Yet Another Melbourne Blog
This blog recalls the joys of a trip to ‘the big smoke’ of Melbourne with my partner Becky.
The Weekend
Saturday
A horridly early start ~4am saw us catch the flight from Christchurch to Melbourne on time. Qantas saw us right with some mid-flight food.
Once in Melbourne we checked into our home swap. We use the Home Exchange website for this and have successfully traded our humble abode in Dalgety Bay for some nice places around the world. Our place this time was in Princes Hill, to the north of the city near Carlton and in amongst some very pleasant neighbourhoods. Our hosts had written and printed a good 10 pages of instructions and need-to-knows. This is personally some highlight reading for me on any given holiday. But patience was required, as there was a city to explore, and time was cracking on.
Day one was a rather full on day despite the early start. We began exploring with a coffee at our local - Naughty Boy - and then took a stroll into the city contemplating the 5 year plan and reviewing exceptionally cute content from Becky’s nephew. By the time we landed in the CBD, we had a bit of a sense that Melbourne a pretty nice place to be and the walk in didn’t feel too hectic. We popped our head into the Victoria State Library. Despite thinking we must be interrupting some important studying we looked around and were in awe of the huge dome ceiling.
Melbourne State Library
As we continued patrolling downtown the streets were bustling more than one was used to in Christchurch. The F1 was in town and a water skiing event on the Yarra river meant it was all go. Becky and I spit-balled around the relative safety and unsafety of fairground rides, with some pseudo engineering explanations to make our case. No firm conclusions made.
In the afternoon we continued walking around the river and the city and found a fun little street for beers (Venom brewing), cocktails (Punch Lane) and dinner (Kiss & Tell). All that fun and we had only been on one street!
Sunday
On Sunday we went for a big run in the morning around Ikon park nearby - the weather was pretty good, but despite our efforts to be exploring we did rather small loops. This wasn’t all bad, as we managed some more engineering chat (a theme perhaps) about the structural fire design of the Ikon Park Stadium as I asked endless questions and Becky humoured me.
Strava miss of many of the parks. It’s literally called ‘Parkville’…
We ran phone-less and perhaps realised how handy it is to have phones to help explore further without getting lost, but this was balanced with a bit of sadness about how dependent I/we have become on using phones for everything. I know I am particularly bad at navigating without one, even driving around Christchurch.
After the run, we headed to the South Melbourne Market, this was fun to walk around - we got there a bit late places were starting to close. I got some oysters and then sought out something more substantial. I tried to barter to get a half gözleme rather than a full one, with no success. No worries, as my backup was a bánh mì. However, much to my dismay, bánh mì’s were done for the day, and I had to return, my tail between my legs, for a full gözleme.
In the afternoon we went to a metal workshop museum (a bit randomly). There were lots of these intricate metal works with many familiar characters that were all pretty impressive. Inside the museum there was also an 8-D cinema which had comically poor graphics where we watched a film about dinosaurs and got a bit motion sick. Also inside the museum was a VR games room with improved graphics where we went virtual paragliding and came out feeling exceptionally sick. A very random museum but overall pretty fun for our slightly sleepy state of being.
A new friend.
Start of the week
Monday & Tuesday
Monday & Tuesday were more low key days with work during the day. On Monday evening we headed out to pump some iron at the local bouldering gym. On Tuesday we went to Fitzroy for food & drinks. This is when my insatiable desire for tiramisu began, when I realised our dinner establishment on Tuesday was right round the corner from a highly rated tiramisu merchant. Skillfully navigating the eating, I - apparently the master of self-control - did not over order to save space for the coffee-laden goodness that lay in wait. Sadly, however, Pinto is only a daytime operation, and my hopes were dashed. The wait would have to continue.
Holiday Mode
Wednesday - Food Tour
Wednesday AM involved another run around the park to get us ready to eat our way through Melbourne.
City views on our morning run
We booked on to a Secret Food Tour, our first time doing anything like that. It was actually very fun - it was nice to be taken around and get consistently good food without having to think to much. It was also good to share food amongst the group and get to try many things. On the trip we tried Kangaroo, Crocodile, Brunetti’s foccacia, a ‘magic’ coffee, chocolate and cheese*, some wine, street food in Chinatown and some ice-cream. It was a good day of eating, but we left gladly not too full.
