Day 58 – Christchurch, New Zealand to Melbourne, Australia
Our plane (Qantas) from Christchurch to Melbourne was way too hot and crowded (fully booked, tiny seats). He was supposed to have a window, but it was that one weird spot where not only was there not a window, the spot where it should be jutted into his seat. And no, it wasn’t an Exit row. The woman next to me kept trying to take my armrest (middle seat, lady; I get both!) and couldn’t just sit still to save her life. There wasn’t really time for a full service, but the Flight Attendants were determined that no one should get up; they had at least one cart in the aisle the entire flight. So, take a bunch of people who are too hot and have full bladders and just imagine how much fun that is. Now take all those hot, sweaty, pissed off people and make them wait forever for their luggage. Our Transfer driver kept calling to find out where we were…an indication that our baggage wait was far longer than normal.
But then magic happened. On the way out of the airport, he saw kangaroos. I missed them, but who cares?
For part of my dinner, I had a “jug” (just smaller than a pitcher, so about 3 beers instead of 4) of beer.
we found one that was open
Day 59 – fire & water
We awoke at 8am to the fire alarm blaring. Just so everyone knows, if this had been a real fire, we might have burned. We were terrible at getting dressed when jarred from sleep. We took the “opportunity” to have breakfast and then crawled back into bed.
Along the way, we learned why the alarm went off. Someone was trying to dry their socks with a hair dryer. I get it. It was too humid for laundry to dry. As a rule, we tried to do ours on the next-to-last day of a stay. That frequency kept us on top of it, gave most things plenty of time to try, and minimized how much dirty laundry we had to travel with. We figured this out with our motorhome travels, so it was pretty easy to “convert” it to hotel stays.
For lunch, we headed to a Peruvian chicken place, Nando’s. We had a local one in Austin (Inka Chicken) and loved their rotisserie chickens and yellow sauce. This was the same style, but a popular chain down under.
Melbourne is BIG. If you zoom the map in far enough to read the names of anything, it looks like whatever you found is very close. But then, when you start walking, you realize it’s very far….and uphill, both ways.
But sometimes we get so lucky it’s scary. That night, we went to a once-a-month indoor pool party we found at a local club. The place was a confusing maze, but there were a bunch of floaties and beach balls and it was a lot of fun.
Day 60 – gardens, views, museums, and more
We had a busy day. We started out at the conservatory in the gardens. It was a beautiful greenhouse with a curated collection of plants from the grounds. They get a lot of brides, require permits for that, and have a special spot for those photos.
They also have a tiny village that was a gift to the city. Unfortunately, they’ve had to fence it off to keep people from messing with it. I wished I could get some better shots of it.
Across the street, we found the National Gallery of Victoria. It was great.
We think this is to get people to slow down. Trees are wrapped with pink with polkadots match the exhibit inside. There are also small screens with simple bird animations.
We found a local place for burgers (and pizza) where you had to eat upstairs. We then headed to the Sky View Tower where we could look down upon the Australia Open.
Our next stop (and in search of places with AirCon) was Metart, “the world’s largest indoor scrap metal art gallery” and a Guinness record holder. Alas, it’s a giant open-air garage. It was very interesting and is a must-do if you are ever in Melbourne.
We wrapped up the evening with a “free” drink at our hotel bar and then dinner at Bottom End Bar. It was a slow night and the bartenders were bored, so they were fun to chat with while they made our drinks.
Day 61 – penguins marching
We spent our morning doing tiny upgrades to our flights to Fiji and to San Francisco. Luckily, we won’t be on Qantas for those. We just couldn’t pull the trigger on business or first class (the fore shadow knows), but we did get Economy Plus.
After a kebab lunch (one of the ultra-common cuisines down under), we set off for our afternoon/evening tour. We took a bus to Phillip Island, stopping at Moonlit sanctuary along the way. We hit a small town for dinner and pulled over for a couple of grand views of the coast line.
Then, it was time to see penguins. Every night 3,000 people come to watch tiny penguins come back in from hunting in the ocean. Our timing was great because many of them have nestlings. Both parents share all the responsibility of incubating, hunting, and feeding. Our tickets were for the “fancy” indoor area, but we could still hear the babies squawking with hungry excitement when the other parent was on his or her way back to the nest.
Let me be clear about one thing: we aren’t supposed to have any images or videos. They have a rule against it that they don’t tell you until you are at your post. They also never explain the reasoning. After the fact, I’m pretty sure it’s for the eyesight of everyone else. If people use a camera with a screen (like a phone), no one around them will be able to see anything. They make no exceptions for SLR/similar cameras, GoPros, 360s, etc., which is just silly if the screens are their reasoning. They could explain it and make rules about it. It could be on the info when you book or receive tickets. Who wants to lug gear just to be told “no” after the fact? So, all that is to say that our photos and videos were as stealth as we could be. I got called out twice, of cours. The second time, I was literally just using the zoom lens for the zoom like binoculars. “because others might see you doing it.”. Apparently, the other viewing areas were far worse about people getting told not to take any pics. Their “solution” is that we can go download some professional photographers’ images using their QR code. Like I want someone else’s pictures. I won’t link them here, but you can search for Pen.guin Par.ade images and find them easily; they are good images.