Could It Really Be Over Already?

On Monday we drove to Sorrento which is a nice little town of the coast and we did one of the coolest things ever. We swam with seals. Yep you read that right we SWAM WITH SEALS. Australian fur seals to be specific and by god they were adorable!! They were all males the too old and too young to mate so they were not in the same place as the females. I wanted to kidnap the little seals.

But we were in a very large group of people who were not swimming calmly all the time per say. So I was fairly disappointed when a few times I got very close to one of the seals and they would swim off because a group of flopping and flailing tourists would scare them. I got close enough to touch once but only for a few seconds before the seal swam away. But I was still happy and contented with what I had experienced when we were called back into the boat. I took my sweet time, swimming slowly and enjoying the water on the warm day when all of the sudden it happened. By "it" I mean a seal swam right up to me virtually and hung out next to me for at least a minute but it felt like and eternity of me and this seal just floating by each other. And then the tide pulled him away and the moment was over while most of our group was already in the boat. Once on the boat, Mom informed me that the seal had virtually made a beeline for me. Looks like I had a friend.

Seriously...I want one. But once that was over with we decided to head back to Melbourne and when stopping to get gas we discovered the car we had borrowed was leaking something. A lot of something. We made it back to the city but once we got there the car started overheating which meant we were leaking coolant. One thing that I have found interesting about Australia is how early that things close here. Come 5 pm virtually everything but restaurants, bars, grocery stores, and gas stations are closed. Malls shut down and the works. So we got back into Melbourne around 5:30 meaning we would not be seeing a mechanic that day. Now the issue was that the next day we had plans to go horse back riding in the high country areas which was a three hour drive and our ride started at 9:30 in the morning. So needless to say the mechanic wouldn't be open at 6:30. So we had to cancel our plans to go riding. But instead we got a well deserved day of rest (aka movie watching and Mom napping). But once we started to get a little restless we got up and walked down to the Fitzroy Gardens, which was a very nice park area with lots of flowers, fountains, and even a little history. We did a tour of Cook's cottage which was the house of James Cook the explorer.

We lounged in this park reading and people watching for an hour or so before we became hungry and found a little Italian place called Le Duca if I remember correctly. The food was incredibly delicious. With full bellies we retreated back to Mom's apartment for the evening to play cards and watch movies. Today (Wed. 9th), has been our last day in Australia. Tomorrow we head back stateside. Spending a few days in Hawaii with our father before heading back to the very cold Colorado. We ended our trip in the best possible way. We slept in and then headed down to the museum of Melbourne. We went through the history of Melbourne exhibit and the mind and emotions exhibit which were both very interesting. We then got some food at Hungry Jacks which is Burger King just with a different name. There I ate a tropical Whoper which had pineapple, bacon, and barbeque sauce. It was interesting but not bad. From there we headed down to the Tattoo shop called Liquid Silver which is by far the coolest tattoo place I have ever been in.

It was here that we would get the tattoos that we have been discussing for almost three years now. When Mom and I sat down to figure out what we would get we found many ideas but it came down to something that my Mother wrote in the book she made for my 18th birthday. It says, "It has been said that music is life. If this is true, then you are my music. You are that rockin', driving beat that makes me smile and makes me dance. You are those touching, tender lyrics that bring tears of joy to my eyes. You are the melody that dominates my thoughts and my sweet dreams. You are the harmony that perfectly balances out everything. Keep blessing those around you with the music that is you." Once we remembered this the decision was easy.

Taryn also got her first tattoo as an early birthday gift from mom.

It was the perfect way to end our trip. Twenty four days ago I stepped onto this soil and fulfilled a dream. Tomorrow I leave full of life long memories and bittersweet feelings of not wanting to go home just yet but ready to get back all the same. It has been the trip of a lifetime and there's only one person I can thank for that. Thanks Mom...for everything.

The Great Ocean Road...Hold On This Is A Long One!

