Wrap-Up of Australia

Well, I fell behind by a few days, but I'll sum it up as much as possible.

We checked out the Wildlife Park in Ballarat just north of Melbourne and were able to see many of Australia's native inhabitants.
There were plenty of kangaroos lounging around and free-roaming that I could just walk up to and touch. These kangaroos were quite lazy as they are used to people coming up and handing them food. A few interesting facts on kangaroos: a female kangaroo can pause a pregnancy in times of shortage of food and then proceed with the pregnancy once food is available. A female kangaroo can also have one joey outside the pouch who still comes back for milk, one joey in the pouch developing, and one more baby developing in the birth canal.
We were also able to touch some koalas in the park. They were pretty indifferent to having humans around and only cared about having eucalyptus leaves in their mouth. Some things I learned were that koalas rarely need water, since they get hydration from the leaves, and also that they sleep 14.5 hours a day and spend about 7 minutes per day traveling. Tough day for sure.

Two apostles on the left of the walkway

I also did a Great Ocean Road day tour through Wildlife Tours, and it was well worth the money. Lunch included. The driver was amazing and I learned a ton about Australian history as well as the animals and coastal sites. I highly recommend using them if you ever visit. The tour was literally all day and took me to Bell's Beach which is were the surfing competitions started, along with the Ripcurl and Billabong companies. We stopped to see koalas in the wild and at the 12 Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge and London Bridge. These amazing limestone formations were fascinating to see and I managed to get some superb photographs. The 12 Apostles were originally called the six piglets but since that doesn't sound too appealing, they were renamed to the Apostles. Since there are 12 Apostles in the Bible, the name stuck even though at the most there have only been nine of the rock stacks. Currently there are eight, since the ninth one fell in 2005.
The most beautiful  area in my opinion was the Loch Ard Gorge. If you walk down the steps you can stand right on the beach and look out into the gorge and watch the waves come in. There is also a cave, but I didn't have time to explore this, although I would have even though ropes are up. This beach is where the sole two survivors of a shipwreck washed up after the ship and 50 other passengers were destroyed.

Panorama of Loch Ard Gorge, a cave is behind me just beyond the beach. 

Australia has thousands of acres of farmland and even more sheep farms. The countryside is breathtaking and butts up right to the edge of cliffs overlooking the ocean. I would love to live out of the city in this area and found it much more pleasant than Melbourne itself. If I can get a visa there, I will be checking out living somewhere along the coast away from all the noise and dirty streets. We hit up London Bridge just as the sun was setting. I miss the sunsets in Hawaii so it was almost like being home seeing the water and cliffs bathed in yellow glory.

Opposite side of London Arch at sunset

My last day in Melbourne, Marie and I got up while it was still dark to experience the Eureka Skydeck at sunrise. While it was very foggy and we didn't get to see much of a sunrise, the experience itself was worth getting up so early. I don't particularly like cities, excluding Denver, but I do like seeing them all lit up at night.

Looking out over the harbor from the Skydeck

Overall I enjoyed my visit, and next time will be checking out Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and more towns along the coast. Also I would like to travel the interior to Ayers Rock. I think Germany might be next in line though.