It’s just occurred to me that I never posted the final part of our Australian adventure from December 2019! So here it is… Melbourne!
The rest of the Australia trip can be found here:
I literally CANNOT believe it was 11 months ago now that we were in Australia. This year has just flown by; it’s just crazy! We are so glad that our trip was last December and that we got the chance to get away before Corona. I definitely feel for anyone who had been planning big trips this year that have been cancelled/ postponed.
Day 1:
We arrived in Melbourne in the evening following our drive from Apollo Bay along the Great Ocean Road back to Melbourne. We stayed at Oaks Melbourne on William Suites and had a serviced studio apartment. It was in a great location near Flagstaff Gardens and was a great place to be.
We started off our first day in Melbourne and went to Hardware Societe for breakfast. We’d been to their sister restaurant in Paris the year before and said we had to give it a go while in Melbourne. I had pork belly and eggs and Tim had Lobster benedict. It’s a small set up with a long bench down the middle and the kitchen along one of the walls. It’s quite cool being able to see the chefs at work making all the tasty breakfasts!
After a nice and filling brekkie we made our way down to The Immigration Museum to be picked up by our tour bus for our Neighbours Tour. We’d both watched Neighbours growing up and 1 of Tim’s must sees while in Melbourne. It was a great tour with fantastic weather! Here are some of the best bits!
That evening we went to see one of Tim’s close friends Chris who has moved out to Oz and had a BBQ. It was such a chilled evening eating all the tasty food and homemade sticky toffee pudding!
Day 2:
We had planned to spend the day with Chris anyway and we were invited down to Phillip Island to spend the day with day with him, his girlfriend and family. We went on a walk at Cape Woolamai and the views were gorgeous out across the sea. I mean look at that blue sea! We’re so glad to have gone to Philip Island as it wasn’t originally on our list.
We then popped to see the penguins at Penguin Parade and The Nobbies. After a delish meal we took a coach back to Melbourne (about 2 hours long) and finished off some sticky toffee pudding (also known as sticky date pudding in Auz) from the night before. We were absolutely knackered so a big sleep was needed!
Day 3:
Wow today was a busy day and it was Christmas Day! We started off the day with calls back home to wish our families Merry Christmas. It was very strange to be away in a hot country and not with family with the usual decorations. We started off our day with a trip to Melbourne Zoo. We got there for when it opened so the trams weren’t too busy. Make sure to grab a map of the zoo when you arrive and locate where you are as we got a little lost trying to find the koalas for the talk! It was quite busy and seemed like lots of others had the same plan as us.
After spending a few hours at the zoo we grabbed a tram back to the centre and had a walk down to the MGM, by all the sports stadiums and walked along some of the Formula 1 track. Tim is a massive F1 fan so this was another must for him! We covered so much ground and did 33,891 steps. It also occurred to us that lots of places were closed for Christmas so we walked down to St Kilda’s and found an Italian (Leo’s Spaghetti Bar) where we had pizza/ pasta and shared some bubbles.
Day 4:
Another must do for Tim was going to the MCG and watching the Boxing Day test. We got tickets months before the trip and packed up a cooler bag with drinks, snacks and lunch. It was a great, fun atmosphere and so different to the UK tests!
Afterwards we made our way into the Centre of Melbourne for dinner and finished off with ice cream at Pidapipo. I had raspberry swirl with melted Nutella in the middle – It was delish!
We finished off the night at Arbory Afloat with some Aperol Spritz – perfect!
Day 5:
Our final day in Melbourne was taking in all the Sites! We checked out the Shrine of Remembrance which had amazing views out across the city. It’s such a lovely remembrance for the people who lost their lives in the world wars.
We also walked around the Royal Botanic Gardens which were gorgeous – I do have to say that I did prefer the Sydney’s although they were lovely!
We then walked back into the Centre and hunted out Mr Crackles and had the most delish pork rolls. If you are in Melbourne you HAVE to check it out. Looks like there’s one in Syndey too if you’re there – omg it makes me hungry just thinking about the Char siu bun I had! I mean just look at that deliciousness!
Before heading back and checking out of our apartment we headed to Fitzroy and Naked For Satan for a rooftop cocktail with Chris. We opted for a pitcher of Pimms because why not when the sun is shining!
We popped to Bad Frankie for jaffles (basically toasties!) and cocktails. We shared a couple jaffle supremos and then had a hot jam donut each – so so so good! Absolutely loved the mugs the cocktails came in!
And that was it! Our flight was at 1am in the morning – so so late/early! I remember the first flight was absolutely awful and I barely slept. Our seats were right by the loos and were by one of the wings. So good for leg room but awful for bum room and getting cosy for getting some shut eye! Anyway, we caught up on lots of sleep when we got back.
I literally can’t believe that we were setting off on our Australia trip nearly a year ago – this year has obviously been a weird one for sure. We’re so grateful that we were able to do our Aussie trip in 2019 and it gave us that winter sun to recharge before this weird year. We had booked our flights and a couple excursions with STA travel so again another reason we’re glad the trip was last year. It’s so sad that many businesses have gone under this year especially in the travel and hospitality industry. We can’t wait to travel again except it will definitely look very different for us with a little baby in tow!
Until next time,
Cathers xx
