Christmas in Melbourne

Happy New Year everyone!

Before arriving at Melbourne on Christmas Eve, we crossed the state border into Victoria at Mallacoota, which is a beautiful area on a large inlet, where we had a waterside camp pitch and watched the pelicans feeding while we had our breakfast. Our route continued round the coast towards Melbourne passing Lakes Entrance and South Gippsland. Our last stop before Melbourne was at a little place called Woodside Beach. The campsite was virtually empty, but was going to be full on Boxing Day as in Australia most people have Christmas Day at home, then set off on the summer holiday.

We arrived at Louise and Malcolm's house on the afternoon of Christmas Eve. Louise and Malcolm, Ann and Ron are good friends of ours through our Youth Hostelling Days in the 70s when we lived in Melbourne.

Christmas Day dawned bright and warm and we all enjoyed an excellent dinner with their family and Ann and Ron at their beautiful home in Beaumaris. In true Australian style we began with barbecued prawns followed by fillet of beef with vegetables accompanied by vintage Aussie vino. Later, we took a stroll down to the beach where we had a paddle in the sea! On Boxing Day, Malcolm gave us the Grand Tour of the Port and city sights, the highlight of which (for me) had to be driving a lap of the F1 Grand Prix circuit at Albert Park.

We have since explored the city further, revisiting places that we knew and admiring the changes which have taken place over the last 30 years, particularly Federation Square, the new focal point of Melbourne and where tourists were sitting in the sun watching the Cricket test match v S Africa on a large outdoor screen.

We were pleased to have the opportunity to visit an ex-teaching colleague and his wife who made us very welcome and we walked around a Nature Reserve which he had helped to establish. We continued on to stay overnight with Ann and Ron (the best man at our wedding). Next day we set out in search of kangaroos and koalas and were pleased to find both as well as a kookaburra in the countryside around the Yarra Creek near Warrandyte.

Back to Beaumaris, we spent a day rediscovering the Mornington Peninsula round the east side of Port Philip Bay and so to New Year's Eve. After an afternoon visiting a couple of art galleries and the War Memorial and gardens, we met up with Malcolm and Louise and had a quick peek inside the Casino, very lavish, before going to the north bank of the river Yarra to watch a splendid firework display. On the way back to the station we passed the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground and return home to see in the New Year watching the midnight fireworks on TV.

New Year's Day saw us on the road again and we had a very nostalgic trip down memory lane visiting the places of work and various homes we had lived in during our time in the 70s.