Autumn Down Under

As everyone in the Northern Hemisphere is enjoying the arrival of leaves, flowers and warmer weather, we are most definitely moving into autumn. It's gotten cooler and most of the trees around our apartment are starting to turn yellow and lose their leaves. After a couple April autumns, I still find them weird. It feels like we should be getting close to Thanksgiving and Christmas, not moving toward July.

Point Nepean National Park

Ross and I didn't do any big trips this month but we did get out on a couple weekend adventures and we went to a bunch of movies. There is a theater near us that we love (The Astor) which shows older movies and cult classics. This month was the 20th anniversary of "The Matrix" and the 40th anniversary of "Alien" - talk about making me feel old! We also went to "They Shall Not Grow Old" on ANZAC day. It's a fabulous film that looks at the life of a British soldier during WWI and is incredibly well done. If you get the chance to see it, I highly recommend it.

Towards the beginning of the month, we went to the Macedon Ranges, which are about an hour north of Melbourne, to look at the leaves changing colors. There are a number of gardens in the Macedon Ranges but we went to Tieve Tara because their website said that they had aspen, which are my favorite trees. We were a little too early so not a lot had really starting to change yet but it was still really nice getting out of Melbourne and having a picnic lunch in a pretty garden.

We also swung by Hanging Rock Reserve for some hiking. You might remember me talking about Hanging Rock in a previous blog as it was my parent's one request when they visited last year. When I went with my parents we went on a Monday so the place was pretty deserted. Since Ross and I work, we went on a Sunday and it was swarming with people. It detracts from the slightly eerie quality of Hanging Rock to have so many people around but it was still nice to get out walking and we even saw a decent sized mob of kangaroos.

For Easter I had a four-day weekend because Good Friday and Easter Monday are both public holidays in Australia. Ross and I had been thinking of getting out camping but we're going to Perth at the end of May for a long weekend and I stumbled across an air fare sale in mid-April, so we're also going to Cairns at the beginning of September for a long weekend. As such, we decided to hang out in Melbourne for the long weekend and save a bit of money. We did end up borrowing the work car for a day over Easter and driving down to Point Nepean National Park on the Mornington Peninsula.

I had been to Point Nepean previously with my parents during their 2018 visit but Ross had never been to the Mornington Peninsula before. We lucked out with great weather and walked out to the fort at the end of the peninsula. We didn't see much wildlife but there were a ton of people around, so it wasn't too surprising. I think that Point Nepean is probably one of my favorite parks close to Melbourne. The hiking isn't the best (you're mostly walking on a road or within earshot of it) but the views are amazing.

Galahs

We wrapped up April with a Ray LaMontagne concert at the Palais Theater, which is just down the street from our apartment (we can see it out our kitchen window). Neither Ross nor I had ever been to an event at the Palais Theater and the building is gorgeous. Ray LaMontagne put on a fabulous show and we both had a really good time.

As I mentioned earlier, we're going to Perth at the end of May but I'm also running in the Great Ocean Road Running Festival (just the 14 km) in mid-May so the next blog will have adventures from a bit further afield. If you're in the Northern Hemisphere, enjoy the spring weather for me! 

Taylors in Oz, Part 2

My parents really like to travel. They are also retired, so they have ample time to travel. This past month they came down to Australia for the second time. They were here last March for three weeks and spent the entire time in Victoria. This trip they were in Australia for about three weeks again, but I had a huge report due in the middle of their visit, so they went to Tasmania, rented a campervan and drove around for ten days.  They had a fabulous time and I really wish Ross and I could have tagged along for that part of their trip but work got in the way (like always).  That being said we did have some good weekend adventures on either side of their Tassie adventure.

Flying Fox at Yarra Bend Park, Melbourne

The first weekend that my parents were in Melbourne was Labour Day weekend, so I had a three-day weekend. We didn't do a whole lot as my parents were still getting over jet-lag but we did take advantage of the nice weather. Following Quaker meeting on Sunday, we spent a very pleasant afternoon walking around the St. Kilda Botanical Garden. As it is late summer here, the roses were all blooming and the gardens were gorgeous.

