Puffing Billy

A morning trip on “Puffing Billy,” the steam engine that uses diesel to avoid forest fires. It was incredibly scenic and again, all the trees smelt so good! The train is run by volunteers, so it felt nice to contribute.

I heard two Korean guys chatting away and couldn’t resist trying to practice out my hard learned Korean lessons.

I’ve been studying Korean on my ipod for about two months now and am most likely known in Geelong as “you know, that girl whose really tall, walks everywhere and talks to herself.”

(I have to repeat the words and sentences in Korean to ensure I learn to my greatest ability.)

 I’d like to say I blew these two guys away with my Korean. However, I choked. I couldn’t remember a single thing I had learned and they were speaking English anyways. Booooo.

Catherine and I were very silly and got off at the wrong stop. Her confused cousin couldn’t find us and had to drive to the next small town to fetch us. We spent the rest of the afternoon exhausted from the heat and back onto the couch to watch an interesting movie “burn after watching.”

A few hours later we were jumping out of Catherine’s aunt’s car and into the rainstorm without an umbrella. We were fearful that we’d been hit by the excessive lightening. We hopped onto the train headed for Melbourne and got about 5 minutes into the stormy trip before the train stopped. An announcement came over the speakers that due to the weather the trains had lost signal and until further notice we would be stuck. All the trains were stopped and apparently there was chaos in Melbourne!

 Catherine and I were soaked, freezing from the air con and surrounded my drunk ACDC fans who were infuriated that they might miss the show. Fourty Five minutes later, we began to move and made it to Melbourne. We decided that there was no way we were getting on another train back to Geelong with out something warm in our bellies. Catherine had never tried PHO before so we went to an extremely busy Pho place which was guaranteed to be good. It was delicious and exactly what we needed for the cold.

A little bit warmer, we hopped on a tram full of ACDC fans and got the train back to Geelong. This time, the train was full with the Aussie businessmen who did not go to the ACDC show and had to wait hours for the trains to start running again.

Up Up and away

A place called Upwey

After working on papers for three days straight I was relived when the Tuesday evening came for Catherine and I to board the train into Melbourne. We got some dinner in Chinatown and I throughly enjoyed my $4.50 glass of house white. It was blistering hot so we took a walk to Section 8 for my second time at the drinking spot. Catherine’s uncle was kind enough to pick us up promptly at 9:30pm to take the hour drive to Upwey. Upwey is a small mountain/hillside town an hour north of Melbourne. It is home to the infamous Puffing Billy train and Catherine’s aunt and uncle.

Miss Catherine, Miss Canada!

At The Healesville sanctuary in fourty degree weather the next day. The drive to the sanctuary was an hour of beautiful forest scenery. It sounds silly and way too hippie for me to say that I can’t remember a time where I have smelt trees that smell that good! The drive was also a bit of a dance party with Catherine’s cousin's trendy Aussie music^^

We arrived at the sanctuary and were rushed to the “birds of prey” show. We got to see some massive and strange looking creatures swoop over our sweaty heads with their massive claws.


Next on our list of priorities were the Kangroos and Koalas. It was so hot outside all the animals wanted to do was sleep in the shade. We were lucky enough to get some good pictures and become within a close distance to them. There were hardly any cages to be seen and it felt more like a walking safari.

It's a DINGO!

Up on the hill

When the weather got a little cooler, Catherine’s aunt took us for a night drive through the forest and way up to a beautiful look out point.

Some place nice

Nancy and Nick were kind enough to invite me to venture outside of Geelong to an even town, famous for it's spas. We didn't indulge in any spas, but Nancy and I did find huge coffees in this country of little cups.

Every year there is a Farmers Market where there is wine tasting and delicious baked goods. It cost only $5 to be able to do some wine tasting and get quite drunk if you wanted.

It was a very posh place that we somehow got into^^

I also am a lover of food!

On the way back to Geelong we stopped at this delightful fruit and veggie shop. We were travelling in the wrong direction actually but I think it was just 'mean't to be.'