Hail Melbourne

G’day,

Well Laura and I visited Melbourne a couple of weekends ago and here’s our story:

Up at 3:00am to catch our 6:10am flight from Sydney Domestic.  Arrived in Melbourne no probs and jumped on the Skybus to the CBD.  Now there was only ever going to be one place to visit first, and that was the famous “Ramsay street”.  For those who have somehow missed Neighbours throughout their lifetime, this is the fictitious street from the soap that most of the characters live in.  Ramsay street itself is actually the real suburban street of Pin Oak Court.  All the iconic houses on Pin Oak are privately owned but fans/tourists are free to visit it.  There are numerous tours going to the street and the various other filmling locations, however, not being avid fans we were happy to make our own way there via tram and a bit of walking.  The street itself is underwhelming and compact, but the houses within it are instantly recognisable.

Outside the Kennedy house on "Ramsay Street"

Outside the Robinson and Ramsay houses

Plenty of pictures later and we got the tram back into CBD, found our hostel (Victoria Hall) and dropped the bags off.  For the rest of the day we explored the Queen Victoria market – a bustling hub for locals to get their fresh food and goods, and Carlton Gardens – which contain the Royal Exhibition building and the Melbourne Museum.  The museum was free entry for concession and turned out the be fairly interesting, although the live spider section did not interest Laura.

Our very cosy hostel room...

Early evening we went back to the hostel for a quick power nap.  That was the idea anyway.  Half 2 in the morning and we woke up.  Oops!

Well rested the next day, we were up early and headed to the south east corner of the Melbourne CBD.  Here, just outside the CBD, is located the great Melbourne Cricket Ground, or MCG.  We were just going to go for a wonder around it but I was enticed inside by the promise of a tour, why not, the weather wasn’t great.  Naturally 5 minutes into the tour the clouds clear and pure sunshine emerges.  But more about the infamous Melbourne weather later.  I was pretty impressed by the tour, the modern sportsman and the club members are certainly well looked after.  The members facilities makes sitting in the standard seats feel like sitting in a pile of manure.  Getting to walk onto the pitch was defo a highlight.  However, in the end all modern stadiums seem to look the same and I would have probably preferred to see the MCG in previous eras with its old orginal stands.

The MCG

Outside the Rod Laver stadium

After the tour we checked out the Rod Laver arena which hosts the Australian Open and then ventured to the Yarra river which runs along the southern edge of the CBD.  Apparently until recently the Yarra was a bit of a muddy nothingness.  It seems alot of renovation has taken place because to us it seemed perfectly picturesque.  We sat and chilled on the banks for a while to watch a water skiing comp.

Water skiing comp on the Yarra river, note the clear sky

Next it was the Royal Botanic Gardens.  This would be one of the first positives we noticed about Melbourne.  Never seen a city with so many good parks and gardens around it.  A ten minute walk from the CBD and you’re into the Botanic Gardens.  We had lunch here under the clear blue skies and then it was onto what I had been most looking forward to – the F1 track in Albert Park.

The F1 track at Albert Park... try and spot Laura

It took us about 10 minutes to walk there from the gardens, and during this time the clouds had come over.  Ok no big deal, it was still over 20 degrees and the clouds weren’t that dark.  We started walking down the track, along the side of the lake that is opposite to the pits and start.  The track is used as normal roads for 11 month of the year.  Luckily for us with the race only a few weeks away they had put up much of the gear to form the track, giving us a great impression of the final product, and we were able to walk down it uninterrupted.  Although the course itself looks quite straightforward, the setting around the lake makes up for it.  Then out of no where – ok I admit maybe Laura did mention something about a bit of thunder in the distance – hail starts pelting us.  Hail??!!  Where did that come from.  Que a seriously made dash to find any cover, which ended up being the building of the local rowing club.  The outside not the inside I should add.  After a rapid exploration we found the bit of cover that provided a small dry spot.  As the storm progressed our beloved spot got smaller and smaller, the swirling wind kept blowing rain and hail in our direction and the streams of water on either side of us threatend to flood us out.  Not that we could move anywhere, we could just about make out the traffic at a standstill about 50m infront of us, but the buildings a further 10m away were no where to be seen through the hail.

