Photos by Steffanie Scholze
I got a little distracted with some financial aid and scholarship applications, but I’m back to the blog! More importantly, back to writing about Australia!
Day Five in Australia started out much like my days start out back home : get up, get dressed, grab some breakfast, go to school. Of course, that day Alden High School was replaced by Wagga Wagga High. (Which was just fine by me…)
Jim and Maureen Doig, our “chaperones” from our day at the races, took us over to Leah (my host-twin-sister)’s school so that I could give a speech during their morning awards ceremony. I gave a short speech in which I talked about hard work, diligence, and determination, relating it all back to my Miss Teen experience. Years of theater experience has taught me to never look at the audience, so it wasn’t until I finished my speech that Steffanie filled me in that I had just successfully addressed 700 or so teenagers in Wagga High’s outdoor amphitheater. Did I mention that not looking at the crowd really pays off?
Following my speech, the school’s Head Boy and Head Girl officially welcomed me to their school and gave me a pin with the school’s crest on it. (If it wasn’t so sunny and pleasant out, I could have sworn I was at Hogwarts, what with the school crest and the Head Boy and Girl. I wasn’t completely filled in on how it all works, but I’m pretty sure that Head Girl and Boy are top students similar to Student Body Presidents.)
After a few pictures and a quick chat, we left Wagga Wagga High in pursuit of our next adventure. We had plans to go out to Berrembed Station to get a look at Australian ranching. Before driving out, we stopped to pick up Max, a Belgium exchange student staying in Wagga. Driving out, the scenery was absolutely breathtaking. I was reassured a thousand times that this was in no way “The Outback” and that it had been completely green but two weeks before, but I was still in awe. It looked like it came out of a movie, or at least a postcard. The sky was as blue as a robin’s egg, without a cloud in sky. The tan, dusty earth ran flat and parallel to that gorgeous sky, with those beautiful gnarly trees breaking up the sky every once and awhile. I didn’t even mind catching my first glimpse of a very poisonous brown snake!
We entered the station and continued to drive a few miles to the station’s main house. Ranching has been and remains a huge part of Australia’s economy, and individual stations can cover hundreds of square miles of land. The station managers were friends of the Doigs, so after an introduction and a glass of water, they gave us a quick tour of the gardens and the chicken coop. Everyone got a good laugh at the sight of me, still in my speech attire, inside of the coop.
I made a quick change, so as to save myself from being the butt of any more jokes, and joined Steffanie and Max for a jeep tour of the station. Andrew, the station manager, offered to give us the tour. He was absolutely delightful, as he was everything you expected an Australian rancher to be. I had a little difficulty understanding his thick Aussie accent at first, but I caught on soon enough and learned quite a bit about the ranch’s history. As we drove over the rough terrain, stopping to meet a few sleepy cows and off-roading in the pursuit of kangaroos, I became overwhelmed like I had before. I couldn’t believe that I was here, in the almost-Australian outback! I nearly asked Steffanie to pinch me. How could this possibly be my life?
After we had seen quite a bit of the grounds, Andrew drove us to a nice, shady spot near the Murrumbidgee River, where Jim and Maureen had been setting up lunch. What does one eat during an Aussie barbie on the Murrumbidgee? A Coat of Arms Lunch, of course!
(PETA members may want to stop reading and skip to the next paragraph.)
What’s a Coat of Arms Lunch? Truth be told, most Australians wouldn’t know what it is, nor would they have eaten either part of it. Seeing as the coat of arms on the Australian flag is comprised of a kangaroo and an emu, you guessed it, we fried some kangaroo and emu up on the grill! Mostly Jim did the cooking, but it was interesting to watch, especially as we were all trying to fend off the hordes of “bloody flies”. Apparently, both meats are quite lean and full of protein. Raw, they both looked a lot like very, very bloody raw beef. We ate them along side salad and a nice berry sauce. I liked the kangaroo right away, as it reminded me quite a bit of steak. I became partial to the emu, however, as the kangaroo was a bit gamey-tasting in comparison. The only part of the meal that had a bad effect on me was the Australian ginger beer. The pungent root beer-like soda burned my throat. My least favorite protein source of the meal : “bloody flies”.
(PETA members can rejoin us now.)
After our beautiful lunch on the Murrumbidgee, we bid farewell to Andrew and drove to a neighboring station. As it turns out, Steffanie and I had come to Australia at the most opportune time : sheep shearing season! If you’ve ever worn Ugg boots, then you might understand the importance of sheep shearing to Australia’s economy. I had seen it on television, but seeing it right in front of you is very different. Within the shearing shed, there was rock music blaring and the workers would grab a sheep, shear it in only a minute or two, and send the newly bald sheep back down to the holding pen. It was amazingly quick and efficient. At first, I worried that the sheep were in pain, but I soon realized that they’d be in much worse pain if their wool remained on them in the coming summer months.
Since we were there, we were offered a chance to ride in a grain harvester. New York may be a bread basket state, but I don’t ever think I’ve seen one of these massive things up close. Steffanie and I were given a ride on a canola harvester by a very nice station worker. While we marveled at how the machine worked, we chatted with the station worker about his college education and his world travels. Did I mention I love Australia?
We had a nice, long, and relaxing ride back to the Tome home, which allowed Steffanie the time to catch hay fever from the canola and my everything to overcome to sun stroke.
I was planning on preparing for that night’s dinner as soon as we got home, but all I could really do was find my (Leah’s) bed and take a nap, as prescribed by my Wagga Mum. Without realizing it, the sun had really gotten to me! I felt nauseas and dizzy every time I tried to stand up. I managed to make a quick run up to the store with Alana, but then I had to lie down again. With twenty minutes to go before the anniversary dinner, I sipped water and nibbled at saltines while trying to make myself appear somewhat alive and presentable.
I did feel better once we reached the dinner party. Deidre had planned the night’s event as a celebration of the 25 year partnership between Wagga Wagga and the Miss Teen of America Program. Throughout the three courses, everyone in attendance stood and spoke about their relationship to the various Wagga festivals over the years.
These impromptu speeches allowed me to gain a lot more insight into the Miss Teen - Wagga connection. It seems that it all started when a Miss Teen of America met a Wagga festival representative at a festival convention in St. Paul. After the chance encounter, the rest was fate, as Miss Teens have been invited out to Wagga to participate in first the Gumi Festival, and later the Miss Wagga Wagga Quest, for the past 25 years. Thank goodness it happened those 25 years ago!
The rest of dinner was a lot of fun, as I got to mingle with a lot of people in attendance. Notably, I met the Murrays, an Iowa couple who have successfully transplanted themselves in Wagga! More about them in my next blog.
At the end of the night, Sally, the current Miss Wagga Wagga, and I cut the cake. Our new Tome family used the night as an opportunity for a few family pictures (and a few silly ones involving the centerpieces as fascinatas).
I was so exhausted from the long, exciting day that I don’t remember doing much after we arrived back at home. I believe we just had a nice family chat, and headed to bed. Probably the best idea, seeing as tomorrow would be another long day filled with new things! (Like licorice bowling?)
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