In the two and a half years that we’ve traveled this massive, beautiful country, I believe that the Great Ocean Road is one of the most beautiful places that exists here.  It was our first weekend away when we moved here (The Great Ocean Road in 2 Days) and I’ve been itching to do it again.  When Mom picked it out of her travel guide, saying she’d like to see it, I was super excited!  Our friend generously lent us her car for the adventure, I reserved a room in Warrnambool, and we decided that we wanted to make it to the 12 Apostles for sunset.  We had a plan, so we hit the road.

I thought it would be nice if we took a small detour through Geelong, because the waterfront is so pretty. Unfortunately, after two and a half years driving in Australia, the road sign placement still confuses me!  For those of you who are familiar with Geelong, we ended up on Separation Street rather than North Shore Drive.  Trying to suavely play it off, I suggested that we drive past my office, but also managed to mess that one up, as I’ve only ever left the office this way….We did eventually find the office, and the waterfront, but our quick detour through Geelong was actually about an hour long!

At long last, we made it to Torquay and decided to start our journey down the Great Ocean Road with a quick stop at the beach and a much needed large long black!

Our next stop, which came up much faster than I was expecting was Bells Beach.  While we were here, the surf was moving in, they were setting up for the surfing competition that was happening the next week, and I found these amazing shells that had clearly been worn down by the sea over time.

Then we continued along to Urquhart Bluff Beach, of course watching for Kangaroos as we left Bells Beach (we didn’t see any) and in Anglesea (we didn’t see any here either, but we missed the golf course).

By the time we reached Aireys Inlet, I was starting to get concerned that we’d somehow missed the Great Ocean Road sign, maybe while we were on the Bells Beach loop road….but I remembered loving the lighthouse and view at Aireys Inlet.  I also get a kick out of the fact that it’s called Split Point Lighthouse, because it always makes me think of Split Rock Lighthouse, which is my favorite lighthouse.

Fortunately, it turns out we did not miss the Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch, it was just much further down the drive than I remembered!  We also made some stops along the side of the road as we drove, you know, to prevent carsickness.  It is quite a windy road.

We arrived at the Twelve Apostles exactly when we planned, despite our earlier detour through Geelong. I was, again, blown away by how breath-takingly beautiful the Twelve Apostles, and all of the Great Ocean Road, are!  Just like the first time down this drive, I kept saying, “We’re in frickin’ Australia!” and “Look at the color of the water!”

After the sun was gone, we hit the pavement and headed for our hotel in Warrnambool.  We stayed at the Best Western Olde Maritime, which was adorable.  Our room was lofted, giving my parents a bit of privacy and separation from me, but still allowing us to chat long after we’d turned the lights out.  Raj in reception was extremely friendly and welcoming, even calling Bojangles to tell them we were hungry and on our way.  I would not recommend the vegetarian pizza with pumpkin and pesto, and I would say that you need more than 1 pizza to feed 3 hungry people.  The waiter misguided us a bit on that one, saying that 1 pizza was probably plenty for the three of us.  I would say that would have been true if we were having it as a starter rather than a main.

Warrnambool, it turns out, is an adorable town and our hotel was so near the beach that we could hear the waves in the morning.  Naturally, we sought out the beach because we all are drawn to water and who wouldn’t want to take a walk on the beach in the morning?

Did you know that they call Logan’s Beach in Warrnambool a WHALE NURSERY?  Between May and October the Southern Right Whales come into Lady Bay to birth and raise their calves; we discovered this by following the signs for the Whale Nursery, thinking it would be some sort of attraction (I know, very American of us…), and then discovered this.  Had I known this 2 years ago, I would have spent {much more} time in Warrnambool in winter!

As we drove from Warrnambool back down the Great Ocean Road towards Melbourne to see the things we’d missed the day prior, we headed through cattle country.  I thought to myself, “I think there is a Warrnambool Vintage Cheddar that Ben and I really like…”  Suddenly, I saw a sign for FREE CHEESE TASTING 500 METERS, so I said, “Free cheese tasting anyone?” just before I slammed on the brakes and pulled into the parking lot of Allansford Cheese World.  Let’s be honest here, it was a rhetorical question.  Who wouldn’t want a free cheese tasting (unless of course you are lactose intolerant)?

