Melbourne and Surrounds

Since our return from New Zealand, we have been enjoying a visit from Ingrid. One of the interesting things we have done recently was to visit a neighboring village/suburb called Toorak. It is one of the more expensive neighborhoods in which to live in Melbourne (kind of like Rosedale in Toronto). We wandered around the village as we had heard about an art show – all of the shopkeepers agreed to display a sculpture in their front window – and so one could “window shop” and see all sorts of art. It was really interesting and quite a novel way to encourage folks to visit a shopping district.

We have just returned from a weekend trip to the Great Ocean Road (again) – once again we stayed at the Cape Otway Lighthouse – we explored a few more areas, however – even made it into the eastern edge of South Australia where we explored some wineries in the Coonawarra region. The coast west of Melbourne truly is amazing – again we will let the picture speak for themselves – although this time around we had more sun and the colors of the sandstone outcroppings and the ocean were just magnificent … In addition to the coast, there is a rainforest area (where Otway fly is located) – this time around we visited Mabel Gully – an area that was full of ferns and gum trees … we also had more sightings of koalas and kangaroos – and on the bird side, we had our first sighting of a kookaburra! We found the kangaroos at the bottom of an old volcanic (5000 years ago) crater.
We are off to visit the Great Barrier Reef and then will have less than a week to clean, pack and leave Australia – we cannot believe how fast time has flown …