Mornington Penninsula

We're going to have a lot of gaps to fill in when we get home!

We spent yesterday and the day before visiting with people Chris remembers, old friends and coworkers and neighbours. We will do more of that tomorrow.


Today, however, we got in the car and drove for two hours down to Mornington Penninsula, both to see the ocean and because it's wine country. Mornington Penninsula is the bottom east land that encircles Port Philip Bay (the huuuge bay Melbourne encircles).

We arrived at Dromana Estate winery a bit past noon, and while we were a bit apprehensive about being the only people there, everything was clean and attractive, we were hungry, and there was a roaring red gum fire in the fireplace next to our table.

I ordered a glass of the estate's Sauvignon Blanc Semillon, and Chris had a glass of Chardonnay. We started with fresh homemade bread that was served with a delicious semi-dry tomato, garlic, parmesan cheese and capsicum pesto. Yummm! We chose the same thing for lunch, which was a bed of angel hair in braised mushrooms and garlic with a thinly pounded chicken breast wrapped around a tiger prawn and spinach mousse.

It was SO GOOD! It was the kind of very rich and complicated food that I normally avoid, but it was done to perfection and went beautifully with the yummy wine. After lunch, we spent a little time in their tasting room, and picked up a couple bottles of wine.

From there we went on to Sorrento Back Beach, which was a section of the beach that faces the open ocean. From where we stood, there was nothing between us and Antarctica except possibly Tasmania.

Then we crossed over to the Front Beach, from which we looked out over the Bay. It's very shallow and sandy. We had a couple cookies, walked out on a pier, then drove back. At one point we could just see the high rises of downtown Melbourne over the water.

A very nice day!

Tomorrow we are starting with a trip to the factory outlets, then lunch with Chris' former coworkers, then I'm not sure what- possibly sheepskin slipper shopping, possibly room cleaning, possibly being lazy- then we're possibly doing something with all the neighbours Chris grew up with. Not sure yet.

Hard to believe there's less than a week left!

Lunch on a Rock!

Yesterday we went into the city for the first time. Melbourne is nice, and it's getting nicer. Chris is going to write about all that, I am going to write about lunch!

Wandering through Chinatown we came across a restaurant that was very modern and pretty, called Japanese Stone Grill. We decided to give it a try for lunch.

It turned out to be the kind of place where your lunch is served raw on a chunk of volcanic rock heated up to 400 degrees Celsius. We had steak, mushrooms, zucchini and tofu, which we ate as it cooked. The rock imparted an interesting salty flavour, and they provided five dipping sauces for us to try- one was a sake, vinegar, pepper sauce, one was a tomato coriander, one was a crab egg, one was garlic butter and mayo, and the last was a REALLY good teriyaki. It came with sushi and cold noodle mayo salad, and we had tempura and steamed rice as well. It was really good! And fun. We were very glad that we decided to just order one and split it though. Very filling!



Made up for our train problems.

To get into the city we drove to the station in Montmorency, parked the car, and bought a transit day pass. We got on the train a few minutes later. the ride should have taken around 45 minutes, but instead it took over an hour because our train was delayed for half an hour while they resolved a signalling problem. When we finally arrived at Flinder's Station, we got on the escalator and it died!

then on the way back, the train that was supposed to take us back to Montmorency Station was cancelled, and we had to wait for the next one.

As far as I can tell, the train system here sucks. ;o)

Chris mentioned retail therapy. So far I have bought....

Some honey and honey jasmine soap.
Frangipani body spray
a kangaroo tshirt
koala socks and a koala hat
opal necklace and earrings
moonstone earrings
australian flag hat and socks
two cute red shirts
one cute pink shirt
grey pinstripe trousers
a burgundy and black dress
three pairs of shoes
a couple cds
some presents
a neat sproingy ball
a wind up bouncy toy
two pink pencils and some neat pink stickers for my desk at work
a dragonfly water pitcher that matches the glasses that dad and joanne gave me years ago
a table runner from chinatown
buddha pictures that we're going to frame and hang
shoes for Chris
a cd wallet
cds for Chris
4 button down shirts and a long sleeved shirt for Chris
a couple very small bits and pieces from Ikea when we went there to get a bed. We also bought presents for the little niece and nephew there.

Shopping is fun!

Lunch was fun too!

Australia Zoo

This is going back in time now, to day 2 of our trip.

We woke up very early, unsurprising as we had fallen asleep late afternoon the day before and slept roughly 15 hours. It was pouring rain, but since it was warm and not all windy, we decided that it was nevertheless a good day to head over to Australia Zoo, home of the Crocodile Hunter.

We arrived around 10:30, just in time to feed the elephants before the big show at the Crocoseum! Each person gets to give an elephant a couple bits of what looked like sweet potato or yam. The trunk felt very interesting exploring my hand. Chris declined to participate, preferring instead to capture it for posterity.

The show in the Crocoseum was neat, I think Chris wrote a bit about it earlier, and I'll post some pictures when I can.






