Sharks, boats, olives and wine
Yesterday I went on a bus trip with work (supposedly a PD day) to Queenscliff, past Geelong.
Our first stop was at the Marine Education Centre, funded by the Department of Primary Industries. They have an awesome building, built to be as environmentally friendly as possible (they have grass and soil on the roof for insulation) right on Swan Bay, one of the worlds first marine sanctuaries/national parks.
In terms of the science that happens there, it was quite exciting, but probably not to read about, so I'll just give the highlight - I got to pat a shark!!! They were only Port Jackson sharkies, so not terribly scary looking, but very solid little animals. I was reminded of a staffy dog (particularly a naught little staffy names Piggie) in that they were all head, mostly muscle and had a tendency to bite when excited.
Following the Marine Ed Centre we went to the Maritime Museum in Queenscliff. A comparison to 'bat shit' in terms of my personal interest level would not be far off, but I'm sure if I liked boats it would have been exciting. I did like the Fresnel lenses from old lighthouses, but that just shows the inner nerd in me. OK, so not so inner, perhaps it just shows off my surface nerd.
Despite having patted a shark earlier in the day, I was still keen to have my fish and chips for lunch at the Queenscliff Esplanade Hotel before jumping on the bus to visit an olive grove.
A very brief stop where we were told how olive oil is made, followed by a quick olive oil and olive tasting and purchasing of olive related products, before being whisked away to wine tasting at Scotchman's Hill winery.
I was not overly impressed by any of the dozen odd wines we tried, but was amused by the spittoon. I didn't purchase any wines as the labels weren't pretty enough.
A nice day all up, although most of the niceness was in the fact that I wasn't at work!
Our first stop was at the Marine Education Centre, funded by the Department of Primary Industries. They have an awesome building, built to be as environmentally friendly as possible (they have grass and soil on the roof for insulation) right on Swan Bay, one of the worlds first marine sanctuaries/national parks.
In terms of the science that happens there, it was quite exciting, but probably not to read about, so I'll just give the highlight - I got to pat a shark!!! They were only Port Jackson sharkies, so not terribly scary looking, but very solid little animals. I was reminded of a staffy dog (particularly a naught little staffy names Piggie) in that they were all head, mostly muscle and had a tendency to bite when excited.
Following the Marine Ed Centre we went to the Maritime Museum in Queenscliff. A comparison to 'bat shit' in terms of my personal interest level would not be far off, but I'm sure if I liked boats it would have been exciting. I did like the Fresnel lenses from old lighthouses, but that just shows the inner nerd in me. OK, so not so inner, perhaps it just shows off my surface nerd.
Despite having patted a shark earlier in the day, I was still keen to have my fish and chips for lunch at the Queenscliff Esplanade Hotel before jumping on the bus to visit an olive grove.
A very brief stop where we were told how olive oil is made, followed by a quick olive oil and olive tasting and purchasing of olive related products, before being whisked away to wine tasting at Scotchman's Hill winery.
I was not overly impressed by any of the dozen odd wines we tried, but was amused by the spittoon. I didn't purchase any wines as the labels weren't pretty enough.
A nice day all up, although most of the niceness was in the fact that I wasn't at work!
posted by Miff at
1:16 pm
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