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Updated 12/16/18

So we landed in Melbourne Australia on November 15th, took a train to a town called Lilyville and was picked up by our host for the next 5 weeks (Dianne). She drove us to her home in Yarra Valley, an 1800’s estate house high on a hill. She is a dog breeder and at the time we arrived she had 3 litters of cute little puppies (15 in all). Most dogs are Caveliers, Poodles, or Cavoodles, but there is also a Great Dane (Moose) and a Border Collie (Lexy). Each dog has their own personality. Moose and Lexy wake me up every morning by jumping on the bed so Lexy could kiss me and Moose could wrestle with me. At any one time we could have 2 to 7 dogs running in and out of the house. There are nice big kennels for the dogs to stay in at night and the dogs do get rotated around, so most get to stay in the house at night a few times a week.  

  


Over the next 5 weeks we walked the dogs in the morning (saw Cuckatoo, which are all over the place here), cleaned the kennels, fed and watered all dogs (one in the morning and again at night), and gave cuddles. Mike always had a dream to be covered in puppies and he finally got his wish.

  
Dianne’s son and fiancé (Bentley and Naomi) had an engagement party on December 15th, so after we did the dog chores, we worked on getting the yard ready. This was quite a task because the house is on 40 acres (not all cleared of course), but the dogs take up a lot of Dianne’s time and the yard had not been tended to for some time. We set out clearing brush, picker bushes, fence pieces, debris, and many other unwanted plants and trees. Dianne said she say parts of the house and lawn she hadn’t seen for years. Mike also helped get the pool ready and I weed whack everything in site. LOL We got done in time for the party and it was a huge success.
On our time off we visited local restaurants and sights. We also went to Melbourne, but more on that later.

Yarra Valley
Yarra Valley is simaltaneous with wine country here. So of course we had to visit a few wineries (after all we are guests in this country). So one day after “work” we stopped off at a little local winery called Whispering Hills. Since it was the end of the day and we were the only ones there, the owner sat down and talked to us till after closing. We had a great time.


We also went to another winery called Warramunda Estate Winery. We met the owner here as well and learnt alot about different kinds of wine.
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Healesville Sanctuary
Dianne was kind enough to let us use an extra vehicle she has. We drove about 25 minutes to a town called Healesville. There is a really wonderful refuge there that works with endangered and injuried animals. They even have a surigal hospital. We watched 2 vets do surgery on a pigeon. They have to make a small incisition and use a probe to see the sex of the bird. IT WAS A BOY!!


There was so many awesome animals to see..
Birds


Kangaroos

      
Wallabies


Koalas

Tasmanian Devel

Lizards

There was a wombat, but because they are nocturnal we really didn’t get to see them much at this place.  However a man named Cam came to mow the paddocks at the house and brought along a rescued Wombat he had saved.  It is about 6 months old and adorable.  Cam and Puddles is my favorite picture of a “TRUE” Aussie.

 

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Marysville
On another day we took the truck for a long drive to a town called Marysville. It was a cute little town (even had a lolli store that sold Willie Wonka bars). In case you are wondering, YES there is a golden ticket in 1 out of every 200 bars sold. NO you don’t get to visit the chocolate factory, but you do get a free Wonka bar.
We went for a quick walk to a beautiful waterfall called Steavenson Falls. We even walked to the top of the falls.

 

We stopped at a cool place called Bruno’s Art and Sculpture Garden.  Bruno has done all the sculptures himself.  Some are very creative.  Take a look…

       

take a close look at some of these.  The face, etc.  is made up of other animals…  

 

If you look at this one you can see the swan head is a hand, there is a scuba diver behind the girl and a shark fin coming at him…

 

Zoom in to see who is looking back at you from the tree..

