Home Home on the Stead

The first stop on our Australia/New Zealand cruise was Melbourne, Australia in the State of Victoria (Sydney is in New South Wales). We decided to book one of the ship's shore excursions at this port of call. We chose to visit the Warrook Homestead and ride on the Puffing Billy, which is an authentic steam gauge engine still being run a little bit outside of Melbourne.

We had a busy day at the Homestead...

Feeding the calves

Herding sheep

BAAAAAAA....

and then watching those sheep go for a haircut....

Post haircut, looking very sheepish

After a busy morning we had a delicious lunch on the farm (surprisingly it wasn't lamb!) and were given some time to explore on our own.  We used our time to make some new friends.

After our farm adventure, we left to ride on the Puffing Billy steam engine. The Puffing Billy train line was built in the early 1900's and used to settle the rural land in Victoria. After a landslide covered part of the track and newer technology was developed, the Puffing Billy was closed down and nearly torn up. Then a group of volunteers organized to keep the train running and preserve the Puffing Billy. Today it is a very popular tourist attraction. We rode on the train for one stop and although it was a bit smokey (they don't call him Puffing Billy for nothing), we had a fabulous time hanging out (quite literally) and enjoying the beautiful scenery along the way. 

Billy was really steamed about something!