Eating our Way through Melbourne

Our last two days in Melbourne (and Australia) were dedicated a whole lot to...food. Like many cities, Melbourne has great food and a lot of options, and with the family we did our best to enjoy as much of it as possible!

In the last two days we've eaten Chinese dim sum, tons of fresh fruits, Devonshire tea (great scones), Australian donuts, Mediterranean and Ethiopian food. We've enjoyed it thoroughly! The tea shop we stopped in was in a beautiful mall - which could only be reached through a fancy little alleyway, something that is common in Melbourne.

We also enjoyed a few non-food activities! We took a trip through this Victoria Market, a huge open air market with everything from art to food to clothes. Brendan and I went to Much Ado about Nothing, my favorite Shakespeare play, in a theater built to replicate the Globe theater. (Luckily on family member was actually interested in joining me - while Patrick kindly offered, I think it's fair to say that Shakespeare is not his cup of tea.) We also went through a "Dialogue in the Dark" experience, an hour long experience designed to help you experience the world as a blind person does. This was really surprisingly interesting to me, as our guide walked us through scenarios from identifying an ATM to boarding a (simulated) train in total darkness.

The Pop Up Globe theater

Victoria Market

We're wrapping up our time here now, getting already to do our final packing before hopping a plane bright and early. Thanks for sticking with us through our journey!

Australian Birthday Celebration

Yesterday was the reason we travelled here: Grandma Kood's 90th birthday! (And happy birthday to Nate back in Minnesota, too!)

We celebrated by going to our last zoo, dedicated specifically to Australian animals. This was a smaller zoo, much less busy than the other zoos we've visited, called Healsville Sanctuary. The enclosures here were great - the animals very obviously well cared for. We had a "koala encounter" here, getting close up to a napping koala who even opened his eyes and moved for us! We saw platypuses, emus, wombats, kangaroos, cassowaries and lots more.

After that we went to the biggest and nicest buffet I've ever been at! We had Indian food, sushi, local meats and cheeses, turkey and ham and a wonderfully obscene quantity of desserts...and all came home so full that we promptly fell asleep.

Touring the Great Ocean Road

Today we set off on one of the tours I've been most looking forward to - our tour of the great ocean road. The tour itself covers only a small portion of the road, although it is a 14 hour tour! It's a nice tour to have someone else drive, although  unfortunately all the tours tend to go the same places at the same times, so everywhere was very busy.

We saw our first wild koalas on this tour, as well as some surfers, a cool weather rainforest with huge, old trees,  and some of the most striking scenery we've seen (in the area of the 12 Apostles). There's not a whole lot to SAY about this unless you're interested in the geology or history - so I'll just go straight to the important part, which is the pictures!

Wandering through Melbourne

We arrived in Melbourne late last night and had a great nighttime tour of the city, since our plane got in late. The city lights were beautiful and we drove through their "rainbow tunnel bridge," all aluminum but lit up different colors of the rainbow.

This morning we woke up late, had a leisurely breakfast with Grandma and then started off for a tour of the city. We started off with the Brighton beach boxes - changing sheds near one of the most famous and beautiful beaches in Melbourne. And each currently sells for only a million dollars or so... As you can see, their owners want to make sure everyone can see their beach box!

We then headed into the city proper to catch a walking tour...which we then missed because I got distracted. We took our own walking tour instead, walking past most of the building and landmarks and taking the extra time to go into the gold rush museum, walk through the botanical gardens and have a drink at a rooftop bar with a nice view of the city. We had beautiful weather today to enjoy both the city and the beach, before an evening in to prepare for an early morning for tomorrow's tour.

A pro working on a mural in "graffiti alley"

Another view of graffiti alley

Cradle Mountain Hike

We planned three days for hiking in Tasmania, until the rain hit. This morning was out last day, in Cradle Mountain - and the day dawned sunny and beautiful! While the sun came and went, we ended up with a beautiful day.

We started hiking around 7am, and were some of the first people on the trails - that in itself was a great start, since it meant we got one of very few parking spots right at the trailhead. The trail started out nice and easy around a lake and through a beautiful woods. Then we took the turning up towards the summit, past all the warning signs...and it got a whole lot harder. I'm very glad all the blisters I got early in the trip were healed, because we spent a lot of time scampering up and down steps, rock crevices and sometimes hauling ourselves up/down sheer rocks by a chain.

And it was still less scary than being blown about by the wind in Freycinet!

