We left Wodonga right after breakfast. We grabbed the opportunity to fill the car with a full tank of petrol for we did not know where the next gas station was! It is very scary to drive in Australia because the map can be very deceiving. Several times it showed a town on a map but we did not even realise that we drove through it. Dangerous! And sometimes, when there WAS a town, it was either deserted or did not have a gas station. Grr....
Again, we took the less travelled road. Hills of gold caught our eyesight. We drove nearer to take a better look and they were actually yellow flowers carpetting the fields! Wow! And they were everywhere! So we had endless green yesterday and today, endless gold!
But it was not all bright and cheery. There were traces of bushfires and there were plenty of them. Driving past the trees, you'd think that they were dead but no, they actually weren't. Those trees are super hardy just like the island continent! You could see that on some trees were young green shoots. But imagining the number of animals and their habitat destroyed was just heart-wrenching. I could just picture rescuers crying while collecting burnt carcasses of koalas and other animals.
We managed to make it to Melbourne in time for dinner. We got lost finding the way to bro's place but it was all good. He took us to Lygon for some Italian. Before leaving his house, he adviced Dad not to wear his All Blacks sweater in case it offended anyone. Well, the World Cup was still on so.. haha.. yea.. just to be safe. Then we walked down the banks of the Yarra River. Dad and bro took the chance to play with their cameras and with the fireworks from the carnival (the Royal Show or something like that), all the better...
September 23, 2007
A day to recuperate from all the driving, I chose to laze around in the house yet again! My parents decided to tag along with bro to the city because the Botanical Gardens is a must for Mum. After that, they headed up the Dandenongs to see, yes, more flowers! Oh, and also to have tea at the infamous teahouse halfway up the mountains.
When they returned, we headed off to Box Hill for a family dinner with Pei Shin, Pei Yiun (cousins from Dad's side) and Meng Cheng (cousin from Mum's side). It was in conjunction with Mooncake Festival and also served as a small reunion for family. I finally got to meet Cheng Cheng Jie Jie's boyfriend! Friendly and well-mannered guy from China, he.
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