Healesville Sanctuary

Today was my last full day in Melbourne and it was sunny!!!!!!!! On Saturday, Trevor came and picked me up and brought me back to stay with he and Jill for my last couple of days. My time in Melbourne would have not been anywhere near as good as it has been without these two. They have been so welcoming and have taken such good care of me. I only met them once 9 years ago, but they have treated me like family. They really have gone out of their way to make my stay here a good one and I have been so lucky to be in their company.

Janet, Jill and I went to the movies yesterday while the guys played in their Pennant League Bowling game. After the movie, we headed to the club to watch the end of the games. It was fun because it is all an older crowd their (Jill, Trevor, Janet and Phil are part of the younger crew, so when I've been coming around, I think all the older men are looking at me like "Why is she here?!?")

After bowls, we met up with some of their extended family for a farewell dinner for their aunt. She headed back to England today. After dinner, when everyone headed to the Pokies and out for a smoke, I sat around with Trevor and Phil and watched the Pre-season opener for the Australian Rules League (footy). It was played in Dubai, but was on TV. They explained the game to me again and I really enjoyed watching it. I hope I get to see a few more games while I am here - maybe even at one of the stadiums.

On the way to the pub and back, I got more stories about their family and what a history they have. Jill, Janet, their Mum & Dad and five other brothers (including Mick - Kim's dad) all immigrated to Australia in the early 1960's. During this time, England had incentive programs for people to immigrate to Australia. Their family signed up and within a month left for the month long boat ride to Australia. They were picked so quickly because of the number of men in the family - add to the work force. The deal was that the whole family was able to make the trip for only 10 pounds, but they had to stay in Australia for at least 2 years. If they came back before them, they would have to repay the government the actual fare it would have cost them (obviously a lot more than 10 pounds). Quite a story and to think that only happened within the last 50 years. It just shows you how the young the country still is.

Today, Phil and Trevor had another bowls tournament and Janet was working at it, so Jill and I went to the Healesville Sanctuary. Trevor let me drive his car (Jill doesn't drive) - which apparently shocked everyone because the only other people he allows to drive his car are service people. I guess I felt a little special! The Healesville Sanctuary is a small scale zoo with a wildlife hospital and exhibits. It was a lot of fun to go to because we got to see some great animals and many of them were quite active. The most surprising were the Koalas. Two of them were actually awake and moving around and one even jumped from one branch to another - I had no idea they could jump!!!

The next highlight was when Jill put another tourist in his place at the kangaroo exhibit. You can actually walk into the enclosure and get pretty close to the kangaroos. There is just a rope that really separates you from them. Well there was this one guy that was yelling noises to the kangaroos to try and wake them up to look over at him for a picture. When that didn't work, he picked up the bark pieces on the ground and threw it at them. UNBELEIVABLE!!! Jill told him to stop and I was so glad she spoke up...some people are just so oblivious or stupid or whatever it is!

There were lots of birds at the sanctuary - oh yes, I was so excited (can you sense the sarcasm?!?). We did see about 6 pelicans though and at first I was excited because I actually love pelicans. But then they started walking over to us and flapping their wings and making noises and got really close. It freaked me out a bit, so I had to walk away. But I did manage to get a great picture of the pelican at full wing span, so check it out. We also went to a Parrots in Flight show - which wasn't too bad, but then we skipped the Birds of Prey show. I wasn't all that interested and Jill has seen it before.

It was a small sanctuary, but you really got to see a lot of great local animals and were able to get pretty close to them all.

I managed to get Trevor's car back home in one piece, so I think he was happy about that. Later tonight, the five of us went out for my farewell dinner and just sat around and chatted. I really do get along well with all of them and am so glad I have made such great new friends.