Monday, May 14, 2007

Well, sorry its been such a long time since we've posted. Partly its because we no longer have internet at home, but mostly its that we have had a very intense few months and have just been trying to focus on getting through the basic life-y things.

These are our photos from our trip to melbourne this year.
There's also LOTS, so hopefully you dont get too bored.

We took the famous restored steam train 'Puffing Billy' through Dandenong ranges out of melbourne. We sat on the edge of the window with our feet out of the carriage as we went along. Great view! Sore bottom. The driver forced us into the cabin and insisted he take our photo. Turned out quite nice, though.

We were in melbourne afterall, so stencils were a must.
We spent alot of time in alley-ways. This was my favourite.

Casper and the Horses on Dan and Gemma's Wangaratta property

The biggest hedge maze in the southern hemisphere! WHOO! Casper was much more excited than me at the idea, but once we got in there, I have to admit... it was rather fun.

A little town called 'Bright' in the hills near Wangaratta. Casper reading under a willow tree.

The river in Bright. We went for a long swim before fish and chips for lunch.

The view from Dan and Gemma's place.

We went for a day trip out to Mt Buffalo - the following photos are the view from the top.
It's quite beautiful.

We even found a little cave to get into. It was full of water and was absolutely freezing!

We then came back through Melbourne, borrowed Kip's car (thanks Kip!) and went for a drive along the Great Ocean Road. It is so beautiful. We even came across a few koalas!

The drive was a little tedious - always zigging and zagging and being stuck behind grey nomads. I got quite tired by the end of the day. But the views more than made up for it.

This is a shot of Apollo Bay, which we really liked. As we were camping overnight, the largest thunderstorm ever felt like it broke right over our heads... the next morning we saw the paraglider - lucky the storm had passed.

We went through the Otway National Park. Which is very similar to the area around Walpole and Denmark in the South West of WA. We fell in love with it straight away. It even had its own treeptop walk... but with a silly name like the 'Otway Fly' : )

This is a few photos of Erin blowing fairies on the walk into the fly.

These are some of the trees in the park and from the fly. I could almost feel like I was in Walpole...

As we left the fly, the whole region descended into this crazy fog. This is one of the beaches - same day as the photos above! You could barely see the water.

So when we got to the Twelve Apostles, this is what we saw. Not what we were expecting but still really stunning.

We made it all the way out to this cute place - called Port Fairy : )

We then made our way back to Geelong, where we had organised to meet up with a Baptist Monastery called the Community of the Transfiguration. A friend had suggested we should see if we could meet with them. Well we joined with them for thursday night liturgy, and then ended up staying two nights with them. They were so hospitable.
This is the house we stayed in. It's called the mother house.

This is their hall.
And this is a photo of us with them.
In order, left to right, back to front: Miriam, Terry, Stephen, Neil, Andrew, Helen, Heather, Graeme and Steve... (and me)

Post Script (May '08): We've decided to move to Geelong to be a little closer to the community. We are spending a few nights a week with them in compline and getting to know them. They have sold the property in the above photos and are about to start building in Teesdale. It's very exciting!