After politely wandering through the gift shop, cheese shop and reviewing the cafe menu, we made a beeline for the cheese tasting.  We were allowed to taste 6 cheeses, each better than the last, and then decided to take an entire wheel of the Warrnambool Club Cheddar with us.  It was absolutely the favorite of all 3 of us.  Despite all of our adventures while Mom & Dad were here, we made it nearly half way through this kilogram wheel of cheese before they left; Ben and I finished it off within a week of them leaving.  It was a cheese not to be wasted, and to be shared in extreme moderation with my gleeful pups.

Once we hit the coast, we found ourselves at the Bay of Islands, where I again found myself exclaiming, “Look at the color of the water!”

“What’s the Grotto?” I asked not too long after leaving the Bay of Islands.  Since none of us were certain, I naturally pulled in to find out.  For the curious geology nerds like myself, it’s a natural formation that occurs when the sinkholes in the limestone meet up with the eroding cliff.  The water inside of the Grotto was eerily still against the crashing waves of the Southern Ocean in the background.

Perhaps from the same parking lot as the Grotto, but maybe from the parking lot of Loch Ard Gorge, we followed a hiking path to Thunder Cave, which once upon a time had an arch over it that has collapsed from erosion.  Approximately another kilometer down this path was something called the Blowhole, but we decided that we were not prepared to add 2km to our current hike and did not go down there.  While I’ve not posted a photo here, because they did not turnout well enough, the view from Thunder Cave to the Blowhole was beautiful.

(Yes, we made all the terrible jokes you’re thinking right now, and yes, Ben made them again when we returned from our 2 day road trip down the Great Ocean Road….)

The next stop along our tour of the Great Ocean Road was Loch Ard Gorge, which is named for a ship that wrecked against the rocks at this site leaving only 2 survivors that were stranded on the beach below the cliffs.  Today there are stairs that you utilize to access the beach, which also gives you perspective on how overwhelming it would be to wash ashore here.

Remember that childhood song that went “London Bridge is falling down…” Well, in 1990 the first arch of the London Bridge formation did finally give way to the battering wind and waves of the Southern Ocean, collapsing into the water.  No one was injured, but two people were stranded on the remaining arch and had to be rescued by helicopter.  Despite how terrifying that would be, all I can think is how beautiful it would have been to be able to lookout from the London Bridge back at the southern coast of Australia, and how awesome it would have been to witness this incredible act of nature.

Our last stop before the road took us back inland to Otway National Forest, was the Arch.  The wind was high and the seas were rough that day, making for spectacular viewing of waves crashing through the arch.

Bathrooms are few and far between along the Great Ocean Road, so we did make a pit stop at the 12 Apostles to use the facilities, and were distracted for a time by the helicopters.  Approximately every 15 minutes, a helicopter would land, unload, reload and take-off again within about 2 minutes.  It was so windy that day, that has they turned toward the coast line the downdraft would cause them to dip dramatically towards the ground.

From here we decided to head straight for Cape Otway to see the koalas.  As I prepared to make my righthand turn down the road to the Cape Otway Lighthouse, or the Koala Viewing Road, as I like to call it, there ware lots of cars pulled over and people in the road at the entrance, so I said, “What are these idiots doing? This seems unsafe…” and then I shouted, “OH MY GOD THERE IS A KOALA CROSSING THE ROAD!!!!” (I only remember shouting this once, but believe my Dad when he says I shouted it about 6 times.)  Do you see him climbing over the guardrail? My Mom was able to get an incredible picture of this koala looking straight into her camera as he climbed the tree after crossing the road.  He’s so cute I can hardly handle it!

W made several stops along this road to see a koala high up in a tree, and at one point there were 3 koalas near each other fairly low down, so we got out of the car to have a look.  Several minutes later, I turned around and saw that we’d left the doors wide open on the car in our koala viewing frenzy.  At least now I know where my childlike excitement comes from.

Not surprisingly, we returned to the city quite late that night, starving.  My incredible husband had made pizza crusts and prepared all of the ingredients for us.  Homemade pizzas were just 10 minutes away!

If you find yourselves in Australia, the Great Ocean Road is not to be missed!

