Torquay and Bells Beach

Last weekend was a busy one for me. On Saturday, I went with a group of about 30 other students to Melbourne, and on Sunday went to Torquay and Bells Beach with about 60 others. I can tell I'm exhausted, because this is the first day that I've been here that I woke up after 9:00am.

Melbourne is an awesome city. It's a lot larger than Geelong, but still has a small town feel. We were lucky, because Melbourne was doing a Chinese New Year festival. I wish that I wasn't with a group, because I would have loved to spend some more time at the festival. Street performers lined the sidewalks, and vendors sold some really great food. I paid $2 for Chicken Satay not knowing exactly what it was, and it turned out to be the best thing I ate that day.

Later, we took a river cruise on the Yarra and they served lunch on the boat. It was very pricey, as I spent $38 on lunch. The cruise went out of the city and along the highway, so it was not as scenic as I would have liked it to be. The river cruise was cool, but I don't think I would do it again. It did offer some relief from the 35 degree weather, which is about 95 degrees Farenheit. We are heading back next weekend in a smaller group of about 5 so we can see the city the way we like. I think I'll enjoy it even more.

On Sunday, we all went to Torquay and Bells Beach. We were originally planning to spend some time on the back beach of Torquay, but there were an incredible amount of people there. I'll post the picture I took while I was on the bus. I think you could see more people than you could water. We never even got off the bus there, and left for Bells Beach. Bells was much less crowded, probably because it is not a patrolled beach. There, we all split up and did our own thing. Some played soccer, footy, and cricket, and others just walked on the beach or went swimming. It was a lot of fun, and Bells Beach is gorgeous. There was not much wind on Sunday, so the surf wasn't very good even though Bells is known for it's surfing. We stopped in Torquay on the way out, and checked out the surf shops. I'm seriously considering buying a surfboard and a wetsuit. I wouldn't need the wetsuit now, but it will soon be too cold to surf without one. I could get a used surfboard for about $200, and a wetsuit for $100. We are probably heading back out to Torquay sometime this week, so I'll gauge how easy it is for me to get there and surf.

While heading home to Geelong, we stopped along the side of the road near a golf course. There were about 50 kangaroos munching on the grass of the golf course. They all looked completely identical, with their tails pushing against the ground and their heads arched down eating. It was great to be able to see kangaroos in the "wild" like that. It is a defining moment of any trip to Australia. I'll post some pictures of them on the Flickr site.

My room in the Carlton is incredibly hot, and I am going to head out and buy a fan at the Target down the street. After that, I'll probably head for campus to check out the O-Week activities and meet some new Australian students now that they have all moved in.