn’t want to be adopted by the mother kangaroo.

We went for a trip with Vicki to the next state, which is called Victoria. The border between the two states is 300 km / 187 miles away from where Vicki lives. It only took us 4 hours driving. We were amazed at how large Australia is. All of Europe would fit into Australia. All of USA minus Alaska would fit as well. Australia is the biggest island in the world and has a population of 22 million.

Our destination was a town in Victoria called Moyston. It is the birthplace of Australian football or Aussie Rules as the locals call it.

There is a wonderful plaque at Moyston telling the history of Aussie Rules and Tom Wills who was the founder. Aussie Rules is nothing like any other football played in the world.

Moyston is at the base of the Grampians and we stayed at Jennifer’s house, who is Vicki’s sister. Jennifer wasn’t there because she was in Perth 3250km / 2020 miles away competing in the Judo games. Up the road from Jennifer’s house was the spot where gold was first found in the area. This sparked a huge gold rush in 1854

Back home again to Hindmarsh Island and the ocean in that area is of historical importance because it is a place where two scientific explorer Captains met in 1802 offshore while travelling in opposite directions mapping Australia for the first time. The encounter is significant because the encounter between Captain Matthew Flinders (English) and Captain Nicholas Baudin (French) was peaceful, even though their countries were at war at the time, But the two Captains put that aside and met in friendship and exploration and called the bay they met in Encounter Bay.

We met up with Apty (also known as Graeme) at Encounter Bay and had a good chat with him. Do you know he is really a kiwi?

We tried some Aussie food. We had a Lamington. Most accounts of the creation of the lamington agree it was named after Lord Lamington, who served as Governor of Queensland from 1896 to 1901. One of the claims of how the Lamington came into creation was that the Lamingtons’ chef at Queensland’s Government House, Armand Gallad, was called upon at short notice to provide something to feed unexpected guests during the busy period leading up to Federation in 1900. According to the Melbourne Age newspaper, Gallad cut up some left over French vanilla sponge cake baked the day before, dipped the slices in chocolate and set them in coconut.

Lamington Recipe & Another Lamington Recipe

Well we have had a great time with Vicki, thank you for having us visit and showing us some of Australia.

Now we have packed our bags and are heading off on our next adventure.

We wonder where we are going?

Remember our little mail carriers? The last time we checked on them, little Paulo and Ana were in Taiwan… but no more! Come discover what they’ve been up to recently, in this lively report by their latest host, icitaiwan!

Hello from Valencia in Spain. It has been quite a while since you’ve heard something from us, but we’ve been very busy with traveling all over the world.

Our journey started in November when our sweet host shui sent us to the northern part of Taiwan where our new host, icitaiwan, was living. Yes, you’re reading it well…she’s not living there anymore. We arrived at a place, full of boxes and to be honest, it was messy, too ;). We explored Nankan where we were staying and took the bus to Taipei for a short trip. Our first stop was the Taipei 101. The “101” was the tallest skyscraper in the world until 2010 and we can tell you that it’s tall, 509 meters!

We ate a local snack and on the way back we really had a laugh when we read this sign in the bus on our way back home: “Please fasten your seatbelt. For landing please ring the bell. Please do not leave the seat when the vehicle is not all arranged yet”.

We also wanted to visit the Taipei International Flower Exposition, but unfortunately we didn’t get a chance, because the weather was so bad on the day that we intended to go and my host had to leave Taiwan soon. Instead of visiting the Expo we went to the Taipei Zoo where we saw pandas and many other animals.

At the end of December we were put in a little box and when our host opened it again we felt so cold. We had taken an airplane to the Netherlands where our host was staying for the holidays. Everything was covered with snow and we really regretted it not to have brought our scarves with us. We had a great time during the holidays, ate lots of food and gained some weight.

In the beginning of January we were put in the same little box again (oh no….!) and we saw daylight again in Valencia, Spain. We have traveled all the way to Spain, because our host decided to leave Taiwan for Europe for good.

