12 Apostles - Great Ocean Road

Ofcourse, no trip to Melbourne would be complete without a road trip on the Great Ocean Road to see the 12 Apostles...

our guide, the famous photographer.....

my lovely sis....

gotta get the perfect shot...

and don't forget....

Melbourne - City sights....

Our crazy tour guide.....

My lovely sister...

the streets of  Melbourne....

the shopping....

this is a crazy picture that I took, and I can't quite figure it out!!

the crazy architecture....

the crazy people....

the lovely parks....

and the lovely people in them...

In search of the wild penguin - Melbourne

We are back on our mission...this time to see pennguins in the wild.....but, first, to get there....we must take Palmer's Road....

We take off in our sea worthy vessel, in search of the illusive penguin, who is hiding under a rock somewhere.....

On our journey, we encounter many a strange creature.....

After much angst.....we find a penguin!

ok, so, you really have to look closely to see him...but, he's there!

and, with all the excitement, I coudn't hold the camera steady, but, here is a closer view...

another blurry sighting....

making his big getaway......

and now....back to the City....

put the tinny to bed....

our mission is complete....

In search of the wild koala - Melbourne

During our trip to Melbourne, we went on a search for Koalas in the wild....and found some!

More Family Fun!!!

We are off on another adventure....This time we head for the beaches up north, in the Sunshine Beach area, and on our way....a scenic look at the Glass House Mountains....

Here is me and my sis, posing in front of Tibbogargan..

You can see one of the Glass House mountains off in the distance past the suger cane fields...I have hiked on all the Glass House mountains that have walking trails....

The kids turn to pose....

Off to Colundra, for some water sports!

Ready for some action, oh yeah, baby!!!

and because we are all on a budget, here is our lovely room in a hostel....

and they offered a free breakfast!  Ummm...of stale white bread, and the Aussie favorite - Vegamite!!    which my sister slathered on her stale bread, and then took a huge bit, thinking it was Nutella!   Luckly we saw it coming and had a trash can handy for her to spit it back out!   Who remembers the song "Living in the Land down under!"  yep, that's what they are talking about when the say "Vegamite".  I always thought he was saying "take a bit of my fish sandwish"  Go figure!

The sisters take Sydney by storm!

Our new friend...

goofin' around....

some more....

Yes, it is almost Christmas time, although it's 85 degrees out.....

and no trip to Sydney would be complete without the famous opera house in the background of at least one picture....

some sights at the lovely Botanical garden....

Fruit bats - which are called flying foxs.  They come out at twight.   when I first moved here, I had never seen them before, and they make such a racket!   as the twight fell, the sky grew dust and I could see these huge winged creatures taking flight into the night.  I thought they were flying monkeys like from the Wizard of Oz.   So, I would ask people about these flying monkeys....and as usually, they just started and me and then slowly shook their heads and mumbled something about crazy americans.....