Wow, Australia!!!! Still when I think about it I have to pinch myself because that has been a place I have dreamt of visiting my whole life! I was so lucky to have some Olney blood who helped plan my trip and made it an experience I will never forget. Barbara and Ross Olney had emailed me before my visit and suggested some things that I do and asked if there were any specific things I would like to see. They had made an itinerary that I would see in more detail when I arrived. The flight from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur was around 7 hours but went smoothly. The flight was in the evening so after the served dinner I slept for most of the flight. After that I had a couple of hours to explore the airport before my flight to Melbourne. I arrived in Australia around 7 am and was excited to start my day exploring the city centre! So I grabbed my bag and headed for security but they kept asking me to go in smaller lines and follow the blue line on the floor... what was going on? Then finally I come to a small room full of officers and they tell me that they would like to search my things, great. They were very kind and polite asking me why I was in Australia, where I came from and then asked if they could swab my bag with one of their tools. I had nothing to hide so I emptied my purse and they wiped each item and my purse. When the officer came back he said it tested positive for explosive material and a high amount of it..... WHAT! Then it got into more serious questions like if I have fired any guns lately and I started freaking out. Again I had nothing to hide but now I was scared. Then they wanted to swab my bigger bag so I took out some items and opened all the zippers. They officer went and tested it and came back saying it tested positive for cocaine. Now I almost started crying and let out a quiet and scared, what? Then he started laughing and said just kidding...... NOT FUNNY!!!!!!! Then they let me go. I packed up my bag and by the time I was heading out it was now 9 am. I felt so bad because Barbara and Ross had been waiting for me! I found them quickly and apologized, but they were worried they had forgotten what I looked like and missed me walking out of the airport!!!
Once we left the airport we went right into the city and had breakfast at the club and discussed the itinerary for the next 10 days. Barbara is a volunteer for the city and stands on the street to help tourists get to places or suggest things to do, so she knows a lot about the city!! This was awesome because I got to learn so much about the history of the city and see all of the important buildings! We parked the car and walked around for most of the afternoon. It is a lot cooler in Australia than Bangkok!!! The temperature was around 15 degrees but it felt freezing to me!!!! It was nice not to sweat for once though. Melbourne felt a little like Toronto, with the tall buildings and similar businesses. The one thing I loved about Melbourne was the arcades! These walkways were so cool and had the cutest shops in them and bakeries! It was amazing! I wish I had more money because I could have done some serious shopping here! We then went to the Victoria State Library. This looked like a library from a movie! It was huge and had all the old books on display and tables in the middle of the room, I loved it! They also have a museum and we stopped to see the Ned Kelly display as he is a huge part of the history and we would also be stopping to see more of his monuments during our trip. He was a thief and outlaw that became very popular to the Aussie's and some even saw as a hero. After that we stopped for lunch on the water and oh my how good it felt to eat a proper salad! Don't get me wrong, I love rice and noodles but I have missed the greens. Then we got in the car and saw some of the city by car. We drove past the casino and then threw King Albert Park, where they just had the Grand Prix. It was really cool to see where the track was set up! Then we went back to Barbara and Ross's house. They live in such a cute area in the suburbs, I loved it! Ross then set me up with a SIM card I could use during my stay and a myki card with money on it so I could use the train to get into the city if I wanted too. We then went for dinner at their friends house. Lisa made an amazing dinner and again, a home cooked meal was really what I needed! She made a pumpkin soup that tasted similar to one of my moms recipe and I was extremely happy! Champagne is also very cheap and the drink of choice for the Olney's and their friends Lisa, Bridget and Ernie so we popped the bubbly and had a great night!