We have had a great time in Valencia. The weather was sunny, warm and we saw beautiful blue skies. We enjoyed our free-time by wandering through the streets downtown. We started our trip on “Plaza de la Reina” where you can see the “Catedral de Valencia”. After that we walked to the “Mercado Central”. It’s a colorful market in a very old building. This sight-seeing trip made us hungry, so we ended up on one of the many terraces to have something to eat. What else could we buy than paella valenciana? This is Spanish rice with chicken and rabbit. The wine tasted pretty good, too…cheers!

After our siesta we decided to go to “La Lonja de la Seda”. It’s a late Valencian Gothic style civil building, built between 1482 and 1548, and one of the principal tourist attractions in the city. The UNESCO considered it as a World Heritage Site in 1996. “La Lonja” was used as silk exchange.

Another day we planned a trip to the "Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencas”. This is a cultural and architectural complex and it’s the most important modern tourist destination in Valencia.

The City of the Arts and the Sciences (Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias) is situated at the end of the old riverbed Turia. Turia became a garden in 1980, after the bypass of the river by the great flood of Valencia in 1957. The complex was designed by Santiago Calatrava and Félix Candela and the whole project was completed in 1998. It’s made up of 7 buildings. It is an amazing place to visit and it’s so beautiful on sunny days when the sun reflects onto the water and the buildings.

Time flies when you’re having fun and our last trip was to Malverossa Beach in Valencia. It’s a nice place to go to on the weekends. People are strolling along the beach, playing soccer and beach volleyball, or they are having a drink on one of the many terraces along the beach. We played on the beach and even tried to go for a swim, but the water was still too cold.

OK….this was an update from the two of us. Check out this site again soon for more adventures. We are on our way to a very special place now…..adios……..!

Our little mail carriers Paulo and Ana arrived in Taiwan after a little hiatus, and wow! They were delighted to discover the lovely city of Tainan by the hands of Shui, who filled their days with color and new experiences! Check out their beautifully documented journey below! :)

Hello from Taiwan!!! After a long break, we arrived at Tainan and prepare ourselves for the next adventure in this old town. It’s lucky that the weather becomes cool here recently and we don’t have to worry about our missing summer uniforms.

In the first few days, we took a walk around and found a small lane with beautiful old houses. The atmosphere there is so peaceful, and it’s hard to believe that there is a busy street just a few steps away. There are also some cute shops hosted by people who take these houses as a treasure from their grandparents’ time. On the other day, we joined the Holland Bike Day held around this time every year. People followed the footprints of the Dutch people here in the 17th century. Though most of the historical remains were destroyed, it is still fun to meet a city in this way.

We also got a chance to visit the fishing port in An-Ping, the origin of Tainan City. It is now a famous tourist spot for people to enjoy the afternoon seeing the sunset over the Taiwan Strait. On the train, we were on our way to Dungshan which is about 50 km far from the downtown.

Dungshan is famous for its coffee in recent years, and becomes a popular place to visit during the weekend. Most people drive there just to have a cup a coffee, feel the breeze and enjoy the view from the hill. Not only the coffee impressed us, but also the kind people there we met. An old lady even gave us a free ride to the bus station so that we didn’t have to walk downhill for over one hour. She also shared her interesting experience as an ice cream carrier!

One morning, the host’s mother brought us a bag of roselles. She happily showed us the fruitful result from her little garden on the top of the apartment. We helped removing the seed capsules from the fruits and waited excitedly beside the stove as they were boiled into delicious beverage. The host’s mother told us that this is the luxury that she enjoys in this concrete jungle everyday. How great it is to have a short break and taste the gifts from the nature.

Talking about the foods, we also have some fresh experiences here. Ba-wan is a common snack food in Taiwan, and is probably a nice choice when you feel hungry during the meals. See that stand with a lot of people sitting in front of ? As there are a lot of milkfish breeders and farms nearby, many people take milkfish porridge, mutton or beef soup as their breakfast and it already becomes kind of tradition here in Tainan.

