Australia 2019

We started this sunny day with a light breakfast and headed out to spend most of the day at the Cataract gorge. We first paid a visit to the Trevallyn Dam. We then made our way down to the Recreation area and by an archery range. Along the way we spotted a young echidna which we photographed. But the highlight was finding a live wallaby which allowed us to photograph it up close. Later we saw another smaller wallaby plus a number of beautiful peacocks. The gorge recreation area has beautiful gardens and many scenic views. There's an overhead tram that provided spectacular views of the area but we didn't ride it. On our way back home, we at lunch at the Hog's Breath located in the former gas plant and did some shopping at Coles, a local grocery store.   After tea, Angela and I went to the local hairdresser and got new haircuts. We then enjoyed a lamb dinner at home with Kaba & Lindsay before spending a quiet evening at home.

After breakfast we attended church at Gillam's home church in Hadspen (Summerhill Baptist Church). It was a good sermon, but I was a bit surprised that few people greeted us unless we greeted them. After church we headed to a Swiss Village if Grindelwald where we had a nice pie lunch in a bakery. From there we headed out north through Exeter and passed by Burt Munro's Cafe (devoted to the memory of the great New Zealand Racer). From there we headed out to Beauty Point where the Platypus House and Seahorse World are located. The Platypus House was closed and the attendant was a bit rude in enforcing the closure despite a crowd of people in the shop. We went over to Seahorse World where we were warmly greeted. However it was $25 to tour; so we passed. We crossed over the Batman Bridge and made a brief stop underneath it to view it. From there we headed down the east side of the Tamar River back to Gillam's home in Hadspen where we had a light dinner befo...

Overnight it was very cold sleeping at the Gillam's and I donned a down jacket sometime during the night which cut off Angela's heat source. After breakfast, Lindsay took Angela and I out to visit the farm and the sheep he cares for. We also tried to find some kangaroos or wallabies, but were unsuccessful. Following a light lunch we attended a concert at St. Matthais' Anglican Church in which Lindsay's Launceston Men's Choir performed. It was very good and took much of the afternoon.   We spent the evening at Gillam's enjoying a lovely dinner and conversation.

Unfortunately today was our last day in Melbourne. We packed up and sent one of our suitcases with Elizabeth to work where we would connect with it later. We went with Rhett to a Doctor appointment and afterwards he dropped us off at the local train station where we caught a city train to downtown Melbourne. Downtown at Central station, we caught a free tram to the Yarra River from which we walked about 20 minutes to the Shrine of Remembrance which is a beautiful war memorial with a remembrance ceremony every half hour that is worth seeing. We walked back to the river and caught another tram in side the free zone. From there we walked to Elizabeth's office. She then drove us to the airport. We checked in and were assigned seats for our short flight to Launceston on a Qantas Q400 turboprop. While waiting for our flight, I had an Angry Burger from Hungry Jack's.   The 1 hour flight over departed late due to congestion, but we were only 5 minutes late into Launc...

We went downtown and took a couple hour tour of the Melbourne Cricket Grounds (MCG or the G for locals). After lunch at a Mexican Restaurant with Elizabeth, the four of us took a 2 1/2 hour river cruise up and down the Yarra River. We finished our day with a visit to Costco (it looks just like a US version of the same) and a dinner at the cafe (Costco dogs are $1.99A and they have huge ice cream cones for $1.50A).

Today was a pretty simple day. We drove down to Inverloch and checked out the Clark's vacation home and did some beach and bush walking there. After a lovely lunch downtown, we took Ethan to a BMX track where he did 6 laps on his bike. On the way back home, we stopped and did some more walking over a former railroad bridge that's now part of a walking trail. Tonight it was brats on the barbie which was yummy. I also tried to explain to Ethan how locks worked. Everyone was a bit tired so all of us were in bed by 10pm (Ethan even earlier). We have an interesting day planned for tomorrow. Stay tuned.