The Best Playground in the World!

While we have not actually been to every playground in the world, or even all of the really good ones we have been to an awful lot of them, and the Adventure Park of Levin, New Zealand must rank in the top ten, at the very least.  It is a large park with several different areas of play equipment, all in excellent condition.  There is a separate fenced-off area for toddlers, and the grass is green in between all of the other sections.  There are swings, slides, monkey bars, a zip line, obstacle courses, and all sorts of other fun things, and even an exercise area for adults.  The bathrooms were indoors, and the sinks even had hot water.  And all for free, in a public park, on the main road through town.

Our journeys generally involve tours of playgrounds, bakeries, and ice cream stores, with a few museums and other major attractions thrown in for good measure. Our "official" best playground list includes only free public parks, and does not include places like Playmobiland, as much as we have loved them. Germany is full of great parks, and we love Toronto for all of its fantastic playgrounds as well. The playground near the zoo in Madison, Wisconsin is very good, and Portland, Oregon has some nice parks, too.   Our previous award for best playground had gone to the big city center park in Brussels, which I still remember fondly.  We were last there in, I believe, 2007, and I hope it has aged well.  As for now, congratulations to the good citizens of Levin, you've earned our award!

Taupo, New Zealand

I've been enjoying this New Zealand winter!  We've been wearing our light coats in the mornings and evenings, and the world has been sparkling when we get up, but the car's de-froster has been able to clear off the windows without any difficulty.  After leaving Rotorua, we drove south to Taupo, a crystal clear lake near beautiful green mountains and in a cute town (with one of the best bakeries ever!).  We had a strenuous hike through a forest up to the top of a mountain for some gorgeous views, and a surprisingly quick hike (or run, in the kids' case) back down, handily beating sunset.  And the sunset was spectacular!  It will be forever be remembered as absolutely perfect about one minute before we took the photo.

We also discovered that Taupo is the home of Ironman New Zealand, which we had already been vaguely talking about as we made our way through this beautiful place.  After hiking the area and standing on the gorgeous mixed black and white sand beach, we were sold.  Not next year, although the registration is still open, but I'm ready for Ironman New Zealand in March of 2019.  If it begins with the haka I'm sure I'll take at least 30 minutes off my best time!

Rotorua and Maori Culture

Our next destination was Rotorua, a small town famous for its hot springs, geysers, fumaroles, and mud baths.  We visited Whakarewarewa, still a living village of the Tuhourangi / Ngati Wahiao peoples, and a place used by their tribes as a tourist attraction for many generations.  Among other famous visitors, Eleanor Roosevelt, as first lady, created a stir by touching noses with a Maori woman in the traditional greeting.  As our guide pointed out, they had in-home heating and hot running water as well as thermal steam ovens and hot water cookers centuries before it was the norm.  We enjoyed a traditionally cooked (steamed and boiled) dinner, walked around their geothermal landscape, and had a fantastic time watching the show of traditional Maori singing and dancing.  Watching the Haka, the traditional dance and chant using the whole body, mind, and spirit, it is easy to see why New Zealand's sports teams are winners!

We haven't been lucky enough to see a kiwi (bird) in the wild, but did manage to see three of them in a sanctuary.  We went into the enclosure at night and basically waited silently until they woke up and hoped they would walk toward us.  Not quite as magical as the penguins in the wild, but still pretty fun. We ended our stay in Rotorua with a trip to Hell's Gate, a geothermal area with bubbling mud pots, a gorgeous hot water waterfall, and a mud bath.  We also got to try our hands at some traditional wood carvings, and now have some authentically "Made in New Zealand" magnets depicting Maori symbols for our refrigerator.  According to the guides, with our dip in the mud bath, we will look a good ten years younger... The soft, silicone-filled water feels so nice and leaves regular bubble baths jealous.  Take me away!

Middle Earth: Arachnocampa Luminosa and Hobbits

On Saturday morning we boarded an Airbus 380 flown by Emirates Airlines (a terrific airline and a great jet as well) and added a new country to our list:  New Zealand!  Just entering the country is a pretty unique experience as we got off a fancy jet, full of people, came through strict security making sure we weren't harboring any invasive species or germs, and then exited to an airport roughly the same size of Madison, WI, or Boise, ID, if not smaller.  We rented a car but didn't see much of Auckland besides the airport.  We've learned through experience that while we do visit cities (we weren't about to skip Sydney, and obviously Paris, Manhattan, and Washington, DC, shouldn't be missed), we much prefer to spend the majority of our time further afield.

