11.25.10
Well,
Wednesday was a very exciting day; today we were heading up to Kuranda.
We woke up at 3am for our 4:10am hotel pick-up. We got picked up and then taken into Mareeba for our hot air balloon ride. The balloon ride was about a half hour. We went fairly high up and over fields and saw wild wallabies and it was a ton of fun. We were on the first flight and so had to get off for the second one. We ended up landing on the side of the rode in a small strip and switched passengers. Then we had to chase the balloon since the wind is in control of where it goes. After the second group landed we had to help pack up the balloon. This included helping deflate, folding it up, and lift the basket onto a truck. After this we headed into town for our champagne breakfast. We had eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, hash browns, and of course champagne. From there, we headed to Kuranda.
In Kuranda, we walked around the shops and the markets before heading to the Rain ForeStation. This is where we took an Aboriginal “dream-time” walk and learned about spears, the didgeridoo, and throwing boomerangs. I also finally saw someone circular breathe and will attempt to learn it. Then we went to an Aboriginal dance show. Then we left to go to the Sky Rail. The Sky Rail went through the rainforest. We were able to get off and look at Barron Falls, and rainforest plants. Unfortunately at the top it was raining pretty hard and so we couldn’t really see a lot but it was fairly nice at the bottom after we navigated through the fog. At the bottom, we got picked up and taken back to the hotel. Even though it was like 3:30pm, we were all exhausted. We then walked around the city looking for food and finally decided to eat at KFC. It was a lot better than I expected it to be probably due to my extremely low expectations of KFC. Then we came back to our room, took showers, and went to bed.
Thursday was Thanksgiving Day. This was the day we were heading out to the Great Barrier Reef. We went to the Reef Fleet at 8:15 and caught our boat. We left the marina at 9am. On our way out to the outer reef, we stopped at Fitzroy Island to drop off some people. The entire trip out to the platform took about an hour and a half. Due to the weather, the ride out was very choppy and I became very seasick even though I took pills to prevent it. We were hoping that the platform would be very stable but found out that it was also floating and thus not stable either. Still seasick, we rode both a glass bottom boat and a semi-submerged boat. After having a roll for lunch, we slept on the sun deck with hopes of feeling better. We were woken up by the rain and I definitely felt a ton better. We walked through the underwater part of the platform before heading back onto the boat to head back into Cairns. We got back to Cairns at about 5:40pm. Again we were exhausted and went for food. This time, we ended up at Villa Romano. My mom and I had Moreton Bay Bugs with prawns and my dad had veal. We all had a thanksgiving glass of wine before returning to the room and falling asleep.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Cairns Round 2!!!!
11.23.10
Well,
Our last day in Sydney was spent walking around again. Before my mom and I woke up, my dad went exploring. He found an underground mall that was right across the street from the hotel. After my mom and I got up, we headed down to the mall to get breakfast. Then we wandered around checking out the area. From there we went to get my mom a free opal kangaroo pin. Then we walked over to the Botanic Gardens. We walked around for a couple of hours and got tons of sweet photos of plants and of the opera house with the Harbour Bridge behind it. When we got done in the gardens, we headed back to see the Opera house one more time up close. We got our final pictures and I touched all three buildings one last time. From there, we headed around Circular Quay back to the Rocks to the Fortune of War. We all got a Boag’s Draught and my dad also got Tooheys Old Black Ale. After that we decided we wanted food. We got side tracked and ended up in the three story Apple store. After checking out their new toys, we walked back to the Royal George bar for dinner. We had Barramundi and Chips. Then we found out that the bar was connected to a high class restaurant that turned into a night club called Ivy. My dad was blown away with what it was and how hidden it was. After dinner we returned to our room to pack and get ready to head to Cairns.
We got up at like 5:30am Tuesday Morning. We finished packing and caught a cab to the airport about an hour later. We grabbed breakfast at the airport and then left at 8:30am. We landed in Cairns just before 11am. Then we got a taxi to the Shangri-la Hotel. This hotel was more like a resort than a hotel, it is amazing. Unfortunately, it was rainy and muggy for most of the day. We walked around trying to find lunch and ended up at a Starbucks like place called Gloria Jean’s coffee. Then we continued walking around the city. Then we ended up at Kani’s. We shared a seafood platter that had prawns, lobster, salmon, and an avocado salad, and an Outback Sampler with kangaroo, crocodile, emu, and veggies. My favorites were emu, kangaroo, and the salmon in that order. Then we walked back to the hotel and went to bed.
Well,
Our last day in Sydney was spent walking around again. Before my mom and I woke up, my dad went exploring. He found an underground mall that was right across the street from the hotel. After my mom and I got up, we headed down to the mall to get breakfast. Then we wandered around checking out the area. From there we went to get my mom a free opal kangaroo pin. Then we walked over to the Botanic Gardens. We walked around for a couple of hours and got tons of sweet photos of plants and of the opera house with the Harbour Bridge behind it. When we got done in the gardens, we headed back to see the Opera house one more time up close. We got our final pictures and I touched all three buildings one last time. From there, we headed around Circular Quay back to the Rocks to the Fortune of War. We all got a Boag’s Draught and my dad also got Tooheys Old Black Ale. After that we decided we wanted food. We got side tracked and ended up in the three story Apple store. After checking out their new toys, we walked back to the Royal George bar for dinner. We had Barramundi and Chips. Then we found out that the bar was connected to a high class restaurant that turned into a night club called Ivy. My dad was blown away with what it was and how hidden it was. After dinner we returned to our room to pack and get ready to head to Cairns.
We got up at like 5:30am Tuesday Morning. We finished packing and caught a cab to the airport about an hour later. We grabbed breakfast at the airport and then left at 8:30am. We landed in Cairns just before 11am. Then we got a taxi to the Shangri-la Hotel. This hotel was more like a resort than a hotel, it is amazing. Unfortunately, it was rainy and muggy for most of the day. We walked around trying to find lunch and ended up at a Starbucks like place called Gloria Jean’s coffee. Then we continued walking around the city. Then we ended up at Kani’s. We shared a seafood platter that had prawns, lobster, salmon, and an avocado salad, and an Outback Sampler with kangaroo, crocodile, emu, and veggies. My favorites were emu, kangaroo, and the salmon in that order. Then we walked back to the hotel and went to bed.
Monday, November 22, 2010
21!!!!!!!!!!!
