Ever since Jessica and I had booked a trip to visit Melbourne and Tasmania some weeks ago, excitement has been gradually building. Now that exams and essays were finished though, it was time to get properly in the mindset for some travelling and sightseeing!
I bought a return ticket for the Sky Bus, which would take me from the airport into the city centre. Jessica had travelled down earlier in the day and had gone for dinner with her cousin, but she had told me how she had made her way to the hostel where we were staying. Dead easy. When I arrived at Southern Cross station, I was supposed to make my way to the orange building, where I could pick up a free transfer to the hostel. However, typically, the place was already closed since it was quite late and I didn't have a street address for the hostel. I hailed a taxi and told the guy the name of the hostel and roughly where I understood the place to be - of course, he hadn't heard of it. Perfect. Eventually, I managed to catch up with Jessica near Flinders Street station and we walked to the hostel. It was already late and with a busy few days ahead, it was straight to sleep.
The next morning, we got up fairly early and headed out into the city. We had our priorities in order and found a place to have breakfast first. After that, we wandered around the shops for a while and made some prudent purchases: jumper, hat, scarf and gloves. It's quite a bit colder down in Melbourne than it is in Sydney. We also stopped by Woolworths to get some food supplies, so that we wouldn't have to eat out for breakfast and lunch each day. The shopping was dropped back at the hostel and we headed back out for the day. We started with a walk through the Royal Botanic Gardens, past Government House of Victoria and taking in views of the Rod Laver Arena and Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The Rod Laver Arena, where the Australian Open tennis tournament is held each year.
This is the Government House building for the state of Victoria. It was nice, though I prefer the New South Wales version.
We walked through a large part of the gardens, though there is just too much to see it all in one day, so we moved on to see some more of the city. Next, we visited the War Memorial, which is an enormous size and offers a great view of the city skyline. We also inadvertently stumbled into some sort of memorial service thing, though it was all a bit of shambles and we quickly made our exit.
Here's me outside the War Memorial.
The next stop was at the lake in Albert Park, which is where the Formula One Grand Prix is held in Melbourne each year. It was really cool to see the place, even without a race being on and I'd absolutely love to come back one day and watch the Formula One there.
Looking across the lake at Albert Park.
I took some photos and then we began heading towards the city centre once more. Some lunch was in order, though we had to be at the Melbourne Cricket Ground by 4:30pm for the AFL game which we'd bought tickets for beforehand. In the interests of not being late - we seem to spend far too much time running to places or events, arriving just in the nick of time - we decided that hot chips at the stadium would do fine for food.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground - or MCG as it's known - is absolutely huge. It holds a little over 100,000 people and is therefore the biggest stadium that I have ever stepped foot inside. It just beats Wembley in London and is a whole 25,000 seats bigger than Old Trafford. Unfortunately, for the Aussie Rules game we went to, the stadium wasn't even close to capacity and there were still around 25,000 people at the match. We watched Melbourne Demons lost against North Melbourne, who scored 107 points to only 66 in reply.
Although we were wrapped up, it was bitterly cold by the end of the game and I was glad when the final whistle eventually went. Jessica snapped a quick picture of me as we were leaving the stadium.
We walked back to the city along the 'Walk of Champions' which has photographs of each of the Australian Open tennis champions. I also took the opportunity to have my photograph taken outside the famous neon sign. Another sporting event which I'd love to attend some day.
Once back in the city, it was time for dinner. We headed to an Italian restaurant near the river and the food was really good. It has to be said, we're pretty excellent at choosing restaurants. The final plan for the day was to ride the elevator up the Eureka Sky Tower and take in some stunning views over the city. At the top of the tower, you can see for miles all across the city and suburbs of Melbourne. It was a really clear, cloudless night which was totally perfect for being able to see all of the famous landmarks.
There is an outdoor section up the tower, where you are exposed the whistling winds and painful cold. I ran out quickly, took some pictures and dived back inside the heated building.
This photo is looking towards the coast. The dark area to the left hand side is the lake at Albert Park. anyone who knows the layout of the Formula One circuit here will be able to recognise a few of the turns, laid out by the streetlights.
It had been a long day, so we headed back to the hostel and I think I may have been asleep before my head hit the pillow. I was totally shattered.
The next morning, we were up, showered, dressed and out of the hostel early once again. A few days before heading to Melbourne, Jessica had booked a hire car for the day, so that we could drive down the Great Ocean Road and see the Twelve Apostles. We arrived at the car hire place, finding that we had been allocated a black Nissan Micra for our trip. After a little bit of navigational improvisation from myself, as Jessica was driving, we were soon out of the city and on the motorway heading south. We made our first stop outside of Geelong in order to get some bottled water and an auxiliary cable for some musical entertainment.
This is the car, taken at the first stop for photos on our road trip.
This photo was taken at the same viewpoint. Even in winter, on a grey, cloudy day, the colour of the water was a mesmerising blue.
We captured a snap of this sign, signalling the official start of the Great Ocean Road.
Jessica captured this great photo of a rainbow over the water, whilst I was driving.