I had the best sleep ever! Finally a non-thai style bed was heaven on earth! I have gotten used to the hard beds but I just melted into the mattress it was amazing. We woke up and had breakfast nice and early. They served muesli with milk and fruit with toast. It was nice to have food that I don't get often in BKK. We left the house by 10 am and took a very nice road trip to Portsea that Barbara and Ross planned. We took a pit stop at the Mornington Pier for coffee. Australia is very English in the way that they drink a lot of tea and have morning coffee everyday before lunch. I love it because I usually only get instant coffee in BKK. The pier was very windy and the waves were huge! I then thought I saw a bird in the water and got so sad because he must have gotten hit by a wave and died but nope.... it was a penguin!!! What! I didn't even know penguins in Australia were a thing! SO COOL! Then back in the warm car and we headed to Arthur's Seat State Park lookout point. This road went straight to the top and had the best view of the water front. We spent some time just sitting and enjoying the view but it was still chilly and windy so we went for lunch. We stopped at the Portsea hotel which was right on the water. Extremely beautiful building and great fish and chips! Of course we had wine as well and man was it good! Thailand does not have the best wine so I was a very happy girl! Then we went to the Portsea Beach where Ross used to lifeguard. It was beautiful! The waves again were some of the biggest I have ever seen in my life! Surfing waves as they are called, but I don't see these often so I was amazed every time. Ross told some funny lifeguarding stories and scary ones too! That is such a brave job to do especially with waves that big and sharks! We then drove to a very secluded street with huge homes! Barbara called it the Millionaire walk and man were these houses brilliant! We walked along the path looking into the backyards of these houses and they all had a wonderful view of the ocean and docks for swimming and porches that wrapped around the house. It was really neat to see these houses and was a nice relaxing walk listening to the waves crash on the rocks below. On the way home we stopped in the town of Sorrento to grab vanilla slices for dessert to go with dinner. They were huge and looked delicious! We also made a pit stop at the 10 minute Tractor Ride winery. They have 3 vineyards in different directions but they all only take 10 minute by tractor to get there, hence the name of the winery. The rose wine here was awesome to Ross grabbed a couple bottles for us to have the rest of the week with dinner!! We had a small dinner at home because of the huge lunch we had. Barbara made Potato leek soup and it was delicious! The vanilla slices went down perfectly for dessert! The day was very busy but so amazing! Went to bed early because I had to be up early for the Great Ocean Road the next morning!
Tuesday morning was an early one because Ross had to drop me off at the train station at 6:45 am. The station is right down the road from their house and takes you straight into the city centre and drops me off at the famous Flinders Street Station. Barbara packed me a bag with snacks for the trip and a raincoat just incase it rained. The morning started off nice and the tour bus picked everyone up across the street from the station. I sat next to a girl named Eegje, she was from the Netherlands and currently working in Sydney and just travelling for a couple days. Everyone slept for the first 2 hours of the drive because we were just on the highway getting towards the Great Ocean Road. Our first stop was for morning tea of course. The bus driver set up a nice picnic for the 15 of us but it was so windy everything was blowing away!!! The sun was still shinning though so I was staying optimistic! The wind was a little cold but I had layers on! Shortly after our next stop was at the beginning of the GOR, with the famous sign, so everyone had to get a picture! Then we saw the most beautiful and largest rainbow of my life!!! Eegje and I ran to the beach to get some pictures! The hair on the back of next stood seeing this rainbow. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen in my life! The rainbow followed us for the next hour as well! the bus driver didn't seem to excited and when I asked why he said he sees rainbows everyday on these tours! How amazing, but he did note this one was the brightest and was one of longest lasting ones he had ever seen! Then the rain began to pour.... great. The one day where I wanted nice weather and it was raining so hard our bus driver warned us he might have to swerve on this already rough road to avoid branches if any fall.. hah! The bus driver was very informative and gave us such a great history of the road and how it was all originally built by hand, I was amazed! Then we stopped at a forest where koalas are usually spotted.... well omg we saw 3!!! 3 wild koalas in the trees!! It was lightly raining and I was wet and cold but seeing that first koala was such an exciting moment! There were also hundreds of parrots here and they would come and just land on your head or shoulder looking for food! Then we stopped for food! This was all included in our price of the tour and we each got a full pizza!!! We got to choose what kind and it was delicious! I hadn't had a good pizza like that in forever! Eegje got a salad and then regretted it so I gave her slice of my pizza! Then we all ran back to the bus to avoid getting wet and on to our next stop we went! It started raining harder when we got to the rainforest so I gave Eegje my extra raincoat because mine was waterproof and she was only wearing a light sweater! We walked through this rainforest and got soaked but saw some amazing huge trees and plants I have never seen in my life before, and so many ferns!!! Well worth it. Then he next stop was the one we had all been waiting for... the 12 Apostles! The winds were now at 100 km/h and the rain was coming down but we had so much fun! We had a photo shoot in the rain! We were laughing so hard and falling over from the wind but I wouldn't have changed it! They were breath taking and beautiful even without perfect weather! We once again ran to the bus and told the driver to crank up the heat so we could possibly dry off before our next stop! Loch Ard Gorge was amazing and we walked right down onto the beach here! The waves were humungous but wow was it a sight to see! So much more I could say about each of these stops but this blog is already getting long enough sorry.... haha. Then we got to see the London Bridge!!! A very funny story that goes along with the history of the London Bridge so ask if you want to know! The sun finally came out when we got to the London Bridge and man did the sun make it more beautiful but I am so thankful for this day. I made great friends and memories that will be in my mind forever and my eyes have seen some of the most beautiful things while on this tour. We all slept on the way home because we took the highway to make it home in good time. Arrived back in Melbourne around 9pm and got back on the train for Ross to pick me up at the station. I jumped in the bath as soon as I walked in the door to warm up and once again slept like a baby.
