May 2012

 Hi Guys,

A quick update on our life: first, it was my birthday last week, so Andrew and I went out for dinner (with a generous GC from Gill and Tony) to Poets Cafe in Montville, a little town in the mountains, 40 minutes from our place.

I'd have to say it was, hands-down, the best dining experience we've had in Australia... it checked all the boxes: nice atmosphere, delicious food, good service, and great live music.  A lot of restaurants in Oz check maybe 2 of those boxes,  but this was a solid 4/4. 

 Here's a view of the dining room... the other direction is an amazing view across the valley to the ocean, but it was dark so you couldn't see it this time.  Below is a pic of the outside... I think it must be a very old building. 

Then  the night before my birthday we invited all the neighbors our age from our building over for cake... it was funny b/c we hardly knew some of them, but thought this would be a good chance to change that. 

We played a game of charades/pictionary... at first when Andrew announced the game everyone was a bit leery of it... but 2 minutes later everyone was laughing their heads off and having a blast.  (See pics above... Blogger has changed their format again, so just getting used to the new picture settings). 

Here were the birthday party invites... sticky notes on everyone's doors since no one was home when I went around to invite them.

Then last Sunday Andrew had a gig with his new band... it was a show at a beach, and sounded great... I love their music.  It was just a 3-man show this time; usually it's 4.  The guy in the middle is Drew Wilson who wrote all the songs... he's the main guy and super talented.  Andrew was to the left, and the drummer was to the right.  The backstage area was just a bunch of bushes... that's what you get with an outdoor venue.  :)

 Here's the view of the crowd- and it went way back, probably around 1000 people.  It was funny b/c a lot of the people were total hippies who started dancing near the stage with hula hoops and flowers in their hair.  Good show. 

And just to break things up a bit... here's a view of the sunrise from our living room these days... not too shabby.  :)

Tony & Gill's Aussie Visit

Well, Tony and Gill's big visit to Oz has come and gone, so I thought it was time for a quick re-cap for the rest of you who didn't stow-away in their suitcases :)

The 4 of us had a great time together, and here are a few pics to show it:

The first night we had a little present-opening session... some very generous gifts from Tony and Gill, as well as from my parents. Andrew got a new work shirt, a Whistler magazine, etc, and I got a couple Lululemon tops, lotion, and Clinique stuff. So happy!


Tony enjoyed reading his book on the couch every day. It was funny b/c at first whenever I'd look over from the kitchen I thought for a split second that Andre Agassi was lying on our couch... and then I'd realize it's just Tony!


We climbed Mt. Coolum one day... you can see where we live on the coast in the background. This is the same hike we did with Emily a couple of years ago.


After the hike we headed to the Hyatt Coolum Resort which is open to the public for swimming and hanging out... we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Tony and Andrew could model for Sears, don't you think? ;)


As soon as we picked them up from the airport we had a swim in our pool, then a long beach walk... trying to keep them awake till Aussie bed-time. (Sorry these pics are out of order... blogger is weird these day... let me know if you know how to fix it.)


Another day we rented kayaks and cruised around the canals near our place. There are heaps of multi-million dollar homes in this area, so it was interesting to see their backyards and "how they live" from the canal. (You can see one in the background here, behind the grey pillar.)


A couple days later we rented bikes from the same place and rode up and down the coast... most of us used Cruiser bikes (like the yellow one you see above), which were quite fun. You can see the water/beach in the background; the water is the most beautiful colour of blue-green at this point of the coast.


Our last 3 days we headed up to Noosa where Tony and Gill generously took us for 3 nights at an apartment-hotel. The weather wasn't as good as the previous 2 weeks had been, but we still got to do some hiking and body-boarding. Look how brown Gill is... she beat me in the tanning department, hands-down, after being here for less than 2 weeks! (Steve and Austin, I think your Michelle Obama line in your birthday song for Gill is dead-on!)


And all good things come to an end... here they are waving good-bye before leaving for the airport.


Another out-of-order pic... playing pool-side ping pong at the Hyatt... every time you hit the ball too hard you'd have to fetch it out of the pool!

When we asked them what their favorite part of the holiday was, Mum said her long beach-walks at 5:30 every morning, and Dad said watching the surfers.

It was great having you, Mum and Dad, and truly hope you had a wonderful holiday.

Now it's time to get some representatives from the Hiller side over here... hint hint!

Our 5-Year Anniversary

Well, it's been 5 years since that rainy March 17th, 2007, and we are at least 5 times happier now than we even were that day!

