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Published: November 27th 2022
10. Rocking Darth Vader
A rocking Darth Vader, buscking by the YarraWho starts major tram works on a Sunday!?!?
Given the trams down St Kilda road – i.e. the main road we are on and were relying on trams to travel on into central Melbourne! – were not running from today until late December we decided to head out the opposite way, to St Kilda beach. The trams were surprisingly busy for a Sunday, obviously the beach was the place to be!
Perhaps we were spoilt with the glorious beaches in New Zealand and Sydney (Bondi) but we found this beach a little disappointing. The water looks quite uninviting, a bit like in the UK! There was sea foam and seaweed on the beach…. it just didn’t look like you’d want to sit on the sand or paddle in the waves – which is probably why it was empty. Except for one guy in his wet suit who went out for a very long swim.
It was pleasantly sunny though, so we wandered along and found a little bar/restaurant so stopped for a coffee. Out of the sunshine, it was actually quite chilly with the sea breeze, I even had to put my coat on. We’d worked out we
1, St Kilda Beach
Stroll along St Kilda Beach, a bit overcast but warm enough could walk a bit further down and get a tram into the centre of Melbourne, avoiding St Kilda Road, so set off to find the stop. Pausing for a few minutes on the way to watch some people taking little sailboats out into the sea.
We got off the tram just by the river and decided to go to the Sea Life Aquarium. It was quite expensive and very, very busy but we saw some interesting fish, sea horses, penguins, sharks e.t.c. The tunnel was the highlight, it was amazing to see the large stingrays swimming straight over your head and almost looking you in the eye as they went past. It ended with a 4D Ice Age short film which was excellent, not only did the visual effects make it seem like you were part of the film, the seats rumbled and puffs of air were shot on your face and legs.
Once we emerged from the Aquarium we decided to walk along the Yarra River and admire the Christmas decorations on the many bridges spanning it. There were so many restaurants lining the banks of the river, as well as street performers (some better than others!).
2. Jelly Fish
Visit ti the Melbourne Sea Life Centre, lots of jelly fish We decided to have an early dinner as we’d missed lunch and stopped at a lovely place with views of the river for a meal and a nice cold beer.
There was nothing much else we wanted to do here, so we decided to head back to the hotel and start making plans for tomorrow and how we want to tackle the great ocean road. After walking in the wrong direction for a while, we realised our mistake and retraced our steps having to force our way through a mass of people leaving the afternoon showing of the Phantom of the Opera (not the best timing to travel back from that point!) then found what would’ve been the tram stop.
I have to say, the transport people were out and clearly identifiable to help people with the travel replacement chaos, which was nice – not sure that would’ve happened back in the UK! We were pointed to the bus stop (just head to the very large crowd of people!) and a bus pulled up just after we arrived.
We managed to squeeze onto the bus, which seemed full to capacity, much like the underground in peak time
2. Red Jelly Fish
Even some red ones! in London. The guy declared it was full, the doors just about closed and off we went….. then stopped, then off we went, then suddenly stopped, then we were away again. I think they must’ve just pulled some random guy off the street to drive this replacement bus.
After turning the bus around to head down the road, he seemed to keep pumping the brakes and flinging the standing passengers around the bus, it’s almost like he was doing it on purpose. Not content with this, he then clipped the kerb, stood on the brakes and what once was a full bus now had lots of empty space at the back as the standing passengers were all involuntarily thrown forward! At the same time a woman stood up from her seat pushing past saying she needed to get off – we hadn’t even gone back past the bus stop she got on at yet! She did indeed get off the first stop, it would’ve been much quicker to walk it!
He continued the same poor standard of driving all down the road, the roadwork people had to move extra cones for him to maneuver into the lane he
4. Shark
Got close up to the Sharks needed (there was a bendy bus twice the length behind us doing all this with no issues!). Suffice to say, it was a relief to get off in one piece at the end. I’m glad I’m not one of the poor people who have to use that service to get to and from work in rush hour over the next month!
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