As we were planning their trip, my Mom and I discussed that a day of wine tasting in the Yarra Valley would be fun, and beautiful.  Fortunately, all of our friends also LOVE wine and a day was already in the cards.  After all, Lynette, Aaron and I had all recently left Target and required a celebration.

We used For the Love of Grape to organize our outing and ensure everyone could enjoy the tastings that day without the responsibility of driving.  Leah was amazing, and incredibly helpful in recommending which wineries to visit, but also allowing us to to tailor the day as we wanted.  We chose two of the wineries, and had her recommend the lunch venue/tasting and a small winery that was new to all of us.  She was extremely flexible, also, allowing us to tag the Yarra Valley Chocolaterie to the end of our day, at no extra charge.  If you’re planning a day out, I’m certain everyone in our group would recommend that you use For the Love of Grape to organize your day.

Our first stop of the day, was Coldstream Hills.  A few of us had been here before and thoroughly enjoyed it; a few of us had tasted their wines at an event a few weeks earlier and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Based on these factors, we requested this winery be on the list.  We worked our way through every wine they had available for tasting that day, each picking out some favorites.  Unfortunately, they lost us at the end of the tasting with a aggressively long sales pitch, even providing my parents with information on how to ship their wine club to America.  It was so long, in fact, that by the end of it I had forgotten what I was thinking of purchasing.  Thirteen of us walked out of this winery without purchasing a single bottle of wine, not because we disliked their wines, but because we were turned off by the sales pitch.  The friends that had visited a few weeks earlier mentioned as we made our way back to the bus that this was not the experience they’d previously had.  We chalked it up to large group mentality on the winery’s part.

Our second stop of the day was Hanrahan Vineyard, which none of us had been to or heard of before.  In fact, the co-owner of the vineyard asked me about our tour company, so I told her how wonderful For the Love of Grape had been in organizing our day, and advised her to form a relationship with them.  They seated us in a private area, told us their history and then took us on a tour of their wines.  As we tasted, it seemed like each one was better than the last!  The man giving the tasting was extremely personable, read our group well, and just wanted to talk about the wines and their vineyard.  He invited us to stay in the private seating area as long as we felt like, and never pressured us to purchase any wines.  In fact, I had to ask him as we were leaving where to purchase.  I believe each of us purchased two bottles of wine from them, with my personal favorites being the 2012 Shiraz and 2012 Chardonnay!  And we’re already planning our next trip back to Hanrahan Vineyard.  If you’re going out for a day, or planning a tour, be sure to add these guys to your itinerary.

The next stop on our itinerary was Tokar Estate & Restaurant, which unfortunately did not impress anyone in our group.  I should clarify, that the food we had for lunch was very nice, but despite knowing that there were four vegetarians in our group, they did not present a vegetarian menu, instead making us request it in addition to their prix-fixe menu that they were offering us.  After ordering, we were invited to the bar for our tasting, which was not large enough for a group of 13 people.  At the bar, we met the owner’s son, who seemed to have a bad case of the coke-sweats and came across as a douche-bag spoiled little rich brat.  He really didn’t give us any information about the wines, instead talking about how great of a chef he was, that he had to retire already because there was no improvement left for him.  As Ben would say, he was a total FIGJAM (fuck I’m good, just ask me).  Once we were settled back at our table, we weren’t allowed to choose our favorite wine from the tasting to enjoy with our meal, but instead were allowed to choose “red” or “white”, which is what I expect from an airplane or pub, not a winery.  We were served the worst wines from the tasting with our meals.  Overall, this venue was disappointing and I would not visit again.

Our last winery stop of the day was Yering Station, which is proudly Victoria’s oldest vineyard. This was my second trip to this winery, and my honest opinion was that the girl who did my first tasting here was better than the guy who lead this tasting.  She was more informative, involved with the group and friendly.  The guide on this day seamed to be a bit rushed, and had a lot less to say about each wine, how to taste it, what to pair it with, and where to locate it within the massive shop. It was quite busy there, being Labour Day Weekend, but if this had been my first experience at Yering Station, I might not go back.  On this day, I did not make any purchases at this winery, however I have in the past.

