Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Melbourne
We boarded the Emirates flight to Melbourne on Thursday 7th October arriving in the city later that evening. As it was 11pm, it was too late to do anything other than check into our hostel and go to sleep. We would have arrived sooner but for the ridiculously slow airport security. The Australian and New Zealand nationals queue had half as many people waiting but twice as many security staff. So, we were waiting for the best part of an hour......and this was only the first check point!!!!
The rooms here were a bit expensive for a hostel at £53 double, but the room was painted nicely and also very clean. The one problem we had and that was our room faced the main road and the train line so we got all the noise during the night and early morning!
When we awoke the next day, we took a walk along the Yara River passing the river boats and many stylish people having breakfast. We decided to stop here for a coffee and a light snack and to people watch of course!
We followed the map taking us to the centre of town known as Federation Square which is a meeting point and a place where it all seems to be happening. It was here we decided to ring Chris and Jodie (Mark's extended family in Australia) to organise a time and date to meet up. Mark had never met them before but had many facebook message exchanges with Jodie. It all seemed a little strange but really exciting. Mark's mum and Chris' dad are cousins.
We had agreed to meet that night at 6:30pm outside a restaurant near the centre of town. As we had time on our hands we used the afternoon to go to the bank and to stroll along the bustling lanes. We stopped off for a drink in a cosy bar before meeting Chris and Jodie.
We arrived outside the restaurant they suggested but we were a little unsure as to what they would look like even though we have seen a facebook photo of both of them!
It got to 6:30pm and we turned around in the street and there they were walking towards us! We had such a fab evening chatting all night about our families, our travelling plans etc etc. They offered to take us outside Melbourne city centre on a tour if we had time which was very kind of them. We said we would confirm with them our plans the next day.
We awoke the following morning and realised we hadn't booked another nights stay. It was all a panic but after speaking to reception and being told they had no double rooms available, we had to move to a room with bunk beds! This was a little disappointing but a mistake we won't do again!
After moving all our 60kg of luggage to another room, we strolled down to see the Tim Burton exhibition (he is the Director of Alice in Wonderland, Beetle Juice, and Batman) which was in town for a limited time. It took an hour to queue up and a few hours hours looking at the props, film footage and art work produced. It was really worth it.
After walking out of the exhibition into glorious sunshine, we took a walk to the Botanical Gardens. The gardens were very pretty with a number of different pathways to explore. Many people were sitting around a duck pond with their picnics and playing with their children. We chilled out here too for a bit before heading to Cook's Cottage (Captain Cooks) which is the oldest building in Australia built in 1755. It was originally located in Yorkshire, England and brought to Australia with each brick individually numbered, packed and then rebuilt. We took a look inside and found it to be cosy with low ceilings and a log fire.
As we were heading back to our hostel, we walked through China Town and decided we just had to stop off for some good tasty chinese food! After finishing our meal we hopped onto the local free tram to our hostel.
The evening was spent getting a week and a half of washing done and booking our onward journey to Adelaide, Perth and Cairns. We also made a call to Jodie and Chris so we could organise to meet them the following day and booked a hire car from Avis to take us along the Great Ocean Road.
After a goodnight's sleep we were up and out ready to be picked up by Chris and Jodie in their car and taken to Chris' parents house to switch cars for the day as they were on holiday. We were taken an hour out of Melbourne to an area called the Dandenongs where we walked through William Ricketts Sanctuary where we were surrounded by clay sculptures dotted in the woods. Very impressive. This was followed by a late breakfast and then onto a look out point called Skyhigh Mount Dandenong which gave panoramic views over the Dandenongs and Melbourne city. From here we went to Healesville Sanctuary to see koalas, emus, kangaroos, wombats etc.
On our way back we went to Ramsey Street which is where Neighbours is filmed!! We took a few photos and walked around before heading back to Chris' parents house to drop off the car and to have a drink with Chris' brother, Andrew. At this point their Uncle Tony was round to meet us. We sat chatting for a while and realised that the time was getting on so we left with Chris and Jodie in their car back to their apartment which was really nice with a mezzanine floor all very open with great views of Melbourne skyline. Cool.....hell yeah!!! We also got to see where the possum (a sort of mouse/ squirrel creature) that they care for lives. She is very sweet and is spoilt rotten by Jodie and Chris who have cared for her for four years.
That evening, Chris and Jodie took us to a really nice indonisian restaurant where we sat on cushions and ate around a low table with our legs crossed. The food was great and so was the company but it was soon time to say goodbye. We will catch up again on the last leg of our Australian trip as we fly out of Melbourne to Dubai. What a lovely family.
The following morning we had a nightmare packing our rucksacks as somehow we ended up with 2 extra bags of stuff! It wasnt really a problem especially as there was not much we could do about it so we left our luggage in a secured room at the hostel whilst we went for breakfast. We then jumped on the tram to Docklands a very similar feel to Canary Wharf in East London! It has high rise buildings with a lot of art and a pleasant harbour. Melbourne is such a cool city. We took some photos and had a nice walk before jumping back on the tram to Avis car rental.
The car hire keys were in our hands and ready for us to drive off. We didn't walk to the vehicle to check it over we thought we would go to the museum to see the Titanic Exhibition, which was brilliant. We saw a reconstruction of parts of the boat's interior including the grand staircase, which we have all seen in the film. It was also good to see what accommodation was offered to passengers on the ship as well as the stories about those that didn't survive. There were also some amazing artefacts that have been recovered from the wreckage. We weren't allowed to take photos though.
We were looking forward to collecting the car and making our way along the Great Ocean Road. Unfortunately, when arriving at the car it was smaller than we had booked. We couldn't get our luggage into the boot! We complained to Avis and they said that it is the car we booked but because we booked it through the UK website and not their Australian website the rules on the car sizes are different. We weren't having any of this so Mark went into "oh really?" mode, made a big fuss and got given a bigger car, a Toyota Auris, that could accommodate all our luggage. This was the car that the UK website said we were getting; it's not our problem if Avis can't get their websites right.
We ended up leaving later than we had anticipated but were looking forward to the Great Ocean Road trip. This is the iconic scenic route between Melbourne and Adelaide with many things to see.........Bring it on!!!!
- comments