WATCH THE VIDEO  "TREBLE DOWN UNDER"  CLICK HERE

In January of 2026 - we were able to go visit AUSTRALIA  - such a blessing from God for our family! We danced our Irish Treble Reel step throughout Australia, thus the pun, "Treble Down Under." Our friend for many years, Felix Molski, took us all around New South Wales and we got to experience local Australian life with him, his family and friends.  Though January is winter for us, it's summer time in Australia, and so the adventure began!

FUN FACTS

  • Our flight was cancelled the first time we showed up at the airport and we couldn't get another one until the following day - but God arranged ALL of our schedules so we could extend the trip a day and not miss out!
  • The video is not chronological - our first stop after 2 hours going through customs, was a several hour drive to Canberra where the Polish Embassy was.  At that point we had been awake for over 30 hours - hope it doesn't show on the photos!
  • We went from the inner city and harbor of Sydney to the outback, including the Snowy Mountains and the Blue Mountains.
  • The Man from Snowy River (that awesome movie) was filmed in the Snowy Mountains, we crossed the Snowy River on our hike to the highest point on the continent: Mt Kosciuszko! A huge thank you to Tony & Ursula for showing us around - and teaching us a Polish dance!
  • It really was that windy on the hike, at one point the wind ripped my sketchbook from my hands, and when I was sketching on the top of Mt Kosciuszko - the wind was drying out the watercolors on my brush before I could put brush to sketchpad!
  • You'll notice the purple and gray-pinkish hues in the sky - that was from the smoke of a huge bush fire a few miles away. The wind was blowing the smoke over the sky, it was a very sobering experience.
  • My favorite tree now is a Snowgum eucalypt!  And Crimson Rose and I fell in love with the wallabies!  We had no idea how many KINDS of kangaroos and wallabies there are! At Featherdale Wildlife Refuge we were able to feed and pet a lot of the animals. And there is a beautiful bird called the "CrimsonRosella".
  • A local Aussie described a 'wombat' to me as "a quadraped mammal built like a Sherman tank"  if a car hits a wombat, the wombat survives, the car.... not so much.
  • The Art Museum in Sydney was amazing!  So many Pre-Raphealite paintings and incredible collection of art in my favorite eras: from medieval to the early 20th century.  Basia (the lovely lady in the blue dress) is the Head Conserveteur of Frames and gave us a private three hour tour - and it still wasn't long enough for us!
  • Grzegorz, her husband, restored the Irish Memorial to the Wicklow Chief and he gave us a private tour of his restoration!
  • The photo of Colt and I in the Art Museum posing in front of the painting is because the title of the painting is 'The Sculptor teaches anatomy in the class" and Colt has modeled for me many times.
  • The photo of the red flower is from the Bottle Brush Tree - Felix' favorite flower!
  • Felix was our gracious chauffeur - driving us everywhere (Thank you Brian and Mary for the loan of your van!) and showing us the sights!  One night about 10 pm we picked up a BOLT in the tire!  It went flat and we had to get out the spare and limp along for 2 hours, as we pulled in for gas one of the workers was getting off, Patrick - he kindly helped us out as he had a repair kit!  YAY back to the full size tire and back to the road, it was 2 AM before we finally got back to Felix' home.  Everywhere we went, the Aussies were so kind and helpful and so much fun with a great innate sense of humor.
  • We were able to have a lovely dinner hosted by our dear friend, Andrzej, with The Kosciuszko Foundation, a group of Polish patriots who keep their heritage alive in Australia - most are descended from the Poles who immigrated after WWII.  (and the dinner was amazing!)
  • At the end of the video we yell "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi!"  That is the chant that Felix and his brother-in-law, Brian, yell when they cheer their favorite Rugby team: the Parametta Eels.
  • We were treated to a wonderful Australian Barbeque with Felix' family: Brian & Mary, Toni, Alex and Syrena.  Fun times for sure!
  • Many of the words in Australia are from Aboriginal origins.  Yet, there are over 300 Aboriginal languages!!!  (originally there were over 900, only a third of those have survived)  Felix had a book with the meanings of place names that we drove through, but with so many languages the same word could have different meanings.  So, we drove through one place that COULD mean 'by the gently flowing water' OR 'being hit in the back of the knees with a hatchet'.
  • Our favorite aboriginal word is "Woolongong"  it means " Behold a monster comes" - yep, we have fun with that one in our family!
  • Yes, the Hillbilly Cider was delicious, my other favorite Aussie drink was Bundaberg Lemonade!  I miss having them both - and highly recommend them to all visitors to the Land Down Under!  (FYI - we did not taste vegemite)
  • Jervis the Koala slept during our photoshoot with him - yet we were allowed to pet him while he napped.
  • Husband Robert filmed all our dancing for us, and all the footage in the video was taken by Colt or Crimson Rose.  If you've read this far down, then I hope you enjoyed getting a little taste of our Awesome trip Down Under! It was an amazing journey seeing such an incredible part of God's Creation!  I mean, I've seen kangaroos in zoos... but seeing them in the wild!!!!!

          We were not prepared to fall so much in love with Australia as we did! G'Day Mate!