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Dianne left for a few days to visit her dad in New Zealand, so when she got back we took off 4 days and stayed in an apartment in Melbourne. It is easy to get around here, we took a bus at the bottom of the hill, then got on the train and wholla, we were in Melbourne. Melbourne is a really cool city. It reminded us of Memphis. There are alley ways with hidden restaurants and stores all over the city. It is a very lively city and has alot to offer.
What we did in Melbourne…

  1. We went on a Chocolate tour. OMG it was awesome. It was a walking tour and we went to 5 chocolate stores, learnt some history of the city, and alot about the hidden alley ways (plus FREE chocolate tasting).

 

smoking hot chocolate

       2 .Flinders Street Railway Station (much like Grand Central Station)

       3.  Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (similar to Central Park). It was peaceful and quite with many trees, flowers, a nice pond and a café. There is a Shrine of Remembrance veterans memorial building there. It has an eternal flame and a great view of downtown Melbourne.

 

check out the feet on this baby bird

   4.  The Melbourne Museum had a Nelson Mandela exhibit that was really eye opening. It was a rainy day and we ended up spending the whole day there.

painting of Nelson Mandela as a kid walking away from his home (left)

   painting of Nelson Mandela as an old man walking toward his home (right)

 

5.  One of the oldest Catholic Churches – St. Patrick’s Cathedral

 

    6.  We had met some people at a breakfast café who told us to visit an alley called Hardware Street for some great food choices. They were so right. It was a small alley with tons of little outdoor cafes with great food and shops.

Cute Dr. Seuss shop in Melbourne.

    7.  We visited the Old Treasury Building Museum. Interesting museum with vaults in the basement where they housed the gold. There is an apartment in the basement also where the care takers lived.

   8.  We decided to take a day tour of Phillip Island with Bunyip Tours. This turned out to be a GREAT decision and well worth the small price. We left Melbourne at 11:00 am and didn’t get back till 11:45 pm. Here is how the day went…

First our bus driver (Bear) was great. He was funny and warned us that if we showed up late back to the bus through out the day we had to wear the donkey hat. He was a wonderful tour guide and kept us entertained all day.


First we went to Moonlite Santuary. We started with an Aussie barbeque and then had some free time to visit the animals. We saw wombats, koalas, kangaroos, and I even fed a Wallabee. I couldn’t believe it, the wallabee even had a joey in here pouch. OMG how cute.

Plenty of other animals as well…

       No they are not dead, just little baby birds.
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Next we visited the Koala Conservation Centre. There were lots of rescued Koalas safe from harms way.


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We then went to Churchill Island Heritage farm. It was a nice place on the water with cattle, sheep, etc. We got to watch how to crack a whip, see how border collies sheep herd, and how fast some can shear a sheep. There was lots of beautiful flowers and great views there.

   
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We made a quick stop to a surfer beach called Cape Woolamai.


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On to Swan Lake. Just a quick walk to a small wet land area. We saw lizards, birds, and wild Wallabees. They just pop their heads up when you walk by. How cute are they.


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The next stop was a place called Nobbies Centre. This was land that the rich and famous built huge houses on without considering what they were doing to the wildlife (in particular the little blue penguins habitat). When the penguin population deceased to a dangerous level, the government purchased all the houses and tore them all down, returning the land to the penguins, wallabee, and other wild life. There is a viewing building on the end of the peninsula that you can go to to see the little penguin’s in their homes (little holes in the side of the hills).


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Finally the finale of the day is the Penguin Parade. There are bleachers set up on the ocean where many groups of penguin emerge from the sea at dusk each night after a long day of feeding. This little guys go right by the bleachers and walk inland to their homes. Some have to walk over a 1 kilometer. You can get close up and see them as they walk up the hills. They are so cute. Some get confused and go into the wrong home (small fights break out), some head into the bushed to mate, some just goof around. I wish I could show you this wonderful site, but you cannot talk pictures because the penguins eyes are very sensitive and flashes can actually blind them.


WHAT A GREAT DAY!!!

One day we just went to a small town and spent some time on the beach (Cowes beach). Other days we would go to the local pub or small nearby town and walk near the water or have a bite to eat.

