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Published: November 26th 2005
Well, have spent a few days in Melbourne in the Australian state of Victoria.
Flew from London with a couple of hours stopover in Singapore and then onto Melbourne. The journey was about 20 hours or so. Left London on a Tuesday night and got to Melbourne on a Thursday early in the morning. Needless to say was very tired.
Day 0 Stayed with some relatives who were quite enthusiastic to drive me around different parts of Melbourne. On the day I got there they took me to a reservoir/park area with a view of the city in the background. Pretty cold and windy, especially compared to the northern hemisphere summer I had been experiencing in the northern hemisphere. Nevertheless it was a good way to stay up to help combat jet lag. In fact I stayed up until midnight showing my relatives photos, so probably would have been awake for a couple of days by then as I didn’t really sleep on the planes.
Day 1 Surprisingly I woke up pretty early. One of my cousins took me into the city to show me around.
From the main train station on Flinders Street, we
went by tram to the Rialto Building, which has a really high observation deck, to get an overview of the city. The suburbs seemed to me to sprawl way into the distance. The centre of the city is a mix of colonial Victorian architecture and some really impressive modern stuff.
After the Rialto Building, we went back to the centre, and tried to go on a tour of the town hall but it was all booked. After a quick at St Paul’s cathedral we sat near the banks of the Yarra Rive and had some lunch. Quite nice, especially as the Sun had come out and it was not cold and windy like the previous day.
After lunch we went to an art gallery near Federation Square (
www.fedsquare.com.au) and looked at paintings by Australian artists.
After a couple of hours at the gallery, we went on a bit of a walking tour of the city centre. Heaps of shops and shopping arcades, cafes, and an amazing variety of restaurants and food places.
My cousin had to work that evening, but we were going to meet up again at a bar and then go for dinner in
one of the many restaurants later, but tiredness caught up with me and after more wandering around shops I caught a train back to where I was staying.
Day 2 Woke up early but ended up sleeping the morning away. In the afternoon another cousin took me on a drive around part of the bay that forms part of Melbourne harbour.
In the evening we went to an AFL, Australian Football League, Aussie Rules, or Footy game between the Collingwood Magpies and the Carlton Blues at the MCG, Melbourne Cricket Ground. I have to say that the MCG is a pretty impressive stadium even partially full. The game itself was pretty good, (I sort of knew what was going on as have seen AFL games on TV), but it was interesting to be there live. The teams were in fact battling it out for the wooden spoon, but the game still attracted about 49000 people. Australians are probably more sports mad than New Zealanders, there was another Footy game going on at another big stadium in the city, and pretty much next to the MCG at the Olympic Stadium there was a Rugby League game underway.
Anyway the AFL game started at about 7pm and finished about 10pm. Carlton won, and at the end of it, the played the Carlton team song, and quite a few of the spectators sung a long. I’m afraid I’m not a fan of sitting in a cold stadium, full of screaming Aussies, so probably won’t be doing it again, but it was generally a good natured crowd, (lots of family groups and with young kids), so if your are in Melbourne during the winter AFL season go along and see what you think for yourself. (
www.afl.com.au )
Day 3 Slept late, and went for brunch with my cousin in one of the many cafes and restaurants along Fitzroy Street in St Kilda, (beach side Melbourne suburb). Walked back to my cousin’s flat via a street market, Luna Park (old amusement park which is a local landmark), and along the beachfront. Very windy and a bit cold.
In the afternoon we went to Mount Macedon, about 1 or so from the city via the motorway. To me it was just a big hill out in the country. Very windy and cold at the top so we did not
stick around. (Apparently parts of Victoria/Melbourne had had snow a few days before I arrived.)
Day 4 More driving around, this time with my Auntie and Uncle in the countryside north of Melbourne. Countryside quite flat, and roads straight, compared to NZ.
Day 5 Went on a tour of the Great Ocean Road along part of the South Victorian coast. (
www.autopiatours.com.au )
I had met someone from Australia in Europe who said that if you have limited time to do things in Victoria then you should go on a tour of the Great Ocean Road.
