Dad's course started this past Monday - he is teaching about the A320 aircraft. He has 10 guys in the class and they are very familiar with the airplane, so Dad is finding it an easy course to teach. The course itself has been changed quite a bit since Dad taught it last and so he has spent a number of hours after work each day prepping for the following day.
I have spent most of my time this week preparing for the talk which I gave today at church. It takes me ages to get a talk together and then usually I write it and rewrite it and rewrite it again and again. I then have to practice it tons of times so that when I give it, I can keep eye contact with the congregation as much as possible. Dad fine-tuned his talk yesterday. After we gave our talks today, we received some very positive feedback which was nice to get. My favourite quote in my talk was from President Thomas S. Monson........."Not a day has gone by that I have not communicated with my Father in Heaven through prayer. It is a relationship I cherish - one I would literally be lost without. If you do not now have such a relationship with your Father in Heaven, I urge you to work toward that goal. As you do so, you will be entitled to His inspiration and guidance in your life - necessities for each of us if we are to survive spiritually during our sojourn here on earth. Such inspiration and guidance are gifts He freely gives if we but seek them. What treasures they are! I am always humbled and grateful when my Heavenly Father communicates with me through His inspiration. I have learned to recognize it, to trust it, and to follow it."
I have been reading a lot this week (at night just before bed) and I am quite enjoying it. It's great having my e-reader and being able to download books from the library (thanks, Jennifer! :-) I am reading books that I found good reviews for on goodreads.com (I could spend ages on that site) and are not the usual books I read (which are usually crime novels from authors like Mary Higgins Clark or James Patterson). I am currently reading 'Big Little Lies' which was chosen by the online book club that I joined.
Dad and I went out for dinner on Friday to a local hotel. We had been there before and had had a nice meal, so thought we would go there again. We both had a chicken meal and, although the chicken was cooked beautifully, there was not much flavour in the meals - a bit of a disappointment. After dinner, we decided to go to a movie - Dad was able to get cheap tickets through our mobile phone provider. We had seen the movie 'Paul Blart - Mall Cop' a number of years ago and had laughed our heads off through the whole movie. So, when 'Paul Blart - Mall Cop 2' came out recently, we were looking forward to seeing it. It was a little bit disappointing as there weren't many laughs during the first half of the movie, but the second half was full of laughs, so it redeemed itself a little.
On Sunday, we invited our Canadian friends, Trevor (the Bishop of the ward we go to) and his wife, Debbie, around for dinner. We made 'chicken broccoli divan' (thanks, Krystal) and it went over very well (as it always does). It was great to have a chance to catch up with Trevor and Debbie again since it's been ages since we were in Melbourne.
Sunday, April, 19, 2015
Today at church we met up with our Canadian friends, Trevor and Debbie Coates, in the ward here. We were surprised to find out that, since we were last here, Trevor had been called as the Bishop of the ward. After Sacrament meeting, Trevor asked us if we would meet with him in his office. When we met up with him there, he asked us if we would each give a talk in Sacrament meeting next week. He told us that things had not worked out with the people who he thought should give the talks and he felt that we were here in this ward often enough to be counted as part of the congregation. He said that when he saw us he felt it was right to ask us to give the talks. Of course, we readily agreed. Trevor told us that the theme of the meeting was 'Continuing Revelation'. I have decided to give my talk on personal revelation and Dad has decided to give his talk on 'Revelation from the Prophets and Leaders of the Church'. Neither one of us is nervous about giving these talks next week as the members of this ward have made us feel so welcome and a part of this ward right from the first time we came here.
Saturday, 18 April, 2015 - Day 7
Today was a driving day back to the unit. We woke up late and took our time getting
ready before heading off on the three hour drive back to Melbourne. We did crossword puzzles and I read articles
from a Good Health magazine to Dad along the way and the time went really fast
– we were home before we knew it.
Friday, 17 April, 2015 - Day 6
We drove to the Tower Hill State Game Reserve this
morning. Tower Hill is an enormous volcanic crater rimmed by beds of volcanic ash. The swampy floor of the crater is punctuated by conical hills which, after good rains, virtually become islands surrounded by a shallow lake. The inside of the crater, and the island-hills are now a wildlife reserve and there are lots of native birds and wildlife there, including koalas, kangaroos, and emus. It also has an important place in local Aboriginal history. The centre is managed by the Worn Gundidj Aboriginal Co-operative - they sell aboriginal arts and crafts and provide guided tours. Our guide, Chris (an aboriginal) took us and
a German couple on the tour. He was very
knowledgeable about the plants and animals we saw along the way. He told us what the plants were used for by
the aboriginal people and also had us taste a couple of them (not to my
taste). We didn't see many animals, but
we managed to see one koala (high up in a tree), a copperhead snake, a wallaby
and a skink. At the end of the tour,
Chris showed us how to throw a boomerang.