After our visit to Yering Station, we stopped off at the Yarra Valley Chocolaterie & Ice Creamery.  It was crazy in there, but we managed to enjoy our ice cream and stock up on chocolates before heading back to the city.  As we loaded into the bus, our wonderfully friendly driver asked if anyone was on a tight schedule.  No one was, so he suggested one additional stop to enjoy the gorgeous view over the Yarra Valley with Melbourne in the background.  This was definitely above and beyond, as we were well past the end of our itinerary and the time that For the Love of Grape had promised to us, but knowing that my parents were tourists and the rest of us had never been before, Eric wanted to share his favorite place in the Yarra Valley with our group.

I’ve already said it, but I’ll say again that I would highly recommend For the Love of Grape if your organizing a day out in the Yarra Valley or Ballerina Peninsula. Hands down, my favorite winery of the day, and I think I speak for the whole group, was Hanrahan Vineyard.

In June of this year, we took a trip to WA to make my dreams come true.  We booked with Exmouth Diving Centre because they send out a plane to locate the Whale Sharks and guarantee that you will swim with one.  I am so glad we chose this company!  We had the opportunity to swim with three separate Whale Sharks on 5 different swims, with our largest sighting being 8 meters!  It was an incredible day!  Not only did we have a fantastic group of only 10 people swimming with the Whale Sharks, but we also saw 3 different types of rays, dolphins, minke whales, hump back whales, Lion’s Mane jelly fish, hard and soft coral, and fish of all types.  It was the experience of a lifetime!

Video by Katia at Exmouth Diving Centre.  Whale Sharks featured at about 7:15.

I’m going to take this opportunity to get on my vegetarian soap box for a second to call all of my fish eating friends to stop eating shark fin.  Now that you’ve seen the beauty of the whale shark in this video, you should know that he is at high risk of having his fins savagely cut off and then being thrown back into the ocean to die.  Everything other than his fins will be considered waste.  Help stop shark finning and shark extinction today simply by not eating the obvious shark fin soup, but also flake in your local fish & chip shop.  Learn more at www.stopsharkfinning.net.

January

We went to our first cricket match, took a drive down to Phillip Island to see the little penguins and attended the final match at the Australian Open.

February

Astrid and Gizmo finally reached the end of their quarantine period in the USA and came to Oz.  I didn’t realize that I would miss them so much that I would cry when I picked them up from quarantine in Oz.

March

We went to Tasmania, which never seemed like a real place until we moved to Australia.

April

Easter and ANZAC Day lined up perfectly in 2014, allowing us to take a 10 day vacation with only 3 days officially off of work.  We went to Bali and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  Dream vacation!

May

I love these girls. (Yes this picture was taken in July, but never mind that.)

June

While Carrie & Jess were in America, Ben, Schall and I took a road trip to Adelaide, “City of Churches.”

July/August

I headed home to America, where my favorite people threw me a bachelorette party.

August

We headed for Brisbane for a weekend.

September

I am fortunate enough to have girlfriends in Australia who wanted to throw me a Hen’s Night!  Not many ladies get 2 bachelorette parties.

October

We were married as the Grantrobus’ in Waipio Valley, Hawaii.

November

Geelong threw a wine festival to properly celebrate our 1 year anniversary abroad.  We are blessed to call these people our friends.

December

We went to the Northernmost city in Australia, Darwin, and saw the crocodile that starred in Crocodile Dundee.

Here’s to you 2014!  It’s been real, but I cannot wait to see what 2015 has in store for us.  Cheers bitches!

Friday morning, after sleeping in a bit, we headed out for to find breakfast at Ducks Nuts.  The service was terrible, but our food was pretty good.  Over breakfast we laid out our game plan for Friday.

First up, Crocosaurus Cove.  We arrived just in time for the Big Crocodile Feeding, which seemed a bit more like Big Crocodile Taunting.  The caretakers would tie a piece of dead bird to the end of a big stick and slap it against the water until the crocodile came over to them.  Then they’d hold it in the air until the crocodile snapped his jaw or jumped out of the water.  I think it was really more of a show than actual feeding, and it was fascinating.

[See image gallery at bohopunk.com]

This crocodile, whose name I cannot remember, was the newest addition to Crocosaurus Cove.  When the caretakers entered his pen to feed/taunt him, he decided he was not interested and sunk to the bottom of his pool.

