Melbourne And Great Ocean Road
Trip Start
Nov 01, 2004
1
49
133
Trip End
Nov 01, 2005
Where I stayed
Melbourne, Australia
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Our host was away on a long weekend so we explored on our own. We arrived early (about 6.30) and freshened up before sticking our bags in lockers and heading out into the city. It was Labour Day here and a public holiday - it was odd to walk through a deserted business area at rush hour times. We had breakfast outside the Town Hall and discovered that they were having a parade along the street today - and it was the 50th anniversary of the parade. So we found a bench and stayed for it. The Labour Day parade was good. A kid beside us was terrified of people dressed up in costume and ran backwards as soon as anything in costume came near us - she almost bowled people over moving so fast. We liked the clown car the best - especially when it broke down right in front of the Town Hall. We headed down to Federation Square for a lovely lunch in Time Out before walking down to the banks of the Yarra River to see the funfair and water-skiing competition. After some time there enjoying the sights and the sun we headed back up to the city and caught the free Circle tram around the city. They had an extra conductor on who was hilarious - kept pronouncing streets/stops in a stupid funny way - it's now Willy Willy Willy Willy William Street etc- you probably had to be there. We got off at Fitzroy Gardens and wandered through the park. The park had some nice fountains, a model Tudor village (presented by the people of Lambeth after WW2) and a peculiar cottage. The cottage is advertised as Captain Cook's cottage but there is no proof that he ever lived in it. It is however where his parents lived for many years in Yorkshire - in the Mid 1930s they bought the cottage in England, dismantled it and transported it over here. Rob arrived while we were here and we all headed off for a few drinks in a European style beer garden with nice European beers. After a few we headed into Chinatown (after visiting a very closed Italian area) and had a nice Chinese meal - Rob had the abalone & sea cucumber which he shared...and they were delicious. We collected the bags from the train station and headed home.
Day 136 Tuesday 15/03/05 Melbourne
We had a bit of a lie-in to recover from the bus journey and late nights before heading into town. Stewart collected his new passport but they had stretched the electronic picture making him look slim and handsome - so on the consulate's advice he sent it off again to Canberra.....hoping that they would turn it round in a week as promised. We did a bit of shopping (which Melboune is great for) before heading up Lygon Street to meet Rob for dinner. We started off by having a drink in an Irish Theme Pub (Puggs) which was alright and had some good food & drink offers every night. We didn't eat there but had an Italian meal and managed to get free beer and a free bottle of wine - their way of trying to get customers - they have to try hard as there are so many restaurants around. We went to the cinema and saw "Million Dollar Baby" - which we all thought was superb....well deserving of the Oscars it won.
Day 137 Wednesday 16/03/05 Melbourne
We first headed to Bridge Street in Richmond to do some more shopping - after 4 months we needed a clothing top up! After a nice lunch there we headed to the Melbourne Museum. The museum had a Dinosaurs From China Exhibition which was excelllent - some of the most well preserved and complete skeletons ever found were on display. They tried to explain why dinosaurs are so closely related to birds and had an exhibit of the veloceraptor with feathers - as they now believe it would have had! The dinosaur section also had a section where some Archaeologists were digging through stone sections revealing crocodiles - they actually did this and talked to you explaining what they were doing. We finished here and went into the normal parts of the museum - which was also excellent. They have a section of live rainforest in a courtyard (never seen living things in a museum until now) and we went through an excellent Australian section and an excellent Aboriginal section - well worth spending time here. We only managed about 1/2 of the museum in the afternoon! They even had the great Phar Lap stuffed here - a proud New Zealand racehorse who the Australians loved. Not all of him is here though - his skeleton is in New Zealand and his heart is in Canberra apparently. We headed off and met up with Rob - we went back to Lygon Street again and had another Italian meal - not as good as the first one and only garlic bread for free. The host had great patter though and it was funny just listening to him cajole customers into eating here. After dinner we headed to Old Melbourne Gaol where we took the candlelight tour......it was a superb tour but not as scary as we had hoped (no jumpers). We toured the cells, the hanging area and the punishment area by candlelight. Ned Kelly was hung here and there is quite a lot of information on him here - including an iron suit from one of his gang members. Good tour - though we all fancied the sleepover/ghost hunting option more which happens once a month. We went home early and went to bed for our early start.