Although the day had started off with clear skies and sunshine, by the time we were on our way along the Great Ocean Road, the heavens had opened and the rain was torrential.
We stopped off for lunch at a little beach. Jessica braved the rain to snap some pictures.
It took around 3 hours of driving, albeit down a fantastic road with stunning scenery, before we reached the Twelve Apostles. The Twelve Apostles are essentially standing stacks of rock which have been left as the cliffs have eroded around them over hundreds of years. Whilst they are called the Twelve Apostles - and one did collapse a few years back - there have in fact never been twelve. Interesting fact of the day. When we arrived at the visitor centre car park, it was clear that the weather was not going to break anytime soon. The decision was made to wrap up and make a quick run to take some pictures and then sprint back to the car.
It was a fairly miserable day to have gone to see the Twelve Apostles, as this picture full of umbrellas and waterproof jackets shows.
We did find time for a wonderful, damp selfie! Hahaha!
The Apostles themselves were still amazing however and in some ways, it was maybe even better to have seen them with the waves crashing against the rocks and the rain pounding down.
There was just enough feeling left in our hands to get some, "I was there" photographs. I look suitably soaking and freezing here!
Photos completed, we literally ran back to the car, only stopping off at a toilet to make use of the hand dryers, which were turned off. Convenient. We drove back towards Geelong on our way to Melbourne, conscious that we had to return the car by 6pm that evening. When we stopped for fuel, I phoned the hire company to let them know that we were running late. The woman told me that we had up until 9:30am the following morning to return the vehicle, which was annoying since we'd been rushing around all day, though it did mean we could now relax and avoid trying to navigate the city at rush hour. Eventually, we found a car park to leave the car overnight and began the search for a restaurant for dinner. We settled on an Indian restaurant not far from the hostel and it was definitely one of the best Indian meals I've had for a while. After another long day, it was straight to sleep after dinner.
We had another early start the following morning so that we could return the car to the hire place. The weather was as bad as we had experienced in Melbourne so far, as the gusting wind blew the rain up and under umbrellas and jacket hoods. It was also bitterly cold, but we braved the conditions to take a walk around the Queen Victoria Market after returning the car. Struggling with the temperatures - it wasn't even that cold, maybe only 8 degrees celsius, but it's as cold as I've experienced for a while - we decided to take refuge in a cafe and have breakfast.
Some posh porridge, banana bread and coffee at the Federal Coffee Palace in Melbourne.
After breakfast, the next stop was a visit to the Melbourne Museum. On the way, we walked by the Royal Exhibition Building, which provided a pretty good photo opportunity.
The museum was great; certainly one of the better ones I've visited in Australia. The collection of animals and sea creatures was possibly my favourite part and it reminded me of Kelvingrove. We also took a quick walk around the State Library and then moved on to see some of the famous graffiti lane-ways in the city. Melbourne has a whole load of designated alleyways where graffiti art is permitted and therefore not removed or painted over. They make a great spectacle and make industrial brick walls far more appealing to the eye.
For a while, there was a particularly famous painting of Heath Ledger's Joker character from the Batman film, though it has since been painted over by something else. It would have been amazing to see it in real life. Conscious of the time, knowing that we had plans for the evening, we quickly took in some of the National Gallery of Victoria.
Large parts of the gallery are closed on Tuesdays, which actually worked in our favour. We still managed to see some cool stuff - these polar bears were probably the best.
The exasperated looking red-coloured bear was my personal favourite. I felt it perfectly reflected Man Utd's season last year. It should be called Moyes.
With another attraction visited on our whirlwind week, it was time to return to the hostel and get ready for the theatre. Some weeks ago, whilst in Brisbane, I had spotted an advert for a production of Les Miserables in Melbourne. As soon as we knew we were going to be in Melbourne at the time, we decided to get tickets. I'd been looking forward to it for weeks! We headed out to Chinatown and had dinner. The chopsticks were as challenging as ever, but the food was brilliant once again. It seems that in the space of a few days, I'd enjoyed some of the best Indian and Chinese food that I've ever had.
After dinner, we walked to Her Majesty's Theatre and found our seats.
The show was absolutely outstanding, just as expected. I've also now seen Les Mis on two continents, which is something I guess most people can't say they've done! After the show and with a very early flight to Hobart ahead of us the next day, we got straight home, organised our bags and got to sleep.
Attempting to wake up, strip a bed and gather all of our bags at 6am, in a room with ten other sleeping people was a challenge, to say the least. However, I think we managed to sneak out without disturbing anyone too much. We caught the train to Southern Cross Station and then jumped on the Sky Bus to take us back to the airport. Since Jessica had an outrageously large bag for hand luggage, which was almost certainly over the weight limit, we used the self check-in machines to print our boarding passes. I caught up on the news from overnight as we enjoyed breakfast. I almost choked on my croissant when I read that Luis Suarez had bitten someone AGAIN! He's incredible. The flight to Hobart was quite short once again - around one hour - and it was quite sunny when we landed in Tasmania.
A view over Seven Mile Beach from the plane, shortly before arriving at Hobart airport.
