Catch up on what happened earlier in my trip. Part 1 here.
Melbourne is in the middle of their Spring so we weren’t blessed with the best weather. It was overcast & rainy/misty for 4 of the 7 days that I was there. But that didn’t stop me! I do know how to bundle up. I didn’t bring that many warm clothes though so I was definitely repeating outfits *GASP*.
My uncle & aunt live on the back of a gorgeous park. The track behind the house runs probably a 2K loop so I spent a couple mornings running around and around it until I got sweaty enough to deem it a good run. Things you do when you don’t have access to your Nike app to track your distance.
This was my run view below… Not too shabby Australia!
My first run I saw this bird up in a tree and was like hmmm that looks like a neat bird. Wait! Is it? I ran home and described it to my aunt who confirmed it was a kookaburra! I of course grabbed my phone and ran back out to find it again to snap a picture! They make the best noises and I became slightly obsessed with them while I was there. Meet one below!
I swear my obsession over these birds is because I think my mom taught us this nursery rhyme as children. The video is super cheesy so you’ll either laugh at my obsession or understand it 🙂
After my run it was finally cousin time!!! I adore my Australia cousins. Laurel is the youngest and was getting married and attending the wedding was the main reason for my trip. Felicity, her older sister, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting more recently. She did a Canada trip a few years ago so we got to spend time together. Laurel and I hadn’t seen each other since we were maybe 14 so it was a great reunion. I told Laurel I wanted to hug a koala so she suggested we head up to the Healesville Sanctuary to see Australian animals. You know I was game! When we got there we were told I wasn’t allowed to hug a Koala so I pouted until they told me I could pet a Kangaroo. Ok! Laurel and I paid for this “magical moment” as they called it and off we went to explore.
Laurel and I were feeding this old betty (pictured above) who was the slowest eater but so docile. All of a sudden a younger female approached me and so I fed her the carrots I had in my hand. She was eating them super fast I couldn’t put them in the palm of my hand fast enough. Below is the face she gave me when all the carrots were gone. And that’s when I started backing away slowly. LOL.
Then of course we had to see the Koalas! They made me soooo happy. I have weird obsessions with some animals and I swear they cause me to start shaking and tearing up out of pure excitement. So far Great Danes & Koalas cause this reaction.
Look at how cute their noses are! Since I wasn’t allowed to hug the real thing Felicity and I molested statues instead.
We also got to see emus, an echidna, a tasmanian devil, endangered species of possums, fruit bats (which freaked me out entirely – you got to walk into their enclosure and who knew if they were hungry for blood or not) and dingos!
The following day Felicity (the best tour guide ever) took my mom and I up to the Dandenong Ranges. The eucalyptus trees up on the ranges are spectacular and had me in absolute awe. I kept walking really slowly and staring at everything. I could’ve spent all day up there.
Above is Momma B, myself and my cousin Felicity. It was misty rainy up there so we didn’t really go for glamourous 🙂 We got to see cockatoos, more kookaburras and a lyrebird! Clearly I’m loving the wildlife sightings.
We hiked up to to a small waterfall and I just snapped pictures galore.
I still hadn’t had enough activity so later that afternoon I took the train into the city. I got off at Richmond station and ran south to the Yarra where I found the waterfront trail and ran my way all the way downtown.
Based on a recommendation on trippy.com I walked up to Brunetti for a tiramisu macaroon and a flourless pistachio biscotti. I also ordered a black iced coffee which apparently doesn’t exist as I got an iced coffee with a big wallop of ice cream in it. This is apparently what iced coffee means down under. When I tried to explain I just wanted black coffee with ice in it everyone looked at me like I was a crazy woman. Then I made my way all the way up to the Queen Victoria Market and wandered around as the vendors were closing up for the day. I was just sooo happy to be out in the sun. Despite it still being a bity chilly for my like.
