Australian Animals at Healesville Sanctuary

This is one last post about my time with my parents and aunt and uncle. When they came back through Melbourne after their time in New Zealand, we had a day to enjoy some Australian sights. Our first stop was Brighton Beach for "morning tea." I bought them various flavored macaroons from the market and brought along some strawberry lemonade.

Speaking of the market, I brought them all to the South Melbourne Market first thing in the morning and made them go pick out and buy their own meat item for lunch. They had fun navigating the crowds, seeing Australian items for sale (lamb and kangaroo), and trying out their knowledge of the metric system and Australian currency!






After morning tea, we drove out near Healesville Sanctuary and I cooked up a BBQ lunch while my family took a short hike in the park. The flies were insane and prevented us from even sitting down while eating, but we made it work. Then it was off to Healesville Sanctuary, where you can see all of the Australian animals in one place.

We started our visit with the bird show. They flew all around our heads while we learned facts about them.

The best part was when this eagle spotted a wild version of itself high up in the sky. Well, the wild one spotted this one too, and ended up swooping down incredibly close. We almost got to witness an attack; you could tell the handler guy was kind of freaking out!

Sleepy dingo.

After the bird show, we walked around the other exhibits, checking out several Australian animals. I've included a few of my favorite pictures for you to enjoy: a dingo, emu, lyrebird, red kangaroo, koala, pelican, colorful bird of some sort, Tasmanian devil, and kookaburra.

It's hard to believe that we won't be living in the land of these animals much longer. The shipping company came today and packed up all our things to send to California. We rented a car and made one trip to the op shop and two trips to the rubbish collection place. We're down to just one large backpack and one daypack for ten weeks of survival. This is getting really real!

Jon Visits

The South Melbourne Market Tram 96 stop near our place-here I am sending Jon off at the end of his stay.

Back in September, our friend Jon came out to Australia for a three week trip. Before and after his tours of Sydney, Western Australia, and Tasmania, he stayed with us in Melbourne. I've known Jon for about seven years. He was one of the first people to join the soccer team I started back in Denver, and he keeps the Smurf team going today! The Smurfs used to do a lot of camping, karaoke nights, parties, and BBQs together back in the day. It was good to reconnect with a Colorado friend.

Jon and I biked down to Brighton Beach on the afternoon he arrived, with a stop in St Kilda. We got some takeaway from Bala's and enjoyed our lunch on the beach. Luckily, we had a nice, sunny day for our ride.

The next day, I drove Jon down part of the Great Ocean Road. 

He was lucky enough to get to see several Australian animals all in one day!

I spotted this echidna on the side of the road; it looks like it got its nose stuck in some sort of ring!

We saw plenty of kangaroos on the Anglesea golf course.

Jon has a pretty sweet zoom lens, so I used his camera to get this shot of a guy at Bells Beach.

We didn't go all the way to Cape Otway Road, but we saw plenty of koalas near Kennett River.

And while we were out of the car looking for koalas, I spotted a kookaburra!

So I'd say it was a pretty successful day trip down to the Great Ocean Road and hopefully a good start to Jon's Australian experience. He has some cool pictures of the other parts of his trip (and all his trips-he's quite the world traveler) on his website-check it out: www.sunlightpeak.com/travel/

Thanks for the cool pictures Jon, and I hope you enjoyed your time in Australia!

It wasn't easy, but we found a place in Melbourne that serves kangaroo for dinner!

Beach, Wine, and Putt Putt Golf

For my family's final full day in Australia, we did a lot. Who am I kidding? We did a lot for the whole two weeks they were here! Anyway, we started with "morning tea" at Brighton Beach. Everyone enjoyed picking out his or her favorite bathing box while eating lamingtons (an Australian sponge cake dessert) and drinking raspberry lemonade. We played some beach games and then headed to our next location.

After driving through the Sherbrooke Forest, we headed to the top of Mount Dandenong for lunch. We enjoyed the view of Melbourne's CBD from afar and had fun playing among the daisies, climbing the Giant's Chair, and looking through the Wishing Tree.

Then it was off to Domaine Chandon for their winery tour and a tasting. My dad really likes wine, so it was fun to show him the Australian wine region.

After the wine tasting, it was nice to relax out by the vineyards. Yes, it's a rough life, but somebody's got to live it!

We stopped off at another winery and had "afternoon tea," which included yummy cheese, crackers, and strawberries.

Then it was back to Melbourne, where we played a round of glow-in-the-dark putt putt golf in the Docklands using some coupons. Justin had been waiting anxiously for this event. I was proud to beat him and win the game!

Zack met us after work for an Indian dinner in the Docklands, and the Dills later went to bed for their last time Down Under!

Rats at Brighton

On Saturday afternoon, the sun seemed to be shining, and we wanted to get out and enjoy it.  The water had been freezing last time we went surfing, so instead we decided to go for a bike ride to Brighton Beach.  We brought along some wine and cheese and crackers and sat down in front of a colorful bathing box to enjoy the afternoon.  Of course, the sun went away when we got there, and it was pretty chilly, but it was still fun.  If you've been following along, you'll know we've been there before.  But this time was a little different.

First of all, there were surf rescue boats practicing out in the bay.  It was neat to watch them race around the buoys.  There were also a bunch of strange looking birds out on the rocks.  Among the rocks, I found some starfish, little black shells, algae of some sort, etc.  The bay was full of sailboats and stand-up paddle boarders.

But the most interesting thing that we discovered is that there are rats at Brighton Beach!  I noticed one scamper under a bathing box, and we soon found two of them running around.  They aren't as ugly as New York City rats, and they actually look like cute little mice (but they're bigger).  So of course we put out some pieces of our cheese so I could get some pictures of them.  People like us who feed them are probably the reason these rats hang around!

The seagulls picked up on the fact that we were handing out food and tried to come over and snatch the cheese, but we chased them away.  I wonder if the millionaires who live on this street know that their beach is infested with rats?  Ha!

Brighton Beach Houses

Yesterday afternoon we Rollerbladed/biked down to Brighton Beach.  It's famous for the Beach Houses.  Apparently these things cost around $250,000, and you don't even officially own them (the city does).  I guess it's a status symbol.  As you can see, they are painted in lots of fun colors.  I didn't realize there were so many of them...about 75.  I guess people use them for changing clothes and such during the summer.  Last night, a few groups were having picnics or getting photographs taken in front of them.  They are pretty!

It's getting rather chilly around here-only up near 60 degrees (I haven't learned Celsius yet!) during the day.  It's very strange seeing palm trees combined with cold weather and Autumn leaves on the ground.  We even had to turn on the heat in our apartment because the nights were getting too cold.  I hear Denver is in the 80s-I'm kind of jealous!