We celebrated by spending the day together and doing some fun stuff. First we had a pancake breakfast at home (see last pic... sorry they're out of order- Blogger is mixing things up).

Then we headed off to the cable ski park for some wakeboarding.


If you've never seen/heard of this before, it's basically a big man-made lake in the middle of some farm fields. The lake's perimeter is about 500m and has a cable going around it, about 20 feet above the water. The cable moves in a circular direction and has 8 equally-spaced tow-ropes hanging down from it, which you hold onto and wakeboard around the lake.

There's also a bunch of jumps and ramps you can go off of, but we decided to play it safe for our first experience. Every time you fall, you have to swim to the edge, then walk to the starting point and wait in line for the next available rope to come along... so you don't want to fall too much or else you'll waste your time waiting in line.

If you want to find out more about it, check out their website: http://www.gowakesunshinecoast.com.au/

After wakeboarding we went to see a movie called Safe House with Denzel Washington... it was good, but pretty violent. If you like Mission Impossible type of movies (but with way more shooting), you'd like this one. Normally we would have spent the entire day outside, but it was raining, so this was a good option.


After the movie we went out for dinner to a Thai restaurant, courtesy of Andrew's parents (thanks, Mum and Dad!). We hadn't had Thai food since Thailand a couple months ago, and it was just as good as we remembered it... yum!

Climbing Mt. Death

Hi Guys,

Let me share with you an extremely crazy experience we had this past weekend...

Our good friends Dave and Niki (from Brisbane) had invited us on a hike and we'd been looking forward to it for a whole month. We met up with them about half an hour from our place at an area called the "Glasshouse Mountains," which is comprised of 3 mountains, one of which we were to climb (Mt. Beerwah).

There were 7 of us who started the hike...

...but only 5 continued when the "hike" turned out to be more of a mountain climbing expedition (minus the ropes, helmets, and safety harnesses).

The climb was at least 45 degrees steep, with much of it being way steeper than that. 'Why did you continue?,' you ask. Well, I guess we thought that just after the first steep part would be the promised "hike"... our definition of hike- the one where you walk up a steep mountain (not rock-climb up it!). But that kind of hiking never came, and it was pretty much straight up the whole time.



Here we are eating the most well-deserved Subway sandwich of our lifetime at the top...

... and from the top you could also see the other 2 Glasshouse mountains, and the ocean in the very far distance.

Here's Niki and I posing at the top... you can see how sweaty I am, and also the dirt on my shirt from where I wiped out and landed on my ribs on a muddy patch on the way up... ouch!


Coming down the mountain was whole other adventure. We basically crab-walked the whole way down, finding little ridges for our feet to prevent us from tumbling all the way down. It was so scary, and totally killed our wrists and knees!

In this last picture, you can see Dave helping us down the last little bit, showing us exactly where to put our feet and creating hand-holds for us where there were no ridges in the rock.

In hindsight it was actually a lot of fun and a good memory with great friends, but it could have ended very badly had one of us slipped or miss-stepped even a little bit. The funny thing is that Dave has done this hike 30 times, and has taken over 100 people up it, and it's always been okay.

Never again! I thought I was in decent shape, but my quads and pecs haven't been this sore in ages... they are like rocks and I can barely get down the stairs now!

February Pics

Hi Guys,

Time for another little blog update- this one will be mostly pictures so you can get a better feel for what we're up to and who we're hanging out with.

The pic above is our friend Britta with her baby Petra on the beach. We met Britta and her husband David and 2 kids at one of the churches we've visited here. They are from Idaho, USA and are working at the church here. We get together with them every few weeks. It's funny b/c people who hear us talk think we're related... Aussies can't tell the difference between Canadians and Americans!


It's been so nice to just come home from work, grab our surfboard, and hop into the ocean for a surf. Above are our friends Michelle and Zach who I was surfing with last week. Michelle works at Andrew's school (teaches grade 1), her husband Mark is a supply teacher (like me), and Zach lives in Brisbane and just comes up to visit and surf.

Speaking of work, Andrew is really enjoying teaching his grade 8s, 9s, and 12s. I have been getting 2-3 days of work a week, except this week has been slow: only 1 out of 4 days so far. But that's okay since when I'm not working at work, I'm working at home on both my website and my personal training course that I just started 2 weeks ago.

I try to stay on a pretty strict schedule, getting up early with Andrew and starting my "work" as soon as he leaves at around 7:30am. That way I get lots done and don't feel like I'm slacking. It also earns me a nice run, surf, or swim at around 4pm, "after work."


