In Sunny Australia

27th October 2010
Right so I have had a couple of days here in Melbourne and its a pretty nice place it has to be said, on our first day we were given a tour of the house by my uncle Dilip and shown the local area where they live. We then motored onto the surgery where my aunt Mala works. They own the kids surgery and its immaculate – so nice and so up to date. I wish my dentists was this fun to go to when I was a kid, there are PS3’s Xbox’s its a real child friendly place to help make going to the dentists less intimidating for kids...it was really impressive.
After we went into downtown Melbourne and didnt really know what to do, Dilip uncle gave us a brief of what the good things were but to be honest I had forgotten most of it. We decided to grab some food and then headed for the city tram – this is a great way of getting around the Melbourne City Circle, its a tour tram and its free and provides information about each stop, its great! You can get off where you like and go explore and then jump on the next tram with no issues.
We first stopped on the Wharf and did some shopping, this was unintentional and I wasn’t interested until I saw a 50% off levi’s sale – I then preceded to go crazy and bought some jeans and shirts for dirt cheap – I was pretty stoked with my purchases. After we grabbed another free method of transport tourism offered by the kind city of Melbourne, the tour bus. We decided to jump off and walk along the South Bank before then walking through the lovely gardens toward the big Rod Laver stadium and the Cricket Grounds. We made our way back toward the city and walked around town grabbing some food and drink before getting a tram back.
The city itself was huge sooo vast and soo busy, big buildings corporate everywhere and amazing places to eat. Its a grid system and there is some awesome little alleyways where you can get some amazing street art and some tasty places to eat for sure!! I really enjoyed just roaming around soaking in the city again. It was scary being back in a big city busy etc...it really reminded me of work, which is never a nice thought!
We took the 109 tram back to Mala Auntie’s fathers house and had dinner and caught up with the family which was really good. The kids are awesome fun for sure. I met Anne Marie Jayesh uncles wife, Jayesh is Mala Auntie brother, he wasn’t there but his 2 kids Raveen and Mya were there and they were incredible. So much energy so much fun! It was great.
The next day we took a long long drive up the Great Ocean Road. My mum, dad, Dilip and I all got in the car in the morning all prepared with a packed lunch to feed 10 kings and our cameras at the ready. Our first stop was in lovely Lorne, it seemed every little town we stopped at was tailored for holiday makers looking to spend a couple of days on the coast, fully stocked with lovely quaint restaurants and things to do as well as awesome Surf shops. We had some lunch in Lorne and went for a walk in the town and got some amazing hot chips!! The beach was immaculate and Dilip uncle was saying in the summer there is a 4k swim that a few thousand people do here, the beach is about 12ks long and its full of people swimming from shore to a buoy 2ks out and then back...he says the buzz is incredible when that event on, and in general in the summer over the weekends! We carried on our drive to Apollo bay where we had a quick pit stop and looked at the stunning views of the ocean crashing against the cliff line...we walked down Gibson Steps which are a set of stairs taking you from great Ocean road, to the beach at Apollo bay and you could see one of the 12 apostles. The 12 apostles are reminants of the eroded cliff line. The Ocean crashes against the cliff line so hard it causes erosion and results in the deterioration of cliff lines leaving small Island like cliffs that remain from the erosion in the middle of the sea, with the cliff line falling further and further back. It was a spectacular sight and this is what we enjoyed a lot. Most of our travels in NZ involved staying in small towns viewing spectacular sights and this was akin to what we did then that we enjoyed so much!
We drove on to get a better view of all the apostles – again incredible, breathtaking views. The weather was on and off, its incredible how in the Southern Hemisphere the weather can change at the drop of dime! One minute sun the next rain. We carried on to Dilip uncles favourite stop, it was a beautiful little beach caved inbetween the cliff, it was like something from the movie the beach, everything about it was soo tranquil serene and nice. If we were there in the heat of summer it would have been amazing – there were little caves and at the back of the beach there was a section where Shakespearian plays would run in the summer. Ugh! So nice.
We carried on the drive to Port Campbell for a little pit stop, then the loongg drive home started. As we got back to Melbourne city we stopped for dinner at dads friends place and Dilip and I left my mum and dad to stay there and we carried on home.
Yesterday I hooked up with Jane McGoldrick a friend from Rossland Canada who I am pretty close with despite the distance. She is great to talk to and so much fun. I met her at her place of work and we discussed life, she is going through some dramas with her application for residency here in Australia, she has actually fallen in love with the place and listening to her rant about how amazing this place is, as well as looking at the empirical evidence that Alex Simpson also loved this place, I am starting to think Melbourne is pretty amazing. Gets me thinking its definitely worth checking out more in detail at some point in the future. We will see what life has in store. Jane lives 20 mins from town in a place called St Kilda, the beach is right next to her place. How often do cities have beaches? It was such a nice day so we walked around the esplanade and had a lazy lunch and a few drinks before I headed home. It was great to see Jane and catch up.
This morning I just wanted to chill so I am cruising about updating the blog and just being lazy. I am thinking of heading into town and making it back at 6.30pm in time to spend some time with the kids. My parents are still out and about with friends and visiting other family.
I will leave it there – peace and love people!
Koo