11.21.10
Well,
Wednesday was the day I started packing up. I did very little packing and just relaxed since I only had a few days left at kings. That is until about 9:45pm. This is when I went to the bus station to head to Indooroopilly mall. This was opening night for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1. When I got to Indooroopilly, I filled in some crossword puzzles waiting for Jessica to show up with other girls from Women’s College. They finally arrived at 11:30. The theaters we went to had reserved seating so there was no need to wait in a line for 5 hours beforehand to try and get a good seat. The place was nearly empty until about 11:15. I enjoyed the movie, it was much more hilarious than I was expecting. Afterwards, I hitched a ride from one of Jessica’s friends back to King’s.
Thursday, I essentially finished packing except for the miscellaneous thing’s I used that night and on Friday. This took me most of the day since I had to empty out my closet and desk. I also had to do laundry so I had enough clothes to last for my trips with my parents. I filled all three of my suitcases and about 10 plastic grocery bags to fill the empty suitcases being brought by my parents. After I got done and felt that I had everything either packed or ready to be packed after I used it, it hit me that I was leaving Australia very soon. Even though I am excited to go home, I am going to have a tough time leaving. So to make myself feel a little better, I went up to see Gets, the head porter. Before I could really say much he asked me if I wanted to get some pizza and we headed to La Porchetta in the Vil. We got a Margarita pizza and went back to King’s and ate and talked for like an hour or so. It definitely cheered me up. After that I went to bed.
Friday was the 19th of November, aka, my birthday. Even though turning 21 here is not as climactic as it is in the states, I was still very excited. Unfortunately, this was that day I had to say bye to most of the people at King’s. I woke up early to make sure I got to see Lido and Wendy in the dining hall since they both leave for holiday and won’t be there when I return on December 1st to pick up my stuff. After having breakfast, I once again relaxed for most of the day. Since it was the end of the semester, most of the guys had left or had family visiting and so there wasn’t really anyone to do anything with. For lunch, I went to the kebab and pizza place in the Vil for a beef and lamb kebab and chips. It was really tasty. After lunch, I started to move all of my things up into a storage room since I couldn’t use my room for storage. I took about half since the rest still was not fully packed. For dinner, I found a place in West End that served kangaroo and I really wanted to have kangaroo for dinner on my birthday. I invited a group of people but Jessica was the only one that could make it; some were in Tassie, some had family visiting, and other just couldn’t make it. We met at about 5:30 to catch the 109 to the city to do some last minute souvenir shopping before heading to food. I made a reservation for 7pm and since I was unsure of the restaurant’s exact location, we wandered around West End until we found it. The place was called Tukka. I got to have my Kangaroo and I had a glass of wine. It was delicious. I am very happy that I will be able to drink when I return to the States.
I only got two hours of sleep Friday night due to anxiety for Saturday. I got up at 3:30am, left my room, turned in my room keys, and caught a taxi to the airport at 3:50am. For the third time, I flew to Sydney. My flight was at 6:00am and I managed to get to my gate by 4:30. I watched videos and listened to music on my iPod while waiting for the sun to rise and to board. When I got to Sydney, I got my luggage and headed to the international terminal to meet my parents. Once we found each other, we got a taxi and headed to a different Travelodge than the one that Erica and I stayed in at the end of September. Check-in time was at 2pm and since we arrived before lunch, we put our bags in their storage room until we could check in. we walked over to the QVB to walk around and take photos. Then we went to Darling Harbour to take more photos. After that we started walking back to our hotel and stopped at a Pie Face to get lunch. Since this was my parents’ first meal in Australia, I figured they should have an Australian food of meat pies and sausage rolls. After lunch we were allowed into our room. Luckily, our room is on floor 13. Once our bags were moved into the room, we left and headed towards the opera house. We caught the 3:15pm “Essentials Tour” through the opera house. Unknown to us, Saturday is matinee day so there were performances happening in almost all of the theaters. The theaters we were allowed into were the Studio, the opera theater, and the concert hall. We were lucky since we were not going to be able to get into the opera theater because of the ballet but it got let out just before the end of the tour. After we finished the tour we stopped in the gift shop and then headed to jetty #6 at Circular Quay. At 5pm, we left on our cocktail cruise. We sailed around the harbor for about an hour and a half and got some great pictures. We had a Sydney Bay Breeze, which was our complimentary cocktail, and a snack platter with cheese and olives and such. Then my dad got a gin martini, my mom got pink champagne, and I got a Mojito. After we returned to Circular Quay, we walked back to our hotel, stopping at some souvenir stores. Since we were not very hungry, we went to McDonald’s for dinner. Then we returned to the hotel and went to bed.
On Sunday, my parents were up early still trying to adjust to the time change and I slept until 8:30. We headed towards town hall and stopped in Woolworths for breakfast. I was just planning on grabbing a doughnut or something like that but we found they had a café on the top level and so we had a fairly large breakfast. My parents got to try the Australian breakfast sausage and we had eggs and toast. I had one and a half cooked tomatoes since neither of them wanted theirs. From there, we walked across the street to the anchor at Town Hall to catch the walking tour of the city that Erica and I took. The tour guide was the boyfriend of the tour guide that Erica and I had. The tour was just as good as I remembered it and I got another one of their awesome maps. The tour, again, took about 3 hours. Since it was the weekend, there was a market in the Rocks. We walked through them and headed towards the Hero of Waterloo to grab a beer. My mom had Pure Blonde, my dad had a pilsner, and I had Tooheys New. Tooheys is my favorite beer that I have had in Australia. It is so nice to be able to grab a beer with my parents, finally. After refreshing, we went to walk across the Harbour Bridge. After taking more pictures of the opera house and Circular Quay, we walked back across and over through the rocks. Once we got back across my mom needed a restroom and we stopped at the Australia Hotel. While my dad and I waited, we looked at the menu and noticed that they had kangaroo, crocodile, emu, and tons of other pizzas. So, we made a reservation, ran to a few souvenir stores, returned, and ordered a half and half Kangaroo and BBQ Emu pizza. We again had a beer with dinner. My mom had a Blue Tongue, my dad had a Beez Neez, and I had a Fat Yak. After dinner, we thought about possibly going to the Sydney tower or the other tall lookout. In both places, it was a bit expensive and not entirely worth the money to go to. While we walked back to the hotel, we stopped at Pie Face once again to grab a couple of their mini dessert pies. We had cherry, chocolate, and pear and ricotta. We ate them back in the room. Then we all went to bed.