After stopping in Matamata for dinner, we made it to the Mount Tutu Eco-Sanctuary Eco-lodge (http://www.mount-tutu.co.nz/).  The selection of this hotel truly made our adventure in New Zealand.  It is a small guest house, privately run, situated on a breathtakingly beautiful property.  After getting settled in, we were all lent rain boots and head lamps, and we set off into the night.  Tim and Debbie, the proprietors, led us on a hike, showing us some of the native plants like the silver back fern, pointing out some bird calls, and culminating in one of their creeks.  There we waded in and turned off our head-lamps, and stood with our mouths open.  Along the banks of the creek were hundreds of tiny lights, shining like stars: Arachnocampa luminosa -- glowworms!  Unfortunately we can't show you how wonderful it is to be in a bubbling creek on a mountain in the night and see these points of light.  The three brownish pictures on the left side of the collage show you what they look like under a light, and Google brings up a bunch of great photos.  We took a lot of "memory pictures"!  Imagine a yard full of lightning bugs, but staying in place.  Or even simply looking up into the night sky.  In fact, once we came out of the forest and back to the house we did look up at the night sky -- it was a cloudy night, but we still could see the Milky Way.  (The pictures below are a collage of our time at Mount Tutu and then Sunday afternoon at Hobbiton.)

After serving us a nice breakfast the next morning, Tim took us for another hike around their property, pointing out the unique flora and fauna.  They raise chickens and sheep, and we fed treats to both, and we looked at the kakarikis (native parakeets) they breed.  The woods was full of birdsong in the morning, and the air was so fresh and clear.  The water in the inn is from their own creeks, filtered, but also testing pure just naturally.  It was really a shame to have to leave so soon, but unfortunately we only have so much time to spend in New Zealand.  Miriam has been agitating for a move here.  Anybody hiring?

From Mount Tutu, we continued our drive through Middle Earth, and out to the enchanted land of Hobbiton, the ranch where The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies were filmed.  A working sheep ranch, after the first movies were filmed, they originally erased the set from the farm and returned it all to as it had been.  As pilgrims made their way to the former set, the rancher realized that he had a special place on his hands, and when the filmmaker returned to make the next movies, they decided to keep the area as it was.  Today, it's on it's way to being more of a village than just a movie set -- the pub is in operation and the staff keeps the gardens looking good.  It's pretty funny, really -- neither of the kids have seen any of the movies, although Miriam has read and enjoyed J.R.R. Toliken's stories (we laugh about the fact that not many people have read The Fellowship of the Ring all in one sitting as she did), and Jake and I last watched the first trilogy in 2002, and possibly didn't realize that a second one was made.  So I was pretty hesitant about booking this part of our trip.  But still, it was a great side trip!  Even full of tourists and in the rain, it's such a pretty village that it truly was a joy to visit.  There really is no place like Middle Earth.

A Day in Sydney (or, "The Climb of Our Lives")

We returned to civilization via VirginAustralia arriving on Thursday evening in beautiful Sydney.  With the train line running through the airport, the trip to our hotel was a breeze -- train downtown to harbor, and then a ferry across the water and a short walk up the hill, all with views.  Friday morning we got even better views.  After walking across the famous Sydney Harbor Bridge, we climbed to the top of it!  For the bridge climb, we donned coveralls with little leashes to keep our sunglasses, gloves, hats, and handkerchiefs attached, stashed everything in lockers, and strapped on harnesses.  The Sydney Harbor Bridge is the biggest single-span steel arch bridge in the world (still the widest and heaviest, although no longer the longest), and the summit is more than 440 feet above the water.  We weren't allowed to take our own camera, and we didn't purchase any of the pictures they took of us, but we took pictures of other climbers later to share the general idea of what we did.  In the picture on the bottom left, which shows the summit of the bridge, between the two flags, you can see a group of people.  The tour does include a short video clip, though, which I've included here. We climbed 1332 steps and covered almost a mile as we learned about bridge architecture (one of Miriam's current interests) and the history and some trivia about the building of the bridge.  The picture in the middle, with the sunset, shows a person climbing down one of the sets of ladders we used to get to the top.  In the afternoon we admired the Opera House and wandered through the botanical gardens before ending our exciting day with some gelato and a walk back across the bridge and home to the hotel.



