Back Home - After the trip

Date : Saturday March 22nd

Time : All day

Location : Detroit Michigan

After starting our long trip home from Melbourne we arrived in Detroit after travelling twenty eight hours. By the time we got our car started (our battery was dead) we went to Walmart to get our dinner. When we got to the hotel we had our dinner of sandwiches and chips because we started eating at around midnight we all went to bed.

To summarize my trip to Australia I learned these five facts;

1. They drive on the other side of the street
2. That somebody that might have been a relative went to the old gaol
3. The natives make all kinds of art out of whatever they could find
4. They speak english however the combination of words can mean different things then what I'm used to and they speak really fast
5. They have a lot of different animals that you wouldn't find in Canada

Interesting geographic fact ;

The sand I walked on was really soft, the beaches are good for surfing in combination with the weather and they even have a yearly international surf competition close to my Aunt's beach house.

I had a great time and would like  to thank my Aunt Miranda for hosting us when we visited her for the two weeks.  I would like to thank her for introducing us to the Australian arts, culture and history.
She also purchased souvenirs for us at the Victorian market. I thought it was nice to finally meet her and not just talk to her on the phone.

I would love to go back to Australia one day …..

Day Twelve Our final day

Date - Thursday March 20th

Location - Dandenong mountains, Fern Tree Gully.

Time - 10.00 am to 2.00 pm

We travelled  up twisty mountain roads to the William Ricketts Sanctuary. William Rickett was an eccentric sculptor that made native heads and carvings out of rocks and wood. He appointed himself protector of all natives in the area. The carvings were cool. They looked like real people, it was a little creepy.

Then we drove down the road to look at some flowers and trees.

At the end of our time in the mountains we went to a german restaurant and it looked like a mountain house. They had a buffet with seafood, salads, meats, cheeses, desserts and PANCAKES!!!!!!

The pancake frying pan was huge the size of a small kitchen table. And my aunt and I ate until we were feeling sick well I think it was just me that felt sick.

And for dinner we all felt full but we had to go to dinner with my uncle Alan.

Day Eleven - A ride back in time on Puffing Billy

Date : Wednesday March 19th - www.puffingbilly.com.au

Location : Belgrave

Time : 10:30 - 1:30 

Today we travelled out of Melbourne to Belgrave to ride on Puffing Billy a historic narrow gauge steam train.  Puffing BIlly was one of four low-cost 2'6" gauge lines constructed in Victoria in the early 1900's.  The line that is still operating was first opened on December 18th, 1900.  The line is 15 miles long and travels from Belgrave to Gembrook.  It is maintained by a group of over 500 volunteers.

I thought it was interesting to see how far up we went but it doesn't fell like the ride is an hour.  It had mostly open style cars with one car that was enclosed.  Just like the old days. The workers are mostly retired people that helped with the train ride and restoring all the working pieces of the trains. There was a little restaurant at the last stop and I tried a meat pie. They were amazing with the meat and the meat sauce and my mom, my aunt and my dad all had a focciacia sandwich and my moms sandwich tasted really good too.

Then about an hour and twenty minutes we drove to my aunts friends house for a barbecue. We talked for about three hours while we waited for my dad and my aunts friends husband played golf all eighteen holes too. We had Aussie burgers and lamb and steak and salads.

Day Ten - Surfs Up Dude

Date : Tuesday March 18

Location : Anglesea -

http://www.visitvictoria.com/Regions/Great-Ocean-Road/Activities-and-attractions/Nature-and-wildlife/Beaches-and-coastlines/Bells-Beach

http://www.visitmelbourne.com/Regions/Great-Ocean-Road/Destinations/Torquay

Time : All day

We walked to the beach at Anglesea in the morning and then had lunch before making our way down to Melbourne. We first stopped and watched the surfers at Bells Beach and Torquay.

Then we went to a Ripcurl and my Aunt bought me a hat and two tee shirts

Then we just drove home and relaxed back at Melbourne.

Day Nine - Swimming at the beach

Date : Monday March 17

Location : Anglesea

http://www.visitvictoria.com/Regions/Great-Ocean-Road/Activities-and-attractions/History-and-heritage

Time : All day

Yesterday we Drove out to the Great Ocean Road. We learned that the road was made by the veterans of World War One as a make work work project when they returned home from the war.

Then we drove to Lorne -  a small very popular beach community. We went to the Lorne Beach but it was raining and cold especially the water!!! While we were there we looked in surf shops and ate lunch. 

Then we drove home and on our way we saw an open coal pit and the trucks were huge but on the cliff far away they were tiny.

