Looking back on my trip to Aussie there isn't a single thing that I would change except perhaps make it longer and change the weather on a few days, but that's just getting picky on my part. the trip as a whole was defiantly a experience of a lifetime that I am glad I was able to share with a great group of people. I was so excited to finally be in the trip it took the first day and a half for me to finally come to terms with actually being in Australia. Touring the Healsville Sanctuary was a great first taste of both the wildlife and the people but the first major impact for me was when we had dinner at La Camera. Both the menu and some of the differences in word meanings made it finally seem real that we weren't in Kansas anymore. This as well as meeting with the head of Primary Industries and learning about the impressive National Livestock Identification System in place were two of the biggest impacts and first impressions I had.

My birthday at Gilligan's

    Although I can't pick a favorite, the farm visits were a very high ranking portion of the trip. All of the visits helped me gain a little more insight as to what the average rural Australian family or farm are like, something that just touring the main tourist sites would never convey. Going off the beaten path and staying in small cities like Wagga Wagga and Albury were also a favorite part of the trip. although the hotels may not have been quite up to par with those in Sydney and Melbourne, but locals were very welcoming. They all were people that our group could connect with more since we had small towns and or agriculture as common backgrounds.

Dinner cruise in Sydney

  Towards the end of the trip were some of the most memorable and fun times, especially when the whole group celebrated my birthday at Gilligan's in Cairns as well as surprising me with a cake at dinner. The most indescribable sight we saw, however, would have to be the Great Barrier Reef namely the bottom of it while scuba diving. As soon as we returned home, as a matter of face before we even left I was ready to go back and do more exploring in what had quickly became my favorite place I have ever visited. I can only hope to go back someday and spend some more time in Sydney and go out to the Reef and Green Island again for sure. 

Our scuba diving group

That wasn't your ordinary ride in a tin can across a pond

One of the many vineyards outside melbourne 

   Day one proved to be a surreal experience. There is no where to start but the beginning I suppose. We took off from L.A. at what would be 1:30am Kansas time and finally landed at what would be 5:30pm Kansas time 8:30am local Melbourne time. The flight, as expected, was long but the personal entertainment systems and their many gadgets made the trip much easier. 

Once landing and going through immigration and customs we met up with our tour guide and shortly there after took off to our first scheduled event. One of the first observations that everyone quickly made is that they follow suit with the Europeans on driving on the opposite side of the road as well as the driver being on the right of vehicles. We also discovered that parrots fly around wild as sparrows would at home. 

Even though exhausted I still was able to enjoy making friends at the sanctuary

     We went to the Healsville Animal Sanctuary, home to many native species ranging from as well as a emergency care and rehab center. On the way I was able to get my first look at Australian land and country side. It was very interesting to see the acres or as they would say were kilometers of vineyards for many different wineries. This as well as noting that cattle are often pastured together with sheep here proved to be some of the most interesting points of our journey to me. Once to the sanctuary we were treated to a staff based tour, our first close up encounter with a native Australian. It was very interesting to me to talk with our guide about various cultural differences and to learn more about common slang for the country. While at the sanctuary we had many close encounters with a wide range of animals and were able to see some that even zoo’s back home don’t often have. Some of the most notable to me were the Tasmanian devil, the many    species of parrots, and of course the kangaroos.  

The view overlook of the Yarra river to downtown Melbourne

As the day came to a close I was still trying to grasp the fact that I am in Australia, there is so much to take in and learn I don’t think it has completely set in yet. Eating at La Camera, (a fine Italian restaurant) was over first run in with a bit of a language barrier. We quickly learned that entree mean appetizer and main is the main course. This as well as having no regular beef, only veal lamb and chicken were the only major differences. I noticed, as expected that their meat here is much leaner in general due to the difference in quality standards on IMF (Intramuscular fat) content in the meat. That’s all for now, as the Aussies say it good on ‘ya for keeping up with me thus far, be looking for more to come!