Melbourne with a Friend

The morning of the arrival of my UK friend I got up at the same time as my Aussie friend to say goodbye and thank her for the space on her couch. I then packed my bag up once more and headed into town and the hotel where my UK friend and I would be staying. I wasn’t there long before she arrived and put her bags in to storage. It was another sunny day so we took advantage of the weather and walked over to the Botanical Gardens. On the way we stopped by the impressive St Paul’s Cathedral across from Federation Square. Once at the Botanic Gardens we strolled along catching up on each others news for a while until we came to the Garden Cafe where we stopped for lunch and a scone. After our tasty treat we decided to return to the hotel to check in. We had a lazy walk back and once we were settled in it was time for an early dinner of sushi and sashimi at one of Melbournes many sushi restaurants. It was then back to the hotel as my friend had had a very long day having just arrived in the country.

On Saturday we crossed the road the Melbourne Goal for the much lauded Gaol & Watch house experience. The gaol was small so they made the tour interesting by having information about inmates and the living conditions in the early years of settlement. They also had a short play acting out the life story of the infamous Ned Kelly as told though his, his mothers and his acquaintances point of view. It was well done and quite entertaining especially as for me at least it was unexpected. After spending a good few hours reading all the information in the goal we headed to the watch house. Here we were given cards with ex-prisoners details on them. Some of the group were asked their name and crime as writing on the card. We were then ‘processed’ and taken through to the holding cells. After a quick visual inspection to ensure we weren’t carrying any contraband we were led to a holding cell where we sat for a few minutes in the dark getting a feel for how the prisoners must have felt at night. We were given a few minutes in the holding cell area then taken to exercise area which thankful was now roofed over as we could hear the rain on the roof. From there we were taken to the women’s area and again left to look around for a few minutes. The experience finished with a chance to take our own mug shots. Though the day was fun and entertaining I would only recommend it if you are particularly interested in jails, Ned Kelly or it’s raining and you’ve already visited all the other inside attractions. My UK friend was still tired after her long flight so we headed back to the hotel where she had a quick nap before we got dinner in the hotel bar. The rugby was on but the game was fairly uninspiring so I gave up at the start of the second half. My friend had retired to our room straight after dinner but I found she was watching the game in bed so I ended up watching it until the end after all.  It was then time for another early night as we had plans for the next day.

The previous day I had booked tickets for the King Tut exhibit at the Melbourne museum. We were there for nice and early so that we could get as much as possible out of the exhibition and museum. The exhibition was really interesting as there were artefacts from his ancestor’s time as well as from King Tut’s own grave. We had decided to take the audio tour and it was worth the small amount extra for the added information given by an interesting voice. After the exhibition we investigated the permanent exhibits in the museum. Downstairs there were the usual rocks and dinosaur fossils but also a 3-D film on volcanic activity which was pretty cool. Upstairs was a little different. They had an exhibition detailing the progress of Melbourne since the first settlers landed in the 1800s.  There was also an exhibition exploring the mind and the little we know about it. Between these there was enough to keep us busy until the museum closed. Aft6er getting a quick dinner we were once more back at the hotel. This time it was me who really wanted to get back as I had to finish packing a box of stuff to send over to Perth the next day.

Our last day in Melbourne was spent at Healesville sanctuary so my friend could see some native Australian wildlife. The day started with a quick trip to the post office then it was on to the railway station and we were on our way to the sanctuary. Although I have seen many of the animals before the Sanctuary was still a fun experience. We were able to visit their hospital and see some of the new borns as well as learn about how they take care of the sick animals. The surroundings were beautiful and once more my camera got a good work out. I was also excited to see not one platypus but four swimming about playfully. The echidnas were also being very active until a volunteer tried to feeed the neighbouring wallabies at which point they went into hiding which was also very cute. My friend took the opportunity to get up close to some dingos but I was happy to watch from afar and be snap happy once more.

After we had seen al there was to see at the sanctuary we went into Healesville itself for a delicious dinner at Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander. The wine was also enjoyable but we couldn’t stay as we had to catch a bus back to the city and get back to the hotel for another early night. As much as I loved Melbourne my time there was over for now as we had a 5am start the next day so we could get a flight up to Alice Springs for our six day tour, the highlight and main reason for my friends visit.