Here is where we dine most evenings... although most evenings don't include the wine... just on weekends usually!


Last Saturday we drove down to Brisbane to visit our friends Erica & Alan. You might remember that these are the friends we met in China... she's Aussie and he's American. They met and married in our church in Shanghai, and we sang at their wedding.

Anyways, they just had a baby boy last month, so we went to see him. His name is Ezekiel and he has SO much hair... it was like a cloud floating above his head- amazing! He was also born unexpectedly with Downs Syndrome, which is really sad, but if anyone is up for the challenge, it's Alan and Erica. They have a terrific outlook on it, and are so strong.

If you'd like to see better pics of the little guy and to hear more of their story, check out his birth announcement website that Erica created at http://www.west.reinosites.com/



A couple weeks ago we had our friends Dave and Nicki come up from Brisbane for a visit. These are the friends that we met at our church in Vancouver while Dave was studying at Regent College. He is now doing his PhD in Brisbane.


They have been amazing friends to us and we love them so much.

Andrew was lending Dave his rashie shirt for surfing... Dave had a nice surf and it was just about my turn when it started POURING... not that that matters when you're surfing, but it does for the rest of your friends on the beach, so we packed up and headed home. Soon after that the sun came back out and we walked to Mooloolaba for coffee, then had a swim in our pool, and then dinner on our patio. Great day!

Hope you're all doing well... stay in touch!

~Corinna for Team AC

Surfing & Work

Hi Guys,

Another little update from Team AC in Australia:

We are loving living here SO much... we feel so blessed to wake up every morning to sunshine and ocean views!


A couple weeks ago, after a lot of research, we bought a surfboard, which was really exciting for us. We'd taken lessons here and there before so thought we had a general idea of how to surf, but now that we're trying it without a teacher by our side, we are sucking! It is a REALLY hard sport!



But we are determined to keep going with it. The other day we chucked it in our pool and did a few drills, just so we could learn how to stand up on it a bit better. It was helpful for the next time we went out in the ocean, and today I had a great little surf session!

By the way, thanks to Mom and Dad Hiller and Oma Hiller for the surfboard... the Christmas money we got from them went towards buying this new toy!


Workwise, Andrew is really enjoying his new job. He is teaching Math 8, 9, and 12, as well as Science and Careers. Between that and working on his masters at night, he is really busy. He is also playing music with some guys, so that keeps him extra busy!

I didn't have any teaching work for the first 2.5 weeks of school, although I'd emailed my resume to nearly all the schools on the coast. Andrew then suggested I make business cards and bring them around to the schools and personally introduce myself to the principals.

At first I didn't think that was such a good idea as I didn't want to pester them after just having emailed them my resume, but he kept encouraging me to do it, so I set out and hit up 37 schools in 4 days last week! A LOT of driving and navigating and getting lost and keeping at it!



It was funny because I put on my best teacher-wear, but I was driving around in our old rust-bucket of a car (the free one). I always tried to park far away from the office so they wouldn't see the car and have it contribute negatively to their first impression of me.

To give you an example of how dire it is, as I rolled into the grocery store parking lot last week, a staff member came running up to me as I got out of the car, and handed me my hubcap that had come off the wheel! The car is in quite good shape mechanically, but just doesn't look too slick. :)

Anyways, back to the point of the story, after going to all these schools, I did get work this past Thurs and Fri, and hopefully it'll keep coming this week. If not, I guess I'll just have to work on my surfing skills!

On another note, happy 55th birthday to my mom today, and a happy 65th birthday to Gill on the 26th! Can't wait for your visit in April.

Love, Corinna

ps- in case you missed the video of our place, here are a few pics:

The main view from our living room:


If you turn 90 degrees (or look out our bedroom window), you see this:


And if you're looking up from the direction of the ocean, this is the view of our entire building. It is terraced as it goes up the hill, so each unit is 3 steps higher than the neighbor in front of them, which gives everyone a really great view- no one ends up with a view of the parking lot!

We are the top left unit, and the pool is at the very front (behind the fence and retaining wall you can see from this angle).


pps- the top pic is of Andrew getting ready to hit the beach... I know it's a bit different than what you'd wear to the beach in Vancouver, but the sun here is really THAT strong that you do have to wear a big fat hat (and a sun shirt is a good idea too), or else you'll get burned to a crisp in 5 minutes flat!

