Wednesday 12 December 2012

Melbourne

... Following on from the Tasmania post...


Day 8
Out of this 17 day trip I was given the sole responsibility of organising the 3 days in Melbourne – as I’m more of a city girl and James seems to be all about the outdoors. Did I mention he spent $500 on new hiking gear for himself prior to this trip and has decided that ‘hiking chic’ is going to be his style for the next few years?

Anyway… we arrived in Melbourne and something strange was going on. James was in a bad mood. We’re not sure why exactly, perhaps it stemmed from the airhostess in Launceston making him throw away his just bought coffee before boarding. I would like to admit that it is usually me that has ‘irrational’ bad moods – you know the ones where you feel pissed off but you can’t quite pin point why, or you know it’s over something silly but you can’t help being moody.

We were on our way to the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) to do a tour, when we passed Zara. Zara!!! We do not have Zara in Queensland and I like this store very much. We popped in but it was not an enjoyable experience as I had grumpy James in tow saying how silly all the clothes were. Now, I’m not ready to adopt full on ‘hiker chic’ yet so I told James that from then on we just shouldn’t shop in stores that I like together as he ruins it. (I was very patient in BOTH the Hobart and Melbourne branches of Kathmandu.)

The MCG Tour did manage to cheer him up and I actually found it really interesting. We had a lovely older chap named Ray taking us round and he was a fountain of knowledge on all things AFL and Cricket.


MCG


That evening we caught the tram up to Brunswicks St – which is the ‘cool’ area of the city. We had drinks and dinner at Little Creatures Dining Hall, which was awesome.


Day 9
In a plan to redeem himself for the Zara episode, James directed us to DFO shopping village – in fact he was so keen we got there before the shops opened!

After some purchases and a walk along Southbank, we went up to the Eureka Skydeck viewing floor, walked the botanical gardens and saw the Fashion and Ballet exhibit at the National Gallery of Victoria – luckily for James it was quite small! At sunset we returned to the Skydeck to watch the sun go down with a glass of sparkling. After the ‘trendy’ dinner the night before, we went ‘classy’ and dined at Spice Lounge on Southbank, delicious!

I really enjoyed Melbourne as a city. So many people have told me that it is their favourite city in Australia and I can see why so many Brits love it. It reminds me of a compact London, it has a district for any taste or need. But as an honorary Queenslander, it did feel a bit chilly at times! I'm headed back there when my friend Nikki visits in April and I can't wait to explore more, and maybe pop back to Zara. 

Daytime views from the Skydeck

Sunset from the Skydeck

Day 10
I had booked us onto a Yarra Valley Wine Tour so that neither of us had to miss out by driving. It was a full day of drinking, visiting 4 wineries! The tick cross system continued and we shared it with a few lucky people on our trip, including a really nice American family. Yet more wine was sent back to Queensland... including some sparkles, spot a trend?





By the time we got back to the city in the late afternoon we were both feeling on the sleepy side of drunk. So we had a nap followed by a low key evening as we had an early start the next morning, it was time to drive the Great Ocean Road…

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