It has been a little more calm since my last post, so not a lot has happened, but there's still enough for me to post on, as well as share some pictures!
Friday (June 30, 2017), we left Sunshine Coast and arrived in Adelaide, which has an odd time difference than Melbourne and Sydney: just 30 minutes off. Not even a full hour, which my parents and I found odd, but whatever, I guess! From the airport, we had a little adventure through downtown Adelaide trying to find our hotel, which was supposed to be about an hour and a half drive away. After putting in the correct city in the GPS, we found the correct hotel/cabin and it was indeed about an hour and a half away. It was a quiet drive and my dad has been getting better about driving in Australia. The time going to and from the Australia Zoo really helped, I think. By the time we got to Victor Harbor, where we were staying, it was evening time (about 4pm) and we hadn't eaten anything since that morning, so we were pretty hungry. Unfortunately, a lot of places were closed for another hour or so, but we managed to find a place to go to and eat at. Afterward, we came back to our cabin and relaxed.
Saturday, we thought we would go for a walk and ended up staying out all day. We bought tickets to do a quick ferry tour thing in the afternoon and while we were waiting for that, we explored the town a bit. We started with Granite Island and walking across the bridge they had between Victor Harbor and the island. We spent some time there, just enjoying the ocean and watching for wildlife. I took quite a few scenic pictures. When we left there, we went back to Victor Harbor to have some lunch before we went on the tour. The tour itself was nice. I was pretty tired and actually was fighting to stay awake when we were moving and didn't really have anything to look at or watch for. We went by Seal Island and one of the seals went in the water to investigate us and we actually had to back the boat up since the boat drivers were worried the seal would hop on the boat. That was pretty funny, but it was cool to see the seals so close. We left them and went by another island and saw some mountain goats and tried looking for some dolphins or whales, but we couldn't see any so we went back to port and got off.
Sunday, was a more calm day and we just went to some shops for souvenirs and had a nice chat with one of the shop owners. Learned that wild kangaroos can be quite mean, especially the male ones. They can live through being hit by a car and can still fight afterward. I found that interesting, but I also asked about koalas and they can also be pretty mean, especially if you get between their them and their food. We had lunch at a cafe that the shop owner had recommended and then spent quite a bit of time on the beach collecting some shells. We then decided to try and go to another spot nearby to try and spot some whales and found some more shells. There was also a lot of crab and clam remains from the sea gulls eating them. It made me sad every time I saw a crab corpse or claw. We didn't find or see any whales, but we saw a couple dolphins. It was beginning to get dark when we decided to head back to town and get some dinner.
Monday, we left Victor Harbor early in the morning and left for Adelaide to make the plane on time to Melbourne. My mom started getting sick and we tried getting it ahead of time by giving her some medicine from the airport pharmacy. When we got to Melbourne, it was a bit chaotic in trying to find our way to our hotel since we weren't going to be renting a car and weren't sure how the public transit would work. It turned out to be okay though, even though my mom was worrying a lot. The hotel is very nice, even though there were a lot of problems in the beginning, like the internet not working, not having a phone, and not having pots and pans to go with the kitchen. The reception was very helpful and did all they could to make things right. I would definitely recommend this place, if you stay in Melbourne. It's called Little Collins Apartment Hotel. The internet is slow and you have to reconnect often, but it is included with the room, whereas previous hotels it was not included. We ate out at a Greek restaurant and then went to the grocery store to get food for the morning. We relaxed back at the hotel when we got back.
Today, my mom felt worse when she got up and she urged us to go to Melbourne Zoo without her, but since she really wanted to go, we decided that we would wait until tomorrow to try that. Instead, my dad and I went and explored the area a bit while my mom rested up a bit in the hotel. We got clothes that fit better, since I have gained weight since coming to Australia. I will be trying to work on getting the weight off when they leave Sydney, but in all likelihood, it will most likely happen when I return to America and am back on a restricted diet. After getting the clothes from Target, we decided to wander about a little longer and found a mall. It was about six stories tall and seemed to have infinite amount of levels to go up. It even had another mall connected to it at higher levels. By the time we reached the top, where more food was, it was about lunch time and I had some Vietnamese pho while my dad tried a Mexican burrito. My pho was really good, but my dad said the burrito was very bland and didn't have any spices at all. We went to the grocery store again and got my mom soup to have for lunch. When she finished, my mom and I left to go to the same mall and get a pedicure. It wasn't what my mom was expecting as they pretty much did the bare minimum that a pedicure requires. At least, that's how we felt coming from Arizona where we had found a nail salon that we liked to frequent. We relaxed more when we got back and then my dad and I fetched dinner (Hot and Sour soup for my mom and Seafood Fried Rice for me. My dad was still full from his lunch). My dad asked about movie theatres and seeing Wonder Woman, so I looked around and found a place and my dad and I went and saw that while my mom stayed in the hotel to head to bed early.
Tomorrow, we are planning on going to the Melbourne Zoo as well as to the National Gallery of Victoria where there is one of the world's largest stained glass ceilings. We might go shopping some more, if my mom feels up to it. I hope she feels better and that the medicine, soup, and rest has helped her get better since whatever has her seems to have hit her hard and I would like her to feel better with her last few days in Australia.
I think that's it for now! Until next time!!
^^: Some flowers that were near the cabin we stayed at in Victor Harbor!
^^: The sunrises and sunsets in Victor Harbor were really pretty.
^^: Left, my mom and I posing next to one of the horses they use for horse drawn tram to Granite Island! Right, a resting sea gull!
^^: Left, a seal in the water. Right, a spongy coral we picked up from one of the beaches near Victor Harbor and my mom hopes to take back to the states!
^^: One of the panoramic and scenic pictures I took!
^^: I found it funny and cute that there is a restaurant in Melbourne called Rice Paper Scizzors.
No comments:
Post a Comment