Vacation 2013 - Ballarat, Victoria, Australia - There's gold in them there hills.

Our first cruise ship port was Melbourne, Australia.  We decided to go and strike it rich.  We had booked a shore excursion to go to Ballarat Wildlife Park and Sovereign Hill.  We boarded a bus soon after docking, and we were off!

Ballarat is a bit of a drive from Melbourne.  We arrived first at the Wildlife park where we saw, petted, and fed:

Kangaroos

Saw and petted:

Koalas

Emus

and

Wombats - Aren't they cute?

 We saw, but did not pet (due to their bone-crushing jaw strength)

Tasmanian Devils

We also did not pet:

The Crocodiles

My dad also saw snakes.  I chose not to go to the reptile house and see all of the poisonous snakes, however my dad did go.  I am not including those pictures at this time.

Sign Gem - This was also a picture taken at Ballarat Wildlife Park.  

We re-boarded the bus and were off to find gold at Sovereign Hill.

Sovereign Hill near Ballarat, Victoria, Australia

I panned for gold, but apparently it is not one of my talents, as I didn't find any.

Panning for Gold at Sovereign Hill near Ballarat, Victoria, Australia

We also took an opportunity to bowl,

Bowling at Sovereign Hill near Ballarat, Victoria, Australia

watch a gold brick being poured (the same brick has been reheated and poured over and over and over again for the demonstration - so the brick is very pure),

Gold brick pouring at Sovereign Hill

Tour a Gold Mine,

The Crib Room of the Gold Mine (where eating, not sleeping, occurred)

and visit some other old fashioned shops, brass works, etc.

We then headed back to the ship and wished Melbourne "Gidday" as our ship headed onto the high seas towards Tasmania.

Melbourne from the Diamond Princess - February 2013