Day 1- Saturday, 9th March - Leaving Perth
Finally, Saturday 9th March arrived and it was time to go. Laima and Elden and their adorable 9 month old daughter came round to see us off and at 11am we said our goodbyes and started the very first leg of our journey: a walk to Perth underground to catch the train to the airport. |
| Transperth Train to the Airport |
A smooth bus transfer from Redcliffe station to T4 was followed by an easy passage through security and that lovely relaxing feeling of arriving on the other side of airport security, in a bar for a pint with time you relax whilst waiting for the flight to board.
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| First relaxing beer of the trip at Perth airport |
Too Blady Easy!
The flight was good too. Qantas' flight crew were really professional and the free meal (nice chicken salad and spicy beef noodles) and drinks were very welcome. As Leb's been saying for weeks, the bit she was looking forward to most was getting on the plane and here we were.
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| First leg of the trip - from Perth to Melbourne |
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| Flying to Melbourne |
We arrived in Melbourne around 7:30 pm and were greeted by our lovely, quirky middle daughter, Žemyna, who'd driven two and a half hours from Bendigo to pick us up. And then we were off for her quite long reverse journey to our first "away" accommodation stop.
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| Melbourne to Bendigo |
Waiting for us there were husband Frankie and their new adorable puppy, Pippin the golden retriever.
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| Puppy Pippin |
After dumping our bags we headed off to catch the last bit of Saturday night in Bendigo at the Handle Bar. It has a cool, back yard party vibe and three pints later we headed back to theirs and I stayed up to watch a bit of football, Man U v Everton, before going to bed for a good sleep.
Day 2 - Sunday, 10th March
After a good lie in we headed to The Bay Leaf Cafe, a very impressive Greek restaurant that did delicious breakfasts and great coffee.
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| Delicious Breakfast |
After a bit of Pippin time we headed back out for a tour which included Bendigo Park...
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| Bendigo Park |
... and the amazing Valentine's Antique Gallery - a shop that looked more like a museum.
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| Valentine's Antiques Gallery |
Just up the hill was a very impressive art gallery.
It was at the art gallery that I learned that Bendigo had originally been named Sandhurst and started to get a grasp for the crazy-sounding story behind its renaming - after a boxer. I later discovered that this boxer was called William Bendigo Thompson and he was from Nottingham, born in Beeston, where I lived as a student for two years.
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| Beeston Bendigo |
Over the top of the hill was the impressive-looking Queen Elizabeth Oval with its classic Victorian pavilion.
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| Queen Elizabeth Oval Pavilion |
After that we went via the ridiculously big (for such a small town when it was built) Cathedral to a lovely little brew pub called the Brewer's Collective where I had a paddle and a pint.
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| Classic Old Colonial House |
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| Bendigo Cathedral |
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| Brewer's Collective |
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| Bombing around Bendigo |
After a bit more Pippin, it was back out for a mini pub crawl. We visited just two - Babylon Bar and The Handle Bar again.
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| Beers in Bendigo's Babylon |
After getting back and a long discussion about Palestine, I sat back to watch Forest lose again at Brighton and then fell asleep watching Liverpool v Manchester City.
Day 3 - Monday, 11th March
On the agenda today was the Buddhist Stupa, an unlikely site if ever there was one. The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion. It has the biggest jade buddha in the world apparently.
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| Stupefying Stupa |
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| Buddha Big |
Then, after a bit more Pippin, it was back out into the Bendigo heat for a tour down a gold mine. Central Deborah, Bendigo. This was one of the best tours I've ever been on and Darcy, the tour guide could answer any question thrown at him.
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| Central Deborah Gold Mine |
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| Walk to the Gold Mine |
Then it was back for fish and chips from their local. I had a very nice piece of snapper.
Day 4 - Tuesday 12th March - To Melbourne by Train (Accommodation #2)
In the morning Frankie had to leave for work early and Žemyna had to take Pippin for her first injections, So Leb and I packed and left for the train station. The journey from a warm Bendigo to a cool Melbourne was very pleasant and smooth. We left Žem and Frankie's, walked ten minutes along Myers Street to The Bay Leaf café where we'd had breakfast on the first day, had a great (chilli crab scrambled egg) brekkie and coffee and then walked five minutes round the corner to the station.
Buying a Myki card was easy too and the fare for the journey nice and cheap.
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| Thanks Žem & Frankie! |
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The Train - such a civilised way of travel |
We were sat at the end of the last carriage and had a relaxing two hour journey which I used to tap away on my computer and read.
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| Back to Melbourne |
Melbourne was noticeably cooler and wetter. But we managed to check into our room at the Melbourne YHA on Flinders Street even though we were a couple of hours early. We changed into warmer clothes and then set off to do a bit of shopping. I wanted to buy a spare pare of reading glasses and another couple of pairs of socks.
By then, Žemyna had followed us on the train and we met her in the Crossways Vegan restaurant before heading down Swanston Street to the Iconic Young & Jackson's pub opposite Flinders Station. A couple of pints in Chloe's room was very much in order.
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| Young & Jackson - Always the first stop in Melbourne |
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| Chloe's Room |
Žem then recommended we went to the rooftop bar in the Curtin building back up Swanston Street. Another couple of pints there before going down one flight of stairs to Mesa Verde, a Mexican restaurant. Very nice too.
Žemyna then left us and we set off down Collins Street, stopping off at the Shakespeare Inn for another pint and my usual embarrassing attempt to answer the quiz questions that were going on.
Then it was back to the hostel for an early night.
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| Bombing around Melbourne CBD |
Not much sleep was had before a 5am wake up. A quick shower and then we were off again. The Uber app promised a $45 fare for a trip to the airport, cheaper than 2 x $23 on the Skybus from Southern Cross station. The cab turned up immediately and it was a much more convenient than walking to the station to catch the bus but upon arrival at the airport I was shocked to see we'd been charged $75. Uber, of course, provide no means of complaining on their regimented "support" pages. There was a worrying moment checking in as my bag was 8.5kg (1.5kg over) but the helpful lady said you were allowed 2kg for a laptop. So maybe I'll be ok.
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| New Zealand, here we come! |
Anyway, never mind. After a two and a half hour wait and we boarded, Currently over the Tasman at 37,000 ft with 1 hr 48 minutes still to go before we arrive in Queenstown.
I'd forgotten how long these blog posts take to write. But I'm going to try to document our trip to some extent, even if it's a few days behind. When I look back on my Brazil, France and Russia travel blogs, I'm so glad I made the effort and really regret not doing one for Poland/Ukraine 2012.
Next up... New Zealand's southlands and fjordlands.
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