Well,
Wednesday was the day I started packing up. I did very little packing and just relaxed since I only had a few days left at kings. That is until about 9:45pm. This is when I went to the bus station to head to Indooroopilly mall. This was opening night for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1. When I got to Indooroopilly, I filled in some crossword puzzles waiting for Jessica to show up with other girls from Women’s College. They finally arrived at 11:30. The theaters we went to had reserved seating so there was no need to wait in a line for 5 hours beforehand to try and get a good seat. The place was nearly empty until about 11:15. I enjoyed the movie, it was much more hilarious than I was expecting. Afterwards, I hitched a ride from one of Jessica’s friends back to King’s.
Thursday, I essentially finished packing except for the miscellaneous thing’s I used that night and on Friday. This took me most of the day since I had to empty out my closet and desk. I also had to do laundry so I had enough clothes to last for my trips with my parents. I filled all three of my suitcases and about 10 plastic grocery bags to fill the empty suitcases being brought by my parents. After I got done and felt that I had everything either packed or ready to be packed after I used it, it hit me that I was leaving Australia very soon. Even though I am excited to go home, I am going to have a tough time leaving. So to make myself feel a little better, I went up to see Gets, the head porter. Before I could really say much he asked me if I wanted to get some pizza and we headed to La Porchetta in the Vil. We got a Margarita pizza and went back to King’s and ate and talked for like an hour or so. It definitely cheered me up. After that I went to bed.
Friday was the 19th of November, aka, my birthday. Even though turning 21 here is not as climactic as it is in the states, I was still very excited. Unfortunately, this was that day I had to say bye to most of the people at King’s. I woke up early to make sure I got to see Lido and Wendy in the dining hall since they both leave for holiday and won’t be there when I return on December 1st to pick up my stuff. After having breakfast, I once again relaxed for most of the day. Since it was the end of the semester, most of the guys had left or had family visiting and so there wasn’t really anyone to do anything with. For lunch, I went to the kebab and pizza place in the Vil for a beef and lamb kebab and chips. It was really tasty. After lunch, I started to move all of my things up into a storage room since I couldn’t use my room for storage. I took about half since the rest still was not fully packed. For dinner, I found a place in West End that served kangaroo and I really wanted to have kangaroo for dinner on my birthday. I invited a group of people but Jessica was the only one that could make it; some were in Tassie, some had family visiting, and other just couldn’t make it. We met at about 5:30 to catch the 109 to the city to do some last minute souvenir shopping before heading to food. I made a reservation for 7pm and since I was unsure of the restaurant’s exact location, we wandered around West End until we found it. The place was called Tukka. I got to have my Kangaroo and I had a glass of wine. It was delicious. I am very happy that I will be able to drink when I return to the States.
I only got two hours of sleep Friday night due to anxiety for Saturday. I got up at 3:30am, left my room, turned in my room keys, and caught a taxi to the airport at 3:50am. For the third time, I flew to Sydney. My flight was at 6:00am and I managed to get to my gate by 4:30. I watched videos and listened to music on my iPod while waiting for the sun to rise and to board. When I got to Sydney, I got my luggage and headed to the international terminal to meet my parents. Once we found each other, we got a taxi and headed to a different Travelodge than the one that Erica and I stayed in at the end of September. Check-in time was at 2pm and since we arrived before lunch, we put our bags in their storage room until we could check in. we walked over to the QVB to walk around and take photos. Then we went to Darling Harbour to take more photos. After that we started walking back to our hotel and stopped at a Pie Face to get lunch. Since this was my parents’ first meal in Australia, I figured they should have an Australian food of meat pies and sausage rolls. After lunch we were allowed into our room. Luckily, our room is on floor 13. Once our bags were moved into the room, we left and headed towards the opera house. We caught the 3:15pm “Essentials Tour” through the opera house. Unknown to us, Saturday is matinee day so there were performances happening in almost all of the theaters. The theaters we were allowed into were the Studio, the opera theater, and the concert hall. We were lucky since we were not going to be able to get into the opera theater because of the ballet but it got let out just before the end of the tour. After we finished the tour we stopped in the gift shop and then headed to jetty #6 at Circular Quay. At 5pm, we left on our cocktail cruise. We sailed around the harbor for about an hour and a half and got some great pictures. We had a Sydney Bay Breeze, which was our complimentary cocktail, and a snack platter with cheese and olives and such. Then my dad got a gin martini, my mom got pink champagne, and I got a Mojito. After we returned to Circular Quay, we walked back to our hotel, stopping at some souvenir stores. Since we were not very hungry, we went to McDonald’s for dinner. Then we returned to the hotel and went to bed.
On Sunday, my parents were up early still trying to adjust to the time change and I slept until 8:30. We headed towards town hall and stopped in Woolworths for breakfast. I was just planning on grabbing a doughnut or something like that but we found they had a café on the top level and so we had a fairly large breakfast. My parents got to try the Australian breakfast sausage and we had eggs and toast. I had one and a half cooked tomatoes since neither of them wanted theirs. From there, we walked across the street to the anchor at Town Hall to catch the walking tour of the city that Erica and I took. The tour guide was the boyfriend of the tour guide that Erica and I had. The tour was just as good as I remembered it and I got another one of their awesome maps. The tour, again, took about 3 hours. Since it was the weekend, there was a market in the Rocks. We walked through them and headed towards the Hero of Waterloo to grab a beer. My mom had Pure Blonde, my dad had a pilsner, and I had Tooheys New. Tooheys is my favorite beer that I have had in Australia. It is so nice to be able to grab a beer with my parents, finally. After refreshing, we went to walk across the Harbour Bridge. After taking more pictures of the opera house and Circular Quay, we walked back across and over through the rocks. Once we got back across my mom needed a restroom and we stopped at the Australia Hotel. While my dad and I waited, we looked at the menu and noticed that they had kangaroo, crocodile, emu, and tons of other pizzas. So, we made a reservation, ran to a few souvenir stores, returned, and ordered a half and half Kangaroo and BBQ Emu pizza. We again had a beer with dinner. My mom had a Blue Tongue, my dad had a Beez Neez, and I had a Fat Yak. After dinner, we thought about possibly going to the Sydney tower or the other tall lookout. In both places, it was a bit expensive and not entirely worth the money to go to. While we walked back to the hotel, we stopped at Pie Face once again to grab a couple of their mini dessert pies. We had cherry, chocolate, and pear and ricotta. We ate them back in the room. Then we all went to bed.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Tasmania 2!!!!!!!!!
