Easter was coming and the weather forcast was grim. Showers were predicted in most of New Zealand, gale force winds in Wellington and no relief over the long Easter weekend. Thus, we decided to travel westward to Koala-land. We checked Sydney off the list last August so this time we set a course for Melbourne.
With our carry-on bags packed full of our usual self-sustaining snacks and entertainment for longer plane flights, Quantas pulled a fast one on us by providing personal entertainment screens and genuine Tip Top ice cream during the flight...how spoiled are the spoiled? Once in Melbourne we caught the SkyBus that dropped us off at our hotel. Both of us were still pretty knackered from the week but we wandered out for a light dinner and some breakfast fixings and had a good nights rest.
Stepping out of our hotel the next morning, we went for a wander around the Treasury Gardens and neighbouring Fitzroy Gardens. Home to Cooks Cottage, a Conservatory and the Model Tudor Village, this made for a lovely walk to start the day. The model tudor village turned out to be more...toy model...than I was expecting and much to our dismay Callie could not go for a wander around to play giant.
Not on our map but definitely exciting was this wonderful dragon slide. I did my best to take it for a ride the way one would expect to ride a dragon.
Failing to convince her to take flight, I was left with no other choice then go for a slide.
This park was filled with these birds that, despite their attractive appearance, had quite the cackle song.
Our stop at St. Patrick's Cathedral found a statue of one of my mother's favourite saints, St. Francis of Assisi, with whom Callie posed for the camera.
In our search for aventura, we booked two last minute seats on the Penguin Parade tour that took us to a heritage farm on Churchill Island, the Koala Conservation Centre and the Phillip Island Penguin Parade. At the heritage farm we found, what else, but Scottish cows roaming the paddocks, lavender and sheep shearing demonstrations. We spent most of our time with this very chatty Cathy.
The next stop on our cute-n-cuddly road trip was the Koala Conservation Centre. The first one we happened across was definitely in the middle of nap time.
I related with this one quite well though as we watched him digging in on these leaves for the better part of 10 minutes. I was quite curious about how good those leaves were but the cafe at the centre did not have them on the menu.
This Koala had found some tasty treats a little too close to the people walk, making for great photo opportunities for us, and a few more grey hairs for the staff member trying to keep people away from the hungry little one.
The Koala Conservation Centre was also home to many cute little wallabies. We were advised by our tour guide that we could feed the wallabies if we wanted, we just had to catch them first! This one did not seem to eager to find out what the little boy chasing him wanted to share!
Cameras are actually forbidden from the Penguin Parade, since apparently the flash of the camera can cause the Penguins to have life threatening fits. You'll just have to take our word that there was an abundance of adorable little fluffy blue penguins who all emerged from the sea at their appointed time and made their ways very cautiously, and eventually noisily to their burrows.
Day Two started with the breakfast recommended in our Melbourne Official Visitor Guide for The Pancake Parlour. A distinctly "old-timey" restaurant specializing in sugar-coma-inducing pancake treats, Callie found the whole wheat pancake with fresh strawberries delicious while I dove in to the classic pancakes, hashbrowns and poached eggs.
Downtown hosts a genuine two storey Target, complete with banners, knick knacks and a new wallet for myself. Melbourne was also home to the only Costco we have seen down under giving us the distinct impression Melbournites know how to shop.
A visit to the Queen Victoria market not only yielded a new casual dress for Callie and a bit of musical fun, but also a batch of hot-out-of-the-fryer jam donuts that were exactly as good as they sound. There were no left overs.
We spent a little more time wandering around the city after renting some of the city's bike share two-wheelers. We found our way along the docklands area then rode up the Yarra river boardwalk and walked around the Art's centre market where we found a nice Melbourne memento.
That evening we took part in the international comedy festival and went and saw The Comedy Zone that featured some good Australian comedians. Callie predicted there would be a few good regional jokes that might fly over our heads, but fortunately we can take our cue when to laugh pretty well. The next day we went on another bike ride around the city to see a few more sites and were off to the airport for our journey back to Wellington. Melbourne was a fun place to visit, with lots of entertaining ways to get around and cool sites to see making for a wonderful weekend getaway.
