A New City & A Changed City

No such thing as having a lie-in on a Bolger Iron Tourist Trip.  The alarm went off at 3:15am for our 5:30am flight to Melbourne.  Kim was kind enough to rise up and see us off, and hopefully he wisely went back to bed.

We did not make it to Melbourne on either our 1989 trip (no blog exists from a time the word “blog” would be mistaken for throat clearing) or our 2015 trip (read the blog!).  We really enjoyed our time there.  Again, under the expectation that I’m keeping this part short, I won’t go into much detail, but I would recommend spending time there.

We stayed at Crown Promenade hotel (but avoided the casino), which is right near  the Southbank.  There were street performers, restaurants, parks and parks along the Yarra.  Everything we did in Melbourne was more fun than we expected (from my time in Australia in 1989, I was told that Melbourne was a bit staid, but it has certainly changed).

The parks, museums, and Federation Square (kept expecting to see Klingons or Romulans at Federation Square, but alas, there was only great museums and cool architecture.  The first night we were there, Valentine’s Day, there was a Guns and Roses concert nearby.  If you want to see copious amounts of scary aging men and scary aging women in black concert t-shirts, that was the place to be.  While they looked scary, they were too mellow to be threatening (it is Australia, after all) and just made for some good local colour.

The display of aboriginal art in the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) is amazing and quite beautiful.  Much more interesting than the other Aussie art there (sorry, just not my thing).  The colors of the aboriginal art was amazing; at some point I will post some photos.  (As one Aussie noted, the idea of a state gallery calling itself a national gallery is somewhat incongruous, but so be it.)

Our second night, I arranged to meet up with an old friend I hadn’t seen since 1989 – Bill Royce.  We met out in St. Kilda’s on the bay at a bar named Pontoon.  It’s right on the beach, and has a fabulous view of the bay/sunset.  If you find yourself in Melbourne, please do yourself a favor and go there, either by Tram, taxi, or Uber.  Whilst the traffic getting out there was a headache, being there made the commute recede into the past.

It was great catching up with Bill, who I had just within the past year or two found on Facebook.  We downed a pint or two or three (maybe four).  He had to leave for a Skype at 8pm, but Carol and I stayed.  The lamb was fabulous, pairing nicely with an Aussie Shiraz.  An incredibly setting.

And then we were off to a night in Canberra.  We had been in Canberra in 1989, but it has grown and changed tremendously.   Carol went to question time in the Aussie Parliament and watched some of that show, before heading to their art gallery on her own, as I was busy.  The next day, before flying to Auckland, we had time to go to the War Memorial, which is quite an interesting and moving place – besides being a memorial, it houses museum sections on most of Australia’s involvement in wars.  Not surprisingly, it features WWI and WWII.

We walked down what should be called “Memorial Drive” you know, because of the Memorials.  Instead it is called something else, although I’m right.  We went down to the lake in the center of Canberra, and walked along the shore a good distance before visiting the island with Carillon.  Then we ordered an Uber as it was time to head to the airport -- off to New Zealand’s North Island.