11.16.10
Well,
Sunday morning came and I got up around 6:15am. The tour we had booked provided us with breakfast so I had a bowl of cereal and a couple pieces of toast with jam. We checked out of the hostel by sliding the keys under the door to reception. The shuttle came and picked us up and again there were five of us. This time the three other people were not a group; one was from France, Lorraine; another from China, Carmen; and the third from the UK, Chris. Our first stop was in the town of Ross. This was a very small town that had a church on every corner and the third oldest bridge in Australia. This bridge was built by two convicts. From there we stopped at a café to grab food for lunch when it was that time. Then we were off to Freycinet (pronounced fray-sin-nay) National Park. This was the home to Wineglass Bay and Hazards Bay. The five of us decided it would be a great idea to see as much of the park as we could in the 4 hours we were there. We saw both bays and got to walk along the beaches plus we saw wild wallabies and tons of nature. It took us about 3 and a half hours to walk the 11km path. We were all exhausted by the time we made it back to the shuttle. We also stopped to see a couple lookouts before heading to Bicheno for the night. In Bicheno, we stayed at the Bicheno Backpackers Hostel. Bicheno was also a very small town; it had one supermarket and a few surf shops. For dinner, Chris, John, and I went to a surf and turf diner, basically the place that was open. After dinner, the three of us chose to go to the penguin rookeries that were in town. At 8:25, we grabbed the shuttle to the rookeries and had an hour tour of the area and saw the Little Penguins, the same kind of penguins I saw in Melbourne with Kirsten, come out of the water, scale the rocks, and waddle their way up to their nests. We also got to see some of the nests that were in man-made, observation burrows. Once that was done, we headed back to the hostel and crashed.
Monday morning was very exciting because we had to meet at 7:45am instead of 7:30am. Again, I had toast with jam. Once we checked out, we headed for some whaling lookouts. We could see the entire town and many beaches surrounding Bicheno. At that point we left Bicheno and stated our journey towards Launceston. On our way, we stopped at a river and watering hole. Then the group split up and John and I went to see a beach while the other three went to see Tasmanian Devils at a wildlife park. The beach was nice, kind of chilly but not bad. We got some good pictures and took about a 1km walk from one car park to the other. Before we reached the second car park, we had to walk through a little stream that was about a foot deep. The water was freezing. But, by the time we got back to the shuttle, our legs had dried off. Then we picked up the rest of our crew and headed to the Bay of Fires. This was another beach but this one had lichen, which is a type of rock. It is orange and made the rocks look like they were on fire. It was pretty neat. We spent about an hour there. After that we went to grab some lunch in St. Helens, the largest city on the east side of Tasmania with a whopping population of 5,000. After that we headed across the state to a cheese factory. They have it set up so people can look into the factory and watch how the cheese is made. We watched that and then went to a cheese tasting. Behind the factory were awesome views of the green hills and pastures along with their collection of cows (and bales).
After that we headed up to St. Columba Falls. The falls are about 90 meters long. The water falls onto a rocky part of the cliff so it is not just one stream falling but it splits in to multiple. After another small hike, we got up close and stood basically at the base of the falls. Then we loaded back into the shuttle and headed up to Ralph Falls. This was where we had the most gorgeous view of anything I have seen while in Australia. The water in these falls fell in one stream along the cliff but that was not the best part. Looking away from the cliff was got to see an eagle’s eye view of the green pastures. Everything was green and all the hills were coated in grass. It was clear enough that we could see out to the bay between Tasmania and Victoria. I was in shock at how beautiful the view was. After getting tons of picture we headed back up to the shuttle to go to Rangarooma. This was another small town. In this town, they had carved trees as memorials to soldiers who fought in the World War I. We then went up to one last look out over the green fields before leaving and getting to Launceston. When we got to Launceston, John and I parted ways with the rest of the group. The other three had booked a five day tour that started on the second day of our three day tour. John and I stayed at the Arthouse Hostel. This was right accords the river from the main part of Launceston. After dropping off our bags we headed into the city for dinner. I was in shock that at 7pm, the entire city was closed down. I understand that everything closes earlier in Australia but I didn’t think it was that early. Luckily we found a Thai place that was still open. For dinner, I had quail. It was really good and really spicy. After dinner we walked back to the hostel and went to bed.
Tuesday morning we slept in until 9. After checking out of the hostel, we headed towards the gorge. The gorge was about a 45 minute walk from the hostel. They had a café, a pool, a suspension bridge, and multiple trails to and from the main lake area. Our walk to the gorge was nice and fairly flat, which was nice, but our walk back was tough. We took a hike that was essentially an upside down v path. We hiked up a steep trail for about 10 minutes and then down a steep trail for about 10 minutes. Then we went to grab lunch at a place called “Burgers Got Soul.” This place had the best burgers I have had since I have been here. They still weren’t American burgers, but they were the closest. Then we walked around the city taking pictures. We then got back to the hostel to get a shuttle to the airport. The airport was really small, they had a news store and a coffee shop and the gates. About 10 minutes after we were supposed to board, we found out that the flight crew for our plane was in Melbourne and we had to wait for their flight to arrive before we could take-off. Therefore, our flight was delayed by almost two hours. We finally got back to Brisbane and got our luggage at about 8:30pm. We got back to King’s, got some food, and I went to bed.
Well,
Sunday morning came and I got up around 6:15am. The tour we had booked provided us with breakfast so I had a bowl of cereal and a couple pieces of toast with jam. We checked out of the hostel by sliding the keys under the door to reception. The shuttle came and picked us up and again there were five of us. This time the three other people were not a group; one was from France, Lorraine; another from China, Carmen; and the third from the UK, Chris. Our first stop was in the town of Ross. This was a very small town that had a church on every corner and the third oldest bridge in Australia. This bridge was built by two convicts. From there we stopped at a café to grab food for lunch when it was that time. Then we were off to Freycinet (pronounced fray-sin-nay) National Park. This was the home to Wineglass Bay and Hazards Bay. The five of us decided it would be a great idea to see as much of the park as we could in the 4 hours we were there. We saw both bays and got to walk along the beaches plus we saw wild wallabies and tons of nature. It took us about 3 and a half hours to walk the 11km path. We were all exhausted by the time we made it back to the shuttle. We also stopped to see a couple lookouts before heading to Bicheno for the night. In Bicheno, we stayed at the Bicheno Backpackers Hostel. Bicheno was also a very small town; it had one supermarket and a few surf shops. For dinner, Chris, John, and I went to a surf and turf diner, basically the place that was open. After dinner, the three of us chose to go to the penguin rookeries that were in town. At 8:25, we grabbed the shuttle to the rookeries and had an hour tour of the area and saw the Little Penguins, the same kind of penguins I saw in Melbourne with Kirsten, come out of the water, scale the rocks, and waddle their way up to their nests. We also got to see some of the nests that were in man-made, observation burrows. Once that was done, we headed back to the hostel and crashed.