As we toured Crocosaurus Cove, we came across Burt; he starred in Crocodile Dundee!  The caretakers explained to us that crocodiles, like dogs, can be trained using food/treats, toys and positive re-enforcement. (They like to be scratched on the head!)  Who knew?!?

The caretakers put on a display of a crocodiles jaw strength using this machine and brick of ice.  It was definitely impressive.

[See image gallery at bohopunk.com]

After the big crocodiles, we came to the juveniles.  The caretaker here mentioned that these guys are extremely dangerous and like to bite.  They are about 5 feet long and extremely cute!

[See image gallery at bohopunk.com]

These three reminded me of Flotsam & Jetsam from the Little Mermaid.

I mean seriously, check out this image that I grabbed from Disney’s own page.

The last thing we did at Crocosaurus Cove was tour the museum of the different types of Crocodiles, which included the American Alligator (cute compared to the crocodiles around the world).  In the museum, the caretaker had a baby crocodile who was about 18 inches long.  She offered for me to hold him, so I did!  I was surprised how smooth and soft his belly and spiny back were.  She told me that even the massive ones we’d seen outside were still this smooth and soft.  To prevent him from biting me, she had taped his mouth shut, because their jaw strength is in closing, not opening.  I asked her if this hurt his soft skin, but she said she’d first put a layer facing outward so that no sticky stuff would touch him.  Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take a picture of him or me holding him – she wanted to sell me the picture.  The baby crocodile was really cute!  If they didn’t get so big and scary, I would want one.

After visiting the crocodiles for the better part of the day, we were extremely hot and decided we should stop for an adult beverage and snack.  Shortly after sitting down at Shennanigans, it started pouring down rain.  Even with an umbrella, we would’ve been soaking wet.  The people of Darwin were not bothered, however, and continued with their regular business.  I suppose if you live somewhere with a season called “Wet” you learn to cope.  We, on the other hand, waited it out before venturing on our walking tour of the waterfront.

Darwin’s waterfront is quite industrial, so there isn’t a lot to see.  It was interesting to see swimming in designated areas only, though, because the crocodiles live in the bay.  The swimming beach is caged off to keep the crocodiles out and there is a wave park right on the beach for swimming, tubing and surfing entertainment.  The waterfront and pier connect to the park along the Esplanade, which is where our hotel was situated.

It had been an extremely hot day, so we headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up for dinner and watch sunset, which was nothing to write home about.  Ben did some research and found Hanuman, which boasted Indian Asian Fusion cuisine.  The reviews on Urban Spoon were fantastic, so we gave it a shot.  If Hunaman is what happens when Asian food meets Indian food, I am sold.  It was amazing; I would recommend it to any fellow traveler to Darwin.

We started day 2 of our 2 day adventure in Darwin by going in search of the WWII Oil Storage Tunnels, which were supposed to be near the waterfront, and we’d seen signs for the day prior but hadn’t actually found yet.  All we had to do was open our eyes to see this sign:

We made our way down these stairs and found a chatty veteran who directed us inside.  400 men dug these tunnels out by hand after the Japanese attacked Darwin during WWII to do just as the name suggests, store oil for Naval use.  The tunnels were never actually commissioned by the Navy for storage during WWII, however 2 of them were used during the Korean War to store Jet Fuel.  2 of the Oil Storage Tunnels are open for tour, and you can see into a 3rd along the way.  The primary tunnel viewed along this tour is #10, which features a photographic display of Darwin during WWII.  As an American, I was fascinated to learn that the USAAF was stationed in Darwin during WWII.  This is not something I ever remember learning about in school.  I also never knew that the Japanese attacked Australia, so this was a whole new exploration of WWII for me.

[See image gallery at bohopunk.com]

After touring the tunnels, we decide to take the 4km hike to the Darwin Botanical Garden.  It was a HOT day, so as soon as we arrived we stopped in the cafe for a cold beverage and to cool off.  Feeling refreshed, we headed into the gardens in search of pretty flowers and local plant life.  Ben and I both love botanical gardens usually, so we were pretty excited.  Maybe its the time of year, but we were a bit disappointed in the Darwin Botanical Gardens.  It was mostly just a big grassy park with a manmade waterfall at one end.  The plumeria were blooming, however, so the park smelled amazing!

