The trip there went smoothly and a few hours later we found ourselves on the ground in Melbourne and checked into our hostel. Even though it was already past 8 we headed back into the city to accomplish at least one thing that night - the Eureka Skydeck. We took the extremely fast elevator up to the 88th floor of the tallest building in the city and got quite the view.
Once we were done taking in the view we grabbed dinner and headed back to get a good nights sleep before our first full day in Melbourne. The "good nights sleep" didn't go so well as we had a couple very rude roommates.... you can meet a lot of cool people in hostels when traveling and our one roommate was - he was from Canada and had been traveling in Australia for the last 10 months and had a lot of really cool stories - the other two, however, were not so cool. They felt the need to come back at 3:30am after a night out and have multiple people in and out of the room talking quite loudly and making a lot of noise until after 5am. A bit frustrating. We made it through the night though and the next morning we set off to explore the city. Our first stop ended up being the Shrine of Remembrance. The Shrine of Remembrance is a monument built to honor all Australian men and women who have served in war. Walking around reading plaques I learned a lot about Australian involvement in World War I and beyond.
From here we headed over to Cook's Cottage. Captain James Cook was the first Englishman to bring people to Australia. They moved his cottage from Europe to Melbourne to preserve it.
From here we headed over to the Old Melbourne Gaol. It reminded me quite a bit of Mansfield Reformatory actually. We walked around there for a while, reading the news stories and prison information on the various displays in the cells.
From here we went next door to the old watch house where they arrested us and put us in a cell as part of the tour. The sergeant gave us all cards that told us who we were and what we were being arrested for then showed us around the watch house and told us how it worked when it was functioning as part of the justice system. They would hold prisoners there while they waited to go on trial but it wasn't a good system because if you were arrested for something non-violent such as a parking fine you would be held in the same cell as someone who was arrested for something violent such as murder. Not exactly the safest environment, which is why they modified the system and don't use that watch house anymore.
From here we headed back into the main part of the city and did a bit of shopping - Jillian was in need of a new suitcase and we found an outlet mall to wander around for a bit. I came across a bookshop and found two books by an author I really like for $10, which I was really grateful for later in the trip. From there we grabbed a quick dinner and went back to the hostel to finish planning our next day and book the tour we were planning on going on. We called and booked the day tour, set our alarms for 6:30, and talked with our Canadian roommate a bit more before calling it a night.
The next day started early - before the sun had risen - and we were off to the Dandenong ranges! A bus ride out of the city took us up into the mountains and into the rainforest where we had our first stop for the day. Here we got to feed wild cockatoos and enjoy a quick hike in the woods. We saw Mountain Ash trees which are a type of eucalyptus and second in size only to the Giant Redwoods in the Western US. Unfortunately they used to log in these ranges so many of the trees are younger and not yet to their full size.
From here we headed over to the historic train line that is home to Puffing Billy, a steam locomotive that took us through the next leg of our journey through the mountains.
Once the train dropped us off at the next station we climbed back onto the bus to head to our last stop of the morning. We got to spend about half an hour exploring one of the small towns on the mountain before the tour took us back into the city where the next bus was waiting to take us on the second half of our day tour. This bus would be taking us down to Phillip Island.
Our first stop on Phillip Island was Churchill Island (which isn't really it's own island I don't think). Here there is a historical farm and we saw a lot of different animals and got a pretty view of the bay.
After exploring for a bit the group got back on the bus and went to the Koala Conservation Center on Phillip Island.
We weren't able to take pictures of the penguins as they came out of the water because the flashes cause damage to their vision but, especially with penguins being my favorite animal, it was an amazing experience. You stand on a viewing platform and watch them come out of the water and onto the beach, waddle up over the sand dune, and follow a path to their burrows. The walkway that you take to get to the viewing platform is along the path that the penguins followed so we went back and forth from watching them come out of the water to watching them make their ways down the path. It was such a cool experience! There were over 1000 penguins that night.
The next day it was time to head to the airport and leave Melbourne behind. Our flight was delayed about 4 hours so after sitting in the airport for over 5 we were finally in the air and headed back to Brisbane. Our time in the airport terminal was when I was truly grateful for my book purchase as I read one of the two I had gotten. It was a long day and a long evening of figuring out different timetables for trains to get back to the Sunshine Coast but in the long run we made it back (with the help of a friend who picked us up from the train station). It was a great trip and we got to see a lot in our short time there.
Started going through stuff in my room and throwing things away/getting ready to pack yesterday. I'll do a run-through today and tomorrow to weigh my bags and make sure they're not too heavy. Only a few more days until I head back to the US! Very bittersweet as I can't wait to be home and see my family and friends but at the same time don't want to say goodbye to my friends here and bring this adventure to a close. The last five and a half months have been incredible and I have done some pretty amazing things. This will probably be my last blog post until my final post about leaving/saying goodbye....
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