Monday morning was very exciting because we had to meet at 7:45am instead of 7:30am. Again, I had toast with jam. Once we checked out, we headed for some whaling lookouts. We could see the entire town and many beaches surrounding Bicheno. At that point we left Bicheno and stated our journey towards Launceston. On our way, we stopped at a river and watering hole. Then the group split up and John and I went to see a beach while the other three went to see Tasmanian Devils at a wildlife park. The beach was nice, kind of chilly but not bad. We got some good pictures and took about a 1km walk from one car park to the other. Before we reached the second car park, we had to walk through a little stream that was about a foot deep. The water was freezing. But, by the time we got back to the shuttle, our legs had dried off. Then we picked up the rest of our crew and headed to the Bay of Fires. This was another beach but this one had lichen, which is a type of rock. It is orange and made the rocks look like they were on fire. It was pretty neat. We spent about an hour there. After that we went to grab some lunch in St. Helens, the largest city on the east side of Tasmania with a whopping population of 5,000. After that we headed across the state to a cheese factory. They have it set up so people can look into the factory and watch how the cheese is made. We watched that and then went to a cheese tasting. Behind the factory were awesome views of the green hills and pastures along with their collection of cows (and bales).
After that we headed up to St. Columba Falls. The falls are about 90 meters long. The water falls onto a rocky part of the cliff so it is not just one stream falling but it splits in to multiple. After another small hike, we got up close and stood basically at the base of the falls. Then we loaded back into the shuttle and headed up to Ralph Falls. This was where we had the most gorgeous view of anything I have seen while in Australia. The water in these falls fell in one stream along the cliff but that was not the best part. Looking away from the cliff was got to see an eagle’s eye view of the green pastures. Everything was green and all the hills were coated in grass. It was clear enough that we could see out to the bay between Tasmania and Victoria. I was in shock at how beautiful the view was. After getting tons of picture we headed back up to the shuttle to go to Rangarooma. This was another small town. In this town, they had carved trees as memorials to soldiers who fought in the World War I. We then went up to one last look out over the green fields before leaving and getting to Launceston. When we got to Launceston, John and I parted ways with the rest of the group. The other three had booked a five day tour that started on the second day of our three day tour. John and I stayed at the Arthouse Hostel. This was right accords the river from the main part of Launceston. After dropping off our bags we headed into the city for dinner. I was in shock that at 7pm, the entire city was closed down. I understand that everything closes earlier in Australia but I didn’t think it was that early. Luckily we found a Thai place that was still open. For dinner, I had quail. It was really good and really spicy. After dinner we walked back to the hostel and went to bed.
Tuesday morning we slept in until 9. After checking out of the hostel, we headed towards the gorge. The gorge was about a 45 minute walk from the hostel. They had a café, a pool, a suspension bridge, and multiple trails to and from the main lake area. Our walk to the gorge was nice and fairly flat, which was nice, but our walk back was tough. We took a hike that was essentially an upside down v path. We hiked up a steep trail for about 10 minutes and then down a steep trail for about 10 minutes. Then we went to grab lunch at a place called “Burgers Got Soul.” This place had the best burgers I have had since I have been here. They still weren’t American burgers, but they were the closest. Then we walked around the city taking pictures. We then got back to the hostel to get a shuttle to the airport. The airport was really small, they had a news store and a coffee shop and the gates. About 10 minutes after we were supposed to board, we found out that the flight crew for our plane was in Melbourne and we had to wait for their flight to arrive before we could take-off. Therefore, our flight was delayed by almost two hours. We finally got back to Brisbane and got our luggage at about 8:30pm. We got back to King’s, got some food, and I went to bed.
Tasmania!!!!!
11.13.10
Well,
John and I left King’s at the dark and early hour of 3:30am on Friday. I stayed up all night because it was not worth trying to sleep and then not being able to sleep on the planes. We arrived at the airport by 4:30am and got through checking and security before 5. Our flight left at 5:30am. I was surprised at how many people were actually on a flight that early. We had a 2 hour layover in the Canberra airport. The airport was the least exciting airport I have ever been to. They had like one coffee shop, a news agency, and gates. The gates didn’t really have sufficient seating so I sat on the floor. Then from Canberra we flew in to Hobart. I was unaware that Tasmania was a quarantined island and no produce was allowed in or out of the island. They had dogs sniffing to find the food. We finally got to Central City Backpackers hostel at about 1pm. Tasmania is 1 hour ahead of Brisbane due to daylight savings not being observed in Queensland. We had a privet room for the two which is a whole lot nicer than sharing a four bed room with strangers. It was tiny but good. That afternoon, we both took a nap to catch up on sleep. That evening we walked around Hobart to get our bearings. It was threatening rain but there was nothing more than a sprinkle. We managed to miss both breakfast and lunch and so only had dinner. We ate at a dumpling restaurant. I had some awesome wonton noodle soup. After dinner we returned to our room and played some cards before going to bed.
We checked out the hostel Saturday morning at 7am and went to wait for our tour shuttle to arrive. We got picked up at 7:20am. We found out that there were going to be five of us total on the tour but the driver did not know where the other three were getting picked up from and took me and John to the Saturday market near the wharf until he found out. After about a half hour, we found the other group and were heading on our way. Our first stop was in Richmond at a bakery and also saw the oldest bridge in Australia; it was built in 1823. From there we headed to Port Arthur. On the way we stopped at lookout point and got awesome views of the coast. We also saw the Tasman Arch. This is a natural arch caused by erosion of the soft stone due to the tide rising. We arrived at Port Arthur at about 11:15am. Port Arthur, also considered “Hell on Earth” is a decommission prison. To be sent to Port Arthur, first you had to commit a crime in England, be sentenced to transportation (being sent to Australia) and then be convicted of more crimes while in Australia. Unlike most prisons, this one had no perimeter fence due to the natural vegetation around it that prevented criminal from escaping. We spent three hours there and had both a harbor tour and a walking tour. This is also where we had lunch. From there we went to so more scenic lookouts and saw another archway but it was more of a cave. After that we headed to the Tasmania Devil Conservation Park. We saw Tasmanian devils, kangaroos (with Joeys in their pouches), a bird show, and other various animals. From there we headed back into Hobart. Our tour included accommodations so we stayed a different hostel, Montgomery’s and had a family room to ourselves. This hostel was a bit nicer then Central city but was much noisier. Luckily we had a corner room but it was sitting right over a bar and the bar was blasting music. We somehow managed to sleep through it.