After that we had a wander, and saw many animals including koala bears, which I loved, various birds and lizards, Tasmanian devils, dingos, cassawaries, camels, all sorts. We went to the petting zoo and I fed some little piglets and lambs and baby goats and things, that was one of the best parts! the pigs and goats were so eager they climbed up my arms and over each other, and the lambs mouths were very soft and warm on the palm of my hand as they lipped up the food. I liked that!





After that I had my photo taken with a Koala named Jag. He smelled of dirt and eucalyptus, very pleasant, and he was warm and heavy and his fur was soft and springy, like very coarse, curly hair. I wanted to take him home with me but they would not let me.

We saw the tigers, and more koalas, and some kangaroos! even one with a baby. We saw all sorts of birds, and some wombats, and many poisonous snakes and things. And crocodiles, of course. Plus american alligators.







I tried on a hat that I loved but Chris said it was too much and he wouldn't let me buy it. He said we would see it everywhere, and we have- but not in my size! I am very sad about that. I want that hat!

We also met two sulphur-crested cockatoos, who were both older than I am!

It was a very full, fun day, and I liked it very much. Australia Zoo is awesome not because of the Crocodile Hunter, but because it is so interactive. You can get right in there with the animals a lot of the time, and and see what a snake feels like, how a koala feels, what a kangaroo likes to eat, that sort of thing. Much better than just staring at them in an enclosure, though with many of the animals, such as tigers, there is that of course.

Sydney

Sydney was lovely!

We landed in Sydney a bit before noon, and had collected our luggage, taken a train to Town Hall, and registered at the hotel by around one. The hotel was just as nice as I had hoped judging by their website, and we had a nice view of the city and St. Andrew's Cathedral. We dropped our stuff off and headed down to Darling Harbour for the afternoon, where we did a bit of window shopping, had some lunch, and went to the Sydney Aquarium, which we both loved. Chris enjoyed seeing all the fish, while I was captivated by the seals, platypus, and fairy penguins. the Barrier Reef exhibit was marvelous, and it was amazing to go in a glass tunnel in the shark enclosure and have the huge sharks and rays and turtles and things swimming all around and above us.

In fact, our trip to Sydney was all about water. Between us I think there were 7 showers, one bath, a boat tour, a trip to the aquarium, and an evening spent swimming in the hotel pool.

The first night we ate supper at a place called the Blackbird Cafe in Darling Harbour, where we split a vegetarian couscous dish wrapped in phyllo pastry and a lovely spinach ricotta ravioli in a creamy pesto sauce. And nummy chocolate mousse! It was very good, and we went to bed early, very sleepy.

The next day, our only full day in Sydney, we slept late and headed down to Darling Harbour again, this time to catch a boat tour under the Harbour Bridge and over to the Opera House. It was gorgeous and sunny, utterly perfect for taking lots of photos! We then wandered around in The Rocks, Sydney's historical district, and down George Street for some shopping. Utterly exhausted by late afternoon, we lay around in the hotel room for a while before heading down to the hotel pool for an hour or so of horsing around in the water. Fun! By this time we were starving, so back to Darling Harbour again for steak at the Meat and Wine Co. where the food was fabulous and the service, despite the HUGE number of staff, was so so. By this time I was so utterly sick to death of having EVERY thing I ordered come with chips (lasagne and chips?) that I had some nice plain steamed rice with my steak. Perfect!

The next morning we flew down to Melbourne, and were met at the airport by Chris' mum Wendy, sister-in-law Lou, nephew Darian (Dash) uncle Charle, Auntie Edith, cousin Paul, cousin-in-law Neelam and her beautiful five month old son Aaron, who promptly fell asleep on me. I love other people's babies! Charlie and Edith also brought flowers for me, which I have no idea what they were but they're lovely, and a "welcome" sign. I definitely felt welcome! It was lovely to meet most of the rest of Chris' family here.

We have lots of pictures to post but as Chris' mum is on dial-up, I think we are going to wait til we head downtown this week, find an internet cafe, and post them all that way. I tried posting some here but it timed out and didn't work!

We're Here!

Not a long post, the ground is still moving. We're here safely after a very long trip, and it's nice to breath fresh clean air again. It's cool and damp here, but apparently that's unusual, it's normally very dry. It has rained three times today and everyone is very glad I brought the BC rain with me! Everything is lush and green and lovely, and when the sun does come out it is very warm on my skin.

Long plane rides are bad!

The Plan

It's now only two days until we leave. On Wednesday June 7 we fly from Victoria to Vancouver at 2pm. Then we fly from Vancouver to Los Angeles, and finally from Los Angeles to Brisbane. We'll be crossing the International Dateline, so we land in Australia on the 9th of June even though the flight doesn't really take two days.

We'll spend nearly a week with Chris' father and stepmother near Brisbane (We'll be going to Australia Zoo, home of Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter!) then we'll fly to Sydney for two nights before heading down to Melbourne for the remainder of the trip. I'm getting very excited.

We're Off!

We decided to start a separate blog for the trip, so that we can post updates and pictures here without interupting the wedding-athon over on Wedding Stuffs. Anyone who's curious about where the name Skippy da Bush Kangarooza comes from... well... you'll have to ask Chris nicely to tell you!