We saw lots in Melbourne and will quickly go through the highlights of the major attractions and post some pictures as well.
DAY 3 – Monday, January 16th
Federation Square - is a very uniquely built square which was designed to bring folks back downtown after hours for public gatherings. The square consists of the National Gallery of Victoria, Visitors Center, the Ian Potter Center, many restaurants and pubs and a general outdoor seating area for events with a big screen TV. It is located next to the Yarra River which provides great views. At first glance, we were amazed at the geometric shapes and forms that juxtaposed against the traditional surrounding Roman (Flinder’s Street Train Station) and Gothic (Cathedral) buildings.
Flinder’s Street Train Station – is one of the busiest stations in Melbourne. The station is known for the various clocks outside of the building which state what times the different trains are departing. A popular saying in Australia is "Lets meet under the clocks" which we did on numerous occasions when meeting up with Pam. After spending the day exploring downtown Melbourne, we made our way to Healesville with Pam to meet the koalas and kangaroos.
Healesville Sanctuary – is approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes northwest of Melbourne. There we saw various animals such as emus, birds of prey, koalas, kangaroos, wombats and platypus but the Tasmanian Devil had unfortunately called in sick that day. We wandered around for most of the afternoon and spent the majority of our time with the koalas. We were unable to take one home with us though as per a special request from Canada but we were able to send a substitute in the mail.
DAY 4 – Tuesday, January 17th
Melbourne Museum – is an extremely modern building which was built adjacent to the old Melbourne Exhibition Centre - see first picture below. Upon entering the main gate to the museum, remnants of columns and pillars were laid on the ground as reverence to ways of the past. The museum architecturally stunning with well designed spaces that offered insight into each exhibit. There were four main exhibits in the museum: Life Sciences, Human Body, the Forest and the Aboriginals.
Old Melbourne Gaol (pronounced "Jail") – is an ancient jail that is thought to be haunted. 100 inmates have been hung in this jail including the famous Ned Kelly. We decided to not go into the jail for a tour but did take a picture from the outside.
Chinatown – is very small in Melbourne compared to the Chinatown we have in Vancouver and the huge Chinatown we experienced in San Francisco. The Chinatown in Melbourne was maybe two blocks at the most and just consisted of restaurants and bakeries and had no souvenir shops.
DAY 5 – Wednesday, January 18th
Australian Open – is a well known tennis tournament that happens every year in Melbourne which I’m sure ALL of you knew. J We were lucky enough to get a chance to experience the Open for ourselves and owe our thanks to Pammy for getting tickets for us in advance. We had a marvelous time at the Open considering how much Chris and I love tennis. We had tickets for the morning session and got a chance to watch three games in the Rod Laver Arena where we had assigned seating. Some of the main players we were able to watch play were Justine Ardane Hennin, Andy Roddick, Johannason and Malise. Andy Roddick was our favorite as we are both Roddick fans (considering there were no Canadians to root for) and to be able to watch him play in person was ten times better than on TV. His serves which reached over 200 miles/hour on several occasions were outstanding and you could get a much better sense of how hard he is actually hitting those balls when you’re there live compared to on TV. We watched our three games in the arena and throughout the day made our way around the grounds to watch other tennis games where were happening in garden courts and did not have assigned seating. The Open was definitely one of the highlights of Melbourne.
DAY 6 – Thursday, January 19th
Melbourne Aquarium – is in downtown Melbourne and houses a variety of animals. They had eels, fish, sharks, turtles and giant stingrays. The highlight was the 2.2 million litre Oceanarium where it felt like you were underwater with all of the aquatic animals.
Penguin Parade – Around 90 minutes south of Melbourne is Phillip Island, an island known for its wildlife reserves, wetlands, walking tracks, breathtaking coastlines and home to Australia’s most popular natural wildlife attraction known as the Penguin Parade. The parade consists of Little Penguins emerging from the waters at about the same time and waddling ashore at sunset. The Little Penguin (Eudyptula Minor) is found only in Southern Australian waters with the largest existing colony and are around 33cm in size and are unique from other species in that they are the only type of penguins that go out during the day into the waters to find food for their young ones and then wait until sunset before coming ashore. It was a surreal experience to witness a natural event occur in front of our very own eyes. The penguins would come out in groups and waddle their way on shore and then stop, take a quick break and then waddle again. The amazing part was they had to go great distances to find their homes which were quite a ways away from the beach, some must have waddled a good hundred or two hundred meters before reaching their home. Unfortunately we were unable to take pictures here as they did not want the penguins to be disturbed in their natural state. Along the way to the Penguin Parade, we stopped of at Seal Rock. An area known to be famous for the numerous numbers of seals, penguins and birds that inhabit this beautiful area - see pictures below.
DAY 7 – Friday, January 20th
Queen Victoria Market – is a market on the outskirts of downtown Melbourne which housed many different stalls ranging from fresh fruit and vegetables to leather jackets to all sorts of souvenirs. We walked around the market for 4 hours and ended up buying a few souvenirs for ourselves.
Melbourne River Cruise – Later in the afternoon, we decided to take the Port and Docklands river cruise where we saw some new and contemporary architecture. See the architectural portion of the blog site for photos.
Royal Botanic Gardens – Feeling very energetic, we decided to walk across town to the Royal Botanic Gardens renowned as one of the world’s finest landscaped gardens. Unfortunately along the way we experienced a thunder shower which prevented our tour of the gardens. Boy, when they say the weather in Australia is temper mental, they sure are right. From being sunny and warm, it down poured in seconds and down poured hard. We took shelter for a few minutes and then being the Canadians we are, we decided to risk the heavy rain and walk into Downtown Melbourne to visit the Observatory Deck.
Melbourne Observation Deck – is located 253 meters above the city on the 55th floor of the Rialto Towers, which was considered the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere until now. Melbourne is in the midst of building another office building which is to be more than 65 floors high. Once built, this will be considered the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. The Observation Deck provided great 360 degree views of Melbourne.
DAY 8 – Saturday, January 21st
Great Ocean Road – is a coastal road which follows the ocean and offers historic towns like Port Fairy and dazzling coastal scenery such as the 12 Apostles. We decided to take a scenic car ride on a gorgeous hot day along the famous Great Ocean Road witnessing many great views and many surfers riding the waves. The highlight of the ride was being able to view the 12 Apostles.
Twelve Apostles – are a tourist landmark along the Great Ocean Road. The 12 apostles have been formed by nature. Although there were 12 to begin with, there are many that have been destroyed due to bad weather conditions and there are now around 8 apostles left.
1 comment:
Melbourne looks awesome guys! I didn't know it had so much to offer. It must have been great for Pam to host you, she loves having people come and visit. Looking forward to more wonderful pictures!
Jessy
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