Well,
John and I left King’s at the dark and early hour of 3:30am on Friday. I stayed up all night because it was not worth trying to sleep and then not being able to sleep on the planes. We arrived at the airport by 4:30am and got through checking and security before 5. Our flight left at 5:30am. I was surprised at how many people were actually on a flight that early. We had a 2 hour layover in the Canberra airport. The airport was the least exciting airport I have ever been to. They had like one coffee shop, a news agency, and gates. The gates didn’t really have sufficient seating so I sat on the floor. Then from Canberra we flew in to Hobart. I was unaware that Tasmania was a quarantined island and no produce was allowed in or out of the island. They had dogs sniffing to find the food. We finally got to Central City Backpackers hostel at about 1pm. Tasmania is 1 hour ahead of Brisbane due to daylight savings not being observed in Queensland. We had a privet room for the two which is a whole lot nicer than sharing a four bed room with strangers. It was tiny but good. That afternoon, we both took a nap to catch up on sleep. That evening we walked around Hobart to get our bearings. It was threatening rain but there was nothing more than a sprinkle. We managed to miss both breakfast and lunch and so only had dinner. We ate at a dumpling restaurant. I had some awesome wonton noodle soup. After dinner we returned to our room and played some cards before going to bed.
We checked out the hostel Saturday morning at 7am and went to wait for our tour shuttle to arrive. We got picked up at 7:20am. We found out that there were going to be five of us total on the tour but the driver did not know where the other three were getting picked up from and took me and John to the Saturday market near the wharf until he found out. After about a half hour, we found the other group and were heading on our way. Our first stop was in Richmond at a bakery and also saw the oldest bridge in Australia; it was built in 1823. From there we headed to Port Arthur. On the way we stopped at lookout point and got awesome views of the coast. We also saw the Tasman Arch. This is a natural arch caused by erosion of the soft stone due to the tide rising. We arrived at Port Arthur at about 11:15am. Port Arthur, also considered “Hell on Earth” is a decommission prison. To be sent to Port Arthur, first you had to commit a crime in England, be sentenced to transportation (being sent to Australia) and then be convicted of more crimes while in Australia. Unlike most prisons, this one had no perimeter fence due to the natural vegetation around it that prevented criminal from escaping. We spent three hours there and had both a harbor tour and a walking tour. This is also where we had lunch. From there we went to so more scenic lookouts and saw another archway but it was more of a cave. After that we headed to the Tasmania Devil Conservation Park. We saw Tasmanian devils, kangaroos (with Joeys in their pouches), a bird show, and other various animals. From there we headed back into Hobart. Our tour included accommodations so we stayed a different hostel, Montgomery’s and had a family room to ourselves. This hostel was a bit nicer then Central city but was much noisier. Luckily we had a corner room but it was sitting right over a bar and the bar was blasting music. We somehow managed to sleep through it.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
DONE!!!!!
11.11.10
Well,
I had my Australia’s Marine Environment final exam on Monday and I turned in my last paper today. It is official that I am done with school in Australia. Wednesday, I went to the percussion recitals. These are similar to the juries I have to do at the end of each quarter except I think they get to choose the judges and anyone can sit in to listen. They were all really good and I am going to miss playing with them. Tomorrow, I leave for Tasmania with John. We will be gone for 5 days, three of which will be traveling the eastern side of the island; the other two days are travel. I am really excited.
Well,
I had my Australia’s Marine Environment final exam on Monday and I turned in my last paper today. It is official that I am done with school in Australia. Wednesday, I went to the percussion recitals. These are similar to the juries I have to do at the end of each quarter except I think they get to choose the judges and anyone can sit in to listen. They were all really good and I am going to miss playing with them. Tomorrow, I leave for Tasmania with John. We will be gone for 5 days, three of which will be traveling the eastern side of the island; the other two days are travel. I am really excited.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Last weekend before schools out!
11.7.10
Well,
Thursday morning was the time for last minute Sydney souvenir shopping. After wandering the streets Kirsten and I got our luggage and headed to the airport for our flight. Once we arrived in Brisbane, we parted ways. I got to my room, and went to bed early.
On Friday, I spent most of the day relaxing and slowly studying for my Marine Environment final exam on Monday. That night I hit the town with Kirsten, Jessica, and Evan before Evan headed back to Texas. On Saturday, Kirsten, Jessica, and I went back to the city to grab lunch and hit up the South Bank weekend market. We had lunch and then ran to the Indooroopilly mall to buy tickets for the midnight Harry Potter. I am very excited for that. Sunday, I finished studying for my exam.
Well,
Thursday morning was the time for last minute Sydney souvenir shopping. After wandering the streets Kirsten and I got our luggage and headed to the airport for our flight. Once we arrived in Brisbane, we parted ways. I got to my room, and went to bed early.
On Friday, I spent most of the day relaxing and slowly studying for my Marine Environment final exam on Monday. That night I hit the town with Kirsten, Jessica, and Evan before Evan headed back to Texas. On Saturday, Kirsten, Jessica, and I went back to the city to grab lunch and hit up the South Bank weekend market. We had lunch and then ran to the Indooroopilly mall to buy tickets for the midnight Harry Potter. I am very excited for that. Sunday, I finished studying for my exam.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Sydney take two!!!!!
11.3.10
Well,
Tuesday morning came and after Kirsten and I collected our stuff, we checked out and headed to the airport for our 8:45am flight to Sydney. Once we arrived in Sydney, we found out that to get the free airport shuttle we were told about, we had to spend at least three nights in the hostel and we only were spending two. So, we got a taxi. When we got to the Westend Backpackers Hostel, we were expecting to see Jessica (Kirsten’s friend from Women’s College at UQ) and Evan (Jessica’s boyfriend), but they were not there due to their flight being delayed. They finally arrived about 40 minutes after Kirsten and I did. The four of us stayed in one of the four person rooms. This was super nice since we all were going to be hanging together and I trusted everyone in the room with my stuff, unlike in Melbourne. Luckily, we also had a private bathroom in the room. This hostel was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much better than the hostel in Melbourne (and yes, the excessive amount of ‘o’s is necessary). The hostel was about 2 blocks away from the Travelodge that Erica and I stayed at 5 weeks ago.