Kata Tjuta -- Uluru's Quieter Sister

I had never heard of Kata Tjuta before we flew over it on Tuesday morning, but it is another huge rock, about 25 miles away from Uluru, and sharing its national park.  The shape is different from Uluru, and the rock itself is different which means there were many exciting disoveries to be made and pictures to be taken.  On Wednesday morning we were up well before dawn so that we could be at the park gate when it opened in order to make it to Kata Tjuta before sunrise.  We were 4th in line at the gate, and the first car to reach the Kata Tjuta parking lot, and we set out on the trail as dawn was breaking over the horizon.  

The Valley of the Winds trail winds around and through Kata Tjuta on a 5 mile hike through some of the prettiest rock and countryside you've ever seen.  As the sun began to rise, the rock began to glow.  Every minute brought changes to the light, and with it, changes to the colors and even the atmosphere of the place, and as we hiked we moved from barren rock to tree-filled plain.  The sky slowly changed from star-spangeled black to gray to white to azure, almost but not quite rivalling the perfect cobalt of the previous day.

We had the trail to ourselves for almost 2 hours, until we were almost back to the parking lot. So many people don't go much further than the closest lookout point.  Those who wander aren't necessarily lost, but those who don't wander definitely lose out.

My collage-making software still isn't cooperating, but I've posted some of our favorite pictures below.

The Sacred Rock -- Uluru

On Tuesday morning, we left Cairns and the tropics for the Big Red Center of Australia and flew to Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock.  The pictures are ubiquitous, but really do not do it justice.  It is just immense, and sitting in the middle of the scrubby desert as it is makes it even more amazing.  We arrived in mid-morning (gaining 30 minutes with the time change), and after sorting out our hostel room (2 bunk beds, a window, and an A/C & heating unit) and rental car, as well as buying some groceries, we set out on our pilgrimage to the rock.

Following a stop in the visitors' center and a picnic lunch, we hiked all the way around the rock, a distance of not quite 7 miles, and took in the views from all sides. The weather was beautiful and the temperature comfortable, but the flies were annoying.  They didn't really bite, or seem all that interested in our food, but they swarm!  Jake had about 30 of them just sitting on his hat, and I used my scarf to cover my face.  Stopping to take pictures -- and having to uncover for that -- meant that they were all over you in a second.  There's a reason the gift shops all had fly nets for sale (but as a tip, they cost $7 less if you buy them at the supermarket!)!

We had strategically planned (I wish I could take the credit!), so we didn't have too long to wait to watch the sunset, the magical moment when the light seems to make the rock glow.  While we were watching and waiting, Hans kept busy by drawing a lizard in the sand, doing his best version of the Aboriginal art we had been looking at.  

Uluru is considered a sacred place for the Aboriginal people, and it is explained that they read the rock as we read Scriptures: apparently the law is clear by looking at the marks in the rock if you understand what to look for.  It's also explained quite clearly that the the rock is not really for climbing.  Climbing is only a special piligrimage for some initiated Aboriginal elders, and climbing never been the point of going to the rock.  However, since they understand that outsiders will climb it, despite their pleas, there are actual open hours for climbing, and a designated place to do so in an effort to avoid accidents.  For most of the time we were there, the climbing path was closed, but it did open for awhile late in the afternoon.  We were disgusted to watch so many people crawling over Uluru, so many of them joking and messing around.  We decided that we should feel sorry for them, perhaps they don't hold anything sacred enough to understand what it means to desecrate something that others care deeply about.

In between our philosophical discussions and our hiking, we did take plenty of time to enjoy the sheer beauty of the place.  We had planned our stay to give us two sunsets and two sunrises, and we didn't miss any of them.  We also enjoyed the solitude of being in the middle of nowhere.  The main parking lots and viewing platforms did fill up pretty well, even now during the off season, but once we hiked a mile, we had the place to ourselves.  We also went out in the dark to admire the stars -- not only the Southern Cross and alot of other constellations we aren't familiar with, but the millions of stars in the sky!  It's been awhile since we've seen the Milky Way shine so brightly, and I'm not sure it's ever been as clear as it glows over the Outback.  

