St. Kilda and Phillip Island

On our last full day in Melbourne we decided to visit St. Kilda, which is a suburb near Melbourne that is accessible by tram. We didn't explore St. Kilda that much except to walk near the beach and onto the pier.

Wombat enjoyed the view from the boardwalk.


Out on the pier in St. Kilda, they have their own little penguin viewing area. While we were there, we found some hiding in their home!


After St. Kilda, we headed home to make the drive to Phillip Island. Phillip Island is a 2.5 hour drive from Melbourne and is connected to land by one bridge. The island itself is relatively small and we were able to enjoy dinner facing the beach before heading to the Penguin parade.

Wombat enjoyed his time on the beach. He even found a little seashell as a hat.


We got to the Penguin place a bit early and had time to kill in the shops. Wombat wanted to fit in with the other animals.


Wombat was even treated like a joey!


Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any photos of the penguins. I wanted to sneak one in but was afraid of getting caught. If you ever have the chance to go to Melbourne, you MUST see the penguins. There are thousands of them and you get to see them cross the beach and then they will all walk towards their home. They have built boardwalks all along their path, so that you can get up close to them.

After you leave the place, don't forget to check under your car! The penguins are looking for any kind of shelter and they might think it's a home!


This was our last full day in Melbourne and we thoroughly enjoyed it!

Another funny food story for the readers: In St. Kilda, we were getting a light lunch and Cindy was in charge of ordering at the counter. When she came back, she told us that she had gotten a side of cous cous as well. I hadn't seen it on the menu so I had asked her where to point it out. She pointed to the "Shredded Cos Salad". I couldn't help laughing because in Australia, all their lettuce terms are different than in the US. Rocket = Arugula. Cos = Romaine. So instead of a cous cous dish, we were getting a salad dish. The best part was that even though it had said "shredded" in the dish, she still thought it was cous cous. Cindy, we love you. =)

On our final day in Melbourne, the only exciting thing we did was convince Dave to have pho for breakfast. For those who don't know it, David is one of those people who will only eat breakfast foods for breakfast. When I eat anything not thought of as a breakfast food (which I constantly do), he thinks it's weird. David was willing to eat because of a couple of reasons. He had been up for awhile so it wasn't too early in the day and in Vietnam they often have pho for breakfast. We stopped at a restaurant that claimed that Bill Clinton had eaten there and we weren't the only ones there! The restaurant was about half full at 10:15 AM. What a great way to start our day with a big bowl of pho in our tummies. yum.

Great Ocean Road

We spent an entire day driving to the Great Ocean Road. After renting our car and having some nervous issues about driving on the other side of the road, we were off and reached the start after almost 3 hours. The start of Great Ocean Road is already almost 2 hours from Melbourne, but we managed to hit some traffic along the way.

After hitting up an information center, we were aiming to get to the 12 Apostles before sunset. We opted to avoid some of the stops that were for the beaches along the area and stopped at only a couple of places. First up, the lighthouse at Anglesea. We couldn't actually get to the top of the lighthouse unless you paid to take a tour.


Beyond the lighthouse, there were some paths that we could take and look out onto the ocean.


It seems as if lots of rock formations have drifted off the main island to create these rock formations.


Cindy was taking in the view from the other side of the lighthouse.


After the lighthouse, we kept driving along the road and hit even more traffic on our way to a little town called Lorne. By the time we arrived, we were starving for lunch and stopped as soon as we saw some shops. Little did we know that there were about 3 times as many cafes/shops if we had continued to drive for another block. After Lorne, it was a windy, narrow drive until we hit the next lookout point. At Cape Patton Lookout, we could see the drive that we were going to have to do in the distance.


After we reached the next small town of Apollo Bay, we stopped to stretch our legs. We found this little ice cream shop that had some amazing Marzipan ice cream. A couple of kilometers outside of Apollo Bay, there was a small rainforest area that had an easy walk/hike that we decided to take. Unfortunately, since there has been a drought in Australia, the rainforest wasn't thriving too much. We did see some trees where the roots had grown up and around something that no longer existed.


There were these convenient bridges along the path for when there was a river/water flowing through the rainforest. Cindy decided to meditate for a little bit.


After our rainforest hike, our last destination was the 12 Apostles. The road had turned off from the ocean and we drove through lots of countryside for awhile before finally reaching them. Wombat enjoyed the 12 Apostles, but he didn't like the number of flies that were in the area.


The amazing part of the area around the 12 Apostles is that there is no pathway to get down to the beach. These cliffs are at the edge of Australia.


The Apostles were on both sides of the little viewing area that we were able to walk around.


The 12 Apostles made the Great Ocean Road journey worthwhile, but it did take us almost 9 hours to finally reach them. Luckily, there is a shortcut through the countryside that can get you back to Melbourne in 3-3.5 hours.

Wombat in the Yarra Valley

You were probably expecting to hear about the Great Ocean Road, but I forgot about our wine tour to the Yarra Valley, so you'll have to wait another day before hearing about the Great Ocean Road.

We had signed up for a wine tour with the Australian Wine Tour Company through the Yarra Valley. We took a small 20 person bus to the Yarra Valley and our first stop was Yering Farm. This winery is a family run business and does not sell many bottles outside of their shop. They had converted an old hay barn as their cellar door.


Wombat enjoyed the view of the valley.


Then, wombat started drinking. It was only 10:30 AM, but he was offered over 10 different types of wine. He didn't know what to choose.


Our next stop was Rochard. Besides providing lunch, they had a tower that overlooked their vineyards. Cindy enjoyed the view.


We got up close and personal with some grapes, but didn't taste any of them.


We also stopped at Yering Station, but no pictures came from our stop there. The exciting part of Yering Station was finding some truffle mixture made by Tetsuya's that is designated to mix with butter and create yummy truffle butter!

