Melbourne
My main purpose of going to Australia was to go and see my American friends! 2 of my high school friends now live there! I ended up flying with the athletic trainer, Greg, for the Highlanders rugby team, which I had just seen a few days ago! He was super nice and actually helped me find where I was staying! Melbourne looks and feels like a little Boston, it’s adorable! That night I got to go see Katie Walker. After not seeing her for 6 years, it was fantastic!
The next day Amanda and her fiancé Jay came to town, they had some awesome plans for us! 1st stop was Holey Moley Golf. It is a bar but you play putt putt while you drink. This was not good news for Amanda and I because we were already horrible golfers before we drank. Little did I know Jay was a pro, so yeah we got showed up real bad. Then we met up with one of Jays old friends, Dicky, to go and see the footy game. Footy is a sport that only Australia has, as far as I can tell it’s a mixture between football, soccer and rugby. But honestly it’s way easier to understand than rugby. Dicky is a huge fan of the bulldogs and basically yelled the whole time…it was fantastic! I was forced drink way too many frothies (beer), and eat a gross meat pie because apparently those are 2 of Australia’s pasts times. I was told that this was one of the most amazing games, it came down to the last few seconds and I think 2 points it was crazy. Dicky had to leave because he was so nervous. After the game we hit up a beer garden to meet up with Darcy, Jay’s brother because we were staying on his floor for the night!
The next morning they all introduced me to Avo Mash, which is delicious. Then I made Jay and Amanda drive us to Katie Walkers café because I didn’t get a picture with her! Then it was off to Warrnbool, where Jay and Amanda live. They played this really hilarious game where they made me try to read all the signs for the towns because guess what, Australia just made up their own grammar rules.
Warrnbool is adorable and Amanda is killing life. She lives in a house like a real adult! I got to go see the ocean because yeah they live right next to it. Amanda also took me to tower hill, which a volcano crater that was turned into a wild life reserve where I saw the Australian animals in their natural wild habitat. She also took me on the great Ocean Road, which was so unbelievably beautiful.
Sydney
I found her I found Molly! I haven’t seen her in forever; I needed a little bit of nonsense in my life that I can only get when Molly is around! She was doing pretty well for flying for so long, she wasn’t tired at all. She had even brought me my essential American items that I have been craving. I had marked some cool unique food places to go to so we started there. Unfortunately we somehow ended up at the wrong place and I didn’t notice until Molly said something after we had already ordered…it’s ok it’s ok it’s just another adventure. Then I had to take the girl to buy a sweater because she brought 0 winter cloths. Then fully prepared for the weather we went to be full on tourists and hit the sites. Then without warning Molly crashed she was asleep in bed at 5pm. It was crazy.
Toranga Zoo
So mum had to help plan this trip because it is going to be a super fast one we only have a week in Australia and a week in NZ give or take a few days. And we were planning it while I was in Southeast Asia so I wasn’t really any help. But she gave molly such organized packets of things she booked; she really is a great traveler. Anyway on the sheet she said to be at the zoo by 10:15 so we could see the zoo before our tour at 2. Well we showed up at 9 and ended up spending the whole day there anyway! Brian our tour guide was so fantastic and we learnt so much! We absolutely loved it!
Bridge Climb
Another fantastic job by mimzy! I was a bit nervous for molly because she hates height and bridges and water…so all the things she doesn’t love in one place. 1st off we looked super stylish in our fly suits we were all about it. Our guide Daniel again was super amazing, super knowledgeable, and super sassy, loved it! Apparently the bridge was built to put people to work during the great depression, and that’s the only reason it is that large. We also learnt that the Sydney Opera House has no historical value, it doesn’t represent a dang thing. The architect peeled and orange and decided that was a good idea for a building. After he designed it he left and never actually saw the building come to life, he never wanted to. Another fun fact Francis Greenway an English architect who was a real bad drunk was convicted of money forgery and arrested and sent to Australia as a convict. Because this was when they were essentially building Australia, there were no architects in the country so they made Francis create all these buildings for free labor in exchange for his own room and fresh cloths most days. He was released some odd years later and he found it super hard because while he pretty much built most of the buildings around no one would hire him because he was a convict. He returned to drinking in his despair and ended up drinking himself to death. But the Australian government decided to honor him by putting him on their 10-dollar bill essentially forgetting why he was convicted in the 1st place. This means that Australia is the only country to ever of had a convicted money forger on the countries own currency.
I also made molly eat so many things today so she’s been uncomfterbly full for an entire day! Tomorrow we were off to Cairns!
