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Published: December 31st 2008
Christmas Eve
Beautiful Blue Sky - oh not bad bloke eitherArrived in Melbourne early evening. Met Caroline who was to be our leader for the rest of the time in Australia. By the time we had got to the hotel and found our rooms we were hungry and set out in search of food. Very surprised at the location of the hotel as where we had come in looked like a nothing area but walk in the other direction and we were in the middle of Melbourne, next to the Yarra River and full of bars and restaurants and really lively. Great skyline and really good feel about the place.
Next morning, city sightseeing and they seem to operate the same as NZ in that the driver does all the talking - tour guides amongst you reading this will be shaking your heads! The driver was fab, great tour, great commentary and we both like the place even more.
Tired though we were and tired of being on the coach, there was an optional tour this afternoon to the Penguin Parade at Phillip Island, which we really wanted to do. Out of our tour group of 48 only 16 of us chose to do this and it was the
Melbourne
War Memorial best thing ever! We had a great driver, Vince, who was keen to take us everywhere and first stop was a shack with a café that was also an animal rescue centre and we saw a wallaby and the rear ends of some wombats. Next it was a koala centre where they live in a managed environment but are free to roam. There were several around and they were all very cute and cuddly. They spend the majority of their lives asleep just staying awake long enough to have a nibble on some leaves, they were curled up in the trees but were lovely to see. There was a kangaroo but he kept his distance and also loads of colourful birds flying about. He recommended an Italian restaurant in Phillip Island and we all went there and had a bit of a party and then on to Nobbys Point which was a fantastic coastal view and if the sun hadn’t been so bright and low we may have been able to spot seals - we were not about to start complaining about sunshine! It was Christmas Eve and the weather was fantastic and the sky was the brightest blue. Along
Melbourne
Beside Yarra River the road from Nobbys we saw a number of wallabies!
Off to the penguin parade which is not a staged event but a natural event with 100’s of spectators. We went down to the beach and there are seating areas where you have to sit and quietly wait. This is the home of 1000’s of fairy penguins. About 30cm tall, just as cute as the koalas. They live in the dunes and bushes beyond the beach and each evening after a day fishing, they come back here and have to cross the beach to get to their nests and at this time of year get back to their babies as well.
They wait until dark as there are many predators and the vulnerable bit for them is crossing the open beach. After a while a few appear and there is a great deal of toing and froing and hesitating as to whether they should cross the beach or not. They come in groups of about 4 - 10 and if one returns to the water, they all do and start again! But eventually one will make a break to cross the beach and they all follow. It was
Melbourne
Fire Show alongside the Yarra River fabulous to watch but your heart went out to them as it was such a worry for them - one of our fellow travellers, Sue, standing close to us said it was making her cry - Sal was already crying!!
After watching this for an hour or so, we started to make out way back up the boardwalk to the visitor centre and to our surprise it got even better as we were walking beside the penguins, the boardwalk was over the dunes with subtle lighting and they didn’t seem bothered by us at all. Cameras were strictly banned. Babies started to rush out of their nests, apparently there are always two babies as the mum and dad are out fishing all day and the two can keep each other warm - ahhhh, but they are looking for mum and dad as they are probably starving. They don’t recognise their mum and dad and pop out to any passing penguin which looks sad as you don’t know if their parents will return, but they were funny too. What seemed amazing was how far they walked from the beach. Penguins don’t walk that easily and it had been a trauma
Christmas Day
St. Kilda's Beach getting across the beach for them but some of them were up in the car park which was half a mile away which seem a long way for them to come.
Everyone agreed that it had been a great day and a magical evening which we will never forget. Thanks Lou, Rach and Beth as this was your Christmas pressie to us.
Christmas Day - blue sky, warm sunshine and Melbourne looked wonderful. We went for a walk before getting ready for Christmas lunch which was to be on one of Melbourne’s trams. They have a very comprehensive tram network and some of the old trams have been decorated as Victorian dining parlours and you trundle around and eat - sounded good to us, and it was. One of the best Christmas Days we have ever had. The whole group went and we were divided into carriages of about 16 people. We have all got to know each other quite well so it was a real party. Our head waiter was a real character and was a fantastic singer so had us all singing - the rat pack was his speciality - fortunately, he didn’t do Christmas songs.
