Micah and I started our trip in Melbourne. We arrived the night of December 3 while Mom and Dad didn't arrive until the morning of December 5. For our first day we did the essential things Saudi people would do....Ate sausage biscuit for breakfast (PORK) and went to see "Harry Potter". As you may or may not know, Saudi does not allow movie theaters so we were excited to get to see a movie. However, we were both jet-lagged so it was somewhat a struggle to stay awake through the whole movie. I continuously ate popcorn to help me out. After the movie we just walked around Melbourne and explored the city. I was doing my best just to stay awake and follow Micah around. Bed time came early that night.
The next morning we woke up and got ready to meet my parents at our apartment. I was very excited to see them since it had been 5 months since we last saw each other. We didn't give my parents much time to adjust. We got them on a bus and headed for the "Queen Victoria Market". From what we saw, it seemed like a flee market. Later I found out that we probably missed the best parts...ohh well, maybe next time ;)
One of the popular things to do from Melbourne is to drive the Great Ocean Road. It's basically just a scenic drive along the coast with some popular stopping areas to take pictures and stuff. When we started out, it looked like a sunny beautiful day but as we drove it continued to get foggy and rainy. It didn't stop us any, just made our pictures not quite as bright.
Since we rented a car to drive the Great Ocean Road we decided the next day would be a good opportunity to go out to Philip Island. This is a popular destination because of the "Penguin Parade". At night the Little Penguins come in from fishing and make their way back to the burrows but more on that later. We headed there mid morning and of course once we arrived it started raining. Oh well. We bought a pass that got us in to all of the attractions on Philip Island. Our first stop was the Churchill Island which is another small island off the coast of Philip. Here they basically just had some old houses of the original settlers and we watched some working dogs round up sheep. Then we went to the Koala reserve. We were able to get some great pictures of a Koala that decided to eat some lunch really close to the pathway.
After the Koalas we drove to the other end of the island to a place called "seal point". Well I didn't realize that we would have to take a boat ride to see the seals and needless to say we were too late for any of the rides. So we walked around and looked at the scenery. The clouds were really cool.
For the Grand Finale we went to the Penguin Parade. At the parade we sat on a dock where we had a view of the ocean and the path to their burrows. The penguins start to make their way to shore at sunset. Before actually coming to shore the penguins join together in the water into rafts. Once they get brave enough they will make their way on shore as a group. If a bird or other predator comes they may waddle back to the water and start all over again. The penguins were super cute and surprisingly noisy. Sadly we weren't allowed to take any pictures. Mom took a picture of the sign which gives you at least an idea.
Our last day in Melbourne was once again rainy. I asked a local if it was normal for it to rain this much and she said "No, we've been in a 10 year drought. This is the most rain we've seen in years". Awesome. Again, we survived. Instead of walking to where we were going we decided to catch a taxi. The one thing I kept insisting on doing was a tour of the Melbourne Cricket Grounds. I could tell everyone wasn't really sure why but they agreed anyway. In the end, it is still one of Micah's favorite things that we did.
The evening of our last day in Melbourne we boarded a mini cruise ship called "The Spirit of Tasmania". We rode the ship through the night and arrived the next morning in Tasmania. It was a fun experience and I would recommend it.
Tasmania was amazing and we all agree we could have spent two weeks there instead of 1 day. The countryside was beautiful as well as the coast. We started off our drive headed to some waterfalls. I was looking for Columba falls but instead we made it to Ralph Falls.
After going to the "wrong" falls we continued on our drive. Then we accidentally found the right falls. In the end we all agreed the first falls were a more exciting adventure. Here is the Columba falls.
If you haven't noticed, we spent an entire day driving from one side of Tasmania to the other with scenic stops on the way. Here we stopped at Freycinet National Park to hike to the Wineglass Bay lookout. Again we had clouds fogging up our view but it was still amazing. This was our last official stop in Tass. We had some more exciting events after this like almost running out of gas but in the end we made it safely.
The next morning we flew out of Hobart, Tasmania headed to Port Douglas. Port Douglas is a small beach tourist community about an hour from Cairns. It was a fun little town with lots of good places to eat. This is also where we went diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Everyone told us about how bad it was to get out to the reef and how almost everyone gets sea-sick. However, we had AMAZING conditions with sunshine and almost no wave action. I don't think a single person got sick this day. Micah and I were able to do 3 dives while Mom and Dad snorkeled. We had to wear these smurf suit things to protect us from stinging jellys. The dives were great.
Since you shouldn't really fly right after diving, we spent the next day in Port Douglas touring the Daintree Rainforest. On our tour we stopped at some scenic spots, swam in a creek, at lunch in the rainforest, took a rainforest hike, and rode a boat to look for crocs.
Since this post is already so long, I'm going to save Sydney for my next post. Hopefully it will be coming soon.