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It is Christmas time in Australia and one of the stores (Myers) decorates its windows like Macy’s used to do.

More on Christmas in Melbourne next time.

We leave Yarra Valley on December 20th and head to Werribee (20 minutes west of Melbourne) where we will be house sitting with 2 dogs (should be easy after caring for 30+ dogs – LOL).

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We will be able to take the train into Melbourne for some short afternoon adventures. There are still so many places to visit in Melbourne that we haven’t seen yet, like Queen Victoria Market, Federation Square, The Arts Centre, Parliment House, Old Melbourne Gaol (jail), the waterfront pier and walk.
There is also a “safari” like zoo in this town we want to visit called Werribee Open Range Zoo.

Till next time…

“Of all the books in the world, the best stories are found between the pages of a passport”. Unknown

 

Updated 03/02/2019

Sorry for the late update.  It seems that the hotels in Australia have free wifi, but limit you to a small amount of data per day, so I was unable to upload pictures to the blog till I got to the last workaway.

Also Godaddy is at it again.  I have been trying to update for 2 1/2 weeks.

Anyway here it is…

So the place we were suppose to watch the dogs near Melbourne just disappeared. We sent them a message saying we would be heading there the next day and they did not respond. Even the website that we found them on (Aussie house sitters) couldn’t get a hold of them.
This was the start of a very nerve racking month. We were already in Melbourne for the night so just booked the hotel for a few more nights. We sent out a few requests on workaway and Ausse house sitters. We had a man from Tasmania write us back saying he would be happy to have us come down and help him get his place ready to start a B&B. We called and spoke to him and then proceeded to book our flights to Tasmania. We were pretty happy to be going there. The next morning he sent us a message stating that his family had changed their holiday plans and we could go and work for the first week, but would have to pay to stay for the next 2 weeks. We were not too happy and it seems he wanted us to be his first guest (like a bait and switch situation). So we lost part of the cost of the flights and started back with the search.

We found a family who wanted help in Brisbane.  We were all set to go when the wife freaked out because I asked if she was going to pick us up at the airport.  I was told she was not a free personal taxi service and I had some nerve asking her.  Can we say RED FLAG.  The search continued.

We finally found a family who needed someone to house sit their 2 cats in Toowoomba (1 1/2 hours) west of Brisbane.  Their house sitter had canceled on them last minute, so it was a good fit.   We were back on track.

We flew to Brisbane on Christmas Eve and stayed at a hotel for 2 nights before we were to start the house sit.  Now I know it sounds like spending Christmas in a hotel sounds bad, but we had a very good day.  We headed out for a walk in the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens and then to a spot called South Bank, which is where the world expo had been held and was now turned into a great pool (with a lagoon style) and place for families to barbeque and enjoy themselves along the river.  It has a museum, arts center, ferris wheel, small bush walks(complete with reptiles), and some restaurants.  It was nice to see all the families enjoying themselves.  We walked along the water and had a very nice time.

 

On Dec 27th we took a bus to Toowoomba and an Uber to the house we would be staying at for the next 17 days.  The people who lived there had already left for their holiday so we let ourselves in and met the kitties.  

It was a very nice house.  The town was a very sleepy kind of place and with no car, it was a bit boring for us.  We are used to being busy and lets face it, changing a litter box and feeding 2 cats each morning is not very strenuous.  

We walked to the grocery stores (2 miles away) and to a few places for lunch (including some golf course restaurants).  We did find a mall and a really nice water foul reserve only 1 mile from the house.  It is a great place to sit and watch all the wildlife.  

   

The family came home the night before we were to leave.  We made dinner for them and had a nice visit.

We left Toowoomba at 6:00 a.m. the next morning on an airport taxi. We pick up a rental car at the Brisbane airport and drove 5 hours north to Agnes Waters.  We were suppose to go snorkeling on a day trip to the Great Barrier Reef, but the trip was canceled due to weather.  So instead we went to the local farmers market where they offered camel rides (no we didn’t get a ride).  After all what farmers market doesn’t offer camel rides.  It was weird.