We had alot of fun taking pictures, and while they may speak a thousand words, they can't do the place justice.  While I still try to "save film" by chosing the perfect photo, Jake and Hans both took scores of  shots.  They didn't seem to be deterred when I pointed out that out of the few hundred pictures they took I was only going to be able to share about a dozen of them, and we'd probably only print 2 of them.  My collage-making software is not cooperating, so I'm going to post them separately.  Here are a few of our favorites:

Daintree Rainforest & Cape Tribulation

On Monday, we did something we don't do very often.  We took a day tour.  I must have been getting tired of trip planning, and the ads made the trip sound so nice.  A "small group" with "knowledgeable guide" and access to "places that most tourists don't get to see".  We did see a lot, and we left the driving to them.  It wasn't a bad tour.  I just spent the day regretting that we were in a mini-bus instead of driving on our own for half the price.  Remind me that I really don't care for group tours next time I'm trip planning, will you?  I'm not complaining, really...other than about the fact that the advertised "morning tea" involved exactly one cup of tea and a cookie, which was a little less than I had been led to believe.  But I digress.  It was a good day.  We were picked up at our hotel a little after 7:00am, and after a few more stops for pick-ups proceeded up the beautiful Queensland coast, stopping for a boat ride along the river, where we saw plenty of the promised crocodiles.  We continued into the rainforest for a short walk along a boardwalk, and were served lunch at a wildlife refuge, where we were given sweet potato slices to feed the wallabies. 

In the afternoon we were served "billy tea", a local tea boiled over a fire, and a selection of exotic fruits, and had time for a dip in a chilly freshwater swimming hole (no crocs there), before driving to Cape Tribulation for a quick look-see.  The whole time we kept our eyes peeled for cassowaries, a huge and endangered Australian native bird, but did not catch sight of any in the wild, unfortunately.  On the way home we were given an opportunity to buy some gourmet ice cream, an offer we did take them up on, as well, so we certainly can't complain!

Tjapukai Night Fire -- Aboriginal Culture

As we walked into the Tjapukai center, we were greeted by several people of Aboriginal heritage wearing traditional dress and offering to paint our faces.  We were assigned to people groups, Jake and the kids were people of the wet season, and I was from the dry, since husbands and wives need to be from opposite peoples.  After some singing and an introduction, we listened to the didgeridoo and followed the dancers outside to an amphitheater for more singing and dancing, and hearing several traditional stories.  By this time, all of the spectators (about 40 of us) were also singing and dancing, and we were given rhythm sticks to beat in time as well as we then made our way to the fire pit.  Some lucky audience members (none of us, unfortunately) were chosen to conjure up some fire using dry sticks, and after much effort, traditional prayers, and plenty of assistance, some sparks landed on the dry grasses, and they were able to blow that into a proper campfire.  The fire ceremony culminated with a bang as an arrow was lit from our campfire and shot across a lake to explode into a fire ball for a pyre there. By now it was about 8:30pm, and finally time for dinner…kangaroo, crocodile, and emu, served with some “bush” seasonings and sauces (and a delicious vegetarian dinner for Miriam and me), as well as several yummy salads, fruits, and desserts.  The food was wonderful, and the cast was very cheerful and welcoming, ready to pose for pictures and answer questions.  As far as learning about the Australian Aboriginal culture, while it was definitely an event staged for tourists, it was very well done and informative, and we left with a much more nuanced and colorful idea of the history of Australia.

Skyrail over the Rainforest

On Sunday morning we enjoyed the service (especially the rousing choruses of “Give Me Oil in my Lamp” as the closing song) at Trinity Lutheran Church before heading out of Cairns for a day trip off the coast and into the rain forest.  The Skyrail Rainforest Cableway is a few miles out of town, and is a cable gondola system that stretches over the tree tops of the Barron Gorge National Park for about 5 miles up a mountain.  We took a “diamond view” car, which meant that our gondola had a glass-bottom floor so we could look below us as well as to the sides. 

