A Tale of Four Cities

A Tale of 4 Cities – It was the Best of Times...

Hey Blogaroni Fans,It’s 2:00 A.M. on Sunday morning here in Melbourne. We just finished packing and are ready to sleep for a few hours before we head to Melbourne International Airport for our departure back to the United States.

Day 2 in Melbourne was phenomenal. What a way to end our trip. In the morning, we took a tour of the city on Melbourne’s free tram car. We got off at Spencer Street, where we found a fantastic outlet mall. As what occurs on most of my trips, I ran out of space in my luggage. Either my clothes expanded or I bought too many souvenirs (Probably the latter). I was forced to buy another suitcase. I found a cute bright pink duffle bag in the outlet mall, so I’m content. I also figured since all I bought myself was a didgeridoo and a boomerang, I found a gorgeous diamond ring that I fell in love with for a really cheap price. I not only bought it because of its beauty, but because from now on, every time I look at this piece of jewelry on my hand, I will be reminded of the beauty of Australia, and the everlasting memories of our Aussie adventure.

After the mall, we got picked up from by tour guide and drove 2 hours to Phillips Island. Before reaching the highly anticipated Koala Reserve, we had tea and scones on the Heritage Farm on Churchill Island. We saw stunning plant life and were treated to an up close encounter with a bunch of farm animals. We then headed to the Koala Reserve on Phillips Island. As you enter the forest, the smell of Eucalyptus was intense. You know that smell of a really good day spa? Picture that times 10. My sinuses were thanking me with every step of the way. Although we didn’t get to touch the cute furry Koalas, we got pretty close to them. We then had a nice dinner in town, and then headed to the infamous penguin parade of Phillips Island for the sunset. The penguin parade was amazing! The only blue penguins in the world march in numbers to their burrows hundreds of meters away from the shore. Thousands of people gather on the beach every day from all over the world to watch this daily march after the sun sets. You’re not allowed to take any pictures of the parade, but I snuck in my Flip Video camera to try and bootleg the march.

After the penguin parade we got dropped off at our hotel in Melbourne, we packed up, and here I am, writing our final blog entry, 10,355 miles away from home.

We came. We saw. We conquered. From Sydney, to Uluru, to Cairns and finally to Melbourne, this Tale of Four Cities now comes to an end. However, the mind-blowing sights, rare animal life, vivid colors, lovely weather, friendly people, and the strengthened friendship of the fantastic Aussie Trio shall remain forever.

We’re off to LAX in about seven hours, and should land in NYC at 4:50 P.M. Thank you all so much for keeping up with our whereabouts and commenting on our photos over the last 12 days. And I’m sure that you will be receiving numerous online albums from us in the days to come with the rest of our photos.

G’Day Mates!

- Christine, Claudia and Rachel