On Monday, we took a tram a ways north and then walked along the Yarra River to Abbotsford Convent. It is an art center rather than an active convent at this point but the grounds are gorgeous and there are some good cafes. From there we caught a train back into the CBD (aka - downtown) and then walked over to and around the Royal Botanical Garden for a bit.

On Tuesday it was back to work for me and off to Tassie for my parents.  In the next week and a half, I spent way too many hours at work but we got our report out when we needed to, so there's that at least, plus my parents had a fabulous time in Tassie.

My parents arrived back in Melbourne on a Friday evening. Ross and I met them at the airport and picked up a rental car. I had taken the following Monday and Tuesday off, so we were off on adventures in eastern Victoria. On Saturday morning, we started off with a stop at the Flying Fox colony along the Yarra, which hosts 30,000-50,000 bats during the summer. I don't think that there were that many when we visited but it was still quite impressive. It had been raining a bit that morning so the flying foxes were all awake and squeaking.

My mom had requested to get into the mountains a bit, so from the flying foxes, we headed to Mt. Buller, which is the closest ski resort to Melbourne. My co-workers had mentioned that there was really good hiking in the area, so I had mistakenly assumed that meant that Mt. Buller was somewhat remote and not over-developed. While there were very good views from the ski resort, it was significantly more developed than we had been expecting so we didn't hang around for too long.

Pied Currawong

We spent a very pleasant evening in Jamieson, a small rural town in a scenic valley. It was so quiet and the stars were incredible. Plus we woke up to the sound of kookaburras in the trees. You don't get much more Australian than that.

Sulfur-crested Cockatoo in Jamieson

King Parrot in Jamieson

From there we were heading to Wilson's Promontory National Park. We stopped at a petrol station to fill up and I started talking to the proprietor. He gave us directions for a more scenic route to Wilson's Prom. We all clearly misunderstood his directions because we ended up driving about 50 km down a dirt road that ended up turning into a 4-wheel drive track. Once we were headed in the correct direction again, we ended up spending most of the day in the car on route to Wilson's Prom. We finally arrived and were very pleasantly surprised to find that the cabin we had rented for the evening was stunningly gorgeous. Definitely the best park housing that I have ever stayed in.

Common Wombat at Wilson's Prom

Swamp Wallaby at Wilson's Prom

Crimson Rosella at Wilson's Prom

Ross admiring the view from our cabin in Wilson's Prom

Sunset from Tidal River, Wilson's Prom

Sunset from Tidal River, Wilson's Prom

The next day (Monday) we checked in at the visitor centre (it had been closed when we arrived) to see if we could stay another night but unfortunately the cabins were all booked for that night. It was incredibly windy and threatening rain so Ross and I walked out to Squeaky Beach while my parents hung out at the general store with cups of coffee. Ross and I managed to make it back to the general store before the pouring rain and hail started. So, following lunch, we headed back to Melbourne and got my parents settled into their AirBnB.

On Tuesday we drove east of Melbourne into the Dandenong Mountain Range and went to the Dandenong Ranges Botanic Garden. The garden is best known for its rhododendrons which we were about 6 months too early to see (they peak in October here) but the autumn flowers were gorgeous. There were also some trees that were starting to turn colours for autumn. Ross and I will definitely have to go back in October for all of the spring flowers.

From the botanic garden we headed back to Melbourne with a stop at Costco for good measure. It was our first Australia Costco experience and it was rather surreal. You would be walking down as aisle, surrounded by items you would find in any US Costco and then there would be a giant tub of Vegemite or Tim Tams or coffins (not even kidding on this one).  Good times, good times.

We were finally able to get my parents out to the St. Kilda penguin colony this year. Last year we had tried a couple times, but it was a lot warmer and there were still a lot of tourists around so we always ended up turning back. This year we went on a blustery day when there were very few tourists but tons of penguins.

After a couple more dinners with my parents, it was time to send them on their way back to Kansas. It was fabulous to see them both, explore some new parts of Australia and just catch up. All of the best until next time.