Off to the Cold! - Melbourne

MELBOURNE – 20^TH JUNE – 4^TH JULY

I had my first taste of Business Class on the 2 hour flight to Melbourne. When the trolley dollys got to us they told us they were running out of one of the choices of sandwiches – toasted ham and cheese and would our kids prefer that over egg and cress…yes wouldn’t anyone?! So our kids got the last 3 toasties so I had to reject my egg and cress – cant stand it! The air hostess was really nice and brought me some extra pretzel snacks and said she would try and get me some more snacks. Then she appeared with a proper china bowl of prosscutio and parmesan salad with a proper knife and fork! Unbeknown to me, the man sitting with Oliver and Richard had told the air hostess he couldn’t eat egg for health reasons, so Richard told her I couldn’t either…will try that one again!! Nearest we will get to Business Class anyway!

Arrived at East Brighton in Melbourne to our 3^rd house swap of the trip. The house was really nice. This  was a smaller house though, so all 3 kids were in one room, but they quite enjoyed it really. The lady who we are swapping with has a very elderly cat called Sabella. It reminded us of our late cat – Jasmine. She couldn’t be picked up because it hurt her, but loved lots of attention.

The state of Victoria has quite cold winters. We had been warned that Melbourne would be very cold from the locals of much warmer climates in Australia, but laughed it off thinking us Pommies were used to such extreme weather and it never gets as cold as it does in the UK. But we must be acclimatized because it was blinking freezing! The first night we were welcomed by gale force winds and hail and on the morning news it showed pictures of the damage incurred throughout the night!

During the morning, Daisy lost the other top tooth when running away from Oliver teasing her and falling over. So she has a massive gap at the top now and cant really say her ‘s’ properly – very cute!

It was still grey and cold the next day so we had a drive along the coast, did a big shop and then drove to Sandringham.  Sandringham is a district next to Brighton where our friends, Liz and Alistair stayed on their 6 month trip, 2 years ago. We went to see the house where they stayed and called in on their neighbours and friends over the road. There was a tree blocking the pavement which had fallen down in the gales of the previous night next to their old house! 

We were invited to stay for tea which was really nice. They had 4 kids, so ours were occupied. Daisy’s 3^rd tooth fell out whilst there! The Australian tooth fairy must be very busy at the moment, but the exchange rate is in our favour for a change as the tooth fairy gives a dollar and not a pound!

MELBOURNE CITY

Melbourne had a great transport system and as well as buses and trains into the city has trams. It worked out cheaper though, strangely, for us to drive into the city, park at a $10 per day flat rate car park on the outer city and get either the free shuttle bus or free city circle tram into the city.

Melbourne is a great cosmopolitan city. We headed to Federation Square which is the central, meeting place for people. There is always something going on here and this season there is a light show – not the same as the one in Sydney but more of a winter theme, with campfire singing, lanterns etc.

We walked to China Town and had a late lunch. It seemed really cold and we were now grateful for the many fleeces which seemed to be a burden at one point when carrying loads of luggage to the warmer states of Australia! We walked back to Fed Square for the campfire singing and it was cancelled because of the weather – can you imagine cancelling stuff in England because of weather? Nothing would ever be on!

BRIGHTON BEACH

Brighton, where we are staying is a very posh area of Melbourne and the beach has a row of brightly coloured beach houses. We walked along the beach and it started to rain and there was a really sharp, cold wind. 

We were deliberating how much it would cost to own one of these beach houses, knowing that the ones at Sandbanks and Mudeford in Dorset are extortionate. Then we saw an advert for one for sale, unpowered – it was $215,000 (over £140k!)

DANDENONG RANGES

This was our 2^nd attempt at travelling to the Dandenong Ranges. We had all got in the car the previous day, set the SATNAV only to find we had a flat battery and weren’t going anywhere! The very kind, elderly man next door put the battery on charge for us so that meant we were too late to go that distance. The Dandenongs are a range of mountains with giant Mountain Ash trees and ferns. Its fantastic scenery driving through the ranges with cute little villages and a load of tea shops (not coffee as in the city). 

We drove up to Mount Dandenong which is the highest peak and which you can get a view over Melbourne. 

We then had a drive round and found a tea shop called Miss Marple as in Agatha Christie. It was full of memorabilia and served Yorkshire tea (music to our ears) and scones and jam and cream!

We then went on a Wombat hunt. They generally come out at night but in winter can be found in the afternoons. Emily really wanted to see one but we weren’t lucky.