Our last stop of the day was Chandon, which is associated with Moet & Chandon. We went on a mini tour of how champagne/sparkling wine were made and were able to go into the room with all the bottles that were resting on racks. We weren't allowed to touch anything so Wombat was sad that he couldn't play with the bottles.


We were offered a full glass of bubbly before being able to taste their other bubbly and wines that Chandon produces. Wombat was excited to be around all these bottles of yummy tasting wines.



By the end of our tour, we had drank our fair share of wines and were looking forward to the nap on our car ride home. Maybe from all the wine, Cindy was drunk at dinner because this is the conversation that took place. Early on, Cindy had decided that she was going to order steak tartare, while David and I debated on what to get.

Waiter: Can I take your order?
Cindy: I'd like the Steak Tartare... Medium
Waiter: ummm...
(As David and Denise try to explain to Cindy that Steak Tartare is chopped up raw/rare steak, they can't stop giggling inside)

Amazingly, the waiter told us stories of how he has served steak tartare to other customers and they had told him that he had forgotten to cook their steaks. So, he was glad that Cindy had made the medium comment so that they could fix the situation immediately.

The second best part of this story besides the "medium" comment was that as Cindy was looking for other items to order, the waiter would try to explain her other items on the menu and Cindy would instantly put on a sour face when she heard something she didn't like or want.
Finally our waiter decided to let Cindy decide on her own and he would come back.

For the rest of the night, I couldn't stop laughing every time I thought of the story.

Anyways, tomorrow will be about the Great Ocean Road!

Wombat's Adventure to Melbourne - Part 1

Early on in Cindy's visit, she randomly purchased a small wombat and it went on our adventure in Melbourne with us. I think we ended up taking more photos of the Wombat enjoying Melbourne than ourselves.

At the airport, we got some food. Wombat didn't really like the pasta since it was too dry, but the bacon in the pasta was pretty good. The domestic airport was very different than the US. It was like the old days in the US, where you didn't need a boarding pass to go through security so you could wait at the gate until it was time for your friends or family to leave. You could bring liquids over 3 oz onto your aircraft. It was just very casual.


Apparently on every domestic flight, they'll make an announcement requesting you listen to the safety features on the aircraft since every plane is different. But it seemed as if everything was still the same. Wombat was secured into his seat before we left the airport.


The flight to Melbourne was very short and when we arrived, it was dinner time! We got some recommendations for food, but ended up eating at a little Japanese cafe near Chinatown. The food was delicious! Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find as good food for as cheap in Sydney/Manly. Afterwards, it was bedtime in order to prepare for the next day.


The next morning, we stopped by Federation Square to eat our breakfast on the steps. The architecture in the area was amazing and since it was still early, there weren't too many people around.


After breakfast, we rushed over to Day 2 of the Boxing Day Test Match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. To give our US readers an idea of how big of an event it is, Day 1 of the Boxing Day Test Match is about the equivalent of Thanksgiving Day football games. Boxing Day is the day after Christmas and also a national holiday. The Test Match can last up to 5 days, but you would definitely want to go on Day 1 or 2 to guarantee some excitement. Every year, they rotate who Australia plays and this year they were playing India, which is a big rival.

The Melbourne Cricket Ground had all these rules that don't exist in the US. If you got onto the field, you were fined up to $6000. You couldn't start the wave and aren't supposed to participate in it. Apparently, people were throwing things during the wave, which is why it was banned. You couldn't make any racist comments or you'd be thrown out of the stadium for life. If you were seen inflating a beach ball and throwing it around, you could also get kicked out. The rules were pretty strict and we were able to see some people get walked out of the stadium.

We had bought tickets for general admission, which meant we could sit anywhere we wanted in a couple of areas. The view from the lower stand was great except for the beating sun. It got hot very quickly.


Wombat seemed to enjoy his view except that people are much bigger than him.


From the upper grandstand, you got a view of the entire arena without any obstructions, but the people ended up being very small and it was easy to miss the plays that were happening since it happens so fast. Luckily, they replayed all the events on the big screens so we could rewatch from there. We alternated between these two seating areas due to the sun. In the sun, it was too hot, but in the shade it was actually pretty chilly because of the wind.


Coming up tomorrow: The Great Ocean Road!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We returned from Melbourne on New Year's Eve and had to rush to get back to the city to make it to our New Year's Eve Party. It took us 2 hours each way to get to and from our apartment to our friends place, but it was definitely worth it!

The crowds were immense in Sydney Harbour. Here they are rushing to get onto a ferry to get across the wharf. It was chaotic trying to get to our friends apartment, but much worse trying to get home since the crowds were now also filled with drunk, pushy people.


We arrived before sunset and were able to take some great pictures of the view.



As night fell, the bridge had a couple of interesting things on it. In the middle, there was an hour glass where the balls in the hour glass would move every 5 minutes. On the side pillar, there was always something projected on it, which included the countdown.


Someone had brought sparklers to the party. Cindy and I were the first ones to start lighting them up.


There was a fireworks show at 9pm, which were called the Family Fireworks. It was for the kids so that they could see them and then go home. After the first set of fireworks, these boats would circle the harbour. They were all lit up, where some of them had years on them and some were just lined with lights.


This is a great picture of the firework show just about to show. It's 2 seconds before midnight and the bridge is starting to light up.


Fireworks were all around the harbour off of different barges, off of the building tops in the CBD, and they also came from the bridge. The bridge fireworks were amazing since they came from the top, the side and also they had this cool waterfall ones that were from the bottom.




I'll be updating about our trip from Melbourne over the next couple of days. We had a great time and can't wait to share pictures and information with all of you!