Then we went to the bakery in Anglesea and I had a doughnut with half strawberry icing and the other half was sprinkles.

Later in the afternoon we went to the beach and my aunt and I played in the water.

Day - Eight - Kicking it old school at the beach

Location : Anglesea, Aust  - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglesea,_Victoria

Date : Sunday March 16th

Time : All day

The first thing we did at the beach house was play on the first version xbox for about an hour and a half, then I switched it to the Nintendo 64 for about the same time.

Then we walked down the mountain to the beach. The beach was really cool, it wasn't rocky like when we go for our summer holiday at Wildwood trailer park near Rondeau. The water was actually pretty warm and the sand was soft my mom said it felt like baby powder. There were a lot of people surfing and sailing on the catamarans boats. There was even a big group of life guards on duty making sure all the surfers were safe.

The last thing we did was well my mom and I took turns bouncing on the trampoline. We had fun messing around on the trampoline for about forty-five minutes.

Day - Seven - Leaving downtown to head to the beach.

Location : Melbourne & Anglesea, Aust - http://www.airforce.gov.au/raafmuseum/

Date : Saturday March 15th

Time : All day

The first thing we did was go to the Royal Victoria Farmers Market. We went to the market to buy souvenirs. At the market i observed them selling hats, socks, toys, clothes, shoes, bags, garden equipment, and  dog stuff. There was a separate building for buying meats and fast food and seafood.

the seafood smelt really bad. I bought a hat and two shirts and some road signs for my room. We bought hats, pins and shirts. 

Then we went to the R.A.A.F museum in Point Cook. Point Cook is an active air base. At the museum we saw all sorts of stuff from flight logs to planes they even had a mug made out of a big bullet and the bottom of a fire extinguisher. The first military flight for Australia took place on the morning of March 1st 1914, at the Point Cook base. 2014 marks the 100th year anniversary of the flight. 

The last thing we did was drive out to Anglesea. Then we just relaxed the rest of the night.

Day Six - Digging for gold

Location : Sovereign Hills 

Date : Friday March 14

Time : 12.30 pm to 5.00 pm 

The first thing we did was drive about two hours to Sovereign Hills and look in the old chinese miners tents. And saw all the stuff they brought with them. And there wasn't much there. 

Then we went underground into a mine exhibit and saw how the miners worked in the mines and saw a video of the miners finding a big piece of gold.

Then we went to the building where they crushed the rocks for gold. Then we climbed up the stairs to the tower that they dumped the rubbish from the mines.  While we were up in the tower some redcoats marched around the old town and at the end of the march they stopped an fired the muskets.

And it was very loud.

Then we went down and saw how gold was purified and they used the same bar of gold for eighteen years in the show.  The gold bar is worth  $ 140,000.00 dollars.

After we all got a little hungry and we ate lunch i had a big plate of spaghetti and my dad helped me out near the end. 

And after we went to the candy store and bought some chocolate covered gummies and they were very good.

And then we dug for gold but did not find any. But we only dug for about five minutes and then we left to go across the street to the gold museum and they're was a lot of gold there.

We also past a town named after the Balan's.

Day Five - Happy feet chilling with the penguins

Location : Phillip Island, Penguins.org au 

Date : Thursday March 13

Time : 12.30 pm to 11.00 pm

Fun fact There is about 16,000 penguins 

and over time the government bought out all the homes where the penguins go to live and destroyed all the houses because the penguins are more valuable then the people. 

The first thing we did was go to the mall to shop for souvenirs. We got neck pillows and flag and a lot of other stuff.

Phillip Island was two hours away from the suburbs of Melbourne.

After that we went to Phillip Island. The first thing we did there was go to the information desk  and look around in the shop for some cool stuff. I got my dad a VW bus sticker and I really surprised him.

The next thing we did was go to the famous chocolate factory. It had a real life penguin model  made one hundred percent out of chocolate even the sand and the grass.

After that we went to see the koalas at the Koala Sanctuary. there was about thirty koalas in the place .

It was outside with a koala proof fence. You can wander through natural bushland and enjoy the abundant bird life. The woodland is home to many animals including wallabies, echidnas, and bats.

Then we drove down the road to see the Nobbies If you don't know what the nobbies are they are the rock formations were the seals used to live.

Then we put our pants and sweaters on and drove down to see the penguins come home from fishing for over 10 days and it was really cool because you can walk back to the path and see the penguins on land waddle around.

There is an app you can download and see pictures and info and even track the penguins. The app is called penguins and its blue with a white penguin on it.

French fact - C'est un dans la vie chance et c'est tres amusent.