At two stations mid-way up we were able to get off and walk through the trees on boardwalks, and learn more about their fight for sunlight and how many of the trees are actually planted from above and grow down! We took a ton of pictures of the waterfall (fairly thin in the dry season), and eventually disembarked in the village of Kuranda.  Jake decided he didn’t need another leather cowboy hat (although the kangaroo leather one is much nicer than the cowhide one he has), but Hans discovered how much he wants one.  Fortunately, we were getting hungry so needed to cut our shopping short. After lunch we wandered through the town and took a look at some of those fantastic antipodean animals-that-can-kill-you at the Australian Venom Zoo (and held a couple of the ones that won’t).

Our trip back down the mountain was on the Scenic Railway, originally built in the 1880s, heavily used in WWII and now a tourist train.  Once back in town, we found a gelato shop and the kids got some more use of Cairns’ beautiful infinity pool while we waited for evening and our next adventure.

Cairns

After we found ourselves back on the wharf in Cairns, we headed…where else…straight to the pool.  Downtown Cairns is built along the waterfront, with an esplanade and park taking in the view.  The mudflats are picturesque in their way, although we heard that the shore used to be a mangrove forest, which was better protection from erosion and heavy weather.  Change in the name of progress isn’t always progress, but it is difficult to argue with the view.  The good citizens of Cairns have built a beautiful swimming pool, complete with a sandy beach and life guards, and even locker-rooms with hot showers, right in the center of the park, no admission charge.  The park itself also boasts exercise areas, free Wi-Fi, picnic tables, and the handiest pavilions with grills and kitchen prep areas we’ve ever seen.  Really, the park is so idyllic that I almost think I could move to Cairns just for it!

The Great Barrier Reef -- Swimming with the Fishes

We had travelled out of the rain that had plagued our stay in the Gold Coast, but by the time we rolled into Cairns, it was drizzling again.  Nevertheless, after that 24-hour train ride, as lovely as it was, it was nice to get out of the train and stretch our legs, so we dug out our umbrellas and set out on the one mile walk to our hostel, and ran into Jake on the way.  After being away from home for 3 weeks already, that was nice -- especially so when there was some rough land to cross and Hans is not quite up to carrying his suitcase, small as it is.  The kids hit the pool immediately, to the amusement of the staff, as it was not exactly a hot afternoon, nor was the pool all that well heated, but it had a slide, so who needed anything more?  I got some laundry done, we enjoyed our pizza, and Jake fell asleep not long after the kids did.  Time for me to repack and rearrange to prepare for our next adventure – the Great Barrier Reef! 

We left the hostel around 6:30am to walk downtown to stash our suitcases at the Reef Encounter’s office, and arrived at the wharf with plenty of time to look around before boarding our boat at 7:30.  The first part of the trip was a day-trip boat which ferried us on a 2-hour ride from Cairns straight out into the ocean.  By 10:00am we were tied up next to a somewhat larger boat, and we (along with six other people) carefully crossed the bridge between the two boats.  After a quick briefing, we were shown to our roomy cabins (one with twin beds for the kids, and one with a full-size bed across the hall from it for Jake and me), it was time to change into swim gear.  Into the water!

The weather was still gray and windy, although it wasn’t raining, for the beginning of our Reef adventure, but the sun did come out intermittently.  It is the beginning of winter here in Australia, and even up in tropical north Queensland the water wasn’t exactly warm, so we wrestled on wetsuits and prepared to jump in the water.  While we are all good swimmers and comfortable in the water, we usually snorkeled with noodle floats, and the kids often wore life jackets…both of these were for me, really, rather than for them – usually while snorkeling I’m too busy watching the kids to really see the fish, so this time, having the extra floatation devices helped me to relax and enjoy the show.  We were 30 miles from land, after all, and the currents were going out to the open sea.  The boat did have look-outs posted, and life guards with whistles and a motor boat at the ready, but sometimes even I can be a bit of a mother bear.  All of that disclaimer to explain why Hans and Miriam have floatation devices on in the pictures!  Reminds me of a joke my dad liked to tell: “Why did the little boy put on a sweater?  Because his mother was cold.”

We spent 3 days and 2 nights on the Reef Encounter, and each day were in the water for 1-hour sessions at sunrise, 8:30, 10:30, 1:30, and 3:30, interspersed by gourmet meals, and changing into dry clothes, with just enough time to drink a cup of tea before pulling our wet swimsuits back on for the next session.  The boat moved between several reefs, so we were able to swim in several different places, and had a chance to see so many different types of coral and sea life.

