Every time I walk into the flat I can't help but smile at the corn getting higher every day...

Spent the last week digging up a section of the backyard to turn into our veggie garden. Again, had to figure out how to keep it crabby-free (as they'll eat all our seedlings) and during a Parks office lunch BBQ, came up with the perfect solution: do what the professionals do. During the annual crab migration the roads are literally crawling with thousands upon thousands of these crustaceans traveling to the ocean looking for water and a mate. So to avoid catastrophic road moralities, Parks has installed culverts under the main roads, and channel the migratin' mass with long sections of specialized tarp. Turns out they have huge spools of the stuff left over from the project, and we're welcome to use as much as we'd like. Alright! After surrounding the garden with the tarp we start to dig up our rows and transplant the corn and cucumbers. We also inherit an eggplant and some herbs from some folks moving off-island. We wonder if we should dig up the "upper terrace" too and expand our potential veggie real estate...

Get up at 3am and head out to Greta Beach to catch the annual red crab migration. About a month ago the male and female crabs traveled down the plateau forest and came to the ocean to rehydrate. The males then made and fought over nesting burrows, where "when two crabs love each other very much" billions of new baby crabs got their start. Shirking all further responsibility, the males then headed back up the terrace to their home on the plateau. The females stayed ocean side for about a month while the fertilized eggs, held in a special abdominal flap on their carapace, developed.
Somehow, during the during the last week of the phase of the moon at the early morning high tide, all the females make the charge for the water and release their eggs, which hatch upon contact. You can see the dark eggs bursting out of their abdominal flap, and they do this little claws-up, gyrating dance to release the eggs in the water.

They litter all possible surfaces, climbing the cliffs projecting over the ocean. Some females are a bit lazy about their motherly duties and simply drop their eggs from an overhanging precipice. Sometimes the eggs make to the water, and sometimes they land in your hair. And there's a surprising amount of momentum coming from a falling crabby egg mass.









High tide falls around 4am, so most of action happens in the pitch dark.






As dawn begins to break I set the camera on an extended exposure, and capture a few folks walking on the beach with their headlamps.










We stick around for sunrise and watch the last of crabs make their trek to the ocean.

Sow some corn in the front garden today. Boy oh boy oh boy, I sure do hope it takes!

Christmas Island puts up its holiday decorations. The main attraction is a street light in the middle of the roundabout strung up with Christmas lights. The first shot is taken opposite our flat, and shows it, on the left, in the background. The second is taken from our veranda, and the time lapse setting captures three vehicles in the roundabout.

The flat is officially starting to grow on us, and we're feeling like putting down some roots. So we spend the weekend ripping out weeds and sewing seeds. We remove the tangle of weeds from the front garden, leaving only a papaya tree. We realize that we have no defenses against the red crabs, who are currently on the move beginning their migration to the ocean, so we salvage some sheet metal from the "tip" (=dump) and set up a crabby barrier. We add a little rocky landscaping, and needing a little more shade for our veranda, we decide to translocate a palm from our jungle-y backyard.








[Arthur pauses to reflect exactly how much 'merican white trash persona he can bring to the planting venture...]















We set up a mess of seed trays, and wonder if anything will germinate from all our little seeds. After cleaning up, we continue on the if-we-can't-buy-it-let's-make-it road and make yogurt and a homemade pizza for dinner.

FLIGHTPATH TO CHRISTMAS ISLAND

Start Arthur’s ipod timer on the jetway in Minneapolis to see what our total travel time will be. First flight is from Minneapolis to L.A. (4 hrs), and, after eating leftover lefse, we head from L.A. to Auckland (12.5 hrs) with no problems; get Air New Zealand's 747 into Auckland and it's big and beautiful and overflowing with movies and good food. During descent, can start to see tiny bits of islands spotting the ocean, and the idea of island living becomes all the more real. We’ve now been traveling for 20 hours. Grab a wireless connection in the airport and use our new Magicjack to call home, for free! First time trying it internationally (though it still registers as a local number) and get great reception. Excellent.

Our last flight for a couple days is from Auckland to Perth. Another big plane with lots of movies and food. Don’t sleep much, arrive on time, customs a surprising snap. Get picked up from our airport motel, waiting outside we find unexpected heat and humidity. We check in, shower, and “lay down for a minute.” When we wake up, it’s suddenly dark outside, and apparently 4 hours later. Luckily the hotel has a pub menu, as it’s 1030 at night. After eating we promptly pass out again.

Wake up to sunlight, eat some breakfast, and figure out the bus system and head to downtown Perth. Wander around for awhile and check out the outside malls, the waterfront, and Perth's bell tower.

We take a little rest under some great palm trees, which, at first glance, appeared to be inhabited by toy parrots. After some squawking and flying, we figure out our mistake and watch these Rainbow lorikeets play around for a bit.

We stop for a coffee and realize we’ve now been traveling for 60 hours.

Leaving the city we stumble across a Belgian beer garden, and indulge as it may be the last chance for awhile for imbibing our favorite brew.

Bus map shows location of main depot, and we see tons of buses pulling into large structure, but all the signs say “no pedestrian access.” Figure out that need to cross large sky walk to access building, and find the right bus. But don’t remember from what bus stop we started our day, and luckily the friendly bus driver knows our motel, and drops us at the right spot. See two gents drinking beer outside the motel restaurant as we return, and we officially meet Pete and Dennis, the project’s co-supervisors. Enjoy pleasantries over a beer, and then we take a taxi to Fremantle, a coastal town known for good seafood.

Take off next morning – Perth to Cocos (Keeling) Island to Christmas Island. We land a few times to refuel, and the seven-hour overall flight path has us anxious to stop the traveling. We descend onto a tiny airstrip on a tiny island, and, after 85 hours of travel, arrive on Christmas Island.