We all threw one a number of times and although the two Germans and I
were able to get the boomerangs to curve a little, Dad actually got his to come
almost all the way back to him – I think it has to do with his aeronautical
skill. J
We had made such good time on our holiday that we actually had half a day not filled and so we decided to drive to a little town near the reserve called Port Fairy. After checking at the Tourist Info Centre to see what there was to see and do in Port Fairy, we decided to grab some lunch and then take a walk along Fisherman’s Wharf. While we were walking along it, we noticed some fishermen were cleaning their fish – they had caught the biggest fish (tuna) I had ever seen. The cleaning station was right beside a canal and in the water, waiting for the leftovers, was a seal and two stingrays. We then took a walk to the Griffiths Island Lighthouse. On the way to the lighthouse and back again, we saw a wallaby. It seems that they are solitary creatures and a bit skittish, too.
We finished off our day with another swim in the hotel pool.
Thursday, 16 April, 2015 - Day 5
Today was the day we saw the main attraction along the Great
Ocean Road – the Twelve Apostles. Before
we got to the twelve apostles,though, we walked down the Gibson Steps – 86 steps which
take you down to a beach and a view of the rock stacks known as Gog and Magog.
.JPG)
The twelve apostles are wave-sculpted landforms (they called them ‘rock stacks’) – the limestone stacks tower 45 metres above the ocean. These stacks were originally called 'The Sow and Piglets', but in 1922, they were renamed The Apostles for tourism purposes, later becoming known as the Twelve Apostles (despite only ever having nine stacks). They are the most photographed attraction in the area. These can only be seen from the cliffs, but they are still spectacular!
Explanation of how the Twelve Apostles were formed (click to enlarge if you want to read it)
A little further down the road is Loch Ard Gorge. It’s named after the clipper ship the Loch Ard which ran aground on nearby Muttonbird Island on June 1, 1878 near the end of its journey from England to Melbourne. We took a walk around the gorge and the views were fabulous!
View from one of the Loch Ard Gorge walks
Our next stop was the ‘Bay of Islands’ – part of a 32 kilometre long coastal reserve - more coastal views, cliff formations and rock stacks. This whole part of the Great Ocean Road has been beautiful!
Our final stop was in Warrnambool where we splurged a little
bit and stayed at a nice hotel with an indoor pool which we took advantage of
when we arrived.
Wednesday, 15 April, 2015 - Day 4
Today was my opportunity to tick off an item off my bucket
list. We drove to Otway Fly Treetop
Adventures. There, we started with a
Zipline Tour – I have wanted to do a zipline for ages! The zipline is described as: “visitors can
zip through the leafy treetops of the magnificent Otway Ranges from one ‘Cloud
Station’ to another, suspended up to 30 metres above the forest floor. Specialist guides will provide training and
unique rainforest insights.” Before we
walked down to where the zipline began, we had an orientation session where our
guides (Brydie and Alessio) showed us how to put on our harnesses and talked
with us about safety while zipping from station to station. We had a little bit of a walk down to the
first station and then we had to climb up a spiral staircase where our clips were
attached to the zipline. We were put
into two groups and had to stay in that order for the whole zipline tour. I was quite scared the first time I had to
let go and ‘fly’ to the next station – I was holding on very tightly. J Alessio asked us on the second section if we
could let go as we would need to do that later on in the tour. I could let go one hand at a time, but Dad
let go with both hands (show off! ). One third of the way through, we had to walk
along a footbridge (narrow slats about a foot apart) and it took me ages to get
across. I am not afraid of heights, but
I am not fond of falling! J I tried to let go each time I went from one
station to the next, but for some reason, I just couldn’t seem to get up the
nerve to do it. On the final
zipline. I decided to be really brave
and let go with both hands on this one as it would be my last chance to do
it. It was amazing! The feeling I got when I zipped along is hard
to describe. Afterwards, I was annoyed
with myself that I didn’t let go sooner.
I am pumped now to go on another zipline!
Me on the zipline
Part of the Otway experience is an Otway Fly
Tree Top Walk. It’s a 1 hour walk above
and through the rainforest. It’s 2kms
long and part of it is a treetop canopy walkway that takes you right into the
treetops. It’s the longest and tallest
walkway of its type in the world. Dad
and I always enjoy walks out in nature.
Me in front of a very large tree in the rainforest
Just down the road from Otway Adventures is another
waterfall called Triplet Falls. The walk
to the falls took about forty minutes and it was mostly in the downwards
direction (of course, that meant that we were going to have to go up to get
back to our car – phew!). When we got to
a viewing platform, we were not impressed and thought to ourselves that it was
a long way to go to see that little view.
It turned out that there were two more viewing opportunities and when we
got to the final viewing platform, we got a really nice view of the falls. Again, it was lovely, but not Niagara Falls. J The walk up was hard and we had to stop a few
times – a good workout, though.
Triplet Falls
Before we went back to the B & B, we decided to drive
down the road towards the Cape Otway Light Station (the oldest lighthouse on
mainland Australia). We had decided not
to go to the actual lighthouse as everything we had read and heard about the
tour said that it was a rip-off and we had already seen some other
lighthouses. But, on the road to the
lighthouse, I had read that we would be able to see more koalas in the wild and
the lady who owned the B & B told us that if we turned off the road to the lighthouse
and along Manna Gum Road, we would be able to see loads of koalas in the
trees. Now that we are ‘pros’ at koala
spotting, we were able to pick them out quite quickly and were able to see
about a dozen and a half of them. Dad
was thrilled!
Koala eating the gum leaves
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