Over the weekend in Wantirna

Since Thursday we were staying in Wantirna through Airbnb - about 2 hours away from the center of Melbourne by bus and train.

Our host's name is Wendy and she is originally from China. She and her husband started their own business first by importing laminate from China to Australia and now by exporting Australian wine. They seem to be doing well, owning 2 houses in Australia and a large apartment in Shanghai.

On Thursday, shortly after our arrival, Wendy took us to the shopping mall. Besides many shops, there are also numerous restaurants, a cinema, and bowling alley. Unfortunately, we only discovered the restaurants on our last day. :( However, we found a great wallet for Krissi in the mall. After we had also stocked up on food for cooking, we went back to our accommodation. We spent the afternoon walking around the area and noticed that there is really not much going on in Wantirna. :D In the evening, we sat in our garden in the sun, with Krissi reading and Kenny on the PC. For dinner, we had whole grain toast - we already miss the good German bread after such a short time. :D

On Friday, we looked at another car - a nice Nissan Pathfinder. If we hadn't already decided to fly to Cairns and then travel down the east coast, this probably would have been our car. The sellers - a couple from the Netherlands - were super friendly. We also had the opportunity to further improve our driving on the left skills. Does the rule 'keep left' apply here? After the test drive, the couple asked us if we had ever driven on the left before - were we that bad? :D

Then we asked Wendy for advice on what to do in the area. The result was a 2-hour journey by public transport to Mount Dandenong. We were rewarded with a fantastic view over Melbourne.

After an extensive photo session, we sat down in the only café and enjoyed the sun and the view while having ice cream, cake, and coffee.

After some time and initial skepticism, especially from Krissi's side, we befriended a couple of ravens. They quickly realized that we didn't want to hurt them and they spent the whole time around our table, looking for food scraps.

We also saw a few kookaburra birds and after a few hours, we left the café.

We also visited the renovated parks on the mountain before going back down on hiking trails.

As is often the case with old people, our knees started to hurt after the first few meters, but we kept on walking. :D

We didn't see any animals except for many small spiders (no idea if they were poisonous) and masses of small lizards. But who knows how many snakes we passed by without noticing them. Especially in the last meters, the path was just a trampled trail - every Australian, probably everyone else as well, would probably have shaken their heads: 2 German tourists in shorts and sneakers walking through the bushes. Fortunately, everything went well and we managed to catch our bus at the end thanks to running fast enough.

On Saturday, the weather forecast for the whole weekend was rather bad. :( So we started the day with a leisurely breakfast, reading, Netflix (embarrassing, but true), doing laundry, and having pizza for lunch. The day would probably have continued like this if Wendy hadn't taken us to house auctions. Unfortunately, we missed the house viewing at the first auction and there were no buyers at the auction either. At the next auction, we were able to look at the house before bidding - it was great.

We wonder why someone would need 5 bedrooms? :D In the bidding process, things heated up between two bidders. An Asian and a bidder who seemed to have his boss on the phone were comfortably outbidding each other by $1,000, until the bidder on the phone finally gave up at $1.4 million. It's crazy how many people - like us - were just there to watch.

Back at the accommodation, we asked Wendy and her son for advice on what to do on a Saturday evening. Both were rather clueless. Somehow, we ended up in bed and caught up on 2 episodes of Germany's Next Topmodel. :D At least we found a nice restaurant for Krissi's birthday on Sunday evening through our research.

Sunday also started rather leisurely. In the afternoon, we headed to the mall on foot. We made a stop at the sports field, where half of Wantirna had probably gathered, and watched the last play of an Aussie Rules football game (very popular in Australia). Unfortunately, we missed the game.

After the mall, we started a 2-hour walk to the restaurant - Sky Bar and Kitchen.

Luckily, it wasn't too hot because our schedule didn't allow for strolling. We walked through residential areas and wild bushes - but this time luckily on proper hiking trails. Finally, when we arrived, our legs were really sore. In 1 hour and 50 minutes, we covered 9 km and before that there was also the way to the mall. So we really earned our meal. For $70, we had really good and delicious food and a drink each - the first alcohol since our stay in Australia.

Shortly after we arrived at the restaurant, it started to rain, but luckily it didn't spoil the view. However, it was a bit inconvenient for our way back home. :D When we stepped outside, our umbrella gave up after a few meters due to strong gusts of wind, and we weren't dressed warm enough either. So we ran through wind and rain to the bus stop. When we arrived, we were both trembling. Then we had to wait for the bus in the cold for another 5 minutes. We were able to warm up again in the bus, but there was still a 1 km walk from the bus to home ahead of us. We decided to run, which was quite demanding on our legs after the previous walk. Kenny lent Krissi his hoodie and walked around in his shirt. Fortunately, the wind died down a bit, so we could use the umbrella again halfway and gave up running. Finally, when we arrived home, we took a hot shower. Fortunately, neither of us got sick.

On Monday morning, we said goodbye to Wendy and took the bus and train back to the center of Melbourne.