Winter Solstice

This is my official URS going away lunch at Othello's on June 26 even though my last day of actual work was May 22. You can't rush these things. I'm like a bad penny that just keeps turning up. Starting at the front left, we have Sam, Haacky, Patrick, Jasper, Penny, Rocco, Dills, Elliot, Robo, Cassie, Dexter, Jorgo, Duncan, Kelly, Harry, Marcus, Jeanne, Peter, and Mike. Mostly the guys. I went to ladies lunch at Yuppies earlier in the week with Alex, Dena, Tracey, and Cass.


Ah, there's those pretty smiling faces.


After Friday Night Drinks, we continued onto World Bar, where Prouty bought me a huge beer. From there, Duncan and I went to the Belgian to see Katie and meet up with Cara and some of her friends. From there, we went to a Winter Sostice party at Kevin's place in Southbank. Here's Duncan after a few beers.


me with the party host Kevin and his antlers.

Cara, Duncan, Jasper and the rest celebrating Christmas in July, well June actually.

me with a bunch of people I don't know. We were supposed to make fish faces as we're standing in front of the fishtank, but apparently they only told me.

Daylesford

Mel, Archer, and I headed to the romantic getaway town of Daylesford, about an hour northwest of Melbourne. We didn't go for the romance. It is also known for its spa retreats and charming character, and we did go for that! We started with lunch at the Boat House Cafe on the lake.


Then we headed to the Convent Chuch, one of the most beautiful places in Daylesford especially with the garden in summer. My Urban Life friends Belinda and Steve got married here.

A side shot of the Convent Church, which also has shops and art galleries in addition to the chapel and banquet room.

The art was way out of my price range but it was still fun to look.

This top level hallway style room used to be an infirmary.

The view of Daylesord from the Convent Church.

Next stop was Hepburn Bathhouse and Spa, where Mel and I took turns getting massages.

Archer and I played in the cafe while Mel got her massage.

I think he might be telling me to be quiet.

The massages were nothing short of luxury pampering pure relaxation. They gave us robes and slippers to change into, we both got our massage from Fabio (his actual name!), then had water and peppermint tea in this lounge area. Before changing back into my clothes, I had a hot shower with all their special shampoos and soaps in a spa bathroom. Ooooh aaaah!

Melbourne Zoo

Since Mel and Les are on maternity leave and I was not working during my final two weeks in Melbourne, we decided to spend a day at the Melbourne Zoo. Not being an overly enthusiastic zoo lover, and having already been to Werribee and Healeville zoos near Melbourne, I was going more for the company and to spend time outside on a beautiful day. I was surprised to be the one most taken with the animals, seeing many animals for the first time, and impressed with the beauty and layout of Melbourne's Zoo.


Here we have the cutest two animals in the zoo, Liam (wearing a giraffe) and Archer!


My first sighting of a red panda.

The pink butts of the baboons were oh so pink.

Another first sighting... of a tree-kangaroo.

Mel and Les insisted I take pics with all the animal statues around the zoo, a tradition I am told.

A giraffe, only slightly bigger than the one Liam was wearing.

Now in America, we call these zebras (pronounced Z-bras). In Australia, it is pronounced zebbras (as in the letter zed).

I just love the name of this animal - a bongo!

Doubled over in laughter... pretty typical for the two of us.

Meerkats

We didn't get to pet these tigers (like in China).

The elephant is peeing... what a lovely picture!

Les, me, and Gorilla Man.

The real deal.

Oh no, the crocodile is eating me. How many pictures do I have like this??? New Orleans swamp tour, Darwin billabong tour, Queenstown ice bar... and another for the collection.

The very colorful mandrills, especially the rear view.

Tree-top apes and monkeys.

A white orangutan.

Eastern black and white colobus monkeys.

Jen, the gorilla.

Les with Liam, me, and Mel with Archer. We stopped at the Lakeside Bistro for lunch.

Les and Liam.

Archer.

Mel and Archer on the elephant.

The elusive platypus that is difficult to capture as it is a nocturnal animal and you can only see it inside of pitch black caves.

There were beautiful flowers around the zoo grounds.

The lions, hear them roar!! They actually did get going while we were there, which was a sight.

Here are the roarers that started it.

A maned wolf.

The giant tortoise really was GIANT. I've never seen such a huge turtoise.

We went back to Mel's house for the evening, my last sleepover at the Yates household for a while.

International Antarctica Centre

We started our last day in New Zealand with breakfast at the Copenhagen Bakery and a little souvenir shopping. Then we dumped all our memory cards onto CDs to send home with everyone, yes an essential part of a scrapbookers' vacation! Katie made beautiful photo books for everyone.


We had just enough time to sneak in a visit at the Antarctic Centre before my flight back to Melbourne.

Antarctica may be the only continent I don't visit, so I figured I'd better see what I could.

We entered a storm simulation room which produced insanely high wind speeds and low temperatures.

This igloo reminded me of the one Katie and I built in our backyard in Norway 20 years ago.

Mom and I jumped on the snowmobile.

The whole family huddled together in our Antarctica parkas to brave the freezing wind storm. We were all reminded why we no longer live in North Dakota!

Lisa and I took a turn on the ice slide.

After our many failed attempts to see penguins, we finally saw blue penguins at the Antarctic Centre.

A blue penguin.

We saw the penguins at feeding time.

For once, I felt rushed to see enough of the museum exhibits.

We took a Huggland Ride, which simulates travel on Antarctica.

We all strapped in and held on for the unknown ride to come.

We traversed dirt hills and drove through deep ponds.

The five of us barely fit in the car with all our luggage. Good thing we have a professional packer among us Dad.

The family dropped me off for my flight and waited for their own. What a fun family vacation!