Quite good. Left Melbourne about 830 in the morning. First stop was Bells Beach. Which was a surf beach. There really were surfers there. They had wetsuits, but still they are pretty had as it is pretty much the middle of winter, and the nearest big land mass is Antarctica, which is not known to be particularly warm.
Apart from a few scenic stops for photos the next stop was at Kennett River, where we drove up a side road, and you could see Koalas in the trees right by the side of the road.
After the
Koalas we had lunch stop at a small town beside the sea called Apollo Bay. Nice.
To walk off lunch we went to a temperate rain forest area for a bit of a walk, and then it was back on the Great Ocean Road, along the part called the Shipwreck Coast until we reached the 12 Apostles. The Twelve Apostles are basically a group of small islands that are very close to the coast. In fact about a mount ago one crashed into the sea, so there are not really twelve. Very pretty views.
After the Twelve Apostles we drove onto another island that once was joined to the land and had the named London bridge, however about 15 years ago one of the arches crashed into the sea, so that it no longer a bridge.
Next stop was a place we stopped was called Loch Ard gorge. The Loch Ard was a tea clipper that crashed into the coast in the 1800s. Only two people survived and they were washed into the gorge, hence the name.
By this time it was getting dark, so there was not much to see on the 3 hour drive
London Bridge
What's left of London Bridge, the bit in the middle fell down in about 1990.back to Melbourne.
Day 6 Went out again with a cousin. We planned to go to an exhibition of Old Dutch Master Painting. First though we parked in the car park of the Crown Entertainment complex. Combination of shopping malls, casinos, bars, amusement arcades. Not my cup of tea at all. Just a walk through though. We walked along the banks of the Yarra River past a huge selection of cafes and restaurants. Really nice day so we had lunch in a restaurant overlooking the river.
After lunch continued walking along the river, and then to the National Gallery of Victoria (
www.ngv.vic.gov.au) where the Dutch Masters museum was being held. (Apparently last year they had an exhibition of Impressionist paintings from overseas, and in the next 3 years there are going to be further international exhibitions.)
The exhibition was excellent. Portraits, landscapes, still life (but thankfully not too many), along with examples of glass and silverware. (It was really cool to see a piece of glassware in a picture, and then actually see the object for real.)
Day 7 Last day in Melbourne, wanted to just wander around the museums and galleries by myself.
Loch Ard Gorge
Loch Ard was a tea clipper that ran aground on the coast. Really only went to the excellent Museum of Melbourne. (
melbourne.museum.vic.gov.au ). Great angular modern building, glass, concrete, steel, which was an interesting contrast to the Victorian Exhibition Building next door.
Brilliant displays, standouts for me was the Bugs Alive section, (which included displays of live insects, spiders, scorpions, …), and the Aboriginal Centre.
They also had a display on Phar Lap, a great race horse from the 1930’s BORN IN NEW ZEALAND, but which the Australians claim as theirs :-)
There was also a display on Evolution, I noted that they had info on the scientists like Crick and Watson, but did not see anything on Maurice Wilkins, a scientist born in New Zealand who won a Nobel Prize for his contribution to research on DNA. Hmmm.
Anyway after the museum went to Fitzroy Gardens to have a look around Cook’s Cottage (parents of Captain James Cook), which was bought from England to Australia in 1933. Not much to it really though, but what do you expect from an 18th century cottage.
By this time it was mid afternoon, and it looked like it was going to rain, so instead of going on to other
places headed back to where I was staying.
Melbourne is an awesome place. In summary, Melbourne is a great city. It seems to combine well sprawling suburbia, with an interesting centre made up of beautiful Victorian buildings and striking modern architecture. It is a city of sport, shopping, food, culture, and history, and from where you can travel to some pretty spectacular natural scenery. Wish I had more time there.
Want to see more photos? Have a look at my website here:
http://www.firemanonasailingship.com/photos/
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Mandy
non-member comment
Wow!! Where to next?
Lookin' good. I loved the London photos too.