Thanksgiving Abroad

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Hi Everyone,

This weekend we are staying with a friend (Nat) that I lived with in the Student Village when I studied here (in Melbourne) over 3 years ago. It's been great to be at a home and relax for a few days and real fun to catch up with her! Since we've been in Melbourne we've gotten around to quite a few places. When we arrived in the Avalon airport we realized we were about a 40 min. drive outside of the city and were fed up with public transport so we decided to rent a car for a week and go travel around the country side.

Our first stop/travel destination was the Great Ocean Road. It's an expanse of road that follows the coast line for a couple hundred miles and is absolutely gorgeous. Around every tight corner is crashing waves and a stunning view. We also made our way through the Otway Ranges. It's a rainforest/rolling hills area that is lovely to drive through. We also stopped at a few waterfalls which are always fun to look at. Other highlights of the Great Ocean Road are the Gibson Steps, The 12 Apostels which are rock formations sticking out of the ocean (only 9 are left and one just recently fell), Loch Ard Gorge (an area named after a shipwreck), the Blowhole, London Bridge, The Arch, and the Bay of Islands. These highlights are basicaly various rock formations jetting out of the ocean/coastline.

After spending 3 days on the Great Ocean Road we made our way northwest to the Grampian mountain range. It's a very small mountain range with fantastic walks and pretty waterfalls. We stayed at a place called Tim's place which was very homey with a fireplace and free cake and tea/coffee everyday. It was located in the heart of the Grampians with lovely views of the mountains. We also played probably the hardest game of mini golf. It was called adventure golf and extremely difficult, but lots of fun.

Then we decided to drive over to South Australia to a town called Naracoorte which is famous for its caves and vineyards. One of the caves we toured called the Victoria Fossil Cave has fossils that date over 500,000 years old! You could see the area where they are stilling finding tons more fossils, so that was really neat.

Driving through this area is like driving through North Dakota but instead of fields of corn, you are driving through vineyards.

One thing we've noticed after being in Oz for awhile is that even between states they are very particular about quarantine and not bringing vegetation/fruits etc. between the borders of states. We thought this was a bit odd. Also, when we got to South Australia there was a half-hour time difference from Victoria. How weird is that. Queensland doesn't have daylight savings, Victoria goes ahead one hour and South Australia only goes ahead a half hour. We're not sure what the rest of Australia does??? And, the flies here are horrible! Especially when it gets hot and humid out. They go for water/moisture so they are constantly going for your eyes, nose, mouth and ears. Yup, doesn't take long before you have a mini breakdown when the flies are real bad outside.

Our last stop before we went back to Melbourne was Mt. Gambier and Blue Lake. It is a mile deep lake that has formed in an old volcano. Other highlights were the Umphertson sinkhole and the cave gardens. Basically old exposed caves they have made into gardens.

In Melbourne we are staying in the St.Kilda area which is quite trendy with fun little street cafes and good looking and smelling food (which is all we've done is look and smelt because its too spendy!)

On Thanksgiving Day we biked to the student village where I used to live so that was fun to visit again. Expect for the fact that after we had biked for over 2 1/2 hrs. my bike pedal fell off! So we were stuck an hours drive from our hostel! After a few phone calls to the hostel and waiting for awhile we got a ride back to our hostel. But really, who's bike pedal falls off?!? I've never had that happen before. For our Thanksgiving dinner we found a Pizza Hut which was pretty tasty and watched the sunset over St.Kilda beach.

That's bout it for now. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving with lots of good turkey and pumpkin pie!!

Hope to hear from you all soon,

Beth and Justin

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Comments

[Robin]

Can't wait
Sounds like you guys are having fun. You do know that you are going to freeze your asses off when you get back right?? Sure can't wait to see you at Christmas. Baby has a few kicks for you too! Oh Josh, I and the Baby expect lots of Christmas presents this year too :)

[ureinmn -- Mary Ure]

Hat with Beads or Corks on Strings -- Flys
Hi Beth and Justin, Can't wait to see you. Only 2 days! Some of the Assies that farm in the area where there are bugs/flys will take a hat and hang something on strings off the brim of the hat every 2" around the face area that will sway and keep the flys away from their face. One of the Aussie guys I traveled with years ago when I traveled with Lisa had corks from wine bottles hanging from strings to keep the little critters away from his face. It was humerous, but it did work. just a thought is you are still running into the flys. See ya soon. Love ya, Mary. :)

[Camilla & Debbie]

Cairns is boiling!
Hi Guys, We're in Cairns at the moment, it's sooooo hot we're dying. Heading to Adelaide for my cousins wedding at the wkend and then we're back to Sydney for a couple of days. Debbie is going to work for a few weeks and i'm heading to NZ for Xmas with my Brother. Take care xxxx

[Jim Marka]

NZ
Moms on the plane. She will be giving you both a big hug from me.