Family in MELBOURNE!

Hi everyone,

Welcome to Melbourne! We are now clearly out of the outback and into one of Australia’s biggest city known for shopping and fine dining.

Monday July 5
After our flight out of Alice Springs today we made it to Melbourne in the afternoon. After checking into our hotel we did not have much time before we had to leave for dinner. We had dinner tonight aboard the colonial tram car and it was fabulous! The tram car picked us up about a half hour walk from our hotel. The walk to the tram stop was really nice – we went by Federation Square and walked along the Yarra River. We made it to the tram stop and were greeted by the maitre de, waited 5 minutes and then went on-board our tram! The tram was set up like a colonial restaurant. We were at 2 tables on each side of the tram. There was a chef on board where all of our food was prepared, along with a waiter and an assistant waiter. There were probably about 15 tables on board, with 2, 3 or 4 people at each table. When we boarded the tram the appetizers were set up for us and were crackers with two types of dip. After settling in, the tram started moving and for the rest of the evening we circled around Southern Melbourne along St Kilda. It was so nice! After our crackers, they came around with bread and champagne. We then ordered our meal (we had 3 choices). My Mom, Dad and I got fish while the boys got chicken. The fish was delicious and the boys liked their chicken. We then had sticky date pudding for dessert which was also very good! The meal finished off with chocolates. It was a really fantastic dinner and was just so cool to be aboard a moving tram around Melbourne. It was a great way to see a section of the city and was just so much fun. The colonial tramcar restaurant has been running since the 1980s and since has won many tourist and restaurant awards. It really was high class dining aboard a tramcar!

Tuesday July 6
Today was a full day filled with Melbourne sightseeing! After a breakfast at the hotel, we headed to Federation Square to pick up our tour bus. There is way too much to do in Melbourne and because of this, we ended up splitting into 2 groups today and did two separate things. Dad and I did the Great Ocean Road adventure. We left federation square at 8 am on a double-decker Gray Line coach bus and set off for Great Ocean road. We left Melbourne via the West Gate Bridge and passed through West Melbourne. Within a half hour or so we were officially out of Melbourne and in the countryside. Torquay is the official start of the Great Ocean Road and from the moment the road started, we had unbelievable views of the ocean and cliffs. The Great Ocean Road was carved out by WWI veterans in the 1930s. It took 2,000 men to complete the approximate 400 km which create the road. The road is along the West coast of Victoria (the territory Melbourne is in), on the South coast of Australia. Our first stop was Bells Beach which has a beautiful beach and huge waves. There were TONS of surfers out today surfing the waves. We had morning tea here with Bush Bily Tea and lamingtons (Aussie sponge cake with chocolate and coconut on the outside). We then continued along the Great Ocean Road taking in the spectacular coastal views filled with cliffs, sandy beaches and rolling surf. We even saw a whale in the ocean!! It was very exciting. Our next stop was Apollo Bay where we stopped for lunch. After some fish ‘n chips, pasta and rice we were back on the road. We went through The Otways which is a rainforest filled with fern gullies and eucalypts. The trees were really beautiful and supposedly sometimes you can see koalas in the trees, but we didn’t see any. On the other side of the Otways we reached Port Campbell National Park. Back in the 1800s this coastline was known as “The Shipwreck Coast” because there were so many shipwrecks here due to it’s rugged coastline. Our first stop was the Twelve Apostles which are these huge stone islands right near the coastline. The Apostles are where the coastline used to be, but due to erosion, the coastline moved back and the soft stone was eroded, but the hard stone stayed leaving behind the Apostles. There used to be 13 Apostles, but today there at only 8 still standing. The waves crash into the bottoms of the Apostles so eventually they get weathered away and the Apostle tips over. While there are only 8, it is still called the Twelve Apostles. They are truly magnificent and beautiful! We walked along the boardwalk and saw them from up above. Then we hopped back on the bus and went to Gibson’s Steps. We walked down the 65 steps and saw the Apostles right from the beach. It was awesome to go down the cliff, be so close to the raging sea and see the Apostles from a different perspective and realize how huge they are. We then went to a specific section of shipwreck coast where a tragic shipwreck “Loch Ard” took place. Here there were 3 10 minute walks to do, and we were able to do them all in 30 minutes. We first did Loch Ard Gorge, where we walked down into the gorge where the shipwreck took place. It was really beautiful down there and cool to be down by the water. We then did Island Arch which was a pretty walk along the top where we were able to see London Bridge (where the water carved out stone that looks like a bridge). Finally we went to Razorback which had a ton of stunning coastal cliffs and structures carved out. We then went back on the bus and headed for Port Campbell the town. We had a quick stop in the town where we got some ice cream. Then we went back on the bus and took the inland route to Melbourne. On the way we saw a gorgeous sunset which lasted a really long time. Then we were shown a movie about the shipwreck that happened in Lorch Ard. It was a really great tour filled with amazing sights! Our tour guide was also great – he gave us a ton of information about everything we saw along the way. We then made it back to Melbourne, met up with Mom, Brian and Jason for dinner. After dinner Mom, Jason and I walked down Swanston Street (where we are staying) to a Spanish churro place I had been to back in April with my friend Arielle (who studied here for the semester). We picked up some delicious churros and brought them back to the hotel for everyone to enjoy! Speaking of the rest of the family, here is a special guest appearance from Brian to tell you about what they did:

it was a cool morning as we made are way to the bus. The sky was clear and we had upgraded to the grand city tour and oh was it grand. We hopped in the bus with our driver Con and 15 other mates. Making our way around beautiful Melbourne in the grayline bus. Con pointed out all the fantastic buildings the tallest one being the Eureka building. It was really cool looking. However our favorite buildings were the sports complexes. We saw two big stadiums each held all different sports: soccer, Aussie football, rugby, and cricket. The most exciting to see however was the tennis complex and the fantastic Rod Laver arena looking sweet as. We also got out of the bus on two occasions once in a park with the residence of Captain Cook the man who discovered Australia - his house was really small. The other stop was at the botanical gardens and shrine of remembrance both were cool as. We made our way back to fed square for our lunch and said good ay to the mates from the morning tour. Making our way to the included lunch where I got a beautiful chicken sandwich and Jason and mum got brilliant fish and chips. At lunch we saw these giant puppets outside kind of creepy looking but people liked them. Next we hopped on the bus for the afternoon tour with our new mates and Con the driver. The day had turned into a most beautiful day the birds were singing and the sun was shining. On the brief city tour we all took a quick cat nap to rest up for the blue dandinons (no idea how to spell it). In the forests we saw these really huge and fantastic trees myself mum and Jason went for a quick jungle expedition where we saw lions tigers and bears (not). But it was really sweet as. However the day was becoming brisk so we welcomed a cup of billy tea right by the billabong. Finally we made or way to a look out were we could see a valley and a city but it was kind of hazy so we got ice cream. On the way back to Melbourne we learned the meaning of the song waltzing matilda and much to my surprise matilda is not a woman who waltzes it is actually a sad song. Once back to the city we got Jason the second Harry Potter book and he also got hit by a trolly just joking, any way what a brilliant day.

Now we're in our last stop: Sydney. Hope all is well with you in the States!

Cheers!