Eating our Way through Melbourne

Our last two days in Melbourne (and Australia) were dedicated a whole lot to...food. Like many cities, Melbourne has great food and a lot of options, and with the family we did our best to enjoy as much of it as possible!

In the last two days we've eaten Chinese dim sum, tons of fresh fruits, Devonshire tea (great scones), Australian donuts, Mediterranean and Ethiopian food. We've enjoyed it thoroughly! The tea shop we stopped in was in a beautiful mall - which could only be reached through a fancy little alleyway, something that is common in Melbourne.

We also enjoyed a few non-food activities! We took a trip through this Victoria Market, a huge open air market with everything from art to food to clothes. Brendan and I went to Much Ado about Nothing, my favorite Shakespeare play, in a theater built to replicate the Globe theater. (Luckily on family member was actually interested in joining me - while Patrick kindly offered, I think it's fair to say that Shakespeare is not his cup of tea.) We also went through a "Dialogue in the Dark" experience, an hour long experience designed to help you experience the world as a blind person does. This was really surprisingly interesting to me, as our guide walked us through scenarios from identifying an ATM to boarding a (simulated) train in total darkness.

The Pop Up Globe theater

Victoria Market

We're wrapping up our time here now, getting already to do our final packing before hopping a plane bright and early. Thanks for sticking with us through our journey!

Australian Birthday Celebration

Yesterday was the reason we travelled here: Grandma Kood's 90th birthday! (And happy birthday to Nate back in Minnesota, too!)

We celebrated by going to our last zoo, dedicated specifically to Australian animals. This was a smaller zoo, much less busy than the other zoos we've visited, called Healsville Sanctuary. The enclosures here were great - the animals very obviously well cared for. We had a "koala encounter" here, getting close up to a napping koala who even opened his eyes and moved for us! We saw platypuses, emus, wombats, kangaroos, cassowaries and lots more.

After that we went to the biggest and nicest buffet I've ever been at! We had Indian food, sushi, local meats and cheeses, turkey and ham and a wonderfully obscene quantity of desserts...and all came home so full that we promptly fell asleep.

Touring the Great Ocean Road

Today we set off on one of the tours I've been most looking forward to - our tour of the great ocean road. The tour itself covers only a small portion of the road, although it is a 14 hour tour! It's a nice tour to have someone else drive, although  unfortunately all the tours tend to go the same places at the same times, so everywhere was very busy.

We saw our first wild koalas on this tour, as well as some surfers, a cool weather rainforest with huge, old trees,  and some of the most striking scenery we've seen (in the area of the 12 Apostles). There's not a whole lot to SAY about this unless you're interested in the geology or history - so I'll just go straight to the important part, which is the pictures!

Wandering through Melbourne

We arrived in Melbourne late last night and had a great nighttime tour of the city, since our plane got in late. The city lights were beautiful and we drove through their "rainbow tunnel bridge," all aluminum but lit up different colors of the rainbow.

This morning we woke up late, had a leisurely breakfast with Grandma and then started off for a tour of the city. We started off with the Brighton beach boxes - changing sheds near one of the most famous and beautiful beaches in Melbourne. And each currently sells for only a million dollars or so... As you can see, their owners want to make sure everyone can see their beach box!

We then headed into the city proper to catch a walking tour...which we then missed because I got distracted. We took our own walking tour instead, walking past most of the building and landmarks and taking the extra time to go into the gold rush museum, walk through the botanical gardens and have a drink at a rooftop bar with a nice view of the city. We had beautiful weather today to enjoy both the city and the beach, before an evening in to prepare for an early morning for tomorrow's tour.

A pro working on a mural in "graffiti alley"

Another view of graffiti alley

Cradle Mountain Hike

We planned three days for hiking in Tasmania, until the rain hit. This morning was out last day, in Cradle Mountain - and the day dawned sunny and beautiful! While the sun came and went, we ended up with a beautiful day.

We started hiking around 7am, and were some of the first people on the trails - that in itself was a great start, since it meant we got one of very few parking spots right at the trailhead. The trail started out nice and easy around a lake and through a beautiful woods. Then we took the turning up towards the summit, past all the warning signs...and it got a whole lot harder. I'm very glad all the blisters I got early in the trip were healed, because we spent a lot of time scampering up and down steps, rock crevices and sometimes hauling ourselves up/down sheer rocks by a chain.

And it was still less scary than being blown about by the wind in Freycinet!