We also went to see the paper bark trees.  These trees are so cool and different looking.  The short walk was so unique that we went back after having lunch a small resort nearby via a one lane bridge.

   

We drove back to Brisbane airport, returned the car, stayed overnight at a hotel and flew out the next morning to Sydney.  Once there we picked up a train to Gosford (1 1/2 hours North of Sydney).  We were met at the train station by our next workaway host (Helen).  They live about 20 minutes away from the station near a Avoca Beach.  They run a glamping accommodation in the bush in the back of the house.

   

We think the “powers that be” knew we had a strenuous month and were anxious to get back to “normal”.   We hit the jackpot here with Helen and Andrew.  We immediately hit it off and within a few hours felt right at home.  It was like staying with old friends.


First let me tell you about our accommodations and our hosts.  Helen is a veterinary surgeon and is on a surf boat rowing crew (more on this later), and Andrew has a software company and is a sharmin (he works with mostly veterans with PTSD).  Andrew sharmin work is very interesting and he is quite good at it.  He sometimes runs group sessions and shares his knowledge with others.

 
We stayed in their sons room (he is in New Zealand studying to be a rugby ref).  It was a very nice room and we a shared bathroom with their daughter Katlyn who was home some of the time (busy girl).  We definitely felt like part of the family.  We cooked some of the meals, helped clean up,  cuddled with the pets, and had some good conversations with both Helen, Andrew, and Kaylyn.  

Non-Human inhabitants were as follows –

2 awesome dogs (Dusty and Rex).  Dusty like to , a cat (Merlin),  2 birds (Funky and Buster), and 6 chickens (which they got just before we left).

Rex is a very gentle and VERY big German Shepard.  He thinks he is a lap dog, but is way to large for that.  He LOVES sticks, but doesn’t understand the concept of putting them down so you can throw them for him to fetch.  He just wants you to chase after him.  Come to think of it, maybe he does understand but thinks “I’m not going to chase a stick.  You chase me”. LOL

Dusty is a rescue dog and very, very anxious.  No caffeine for her.  It was very funny how she would stay with us while we were working.  She was always looking around and protecting us for whatever horrible thing she thought might happen to us if she wasn’t on the lookout.  It was kinda sweet.

Funky is a sweet bird.  We would have a daily lunch conversation.  He would ring his bell and I would go over and whisper to him.  He would quietly chirp.  I both told each other about our day and we both seemed to enjoy it.  I have to say, if I lived in Australia I would have to steal Funky.


We would sit outside and watch Buster interact with dad (Andrew).  Buster fell out of a tree when he was little and suffered some brain injury, so he is now well cared for by Helen and Buster, but he is dad’s baby.  The last week we were here, some of the wild birds came to visit Buster.  It started to become and everyday occurrence.  It is amazing how animals know when one is disabled.

Speaking of birds, there were so many that visited us daily, sometimes for breakfast (mainly the cockatoos, and magpies)…

  

      

The magpies are so friendly that they would wait for me to come out and feed them some pieces of dog biscuits right out of my hand. (Magpies are known to attack people if they get close to their nests.  Many people would put zip ties on there bike helmet, hate, walls, etc., so they wouldn’t be attacked.)  Guess I didn’t look dangerous.

So what did we do for work…

The first few days, we did some yard work.  We cut a few small trees, removed alot of dead brush, and weeded.  This is where I met my first Australian pests.  Now I know what you are thinking, “Everything is Australia will kill you”, but believe it or not there are many people living here and they live each day without fearing all the pest here. I digress.

