He says: We're on the final leg of our Aussie journey, and are in the beautiful city of Melbourne. Our hosts for the past two nights have been Gus and Karla, friends we met while traveling in Thailand last summer. They have not only shown us great Aussie hospitality, but also some of the sights around Melbourne.
Yesterday the plan was simple, wake up and drive around 90 minutes to an animal sanctuary to visit some Aussie wildlife and then hit some wineries in the Yarra Valley.
I think it's been well documented that Shauna and I love animals, and Australia has some creatures that are pretty awesome. Although this country has a reputation for having poisonous beasts around every turn, we have yet to encounter any - except at the zoo. Despite being a lover of animals, there are still some that give me the creeps - snakes and spiders. I think it's because I can't communicate with them and that they're always out there sneaking around. At the zoo venomous spiders and snakes were on display, but with a pane of glass between us it definitely takes the anxiety of a potential bite away. The only problem with visiting the zoos is that now I'm noticing spider webs are EVERYWHERE. It also doesn't help that Shauna will periodically come up behind me and run her fingers on the back of my neck pretending it's a spider.
The highlight at the zoo yesterday was meeting a pair of dingos. We got to pet them and have our photo taken with them. Despite their fearsome reputation, these two had been trained since they were five months old to be around humans and were just like dogs. They did not eat any babies yesterday.
After the zoo, we headed to the Yarra Valley, a picturesque place full of wineries. We went to the first one and for $5 we tasted about 20 types of wine. It was money well spent. We hit a second winery and tasted some more. Gus was nice enough to be the DD for the day, as the rest of us were challenged to walk a straight line. Good times.

She says: I saw a Joey climb into a kangaroo mother pouch, a platypus swim and twirl, a tasmanian devil lick its bum, was licked all over by a dingo and watched a koala hop from one tree to another in what Gus and Karla said was the most koala action they'd ever seen.

My highlight of the zoo was when we were walking through a kangaroo/wallaby zone and after I did done wallaby whispering and got to pet another one of those amazing beasts, it started to rain. A mom tried to wrestle her toddler into his vest. He started to scream and a mother kangaroo and her Joey stopped their kangaroo business to look over at him. The human mom and son continued to battle as the kangaroos watched. Now here's my favourite part: in order to try to finally convince him to give in and put on the vest (that would not, by the way protect him from the RAIN), she pointed at the still watching kangaroos and said, "Those kangaroos think you're being an idiot." It did not convince the little boy to comply, but as if in agreement with the mothers statement, the kangaroos finally cast a last passive glance and hopped away, probably muttering to one another, "idiot".