Day 138 Thursday 17/03/05 Melbourne
Happy Paddy's Day!!!!!!! We took a taxi into town and started the day at the "Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce Business Breakfast" which was held in the magnificent Crown Casino/Hotel complex. The guests were Brian Kennedy & Micheal Martin!! It started with Guinness at 7 in the morning. We followed up by going to the Hotel Bar until lunchtime (with free wine vouchers from the breakfast - we picked up a few spares too from other tables) then headed for the Celtic Club for lunch and some more Guinness with Brendan & Rob (those two again - Keith's mates). Brendan kept trying to divert Gillian into hairdressers to get her hair dyed like a pint of Guinness - with the lads to get their dyed green! After some time in the Celtic Club it was then off to the Irish Times bar for a few more drinks and onto the rooftop to see the Australian U2 play live from there - it was great fun and only 40 or so were allowed onto the roof to see them.......don't quite know how we managed to sneak up through the kitchens! At about 7 we headed out to the Dan O'Connell - a fairly well known Irish pub that had shut the road outside it and was having a bit of a street party. We lost Brendan here but we later found out that he had managed to sneak through a catering section into the pub - avoiding the entry charge (we'd tell you more here but we had better not - his wife is a police officer - ask us later - just say fence & sofa). We had a few beers and listened to some great Irish Music. After midnight we headed home and had a couple of nightcaps before heading to bed. Almost 20 hours of drinking and a great day.
Day 139 Friday 18/03/05 Melbourne
Guess what we did today.........yep - a long lie in to recover. Stewart headed into town in the afternoon to collect his Dubarrys (in for some glue) - see hints & tips section. We had pizza for late lunch and settled down to watch the TV - we plumped for the film "Starsky & Hutch" which was (we all agreed) shi*e. We headed out about 8 to Mao's on Brunswick Street and had an absolutely brilliant Chinese - if you are ever here then definitely head to Mao's. The scallops were fantastic. We got home and had a drink and settled down to watch another film - "The Lady In White" - an old "classic" which was em...watchable sort of (Gillian disagrees, it was another shi*e film, though enjoyable in an odd kind of way).
Day 140 Saturday 19/03/05 Melbourne
We headed to Avalon Airshow about an hour South of Melbourne. Avalon is the World's 3rd largest airshow and it was the 50th anniversary. It was a great day and we saw amazing stunt planes, some truly superb WW2 planes, amazingly fast modern fighters (FA-18s & F11s), a Connie (basically started passenger transport in Oz), had the chance to clamber inside some military helicopters and there were loads of other displays from Customs to Air Defence Vehicles. We headed home via a pub for beer before heading out for a lovely meal & a few drinks with the 2 Chris's at the Spreadeagle Pub in Richmond. The chicken parmigiana had to be seen to be believed. We went home for midnight and watched France crush Italy in the Rugby making the Wales V Ireland match crucial.
Day 141 Sunday 20/03/05 Melbourne
Up for 10 and watched Wales dominate Ireland and deservedly win the 6 Nations. We headed out to Brunswick Street for lunch in the superb Vegie Bar. Stewart & Rob headed for the Dan O'Connell again while Gillian did a little browsing on the very eclectic street. The pub was welcoming back the landlord who had got married on the Saturday (he bought the pub after the wedding date just after Paddy's Day had already been set) and it was also having the 100 Pint Club (Guinness) photo - and no, Stewart didn't manage to drink that much in his stay. A band played, Gillian arrived, we payed pool, chatted with the locals and passed the time away. A musical session started where lots of the groom's family took turns singing, they all had lovely voices and could play various instruments - we could have been back at home. It was a lovely day and nice to help celebrate the wedding of Diarmuid & Meg (the bride looked incredibly Irish even though she wasn't). Nice pub - well worth a visit or three.