On our second visit to the Dandenongs at the end of our Melbourne visit, we went to a place called Grant’s Picnic Grounds which sold little packets of bird food to feed the wild birds. The birds congregated within the grounds on the edge of the forest. We saw loads flying ahead and squawking like mad but they didn’t come down. There was a Chinese family intent on throwing their seed up in the air and all over the ground but still the birds didn’t come, so we decided not to waste our seed like that and just be patient. This paid off and in about 10 minutes we had flocks of Sulphur Crested Cockatoos, crimson rosellas, Aussie Galahs and even a parrot paid us a visit! They were completely surrounding us, landing on our heads, arms, shoulders, etc. Oliver was in his element. Unfortunately for the Chinese family – they had long gone!

We stayed there ages and although we had planned to go on a walk, we were starving so decided to go back to our favourite tea shop in Sassafrass. We ate Christmas lunch! Bizarre we know but apparently in Australia they have Christmas in July because in December eating a full Christmas roast in 40 degree heat is not that appealing. So we had turkey and cranberry toasted fingers and for afters for Richard -  Christmas pud!. With Christmas decs and music to accompany, it felt really strange!

PHILLIP ISLAND

Phillip Island is about 2 hours drive from where we were staying and is accessed via a bridge from the mainland. It is an island full of wildlife and fantastic rugged scenery. The main purpose for our visit was to see the Little Penguins or Fairy Penguins as they are also known which come out of the sea after dark to their burrows on the island. We had planned to make a day of it though and firstly went to a place called ‘Amaz’en things’ which was like an interactive, brain teasing fun house. One room was a defying gravity room which was really good. There was a maze outside and mini golf which was good to play in the sunshine and it was fortunately shining for us today!

We drove to Nobbies Point. This has a boardwalk where you can walk down and around the headland with fantastic, rugged scenery. Nobbies Rocks which you can see further out in to the sea is home to thousands of seals. We could see them lolling about on the sand through the telescope.

Then it was time to drive to the penguins. During winter, not as many penguins return to their burrows. There is a list which tells you how many came out the previous night which was about 700 and the time they came out which was 5.27pm! It was a lovely, sunny day so they said that the penguins could be a bit later because they wait until its really dark as they are nervous of predators which could be waiting.

The penguin site is a really good set up, with floodlights (they aren’t that bright) and graduated seating on the hillside. We managed to get front row seats, so we were literally on the beach a few yards from the sea. It was just like sitting in front of a huge TV and watching a live wildlife programme. We waited and waited and no penguins came. Finally, a little group came out of the sea at about 5.50pm. They come out of the sea in groups as they feel safer, then waddle really fast across the sand as this is where they are most vulnerable, the clamber up huge rocks. They are really small and weight about 1kg.

Later you can go and view the penguins amongst their burrows. That was fantastic, we were so close you could touch them. They stood in pairs outside their burrows, squawking, or some were still waddling, right at the side of us to theirs.  A wonderful experience!

THE GREAT OCEAN ROAD

We set off early for the long drive to and then along The Great Ocean Road. This was part of the Melbourne leg of the trip that we were most looking forward to, although quite a bit of time for the kids to be in the car.

The start of the ocean road starts at Torquay and there are various stop off points along the way. The road takes about 8 hours to drive along and stops just short of Adelaide. We had planned to just go as far as Port Campbell.

The road was built from 1919 by soldiers returning from WW1. It gave them a job, purpose and the chance for friendships as many had lost friends during the war. It was built to link all the seaside towns together and is a great road with an overload of fab scenery along the way.

We stopped off along the way at the many lookouts. First stop was Teddy’s Lookout at a place called Lorne.  We then went for a walk down to Erskine Falls, a high drop waterfall.

We had a lovely picnic lunch overlooking Apollo Bay in the sunshine, although it was fairly cool. The picnic bench next to us had a couple of ‘hippies’ they were making flat breads to cook on a little stove they had and making a very healthy looking salad. They were staying in a very old VW campervan which had window boxes on the front! Fantastic!

We then planned to go to the Otway Fly, a rainforest walk which graduates upwards whilst walking to a height of 25 metres so that you are almost level with the tree canopies of these very high gum trees. Unfortunately though for us, we arrived at 4.20pm and it closed at 4pm!

We had then planned to try to see some glowworms in Melba Gulley. This was a bush walk into the rainforest. We started at dusk and weren’t really sure where we were looking or what we were looking for. It was almost dark by the time we had reached the end of the walk and we just couldn’t see anything resembling a glow! The man from the café we stopped off at told us we would see loads on the bank sides, but we couldn’t really see any banks. Em was a bit freaked out by the dark, noises and the fact that snakes come out at night! Then just as we were about to go back to the car, Oliver spotted something glowing beyond the bushes. We then saw a few more, it was as if as it was getting darker they were switching on their lights! Difficult obviously to take photos though because the flash made them disappear, but we have some taken on night shots but they aren’t good enough quality to see on here.