Later on, we visited a spring roll stand to offer ourselves some vegetables, as you may notice that we didn’t eat any earlier! They made the spring roll right away as we ordered one. Therefore, we were able to see what they put in and how they make it into a beautiful roll. Another common way to fill your stomach in Taiwan is getting yourself a delicious Bento. Bento shops are easily found in the streets here, as most workers and students only have 1–2 hours break at noon and this is definitely a cheap and fast choice!

We also spent some time looking around in the city at night. The street art behind us is one of the most famous places in Tainan. The topic is about the memories of the wall. The artist uses the white lines to depict the rooms which might be in the past. As some of the old houses were pulled down during the extension of the road, the lateral of the houses inside were exposed on the street, and this gives artists a good reason to show their talents!

Night market is another good place to see and taste all kinds of local snack foods. In Tainan, the market place is empty in the daytime, but becomes crowded at night. Everybody there has their own secret maps in minds. Comparing with them, we totally didn’t know which stand to start! On our way back, we saw a crowd of people watching some kind of show in front of a temple. An audience there told us that this is the Taiwanese opera. When a temple has a festival, they usually invite one or more different groups to celebrate the event.

Some temples will also organize a parade in the street. Today we were so lucky to meet one here! See the wooden sedan chair? That’s where the main god sit. Every sedan chair was made by a skilled master. And maybe you are curious about those two big guys…we don’t really know which role they played, but that seems to be a tough work to wear a suit like that! They also told us that they have to walk in a special way to make sure that the long arms will swing naturally. That’s one of the most impressing events we saw for sure!

As mail carriers, one of the most important tasks we have is to visit all kinds of mailboxes in the world. Here you can see the mailboxes and the post office in Taiwan. Be careful! Not all of the post offices look green here. When we were pretending as local mail carriers, we also met a postwoman who is about to start her works today after the traffic light turns into green. She kindly shared some tips, and took a photo with us!

The last thing to do before we leave is to send a postcard home. Although we’re a little bit shy, we decided to make a postcard with a photo of ourselves on it this time. When we put the postcard into the mailbox, we were thinking about what it will feel like when reading the journey from us in the past. A postcard seems to be the best tool to connect the gap of space and time, while the ink stains on the seal recorded the tracks of every voyager passing by.

Next on their tour around the world, our little mail carriers stopped in the Bahamas! We’re extremely jealous, and living vicariously through them :) Enjoy the sunny report that islander61 sent us:

Ana and Paulo’s next visit was to Nassau, Bahamas, home to islander61 and dancingkittycupcake. Nearby Yamacraw Beach was their first stop to build sandcastles and relax on a towel on the soft, white sand (watch out for that crab!) The little boats were the perfect size for a ride; who got the red one?

Later, Ana spotted the lighthouse that has guided ships into Nassau’s blue water harbour since 1816. They climbed over a cannon and Paulo was amazed at the size of the visiting cruise ships. They explored the sculpture of Woodes Rodgers, Royal Governor who expelled pirates in 1718, found a red mail-box and tasted paella at a seafood festival. Montagu Beach was the place for a seaside treat of spicy conch fritters and cool, sweet Goombay Punch.

Another day, a drive across the Paradise Island Bridge for a wedding anniversary lunch at The Cove, Atlantis (they really liked the wine!) and a quick peek at the aquarium.

A ride home from school in dancingkittycupcake's uniform pocket and a chance to investigate the backyard seagrape, mango and coconut trees. Coconut water was so refreshing on a hot, hectic day that Paulo needed a nap!

Finally, we baked cookies for our guests. Look, the egg even had two yolks! A special egg for two special visitors, Ana and Paulo.

Thank you islander61, and dancingkittycupcake for hosting the little mail carriers! And now, on to new adventures! :)