After wondering around the Darwin Botanic Gardens for a while, we decided to make our way to Mindil Beach, which is supposed to be beautiful and have spectacular sunsets.  To get there we passed through this beautiful section of the garden:

We found Mindil Beach, and thought it might be nice to put our feet in the water, until we saw huge signs that said, “Do not enter the water October – May.  Box Jellyfish are deadly.”  Personally, I like to be alive, so we decided not to enter the water.  The sky was looking dark, with lots of thunderbolts and lightening, so we decided to head back toward town.

As we made our way down the street back toward the hotel that we were checked out of, the thunderbolts got louder, the lightening got closer and the sky got darker.  We started watching for a taxi, because we were 2km away from where we wanted to be.  We walked up to the casino and grabbed a taxi from their cue to take us back into the town.  The driver dropped us at The Tap Room just as the rain began.  It was perfect timing, because just as we sat down at our table with our beers the rain came in monsoon force and poured for probably an hour and a half.

Realistically, we ran out of things to do about 5 hours before we needed to head to the airport.  Had we done more research in advance, we probably would’ve rented a car for the second day and gone out to the national parks, hot springs, or something like that.  We’d like to go back and see these things, which we’ll probably do if we take the Gahn Train.

Our friends had gone the year prior and suggested that we arrive early and catch the first bus, because last year had been chaos. When we arrived at the Geelong Train Station to catch the bus, it was, again, chaos.  There was a line to get wristbands and glasses, so we got in it and it never moved.  The problem was the location in which glass and wristband distribution was happening – right where you catch the bus.  This meant, people would get their glass and wristband and then never get out of the way, because they worried about losing their place in line for the bus.  First busses came and went, we pushed our way forward and finally got our stuff.  Then we realized the guy managing the line, was not maintaining order – when the busses came, people just shoved and pushed their way forward.  Chaos.

We did, finally, catch a bus headed for the Ballerine Peninsula.  Our strategy was to hit the wineries that had fantastic views of the water, so we very quickly tasted wine at the first winery (Leura Parke Estate) and then immediately changed busses to go to Baie Winery, which is directly on the coast with beautiful sweeping views of the sea across a field.  I’m so used to the coast being build up with expensive homes and resorts, that I stood in awe of the open coast line for quite a while.

As we headed back for another round of tastings, I spotted a vintage tractor that I NEEDED my photo taken on, so I had a little iPhone photo session, which then started a photo session trend.  Several other groups followed suit!

After admiring the vineyard, view and entering the photo competition (we did not win), we reviewed the map for a vineyard that was serving food.  Pizza sounded good so we headed for Ballerine Estate Winery & Brewery.  As we rode the bus, an extremely intoxicated Aussie bloke told me he hated my accent.  Too bad for him, we were on the same tour and he’d have to see me at the next two wineries, where I would go out of my way to talk to his friends so he’d have to hear my accent.  (Even in Australia, I still have that Tacheny attitude running through my veins.)

As we arrived at the Ballerine Estate, the wind kicked up and it started to rain.  We headed inside to obtain our free tastings and order pizzas, but were unable to find table.  There was decent live music outside, so we decided to give one of the tents a try.  This quickly became a devastating mess, with one of our pizzas attempting to fly away, so we decided it was to buy a bottle and wait in line for the bus.  Really, we wanted to be at the wineries along the coast anyway.

Our last stop of the day was Terindah Estate, which was beautiful!  With this as our view getting off of the bus, I knew that the view from the balcony would be epic.

I headed up to the balcony to secure seats.

The rest of the crew split up for baked potatoes and wine tastings.  It was decided that at this point in the day, we were over waiting in line for a sip of wine and bottles were purchased to be enjoyed with this view.  Smart.  We wouldn’t want to risk losing these seats.

We stayed here until one of the very last busses came and we had to leave or risk not having a way back into Geelong.

I will definitely participate in Toast to the Coast again next year, but I think it would be worthwhile to hire a driver.  The biggest wastes of time were waiting for an hour and a half at the start of the day for a bus and waiting for busses between wineries.  For the money we each spent on the bus ticket, I’m sure we could hire a nice car and driver.  I also discovered that Geelong wines are quite good; honestly, I’d been a little prejudice against them to that point.  Now, I will look for them on a menu.  Salut!

