Australia

After our lovely break in Indonesia, we took an overnight flight to Melbourne, Australia. The change in climate was rather drastic. Singapore and Indonesia, being right near the equator, were consistently hot and muggy. Melbourne, on the other hand, was cool and breezy, and more often than not during our week there, rainy. Normally we can deal with rain and cold, but this was our week to try out a camper van, so it wasn’t much appreciated. We made the best of it, though.

After picking up our lime green Jucy camper van, we headed an hour east of Melbourne to Healesville, a small town surrounded by wineries and forests of towering eucalyptus trees. We spent 3 nights there at a small holiday park (a bit like a KOA park in the US). We were amazed at the birds we encountered in the park. Nothing special for Australians, perhaps, but they were fun for us to see.

There was a creek for the kids to explore, and a large bouncy pillow to jump on. We met two nice homeschooling families (with 8 kids between them) visiting from west of Melbourne. It was nice to be able to send the kids out to play with other kids, with a bit of freedom to roam about on their own.

The highlight of our stay was the afternoon spent at the Healesville Sanctuary, where you can see and interact with native Australian wildlife, including, koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, parrots, and dingos.

After Healeville, we headed to Phillips Island, where we found a nice holiday park next to the beach. It was raining at this point, so we decided on a wholesome indoor activity…bowling! This was Daniel’s first time…he enjoyed it for a few frames. I think ultimately he decided Wii bowling is more his style, though he did dig the shoes.

The main event at Phillips Island is the penguin parade, the nightly return of the colony of little penguins from the sea to their burrows on the shore. We bundled up and joined the masses on the bleachers lining the shore. After watching a few groups of penguins scurry across the sand we took to the boardwalks, where you can catch a close up view of the penguins as they make their way home to their nests. We couldn’t take pictures, since that would daze and disturb the penguins, but take my word for it, they were cute!

After an hour or so we returned to our own nest…the camper van. The van we rented had a compartment bolted to the top, accessible via flimsy aluminum ladder, which opened to become a tent-like sleeping compartment for two. Great in theory, but with the rain and cold, and persistent moisture problems in the compartment, we decided we would be better off the last 2 nights if we all squeezed in below on the double bed. It actually worked out pretty well. Just had to alternate head, feet, head, feet.

I think Daniel was the only one of us that was sad to say good bye to the camper can when we took it back. We noticed everyone else returning a van that day was about 25-30 years younger than us. Not sure if that makes us hip or foolish!

We didn’t actually spend any time in Melbourne, other than an hour or so in St. Kilda where we rented the van. However, we did get a good look at the unique Australian wildlife!

We are now wrapping up our first week in Auckland, New Zealand. We’ve had a relaxing week, homeschooling and hanging about. More to follow once we get out of the city and start to see more interesting stuff!