Christmas Day
St. Kelda's Beach We had a splendid 5 course meal with champagne, wine and liquors, our glasses never went empty and we had a ball. Our carriage was also carrying Santa and Santa’s helper who was a very pretty blond - made Col’s Christmas!
I don’t think any of us looked out of the window much but we had a great time, everybody enjoyed it, we eventually fell off the tram 3 hours later. We got back to the hotel and slept for an hour, most of the group didn’t surface again for the rest of the day but we were determined to go to St. Kilda’s Beach in Melbourne, so after an hour, we dragged ourselves out, legs feeling like ton weights, plodded along the riverside which by now, was like a normal day, buzzing with bars and cafes all full of people. The public transport was free on Christmas day, so we managed to find the right tram and took that to St. Kilda’s. By now it was about 6pm, the sun was beginning to go down but it was lovely and warm. We had a paddle in the sea which was also quite warm and loved looking at all
Christmas Day
Our fellow travellers asking the police advise on best bar! the people on the beach - large and small groups eating and drinking, bbq’s going as well, but most people were wearing swimming stuff and wearing a Santa hat! Phoned home to various people feeling very smug that we were in the warm on the beach - how mean are we!
Boxing day, it was 5am call for 6am departure for Alice Springs. We were hit by the heat when we arrived there, it was about 30 degrees but very overcast with intermittent rain which was pumping up the humidity. We were met by our new coach captain Laurie, and about a million zillion flies. First stop was the old Telegraph Station which gave the first communications to the area and the original Alice Spring which isn’t a spring at all! Our first stop was to purchase a couple of very fetching hats to help with the flies and eventually nearly the whole coach was wearing them, we all looked like we were on our way to some sort of strange catholic funeral!
Being Boxing Day, some of the plans had needed urgent re-adjustment and our lunch stop was changed to a restaurant in Alice Springs ‘’High Street
Santa's little helper
Not sure which is which ‘’which was interesting for the colourful street life in the shape of the local Aborigines who all seem to have a favourite tree and spend the day sitting under it!
A visit to the flying doctor service hq was next on the list which was really interesting but by now, the idea of our hotel and air con was much more tempting. Lassiters was the hotel (neighbours?) and this was a casino as well. It was full of a rather odd collection of people and seemed quite funny when we were going to breakfast the next morning that the casino was still in operation though not many about. We had chosen to go on an optional tour to the Western MacDonald Mountain Range which is quite spectacular and Laurie, the coach captain took us on various walks to chasms, gorges and water holes which were amazing sights, we crossed a river at one point on any bits of stone you could find which was precarious to say the least, Sal got stuck and had nowhere to move to, everybody behind had to wait until fellow traveller Roger became Sal's knight in shining armour. For the return across the river,
Christmas Day
On the Old Colonial Melbourne Tram Col picked up a small boulder and carried it to the point where Sal got stuck and threw it down!!!! It all would have been even more stunning if the blasted rain hadn’t followed us again! The average rainfall for this area is about an inch a year, well we had it all in the couple of days we were here. The red arid landscape was transformed with lots of greenery - Laurie was quite pleased, we didn’t share his pleasure. Amazingly, the whole of Oz has a water shortage except the very dry centre who have lots of water bores, done by the Americans during the war and still serving them today and supplying all they need. It was an interesting day and of course we were accompanied by a thousand million flies - how do they live with them all the time! Lunch on a homestead, part of a cattle ranch with a strange bloke playing the piano beautifully!
In the evening we went to Tucker in the Outback - sounds awful but it was great! Various things going on including a guy throwing boomerangs and they did come back! A talk about Aborigines, a guy cooking
Alice Spring
Not a spring at all this huge loaf of bread in a hole filled with god knows what and then cooking for about 80 of us on the open bbq. Fantastic steak!
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