Australia 1 - Melbourne

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Our flight from Auckland to Melbourne went without a hitch, although I was a little worried about some shells I had in my bag when we went through the biosecurity checks. We paid $16 each to get the shuttle bus in to Melbourne which would then take us to our hostel. We decided to stay at The Greenhouse backpackers which was right in the centre of town and had loads of extras thrown in with your room. Our dorm only had 5 beds as well which was good as it meant less chance of noisy people coming in and out of the room throughout the night. On our first day in Melbourne we went for coffee and muffins for breakfast in one of the many cafes in a nearby street. As usual we went for a walk around the city to get our bearings which in Melbourne is relatively easy anyway because the streets are set out like a big grid. There were loads of old English buildings which looked really nice especially Flinders Street Station which we were later told may have been accidentally built from a design meant for India. The newly built Federation square also stood out loads with its jagged edges and mirror-like walls but is a main gathering place within the city, especially when there’s sport on. We went down to Alexandra gardens next to the Yarra river that runs through Melbourne. It was a really nice peaceful area with massive palm trees and wild cockatoos in the trees squawking away very loudly. We also walked past the Parliament buildings and down Bourke street where all the shopping centres are. We signed up for the $3 pub crawl which had a Hawaiian theme and went to 3 pubs around town and you were given a free drink in each pub. We met a couple if people and had a really good night, although I was a little cold walking around in shorts. The weather was beautiful for a couple of days so we went for a picnic down by the river where you got an excellent view of Melbourne; you could watch the rowers and boats go past which was nice and relaxing. We also caught the free tourist shuttle to the Botanical gardens and Shrine of Remembrance, both of which were really nice. The Shrine of Remembrance was absolutely massive and had three tiers inside with all sorts of war memorabilia. The 3rd tier gave an excellent view of the surrounding area and the area we were staying in. In the evening we bought a 4litre box of wine (or goon as they Aussies call it) for $10 which was cheap and cheerful and sat up on the roof chatting to fellow travellers. On our last day in Melbourne we joined a free walking tour put on by our hostel. Although we’d been in Melbourne for a week we were surprised at how much we were shown that we hadn’t noticed before. There were loads of interesting things down the alleys which we hadn’t noticed before. Apparently the council pays artists to do something in the alleys to get people looking around the city more. One alley had a chandelier hanging from it and another had all the pipes painted gold; I thought it was a really good idea. There were lots of graffiti alleys which were really artistic and although it’s illegal without a permit the council doesn’t mind as long as it looks nice. We were told several times on our tour how Melbournians don’t like Sydney at all and think that it has no soul, it’s too modern. We were also informed that Australia has been in a drought for 7years and there are water restrictions in place which means all the water features have been turned off in the public areas. After a couple of hours on the walking tour we went to the banking district which was full of beautiful buildings decorated with gold from the gold rush years when Melbourne was the richest city in the world. We went inside one building which looked new on the outside but really old inside. It turned out that the company wanted to expand the building but wanted to preserve the old one so they built a new building over the top of the old one! Just before lunch we visited the smallest gallery in Melbourne which was no bigger than a shoe box but had its own street address! We also went to a chocolate shop and sweet shop to do some sampling…YUM! After lunch we went to the 35th floor of the Sofitel building for the free city view from the toilets! The hotel hadn’t actually agreed to us going up so all 30 of us snuck up in the lifts, I was so surprised we weren’t thrown out. The toilets had massive pains of glass instead of walls so you got a perfect view over Melbourne all the way to the sea. We also went to the MCG, Melbourne’s famous cricket ground, although we didn’t go in as it was too expensive for us travellers!
We were going to stay in Melbourne until we’d decided where we wanted to go next before Adelaide but the hostel was full so we had to pack our things and move on. After a lot of umming and ahhing we bought 2 tickets to Phillip Island. It took 3hrs to get to Phillip Island but the closer we got the worse the weather became. Luckily when we got off the bus the owner of the hostel we were going to stay at came and picked us up. On our first day it was recommended that we visit the wildlife centre down the road (which ended up taking 2mins to get to). It cost $15 to get in but you were given a free bag of food to feed the animals, although they didn’t tell you which animals you could feed. The first animals we saw were loads of little wallabies which were cute but kind of looked like big rats. Next were the echidnas which looked like big hedgehogs but were really speedy. Then we went over to the koala pen and although they weren’t doing much I thought they were really cute. Nick thought they were boring and pretty much had to drag me away! There was an enclosure next to the koalas which you could go into and it was full of wallabies, birds and pelicans. As we walked out of the enclosure we saw a big wallaby roaming free so went over to have a closer look. He started to smell our food and hopped toward us but because he was quite big I just threw the food in the opposite direction! As we walked around we noticed loads more wallabies freely hopping around, which made me a bit nervous. Then we saw another couple hand feeding them so we decided they weren’t dangerous and gave it a go. We bent down and they’d hop over and eat out of our hands and even let us stroke them which was really cool. Then we noticed one of the ones we were feeding had a little joey in its pouch! Nick even built up the courage to feed a big kangaroo, which ended up being a bit foolish as it had really sharp claws and drew blood on his arm! We also saw some wombats which were pure muscle and bigger than we expected. We also saw some dingoes, birds of prey and other small birds including a kookaburra which I though was so cute!
The next day the weather was lovely so we went for a 3hr walk to Rhyll inlet. The only problem was the walk went along all the main roads so it wasn’t very scenic or relaxing. There were also loads of flies buzzing round us and even when you brushed them off you they’d just come straight back again….so annoying! In the evening the owner set up a small fire in the back garden which we sat around keeping warm, drinking and chatting. The next day was overcast so we had a nice long lie in and spent the day catching up on washing and writing. In the evening we cooked up some kangaroo steaks which were 98% fat free and tasted like fillet steak; plus they were only 70p a steak! On our last day we went on a bike ride to the Grand Prix circuit, without realising how far it actually was. As soon as we left the hostel I realised what a bad idea it had been because my bum was already killing from the lack of padding on the seat! For some reason after we’d been to the Grand Prix circuit we decided to extend our ride and cycled up to the beach. It was relatively flat which was good but by the time we got back to the hostel I was knackered and I was sure my bum was bruised. The owner of our hostel had got engaged and invited his friends around for an evening BBQ and bonfire; he asked us if we wanted to join them and obviously we agreed. Our first Aussie BBQ was excellent and full of meat which Nick was very pleased about. We left Phillip Island on Monday 27th and started heading slowly toward Adelaide.

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