March 15, 2014
Today was very eventful to say the least. The morning started off very calm though. It was raining when I woke up and figured swimming was off. And it seemed like it was a good day to do indoor activities, so I convinced Lachie to go to the art gallery with me. After lunch, we headed there. There was a collection being displayed done by a group of aboriginal women.
The aboriginal women do the paintings and artwork to preserve their culture and bring awareness to what has happened to their people. Australia did many things to their native people that the United States did. Some of the art work was explaining the story of what happened. It is heartbreaking but inspirational at the same time. What these women are doing for their people is extraordinary. All the paintings were very brightly colored and many of them were done in dots. Lachie explained to me that many of them use the different colored clays that are found around Australia as their paint medium. It was beautiful.
In another wing of the gallery there was a collection of painting that were going to be auctioned off. Many of the paintings were off the Warrnambool area. It was fun to walk around and see places that I have recently visited.
After the gallery, it was still gloomy and raining so Lachie took me to his favorite coffee shop called Pronto's. We both got cappuccinos.
It is so pretty!
After talking about uni and AFL (Australian Football League) the sun came out and we ventured over to Tower Hill. Tower Hill is an old volcanic crater that has been replanted and become a refuge for Australia wildlife. It is absolutely beautiful! The first animal I got to see was an Emu!
As we kept driving down the road we found KOALAS!!
I was so excited! I saw my first wild Koala! We continued down to a parking area and took a walked up to the top of one to the hills to take in the view.
We hiked back down and headed to the Visitors Center to check it out. Walking around the building were more emus. Of course I took more pictures!
We continued walking along the trail for awhile keeping an eye out of any other animals that we could see. Then we came upon a small footpath to get up to another trail. Lachie headed in first. Then the eventful part of the day happened. He stepped over a 5.5 foot long tiger snake. It flattened its head and turned to him and I was stupid and screamed and kept movie a little bit then it turned to me. Lachie yelled and told me to stop moving. I immediately stopped and looked at him. The snake looked a me a bit longer then turned and slithered away. My heart stopped. It is one of the biggest snakes I have ever seen in the wild. It is also the 4th deadliest snake in the world. After a few minutes of staying really still. Lachie told me I could move. He told me that that was a very close call and that I am extremely lucky that I did not get bit, especially since we were a good 20 minutes from any help. We continued up the trail and caught our breath. My heart was racing! After a few minutes of nervously laughing and freaking out, we continued our walk on the big paths. I was so freaked out I jumped at seeing a big millipede and a stick that looked like a snake. About 5 minutes later we saw a kangaroo! I did a happy dance and told Lachie all I walk to see for the rest of the day are "cute, fluffy things that can't kill me." He agreed.
We walked down a few more paths.
Then to the boardwalk we went.
"It has legs!"
TURTLE!
He is hiding
And of course, I am the one that spots the snakes. Luckily they were much farther away and we were on a board walk.
And the finale of my trip to Tower Hill... Cute a fluffy :)
Having a good scratch
Climbing
So cute!
After Tower Hill, Lachie dropped me off at uni, so I had some time to calm down before dinner or "tea" as they say here. So for tea I went over to Ben's family's house. He is from the church I am attending here. He made a kangaroo stew and his mom and sister made dessert. I also got introduced to the best red wines that Australia has to offer. Thanks to Ben, the wine connoisseur. It was a lovely meal and we all sat around the table talking for a couple hours. Then Ben and I drove to the bars to meet up with Jen and Sonia. We played a game of pool, and Ben and I were about to win and I sunk the 8 ball. Oh well, it was a lot of fun. Ben and Jen left to get drink and then a bar tender came over with two glasses of champaign to Sonia and I. He explained that one of the owners of the bar was giving us drinks. Sonia and I giggled and thanked the bartender and got a nod from the owner. He never did come over and talk to us, but some of the Melbourne Uni footy players came over to the three of us girls and were talking to us. They loved Jen's and my American accent. Us girls eventually wondered to the dance floor and danced to Backstreet Boys and N'sync. It was hilarious because all the footy players knew the words too. It was a lot of fun and the guys were very respectful. It was getting late so we all decided to leave since we have church in the morning.
After a fun/ terrifying afternoon, I had a great night relaxing with people from church. Sonia and I felt pretty good that we got drinks from the owner too ;)
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