Hello Melbourne!

We have now been in Melbourne for nearly a week and things are starting to fall into place. After rushing to Melbourne to see this open house on Thursday, Stan and I secured a lease on the property the next day!  It must have been destiny because the house is AMAZING….and it is 10 minutes from the BEACH, the school is a dream come true (free public schools in Victoria compared to the $10,000 we would drop each year in New South Wales) and the ward is like a deja vu from America. 

I am in the same ward as a kid I went to high school with, from Bozeman Montana. Miles Scheere and his wife and three kids!  In addition, there are 6 other friends from my high school graduating class who live in Melbourne, Australia and are all willing to help me move my family in and hang out with me! I couldn't be happier, these people are all people I was pretty good friends with; and so for the first time since being in Australia, I am starting to think it just wouldn't be better in America! I am living in paradise and surrounded by friends! 2012 is going to be a good year!

Bendigo

After visiting Broken Hill we were ready to make the long drive up to the dead center of Australia, to see Ayers Rock in Ularu. Interestingly enough, we got a call from our relocation consultant advising us of an open house that we should see the next day.  Pretty much a house in our price range, in the area we liked, about twice the size of the other houses we had been considering. We turned the car around and headed straight to Melbourne. 


After 7 more hours of driving we stopped off in Bendigo (an active gold mining town), just two hours outside of Melbourne. We woke up in the morning and saw the first mining tour.

Unlike most touristy things, this gold mine was fully operating. Our tour guide was late to work so the manager of the mine took us through. The kids got to operate the machinery...which I am sure is not routine! We all put in ear plugs and the kids hammered away. 

once above ground we panned for gold.

The tour guide liked olivia so much he gave her a rock with gold in it! He called her his little geologist because she loved identifying quarts, pyrite and gold and could tell the difference!

panning for specks

Before heading out we also saw the Chinese Museum. Bendigo's gold rush was only made possible by the huge Asian migration during the 1800's. The Chinese were the labour force during this time period and still make up the majority of the people in this town. After Bendigo, we finished our outback tour and hit Melbourne with an hour to spare before the open house. 

Here Stan is showing the kids how to climb up the plastic lotus flower. Almost there Melbourne!

Broken Hill

After touring White Cliff we drove 2 hours west (further into Australia) to see Broken Hill. 

The road to broken hill!

Broken Hill is an isolated mining city in the middle of the outback of Australia. Broken hill is famous for two things. (1) Silver mines, they produce more silver, lead, zinc ore than anywhere else in the world!

Here we are touring the silver mines...they had a giant bench!

and (2) art!  Broken Hill has the famous painted desert sculptures, which I am sure you have seen on the cover of any Australian Tourist book. They have aboriginal art, desert art, and a famous art school. We toured the museums and were very impressed! Here are some pictures from visiting the painted desert!

Olivia in the middle of the painted desert!

 

Below is probably the most famous sculpture

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Leaving the desert....a storm is coming!

White Cliff

The drive to White Cliff from Dubbo was nearly 8 hours west…pretty much a straight shot towards the middle of Australia. The scenery went from big trees and rivers, to dry dusty terrain.  Stan almost ran over a family of emu’s…a couple of times!  We probably saw over 20 Emu’s during this drive. I was surprised how big their family groups were, I think I saw up to 6 baby emu’s with a mother emu.  We also saw a few wallabies, tons of goats, cows, and of course rabbits!

If you click on the picture to zoom in you can see all the baby emu's crossing the road!

The pictures do not due the outback justice. It was HOT!

See the wallabie jumping across the road? Hard not to hit them!

 And we made it to White Cliff! White cliff is famous for mining Australian opals...hence the opal mining truck!

Opals are fossilized shells or bones from the Jurassic period. White Cliff's is famous for finding an entire opalized dinosaur skeletal system, which is now in a museum in Sydney! Australia mines 85% of the world’s opals and white cliff is basically sitting on one giant opal mine. There are less than 60 people who live there and the town is 2 hours away from the closest grocery store. The houses, hotels and shops are underground. This keeps them cool in the summer and warm in the winter. We got in around 7:00pm and stayed in an underground hotel. I have to admit, it was such a cool experience!

Inside the hotel!

 A frog in our shower!

 Getting ready for bed

 A little skylight, we were almost two stories underground!

  The next morning we went up to the old mine shafts and dug around. Mary found an opal in a rock 3 minutes after getting out of the car. It was about the size of her finger nail and could easily be put into a necklace.

 I was excited to find opals and keep them until I realized the abandoned mine shafts were not filled in and that there were holes everywhere...Thomas likes to run and jump so I was freaking out!

 Case and point...

 See bits of opal in the corner? We are still picking away the rock but it is all together!

 It should be noted that we were out digging for opals in heat over 100 F....

 Some of the holes....they just kept going...

 Taking a break from the heat!

 After our treasure hunt, we toured the white cliff grave yard….pretty amazing, and kind of creepy how many children die out here! It's like a perfect ghost town!

 The town cemetery....

Here we are touring a local’s house (Jock), which is open for tourists to see for a $2.00 donation.

 The kids and Jock

 his house

 Tunnels to the other rooms

and the bathroom

 Stan bought me my first piece of jewellery since my wedding ring, an opal necklace! It is beautiful and since the store was underground in the middle of Australia, I will cherish this opal necklace forever!  The store owners were so happy we bought something that they let the girls dig around in their rock pile and keep whatever they could find. The girls found some more opals—opals really are all over the ground—you just have to look and get used to recognizing them as they are mixed in white and red rock!

 Thank you Stan, I love it!