The payoff was also much better - we walked by, through and over so many lakes and waterfalls. We didn't make it to the summit, and by the end of the hike we were very thankful for that since the way out took us over the summit of more than one smaller mountain! We got a great variety of views and landscape, and saw another wallaby and a kookaburra. It's also great to be here in spring - everything is blooming, from trees to ground cover to trees, and it adds great color.

We did it!

Our starting point...we hiked up to the point between those two peaks in the distance

The view from the top...looking back the way we came

Some of the nice, easy early trail

Some of the plant life on top of the mountain

Welcome to the Worst Weather in Memory!

Today - and last night - was a bit of adventure! We knew there was rain forecasted, but were hoping and planning for the continuing drizzle we'd been having. Instead, overnight we got what several people have told me was the worst weather they could remember seeing in Tasmania, with 80 km per hour winds and plenty more rain. The roof did not come off our cabin - but everything is a lot louder against a tin roof, so for quite a while we weren't sure! 

This morning we woke up to slightly less crazy winds, and decided to try our hike anyway. After all, we had ponchos, and we'd travelled an extra 4 hours and stayed overnight just to see Freycinet. It was one of the things I was most excited about - it's an incredibly beautiful park rated as one of the most beautiful and undervisited places in Australia.

We very nearly blew away - I did blow down one set of steps, and luckily landed on my feet! We saw a bit of the view, enough to tell that it would be beautiful if our ponchos weren't wrapping themselves around our faces from the wind. All in all - I think this one is on our "revisit later" queue. Tasmanian Mother Nature was not interested in visibility today!

A Rainy Introduction to Freycinet

We left Port Arthur and headed straight  up to Freycinet National Park, which was a bit of an adventure! At home, you can largely get between major destinations without leaving main roads - not so much in Tasmania! Our maps took us along what appeared to be a major road but was in fact a gravel lane, largely one lane, full of hairpin turns and beautiful views. We made it, and cut an hour off our travel time, but wondered a few times if the road might just end!

As we drove away from Port Arthur, the rain and wind picked up. We decided to postpone our afternoon hike to tomorrow morning - it will still be raining, but hopefully not so hard. As a consolation, though, we found that the views from both the local restaurant we stopped at for dinner and our cabin are breathtaking even in the rain. And the wallabies hopping around all over around our cabin don't hurt. (They are just as cute as you'd think when then hop around!) And now, off to enjoy the view and our dessert before an early bedtime, so we can be up early tomorrow to try to hike both Freycinet National Park and some of Cradle Mountain National Park!

Our dinner view

Our cozy cabin and view

Our wallaby friend, not yet sucked up into Wallaby-nado with the crazy winds!

Visiting Port Arthur

After a lazy day yesterday, today may need more than one post to fit the photos!

We got up early this morning and left Hobart behind, heading straight for the historic site at Port Arthur, one of the largest penitentiaries from Australia's days as a convict colony. Every Australian who heard we were visiting Tasmania told us we needed to come here!

We managed to have the whole morning with only the occasional light drizzle, which was nice! Even with the clouds and fog, the site itself is lovely. The tour included a walking tour with some information about when the site was used, who was sent there (everyone from hardened criminals to repeat child offenders to political prisoners) and what their lives were like (not so nice, no surprise there). We saw the prisons as they were in various eras (although much has been demolished or burnt down) as well as the homes and gardens of the workers and military.

Finally, we took a harbor cruise that went by a few more sites, including the island graveyard and the island dedicated to a juvenile prison. We saw a whale in the harbor, which was a nice addition. It was an interesting site, and a good place to learn a bit of Australian history.

A Slow Day in Hobart

Today and yesterday, we reached a slowing down point. Although we had lots of plans, we ran into things that took longer than planned - and others that we wanted to spend more time with than planned - and decided to push things back a bit to enjoy the day. We replaced one of our partial hiking days instead with a lazy day around Hobart. Originally intending to drive up Mount Wellington for the views, the steady rain all day decided us and we instead went to a movie, toured a few local breweries, wineries and a cheese and chocolate making farm. (Obviously we chose the less healthy option than hiking!)

Hobart is a beautiful city and we're staying in a great neighborhood near the wharf full of cute restaurants and pubs, parks, shops and Christmas decorations. We had a few hours yesterday before the rain came in to enjoy the wharf and Salamanca Square areas with sunshine, which was beautiful, although it looks like it will rain all the rest of our time in Tasmania. Fingers crossed for only light rain and some good views anyway!

A Shark Cage Diving Day

I realized when I woke up this morning to a whole lot of messages that perhaps the night of cage diving is not the best night to fall asleep too fast to write a blog post...but we survived unmaimed!

