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Growing Up
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More day 1 photos |
Flying
from Auckland to Melbourne, AFL Match At 4:31am, I remembered why I said I'd never take an early morning flight ever again. Apart from feeling fairly average, the rest of the morning went well. The flight was full but everything went smoothy. The Melbourne bag Xray queues were huge as there was a flight from Hanoi just before us and everyone seemed to have something to declare. Once I made it into the city, it was abont 11am and I'd been up almost 9 hours without a coffee. I met up with Andrew and we grabbed a coffee (with a "tommy tippy" mouth piece!) and walked around the city. We took the tram out to Port Melbourne and dropped my bags off at my brother's apartment. After some food, we headed back into the city to watch an AFL (aussie rules) game at the Telstra Dome. Andrew had corporate seats in the Medalian Club, which had its own bar, restaurant and toilet facilities. Our seats even had their own TV's (like in a plane). Lots of different views of the game, plus other sports channels. The game lasted just under three hours and was between St Kilda and Essenden. I am told it wasn't a high quality game but it was still fun watching sport with 50,000 people in indoor stadium. The roof was closed before the game due to the rain. It hadn't rained in Melbourne in months and the city is on level 5 water restrictions so was good for the city, but perhaps not for this tourist. After that I headed back to the apartment, watched TV and had some takeaways. I had an early night after being awake 18 hours........ |
I was awake early as expected. At about 9:30am I went to the Melbourne South markets. I had one of the infamous dim sum's. After some shopping we returned to Andrew's apartment. I then walked down to the Port Melbourne waterfront and along to Station Pier where the Tasmaina ferries and cruise ships dock. I then headed south again as far as the suburb of South Melbourne and headed in land to the Albert Park shopping centre, before heading back to the apartment. After watching some sport I headed the long way to St Kilda where I met up with Andrew and walked through the trendy cafes and along the beach to Acland St. Back home for dinner..... |
 
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Melbourne - City
After breakfast I headed into town and walked along the Southbank Promenade beside the Yarra River. After a stop at the information centre and a coffee I walked up Exhibition St to the Carlton Gardens and then onto Flagstaff Gardens. Next stop was the Docklands area where I walked through "Waterfront City". I then met up with Andrew for lunch before heading up to the 55th floor Melbourne Observation Tower for some photos and a latte. After that was some shopping in Burke St before returning home. |
Melbourne
- Parks I had an early start and enjoyed a coffee on the waterfront before taking a tram into town before taking another tram north to Royal Park. After a walk around I took the long tram back to the city where I walked about before grabbing some lunch and eating it in the Treasury Gardens. After lunch I walked through Fitzroy Gardens, past the MCG and the tennis centre. Next was a walk around the Royal Botanic Gardens before finding a tram back to Andrew's apartment. I was having dinner with Pam, so she came by to pick me up at 6pm and we went to South Melbourne for a nice dinner and converation. |
 
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Melbourne
- St Kilda & Albert Park I woke up and decided to get some fresh air and walked along the beach from the apartment to St Kilda and out onto the St Kilda Pier (after a coffee of course!) After giving Mum and Dad a call from the pier I decided to keep walking and walked the length of Albert Park and back through South Melbourne before spending the afternoon watching the traditional Anzac Day AFL match between the Bombers and the Magpies. |
Flying from
Melbourne to Brisbane After re-packing my 10kg of luggage I went down to Station Pier to see one of the cruise ships arrive. Once I'd finished there I headed back to the apartment to pick up my luggage and began my journey to Brisbane. The day involved 10 mins of walking, 15 mins on the tram, 30 minutes in the Sky Bus to get me from the city to the airport, before a two hour flight to Brisbane. All were rather uneventful. Feng was ready and waiting when I arrived in Brisbane and we went to a nearby Factory Outlet mall to pass a few hours as Rachel's fight wasn't due till around 6pm. After coffee, lots of catching up and some shopping in between we headed back to Feng's place. Later went across the road to the local Westfield and had some dinner. |
 
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Brisbane
- Australia Zoo We left for Australia Zoo about 10am. It was an hours drive or so to the Sunshine Coast. We arrived in time for the show in the "Crocoseum". Lots of birds, snakes and of course crocodiles on display. We visited some animals before stopping for lunch and then continued on to view the rest of the Zoo. After the zoo we headed a few km's futher on and had some aftenoon tea (coffee and fresh cream scones) before we all headed back to Brisbane. We went to Market Square in Sunnybank for dinner before hanging out around home. |
Brisbane -
Shopping! We started the day shopping at the local Westfield before grabbing some lunch. After lunch we headed south towards the Gold Coast and I had my third coffee of the day (one too many in hindsight) at Harbour Town. After more shopping we went and found Rachel's hotel where she was staying for her conference. We had dinner and good conversation at the Sushi Train in Surfers before Feng and I headed back to Brisbane. |
 
More day 8 photos |
 More day 9 photos |
Flying
from Brisbane to Auckland I got up just after 7am to get my packing done, before grabbing some breakfast and catch up with the latest news. Feng took me to the airport just after 9:30am and I joined the standard checkin queue. I was through the checkin / security processes by 11am where I had some food and watched the planes being loaded. The flight itself was full again. With a flight time of two and a half hours, I watched Borat while enjoying my pie (yes they served a meat pie as lunch). We landed early but had to sit on the taxiway for 15 minutes before our gate cleared. Customs was fairly quick and I took the "Airbus" home which turned the ride home into a one hour event. It was nice to be home in the rain away from the level 5 drought conditions of Melbourne and Brisbane! |