Helen had mentioned to me when she was showing us the glamping tents, etc.  that I did not want to get bitten by a green ant and I REALLY didn’t want to get bitten by a jumper ant.  They don’t make you sick but do hurt like hell.  I wish I could say that I only know this because Helen told me, but NO it seems like I had to find out for myself.  I got bit by 4 green ants (all in the same ant encounter).  It does hurt like hell.  Kinda feels like fire and stays for about 10 minutes).  As if I hadn’t learnt my lesson, the very next day I was weed wacking and (you guessed it) got bit by a jumper ant.  This one hurt worse than the green ants but since it was just 1 bite, it didn’t seem too bad to me.  Now considering all the creatures and things that can kill you in Australia, I figure I got off easy and am still here to write about it.  LOL

This little guy was outside the front door.  His bite will hurt but not make you sick.  I called him Henry.

Now considering all the creatures and things that can kill you in Australia, I figure I got off easy and am still here to write about it.  LOL

Andrew really wanted to outside of the house painted, so we began our next job.  It is a stucco house, which means it is easy to paint.  Not much trim, etc.  We finished in just a little over a week, including washing all the windows.  

While Mike continued to paint the porch, I worked with Helen on a bigger project.  You see Helen is a little bit of a hoarder when it comes to linens, sewing, and arts and crafts.  I promised Andrew I would help get Helen to clean out the room that held all the sewing and craft things.  It was stuffed full.  So Helen and I started in the closet to clean out the linens (because that was Helen’s priority) and moved on to THE room. Getting it cleaned out was easy. We just moved everything into the dining/living room.  I told Andrew that all I promised to do was clean it out, not put everything back in. LOL  When I left, Helen had been a trooper and had thrown out or donated alot of things and was still working on the last bits.  Everytime she was debating about keeping something she said she could hear me in her head saying “Do your really need that”.  I left her with the motto “What would Robin say”.  Honestly Helen had become a good friend by then and we worked well together.

What else did we do…
….I helped with the wash and ironing
….We helped with cleaning the glamping tents (only a little though – they have it pretty much down)
….Mike mowed the lawn
….We put up a few extra tents for a group session Andrew had
….Mike turned an old chicken coop into a screen covered tomato garden (no plants in it yet)
….Mike made a screen door-like separator for the new chicken house


….We painted the back of the chicken coop
….We painted an inviting sign on the chicken coop


Honestly we had a really good time (great time actually).

So what did we do in our off time…

Helen and Andrew showed us Avoca Beach town and another nice beach town a ways (Terrigal Beach).  We had dinner at Avoca Beach with them and saw some dolphins.

We went with Helen and Andrew to Avoca Beach to give the dogs a swim.  Rex LOVES to have you throw a stick into the water so he can go swimming for it, BUT try to get it back from him.  This is the game he plays.  Hahaha    Dusty is happy running around like the skitsy dog she is.  She will only get wet up to her knees.

We were fortunate enough that Helen and Andrew let us use their 4 x 4 to get around.  We went down to the towns for lunch and breakfast a few times.   These are great little towns, and kinda feels like Mystic, CT if it had a beach right in town.  We even went to the mall a few times.

 

Reptile Park..

We drove to a place called Reptile Park.  Now anyone who knows me knows I love reptiles, so I was excited about going.  When I found out that there were kangaroos just wandering around that you could go up to and pet, well I was like a little kid.  It was such a wonderful park.  We saw all kinds of reptiles and more.  AND I did get to pet kangaroos, in fact, I was taking a picture of a kemono dragon when a kangaroo hopped over and stood next to me.  I’m pretty sure I squealed like a little girl.

So what did we see…

1. Kangaroos

2. Lizards

… Land Mullet

 

 

 

 

 

 

…Jacky Dragon

 

 

 

 

 

 

…Perentie

 

 

 

 

 

…green iguana

   

…Frilled Lizard & Shingleback Lizard

 

 

 

 

 

 

… Fijian Crested Iguana

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…Veiled Chameleon

 

 

 

 

 

…Cunningham’s Skink

 

 

 

 

 

 

…Komodo Dragon

 

Others…

 

3. spiders and snakes

4. cute koala (with joeys)

5. alligator feeding time

6. platypus (hard to get picture, since they are nocturnal)

7. bats


8. Dingo

9. Dinosaurs (there is a really cute show for kids and the dinosaur costumes they walk around in are really realistic looking.)