Hobart is another tiny airport and it didn't take us long to make our way outside and find the minibus which would be taking us to our hostel in the city. We arrived at the hostel and checked in, then headed into the town - or city, I'm not really sure - to get some food. I enjoyed a dark chocolate and chilli hot chocolate with lunch, which was immense and went some way to combatting the cold outside! We also stopped by the supermarket to get some more groceries for breakfasts and lunches.
This was our room in the hostel.
Later, we went to see the harbour and some more of the town. The large orange ship in this next picture is the Aurora Australis which is in an icebreaker ship that has made several voyages to Antarctica.
We even found time for a quick model photo shoot. I'd like to clarify that this is not a serious photo, but it is very funny!
We had a chilled afternoon, then got ready to head back out to dinner. We enjoyed another lovely meal with a bottle of wine, followed by a few drinks in one of the quirky little pubs in the town. We intended to have one drink, which turned into two and then three. By the time we were heading back to the hostel, Jessica had aired the idea that we find a nightclub to continue our night. In hindsight, it was a good decision to go home though, with another long, busy day ahead.
Here's Jessica posing with some pretty lights.
The next day, we got up and walked to the harbour to catch the ferry to Mona, nursing a bit of a headache and running a little late. Mona is an acronym, which stands for Museum of Old and New Art and it had been recommended as one of must-see places in Hobart.
There was a nice view of the city as we left the harbour on the ferry. You can see Mount Wellington in the background to the left.
The ferry also sailed beneath the famous Tasman Bridge, which closed after being struck by a ship in 1975, causing part of the bridge to collapse.
It was really cold again and by the time we got Mona the rain had started again. It took us an age to find the entrance to the museum itself, which seemed to be disguised as the opening to a shopping centre. All part of the hipster, modern-art experience, I guess. In truth, the whole gallery was a little underwhelming and I didn't enjoy it very much. Whilst the name suggests that the place displays both old and new art, everything seemed quite contemporary and strange. Most of it was beyond me; maybe I just wasn't appreciating the intricacies or the messages behind the artwork. Anyway, I concluded that modern art appreciation wasn't my forte.
We did play table tennis on a really cool table, which may have been the most fun part of the day!
This abstract map of Australia was quite interesting too.
The room full of blank books was also intriguing, though I question whether there is anything artistic here at all.
Having seen all of the galleries at Mona, we caught the ferry back to Hobart. Our plan for the evening was to hire another car and drive up Mount Wellington to take in the views. We got the car, grabbed some food from the hostel and started the long ascent up the mountain. The views out over the city as we climbed were superb, just as the sun was beginning to set, though clouds were starting to roll in.
As we neared the summit of the mountain, we stopped to take some more photographs.
The wind was howling at the summit of the mountain and there was snow on the ground, so we quickly braved the cold to snap some photos then dived back into the warm car. The thermometer on the car was showing just above zero degrees celsius, but I think the wind chill must have taken it down to minus two or three, at least. I completely forgot I was in Australia.
Although we had brought sandwiches along for dinner, we decided that something suitably warmer was in order. Having eased our way down the narrow mountain road, we walked to a local pizza takeaway shop and got ourselves a far better evening meal. Dinner finished, I took on Jessica at pool. She claims to have won the game, but when you "win" by dropping balls into the pockets every time your opponent isn't looking, I'm not sure it counts! Haha!
Though it was the final night of our trip, we weren't flying back to Sydney until the following evening, so had another early night to make the most of the next day. We were up early once more, with the car packed and ready for a drive south towards Port Arthur. The small, secluded town is the site of an old convicts prison and looked like a fascinating place to visit. The drive took around an hour and a half and it was great to be behind the wheel of a car for the second time in a week.
There were more brilliant views across the water on the way.
We arrived at the prison site and bought our tickets, which included a tour and a boat cruise. We wandered around the museum part of the centre before heading down to the jetty and boarding the boat.
Here's me on the boat, which took us around the bay and around the Isle of the Dead.
This was the view from the boat, looking back towards the prison.
The Isle of the Dead where all of the officers and convicts who died at the prison were buried. There was an extraordinary number of bodies essentially dumped on the tiny island. Quite unbelievable.
On our way back to Hobart, we stopped by a blow hole to have lunch. Unfortunately, there wasn't a high enough tide or big enough waves to see the blow hole in action. Though, it still afforded us a nice spot to take some more photos.
The final stop on our journey back was at Seven Mile Beach, which we'd seen from the plane a few days earlier. The beach is amazing, even in the winter.
Jessica taking some artistic snaps.
One final photograph of the sun setting over Hobart, for good measure. I've definitely taken more than my fair share of scenic photographs during my time in Australia.
After returning the car to the hire company, we went to the pub for a beer before it was time to go to the airport. Having checked in and sat around for a while, we boarded the plane and found our seats. We chatted for a while, before I fell asleep. Our post-exam adventure was over. Another two states and cities visited in Australia. Kerry was due to arrive in Sydney early the next morning, for the start of another crazy busy fortnight. I'm sure the next blog post will be equally as action-packed as this one has been!
Until then,
Jamie
