Steve and I talk a lot about our travel bucket list (which we have done pretty well with over the past year!) and one of the highest ranked items is to visit all seven continents. Why, you ask? Because we want to see it all! Seeing how much a culture can vary just going from country to country in Europe inspires us to visit every corner of the world and see how people live, eat, and socialize around the globe!
We visited our 5th continent on our way (the long way) home from London to Chicago. We stopped in Melbourne, Cairns and Sydney, and got a good look at life down under! The first stop was Melbourne. We wanted to visit Melbourne not just to see the city, but the surrounding areas in the state of Victoria. There were so many interesting day trips to take from Melbourne, so it was the perfect first stop. You may be wondering about the weather because, yes, it is winter in Australia right now and Melbourne is on the southern coast. We were lucky and got 55-60 and sunny for the most part during our time here!
We had 4 days to spend in the Melbourne area and three of those days were dedicated to day trips, so on the first day we explored the city. We spent our day in the area surrounding the Yarra River, and walked all around the central business district.
Our first day trip was to the Yarra Valley, where we did a full day of wine tasting and soaked in the beauty of the vineyards. We will always do a wine tour if we are near a wine-making region, and Australia was no exception!
The second day trip was to Phillip Island, which is about 2 hours south of Melbourne. We went here primarily for the wildlife. We first visited the Phillip Island Wildlife Park, which is a free-range park where you can walk around amongst the wildlife, and feed them if they aren’t too shy to approach you! This was a highlight of the trip. The kangaroos and wallabies were incredibly friendly and hopped right on up to us looking for food! After this, we went to the Nobbies, which is an area on the coast with amazing views. Lastly, we went to the Penguin Parade. The parade was SO COOL! Basically, there is a colony of little penguins (the species is actually called “little penguins” and they are about a foot tall) living near the southern coast, and every day, the penguins go out to sea to hunt. At the end of the day at sunset, they come back to spend the night on land. There are hundreds of them that all emerge from the ocean at the same time. Since it is in the same place every single day, you can sit in bleachers right on the beach and watch it happen! We weren’t allowed to take any photos because they scare the penguins, but those mental pictures will last forever!
Our final day trip was a road trip on the Great Ocean Road, which is a long stretch of scenic road to the west of Melbourne. We drove all day long and made so many stops along the way at beaches and viewpoints. The best and most famous stop was the Twelve Apostles, which is a collection of eight (not twelve) limestone rock formations off the coast. It was beautiful!
After all of these day trips, we felt a bit tired and were ready for some fun in the sun in Cairns!
The Great Fekspedition 
Awesome but glad you home
On Thu, Jun 28, 2018, 1:03 PM The Great Fekspedition wrote:
> The Great Fekspedition posted: “Steve and I talk a lot about our travel > bucket list (which we have done pretty well with over the past year!) and > one of the highest ranked items is to visit all seven continents. Why, you > ask? Because we want to see it all! Seeing how much a culture can ” >
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