We had a meal in a restaurant in Apollo Bay then went back to our motel, very basic but which suited us fine having 2 rooms and a bathroom.

Next morning we were back on route and visited Cape Otway lighthouse. On the way there the roads are tree lined with Eucalyptus and it was time for koala spotting. They were really difficult to see when driving, but Richard, the driver spotted the first one! Then as we saw one we began to see more and more. We got out of the car and took some photos. They are fairly high up and almost always asleep, I think they sleep 20 hours out of a day – I wish I were a Koala! They were so cute though and the smell of the eucalyptus was lovely.

We felt pretty elated as we then drove back onto the coast road, Richard said ‘all we need to see now is a whale (its whale season from may to October in these parts) and as we rounded the corner we saw what we think was a whale, plunging back into the sea with the spray from the blowhole. We stopped and looked again and again from the lighthouse but couldn’t see any more. Not sure if it was a whale but we like to think it was!

We were then back on track to the Otway Fly which is deep in the rainforest and a long drive from the coast line. The walk is really good and it looks so ancient you half expect to see a dinosaur emerging from the mass undergrowth of giant ferns! In fact, there is a dinosaur walk, where there are dinosaurs of varying species dotted amongst the trees. There was also a huge python which I didn’t see at first but which Richard had me on saying very convincingly that we better not go that way. Then I saw it, I almost jumped out of my skin, it was a huge plastic’ one that they had stuck in the tree above! 

On the walk, there is also a spiral type lookout tower which ascends to 47 metres. It was a particularly windy day and it was swaying, needless to say, we didn’t stay up there for very long!

Back on the road again, down to the coast road and on to see the many lookout features and most photographed area of the ocean road, close to Port Campbell. The soft limestone cliffs in this area, battered by rough seas for thousands of years have sculpted the rock into a series of rock stacks, gorges, arches and blowholes. 

First stop was Gibson Steps, steps which lead down to a large beach where you can see one of the 12 Apostles rocks. The tide here caught poor Daisy out and a wave rushed onto the beach really fast and she was soaked. We only had spare clothes, no spare shoes, good job it was almost the end of the day! Next stop - Loch Ard Gorge, a notorious stretch of coast for shipwrecks. Then another rock formation, the Arch and just round the corner London Bridge, a natural double arched bridge up until 1990 when one of the arches collapsed but still a pretty fantastic sight.  The final view was the 12 Apostles, we had saved this until last because it was nearing sunset and according to the books, these are at their best when viewed at sunrise or sunset. The books were right, the view was absolutely stunning. There are actually just 8 apostles left again because they have eroded from years of battering by the sea.

We then had a 3 and a half hour drive back to Brighton! We stopped off at Apollo Bay for some food. We obviously couldn’t get the most out of the road this time with it being dark but to see the Apostles at sunset was clearly worth it!

MORNINGTON PENINSULA

The Mornington Peninsula is a lovely area south of Melbourne where Melbournians go for their holidays, especially the rich ones some of which have holiday homes on here. We drove first to Arthurs Seat which is the highest point on the peninsula with wide views of Port Philip Bay. Then we went down to the end of the peninsula – Cape Schanck which has a boardwalk which you can walk all the way down on the beach which consists of basalt rocks. We had a walk around scrambling on the rocks around the headland, a very picturesque place.

We had then been invited to a bbq of some people we had never met. A brother and wife of some friends of ours. To say we had never met them we all had a really nice time, they were very hospitable and we all got on really well. The girls and I even went in their hot tub, it was freezing outside but nice and warm in the spa – until we got out that is!!

ST KILDA

This was our last day so we didn’t want to miss a visit to St Kilda, this is one of Melbourne’s oldest seaside towns. It was a cool, rainy day but we were determined to walk around the very trendy town, laden with masses of fantastic confectionary shops and then to Luna Park. Luna Park is an old fashioned theme park which has been a symbol of St Kilda since 1912 and features an old wooden roller coaster and carousel and its famous symbol of a laughing Mr Moon at the entrance. I really wanted to take a photo of the entrance but they were in the process of renovating it and it was covered up! St Kilda also has a pier, we had a walk along here, it seemed absolutely freezing, the wind was biting. We are so glad that we did though because we saw a couple of fairy penguins, huddled together in the breakwater.

We have had a fantastic time in Melbourne but are looking forward to getting back to a warmer climate again on the Sunshine Coast!