Australia's Second City

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Melbourne Heat Wave

We woke at the ungodly hour of 4:30am to make it the airport for our first Virgin Blue flight to Melbourne. I promised Eric no more flights this early, but we could not pass up the deal. It was twice as expensive to fly out after 8 am. After a quick and brisk flight to Melbourne, we land, hot and exhausted.

As background, there appears to be an extreme rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne regarding which city is better. The rivalry is so intense that when the two cities fought over where the capital of Australia should be, the compromise was Canberra - a city no one seems to want to go to. After falling head over heels in love with Sydney, I knew Melbourne had a lot to live up to. The heat wave did not help. Melbourne experienced weather well over 100F during the recent Australian Open. We heard the heat was supposed to break and were not concerned. When we exited the airport shuttle, though, it hit us in the face like a ton of bricks. The Saturday we arrived in Melbourne, apparently, was the hottest day on record in the history of the city - 44.6C, that’s half way to boiling and it felt like it. When we arrived at the hostel, our first official YHA hostel, our room was not ready. To kill time, we walked down to Queen Victoria Market to pick up a snack. We split a bacon and avocado wrap and returned to the hostel to wait it out -with no a/c. I could not be more thrilled that we were checking into another hostel with no a/c especially during a historic heat wave. But, when Eric jumped online, he promised the weather report expected over a 20 degree Celsius drop in temperature by late Saturday night. We kept reminding ourselves that this is a marathon, not a sprint, and it is okay to slow down and relax. Well, we did just that, by checking into our room, which at least had a killer ceiling fan, to nap for almost three hours. We emerged around 4:00pm to stop at the market for some food, and could not believe the heat. It was worse than when went to Morocco in July! After picking up some water, fruit, and yogurt for immediate consumption, we returned to our room to rest again. The market was only about 3-4 blocks from the hostel, but it took a lot out of us. We planned to explore after sun down to check out a Chinese-Malay restaurant in Chinatown. Hopefully, I will have more to update later, but as of now, Sydney tops Melbourne. Hands down.

The Tourist Shuttle

After an evening of Malaysian food with Curry Laska and black sticky rice dumplings, we woke to see the sights, and enjoy the cooler weather. After midnight the temp did drop considerably, enough to make us stop sweating and reach for a sheet. In the morning, we walked back down to Victoria Market to pick up the free hop-on, hop-off tourist shuttle. You must wonder about a city, though, when its shuttle is free whereas Sydney’s cost AUD$30. We learned that the state of Victoria, in which Melbourne is located, has been in a drought lasting 11 years. The current heat wave was the worst experienced. The news was flush with reports of bushfires throughout the area, which had cost the lives of 35 people over the past few days. Most of the deaths resulted from people who refused to vacate their homes. The cooler weather (now down to 24C), and light rain, was quite welcome to the surrounding areas.

We also learned that Melbourne experienced an urban flight and is trying to rejuvenate the city. This explains a lot. Although there is some Victorian style architecture, similar to the two story bungalows in Sydney with intricate iron balconies, most of the North Melbourne neighborhood we are staying in consists of various sixties and seventies bleak architecture. Most of the area seems pretty run down, dirty streets, boarded up store fronts, restaurants closed on a Saturday night. Even in the central business district, Chinatown, and towards the more touristy areas, there seems to be a blight on the city. As Eric pointed out, it is the city that time forgot. We still cannot perceive the rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne. It is similar to arguing that New York City and Jacksonville have a rivalry for best city.

The tourist shuttle bus took us to a newly built Harbour Town. It is similar to other second or third tier cities, like Baltimore or Cleveland, which experienced urban flight to the suburbs and looked to renewal for salvation. Melbourne built huge high rise condos and apartments, a shopping center, the Telstra Dome sports arena, and a giant Ferris wheel (the largest in the southern hemisphere and the third largest in the world, behind Singapore and London). Close to Harbour Town, the Yarra River runs through the city near the CBD, with office buildings, art venues, and some parks spread along the river. One thing, though, it does not seem like people are biting. The shopping area at Harbour Town was desolate, the Ferris wheel was not turning either time we rode by, and the architecture along the river is too stark and corporate rather than inviting. It appears most people live in the suburbs and commute to the city for work. The newer residential living, it was explained, is very expensive, and the younger people who work in the city who they are enticing to move back cannot afford the prices. (Once we were out Monday evening for dinner we realized this was the case. The CBD and Chinatown were now brimming with activity and people were on the streets. The city came to life and the desolation seems limited to the weekends.)