We arrived in Brisbane around lunch time on Friday, and realized that none of us had pre-researched this city.  First thing after lunch, we headed for the visitor center to get some literature and maps.  Because of the rain, we decided that perhaps a riverfront bar crawl might be the best way to spend Friday afternoon, so we started our adventure across the river, coming across artwork, a ferris wheel, gardens and a great view!

[See image gallery at bohopunk.com]

Saturday morning we went looking for breakfast and stumbled upon this little gem in the alley.

My first thought was, this seems a little shady; I hope the food isn’t super greasy and nasty.  When we sat down, the menu was full of vegetarian options and Bloody Marys.  When the food came, it was AMAZING!  Yes, I ate the flowers (off of Ben’s French Toast).

Also, this creeper showed up at our table.

After breakfast and a quick trip to Target for rainboots, we headed for the Botanical Gardens.

[See image gallery at bohopunk.com]

Since the Botanical Garden runs along the river, we took a stroll to see the Story Bridge better (and find a beer).

[See image gallery at bohopunk.com]

After a couple of beers, we grabbed the water taxi and headed for the night market.  Apparently, it was closed due to the rain, but they never bothered to update their website or take down the signs.  We walked forever from the water taxi drop off, only to have the last person we asked for direction, within 100 yards of the market, tell us that it was closed due to rain.  Seriously.  So we found a festival, watched a dragon dance and proceeded to dance the night away!

Sunday morning we woke up to the sun!  Ben and I had breakfast at the Pancake Manor, which was OK, and then headed for the markets on the opposite side of the river.

[See image gallery at bohopunk.com]

Brisbane is a very pretty city, but I’m not sure why they call it Bris-vegas.  Anyone?

So when we started to see all this hype for an all night art party, I was pumped. 7pm to 7am of art in the streets of Melbourne. Throngs of people enjoying a cocktail, some art and each other in the streets all night. I was pumped.

Then we realized that there would be no cocktails in the street. For how anti-public alcohol consumption Melbourne is, you’d think it was a dry city or wanted to be a dry city. I thought maybe there would be an exception for this one art party night. That’s alright though, there was still to be art and my favorite people in a Australia.

The first thing we came across was awesome! “Tattooed City” was a video loop projected on the side of The Arts Centre Melbourne.

As always, the trees along St Kilda Road were lit up beautifully.

And the view of the city from the center of the ever busy St Kilda Road where you usually can’t stand is spectacular!

Then we moved into The Queen Victoria Gardens, where shit got weird. The “art” in this park was a bunch of weird and sometimes creepy movies that I just did not get. Remember, I love art. We were planning to meet up with some more friends in this park, but they were underwhelmed and bailed. I can’t blame them, I may have shared the sentiment, but we pressed on. FOMO, yo.

It’s a good thing we did too, because deeper in the park we found some cool things.


As we walked through the park, all we could here is loud pulsing, thumping music. Soon enough we discovered the source.

Then there were these trees that kept freaking me out from the corner of my eye. Suddenly I realized it was like the Wizard of Oz. The trees had faces that were blinking and shifting expressions.

Have I mentioned yet that the entire place smelled of weed? A girl couldn’t find an alcoholic beverage to save her life, but she could get a contact high just by breathing.

After crossing the river and heading into the city, we found Flinders Station lit up beautifully.


As we turned to head up Flinders Street, we found the rest of the buildings were also part of this light show.



That was about the extent of the excitement in the CBD. We walked around for hours after this following the art map and were left longing for art and cocktails.

There were about 6 food trucks total in the entire event. We were surprised by the number of bars and restaurants that closed at their normal time. One would think that they’d take advantage of the masses.

While there were definitely some highlights, I would say that a White Night was a bit if a disappointment. Good company, however, always makes an underwhelming event worthwhile!

Back in February, our friends invited us to go to the Melbourne Zoo with them; naturally we went.  Once there, we realized that buying a zoo membership was actually a sweet deal: Melbourne Zoo, Werribee Open Range Zoo and the Healesville Sanctuary!  We knew nothing about the Healesville Sanctuary, but already knew we wanted to go to the Werribee Open Range Zoo.