The first thing we decided to do was walk over to the aquarium. The aquarium was at Darling harbor. The harbor is also home to the Maritime Museum, the Wildlife World, Captain Cook Cruises, some shops, and a bunch of boats. The Aquarium was fairly large, larger than I thought. The big theme was “Animals of the Future” and they had a booklet and displays of animals that could scientifically exist in 200 million years. Most of these ideas were extremely dumb. The present animals they had included a dugong, a couple manta rays, sharks, fish, octopi, cuttlefish, squids, more fish, and more sharks. The walk felt a little long and repetitive. They also had the world’s largest animatronics shark at 7.4 meters. The previous record holder was the 6 meter animatronics shark from Jaws. Once we got done at the aquarium we walked back to the hostel to drop stuff off before we met up with Sylvia. Sylvia is a friend of Kirsten’s grandparents and was given Kirsten’s number so they could meet when we got to Sydney. Sylvia invited all Jessica, Evan, and me to join them. We first drove to Bondi beach. The waves were huge. After taking some pictures and driving around some more, we went up to Gap Bluff and got amazing shots of both the ocean and the city. We then went to Doyle’s for a delicious dinner. I had Tasmanian Salmon. We also sat on the deck and saw the sun set behind the Sydney skyline. It was the best view I have seen of Sydney. After dinner we went to Badde Manores for dessert and coffee. Once we got done there, Sylvia dropped us off. The four of us played a couple games of cards and went to bed.
Wednesday came and we got up to go to the Taronga Zoo. Our ferry was leaving from Darling Harbour and on our way we went through the Queen Victoria Building (QVB). Last time I was here, the Queen Victoria statue and all the other statues were dressed up in ridiculous outfits and now they were all back to normal. Now, they had a ridiculously large lit Christmas tree in the middle of the QVB. We got to darling harbor and couth the ferry. We stopped at Circular Qauy and Fort Dennison before getting to the Zoo. At the zoo, we rode the gondola from the bottom to the top of the zoo and started to walk down. The zoo kind of felt like the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo since it was on somewhat of a hill. We walked through the Australian animal area, saw the sea lion show, visited the nocturnal animal house, and saw the big cats. It was really cool. Once we got done, we caught the ferry back to Circular Quay and walked to the opera house to take tourist pictures. From there we walked back to the hostel to again meet Sylvia.
This time we drove across the Harbour Bridge to the Kirribilli club for dinner. I had linguini seafood pasta that was also amazing. Then we drove to Manly beach and had dessert and coffee. After that we drove back to the hostel and crashed. Thursday, we fly back to Brisbane at 2pm.
Well,
Tuesday morning came and after Kirsten and I collected our stuff, we checked out and headed to the airport for our 8:45am flight to Sydney. Once we arrived in Sydney, we found out that to get the free airport shuttle we were told about, we had to spend at least three nights in the hostel and we only were spending two. So, we got a taxi. When we got to the Westend Backpackers Hostel, we were expecting to see Jessica (Kirsten’s friend from Women’s College at UQ) and Evan (Jessica’s boyfriend), but they were not there due to their flight being delayed. They finally arrived about 40 minutes after Kirsten and I did. The four of us stayed in one of the four person rooms. This was super nice since we all were going to be hanging together and I trusted everyone in the room with my stuff, unlike in Melbourne. Luckily, we also had a private bathroom in the room. This hostel was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much better than the hostel in Melbourne (and yes, the excessive amount of ‘o’s is necessary). The hostel was about 2 blocks away from the Travelodge that Erica and I stayed at 5 weeks ago.
The first thing we decided to do was walk over to the aquarium. The aquarium was at Darling harbor. The harbor is also home to the Maritime Museum, the Wildlife World, Captain Cook Cruises, some shops, and a bunch of boats. The Aquarium was fairly large, larger than I thought. The big theme was “Animals of the Future” and they had a booklet and displays of animals that could scientifically exist in 200 million years. Most of these ideas were extremely dumb. The present animals they had included a dugong, a couple manta rays, sharks, fish, octopi, cuttlefish, squids, more fish, and more sharks. The walk felt a little long and repetitive. They also had the world’s largest animatronics shark at 7.4 meters. The previous record holder was the 6 meter animatronics shark from Jaws. Once we got done at the aquarium we walked back to the hostel to drop stuff off before we met up with Sylvia. Sylvia is a friend of Kirsten’s grandparents and was given Kirsten’s number so they could meet when we got to Sydney. Sylvia invited all Jessica, Evan, and me to join them. We first drove to Bondi beach. The waves were huge. After taking some pictures and driving around some more, we went up to Gap Bluff and got amazing shots of both the ocean and the city. We then went to Doyle’s for a delicious dinner. I had Tasmanian Salmon. We also sat on the deck and saw the sun set behind the Sydney skyline. It was the best view I have seen of Sydney. After dinner we went to Badde Manores for dessert and coffee. Once we got done there, Sylvia dropped us off. The four of us played a couple games of cards and went to bed.
Wednesday came and we got up to go to the Taronga Zoo. Our ferry was leaving from Darling Harbour and on our way we went through the Queen Victoria Building (QVB). Last time I was here, the Queen Victoria statue and all the other statues were dressed up in ridiculous outfits and now they were all back to normal. Now, they had a ridiculously large lit Christmas tree in the middle of the QVB. We got to darling harbor and couth the ferry. We stopped at Circular Qauy and Fort Dennison before getting to the Zoo. At the zoo, we rode the gondola from the bottom to the top of the zoo and started to walk down. The zoo kind of felt like the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo since it was on somewhat of a hill. We walked through the Australian animal area, saw the sea lion show, visited the nocturnal animal house, and saw the big cats. It was really cool. Once we got done, we caught the ferry back to Circular Quay and walked to the opera house to take tourist pictures. From there we walked back to the hostel to again meet Sylvia.
This time we drove across the Harbour Bridge to the Kirribilli club for dinner. I had linguini seafood pasta that was also amazing. Then we drove to Manly beach and had dessert and coffee. After that we drove back to the hostel and crashed. Thursday, we fly back to Brisbane at 2pm.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Penguin Parade
11.1.10
Well,
This past week was the last week of classes for the semester. It was really nice not having tutorials and only having lectures. Since wind symphony already had a concert, the Thursday rehearsal was a party. It really wasn’t that exciting but it was nice to say bye to some people I may never see again. And after the last week of class, there is a week break before finals. I only have one final exam and so I am taking that week to travel. The first stop is Melbourne.
Kirsten and I left Brisbane around 6pm Saturday night and arrived in Melbourne about 10pm and checked in at the Nomads All Nations hostel. We are in a four person room, meaning we are sharing with two strangers. The beds are horrible; I can feel every spring in the mattress. The pillows are basically cases filled with lumps of fluff and extremely difficult to sleep on. The two other guys that are in the room I am pretty sure live out of it and left very little room for Kirsten and me to put our stuff. Thankfully, we really never see them except at night. The room is on the fourth floor of the building. Unfortunately, there are train tracks and trolley tracks right out or window and are extremely loud when either pass. Kirsten and I are both very glad we are only spending one more night here.