After about an hour on the tourist shuttle, we stopped at the main square in Melbourne. The driver explained that Melbourne attempted several times in the past to create a thriving main square, and finally got it right. I did not realize the creation of a successful main square was so difficult to attain. Federation Square (aka Fed Square) was nice. Bordered by Flinders train station, which has a lot of character to it, and St. Paul’s Cathedral, its location just off a main thouroughfare, that leads to a bridge over the Yarra River, gave it a pleasant enough background. When they decided this would be their main square, they built a quirky, modern building with streaming text all over the façade. The building houses various art venues and dining options. Okay, so we finally saw something on the tourist shuttle that made us alight to take some pictures. Then, 25 minutes later, we hopped back on to take the shuttle back to Chinatown for some dim sum (or Yum Cha, as it is called here).

Melbourne is a sporting city, with the recent Australian Open being only one example. They host rowing on the river, a large running lane through its big park, and several arenas. We rode past Melbourne Cricket Park, which holds approximately 100,000 people! For cricket. They also have football (the real kind, where they use their feet), Aussie rules football, and rugby matches there. There is a museum dedicated to Aussie sports. The area surrounding the cricket stadium is East Melbourne, which is the ritzy residential area, with single family homes and bungalows valued around 2 to 3 million AUD. And, they are right next to the stadium. So, for the bargain price of 2 million, you can have 100,000 cricket (or rugby or Aussie rules football) fans trample across your front yard on a regular basis.
One other note. Shortly after we arrived in Australia, Australia started playing New Zealand in cricket. It has been on the TV, and Eric is actually watching it, even if not fully understanding the game. The match is still on. We have been in country for ten days, and it seems like it has been on the entire time!

Gastro-experience

Melbourne has a large Asian population, which makes it a gastronomic delight for Eric and me. So far, we have tasted Malay, Chinese, Vietnamese, and are trying to track down some Indonesian. We have had roast duck and crispy pig skin. We went to Yum Cha and had several kinds of tasty pork dumplings. We had some of the best Vietnamese Pho we have ever had! Although the food offerings have been incredible, the prices seem a bit higher than in Sydney. We have, however, scoped out some bargains. We found the Rose Garden BBQ restaurant on Elizabeth St for tasty inexpensive Black Pepper Duck and a spicy String Beans with minced chicken!

The Great Ocean Road and the Twelve Apostles

Due to the lack of attractions within the city limit, we rented a car for Monday and Tuesday to head out of the city. On Monday, we rose early to pick up the car and headed straight to the famous Great Ocean Road. We first drove on a nondescript highway, the M1, out of Melbourne to Geelong. Then, through Geelong city to Torquay. This portion of the trip took at least an hour. Then, as we head into Torquay we drove through a national park that was nice, although we spent most of the time trying to crane our neck at every bend hoping to catch a glimpse of water. We also saw several kangaroo crossing signs, and since we did not sign up for the extra liability insurance, my eyes were peeled. Unfortunately, no roo sightings - just horses, cow, and sheep.

Once we passed through Torquay, the real ocean road came into view. It was overcast at the start of the trip, which only added to the dramatic nature of the dark sea and white capped waves crashing onto the craggy rock formations. We spent another hour twisting and turning down the winding road that followed the ocean cliffs. The radio also spent the hour going in and out of reception as we wound through the landscape. (Thank goodness I booked the campervan in New Zealand with an MP3 hookup.) Every time I saw a beautiful landscape I would ask Eric to stop at the next pull off so I could get a picture. Of course, the next pull off never provided as good of a view as the spot we just passed. It happened so frequently, it almost seemed purposeful. After learning my lesson on a few spots, I told Eric to just keep driving. We enjoyed the scenery and did not worry about the pictures. I did get one good shot, though, with a view down the beach. Once I had that shot, I was content. After we came through Apollo Bay, which was both the first and last decent sized shore community we drove through, the road turned abruptly to the right away from the coast and into Otway National Park. It was another hour drive through the park to get back to the ocean road on the other side. Here the winding roads were also up and down, not just left to right. At first, the national park displayed beautiful dark and rich forest. Then, the national park gave way to private farming property. And then, more farms, and more farms, as far as the eye could see, complete with loads of cows and dairies. It was as though we were driving through Australia’s Wisconsin. I fell asleep, leaving Eric to continue the driving. It was fairly monotonous, and when we made it back to the ocean, his patience was tried.