Melbourne Zoo 

15 Feb 2014

All of the zoos here are smaller than I expect and close earlier than I expect, but the bright side is you can get through them in just a couple of hours.  We showed up at 2:30 and saw most of the zoo by closing time at 5:00 pm.  Here are some of the highlights for me:

I will always love Giraffes & Zebras.  I hope some day to see them in the wild in Africa.

I met my first Kangaroo!  He was very friendly or more likely sad.  I’ve yet to see one in the wild, but at least now I’ve seen one.

Who could ever tire of these cuties!

I sucked it up, faced my fears and got in the bird enclosure.  It turns out the birds did not come anywhere near me.  Most of them never even left their perches. 

Big Bird has got to be based on these goofy looking creatures.

I loved this little cutie!  Who knew wild boars were cute?  I imagined them fat, ugly and smelly like domestic pigs.

The last thing that I did after the rain started and before we made for the car was make friends with this tortoise .  He even let me touch his shell.

Werribee Open Range Zoo

2 March 14

This zoo wasn’t quite what I was expecting, although I’m really not sure what I was expecting.  It was part normal zoo and part safari-bus tour.  I think I was expecting it to be more safari bus tour than normal zoo.  My number 1 highlight, which I do not have a sufficient photo of, were the gorillas.  To see them, all the people are forced into a little glass box.  While we were standing in there, 2 gorillas conspired to scare the people.  They both grabbed a handful of poo while running at the window and then punched the window as hard as they could while smearing the poo down it.  People screamed and ducked and generally acted like the gorilla could actually hurt them.  Ben and I laughed hysterically!

Next up, hippos!  Early in the day they were in the water, late in the day they were out of the water.

When our friends arrived, we made for the Safari Tour.  We ended up with an entire car on the bus-train to ourselves, which allowed us to pop back and forth between sides of the bus for the best viewing.

This Rhino apparently has the largest horn known to man.

Oh, and that pile of dirt that the giraffes are always hanging out in, it’s Rhino poo.  Apparently giraffes are particularly fond of Rhino poo.

We’ll have to go back sometime, because we missed the part of the zoo that housed the Australian Animals.  You know, because everything in this country closes at 5:00 pm.

Healesville Sanctuary

8 March 14

Over Labor Day Weekend, Ben and I decided to go to rural Victoria.  One of the places we visited on this 3 day weekend was the Healesville Sanctuary.  Again, more of a zoo than I was expecting….but I was able to see more Kangaroos!  I still haven’t seen one in the wild, but at least now I’ve seen a lot of them!

And as usual, we got to see koalas.  I’d really like to take one of these little cuties home with me!

This was my first echidna sighting – they’re much cuter than a porcupine.

Again, I faced my fears and entered the bird cage.  Only one tried to land on me, but I shooed him away.

I thought the pelicans in Florida were massive, but they have nothing on these guys.

I nearly couldn’t handle looking at these massive bats, also known as Flying Fox.

We skipped the snakes and reptiles and moved on to the very cute Tasmanian Devil.

And lastly, even if the dingo did eat you’re baby, I still think he’s just a cute dog.

Of the three zoos visited on our tour of the Melbourne Zoos, I’d say the Healesville Sanctuary may have been my favorite.  It had actual Australian animals, rather than mostly African Animals.  We’ll definitely be going back to all three!

Two things really stood out to me on Australia Day. First, the Australian Open is surprisingly bluer than I expected, despite being fully aware of its general blueness. Second, the lack of pride in the national anthem. In America, when the anthem plays we remove our hats, face the flag, place our hand over our heart and either sing along with pride or stand quietly and respectfully. Concession stands stop serving and people do not shout and drink during the national anthem. On Australia Day when the Australian National Anthem began to play, my American friends and I respectfully rose and stood quietly. The Australians around us sort of looked at us oddly and also rose, but seemed unsure what was happening, which made us feel a little unsure what was happening. It was just a bit odd to us extremely patriotic Americans. Ah well, different cultures different ways.

The walk home from the tennis along St. Kilda Road was very pretty on Australia Day. And yes! Much like the cricket, Australians do say “the tennis!” I love it!

Monday was our day off in celebration of Australia Day, so we headed down to Geelong for a barbie with some friends. Fortunately, they had some amazing Australian gear for us to get really patriotic in!

That, my friends, is how Americans nail Australia Day weekend!

Happy ‘stralia Day!