And the coral!  So many shapes, so many colors.  Even with the bleaching caused by the warming ocean temperatures, they were beautiful.  Spaghetti coral, and mossy ones, and boulders, plate, brain, cauliflower, and elephant ear.  Not very imaginative names, but very descriptive.  The fish were everywhere, it was a little like being immersed in the tropical tank at the dentist’s office – tiny little bright blue fishes, and larger yellow ones.  Huge rainbow fish and parrot fish, some clownfish.  Some beautiful wrasse and several kinds of trout and cod.  A few huge wonderful sea turtles and even two kinds of shark – white tipped and black tipped reef sharks!

The photos in the first collage are pictures we took with our camera. The large collage at the bottom are pictures taken by the professional photographers on board with their fancy cameras.  I’ve included some of the sea life pictures they took, which technically were not the exact things we saw, but which came from their “best of” collection, and since they are the same species we saw, and they give a better idea of what it was like.

In addition to snorkeling, the Reef Encounter offers scuba diving as well, and Jake and Miriam took them up on it.  Miriam is just barely old enough to scuba dive, having just turned 12 a few months ago, but she (naturally) wanted to, and after her two dives, was hooked.  She’s already planning on continuing with diving lessons once we get home and is looking forward to getting her certification in the near future.  (Jake plans to join her, although I am hoping he’ll wait until after his next Ironman before taking up another new hobby.) Miriam is also a great free diver and is capable of diving quite deep just while holding her breath.  We always thought she was part mermaid, and with this adventure we now have photographic proof!

Besides all of the swimming, we took a glass-bottom boat ride over the reef with the skipper there to tell us the different names of the corals and fish.  That was our only time to see a ray, something Hans most wanted to see.  We also got a complete tour of the boat, from the wheelhouse to the desalination system, and even stood on the helicopter’s landing pad.  A wonderful vacation with plenty of time to relax, play games and read, as well as sit in the hot tub and chat with some interesting people from around the world.  If we kept “bucket lists”, the Great Barrier Reef is sure to have been on it, and we had an awesome experience in our encounter.

The Spirit of Queenslaand

Following our time on the Gold Coast of the Sunshine State, where I will state for the record that it rained the entire time

Rainy Rainforest

After leaving the Lone Pine Koala Santuary, we continued our game of "Watch for Brown Signs" and followed an offcial tourist sign off of the motorway and up to Mt Bachelor.  The top of Mt Bachelor is full of B&B's, wineries, gourmet restaurants and artsy-type stores, and in general seems to be the sort of place to go on a honeymoon or for a romantic getaway.  I was there with my two children and on a budget, so aside from getting out of the car to look at the view and stopping to pick up a quick lunch at a health-food store, we didn't do a whole lot other than plan our trip back in 9 years or so, after both kids are safely ensconced at a university somewhere, preferably with full-rides.  But anyway, once at the top (which took all our little rental car had, in first gear), we spotted a sign for a canopy walk, and decided to drive over and check it out.  What we discovered was a beautiful walk through the rain forest, both on bridges through the tree tops and down on the forest floor, with thoughtful (although needing an editor) signs about the amazing plants we were seeing.  Unfortunately since it's autumn here we didn't get to see the most amazing flowers, but the trees and ferns are a brilliant green, and the bright white trunks of many of them look almost like concrete more than a living tree.  It began to rain as we were halfway through our hike, although the foliage above us was so thick in places we were able to keep dry for awhile...until we became drenched, but I guess rain is a good thing to have in a rainforest, isn't it?!

A Petting Zoo in Oz

So we've seen kangaroos in the wild, and we got some great koala photos...but we hadn't actually touched any of them...so did that count?  But rest assured, there is a wonderful animal sanctuary outside of Brisbane, the Lone Pine, that is large, clean, eco-oriented, and does run a petting zoo.  We spent the morning there.  We looked at all the exhibits, including the raptor show, the amazing cassowary (Australia's heaviest non-flying bird), the dingos, the Tazmanian Devils, and one of Miriam's favorites, the platypus.  And we spent the $2 on "roo food" and took our bag into the huge enclosure full of kangaroos and ostriches.  The fur is soft, and they are really pretty perfect petting zoo animals, letting us pet them and feed them.  They took the pellets gently with their teeth, more like a pony than a goat, and patiently let us look at their huge feet and powerful tails.