10. Quokka

11.  Frogmouth (this is not an owl, but sooo cute)

10. Australian Bustard (largest land bird in Australia)

      

11. Cassowary (only armor plated bird left in the world – 3rd largest flightless bird in the world,  the plate on the head is a casque and it has a large hook claw on its foot that can ripe animal right open.)  – Can you say Jurassic Park?

             

12. Yellow Footed Rock Wallaby

 

13.  Galapagos Tortoises

14.  Others

 

          

15.  Even this one that I thought was an eagle.  Turns out to be a statue that I (and others) took MANY pics of.   LOL  

       

Off to SYDNEY (only a 1 1/2 train ride away.  Helen and/or Andrew were kind enough to drive us to and from the train station)

What can we say about Sydney Australia. Oh I know…. WE LOVED IT.


Mike and I both agree, if we were to move out of the USA, we would live near Sydney. Why???
It has so much going on ALL the time. The harbor is gorgeous!!! It is so clean. It is easy to get around by bus, train, and/or ferries. We really enjoyed jumping of the ferry over to the train station and then anywhere else you want to go.


So we stayed at the North Sydney Harborview Hotel at Andrews suggestion. It was a really nice hotel, right next to the train station with spectacular views of the Sydney bridge and harbor. Just look at this view from our room.


We would walk to the ferry right next to the small Coney Island like carnival called “Luna Park” and go to other little bayside towns. We saw a carnival (swimmers, surfers, etc clubs) at Manly beach. Had dinner at another ferry port. It was just so much fun.

 

 

We took in a burlesque show at the Sydney Opera House one Saturday night.  It was good.  We didn’t realize that the Opera House has many small little quaint theaters in it.  There are lots of restaurants under the Opera House also.

We didn’t know that the day we booked the show was Australia Day.  It slightly resembles our Thanksgiving.  There were people everywhere.  Most had Australian flags, some were dressed in crazy outfits (like our 4th of July nerds – meant with the best of intentions).  There was a huge outdoor concert taking place at the Opera House and we learnt there was a firework show scheduled for 9:00 right near the bridge (remember our bridge view?)  Well the burlesque show ended at 8:30 and we raced to get to the train station to get back to our hotel room in time to see the fireworks.  This was no easy task since there were so many people and the quick way to the station was blocked off.  But we got to our room just as the fireworks started.  The only issue was that our hotel window was fogged up (on the outside) because of our AC.  We went to the hall window near the elevator where we met a girl from the USA watching the fireworks as well ( small world).

We went back to Sydney the next weekend because Mike wanted to see the World Travel Show being help in the Sports Center.  How did that go you may ask.  Well we ended up booking a trip (true vacation – no workawaying) to Africa.  That’s right, the Marions are going to Africa.  Akuna Matata mate.  I am so excited.  This was on my bucket list and just made sense to do it now.  More on that later.

We also went back to the Sydney Opera House (since it was too crowded the day of the show), took a walk in the Queens Garden, and visited the oldest part of Sydney called The Rocks (nice markets and small European like restaurants).  It was Chinese Lunar New Year week (year of the pig) and you can see all kinds of symbols all over the city.

Unfortunately we had to leave Avoca Beach on February 12, because our 60 day we up (visa restriction).  Andrew had ordered ball and chains to keep us there, but they didn’t come in on time so we had to go.  We took the train to Sydney, stayed overnight, and left very early for a flight to the South Island of New Zealand.

We were sad to go.  Helen and Andrew were so wonderful.  We can’t thank them enough for making us feel like a part of their family.  The month went by way to fast.  We will miss them.  We left knowing we now have some good friends in Australia and hope they will visit us in Florida some day.

Till next time…

Traveling it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.      

Ibn Battuta