17-19.03 Last of Melbourne
Our last two days in Melbourne were spent sorting the final bits out & chilling out. We spent a couple of hours taking some bits to the municipal tip, which was a bit of a mission to get to on the public transport system! We spent a little time in and around the City enjoying cafe culture and the brilliant weather!      And when we weren't in the City or in the apartment, then we could probably be found relaxing in the pool or hot-tub! We had an early start to content with on the 19th March for our flight to Brisbane with 85kg of luggage! Read the story here. Labels: bourke_street, docklands, melbourne, new_quay, photos
07.03 Contempora at Docklands
06.03 Mike Doing The Weather
One of the good things on TV used to be just before 6pm, when Mike did the weather from somewhere around the City. It just so happened after an afternoon trip to Coles, we came across him doing the weather from Docklands! So we managed to see the weather live for once...  We won't talk about the picture I took of Joanna & Mike, which I promptly lost in all the excitment because the camera was set on the wrong setting! Sorry Joanna! You may ask why we were walking back from Coles? Well, we managed to sell the Magna to a nice girl called Bex, who was looking for a wagon, a couple of days before!! We were sad to see it go, but the money was going towards another set of wheels in New Zealand - a 4x4!! Labels: celebrity, docklands, melbourne, mike_the_weatherman, network_10, photos
04.03 Sarah Comes to Town!
 Nathan & Joanna become Tour Guides for the day!    Views over Melbourne City from the Rialto Towers' 360° Observation Deck! We won't talk about the bargain entrance fee we paid, but with a combination of buy-one-get-one-free & YHA cards, it was very little!  Fortunately everyone is still smiling and we're still together! 'My group follow me...!'  Everyone waiting patiently for the drinks & cake to arrive on Southbank! I don't think anyone was disappointed or had any room for anything else!  Grand Prix preparation under way at Albert Park!  This is actually a picture of the dredging taking place in Port Phillip Bay by the boat named 'Queen of the Netherlands'. This was in fact before they had given official approval to the scheme to actually start! The lighter colour following the boat is the result of lifting the clay and silt from the Bay. Labels: albert_park, joanna, melbourne, nathan, photos, port_phillip_bay, queen_of_the_netherlands, rialto_towers, sarah_caroline, southbank, visitors
02.03 Celebrate the Bean
Another event! This time to celebrate the bean, the coffee bean! So we took the short walk to go and have a look and someone just had to get a sample Latte! You know you're an addict when...  ...you get in the longest queue...  ...and they put your name on the cup! Labels: addiction, celebrate_the_bean, docklands, joanna, latte, melbourne, photos
01.03 Brighton & Port Melbourne
The final days of having a car, meant that we had to get out to those places where we said we wanted to take photos before we left. So we drove to the closest beach huts to Melbourne City at Brighton!   The most famous of the beach huts on Brighton Beach, this adorns the cover of the Lonely Planet guide to Victoria!  Kite Surfers in the foreground of the view to the City!    During our trip to Brighton Beach, we saw the Spirit of Tasmania heading to Port Melbourne. So we raced to Port Melbourne to greet it!  Joanna waving in vain. She should know at this point, with our personal experience, that all the passengers are packed into the stairwells waiting for the car deck doors to open!! Labels: beach_huts, brighton_beach, joanna, kite_surfing, melbourne, photos, port_melbourne, spirit_of_tasmania
01.03 Melbourne Food Festival & Getaway Crew
Time to relax and take in what the city has to offer...  Another festival in Melbourne, this time it's the Food Festival! Time to relax and watch someone else do the cooking for a change!!   Just along the Yarra, between Federation Square and the MCG, you'll find the Federation Bells & Speaking Corner. A great place to enjoy views the city skyline and the river!    Two of the stars from our favourite holiday programme, Getaway! You can imagine it... 'we watch your programme all the time!'  Lets hope that Shelly has a decent wardrobe for her new role and she's not being dressed by the same person that did Toni Pearen! Perhaps this will also stop her singing 'Are your MacLeans showing?', it really is starting to grate now - perhaps that's good for keeping the tartar away!?!   You know its the weekend in Melbourne because everyone gets their trailers out! They don't necessarily have to carry anything, they just have to be there just in case!  View of boats in the Marina at Docklands! Labels: celebrity, channel_9, dermot_brereton, docklands, federation_bells, federation_sqaure, food_festival, getaway, joanna, jules_lund, melbourne, nathan, photos, shelley_craft, speaking_corner, trailers
15.04 Update: Oz to Nz
Firstly I’d like to apologise to all our viewers for the lack of posts again! There are a number of reasons for this, but the primary one is that we’ve run out of space on the server, and I am waiting to get some work so I can pay for some more and then we can continue!! As you may have guessed from the banner above we have now arrived in New Zealand! We spent our last days in Melbourne doing the things that tourist do, as well as being tourist guides ourselves for my friend Sarah! Our final full day in Melbourne was spent packing the apartment up. There was a lot of weighing & re-weighing of the luggage, and no matter how many times it was checked we were still over! Parcels were also sent backwards and onwards! Did I also say that we had already taken 40kgs to New Zealand?! We spent Easter in Brisbane (with no excess baggage charges), with Sam and Dan, and spent a wonderful week with them all – post to come with all the photos! A superb way to end our time in Australia, and a great distraction to our move across the ‘ditch’! While we were at Brisbane Airport, we managed to check our suitcases in 20kgs over our allowance, so while Jo & I were smiling at each other an ‘air new zealand do-gooder’ stuck her beak in and asked for our hand luggage to weighed. They too were over weight by 10kg, so we were charged $100 excess baggage! Still we can’t complain after all the travelling we had done and it could have been $300 from Brisbane alone! We are currently living in Christchurch with Sara & Matt. They are making full use of the live-in butler & housemaid service that is available during this time of job, car and accommodation hunting. We have signed up with a number of recruitment agencies between us, but we are yet to receive a single temporary assignment! Joanna does have two weeks youth work with the YMCA starting next week, which should be very good. Anyway, hopefully we’ll be able to post the last days in Melbourne, our time in Brisbane, along with our first weeks in Christchurch very soon!! Labels: air_new_zealand, blog, christchurch, melbourne, nz, server_space
20.02 Tramcar Restaurant
Joanna organised a birthday treat for the both of us that combined my love of trams and Joanna's love of food! It was a trip on the Tramcar Restaurant that allows you to eat your way around Melbourne! We enjoyed a delicious five course meal and a couple(?!) of glasses of something!    I plan to get some exterior shots of the Tramcar Restaurant over the next few days... Labels: birthday, joanna, melbourne, nathan, tramcar_restaurant, trams
18.02 Operation Clean Magna
With about a month to go before we'd have to leave Melbourne, we thought it was time to prepare the car for it's own onward journey. So we took a trip to the local car wash to remove all of the flies that we had collected on our journeys around Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory & Tasmania!   So after a few dollars and about 30 minutes of hard scrubbing, it looked sooo much better...      Labels: car_wash, docklands, magna, melbourne, usu_169
|
|
And when we weren't in the City or in the apartment, then we could probably be found relaxing in the pool or hot-tub! We had an early start to content with on the 19th March for our flight to Brisbane with 85kg of luggage! Read the story here.
