We left early for Mornington Peninsula, which is a bit south of Melbourne. After last night, with the cultural exchange of drinks, I quickly got car sick and had to move to the front seat. My focus soon shifted from feeling shitty to being amazed by the Aussie countryside.

Our first stop was at the farmhouse of James’ grandparents. When he said a farm house I pictured something completely different than what was waiting for us. From the small dirty road a gravel drive led to the modern house sitting on the top of a perfectly groomed hill, with flowers in front of it that were blooming with colour in spite of winter. We sat down at the front of the house on some benches looking down the slope of the hill, while a pair of cows taking a romantic walk.

Soon after leaving, James’ Dad said to look on the left and I spotted the ocean for the first time in my life. It felt similar to when I first saw the sea as a kid in Italy… magical. Seeing such a vast body of water makes me realise how big this planet is and how much is there for me to explore.

The next stop on our journey was Montalto Winery for lunch. We were sat outside looking down to the naked rows of grape vines. Bathing in the sunshine, I shared two lovely pizzas with James. Montalto also had a sculpture park, so after lunch we had a look around. The sunset had just started so the light was just perfect for some model shots of James in front of the statues.

From the winery we headed to Flinders Pier. Heard so much about it from James. Since the farmhouse is close by, this is the place where he and his Dad usually go snorkelling. The beach was full of washed up seaweed and the water was a bit muddy. But as we started to walk out on the pier the water became so clear I could see the bottom. The crazy colour and clarity of the water paired with the view of the infinite calmness was astonishing. With every step I more and more realised I am in a new world. Ian (James’s Dad) was talking about how they have seen leafy sea dragons and sting rays many times in these waters, and I have only seen these animals in documentaries on the telly. Also the wood of the pier was stained with ink spots where the fishermen caught squid, which was something that never came to my mind when I saw those dark marks on the ground.

There was one more thing we definitely wanted to squeeze into our day: visiting the Mornington Peninsula National Park, a section of which is where you can see kangaroos in the wild. As I’ve said before, I have always had an obsession with Australia so of course kangaroos were my favourite animals. Everyone knew it in the family. Recently I’ve found a birthday card from 2005 saying that, in the book I got, I could look up my favourite kangaroos and hopefully soon I will be able read it as well. In my room to this day there is a plush kangaroo about the height of 50 cm. I was the happiest kid when my Mum brought it home from a work trip.

So it is no surprise that I was beyond excited when we started walking in to these fields. It was already dusk so I was a bit worried we wouldn’t see any. But then James pointed at something in the grass. And I saw my first kangaroo. But as we stepped closer more brown bodies jumped away. I was trying my best to take photos of the kangaroos as the light was running away. As James’ Dad marched further ahead of us from one second to the other dozens of kangaroos started hopping away. It was a majestic scene.

I took like a 100 photos in 5 minutes with maybe 10 good ones. At the end I just watched them. I couldn’t believe I was actually there. Even from a distance we could tell that some of them were as tall as me, and you could see their strong legs working as they catapulted themselves into the air, hopping away effortlessly. As they got out of the range of my zoom lens, I stood there to see there shadows against the red sky and cried a bit into James’ shoulder.

Before going home we made one last stop at Cape Schanck. We were meant to walk down to a baby peninsula, but since it was practically dark we just had a look at the lighthouse standing on top of the rock. It was just gorgeous. The sky was slowly turning from orange to dark and we could even see the moon. Looked just like a postcard. Perfect ending to a perfect day.