Yesterday was spent on a quest to the Big Rocking horse, the chocolate factory, and the cheese factory. This big rocking horse is quite big, and I climbed to the top, despite it being a climb by ladders rather than stairs. I was kind of petrified the whole time, mainly because there were no real safety catches if I was to lose my footing or hand grip. Plus, it might be cool to die in a helicopter crash off the Great Ocean Road, or in a fiery Ferris wheel death in Brisbane, or a hot air balloon crash in Alice Springs, but death by giant rocking horse? That's not the coolest way to go. So fearing death I was on the steep climb and subsequent minutes I spent on the top of it's head. Sarah wanted to demonstrate how she and her brothers used to climb to the top and grab the sides and rock the horse. I politely declined the demonstration. Well, I actually asked it they were insane.
We climbed down and decided to visit the petting zoo at the same park. They had 3 kangaroos, some llamas and goats, and a couple of birds like peacocks, ducks, and we even saw a couple of chickens. We were only interested in the kangaroo though. We bought a 2 dollar bag of feed and found a kangaroo that had been sleeping. As we approached him, he got up, being all too familiar with what we were there for. We took turns feeding him out of out hand and petting him. A goat approached, feeling neglected and hungry. The kangaroo, not wanting to share the spotlight or feed, grabbed the goat by the head and pushed it away. We spotted a bigger kangaroo nearby, a bigger, grayer one. We went to feed it. I offered him a hand full of feed, which he gladly ate. Then, becoming frustrated that my hand wasn't immediately able to produce an infinite amount of food, he grabbed the bag of food out of my hand from the bottom, dumping all of the feed onto the ground. He then proceeded to eat the paper bag, munching on it as if it was delicious. We were both laughing hysterically at this point. Out of feed because of a greedy kangaroo's actions, we walked a circle around the zoo before leaving. We then went to the chocolate factory and bought a couple of bags of chocolate (seeing a theme on this portion of the trip?). The cheese factory was literally next door, and we were able to sample 8 different kinds of cheeses, although we were not able to tour the actual factory. That evening, we went out to an Indian restaurant for one of Sarah's friend's 25th birthday. It was a nice evening where I mostly took in all the Aussie accents, only occasionally contributing to conversations when I had something relevant to say.Today I went to Sarah's church. Her friend Belinda picked me up and sat with me during the service. It was very different from the church I am used to at the small churches in North Carolina. For one, the church is an enormous concert hall. They began the services by playing several contemporary christian songs on guitars. It was a band on young adults on stage singing, the choir behind them as backup. After about 4 songs, they did have a sermon, but the environment was very different. I talked to Belinda about the differences and the facts that it seemed so many young adults were not only present, but actively involved in the church. She said it was by far their biggest age group, 18-35. I told her that in America, at least in the churches I have been involved in, that is the group that seems to be missing. It was interesting to me to see things done so differently.
I was dropped back off at the house after church and met up with Sarah later. She decided I needed to experience a meat pie, so we got pies and chips (french fries for you yanks), and watched the classic Aussie movie The Castle. It was very funny, a great movie. We grabbed Chinese takeout and went over to Sarah's friend Stacey's house to watch her copy of Beauty and the Beast on Blue ray (Yes, all we do is eat!). I leave for Kangaroo Island tomorrow for a couple of days. I return overnight on Wednesday before heading off to Coober Pedy!
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