Melbourne!

I have been in Melbourne for the past couple of days now with Emily and her mom. The weather hasn't been great and there has been rain and wind, but we have still managed to go out and explore some each day.

During our first full day, Emily took me to Brighton Beach. Surprisingly enough there is a Brighton beach and a St. Kilda beach here in Melbourne, just like in Dunedin. At Brighton we walked around and saw Hodges, these little colorful houses along the sand. Each of the houses were all vibrant different colors and some even had nice pictures painted on them. I have been told that these houses are used to store things such as surf boards and are incredibly expensive to buy.

 

Afterwards, we took the train to the Royal Botanical Gardens. I usually love walking around gardens but it was quite humid out and major stickiness was beginning to happen. We decided to go home to stay cool and dry.

The next day was also muggy and drizzling so we decided to go to the aquarium to see the penguins. There were king penguins and Gentoo penguins and penguin babies too! I love penguins. :)

There apparently was a storm that I slept through the night after we went to see the penguins so we decided to not go to the zoo the next day because the animals probably would be spooked. Instead we went to the Melbourne Museum where we saw Phar Lap the incredible race horse, and Sam, one of the koalas that was saved from the Melbourne bush fires. There was also a ton of other interesting things to see.

For lunch, we went to a hot pot noodle place in Chinatown. Although we took a tram there from the museum it was really really cold outside. We also got caught in the rain, which made it even colder. Both Emily and I had noodle soup, which was good and also warmed us up.

In the afternoon the skies cleared up and we went to watch Emily's field hockey game. Emily also taught me a bunch about field hockey and I had a try at it. I realized that I always look at the ball and never at where i'm hitting it to.

Today, Emily and I headed to the Melbourne Zoo. I have not been to a zoo in years so it was pretty awesome. I saw giraffes and they are HUGE! I think the giraffes were my favorite. They must have wickedly strong neck muscles.

This zoo was also especially nice because it had animals I had never seen before, such as baboons. I also saw my first echidna! They are so spikey and cute. 

There were also a bunch of emus walking around. They were a little different from the ones I had seen in Brisbane. These had blue heads. (You can't really tell from the picture though) I also saw four sleeping wombats. These wombats were also much cuter than the ones in Brisbane. 

Here I met my first blue-billed duck! This was the only picture out of many where you can tell that the bill is actually bright blue.

I think one of these birds was trying to court the other. I don't know how well that was going because the one doing the courting kept on being kicked by the other.

African wildebeest of some sort, me thinks!

Free - range peacocks everywhere. 

And then there were elephants! There were two babies elephants and one had a bunch of food on its head. I wondered how the food got there but after watching them for a while I realized that the little one would pick up food with its trunk and then throw it in the air, with most of it landing on its head. The other one would go to the water and instead of drinking the water, it would spray it everywhere. It once got a trunk full of water and then put its trunk against a rock and squirted the water out on the rock, a little bit like a pressure test.

And then they found the soccer ball... It was too cute....

Upon returning home, Emily's mom made a delicious dinner of rack of lamb and veggies. For dessert, we had strawberries with vanilla bean yogurt. One of the many interesting things i've learned from Emily's mom is that if you mix balsamic vinegar and sugar and put it on strawberries (or berries in general) it is quite delicious. It sounds really odd, but you really can't taste the vinegar at all. From jam and cheese on toast to strawberries and balsamic vinegar, I have had all sorts of amazing culinary adventures! I don't know if I've ever mentioned jam and cheese on toast, but it is one of Fredric's creations and it is delicious and amazing. :)

Tomorrow night I fly back to Christchurch to spend 11 hours dwaddling around the airport before my flight back to Dunedin on Saturday morning. I'm sure you will be hearing about this epic layover in one of my later posts.