Day 10 Melbourne

Before I get to day 10 how about a little fun at my expense.  This video was on the fenced in deck at Skydeck.  I really was not acting.

Today the plan was to take Ina’s two male cousins to The Melbourne Aquarium, http://www.melbourneaquarium.com.au/ .  The four of us got on the train and headed into the city.  The aquarium is located equidistant between two stations.  One station is on the same road, but we got to the other first.  I decided to lead us without consulting the map because I thought I had remembered the way from the previous day.  This was not the case and we walked an extra three or four blocks.

The first thing you see at the Aquarium is the Antarctica exhibit.  What does this mean?

Penguins!!!!  Kevin is on the right and Raymond on the left.

There was even a nice snow covered slope for the penguins to go down, none of them slid down but it did remind me a lot of Cornell.  Who has not done this down Libe Slope in February.

There were more exhibits of various fish, including a section called ‘River to Reef'.’  The Australian name for sections of rivers cut off from the river is a Billibong.  I remember learning about these types of lakes in New York in Earth Science, but that was nine years ago.

One of the coolest fish, the Lion Fish, is also very poisonous.

It also moved a bit too fast for pictures.  There was a touch table with more shark eggs but they were not in as nice a condition as in Sydney.  My favorite shark and shark eggs are from the Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour’s other name) shark. Information and picture of shark and the Port Jackson Shark Eggs.

There was also a large shark tank with huge rays and several types of sharks.

At the end of the shark tanks was a large viewing window and we happened to catch a talk about the contents of the habitat.  There are only about 10 shark related deaths a year, and only three ray related deaths in the history of Australia.  The tank held a giant 250kg ray that from time to time eats the fish in the tank.  On even rarer occasions the ray suctions itself to the viewing window with a fish underneath it.  It then wriggles until the fish gets to it mouth were super lucky spectators see a large cloud of blood and guts.  We also learned that if you buy really really cheap fish and chips sometimes it is actually ray, and if you buy ‘flake’ fish and chips, still pretty cheap, it is most often shark.

When we got back home it was time for one of my new favorite things, afternoon tea.  It is not just tea but a decent sized snack.  Today we had noodles with some veggies.  There was also a jar of fried gluten to put in.  Fried gluten is delicious I feel bad for all those people allergic to it, aside from the added stress of finding gluten free foods, gluten is pretty darn tasty.

Next was time for me to take my driving test.  Ina, her two aunts and her uncle all piled into a car to go to her Aunt’s house.  Once there they put me behind the wheel of an 2003 (maybe newer) Camry.  I drove back home with Ina and her Uncle in the back seat.  Ina’s constant reminders to stay left helped me a lot.  I assumed switching sides would be easy, but it is a little challenging.  The turn signals and wipers are switched and you have to relearn to identify the far side of the car.  I will make a few more trips around town before Ina and make our excursions, including one to see Tiny Penguins in the wild.

One excursion I will not be driving on is our wine tour of the Yarra Valley.  For a little less than our Opera House tickets we get picked up in Melbourne and driven to 4 wineries, fed lunch with a glass of wine and have a maximum group size of 10.  Thank you Cornell for teaching me to appreciate wines.