Melbourne: Seeing the City, Wildlife and Great Ocean Road

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Travbuddy Melbourne



The flight from Alice Springs to Melbourne was nothing short of horrific (and that's not just my opinion; my two Dutch friends who have never had a problem with flying also said how awful it was). It was mainly the take off and landing that was bad (although as it was a two hour flight then there wasn't that much in between). As we took off from Alice, we quickly started turning to the left and did a u-turn. It was a pretty windy day and the heat rising also caused some bumps. It was a real roller coaster ride. It didn't help that the Alice Springs airport gates look like you are entering a local outdoor swimming pool with its dusty dirt track to walk along to get to the plane. The landing was very similar, including the super tight u-turn and I was real glad to touch down. First thing I noticed was how green the state of Victoria is especially compared to the red centre where I had just come from. Gone were the orange and red sands, being replaced by a more healthy green. This meant only one thing...rain! It was a lovely, warm, dry day when we arrived in Melbourne. Elise and Maaike helped me find my bus and I had a nice chat with the old fella who drive me as his lone passenger to the doorstep of my Irish pub and backpacker's hostel in the St Kilda area of the city.



I had booked myself on a tour to Phillip Island the next day to see the Penguin Parade and so I was up and on the tram in the morning to get to my meeting point in front of St Paul's cathedral. The journey to Phillip Island is a two hour one from the city but this was broken up with a few stop offs before a stop at a wildlife sanctuary for lunch and then for a hour or so with the animals. It was great to be close to native Australian animals and get the chance to feed them...although for some reason the picky buggers weren't that fussed on my grub. I'd bought a tub of food in the shop so it was all the same stuff as everyone else was offering but a good few times the kangaroos turned their noses up at it. I wasn't deterred though and after feeding an ostrich that I can only describe as the ghost of Rod Hull (I managed to keep all ten fingers and thumbs; just) I set about finding a victim, sorry kangaroo to feed. About 4 kangaroos in I found an albino one who was glad of the food. Maybe he'd been neglected because of his disability? Being shunned by the other kangaroos was enough, I wasn't going to leave him out in the cold. He lapped up what I had on offer and we were both happy with our two way transaction...I had fed a kangaroo and he no longer felt he was the scourge of marsupial society.



After a look around the sanctuary it was off across the short bridge and onto Phillip Island. We had a look around the visitors centre and our bus driver Simon (who really reminded Hannah, the English girl I'd befriended, and I of Dr Cox from Scrubs) prepped us for the evening ahead. The penguin parade happens after dark, the Little Penguins (the name for the species found there) have been out in the sea fishing for food and will only cross the foreshore when the sun goes down to protect themselves from their predators as they are only camouflaged in the sea.They usually gather in packs for safety in numbers and will make the journey from the beach to the green burrows together. We were strictly not allowed to take photos as this could frighten the penguins and damage their eyesight. It is all set up there for us to merely watch as they go about their business, they come first. There is even a part of the walk way with a crossing for them where humans have to give way. I liked the fact they took priority. We were given a sponge mat to sit on and were shown to our seats on stone steps to watch the parade. As the sun disappeared, the penguins began to appear, slowly at first and in their groups. They had different tactics; some groups waddling as quickly as they could across the sand, some crawling slowly and others dashing to various rocky points of safety. It was really cute to see them making their way home. It began to rain and so Hannah and I decided to walk alongside the penguins up to the undercover area, now wearing our mats as hats. We saw loads of the Little Penguins passing by before it was time to get back on the bus and head back into the city. Hannah had booked herself on the Great Ocean Road tour the next day as I had so we were looking forward to spending the day together again.