On Sunday, we got to sleep in a little bit and grabbed breakfast at a café right next door. We both had a cup of coffee and a muffin. Then we headed to the Holiday Inn entrance to go on our day trip to Phillips Island. The tour was with a company called Go West. There were 20 people total on the trip and after picking everyone up, we were off. Since, we arrived in Melbourne it had been raining and we were all hoping it would stop before we started any of the activities. And it did. Our first stop was in Kooweerup, aka the asparagus capitol of the world. We did not stop for the asparagus but we stopped for a bathroom break and to grab some kind of food. After that we headed to the Bass River Winery for a wine tasting, my first wine tasting ever! We had two white wines, two red wines, a rosé, a sweet Riesling, and a cherry wine. The cherry wine and the sweet wine were my favorites. They also had concentrated grape juice which was a bit thicker than honey and was also very good. Along with the wines they had some cheeses. We had brie, mozzarella, and blue cheese and they were fantastic. After the winery we headed to the Philip Island Chocolate Factory. I got to create my own chocolate bar with strawberry and cola flavoring. I also could have put in wasabi or vegemite but did not.
The next stop on our adventure was to Woolamai Beach. The parking lot was at the top of the dunes and due to high winds, sand was being blown everywhere. We were hoping that the high winds would equal surfers but there was no one in the water. Then we headed to the Koala conservatory. This was basically a gated off area of eucalyptus trees and nothing like the Lone Pine Sanctuary. We only saw 5 koalas and one wallaby. Then it was time for dinner. Kirsten and I went to an Italian place called Isola Di Capri and it was delicious.
From there we headed to the Nobbies. This was an area where penguins had burrows and we could see seal rock. The place was covered with seagulls and one of the windiest places I have been to in a long time. Since the wind was so strong, all of the penguins stayed in their homes and I couldn’t get any good pictures of them. Then it was time for the Penguin Parade. They had a café, two gift shops, and a museum area. For the parade, we sat three rows from the sand. The penguins arrived at 8:17pm. There were hundreds of them. The actually species we saw was the Little Penguin. They came up in groups called ‘rafts’ and every raft had more and more penguins. After sitting and watching them come out of the water, we worked our way back up the path that ran next to the parade. We were there for over an hour before returning to the shuttle to get back into Melbourne. We got back to the hostel just after midnight.
On Sunday, Kirsten and I slept in until about 10:30am. We had nothing planned for the day and just wandered around the city taking pictures and getting to know Melbourne. When we arrived at the hostel, we were given drink vouchers for the bar next door and I got a free beer before heading to bed. So far, this is my second favorite city next to Brisbane. Tomorrow morning we are heading to Sydney.
Well,
This past week was the last week of classes for the semester. It was really nice not having tutorials and only having lectures. Since wind symphony already had a concert, the Thursday rehearsal was a party. It really wasn’t that exciting but it was nice to say bye to some people I may never see again. And after the last week of class, there is a week break before finals. I only have one final exam and so I am taking that week to travel. The first stop is Melbourne.
Kirsten and I left Brisbane around 6pm Saturday night and arrived in Melbourne about 10pm and checked in at the Nomads All Nations hostel. We are in a four person room, meaning we are sharing with two strangers. The beds are horrible; I can feel every spring in the mattress. The pillows are basically cases filled with lumps of fluff and extremely difficult to sleep on. The two other guys that are in the room I am pretty sure live out of it and left very little room for Kirsten and me to put our stuff. Thankfully, we really never see them except at night. The room is on the fourth floor of the building. Unfortunately, there are train tracks and trolley tracks right out or window and are extremely loud when either pass. Kirsten and I are both very glad we are only spending one more night here.
On Sunday, we got to sleep in a little bit and grabbed breakfast at a café right next door. We both had a cup of coffee and a muffin. Then we headed to the Holiday Inn entrance to go on our day trip to Phillips Island. The tour was with a company called Go West. There were 20 people total on the trip and after picking everyone up, we were off. Since, we arrived in Melbourne it had been raining and we were all hoping it would stop before we started any of the activities. And it did. Our first stop was in Kooweerup, aka the asparagus capitol of the world. We did not stop for the asparagus but we stopped for a bathroom break and to grab some kind of food. After that we headed to the Bass River Winery for a wine tasting, my first wine tasting ever! We had two white wines, two red wines, a rosé, a sweet Riesling, and a cherry wine. The cherry wine and the sweet wine were my favorites. They also had concentrated grape juice which was a bit thicker than honey and was also very good. Along with the wines they had some cheeses. We had brie, mozzarella, and blue cheese and they were fantastic. After the winery we headed to the Philip Island Chocolate Factory. I got to create my own chocolate bar with strawberry and cola flavoring. I also could have put in wasabi or vegemite but did not.
The next stop on our adventure was to Woolamai Beach. The parking lot was at the top of the dunes and due to high winds, sand was being blown everywhere. We were hoping that the high winds would equal surfers but there was no one in the water. Then we headed to the Koala conservatory. This was basically a gated off area of eucalyptus trees and nothing like the Lone Pine Sanctuary. We only saw 5 koalas and one wallaby. Then it was time for dinner. Kirsten and I went to an Italian place called Isola Di Capri and it was delicious.
From there we headed to the Nobbies. This was an area where penguins had burrows and we could see seal rock. The place was covered with seagulls and one of the windiest places I have been to in a long time. Since the wind was so strong, all of the penguins stayed in their homes and I couldn’t get any good pictures of them. Then it was time for the Penguin Parade. They had a café, two gift shops, and a museum area. For the parade, we sat three rows from the sand. The penguins arrived at 8:17pm. There were hundreds of them. The actually species we saw was the Little Penguin. They came up in groups called ‘rafts’ and every raft had more and more penguins. After sitting and watching them come out of the water, we worked our way back up the path that ran next to the parade. We were there for over an hour before returning to the shuttle to get back into Melbourne. We got back to the hostel just after midnight.
On Sunday, Kirsten and I slept in until about 10:30am. We had nothing planned for the day and just wandered around the city taking pictures and getting to know Melbourne. When we arrived at the hostel, we were given drink vouchers for the bar next door and I got a free beer before heading to bed. So far, this is my second favorite city next to Brisbane. Tomorrow morning we are heading to Sydney.
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