Melbourne & Daylesford - November 2009

---

Tiger Woods is coming to Australia! Tiger Woods is coming to Australia! This was a very exciting news event and 6 months before he was due to play the Australian Master in Melbourne i had bought tickets to Day 2 of the game with the small problem of it being in Melbourne. And...we had a 23 month old that probably wouldnt stay still and be quiet as watching golf really requires. But... i had tickets!!!!

So we headed over to Melbourne and stayed at the Plum Apartments on Collins Street which is a fantastic location. It is within walking distance of everything or less than a block to trams and 1 block from Flinders Train station and Federation square. We rented a 2 bedroom apartment as my fil was coming along to the golf too and it is quite reasonably priced and maybe 3.5/4 star apartments - quite nice and clean and quiet!

We arrived Thursday and on Friday we went to the golf. It was fantastic and this was the tournament before the Tiger Woods downfall occurred. This was the event where he got caught out with some other woman in his hotel room. But at this point...he was the God of Golf and we followed him around plus heaps of other fantastic golfers for a good 5 hours. Tiger won the tournament in the end and it was a lifetime experience to watch his every shot and see how little he got stressed about everything.

I found an 'occassional daycare' that took the Little Man for 5 hours and he had a ball...and it was incredibly cheap. I cant quite remember the name of it but it happenned to be really close to the golf course so we could pick him up and drop him off. Definitly something to think about if you ever need care in australia - it was way cheaper than our normal daycare. Something like $10 an hour!

So.... after the golf we headed up to Daylesford where my fil lives. It is a very 'trendy' town about 2 hours north west of melbourne. It is in the heart of some mountains/hills and is famous for its springs, day spas, retreats and michelan restarants. It is also well known for its gay community! At night there is a thriving restarant & cafe area that was lovely to visit...and during the day there are heaps of little art galleries and boutique shops to visit. One afternoon we had a lovely day down at the main dam/lake area where there is a bookshop and a cafe and a playground for kids.

I think Daylesford is a lovely place for a romantic getaway or a stress relieving holiday (and that is how it is advertised in travel magazines) which means it isnt very toddler friendly :( So unfortunatly we could not go to the beautiful amazing restaraunts we would have liked or gone into most of the shops for fear of things getting broken :( I did go and have facial one day that was lovely, and the beautician told me about a 'local' bar. So we headed off to that and although it was very toddler friendly with kids running around, it was certainly a bit dodgy and more on the 1 star front than the 5 star front the public sees of daylesford. It did mean however we could let our little man run wild in the sand pit and overgrown yard while we enjoyed a beer :)

---