After an hour and 20 minutes on the train I arrived at the Sutherland station where Tim and Renee were there to pick me up. We first headed to a pedestrian bridge (wish I could remember the name) that we debated whether to walk or drive over. Renee won Tim over and on to walking we got. We found there to be all sorts of padlocks attached to the bridge with names and wedding dates engraved on them. Some locks had additional ones added with names of children. Some people even had colour (that's how you have to spell it here) locks and some had chains to go with their locks. The view from the bridge was amazing. The waves broke on the ocean shore on one side while solid rock peaks were on the other. It tried to rain a couple of times, but not with much success.
After the bridge we headed over for lunch at Red Rooster. Do we have those in the states? I've never seen any. It's apparently Renee's favorite. Tim says chicken is the same everywhere. I really enjoyed getting to know Tim better and to know Renee. They are pretty humorous together.
Once we were done eating we drove over to the Kiama Blow Hole. Basically what it is is rocks along the ocean that have somehow managed to get a tunnel carved out of them, opening up a passage way for the waves from the ocean to spurt out of the rock, much like a whale's blow hole. Because there has been so much rain, the spurts were extremely high and you had to be careful not to get soaked. We had some good laughs at the blokes that did get soaked.
On our way out of Kiama we saw a trillion rainbows.
It was so nice to see the sky clear up. Apparently Australia has been in a drought for the past decade and all of this rain is very unusual. Tim was telling me that the dams have been severely low, under 40% full and that the rain was much indeed needed. I'm glad to hear that the rain was a blessing and not just a nuisance.
The rain forest had to be my favorite part of the day. The climb to the falls (Minnamurra Falls) was much needed strenuous exercise. But the view when we finally did get there was outstanding! None of us wanted to leave, but the park was shutting down and we didn't want to be locked in.
It was great to get to see a familiar face and have conversations with Christians. Tim works with camps that work with the local Christian schools and some of the public schools as well. I also got to talk a lot with Renee about Australian education, special education, and things around that topic. She is in college to be a teacher at the moment.
Tomorrow I go to my home stay. I am excited and nervous all at the same time. But I have no doubt it will be an amazing experience.
Goodnight to all of you! Sleep well.
No comments:
Post a Comment