Friday Jan 4th was hot...like over 100 degrees hot. So we tried to beat the heat and get out of my Mother's apartment (which doesn't have AC) by doing some shopping, eating, and seeing a movie. We ate at the Oriental Teahouse and here we dabbled in lots of delicious foods and I ate a shark fin dumpling which was quite tasty. We then set out shopping along Queens St, but most of the shops were very expensive so we didn't get much. Then we went to see a movie at the Jam Factory. This was a cool older building that used to be, you guessed it, a jam factory. They renovated the inside and put in some shopping, food, and a movie theater. Pretty neat stuff. We saw the Hobbit (my second time) and it was spectacular. Unfortunately our goal of beating the heat failed. When we got out of the movie theater at 9 pm the temperature was still 95 degrees. So needless to say we didn't get much sleep that night because it was sticky. The next day was much cooler (thank goodness) and the perfect day to start a road trip. The destination? The Great Ocean Road. Which is definitely a must see place!!! The Great Ocean Road runs along the southwest coast of Australia and is a gorgeous stretch of road that is filled to the brim with attractions. The first stopping point we made was at Bells Beach which was the beach where the final scene of the movie Point Break was set at but weirdly enough wasn't filmed there. For those of you who don't really remember that movie/never saw that movie, here's the link to the last scene I am talking about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1ud7EnrZHQ This is also where many surfing competitions take place.

Further up the road you run through Aireys Inlet where you can find the Split Point Lighthouse.

And the view from up there was breath taking.

The next spot on the drive is a place called Lorne where you can find Teddy's Lookout and Erskine Falls. Both were amazing. But before you reach that you can find this Arch over the road along with a memorial of sorts to the men who built the road. It was World War I veterans and Australia's fatality rate in that war was over 60%.

Then there was Teddy's Lookout. From the lookout you could see the road we were about to drive down.

Then there was the Erskine Falls, which was quite the hike to get down to.

Next stop down the road was Apollo Bay. Which is where we decided to break for the night and crash. When we set out from Melbourne we had no plans and no hotel reservations but we knew that all the hotels were booked full until the end of Great Ocean Road. But stopping for gas Mom asked the clerk offhandedly if he knew any places with a room. Turns out the owner of the station had a rental that was open for the night. What luck! So with lodging situation we set out in search of food. Before I left Colorado everyone asked me what I would do in Australia and most of the time I answered, "I'm going to eat kangaroo." So that night I did. It was much more tender than I had anticipated and extremely delicious.

The next day we set out to finish the Great Ocean Road. First stop Cape Otway! Here there is a lighthouse but you had to pay to even enter the grounds to see it. So we opted out. It was a long drive down there but it was worth it to see the incredible amounts of kolas chilling in the tree tops.

It was much cooler seeing them out in the wild then at the zoo. But regardless they look like bumps on logs. Fuzzy, sleepy, and cute bumps yes, but bumps regardless. I think I could learn a thing or two from these animals. They sleep 20 hours a day and that sounds like an easy lifestyle to me. We then continued forward to the Port Campbell National Park. This is where you can find the Gibson Steps, the Twelve Apostles, the Loch Ard Gorge, the Arch, and the London Bridge. We missed the turn of the Gibson Steps on the way down the road but came back at the end of the trip to catch it. The steps were originally carved by hand into the cliffs but were later replaced with the concrete steps you can find today.

Once down the steps you could play on the beach as many people were.

We then moved on to the Twelve Apostles which were absolutely mind blowing. When people describe them to you it doesn't seem that interesting. "It's a bunch of rocks, big deal." But they were amazing. You can only see six apostles now because of the erosion that is happening over time and the other six have been claimed by the sea.

One thing about Australia that I have learned over the course of my stay is that they take safety very seriously and the don't mess around. This sign made me laugh so I had to take a picture of it.

Next was the Loch Ard Gorge.

Next was the Arch.

Lastly was the London Bridge. If you look at the picture you can imagine the rock being attached to the mainland because that's the way it was until 1990 when ironically the London Bridge fell down. It stranded two people on the rock who had to be saved by helicopter.

And that was as far as we went. The road continues on but that was the majority of the sight seeing parts so from there we headed back to Melbourne. The pictures do not do the places justice in the least and everything was spectacular. I can say that this may have been my favorite part of Australia thus far. But we still have three more days left so that could change.

