Hah! Bet you thought
I had forgotten all about this. Not so
lucky… I’m here with the 4th
installment of our great New Zealand/Australian adventure. I know we’ve been home for about 6 weeks now,
but remember, I’m committed to finishing this!
You may remember, at the end of my last post we were getting
ready to leave the “Grampians” for our drive to Melbourne.
Melbourne
is a very special place for us as that is where our “adopted” daughter, Sarah,
and her family live. Actually, they live
in Emerald which is a very beautiful suburb of Melbourne.
Let me digress a bit here and tell you about Sarah…
About 30 years ago, when Sarah was just 11 years old, she
came to stay with us for 6 weeks in the summer.
She came as part of a program called, “Children of Northern
Ireland”. You may wonder, what does Ireland have to do with Australia??? Well, Sarah is actually Irish and was living
in Belfast at
the time. The program was designed to
give kids from Belfast
a taste of what life could be like away from the violence with which they were
normally surrounded. Little did we know
at the time that we were helping to create a lifetime of love and
friendship. Sarah was definitely an
adventurous and “cheeky” little devil.
After graduating from high school, she “wandered the world” and ended up
in Australia
married to Corey. They have 3 daughters;
Sorcha, Fiona, and Ciara. Corey and the
girls are definitely the bonus of having had Sarah in our lives all these
years. We spent 8 days in Emerald enjoying the company of our extended family
living in Australia
– 8 amazing, fantastic, and wonderful days with the Johnson family!
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Australian Extended Family
We stayed only blocks from where the Johnson’s live in the
Heart of Emerald B & B. Good thing
we were so close because Sarah literally chauffeured us back and forth, here,
there, and everywhere. But than, she had
so many plans for us that there was a lot of chauffeuring required!
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Heart of Emerald B&B
She and the girls met us about 1pm that first afternoon at
the downtown Hertz rental drop off spot.
By now, Tom was at least used to driving on the “wrong side” of the
road, but it was still a challenge driving in the big city, finding the drop
off spot, and getting us and the car there all in one piece!
Sarah had activities scheduled from dawn to past dusk everyday. Did I forget to mention that it had started
raining during our drive from the Grampians to Melbourne?
And it continued pretty much non-stop for our first 4 days in the Melbourne area? It turned out to be a good thing – we weren’t
able to follow her entire schedule all of the time – probably the only reason
we were able to get any sleep at all while we were there -J We didn’t, however, let the rain stop us
completely…
Our first full day there, we visited the Healesville
Sanctuary. We had a great time dressed
in full rain gear, walking around viewing the birds and animals and taking
pictures of them from under our umbrellas.
Fiona managed to grab a nap during the drive to the
sanctuary.
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Fiona Has A Nap
I managed to get a few pictures of the girls between or during
raindrops.
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| Sorcha |
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| On The Platypus |
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Ciara Under Her Umbrella
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While a moose would be an exotic animal to an Australian
(actually, a moose is pretty exotic to me, too), I found much of their wildlife
to be exotic (for me) and couldn’t get enough of them.
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| Singin' In The Rain |
A Swamp Hen…
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| Seeking Shelter From The Rain |
A Rainbow Finch…
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Rainbow Finch
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A Pink Cockatoo…
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Pink Cockatoo
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Barn Owls – not so exotic, but cute!
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Barn Owls
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A Koala Bear (always one of my favorites)…
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Hanging On
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A Bush Stone Curlew…
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Brush Stone Curlew
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A Potoroos Rat Kangaroo
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Potoroos Rat Kangaroo
The Black Busted Buzzard – there’s a story about this
one. They are really a type of Eagle that
eats road kill, small prey, and the eggs of other birds. You may notice that this bird has a rock in
his mouth. That’s because he throws the
rock from his mouth numerous times onto the egg, until the egg breaks and he
can eat it. (The egg in the picture is
fake, but he gave us a good demonstration as to how it is done!)
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| Black Busted Buzzard |
There was even a baby Wombat on display while we were there.
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Baby Wombat
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One of the things the girls enjoyed most was feeding the
parrots in the aviary.
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Ciara and Her Rainbow Parrot
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Sorcha With Rainbow Parrot
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Fiona Feeding A Rainbow Parrot
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Sorcha, Corey, Sarah, Tom, and Ciara at the sanctuary.
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The Gang At Heallesville Sanctuary
It rained even more the second day we were there. So Sarah gave us a break from the “planned”
schedule, and we got to hang around the house.
Fiona and Ciara entertained us with some Irish dancing while Sorcha had
fun in the kitchen. (We got to eat
Sorcha and Sarah’s yummy meal later that evening.)
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| Fiona |
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| Dimpled Love |
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| Cooking By Sorcha |
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Irish Dancing By Fiona & Ciara
Alright, anyone who knows me knows that football is way low
on my list of favorite things (sorry Sarah).
But “Footy”, as it is affectionately referred to in Australia, was
on the schedule and the tickets had been purchased. So there we were… It was actually fun to get another view of
Australian life. And the rain even
stopped for the event!
Next up? Some
culture! Sarah and Corey took us on a
“laneway tour” of Melbourne. We were part of a small guided group – this
was so fun. One of the things I enjoyed
most were the, what I will call, “artist lanes”. The city of Melbourne has actually set aside some of the
laneways for local artists to share their creativity with the public.
There were many musicians about as well.
And lots of interesting shops. (This was one of my favorites.)
The Flinders Street Station, although not as busy as it once
was, has been a part of the city forever and is quite famous.
Here we are already at day 4. My girl, Sarah, is no dummy. Today she planned that Tom and I should take
the girls on the “Puffing Billy”. What
is the Puffing Billy, you ask? It is a
very old steam engine train that has been put into tourist service. Sarah dropped the 5 of us off, and while we
rode the train back to Emerald, she prepared a picnic lunch for the gang – that
we would all enjoy after the train ride adventure.
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Playing around before getting on the train…
The train is ready for us…
Unknown to us until we’re on the train is the fact that all
the kids (and some adults, too) sit in the open windows and hang out! At first we were responsible and worried
grandparents, but we soon got over that as we went with the flow of things…
At the end of the ride, the engine gets a water refill…
Everything is beautiful in Emerald, especially the
parks. This park had lots of Australian
Wood Ducks and Sulfur Crested Cockatoos.
There was plenty of relaxation and even some footy during
our picnic time.
Even Fergus, the Johnson’s adorable family dog joined in the
fun.
Our last day in the Melbourne
area took us to the Melbourne Zoo. I had
mentioned to Sarah that I love zoos, so she made sure I got plenty of zoo time! (Sorry, can’t get enough of those Koalas.)
We missed Corey at our farewell dinner as he had a business
appointment. But Tom and I enjoyed a
beautiful dinner with Sarah and the girls.
In the morning Sarah and Corey drove us to the airport where
we said our goodbyes. Goodbye for now,
but we’ll be back!
The final installment takes us to Tasmania.
Hopefully, you will receive it before the end of the year J
