Word of advice: This will take some time

Welcome to the coast of Australia.

Pretty, huh? So after a horrible first night in Melbourne (driving in circles in a big city on the wrong side of the road with very strange driving rules + not having our room ready at 2:30 am + not being able to find a parking space = very tired and a little bit grumpy Heather and Royce). But after a good night's rest (sleeping in until 11 never hurt anyone) we were ready to head out to the Australian coast to enjoy the Great Ocean Road, one of the most scenic ocean drives in the world. Other than the windy roads terrifying me a bit, it was pretty fantastic.

Our destination was The Twelve Apostles (the Great Ocean Road goes for a very long time, so you've got to stop somewhere). Unfortunately, due to our sleeping in so late, we didn't arrive until the sun was setting. We did a lot of experimenting with our camera before we got a couple of good shots.

But it was awesome to see! Maybe next time we'll shell out the money for the helicopter view. The drive back to Melbourne was pretty interesting--probably as close to the Outback as we would get in Australia. Totally deserted roads, pitch black, foggy, and overall just a little bit spooky. It really felt like a wombat or something might scurry across the road at any moment. Thank goodness we didn't have any incidents.

The next day we went to sacrament meeting in Melbourne. We didn't get a chance to mingle with the local members, but it was pretty awesome to hear the hymns sung with an Australian accent. After sacrament meeting we headed over to the Melbourne temple. I think the Stake Center it shared a parking lot with was bigger, but it was still neat to see it.

After all that churchiness we were pretty hungry, so we headed to Hungry Jacks (you can judge us if you want).
Do you think Burger King ought to sue? Well, as far as we can tell they are one and the same (at least the menu would lead you to that conclusion). I think the US should change the name to the Australian version and then they can get rid of those lame commercials they've been using as of late.

That afternoon we headed to Phillip Island for an awesome experience: the return home of the fairy penguins. Each day a group of them come in with the waves and hesitantly scurry across the beach to their burrows to be reunited with their families. The fairy penguins are the smallest species of penguin and they are very scared when they get to the beaches. So naturally pictures are not allowed. But here is a picture of the beach.

After they came across the beach, you could go to the boardwalk and see their families welcoming them home (they had been gone for like 2 weeks). Anyway, it was awesome, even if we didn't get pictures!

On our third day, we decided to explore Melbourne since we had seen nothing of it other than some food joints and our hotel. They've got a free tour bus that goes to 12 different destinations, so it's very convenient.
This is a war memorial near the botanical gardens.

The Melbourne skyline.

The Arts Center.

Unfortunately we didn't get to spend a lot of time at each of these places, because we had a plane to catch.

Next stop: Cairns, aka the door to the Great Barrier Reef.

This was one of the most amazing parts of the trip, albeit a little terrifying at moments. But how cool that we got to snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef!

Unfortunately the underwater camera doesn't quite capture just how awesome it was (plus it's hard to take pictures as the current is moving you back and forth in the water).

Despite the fact that I don't like getting ocean water in my mouth, it was such a cool experience. We also got the chance to try SCUBA--without going into too much detail, suffice it to say that it was not a good experience for me. Royce had a slightly better, albeit brief, experience, but we were both fairly terrified.

Since there's not much to do in Cairns itself, the next day we headed into the rain forest. Here are some views from the gondola ride.

Here we are in the rain forest.
And here we are at a village in the rain forest. Can you see the aboriginal children? I just loved them!
We went to this pretty great park (some of the animal pictures came from here) where we got to ride a real army duck boat (goes on land and water) from WWII! Our guide told the best stories!

At the end of the duck boat ride we were treated to an Aboriginal cultural experience. Unfortunately, none of the dancers were real aboriginals. Totally disappointing, though still entertaining.

They showed us how aboriginals hunt, but they didn't let us try.
But they did let me try the digeridoo! It was hard, but I managed to make a few sounds.
They also let us try to throw a boomerang--Royce and I were horrible, but it was fun to try.
After all those adventures, we took a train ride back through the rain forest instead of the gondola. It was beautiful, but made us a little sleepy.
I managed to grab this shot before the train passed by.
This was the curviest part of the track.
Most people got off at an earlier stop, so we could grab this shot.
Also in Cairns, we got $15 massages from some Chinese ladies and saw The Karate Kid (we had some time to kill)--sorry, no pics.

A little sadly we headed to our last stop: Sydney! We were super excited to go to Sydney, but we were sad that our trip was almost over.

Our first day in Sydney looked to be a rainy day, but it only lasted for the morning. At least it made for some fun pictures.

Royce in front of the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge, aka "The Hanger."
Me in front of the opera house. Wahoo!

We are attractive, no?
The opera house up close.

The concert hall inside the opera house.

Mrs. Mcquarie's chair (famous for its views of the harbour).
Some sandstone stairs along the harbour.

We also went up in the Sydney tower, ate some good food, went to some museums, and went to a great zoo. And that's it for the trip we took in late July/early August. Hopefully now you'll hear about some more recent going-ons.

Good times. Good times!