The sanctuary has scores of koalas, but they are not kept out to play with like the kangaroos.  For them we had to wait in line (and pay extra) for the opportunity to hold one, and then wait in another line for the chance to "meet" another one.  But we got to hold a koala!  He was so soft, and his hands gripped onto my shoulders!  Worth it.

Digging for Gold

I've mentioned it before, but I just love factory tours, and any other tour of "how it's made", pretty much regardless of what it is -- chocolate, sure, but breweries, distillaries, and baseball bats have all been great fun.  Today we ventured into what the slogan said was "deep, dark, dirty...awesome":  The Deborah Gold Mine in Bendigo.  We didn't just do the panning for gold part, or the simple version of the tour -- ours required coveralls, hard hats, head lamps, and rubber boots, and it lived up to it's tag line for the three of us.  We learned all about finding the gold in the quartz, and how to guess which direction to look when you dig, and we ate a traditional miners' lunch of pasties (half vegetable, half apple pie).  We climbed up and down ladders and scrambled along the gravel paths.  The highlight was putting on our ear muffs and turning on the drill!  If we thought that fire hose a couple weeks ago had a kick to it, that was nothing compared to the drill pounding into the bedrock!  We did not, however, discover any gold, despite the promise of "finders keepers"...some flakes of pyrite are all we got to bring home....turns out the "fool's gold" is prettier anyway!

A Convention of Kangaroos

On Thursday morning we set off to venture further into Victoria.  I'm not saying I am, but if I were to seek asylum in Australia, I may end up on Phillip Island.  Anyway, in the meantime, we had lots more of a huge country to see, so it was time to hit the road.  We stopped at a gorgeous botanical garden south of Melbourne and found all sorts of fun plants to add to our landscaping at home, and several more ideas which would be just great if only I had a green thumb.  So many pretty flowers, even in the autumn! 

After getting on our way again, we stopped at Hanging Rock state park, where we decided not to hike as we were getting ready to find someplace for lunch, but we did happen to spot some wildlife.  Kangaroos!  A whole convention of them!  There is a horse-racing track in this park, and a couple kangaroos began hopping across the grass where they stopped in the midfield and waited until they were joined by another few, and then several more, and finally there were more than 50 kangaroos standing around.  They seemed to be counting noses and waiting, and soon enough 3 more came jumping out of the bushes.  You could just here them saying "C'mon, Mabel, do we always have to wait for you?"

Chocolate

Phillip Island has a chocolate factory with gourmet chocolates and tours, and while we usually go to every factory tour we can, I wasn't sure this time because the reviews on Google were really mixed.  Strangely mixed, really, some 5 stars and some "what a waste of money".  But the Lonely Planet Guide made it sound pretty good, and we went Wednesday morning while the parking lot was empty,  and I'm really glad we did! The museum begins with a pretty informative exhibit on cocao beans and turning the plant into the candy, as well as the history of chocolate.  It then moves into a fun section on advertising chocolate (it was apparently a major part of the war effort during WWII), and then focuses a little bit on the founders of the factory.  It then moves into the "Willy Wonka" section where there are several games to play, where if you win you get a little wooden ball, up to 6 of which can be redeemed for chocolate balls in the gift shop.  We played until we got our allotted 18 balls.  We then had an opportunity for more samples and photo ops, and looking at a (literal) ton of melted chocolate pouring down a waterfall every 3 minutes.  All in all, this was a museum well worth an hour and the admission cost, at least when it isn't crowded.

We spent some hours on a playground, and watched the pelicans have their lunch in the bay, fed by a society working to track the wild pelicans, and hopefully get some money from tourists for their efforts by creating a show through feeding the "pellies" every day at noon.  The playgrounds were fun and had a few unusual pieces of equipment, and we very much appreciated the water fountains and bottle fillers.  So many things are cute in Australia, and the bubblers are one of them!

The weather on Wednesday was absolutely gorgeous, and we took our lunch with us on a hike near the coast.  The views of the water and the rock formations (that's the Pinnacle pictured below) were wonderful, and the trek took us along the beach, up unto the cliffs, and then through a woods.  Some of the woodsy part was through sand and pine trees, and was very much like being back in North Carolina!  We saw an old granite quarry and watched for wildlife, although we didn't see anything particularly exotic on this outing.  We were in the nesting location of some birds that actually take off for Alaska during the Australian winter -- that's some commute!

