Blog archives for the day Friday, January 21st, 2011

Sorry this is out of order. Internet access is suprisingly hard to come by in Melbourne.

Thursday (Jan 18) we set out for Kuranda, a small tourist trap of a town atop a rainforest just outside Cairnes. The most interesting thing about Kuanda is the way you get to the town. While there is a winding road that will get you there, we chose to take the more scenic and adventurous route.

Skyrail is a 45 minute ride above the canopy of the rainforest. It was completed in the mid-90’s and was built using hand tools and helicopters to minimize the impact to the environment. Along the way there were several opportunities for us to disembark our cable cars and walk the raised deck platforms to see the rainforest from the ground level. The most impressive sight of the day was Barron Falls.

Following our Skyrail venture and Barron Falls we arrived in Kuranda. There is vender after vender selling Aboriginal art, boomerangs, t-shirts, ice cream, and opals. After some shopping and a quick lunch at one of the many cafes we met up for our departure down the gorge.

The train ride from Kuranda back to Cairns is spectacular. The cars that visitors ride in are 80-100+ years old. This cranky old technology screeches and moans as it descends down the steep tracks at about 20 mph. Along the way we heard stories about how the rail line was constructed using hand tools, dynamite, and some horse drawn implements. We also had some outstanding picture taking opportunities.

Wednesday (Jan 19) was a travel day. All students, busses, and flights were on time and we arrived safely in Melbourne about 5pm local time. Students used the evening to explore the city a bit and grab some dinner.

Eric and I had the opportunity to meet up with a friend who used to work with us at Elon and now lives a wonderfully nomadic life wondering Australia and New Zealand. She just happened to be in Melbourne this week and we had a wonderful dinner in Little Italy.

Today is what I will call nature day. We had a very long day which started with our meeting our guides Andy, Matt and Nick at the hotel at 9:00 am. After our short introduction we got on our buses and drove to San Remo for a quick break and then on to Woolomai Beach.

Phil talking to the group on hike at Woolomai

At Woolomai we were able to see one of the stunning beaches in Australia, but also to learn about how deadly they could be. There were many surfers at this spot, but only a small portion of the beach was available for swimming because of rip currents that come through. One of the guides was telling how he had seen five people recently swept out to the ocean in the rips and had to be saved by surf rescue.

Group picture at the end of the hike

We were at Woolomai to hike out to a very scenic point for views and to learn a little bit about the local birds that make this area home. After our short walk we were then back on the bus to go to Churchill Island for lunch and a brief lecture from a Park Ranger named Graehme. Graehme was excellent. He discussed with our group all of Philip Island and more importantly how the park fits in with the economics of the area, but specifically the implications for that specific park since it they do not have a federal park system it is responsible for generating their own money. The penguins are a big part of that endeavor and we would see them later.

Graehme talking to the group about Churchill Island

After learning a little bit more about the island we had the opportunity to go explore the island a bit more before heading to the Koala Conservatory. This was a great opportunity for the students to see koalas and to learn more about them from the interpretation centre.

Koala 🙂

After out time viewing koalas we then went to the Philip Island Wildlife Park. This does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Philip Island Park Service, but it was a great stop because it was an opportunity for the students to see much of the wildlife in Australia such as emus, Tasmanian Devils, quolls, cassowaries and kangaroos to name a few. However, the highlight for many was the opportunity to actually feed the kangaroos. Many pictures were had.

My favorite - Tasmanian Devil

 We then made our way to the beach town of Cowes for a leisurely dinner before our penultimate stop at site called the Nobbies. We had a great view as the sun was setting. Normally this spot has a lot of seals and is sometimes called Seal Rock, but the seals were too far away to see so we just enjoyed the views.

Richard feeding the Emus

The final stop of course was to see the Penguin Parade. The penguins come from ocean after days searching for food and then come up on shore after sunset. The penguins are quite small and the parks have created some habitats for the penguins to go into for shelter and home. It has very strict policies concerning lights and photography, but it is quite a sight to see so many little penguins trying to make their way up the beach.  Finally we were on our way back home and finally made it back to our hotel around 11:45. It was a very late night. Tomorrow is a free day and then off to the Great Ocean Road.

Students feeding the kangaroos

Today was our first full day in Melbourne and we decided to take advantage of the nice sunny weather and head to the Australian Open. Melbourne is a very sporty town and refers to the Open as “The Tennis.” 

Federation Square

Most of the students took the tram to “The Tennis”, but I used the extra time this morning to walk through Federation Square on the way. Federation Square is a very interesting area that is thought to be the meeting place in Melbourne. It is fun to be around it this time of year because there are a lot of people hanging out and viewing the big screens to watch the tennis matches that are going on.

On our way to the Tennis

A short walk from Federation Square is Rod Laver Arena and the rest of the tennis grounds. This year we had a chance to get the students to Hisense Arena which used to be the main arena for the grounds until Rod Laver was built for the 2000 Olympics. Our seats were excellent, only about 10 rows from the court, the one bad thing was that they were directly in the sun, I thought I was going to melt but I am sure the students loved it. The tickets also allowed you to roam the many outer courts. Since this was the second round, many of the courts were in full force.

Rod Laver Arena

I can’t speak for all the students, but I saw many of them at the following matches. At Hisense in the morning, many watched number 9 seed and former number one, Jelena Jankovic from Serbia lose to Shuai Pang from China in a two set match. At the beginning it looked like Jankovic was going to run away with it, but she eventually struggled at the end and lost.

Inside Hisense Arena

The next match in Hisense was a fun match to watch between Feliciano Lopez from Spain and seeded 31 versus Bernard Tomic from Australia. Bernie was obviously the crowd favorite and was able to upset the Spaniard. Unfortunately for young Bernie who is only 18 and the youngest person in the field, his next match will be against Rafael Nadal the number one seed. I think Bernie will need a lot of luck on Saturday.

Bernie

Most of the students then made it to Show Court 3 to watch John Isner of the USA and seeded 20^th play Radek Stapanek from Czech Republic. Isner was obviously a favorite of the students being an American, but also because he was born in Greensboro and played tennis at the University of Georgia where he was an All-American. Isner struggled at the beginning, but found his serve and was able to overcome a first set loss with three consecutive sets to win in four. A couple of the students were able to track him down following the match and get an autograph. Needless to say, they were very excited.

Melbourne at Night

Some of the students concluded the long day of tennis by going back to Hisense Arena to watch the last match where Robin Soderling from Sweden defeated Gilles Muller from Germany. Soderling won a convincing three set match. Soderling is the number four seed of the tournament, but I would not be surprised to see him go far in the tournament. He won one of the warm-up tournaments in Australia before the Open by beating Andy Roddick and looked very good in his win tonight.

Sorry for the delay on posts, but Jason and I have been very busy and have had trouble accessing internet. We made it to Melbourne safely. Jason will be posting about our last day in Cairns and I will talk about what we have done so far.