Helloooo 2013...You Don't Look Any Different Than 2012

Oh man...It's been a few days since my last post and for that I apologize. Let's play catch up shall we? After the Christmas adventures of sand and sun we hit the Moreton Bay sand island which is exactly what it sounds like...an island made of sand!! It is the third largest sand island in the world and was fairly impressive. We had to take an hour ferry ride over to the island and we saw dolphins. Unfortunately I don't have a good enough lens on my camera to capture the dolphins who were swimming a ways from the boat but I did get this picture in.

See all those lightish spots in the water? Well those are jellyfish and as the captain of the boat joked "There were thick enough to walk on". There were thousands upon thousands of these buggers just hanging out at the mouth of the bay. When you come upon Moreton Bay you are greeted by the shipwreck that you can snorkel on some of the longer trips. It was much less impressive when we learned that it was put there on purpose to break up the tides.

Once on the island we meet up with our driver and tour guide named Al. He was a local of the island and told us that there were only about 60 residents on the sand island not including the resort staff members. We then headed inward and soon got stopped by someone who was and inexperienced driver on the sandy roads and was "bogged down". All the roads, what few of them there were, all looked like this:

After about 40 minutes of waiting on these roads for other people we went on to the desert which was where we sand boarded for the first time. Sand boarding is essentially climbing up the massive sand dune and laying down on a wooden board and riding down it. It was fun but not worth trekking back up the hill in the heat for round two.

We then loaded up into the car again and went to the Blue Lagoon which was more of a murky brown color to be quite frank. The trek to the water was hot and the sand burned your feet so badly you found yourself running to the nearest bit of shade when you could find it to let your feet recover. When you finally saw the water most people ran to it to dip their feet in and cool the burning sensations. Mom fell here (which no alcohol was involved she would like me to add) and her daughter (aka me) soon joined her (but since I hold the camera there was no pictures of me on my ass).

Then there was some lunch to be had and then we were off to the island's lighthouse. Which was pretty amazing and probably the highlight of the island.

And the view from up by the lighthouse was incredible.

Then we returned to the ferry and took this picture.

Just for fun of course. The next day we spent at the beach because my sister was not feeling well and spent the day at the apartment so we went to the beach so she wouldn't miss anything. The day after that we went to Sea World. I took a few pictures but I can honestly say that the fuzziness in the pictures baffles me and as a beginning photographer I am obviously still learning the different settings on the cameras manual mode. Here were some of the better ones.

The next day we spent at Warner Bro's Movie world which was like a sort of Universal Studios. It was fun with some rides and some shows. I decided to leave my camera home that day and thus there are no pictures to show for it. New year's eve was spent relaxing, cleaning, and playing cards while drinking at the apartment as it was our last day in Brisbane. We stayed up to ring in the new year but went to bed right after midnight. New Years Day was spent traveling back to Melbourne where we shall be for the remainder of our time in Australia. January 2nd was spent relaxing at mom's apartment where instead of updating this blog I took the relaxing seriously and did nothing. Today, January the 3rd, we slept in late did some planning before making our tattoo appointment. See when my sister went off to college my mother got a tattoo with her nickname in it. I have long teased my mom about when she would get a tattoo for me and she told me when you go to college I will get one for you two. Well. I am now in my third year of college and there is no tattoo to show for it. But a while back my mom had the idea of getting a tattoo together and I was game. So on our last day here we will be finally putting words into actions. After our appointment was set we headed down to St Kildas, which is a quirky little street filled with shops, cafes, and bakeries. The bakeries are apparently what that area is well known for so we stopped and had a late afternoon treat. It was almost as delicious as it looked.

From there we went to Brighton Beach which is well known for it's Brighton Beach Houses. They are these little shed size houses right on the beach which are apparently very expensive to own because you can't build them anymore and they are passed down through generations of families here in Melbourne.

This one was my favorite.

We have only 6 more days here in Melbourne and then it's back to Hawaii and then back home. It amazes me how the time has flown. I feel like we just got here last week but all I can do at this point is try to do as much as I can before I have to leave. And by the looks of our schedule we will be doing just that.