Melbourne Zoo

Saturday was a work day for Dan so we sought advice from the concierge to pick his brain for ideas on how the boys and I could spend the day. After a process of elimination we caught one of the Melbourne trams to Melbourne Zoo.

Given my boys love their animals combined that it was a gorgeous warm sunny day we had a fab time wandering round Melbourne Zoo. There was loads to see, but the animals that particularly stick in our mind were a cute little platypus and wombat which was a first as we've never seen either of them before. Other zones that we loved and should probably get a mention were the butterfly house and the never ending aviary - honestly it was truly massive and the longest we've ever walked through.

Platapus

The longest aviary ever

Emu 

Koala 

Baboon

Sting ray

Giant Tortoise 

Frilled Lizard

Death Adder

Australian Pelican

Butterfly House

Gorilla 

Red Panda 

Red Tree Kangaroo

Mandrill

Red Panda

By the time we left the place was chock-a-block with people. We went to see the tigers and elephants but we were just drifting along at a shuffling pace due to the hoards of people that had opted for a zoo day… time to make an exit me thinks, so after a few quick snaps we trotted off back home.

Now here is something we don’t get every day… on arrival back at our room in our Marriott hotel we were greeted with little prezzie from the consierge… a bottle of vino and a plate of sweets and chocs for the boys…

... now how nice is that?

Just for the record we never made it to the goal today, roll on tomorrow!

Melbourne - Road Trip to the Twelve Apostles

Friday was the day we embarked along the infamous Great Ocean Road trip to make the pilgrimage to the Twelve Apostles - a full day required for this one – just brings home just how vast Australia is! The drive took pretty much the entire day with two boys keeping us entertained the whole way by their various hyperactive sing songs (pushing us to near breaking point). 


It has to be said that the trip was a scenic one packed full of coffee and  photo pit stops enroute. All was quite at the back and we thought the boys’ hyperactivity had finally burnt out when we heard a little yelp from our eagle eyed eldest “Koala” so we turned around and went to investigate. Low and behold on the opposite side of the road, hidden high in a tree amongst the leaves was a little koala having a little snooze. 

Koala

(Pub quiz fact – koalas sleep 22 hours of the day). 

Have to say, hats off to him for spotting it in the first place! So after a little photo shoot we pressed onwards. Unfortunately for the koala, a few tour coaches pulled over to see what we were looking at, so by the time we left the crowds were beginning to build marking an abrupt end to his nap.

Koala aside we also saw many Australian birds and lizards to add to our list...

Australian Magpie

Australian Top Notch Pigeon (or referred to my my boys as the Cockadoodle haired pigeon)

Despite being a long drive we saw managed to fit in a number of little stretch legs stops enroute…

Bells beach made famous where Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves shared a moment when filming Point Break.

Stunning scenic view sat Teddy's Lookout...

...and another one at Cape Patton...

... a short walk to Erskine Falls...

.... not forgetting the all important Australian kangaroo sign...

... finally arriving at the Twelve Apostles. 

The Twelve Apostles were amazing, I totally fell in love with them. We arrived just before sunset, so perfect timing. Not really sure what to expect, there was a walkway which lead us along the cliff edge to various viewing hot spots in which to admire the apostles… humongous tall masses of rock standing still amongst the waves crashing against them… with the sun getting lower in the sky I can’t put my finger on it but there was something magical being there – beautiful.

We then made a quick pizza pitstop before making the long 'doge the wambat' drive back to Melbourne. A full on day, but so worth it!

Melbourne - Eureka Tower Sky Deck

Eureka Tower Sky Deck

The sun had decided to make an appearance by the afternoon, so we headed on up the Eureka Tower Sky Deck which claims to have the highest viewing platform in the Southern hemisphere.  

Now we had been pre warned that Melbourne was the city with four seasons in one day and it didn’t disappoint… while we had a quick ice-cream break watching the sites below we observed the blue sky transform to dark grey as a rain cloud edged is way in, bucketed down with massive hail stone sized rain drops. By the time we got to the end of our lollies low and behold the sun was shining once again, quite surreal watching it from our vantage point.