Cairns
Our 1st full day in Cairns was rubbish weather rain all day but this made a fantastic day to go see the rainforest! 1st we took this rather scary train all the way to the top of the mountain. Then we went to the butterfly house, where I learned that yes I am still terrified of butterflies. Man butterflies and whales, I wish em the best but I don’t really need to interact with them. Then we found a bus and it took us to the wildlife reserve, which is good because we literally didn’t know what bus to get on so we chose one at random. Here we had lunch but Molly and I woofed down our meals in order to go see the koala. Yes we held the little bear, I’m still not positive if this was good or not because I know you shouldn’t interfere with wild animals but everyone was reassuring me it was fine. The Koala’s name was Matilda and we fell in love with her at first sight. We got to spend a lot of time with her and the zoologist because we were the only people there (people apparently don’t like to go do things in the rain). Then we took a WW2 bus/boat (essentially at duck boat) through the rainforest and man was it stunning.
After we went to learn about the aboriginals and their dances. Where of course we were chosen for audience participation because that always seems to happen when we are together. I blame it on our height and our social awkwardness. They taught us how to throw boomerangs and spears and that went about as well as you can imagine. Molly and I aren’t very coordinated (here’s a video (left) of molly not even being able to beat a drum without loosing the stick). Then we went to go see all the animals; really we just came to this country to see all the animals.
It was then time to go back home so we hopped on the bus, which took us to a gondola. I’m usually pretty ok with things like that (the one exception is chairlifts those things are just hazardous) and molly, well she’s never good at heights. But man even I was a bit nervous, it just kept making noises. So we took every opportunity to get off the thing!
Scuba Diving
So mum being the most amazing person signed us up for a full day snorkeling adventure of the Great Barrier Reef. This is a dream for pretty much anyone, who doesn’t want to see the Great Barrier Reef. We were originally supposed to just snorkel but Sven the dive master somehow talked us into scuba diving. It was a whole process because molly didn’t bring her diving license so she had to go through the whole process of looking up her ID online. Because we were the only 2 people on the boat scuba certified we were getting a private tour, but only at the 2nd stop which gave us plenty of time to snorkel as well. Although snorkeling with a group of 15 people whom apparently don’t know how to swim (they were wearing life vests and holding on to a life preserver and cant stop and just mow right over you and kick you in the face without even stopping or slowing down) it’s not ideal. So Molly and I stayed a little behind everyone just for safety reasons really. Even snorkeling the Reef was amazing and so stunning! And yes there were 3 shark pups, I love me some sharks. Then we all came back to the boat to get to our next dive sight.
Sven was a fantastic dive master! The true beauty of the Reef is when you can dive with it! You will never see anything like it, and you better hurry because unfortunately it is dying, dumb humans we ruin everything. And all the animal life was crazy! We saw all sorts of fish small and huge, including fish that will attack you during mating season, luckily it was not mating season. We saw a hawksbill turtle (a rare turtle), eels, and cuttlefish. Sven was way stoked about the cuttlefish, which is fair because they are an amazing little creature. They change color right in front of your eyes, but that’s not all, they can also change their shape right then and there too. It was so cool!
People go get certified, it’s life changing. And do not even go to Australia until you are, or you will regret it!
It was hands down one of the best days we have ever had…ever
For mum:
Just so you know I was not the 1st one to run out of air, thank you very much.
Sven complimented our diving skills and was shocked when we told him that we only got certified a year or so ago!
After some much deserved sleep we woke up the next morning to go parasailing. I didn’t even have to force Molly to go this was all her idea! And she loved it, now all I need to do is get her to jump out of a plane. Then we were off to Hartley’s Crocodile Adventure. There Molly got to realize her dream of holding a wombat. And as fate would have it the wombat’s name was also Molly! This meant double the Molly in my life! We also pet some wallabies and kangaroos. Then we went to go feed the crocs hold a snake; well I held a snake Molly looked on from a far. We also held a lovely parrot and fed some little monkeys!
End notes
I didn’t get my passport stamped here in Australia because of some epassport thing, which I’m starting to hate. What’s the point of traveling if I cant’ get a stamp. This being said Molly somehow got a stamp and neither of us can figure out how.
Australia is very much like NZ where all the people working in cafes or tourism or hospitality are not Australians. They are people traveling through Oz.
When I was graced by being surrounded by authentic Australians was when I was with Katie and Amanda when I met all their friends and stayed in a neighborhood. Let me tell you it’s like they are speaking a different language. Not only was it an accent thing but they have different words and slang for everything. I don’t think I have ever said “what” so many times in my life!