After waking from my cat nap and analyzing the map, I notified Eric that it was only a few more kms until the next town, Princetown. After Princetown, only another 12km until the end of our ocean journey - the Twelve Apostles. Of course, Princetown was not really a town - it was a hamlet at best. And, we could not see the ocean from there, and the road continued through the brown, dry landscape with no ocean view in sight. I thought Eric was about to kill me and then dump my body near the hamlet. No one would have ever found me. Just as the steam started to appear out of Eric’s ears, we pull out and see how high we have traveled with a clear view out over the ocean from our location on the enormous limestone cliffs. I calmly suggest that Eric pull over for a well needed picture break when we see the turn off for the Twelve Apostles National Park.

The Apostles are a series of limestone rock formations just off the cliff side that have been formed over time by the power of the breaking waves. The water off this portion of Victoria is known as shipwreck alley for all of the shipwrecks in the late 1800s. The water is particularly choppy and unpredictable because the next land mass to the south is Antarctica. There is nothing else in the way to break up or slow the waves. The Apostles are breathtaking, with clear striations of rock created over the years. The rocks are several shades of deep brown and orange, almost like a sunset painted onto the rock. Set against the blue sky, the greenish blue water with white tipped waves, and the soft sand beach, it was brilliant. Only complaint - no matter how hard we tried, we could not count 12 of them. There were no signs either explaining where the twelve are or were located - are they farther along the road or did they erode over time? It’s a mystery.

After the Apostles, Eric was “thrilled” to drive back to Melbourne. We found a way to wind through the countryside, with more farms and dairies, to land us back on the M1 motorway. It was quicker going back, but by the end of the day we had spent something like 8 hours in the car with very little walking. Oh, and we got a little lost trying to get back into the city, ending up on the wrong side of the Yarra River trying to negotiate our way back over. In the end, it was a success, even in the eyes of the chauffer.

Eric did quite well driving on the wrong, uh, I mean left, side of the road. His one hiccup was that he often turned the windshield wipers on while trying to use the turn signals. It became quite the running joke, particularly when I could see how hard he was concentrating to get it right. They have one peculiarity here in Melbourne though. Because of the trams that run through the city, in some intersections there are signs saying right turn from left lane only. These are hook turns. If you imagine in your head, you are driving on the left side of the road and you need to make a right hand turn. Instead of heading into the right lane, you head into the left lane. When you approach the intersection, you slide the car all the way to the left, allowing all lanes of traffic to pass you on the right, but not so far left that you run over the pedestrians. You hang out there until almost all traffic has passed through the intersection, including the trams, and as the light turns yellow you race through the intersection to make your right hand turn. At most intersections in Melbourne you can make a regular right hand turn. It is only on streets with the trams that there is a sign mandating the hook turns. We managed to drive for two straight days without having to complete a hook turn, that is, until we returned the car to Hertz. To turn right onto the street where Hertz was located, Eric had to make a hook turn. He did brilliantly and was quite proud of himself. Next test: We were upgraded to an automatic on this car, which gave Eric the opportunity to drive for a bit on the wrong side of the road without having to worry about shifting. In the future, we may not be so lucky.

The Yarra Valley Bushfires

Our other planned day trip out of the city was to the Yarra Valley wine region. We skipped Hunter Valley outside of Sydney because we did not have a car, figuring our Aussie wine tasting tour would be accomplished in Victoria. As most of you are probably aware, bushfires have spread throughout Victoria, just north of the Yarra Valley. Currently, the death toll is up to over 170 people, and it is expected to increase. We spoke to our tourist shuttle bus driver on Sunday to ask his advice and he suggested that we should be fine by Tuesday because the weather was cooling. At that point on Sunday neither the driver nor we could have anticipated how much worse the situation was going to get. We continued to watch the news about King Lake, one of the most devastated areas, nestled between two forest reserves, and the aid center that was set up at Wittlesea. We just did not know how far these areas were from the wine trail. We also were not sure how we felt about heading out to taste wines close to the area affected by the bushfires. On Tuesday morning, with nothing left to do in the city, we decided to head out, monitor the activity, and if it appeared to be business as usual we would continue. At the first sight of problems, we would return to Melbourne.