The payoff was also much better - we walked by, through and over so many lakes and waterfalls. We didn't make it to the summit, and by the end of the hike we were very thankful for that since the way out took us over the summit of more than one smaller mountain! We got a great variety of views and landscape, and saw another wallaby and a kookaburra. It's also great to be here in spring - everything is blooming, from trees to ground cover to trees, and it adds great color.

We did it!

Our starting point...we hiked up to the point between those two peaks in the distance

The view from the top...looking back the way we came

Some of the nice, easy early trail

Some of the plant life on top of the mountain

Welcome to the Worst Weather in Memory!

Today - and last night - was a bit of adventure! We knew there was rain forecasted, but were hoping and planning for the continuing drizzle we'd been having. Instead, overnight we got what several people have told me was the worst weather they could remember seeing in Tasmania, with 80 km per hour winds and plenty more rain. The roof did not come off our cabin - but everything is a lot louder against a tin roof, so for quite a while we weren't sure! 

This morning we woke up to slightly less crazy winds, and decided to try our hike anyway. After all, we had ponchos, and we'd travelled an extra 4 hours and stayed overnight just to see Freycinet. It was one of the things I was most excited about - it's an incredibly beautiful park rated as one of the most beautiful and undervisited places in Australia.

We very nearly blew away - I did blow down one set of steps, and luckily landed on my feet! We saw a bit of the view, enough to tell that it would be beautiful if our ponchos weren't wrapping themselves around our faces from the wind. All in all - I think this one is on our "revisit later" queue. Tasmanian Mother Nature was not interested in visibility today!

A Rainy Introduction to Freycinet

We left Port Arthur and headed straight  up to Freycinet National Park, which was a bit of an adventure! At home, you can largely get between major destinations without leaving main roads - not so much in Tasmania! Our maps took us along what appeared to be a major road but was in fact a gravel lane, largely one lane, full of hairpin turns and beautiful views. We made it, and cut an hour off our travel time, but wondered a few times if the road might just end!

As we drove away from Port Arthur, the rain and wind picked up. We decided to postpone our afternoon hike to tomorrow morning - it will still be raining, but hopefully not so hard. As a consolation, though, we found that the views from both the local restaurant we stopped at for dinner and our cabin are breathtaking even in the rain. And the wallabies hopping around all over around our cabin don't hurt. (They are just as cute as you'd think when then hop around!) And now, off to enjoy the view and our dessert before an early bedtime, so we can be up early tomorrow to try to hike both Freycinet National Park and some of Cradle Mountain National Park!

Our dinner view

Our cozy cabin and view

Our wallaby friend, not yet sucked up into Wallaby-nado with the crazy winds!

Visiting Port Arthur

After a lazy day yesterday, today may need more than one post to fit the photos!

We got up early this morning and left Hobart behind, heading straight for the historic site at Port Arthur, one of the largest penitentiaries from Australia's days as a convict colony. Every Australian who heard we were visiting Tasmania told us we needed to come here!

We managed to have the whole morning with only the occasional light drizzle, which was nice! Even with the clouds and fog, the site itself is lovely. The tour included a walking tour with some information about when the site was used, who was sent there (everyone from hardened criminals to repeat child offenders to political prisoners) and what their lives were like (not so nice, no surprise there). We saw the prisons as they were in various eras (although much has been demolished or burnt down) as well as the homes and gardens of the workers and military.

Finally, we took a harbor cruise that went by a few more sites, including the island graveyard and the island dedicated to a juvenile prison. We saw a whale in the harbor, which was a nice addition. It was an interesting site, and a good place to learn a bit of Australian history.

A Slow Day in Hobart

Today and yesterday, we reached a slowing down point. Although we had lots of plans, we ran into things that took longer than planned - and others that we wanted to spend more time with than planned - and decided to push things back a bit to enjoy the day. We replaced one of our partial hiking days instead with a lazy day around Hobart. Originally intending to drive up Mount Wellington for the views, the steady rain all day decided us and we instead went to a movie, toured a few local breweries, wineries and a cheese and chocolate making farm. (Obviously we chose the less healthy option than hiking!)

Hobart is a beautiful city and we're staying in a great neighborhood near the wharf full of cute restaurants and pubs, parks, shops and Christmas decorations. We had a few hours yesterday before the rain came in to enjoy the wharf and Salamanca Square areas with sunshine, which was beautiful, although it looks like it will rain all the rest of our time in Tasmania. Fingers crossed for only light rain and some good views anyway!