When we landed in Melbourne we were met by Angie's friend Gillian, who chauffeured us back to her lovely big house on the outskirts of the city and then proceeded to spoil us, pamper us and feed us home-grown veg for our entire time here. What a star! Thanks Gillian, you are the perfect hostess. Having such a pleasant environment to be in means that we have had a very chilled time, with several days of just pottering around, picking ripe tomatoes, sending emails and watching DVDs. It's been a real novelty.
Melbourne is more laidback than Sydney and has been rated the most liveable city in the world, twice in a row (London came 45th!). The weather has been much kinder to us, with cool breezes at night and warm, slightly muggy days. Restaurants are abundant here and you can eat quality food very cheaply. There is a vibrant music scene with lots of local bands, club nights and summer festivals. Gillian has a disproportionate amount of friends who are REALLY into AC/DC. The band were based in Melbourne in the 70s and are, of course, Australian - for those of you who thought they were English please don't mention it to any Aussies as they take it pretty badly. One of the streets in the city centre was even renamed 'AC/DC Lane' recently!
Luckily we had an abundance of pets to fuss over at Gillian's. Her own dog Saffy is joined on weekdays by Trixie and Puppy. Trixie is quite possibly the happiest dog in the world. She is tiny, tiny and hairy, hairy and is full of energy. Puppy, despite the name is actually an old salty seadog who is just as friendly but a bit slower due to her aching bones, bless her. We took all three out for a walk along the nearby creek and nearly lost two of them when Angie let go of Saffy's lead by mistake. Saffy sped off like a bullet with Puppy lolloping along after her excitedly. Darren ran after them in the direction they had disappeared and fortunately caught up with a very sheepish Saffy whose lead had wrapped around a tree, phew!
We had some more pet access at the local vets. Gillian works there part-time and on Sundays has to feed, clean-out and play with the numerous cats who are boarding there while their owners are on holiday. We were more than happy to help with the last of the tasks and released six of the cats into the room. They mainly hissed at each other and hid under things, but a couple seemed to be grateful for the attention.
Gillian's house is currently surrounded by construction of a new freeway. Large areas of bush have been ripped up and it's all quite upsetting. Gillian is gutted as she used to be able to walk straight out through woodland and along a creek at the end of her road. Living next to a construction site is pretty dusty and noisy at times, but it does make Sundays feel super-peaceful. However, her house has a big secluded garden with two large mature trees so you can still get away from it all. A possum and an owl have been spotted in the garden while we've been here.
One of our must-see destinations in the city centre was Old Melbourne Gaol. There are gruesome exhibitions in the cells about the inmates including deathmasks of some of the 135 people who were hanged there. The most famous was Ned Kelly, in 1880. Having both read 'The true history of the Kelly Gang' while travelling it was apt that we should make a visit. The youngest ever inmate was a 3-year-old boy who was imprisoned for being 'idle and disruptive'!
We went to an outdoor cinema (they are very popular over here) in Melbourne's lovely botanic gardens. Everyone gets there early to have food and drinks while it's still light. People bring with them an assortment of duvets, pillows, beanbags and rugs to lounge about on the grass. As darkness fell, the moon rose and bats flew over the audience. It was very atmospheric. The last film Gillian saw here was, appropriately, Batman. However, we had come to see 'Wolf Creek'. The film is loosely based on Ivan Millat, an Australian serial killer who had a soft spot (and a hard knife) for backpackers. It was pretty scary with a splendid performance from an aussie actor in the lead role who had the most creepy laugh imaginable. Whatever you do just don't drink the water!!
Gillian lent us her car for our time in the area so we set off on a day-trip to the Dandenong Ranges or the 'Nongs' as they are called locally. After taking in the views from, and strolling around the top of Mount Dandenong (see photos), we went to Fern Tree Gully to go on one of the many walks in the area. We had only just left the carpark area when we came face to face with a marsh wallaby sitting just off the path. It was so still that we almost missed it and Angie thought at first that it was a statue, but it soon hopped off when we got a bit closer. The excitement of seeing the wallaby was too much for Darren who went back to the car for a sleep, while Angie continued on to do the '1000 steps' walk to the top of the hill. The woodland was very noisy with the squawks of sulphur-crested cockatoos and flocks of crimson rosellas (a type of small parrot).
On our next jaunt into the city centre we walked along the Yarra River to the Botanic Gardens and shared our picnic with the moorhens. We got a bit freaked by the large eels swimming menacingly around the lake, just inches beneath the ducks. After visiting a portrait competition at the Arts Centre, we got to grips with the tram system and travelled to the other side of the city centre to go to the toilet. But these were not just any old toilets - they were on the 35th flower of a tower block and had floor to ceiling plate glass windows for spectacular views across the city.
We met up with Toby, another friend of Angie's, for drinks and dinner with him and his new wife, Simone. We went to a very popular fish restaurant where for starters we had prawns that were so big you only need to order one each. It was BYO alcohol and what with all the catching up and reminiscing, we BYOed a lot. We also giggled a lot when the huge fish we were sharing arrived at the table, and Toby popped its eyeball with his fork. Not in any way prepared for the resultant sight, he had to ask the waitress to take it away and get the eye removed. She was very obliging but Toby seemed slightly in shock for the rest of the meal!
Gillian took us possum feeding in a city centre park one night. We took along chopped carrot and apple and after a few minutes had possums appearing from all directions and feeding out of our hands. These little marsupials are very cute and not in the least bit shy. Once all the food had gone they seemed to have their eye on Darren's bare toes and got a bit too bold for his comfort! In Australia they are a native species and are protected - quite different to NZ where they were introduced and have to be poisoned to keep down the population.
There are lots of English place names used in the suburbs and coming across them always takes us a bit by surprise - there's Brighton Beach, Windsor, Canterbury, Richmond, Newhaven, Kew and even a Croydon. The other thing that takes a bit of getting used to is the fact that residents of the state that Melbourne is in (Victoria) are called Victorians, obviously. But for the first few days Angie thought there was an awful lot of history on the news!
Next week we will get out to see some of Victoria's beautiful coastal scenery.
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