I forgot to get a good photo of it, but we do highly recommend our Cowes hotel, too, the Amaroo Park -- perfect hosts in a great setting. Cowes is a cute town, and the Amaroo Park is right near the center of it, and offered us a great cottage (with two bedrooms and a kitchen), plus a game room where Hans improved his foosball and got in some ping pong practice.  We loved our stay on Phillip Island, but now it's time to explore a bit more of Victoria before moving on.  Australia is a big country!

   

Koalas and Penguins!

Sunday morning we boarded our plane out of Honolulu for Australia, and after a fairly pleasant 10-and-a-half hour flight, landed in Melbourne on Monday afternoon.  We were late taking off due to a mantenance repair (something I didn't really need to hear, thank you very much), but in the end we took off less than an hour late and had a relatively smooth flight on JetStar, a budget Australian airline.

Coming through customs and immigration was a breeze, and we walked into the Budget car rental office less than 30 minutes after getting off of the plane.  Once we picked up the car ("drive on the left, drive on the left") and said a couple prayers about finding the hotel before either rain or darkness (we made it on both counts, just barely), we set off on the adventure of driving a strange car through a strange city at the start of rush hour.  By the time we got to the hotel, we all collapsed into bed for the evening.

This morning, up bright and early, long before the sun, we made our way back out of Melbourne and down to Phillip Island.  And what a day!  We began with seeing a complete "bow" of a rainbow from the dock in Cowes, heard some kookaburras, waited for the Cape Barren geese to meander out of our way, watched a blacksmith and pet some lambs at the Churchill Island Heritage Farm, and saw some wallabies (we know they weren't kangaroos because apparently there are only wallabies on Phillip Island, so we haven't seen any kangaroo yet.)

And then we went to the Koala Conservation Centre and saw the koalas they are breeding there.  Koalas sleep for 20+ hours every day, and four of the ones we saw were sleeping away, but one quite cheerfully posed for photos, or at least kept eating and looking around so that she looked cute while we were taking photos from the walkway around her habitat.  My oldest friend has always loved koalas, and when we were kids had her room full of koala pictures and dolls...Marcia, I wish I could bring you more than photos, and at least one of each thing in the gift shops!

After a fantastic lunch at Mad Cowes on the Cowes Esplanade, we went out to the Antartic Journey at the Nobbies Centre, a joint venture between the Phillip Island Nature Parks and the World Wildlife Fund.  The journey into the Antartic was very well done, and Miriam has renewed her plan to study or work in the Antartic,  possibly with the University of Wisconsin's Neutrino Observatory.  I don't know either, it's a physics thing.  Maybe she'll be able to explain it to me someday.  The centre includes two floors of interactive exhibits, some awe-inspiring photography and video, and a fun virtual reality section where when you look at the movie screen, you appear to be on ice and right with the animals.  I think it's hard to tell in my picture, but below on the bottom left, the kids are petting virtual penguins.

Which leads us to the last and best experience of the day, a highlight in a trip full of highlights and definitely an experience of a lifetime:  The Penguin Parade! Phillip Island is home to the smallest of the 17 penguin species, the "little penguin" or "fairy penguin".  They are blue rather than black, are only about a foot tall and weight about 2 pounds, and some 32,000 of them call the Phillip Island Nature Park home.  They spend most of their time in the water, but every few weeks come back on land to socialize and check on their burrows, which means that every night at sunset, like clockwork, many of them come onto shore.  Tonight more than a thousand of them swam up from the ocean, waddled out onto the beach, and across in front of the viewing stands and made their way home.  Real live penguins, in the wild, doing what penguins do, and doing it only a few feet away from us!  It was amazing.  They cluck and squawk and caterwaul, sounding alot like frogs or chickens, or even cats, and got quite loud as they spread out all around the area, essentially standing on their front porches but keeping up the conversations with their neighbors.  Photography of any sort is not allowed from sundown on so as not to bother the animals, so we could only "take memory pictures" and have no real ones to share with you, but trust me when I say again, it was wonderful.  So cute, and so real, and so close.  Special thanks to Charlotte who suggested Phillip Island for our itinerary!