The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
G'day Mate from the Land Down Under.
"The Quill" travelled to Sydney and Melbourne, Australia with Deb Lefler and Rachel Lefler.
In the picture you see the iconic Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge, as well as the Melbourne Queen Victoria Market.
Deb travelled with Rachel as Rachel is studying abroad at Deakin University until June to continue her studies in Business. This is a part of the Iowa State University's study abroad program.
Rachel is a sophomore of the Iowa State Ivy Business school and is planning to graduate with a degree in Marketing in 2021.
The cities of Sydney and Melbourne are bustling metropolis' with both colonial and modern buildings, beautiful parks and amazing beaches. Being their summer season, the weather was very warm.
We were glad to get out of the record cold temperatures of the Midwest, but glad to have missed the record heat of Australia. We were in Sydney from Feb. 6th to the 10th, enjoying temperatures in the 80's. We took a double decker bus ride all through the city which allowed us to visit the famous Bondi Beach.
We enjoyed a tour to the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney which is a luscious green valley with the famous 3 Sisters rock formation, in the area you get to take two Gondola rides and a steep railroad car ride down to the bottom of the valley.
The tour includes a tour to the Featherdale Wildlife Sanctuary where we got to get our picture taken with a real Koala, which was so soft.
Also at the sanctuary are various other Australia wildlife, Cockatoos, wallabies, dingos, pelicans, penguins, and more. Our bus brought us through Olympic park to a ferry on the Parramatta River, which transported us to either Darling Harbor or Circular Quay (key) to deliver everyone to the wharf nearest our lodgings.
We ended at Darling Harbor where we enjoyed a seafood dinner before walking back to our hotel.
We went to Manly beach, another famous beach where we took the ferry from the Circular Quay, which takes you in directly in front of the opera house, an amazing view. (Beware when you are sitting on the concrete steps at the beach because the gulls will fly over your shoulder and eat from the sandwich in your hand.)
Our trip continued to Melbourne from Feb. 10th and ended for me on Feb. 16th. We wandered around the City Center where there are streets and lanes, (alleys) famous for their murals and graffiti art. The most famous that we visited were Hosier Lane and AC/DC Lane. There were so many shops, restaurants, cafes, bars, it was hard to choose where to go. One thing I found interesting were the Arcades.
From Melbourne we took the Yarra Valley winery tour, which took us to the Steels Gate Vineyard, Balgownie Estate, Yering Farm and Domaine Chandon. In Australia, they cannot produce Champagne since it is exclusive to the Champagne region in France. They produce sparkling wine instead.
Our other tour was to Phillips Island for the famous penguin parade of Phillip Island fairy penguin.
They are smallest of the penguin species, known for the blue coloring of the coat (feathers), and enjoy the climate of the Southern coast of Australia and also found in New Zealand.
Each morning they go out to sea and come back to their burrows at dusk, although they can stay out to sea for days. We stood in a crowd on platforms watching the waves hit the beach looking for movement, then all of the sudden, anywhere from 20 to 100 penguins at a time show up on shore, waddle up a small rocky embankment and continue on to their burrows where their mate and children are waiting for them.
As we travelled through Melbourne to go out of the city, we passed St. Kilda Beach, which was known as a resort area in the early 1900's. We stopped at Brighton Beach, famous for their painted Beach boxes. The tour guide told us the history of how the beach boxes came to be on Brighton Beach.
They originally were at St. Kilda beach in the early 1900's for the affluent visitors to discreetly change from their Beach wear into their swim wear. Over time, due to the economic downturn or life style changes, people were not visiting St. Kilda and the need for the boxes was becoming unnecessary and they began deteriorating.
The government not wanting to lose this part of it's history, decided to relocate them to Brighton Beach and gave the Australian's the opportunity to purchase this piece of history at auction. People were paying good prices to own one of the sheds, with the highest known amount paid of $300,000. Due to the various laws and no way to get electricity to them, they cannot be used for business, so they are only able to use them for storage of their beach equipment.
Included in our tour was a stop at Moonlit sanctuary with more koalas, which we did not get to interact with due to timing schedule, but we did get to hand feed Kangaroos and wallabies. The biggest kangaroo we saw was approximately 5 feet tall and was very intimidating when it was hopping toward you. We saw other Australian animals, such as a wombat, Tasmanian devil and Wedge-tailed Hawk.
We stopped at the beautiful Woolamie Beach. It was interesting to find out that the Hemsworth brothers of Hollywood fame were raised on Phillips Island and surfed on this beautiful beach.
The Queen Victoria Market is a large farmers market. It is a large open air structure with many lanes for vendors. During the summer they have a Wednesday market that is a smaller scale that includes varied foods or desserts and vendors that have clothing, hats, Australian art and live music.
On the tram back to our hotel, we were talking to a couple that we knew were at the market. I am not sure if she was Australian or British, but I asked how she liked it. She said she enjoyed it, but it was a bit "squishy" (it was crowded).
The other time spent in Melbourne was to get Rachel set up at her apartment at Deakin University, which is in the suburb of Burwood about 9 miles from City Center.
Her residence is called Melaleuca House and she is in an apartment that is set up for 5 people to live in. I met her roommate from Japan. After I left, two more of her roomates arrived from Australia. She has had a week of orientation and will have one more week before classes begin on March 4th. She will fly home after finals on June 15th.
I haven't mentioned that our trip started in San Francisco, where we visited Fisherman's Wharf, Lombard Street, The Painted Ladies, The Full House house, China Town and the Golden Gate bridge, along with shopping in the City Center there.
When you go on a trip, take "The Quill" along, and have your picture taken with it, and send it to us.
Let's see where all "The Quill" can travel.