...Five minutes later from previous pic

Storm eases, but we're soaked

Half an hour later and the rain had relented to downpour.  Taking the opportunity to move we made our way to Chapel street.  Chapel street is the 1km long shopping paradise (or so it had been described to Laura).  Devastatingly  (honest, I was devastated…) most of the shops were flooded out or lost power, the local coles had a substantial river flowing through it.  It was a little confusing how this water made it in as the streets were not flooded and the shops where the bottom floor of two/three storey buildings.  I guess the fact that the building were all ancient and that Melbourne isn’t exactly geared up for wet weather didn’t help matters.  Still, a few shops were open so we took the chance to get dried of best we could and do a bit of shopping.

The old shops on Chapel St bear the brunt of the storm

Shopped out we headed to the seaside town of St Kilda to get tram back to the hostel, picking us some beer and pizza on the way.  Both well received after the day we’d had.  The moment from the day that i’ll always remember was provided by Laura – who at the best of times intensely dislikes thunder/lightening and all that it entails.  As the storm hit full intensity, wrapped up tight in her coat, drenched, looking up at me with big wide eyes she utters “I’ll be happy if we just survive this”, bless.  As a fan of storms I quite enjoyed the experience, and on reflection I think Laura did too, I’ll ask her – “not really no it was cold”, ok well maybe not.

Sunday morning and the sun is back out in all its glory.  We checked out, grabbed some breakfast and dropped our bag into a locker at the bus station – very handy.  Taking advantage of the sun while it’s there our next visit was to the Eureka tower, boasted as being the highest viewing platform in the southern hemisphere.  Yeah it wasn’t bad, great views of the city, but the lift up was the fastest I’ve ever seen, 9m/s.

View of the CBD from the Eureka Sky Deck

Spent the rest of the morning checking out the CBD.  I found it alot less intense than Sydney CBD, more like a massive village.  We then got a tram back to St Kilda, think of seaside towns like Southport and you’ll get the idea.  The main attraction is the pier.  With the weather still good we had lunch at Kiosk on the pier, which provided excellent views of the beach, harbour and the CBD in the distance.  Further along the pier is a protected colony of penguins, which can be spotted between the rocks.  Here we got talking to a local who looks after the penguins, after chatting about them for a while he went on to telling us about all the human bodies they’ve been finding around the town…ok so maybe not such an idyllic place.  Nice enough while we where there anyway.

Black swan says g'day on St Kilda pier

Back into the city we quickly went around the Melbourne gaol, where the infamous Ned Kelly was held and hung.  The gallows still intact.   Took the free old tram to the docklands area, which has also recently had a big make over and now contains alot of apartments and shops etc.

The older city circle trams

Had a quick fish ‘n’ chips dinner by the harbour, before getting the bus back to aiport just as a fresh storm rolls in…

Laura the reporter at the Channel 7 studios

Fisn 'n' chips by the harbour as the weather changes again...

Arrive at airport to find its been closed for an hr or so, hence now very busy and alot of cancelled flights.  The airport re-opens just after we arrive, and amazingly our flight gets away with only an hour delay.  Some good work by Melbourne airport staff or very good luck somewhere in there.  Still the flight is the most turbulent I’ve ever taken, landing into Sydney the plane was swaying all over the place, a smooth landing in the end though that resulted in some clapping.

Impressions of Melbourne then –  A much more relaxed city than Sydney.  Where Sydney has the harbour, Melbourne has the parks and river. The weather is the main thing that stood out, not taking a coat when heading out in the morning even if its clear blue sky outside is not a wise choice…

Oh yeh btw that pic above wasn’t really our hostel room, our place was actually alright and earnt a solid 8 on our brand new Hostel Rating Chart.

Take care , back soon.