Thailand Pics

Hey Guys,

Here are the Thailand pics I promised you last month. You may have already seen heaps of them on Facebook, but if you don't have FB, this post is for you. I'll comment underneath each pic. They are in very random order.

Here's Andrew in our new house, setting up the lights we bought in Bangkok... you can see the final result in the top pic.

View from the deck of our guesthouse in Koh Lanta. Every day this big white ferry would pull up and let off a bunch of new tourists and take the old ones back to the mainland.


Fish that nibble the dead skin off your feet. You have to pay to stick your feet in here for 30 minutes, which is kinda ironic since you're basically paying to feed the fish! I did it and it really tickled and felt a bit eery, but after about 5 minutes you get used to it, and then you leave with really smooth feet.


Andrew in the pool on Klong Nin beach on the island of Koh Lanta. It was one of those infinity pools that looks like it doesn't have an edge... pretty neat!


Railay Beach in Krabi. Although this area is technically part of Thailand's mainland, it is only accessible by long-tail boat, which are these long fishing boats with a long motor sticking off the back. They just chuck your luggage in and the water sprays up into the boat if it's a wavy day. Best to pack light and not bring your laptop :)


Yummy Pad Thai... we had this almost every day, and tasted so many different varieties... love it!


Sipping coconut water at Karon Beach on Phuket... nice restaurant overlooking the ocean.



We rented this scooter a bunch of times to get around Phuket. In Bangkok it's easy to hop into a taxi since there are meters to charge your fare, but in a lot of other parts of Thailand (like Phuket) you and the driver have to negotiate a price before getting in. This means they usually charge you WAY more than the ride is worth, so it's a good idea to have your own wheels!


Going for an elephant ride, which was followed by lunch, a hike to a waterfall, and then white-water rafting... an all-day kind of tour in Chiang Mai (a couple hours north of Bangkok by plane).

Renting a kayak in Railay Beach... it was really cool b/c you could paddle through these narrow ocean tunnels which are part of the cliffs that go right into the ocean all around this area. I got Andrew to sit in the front so I could take a paddling break whenever I wanted without him noticing :)


Night market in Chiang Mai. Andrew always finds guitar stuff wherever he is, and this stall was full of little replicas and keychains. Look how happy he is!


This is at the end of our ziplining trip called "Jungle Flight," also in Chiang Mai. The guy in the green shirt was our guide and was really funny.

Jungle Flight included 22 different ziplines, suspension bridges, and abseils.... and lunch afterwards (and a free t-shirt). The first few zips were a bit scary, but after a while it was just fun! There were a few ziplines where Andrew and I got to go side-by-side. The guide called this "honeymoon style."


We also got to visit an orphanage near Bangkok. This is the one that Julia did her missions trip to last year. The houses that these orphans get to live in are brand new and look really North American... we were really impressed. The people who run the orphanage, Karen and Ricky Sanchez are from my old church in Abbotsford, and it was really great to see/hear everything they've been doing in Thailand since 2000.


At the beginning of the cooking school in Chiang Mai, they took us to the market to learn how to pick out the right ingredients for all the stuff we were going to be making. The guy teaching us was really funny with his descriptions of all the veggies... didn't know veggies could be so funny!


In Bangkok we did a big tour of the Grand Palace... really amazing grounds. Technically this is where the King and Queen live, but they actually only spend a night there once in a while, and then live somewhere else the rest of the time.


Andrew with a guard at the Grand Palace. We didn't know this, but you can't wear shorts into the Grand Palace, so he had to rent these ugly grey pants. (And I had to rent this pretty Thai skirt, which looked ridiculous with the runners I was wearing... so no pics of me, you'll see!)


At the Grand Palace... the only pic of us together where you can really tell we're in Thailand from the background.


Andrew ordering Pad Thai from a street food stand on KhaoSan Rd in Bangkok... this is the really touristy area and we were staying nearby. You could choose from a variety of toppings and noodle thicknesses... all for about $1. That's about 1/15th the price of ordering the same thing here in Australia!


Out for lunch with Ricky Sanchez, the orphanage guy. He took us out to eat at the local mall and introduced me to this really yummy "unripened papaya salad"... way better than it sounds!

Anyways, next time we see you we'll show you the rest of the pics, unless you've already seen them on FB.

We'll post a few pics of our new house soon too. I tried to take a video of it for you, but had plenty of trouble uploading it online... I think it had to do with our camera, so we're gonna borrow another one soon and try again. I'll send you the link if/when it works. If not, it'll just be good old pics!

Talk soon,

~Corinna for Team AC