Melbourne - Sea Life Aquarium

Melbourne

"The Travellers" giant steel sculptures on the Sandridge Bridge, depicting the immigrants who travelled to make Melbourne their home

We woke up to rain on our first day and our first port of call was the Sea Life Aquarium as requested by the boys, so we caught the tram round to the south bank side of the city and took a leisurely stroll along side the river to the aquarium admiring all the fancy buildings along the way, cute little foot bridges with sculptures and one bridge which people had started attaching padlocks to… trying to emulate Pont Des Arts bridge in Paris. 

South Bank Love Bridge

Unfortunately we then had to pass under the railway bridge which was littered with homeless people curled up in their sleeping bags. We lead such a sheltered life and I think the boys found it quite shocking to see people sleeping rough, with the quite ironic back drop of super sleek skyscrapers filled with people busy making their millions. 

The aquarium was pretty much in the same theme as all Sea Life Aquariums and we do have some pretty fantastic ones back in the UK, but we did see some new fish we’d not seen before, namely the Elephant Fish and the most humungous manta rays ever.

Pub Quiz fact: The Elephant Fish use their unique nose like a metal detector to search the sea floor for shellfish.

Melbourne - First Taste of Australia

Wow what an eventful long weekend. Dan had a conference in Melbourne, so forever his faithful groupie we tagged along for the ride. Following the end of school on Wednesday and quick uniform change we headed over to the airport.

Depite being booked onto Qantas we actually flew Emirates and all I can say is ‘wow’, larger seats and leg room (much appreciated by the super sized husband), super friendly air hostesses, great food, fab entertainment and the boys got their all important goodie bag (Qantas take note!!!). 

Somewhat the novice flyer, a feature I’ve not seen before were cameras positioned on three vantage points on the plane… the nose, tail and belly. 

The boys took great delight in watching take off and landing, well one of them anyway, the smaller one zoned out, eyes fixated on a movie within 5 minutes of his bottom touching the seat.

Four hours later we were in Melbourne, the boys very first taste of Australia.

Old Friends and Dragon Boat Racing

Second weekend on the trot of Dan working (boo), so the boys and I had another weekend of entertaining ourselves. 

Noted… there is diddly squat on at the cinema for children the boys age. We watched Frozen early on back in January on one of our rainy-killing-time days, but since then the films haven’t been refreshed and we’re nearing the end of March! So while yes it is fantastic having a cinema a stones throw away from our apartment it is kind of redundant unless they get their act together and have a decent selection of films. Fingers crossed this isn’t the norm and they’ll get magic up some films before the rainy season hits us! So UK, you win hands down on the cinema front!

Right rant over, we actually had really lovely relaxing weekend, and despite being three weeks into Autumn, and my weather app lying to me yet again illustrating a dark cloud with a thunder bolt shooting out of it, it was gloriously sunny. 

So while Dan was keeping himself busy doing this...

...we busied ourselves with some beach and pool time. 

On Saturday we met up with an old uni friend, Helen over a picnic on Takapuna beach and got to meet her main man Ant, and super adorable chidlers… my boys just seemed so big next to her little ones – it’s amazing how quickly you forget how small they once were. 

So after a good old natter and catch up the boys opted to spend the afternoon with some pool time. Unfortunately a little person got hold of my camera and decided to play paparazzi – oh happy days.

We then decided to move to warmth of the spa pool where we remained for the rest of the afternoon, before removing our prune like selves back to the flat for some eggy dips, hot choc and a movie.

Selfie time

We also paid a visit Lake Pupuke on Sunday, where Takapuna was holding their annual dragon boat racing, a relaxing community event full of over excited supporters. 

Dragon Boat Racing on Lake Pupuke

I love this photo – the black swans sailing alongside the finishing bouys, completely unphased with the speeding loud drum beating boats hurtling towards them!