My Last Days in Australia

Sunday, Nov. 2nd

Hello! This will be my last blog in Australia!

It is hard to believe I am at the end of my wonderful visit with Wes & Missy in this beautiful place.

I have SO much to write about and no time to do it! I'll do my best though. :-) The closer I am to my return to the Great State of Texas....the busier I get! Let me jump right into the last few day's events.

Friday...Oct 31st Monster Bash

A mild curious version of that anyway.... Aussies recognize Halloween but not with the hysteria that we do in America. With all our much labored over goodies Missy & I headed up to her office in Camberwell. After meeting everyone it was declared time for cakes. I think that means refreshments. About fifteen people came in and seem to thoroughly enjoy all the festive food. I had an opportunity to visit with many of them and they were all very friendly and seemed glad to meet Melissa's Mum ( as she is known professionally).


Missy's Office

At lunch time Missy took me back to the house for some much needed packing while she finished up meetings and work for the rest of the day. We went to dinner at Fierelli's....and there is no guarantee I am spelling that correctly. It was fabulous! I had a wonderful chicken breast stuffed with feta cheese and sun dried tomatoes....and an amazing Sticky Date Pudding. I LOVE Sticky Date Pudding!!! :-) Y'all expect me to roll off that plane don't you! haha! It was a wonderful day!

Out to Dinner for the evening

Yarra Valley Nov. 1st

I had no idea what to expect and that made it such fun. The Yarra Valley would be like the Nappa Valley or Northern Italy wine region. Beautiful mountains that are covered with wineries and vineyards. They are very different mountains...not coastal or nearly so rugged. It is actually not far from Melbourne..perhaps an hour at most ....through charming little towns. If I lived in Australia this would be where I would want to live. I loved it there!!

Yarra Valley

There were trees of every sort. There were also olive groves and they sold olive products in the wineries too.... We stopped in at many of the wineries to have a look....and a taste. :-) They do not charge you there to do that.... and the Australian specialty seems to be the Shiraz ( pronounced with the familiar Aussie aaahh sound as in wahh wahhh that they put on most everything :-) and sounding out the Z) very Australian sounding. Missy of course could only have a sip a few times.... since she is expecting....but it was fun and interesting learning all about the wines and how they are made.

Next we went to an animal sanctuary. It only took me about 3 seconds to revert to a child. OMGosh!!!

Animal Sanctuary

We seemed to be there at the perfect time. Sanctuary assistants were walking about everywhere which brought out the animals.... They were in typical no hurry no worries Aussie fashion....and told you almost anything you ever wanted to know about these amazing animals. That spelled pure heaven for me...curious person that I am. We saw a Duck Billed Platypus...which is an endangered species now.... Wow!! The platypus, we found out, had developed a trust relationship with the trainer...and came out to show off. He said it was very aware we were there..... and played through a little underground jetty of water....over and over.... and did all kinds of playful things... Loved it! We saw Dingo...which very much looked like a dog,

Dingo

There was also the reptile section. ....shiver.... that was Wes' favorite place. It had a Taipan Snake .... which is one of the most deadliest snakes on the earth. It kept tapping it's head on the glass at Wes....and it was like a " Moment " with his deadliest foe.. A guy thing I think....but was cool to see him enjoy it. Ewwww! :-) We also saw a really dangerous lizard/ reptile/ dragon looking thing.... GROSS! Wes liked that too. :-)

Lizard

We saw Koalas again....this time up close and personal. These animals were not caged like a zoo ( with he exception of the dangerous ones ) but were free to roam about. I didn't hold the Koala...but I was close enough to. :-)

Koala


I finally got to see Kangaroo!!! One just feet from me. They were so amazing! Lazy and somewhat bored with our silly excitement they did an occasional reshifting for comfort that drove us to paparazzi excitement! :-)

Kangaroos

Kangaroo pose

There were also Wallabies. I got to hand feed this one....and pet it. No trainer about.....just the Wallaby.... humoring us. :-) There were other marsupials..... that we did not see.... The Opossum Tasmanian Devil and Wombat. I think they are marsupial anyway..... but they were hiding...and were likely nocturnal as most Australian critters seem to be. All in all....it was sheer bliss to make our way through that lovely sanctuary and be kids for awhile.

I am feeding the Wallaby grass

Missy & the wallaby

Our last stop was another winery, one of their favorites, where we had an amazing assortment of cheeses and a few more tastes of wine. We took the beautiful drive home through the Christmas Mountains....and once in Ashburton had dinner at Sergios. I had lamb kebabs with pita and a Greek type salad.... Another food home run....in a charming little homey Greek run restaurant.

Winery

A cheese plate with our wine



St Kilda's Beach Nov. 2nd

We left early today to go by St. Kilda's Beach. It is right off of downtown Melbourne. They have a beautiful boardwalk with lots of little booths of crafters and things to purchase. We found just the items we were looking for and after a pose or two on the beach headed off to the Gold Class Movie. ...the ultimate in movie experience. :-)



St. Kilda's Beach

Missy & Wes at St. Kilda's Beach

It is a bit like our Studio Movie Grills in Dallas. We ate dips and bread ( like hot sauce and chips in Texas ) and pizza. The thing I liked best was the recliner seats.... and they will even bring you a blanket and pillow if you get cold... Not bad!



Wes lounges for the movie at the Gold Class Movies.

Getting comfy

Well that's it.... I am now finishing up my packing and getting all my travel details together. I would sure appreciate it if you would pray for me during my travel. It makes all the difference!

Travel Info for prayers:
Monday, November 3rd ( It will be Sunday evening for you )

Flight QF93 Departs 12:10 pm ( just after noon Aussie Time ) so about 7 pm ( daylight savings time ) Dallas time.

I arrive in LA after a 15 hour flight at 7:30 am....the same day!!! It will actually be...on the clock... the same morning I left Australia...hours on the clock before I actually left!! I am flying into the sun so I gain a day instead of losing one.... Crazy!

2 hours later at 9:50 am I board flight 2440 from LA to Dallas and arrive in Dallas about 2:55 pm.

Pray for

• Safety on every part of my journey home


• Good weather the whole way home. It is raining here now.


• Good seats. They are assigned this time..but pray they are good


• Good travel companions. I would be OK with a vacant seat next to me for more room. :-)


• Health....I will start my Airborne immune tabs today and would like not to have or acquire any travel related illness. They are common on long flights with recirculated air.


• Rest.....on the flight.....helps with the prevention of jet lag


• No Jet lag. I managed to be only a tad bit travel weary for my flight over and would love to repeat that. :-)


• God's protection for me and every part of my trip

Thank you for sharing my trip. It made it such fun to have you on the other end. :-) I will meet you again on the other side of the world!!!

Blessings,

Elaine