Thursday, February 8, 2018, Melborne, Victoria, Australia, Train, Wine, and Wild Life

Capital of the Australian state of Victoria, Melbourne has been called the world’s most livable city.  It enjoys a scenic setting on the large bay of Port Phillip.  Soon after Queen Victoria declared it a city of the Crown in 1847, the rush to find gold in its rivers and streams made it one of the world’s largest and wealthiest cities.  Today it is celebrated as the country’s cultural capital of the arts and exudes a rich and lively British flair, from its narrow shopping lanes in the city center to the fanciful Victorian buildings along Collins Street.  A literal slice of England can be found in Fitzroy Gardens, 64 acres of beautifully designed topiary and blooms.

Melbourne is a very large metropolis with numerous sky scrapers.

 

Notice how the tall building to the right appears to be leaning.  It is beginning about half way up.  However, the floors are all level.  Quite an attraction.

For our excursion today, we rode our bus an hour to the a vintage narrow-gauge steam train.  We boarded the century-old steam train affectionately known as “Puffing Billy” and headed into the striking fern-covered valleys and magnificent eucalyptus forests of the Dandenong Ranges. 

This part of Australia receives around 100 inches of rain every year so vegetation is beautiful and plentiful.

We boarded our coach and proceeded to Rochford Winery.  We enjoyed a two-course lunch prepared with fresh, locally sourced ingredients and enjoyed a delicious tasting of some of Australia's finest wines.  

Note rose bush at end of grape vine row.  Apparently black mold producers show up on rose bushes before they will on grape vines; if they do, then vintners can spray the grape vines before the black mold can get too damaging to the vines.

We continued across the scenic Great Dividing Range and stopped next at the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary.  More than 200 species of native wildlife thrive here in a natural bush setting.  We got acquainted with kangaroos, koalas, lyrebirds, platypus, emus, and other unique Australian species.  From there we returned to our cruise ship.  Quite a day!

With a diet of Eucalyptus leaves, Koalas have an extremely low metabolism.  Therefore they need to sleep 20-23 hours per day.

 Ah, the good life!

 Platypus are less than ten inches long and were displayed in an almost totally dark display; consequently we could not get any photos.

Sacred Ibis.

Unfortunately we ran out of time to see the other three-quarters of the animals.