* I once convinced Becky that the phrase ‘chalk and cheese’ was actually ‘choc and cheese’ because you would never eat the two together. And look at us now.
Choc’ and Cheese
We had a group of six on our food tour with a couple from America and a couple from Melbourne. Everyone was good value on the tour. We had one character, Bruce, who was also a tour guide in his own right. He kept the tour guide on her toes and provided some light entertainment with some (almost certainly made up) stories about Melbourne.
Later in the evening we went along to some comedy at ‘The Motley Bauhaus’. When we arrived, there was actually some open mic poetry going on which was a bit of fun to watch. Very cool to see people coming together to do something creative like that. Seems very daunting. Once it was time for our comedy, we went upstairs into a backroom. It was a paid gig, so we had some expectations of a reasonable show, but the low attendance did not inspire confidence. The show was in the form of ‘The Last One Laughing’ and was only moderately painful, with some pretty funny moments, but it didn’t ‘click’ together (from my comedy critiquing perspective).
Post-comedy, we managed to get some late night pancakes and could not say no given we were on holiday.
Post comedy fluffy pancakes before getting the tram home.
Thursday - Culture Vultures
Another good day well started by pumping iron with Becky. Becky was feeling strong and put me to shame with some deadlifts, but she was wearing toe socks in public, so who is the real winner? Picture redacted.
Post-gym we got a coffee and a sandwich from another local haunt called Pickles which was pretty great and very well-earned.
Next we hopped into the city to visit the ACMI, which is the Australian film and television museum. We walked around the main museum which was fun and then went to a gaming exhibition too. Both were pretty fun and playing some yet to be released indie games and old classics were lots of fun. From the film part of the museum we looked at the claymation set and the making of ‘Memoir of a Snail’ which is made in and set in Melbourne - the film is now very near the top of the to-watch list.
Photos from the set of ‘Memoir of a Snail’
In the evening after a wander around the city some more, we grabbed some quick pasta for dinner and headed to our first ever Aussie rules football game.
Our view of the footy at the Melbourne Cricket Ground
The weekend - On to Tasmania
At the end of the week we headed out to Tasmania. The plan was to catch up with a friend, Gavin, and hang out till Sunday with Becky, and the next week Gav and I would do some climbing. When we arrived to Tasmania we took a walk up to the Organ Pipes in Mount Wellington and got a look back at the city, then grabbed some lunch and generally just caught up.
On Saturday we took a trip to Maria Island to hunt out some wildlife. Gavin is a birdo, so was well informed and we took the binoculars out. I was particularly fond of the flame Robin with a bright orange-red chest visibly from a fair way away. Perhaps it will be my spark bird.
On the island, one can hire bikes. But beware; the man who runs the show is, for want of a better word, a jobsworth. There was a militant demonstration of how to ride a bike, followed by a cycling proficiency style test to put us through our paces. Auld Bruce (second of his name) had really let the power get to his head and was ordering his subordinates (us) to do laps until he was satisfied we would not damage ourselves, or more importantly, the bikes. The threat of a $200 fine for not wearing a helmet was particularly amusing. I did consider if I was afflicted with ‘a problem with authority’ like a friend once told me they have. I considered misbehaving and calling Bruce’s bluff, despite being a rule-follower++. But alas, I am all talk. A memorable character, as you can imagine.
Once bikes were sourced, we did a trip out to the other end of the island and managed to see heaps of pademelons, some wallabies and a fair few wombats cruising around. However, the echidna sighting remained elusive, despite our best efforts.
Tassy wildlife spotting
In the evening we went to the New Syd pub and got some beers and food and met some Irish folks celebrating St Patrick’s Day, but it remained a chill one. Before we knew it, Becky was on her way back to Aotearoa.
Reflections
The big smoke can be tiring and full of consumption. Sometimes one can lean too far into this and after a few days feel pretty yucky. This trip we prioritised keeping an exercise routine and I think that really helped the trip feel more sustainable. Visiting Melbourne was lots of fun for a week with lots to do, great food, bars and fun places to visit. I considered if I’d want to live there and think that other places with slightly easier access to nature (e.g. Christchurch) remain more appealing places to live.