We made it a little more than an hour outside of Melbourne, past the “shire” of Lilydale. To that point, everything seemed to be business as usual. Car dealerships were hawking their sales, schools were in session, fast food chains were humming. We even saw the first of the American styled strip malls. One such strip mall had a Target and a Kmart as well as a Coles food market, Safeway, and Aldi. There were only about 8 or so stores in the strip, and they were all so similar. When we arrived in Lilydale, a fork in the road forced us to either head north towards the Domaine Chandon winery, which was our original plan, or to head on a southern route. The bushfires were more to the north, so we chose the southern route. The skies were dark with storm clouds and we actually hoped it would rain. Eric said he would prefer to drive through a monsoon style downpour if it meant the areas of the bushfires received some relief. The first of a cluster of wineries was on our right side. We turned off the main road, and wound through a small neighborhood. The signs directed us to take the next right, where the road became more steep and turned into a gravel road. Eric and I looked at each other figuring this may not be right. As Eric turned the car around, we were perched up onto a hill overlooking the valley. The skies ahead were not dark from storm clouds. Instead, the dark clouds were filled with ash all the way down to the tree tops. There were also small white streams of smoke rising from the landscape. We said - that was our sign. We just felt weird scavenging for wines to taste knowing what was happening so close to the Valley. As we turned onto the main road a large tourist bus sped past without a concern.

We stopped a few minutes latter at a little café, Mr. K., to grab a snack and stretch the legs before heading back. I had my first flat white coffee drink and Eric ordered a bacon and cheese breakfast sandwich. We started speaking with one of the employees when she asked where we were from. We explained to her the situation, that it was our last full day in Melbourne and we wanted to tour the Yarra Valley, but felt callous knowing we were so close to the troubles. She understood our concerns, but suggested one winery just up the road which had some beautiful gardens and displays on the history of winemaking in the region. She also spoke about how a couple days before, ash was falling from the sky in the town and she warned her little girls to pack a bag with some clothes and their favorite teddy bear, just in case they needed to evacuate. She agreed that at the first sign of real risk she would pack up her girls and her cats and make her way towards the city. She could not understand people who place their personal wellbeing, and the care of their families, second in importance to their home. We spoke for a bit more about the region and Eric and my upcoming plans. She handed us some brochures and maps of the area and told us to call her if we have any questions. We returned to the car, skipped the winery she suggested, and drove right back to the city. It was a humbling experience. As we continued to watch the news and the death toll rise, what is the most heartbreaking is that officials are preliminarily calling the cause arson. They have also mentioned that a lit cigarette may have caused the fires. It is unusual for us to be traveling so close to a disaster of this magnitude - the worst in Australia’s peace time history. But, the Sydney-Melbourne rivalry has been minimized for the moment, as New South Wales has rushed to the aid of Victoria. This may not have been the most “successful” trip to a new city, but it certainly won’t be forgotten.

Here is a link to the Red Cross Appeal for the bushfires disaster if you are interested in donating:

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Photos

Flinders Station at Fed Square
Flinders train station is the cornerstone of the main square in Melbourne. One of their famous trams is in the foreground.

Fed Square
The modern art building with the scrolling text that forms the cornerstone of the main square.

Chinatown
This is one of the many arches on Lil Bourke St, in Chinatown. Unlike Sydney, Melbourne has a fully self contained Chinatown. Yum.

Eric on the "right" side of the car
But, on the wrong side of the road.

The Great Ocean Road
Finally, we get to the start of our journey.

Duh?
Considering these signs are everywhere on the Great Ocean Road, you would assume that once you got that far, you have figured it out already.

The Victorian Coastline
I finally got my beach shot!

Eric eating with the Apostles
This was totally his idea. I am not THAT cheesy.

Comments

[kayla]

i saw the fires on the news and was curious to know where they were in relation to you. i'm glad you both are okay (thats right, i do NOT take lightly my inheretance like you do). you need to make a list on your entire journey of the best chinatown in the world, the best dumplings, and the best dimsum. :) love you!

[Cathy]

Yum Cha - you cracked the secret code!
Yum Cha is the cantonese term for dim sum that Chinese people use regularly among themselves. Direct translation: "Drink Tea". Cool that they use it ubiquitously in Melbourne.