We also saw a LOT of sharks, to Patrick's delight. They showed up as soon as we parked the boat, and stayed around so continually that they let anyone who wanted to jump in for a quick second viewing do so. That second viewing was without a wetsuit, though, and that water was COLD, so I did not take advantage of their kind offer. Patrick, of course, did, and we have a whole lot of shark photos! We even saw a few jump out of the water trying to get the bait, which was fun to see from on top of the boat.

And now, we're off to Tasmania! We have a few tours planned, followed by some hiking that I'm very excited for - my fingers are crossed for beautiful weather so we can get some great scenery and pictures.

Exploring Adelaide on our Last Day

Today was already our last day in Adelaide - time flies!

We truly started the day in vacation mode, since we had half a bottle of wine left from our wine tour lunch, needed to check out (and so lose the wine glasses in our room) and couldn't haul an open bottle with us...so we took to heart the recommendations that our tour guides gave us about "brekkie wine!" After that more-relaxing-than-usual breakfast in our room, we ventured out into the 93-degree "spring" day to explore.

One thing I've noticed throughout Australia so far is the Christmas decorations - they take Christmas here seriously, even with palm trees instead of snow! They've also got a few more decorating options, like candy cane striped flowers...although their Christmas trees are definitely all turning a bit brown already.

We started with the Adelaide zoo, which was small but had some good exhibits including cassowaries tons of parrots and a panda! It was deserted, so when the animals felt like braving the heat instead of hiding in a corner, we had a good chance to see them.

Then we stopped by a few museums, the Migration Museum and the South Australian Museum. Both had some interesting history and information, including some beautiful Aboriginal artifacts and art.

Finally, a quick stop for a "tasting plate" of ice cream to ward off the heat, before heading to the airport for our next leg. One thing I'm learning about airports in Australia: security is less of a pain (hurray for keeping on shoes!) But flight-wise, we need to check out all options. We checked in today to see that our flight was delayed by 20 minutes. We checked the board a few more times to see that the delay wasn't listed, but there was no gate assigned. We decided to wander down to the gate on our ticket at the original boarding time (not the delayed one listed on the ticket!) and found our flight was doing final boarding, at the gate not listed anywhere on the boards, at the time boarding was supposed to start! So the moral of the story - check all the options in Australia. You never know what is happening when!

And finally, we arrived in Port Lincoln just at sunset. Sitting down to dinner - just before the restaurant closes - we're enjoying a beautiful view in a pretty small harbor town!

Adelaide Gardens and Wine Tour

We arrived in Adelaide yesterday afternoon after a leisurely morning in Cairns. It was a pretty flight, seeing the landscape of the coast and rainforest melt into the outback desert. Although the area we're staying in Adelaide is a pretty generic cityscape, after walking through the city's parks and restaurants we can say that it is a beautiful city. The landscape surrounding it reminds me a lot of southern Africa, with scrub forest and green farms surrounded by red dirt and brown hills.

We spent our first afternoon wandering through the botanical gardens and checking out a couple rooftop bars that were a little too cool and trendy for us, but had some good local wine recommendations!

Today we spent the day on a wine tour of the Barossa valley. Its a beautiful area with what looked like hundreds of wineries, although we visited only four - more than enough, considering that most gave us at least 6 and one let us sample up to 15 wines. I am impressed with the tour's planning and guide that I am able to write a coherent blog post! We met some wonderful people along the way from all over the world and enjoyed some good wine, more great views and even a winery with some dogs ready for tour folks to throw their ball!

Tomorrow we'll be wandering Adelaide until it's time for the plane to our next adventure - cage diving.

Diving the Great Barrier Reef

Well, we've returned from three pretty amazing days diving on the outer reef - and after about 10 hours of sleep, I'm finally feeling awake enough to write about it! Ten dives in three days, including two early morning and one night dive, in 4 different dive locations.

We saw everything we wanted to see and more, from rays and sharks to a napping sea turtle to so many fish and corals. Our first site was a little bleached, but the weather was beautiful enough that we were able to move further out in the reef after that and the colors were amazing! We saw butterfly and angel fish the size of dinner platters, a lobster as big as our dog, and mostly small sharks. (Note that we SAW a lobster - I didn't turn into one. The boat very kindly provided quart jugs of SPF 50, and I walked away with an actual tan and no burn at all!!)

We saw a huge variety of sites, some with huge towering walls of reef that went down far deeper than we could go, and some with lots of small, shallow coves. We got spoiled - as our first experience scuba diving outside of the cold Minnesota lake we did our training dives in, it's going to be hard to match this in the future!