WELCOME DOWN UNDER, MATES!! G'DAY!
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The iconic Sydney Cityscape....... We're saving Sydney for last....... .
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SUNDAY, Feb 28th ....... Arrival in Melbourne
Departure on Friday evening, February 26th from JFK. We stopped at LAX to board a huge Delta Airbus to take us and 290 others on a 14 hour flight to Sydney. We groggily navigated immigration, and took another short flight to Melbourne, where our exploration of this massive country begins.
We checked into the PARK HYATT HOTEL and grabbed lunch at a Thai Fusion Place in town. The Red Spice Road..... delicious! Then walked back and passed this wonderful Bakery.
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| The Hoptoun French Bakery on Collins Street ..... Gorgeous. they were lined up to get in. |
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Just across from our Hotel is the largest church in town.... and there are many! This is St Patricks Cathedral. |
Later on Sunday we set off for a walk through Treasury Park and past Federation Square to cross the Yarra River and meander the
SOUTH BANK DISTRICT, full of music, shopping and bars and dining. We passed the Art Center
Melbourne with a huge state of the art theater on our way back to the hotel. Melbourne is the capitol of the state of Victoria, and our hotel is surrounded by government buildings and offices.
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| Sunday evening walk to Southbank......... Passed this structure at Federation Square. Awkward to photograph. |
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| The main bridge from the downtown area to Southbank, crossing the Yarra River. |
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Melbourne Skyline
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Let's see.... we are learning that Australia is the world's 6th largest country and it's largest Island.
It is the only continent that is also a country, and it is the only nation that began as a prison.
Australia is the home of the largest living thing on the planet, the Great Barrier Reef, and of the largest monolith, Ayers Rock. It has more things that can kill you than anyplace else on earth: snakes, lizards, spiders, jellyfish, sharks and, oh yes, crocodiles. It is a place where seashells will not only sting you , but actually sometimes GO for you. Apparently Portuguese Man of Wars are not limited to the waters around Portugal........ and the climate is exceeding inhospitable...... very hot and dry. Most of the good topsoil here has dried up and blown away. The vast stretches of empty land outside of the major coastal cities is mostly not used for farming, except a few fertile valleys which are wine regions. We're going there. Hopefully they don't have jellyfish or crocodiles. Just lots of vineyards.
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| The Melbourne Central Train Station. This was meant to be built in Mumbai India, but at the time it was planned, Melbourne was among the richest cities in the world ( due to a massive Gold Rush here). So this impressive and elegant station was built here. Around 1860. It is located just across the street from Federation Square. WE walked past both on Sunday evening on our way to Southbank and the river. |
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| Another Shot of the same Train Station, from the back. Beautiful Tower here...... |
Monday, FEB 29th afternoon driving tour of the city with our driver, Simon
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| Many contrasting architectural styles because the city does not allow old historic buildings to be torn down in order to make way for new structures. Heres a fine example. |
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| WE drove through the near suburb of Fitzroy. A Very funky and artsy area loaded with small shops and bars. This is one of the more famous street art works by a guy names Smug Sofles.... HE is a "Bogan Man", meaning a caricature of al things Aussie right down to the tattoos and the sloppy t-shirt f .... |
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| Another Fitzroy beauty |
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| Our final stop on Monday tour was St Kilda beach on the south side of town. See the windsails above the water. Very buff guys were sailing against a heavy wind. WE had a wonderful lunch at Cumulus prior to the tour and dinner that night was at a wonderful Italian place called Ceccio.. |
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| Another city shot showing the trams. They were plentiful and free to all in the center of town. |
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| Tuesday, March 1st at noon time we met our guide, Jeff, who took us for a day trip to Phillips Island for a look at Koala bears, Wallabys and little penguins and other .Coastal Australian Wildlife and the natural beauty of this Island just beyond Melbourne. |
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| These rocky islands just off the West Coast of Philips Island are called The Nobbies and they are indeed a windswept pile of rock with a seal colony of admirable size |
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| Kim, our guide for the afternoon took this shot at the Nobbies |
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| We bought wines at Oakridge, Yarra Yering and Dominique Portet in the Beautiful Wine Country of the Yarra Valley on WEDNESDAY , March 2nd |
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. The
Dinner Wednesday Night at VUE DU MONDE on the 55th floor of a Melbourne High Rise. |
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| We had a 5 course tasting menu with wine pairings |
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| amazing......This was the Duck. |
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| Night scene from the restaurant |
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| MONDAY, March 3rd we flew to the middle of the country, deep in the Outback to see a couple of remarkable geological .. Phenomenon: Uluru ( Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta. These enormous rocky outcroppings were formed over millions of years and over 500 million years ago. Difficult to comprehend. Here we are with Kata Tjuta in the background. This journey was WAY out of our way but worth it to help us comprehend just how much of Australia is empty rock and soil and desert. We saw SO much of that from the plane. phenomenon: |
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| We began at Sunrise on Tuesday Morning and then took a 1 hour hike through the Walpa Gorge of Kata Tjuta....... "Kata Tjuta translates to "many heads" |
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| Uluru, or Ayers Rock at Sunset. This massive granite monolith is world Famous and emerged from beneath the earths surface many millions of years ago. |
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| Did we mention the bush flies at Uluru? These nets came in very handy and we were not the only tourists wearing them. Rays head and torso was just swarming with them at certain times. |
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| A closeup of Uluru as we walked around the base |
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| On Saturday, March 5th, we journeyed to the State of South Australia to spend 3 nights at The "Southern Ocean Lodge" on .KANGAROO ISLAND, off the coast of Adelaide.. |
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| This and the photo above were taken as we did the Cliff walk adjacent to the Lodge. We saw a pod of dolphins in the water below us and a variety of birds |
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| Saturday evening before dinner they took us for an outing called Kangaroos and Canapés ( known affectionately as Roos . .....and Booze |
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| Sunday morning was a 3 hour tour of the Southwest windswept corner of the Island. A farmer planted a roe of Eucalyptus trees and the koalas came They live on Eucalyptus leaves |
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| Just beyond the lighthouse is a mass of rocks which are home to a seal colony |
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| A lovely boardwalk allows access to these huge granite rocks known as the Remarkable rocks |
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| Ray posing in front of one massive stone that has seen millions of years of erosion |
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| The Remarkable Rocks seen from a distance |
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| A sample of Aboriginal art |
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| Beautiful colors and distinctive style |
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| ..... This is a view of the outback from the plane as we flew from Uluru to Adelaide to get to Kangaroo Island. It was so important to me at least, to see how massive and empty this country is.... 24 Million inhabitants and 95 % of them live in the cities and towns along the coast..... The middle of the country is so dry and barren it is uninhabitable .......o . |
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| Before we left Kangaroo Island, Ray went to the beach one more time to see a colony of Sea Lions. |
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| On Tuesday morning , March 8th, we flew to Adelaide and then drove an hour North to the Barossa Valley for more wine country. Our Hotel is the Louise and dinner is at an excellent wine country restaurant called Appelation |
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| Starting at Peter Lehman and moving on to Lunch at "the VINTNERS", followed by a session with a wine tasting staffer at Penfolds we had our own personal wine blending experience. We set off on Wednesday at 10:30 the serious wine tasting began in earnest..... |
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| Here we are at Penfolds trying to look sober with our wines that we bottled ourselves! |