The next morning breakfast was scheduled for 8 am like most days and we had the usual muesli and fruit. We had a road trip planned for Yarra Valley. Our final destination was Healesville Sanctuary but on our way we made some stops at a couple vineyards. Our first stop was Domaine Chandon. We did not try any wine here but just wanted to see the vineyard. My god was it beautiful! This vineyard was huge and the winery was inside this old brick building, I loved it! Then we wanted to try some wine so we stopped at the TarraWarra vineyard. Another beautiful property and the tasting room was built into a hill and very modern, the wine was also amazing so we bought a couple bottles. We had lunch at the club in the area and the roast was to die for!!!!!! More wine was served for lunch of course and Ross always picks the best bottles to have with our meals! Then off we went to the sanctuary. I was soooo excited because I was going to see a kangaroo! How exciting!! Ross and Barbara kept on going on about how ugly the tasmanian devils are so I was very interested to see these as well. This place was soo cool! All of the animals got to roam around in open areas and do as they please. I saw so many different animals that I had never seen before! The platypus was probably one of my favourites! They were so much smaller than I expected but so amazing!!! Tasmanian devils are super ugly haha and the kangaroos.... omg I fell in love! They way the jump around is very interesting and we saw a mom with a joey in her pouch it was super cute! I also touched one!!! I was scared because all I could picture was him kicking me right in the face but he didn't and it was amazing. We also went to the flight show and saw some beautiful and talented birds. I love animals so this day was just amazing getting to walk around and enjoy them in their habitats. Then back to Melbourne we went, the drive took a couple of hours and I got Ross to drop me off at the train station because I was heading into town to meet up with Bri and Lindsay from Laurier who are teaching in the city! I was so excited to see familiar faces from back home. I met them on the steps of Flinders Street Station which I was told is a popular place to meet up. AHHH it was so exciting to see them and gossip! We went for drinks on the water and talked about our different teaching experiences and how they have been life changing. It really made me think about coming back to teach in Australia because of how much they loved it. Who knows where my travels will take me next.
On Thursday I got to sleep in and have a relaxing morning. Barbara had gotten me a ticket to the Mother's Day lunch at her church. I helped her prep some finger foods for us to bring for the early arrivals and those helping to set up. It was nice to be in a kitchen making food! I miss having a kitchen so much! We walked over to the church and helped with the remaining set up. The lunch was being catered and made the whole room smell amazing. Once everyone arrived and had a glass of bubbly we sat down for lunch. The food was amazing!! They had salads, beef, chicken, buns... I was in heaven! After lunch author Robin Bowles was the guest speaker and talked about her life as an author and some of her books she has written. She was very funny and had a great life story to share about her journey becoming a writer. It was a great afternoon and I got to meet Lynn Olney. I know we are not really related but having the same last name makes it fun to get to know the Olney's in Australia. We helped clean up and put away all the chairs and tables then walked back home. I spent the rest of the afternoon packing my bag for our trip to Sydney and reading my book. The family was coming over for dinner so Barbara was preparing for that. Barbara and Ross's daughter Melissa Olney was coming over for dinner and 2 of their grand daughters, Emily and Sarah. Emily and Sarah's parents were on a vacation in Europe and Melissa's daughter stopped by before dinner to say hi but she could not stay for dinner. They were so kind and nice and Sarah is also a teacher and same age as me! Dinner was amazing! We had lamb roast with veggies and potatoes and pavlova for dessert! It was a very traditional Australian dinner that they have often. It was a night filled with wine, stories and laughs. I am so happy I got the chance to meet the family and have a great night with them. Barbara and Ross are great hosts and I am so happy I got a chance to see the city of Melbourne with them as my tour guides!
(part 2 is the road trip to Sydney!)