That didn't happen. I was tired, I was confused by the changing time zones, I just didn't check the details properly...basically I missed the bus the next morning. I was waiting outside St Paul's at 7:55am pick up that had already happened at 7:15am. When I realised my mistake, I'd already left a voicemail to the company saying how upset I was. I went back to my hostel and called the company from there, knowing they were now open to take calls. As soon as I said "I was meant to be on a tour today..." the lovely girl on the other end of the phone said "Leanne, where were you? The driver was waiting for you." Oops, I confessed that it was my fault and blamed it on tiredness and time zone changes. Poor Hannah will never know what happened to me as we were going to swap details while on that second trip. The girl on the phone was great though, she organised for me to be picked up outside my hostel for the next morning's trip (scared I'd not make it for a second day) and wavered the card charges as I had to pay a $25 charge for not turning up that morning. So, what to do with the day?



Laura and Andy, my Welsh friends I'd met on the Darwin to Alice trip had flown to Melbourne and offered to meet up with me in the city when they heard what had happened. I got back on the tram and met them in the city. We had a great day together, quite relaxed as we strolled around Victoria market and looking around Federation Square. We went into the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) and saw a great Dreamworks animation exhibition as well as their permanent exhibition about film, TV and video games which I found particularly interesting.



The next day I managed to meet the bus on the doorstep of my hostel...a good start to the day I thought! As soon as I got on the bus Paul, the driver said "Leanne, you're on your own yea? Sit up in the front seat so you can talk to me and keep me awake when I'm driving." It's like I have a sign on my head that reads "I can talk for Wales." We drove out of the city and past Geelong to a lovely little beach stop called Urqhart Beach. The lighthouse there was used in the filming of the 90s children's TV show called 'Round The Twist' which I used to love so was really pleased to see. We then drove further along the coast and onto The Great Ocean Road. The road was built by returning forces men who had served in Europe in the First World War and was designed to join up the small townships along the coast. We drove along the winding road, admiring the sea view on one side and the forest on the other side as we travelled. The sight was really spectacular even if the drive was a little rough in places. We stopped again, to see some wildlife...in the wild. We saw different birds and wild koalas in the trees and I even saw one climbing a tree, which not a sight you see often as koalas sleep for 20 out of 24 hours. On our next stop we went on a 20 minute rainforest walk, admiring the mighty Mountain Ash trees which are one if the tallest trees in the world.



A bit more driving and we arrived at the spot where you can see the Twelve Apostles on the coast line. The Twelve Apostles (only ever 9 though and named so in the 1950s to attract tourists) are pieces of the coastline that stand out alone in the sea like chess pieces on a board. I knew this was to be a particularly special sight and took the advice of the driver to book myself on a helicopter flight to see it all from the air. I was a little nervous as I'd never been in a helicopter before but as soon as we left the ground I felt at ease and absolutely loved it. I was in a small 4 seater helicopter and was sat next to the pilot who looked like he was playing a video game with his joystick. The view was amazing and the ride thrilling. I took as many photos and videos as I could on the short trip and bounced back to the bus, thanking Paul for persuading me to do it. We made a couple more stops where we could go down onto the beach and see some of the Apostles from ground level and I marvelled at the blues of the ocean as the waves crashed again the yellow of the rocks. Stunning. I really enjoyed that trip, which was just as well as that was my main draw to visit Melbourne.



Melbourne city itself is beautiful too. It has been voted the world's most liveable city a few times and it's easy to see why. There is some fantastic architecture both new and old from the Victorian and Colonial eras, the trams are easy to ride and go everywhere and it's a fairly laid back for a large city (around 4 million or so residents). I spent the next couple of days hanging out with Laura and Andy as well as Amy, my English roommate from my hostel. We went shopping (this time I needed a few things) and went to Federation Square and an Aussie sports bar to watch the AFL football final and soak up the atmosphere. They go mad for Aussie Rules out here, Melbourne in particular is a very sporty city and their Teams the Hawthorne Hawks smashed the Sydney Swans to take the cup so there were a few happy people about town. Plenty of Sydney-siders there too to watch the game either in the 100,000 seater stadium or in the pubs and squares showing the spectacle. We are still lost as to what happens in the sport and decided to re-name the game 'Hot Potato' (quietly though as not to ruffle the feathers of the surrounding fans). So, I'd definitely recommend Melbourne and can see why people were confused as to why I'd not visited on my last trip to Australia. I give it a big thumbs up!

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