Australia Day Weekend

Hello everyone! Saturday was Australia Day here, and it's a celebration similar to our 4th of July back home. I had a lot of "firsts" this weekend, and it was a really great time.

Friday night, I arrived on the farm up past Shepparton, in Mid-Northern Victoria. It's quite a place! It's a dairy farm, but their farms are very different from those back home. First of all, the pastures (paddocks) are all lazer-leveled to be perfectly flat. Water is so scarce up there that they need the fields level so they can be periodically flooded through an irrigation system. It was an absolutely lovely drive up there. The gum trees form a sort of archway over the roads, and the Great Dividing Range separates Victoria into two major regions. The hills were high and lovely, and it was great to see the wide open country again.

(Above are pictures taken on the farm)

Saturday afternoon was SO hot, we had to go dunk in the Murray River to cool off. I didn't take a lot of pictures, though it was absolutely beautiful there, because I was too busy swimming and squirting water guns with the kids. Saturday evening, I got to help with the milking on the farm! It's so funny - I've lived in dairy farm country my whole life, and I had to come all the way out to Australia to do the milking. My family will be proud that I didn't get kicked once, wasn't squeamish, and milked about 50 cows myself. However, I was a little slow and clumsy at it. Thank goodness those cows were forgiving! After the milking, I attended my first Australian "barby" - barbeque. We had lamb and sausages and all sorts of yummy food, and I listened as they sang silly Australian songs about "Chasing Sheilas" and "My Boomerang Won't Come Back". It was a great time.

Sunday I got to go fishing! Members of the extended family took me all the way up to New South Wales, up in "the bush", or rougher country of Australia. I was constantly staring around, in absolute awe of that country. However, it was hotter than I think I've ever experienced. It was in the upper 30's, which is nearing 100* F. We found a nice shady spot on the river, but I still felt like at any moment I could just melt into a puddle of sunblock-coated goo. :P

The fish weren't biting too much, but one of my fishing buddies caught a tiny little cod, and a bit later, a tortoise!

We had a picnic lunch on the beach, and since the fish kept stealing my bait, I decided to put a bit of chicken from my sandwich onto the hook. Not five minutes later, I got a huge bite, and pulled in this beauty:

It's a Murray Cod, which can grow to 100 kg. Mine, at 53 cm long, wasn't even big enough to keep! It fought well, and it was a fun fish to catch, but we threw him back. Later, one of my 'fishing guides' caught a nice Golden Perch, which we did keep.

On the way home, exhausted and happily eating an ice cream treat, I saw my first Kangaroos! A small "mob" of them, about 7-8, were just feeding alongside the road, and we stopped to watch them hop away. They are really quite graceful animals, which I wasn't expecting, and they're rather small and timid. A bit further on, we saw 3 wild emu's as well! OH! And I forgot another first: as we were fishing, a fly flew up my nose and got stuck there. That was a first, and a very powerful sneeze!! :)

Back at the house, I watched a bit of a cricket match, and some Australian-Rules Football, which is called "Footy". Though I still don't understand either sport fully, they both look intense, and rather fun. I caught a beautiful sunset that night, though the picture doesn't do it justice.

It was a wonderful weekend. Absolutely great. The country is actually way more fun than the city. :) I got to meet a real Australian stock horse, I got to see my first kangaroos, catch an enormous fish, get just a little tiny bit sunburned (don't worry Mom!), and most importantly, I met some really great people.

More later- for now I have some unpacking and laundry to take care of. Miss you all!