Day 142 Monday 21/03/05 Melbourne - Ballarat - Port Fairy
We drove up to Ballarat (thanks again for the car Rob) and had a nice lunch on the main street. Ballarat has some lovely Victorian style buildings in the town. We then went out to Sovereign Hill which is a recreated Gold Town! It has 25 acres of buildings and camps with live actors walking around. You can try candle making, see musket firing, see red coats marching, pan for gold, ride in the stage coach, drink in the saloon, etc. It's very authentic - right down to the horses pissing in the street. We can't imagine what it would have smelt like with poor sewage too. We also took a tour into a gold mine which was really well done - the last section of the tour takes you into an independent mine (dug by a couple of people as opposed to a large company) and it was great to see the difference between a company mine and an independent one. After here we headed to the Eureka Centre which was the site of a very famous uprising (the Eureka Stockade) which Australians say is the basis for their independent streak and which involved a lot of Irishmen, including the leader Peter Lalor, who later became an Australian MP. Again, it is very well done and informative. We then headed back into town to an art gallery where they house part of the original Southern Cross Flag which was raised at Eureka and oaths sworn upon it. The gallery also had some lovely paintings and a good photography exhibition. We left Ballarat about 5 and had a 3.5 hour drive to the coast through some really spectacular valleys/plains with some lovely mountains around us. Leaving Halls Gap we crossed one creek 4/5 times while gaining height - and not that close together. We arrived at Port Fairy to find most cafes shut but we managed to get accepted into one restaurant where we had supper (at 8.45!) - I think we got in because the barman was from Edenmore and had picked up Gillian's Dub accent. We had a pint in the Caledonian Pub before heading back to the very friendly YHA.
Day 143 Tuesday 20/03/05 Port Fairy - Melbourne (The Great Ocean Road)
We started the day with a drive round Port Fairy - which was originally called Belfast (until the residents petitioned for a name change many years ago - go figure!). We visited the beach and the docks before heading out of town. Our next stop was Koroit - a historic village with a nice signpost showing how far it was to get home...... only 19,350 kms to Dublin. This area was settled by a lot of Irish farmers around the time of the famine. They made good money feeding the hungry miners when the Gold Rush started a few years later. We then stopped off at Flagstaff Hill in Warrnambool which is another recreated village with actors - much smaller and this time it had a fishing harbour theme. They do these recreations very well. They also had a great video on what it was like travel to Australia back then and had some great exhibits on the many shipwrecks that lie off the coast here - including a superb Minton pottery statue of a peacock which was being sent to the Great Exhibiton in Melbourne but didn't quite make it when the vessel it was travelling on was wrecked. The peacock survived this disaster with only its beak broken off - unfortunately the passengers and crew were not so lucky. Stewart rang the passport office to find that they hadn't dealt with his passport but they promised to reprint it that day and get it couriered to Melbourne overnight. After a brief stop at Cheeseworld for a superb cheese tasting, we headed to the Great Ocean Road. We were doing the most famous section of the Great Ocean Road and we'd love to ramble on but we won't - it's a fantastic drive along here. The rocks/cliffs are stunning and are full of wonderful shapes and colours. We did it in reverse from most people and had spent time at some fabulous sights with only a few other people - by the time we made it to the 12 Apostles (huge flash car park, big crowds) it was very busy - we really enjoyed having other places to ourselves or with only a few others. We visited the magnificent Bay Of Islands, the Bay Of Martyrs, the site of the wreck of the Falls Of Halladale, the Grotto, London Bridge, the Arch, the Blowhole, Thunder Cave, Loch Ard Cemetery, Loch Ard Gorge, the site of the wreck of the Loch Ard and the 12 Apostles. This is a must see area - and maybe slower than we did it! The morning road was a little inland for an ocean road and some of the sights are 20/30 minute walk from the car parks but the road after the 12 Apostles goes through the superb Otway National Park (windy forest roads) before hugging the coast for most of the way back to Geelong. Fantastic. We made our way through to Melbourne and headed home where Rob had cooked a lovely meal for us - the potatoes were superb (how Irish is that?). A lovely meal and some wine and time for bed.
