Melbourne, Winter 2025

Hi there

It's Tuesday, as I type this, I am back from 6 days in Melbourne, and still very tired.  My sprained knee did play up a bit.  I took a collapsable walking stick with me, but I never used it.  The stick took up much-needed space in my bag when I was only allowed 7kg as cabin baggage.  Grrrhhhh...

I went across to Melbourne to see "Beetlejuice - the musical" which had spectacular special effects.  The story differed slightly from the movie but I think it made the plotline much better. The character of Beetlejuice was acted by the guy who wrote the show's music and Lyrics: Australian Eddie Perfect.  It must be wonderful for him to see his show put on all around the world and now in his home country.

 above:  you know by now, of course, that I am the world's worst mobile phone photographer.  Here is the curtain call for "Beetlejuice - the musical".  That's Beetlejuice in the black and white-striped suit.

But ... I couldn't go to Melbourne and just see one musical.  I went along to the box office to book for the matinee show "Annie", about the little orphan girl.  There were only two seats left in the whole theatre for the following day's matinee.

I'd seen "Annie" many, many years before.  This time there were digital effects used for some backgrounds, eg, streets of New York.  It worked really well.

above:  "Annie". I promise I did take better photos but none of them had the actual young lady playing Annie in them.  Here she is, walking down the stairs. ... You are not allowed to take photos while a show is in progress, but I checked at each theatre and was told I could photograph during the curtain call.

I also went to a third musical, "Kimberly Akimbo".  A Tony-nominated show.  About a 16 year old youngster who aged faster than other people.  She looked about fifty compared to her school mates.  Not a bad musical, even though most of the songs sounded just like most of the other songs. Very crisp stage sets.

above: me, in the Playhouse foyer

Unfortunately, I had booked to see "Kimberly Akimbo" way before I sprained my knee.  The steps from the foyer led me down terrifically tight stairs to get to the dress circle.  Weird, Weird (as "Snow White" musical actress Rachel Zegler would say).

On my holiday I managed to fit in going to the Victoria Market's weekly winter night market.  It's all food stalls, yummy.

above:  the photo was taken at about 5.15, just as the night market started.  Within another 15 minutes it got so crowded, I could hardly move, and certainly not find a seat at a table.

And.... I went to St Kilda to walk along the beach, which I love to do. St Kilda is crammed full of really nice cake shops, all side-by-side, and trying to outdo each other with fancy cakes and pastries.  I went for a pavlova, just to see if they were better than those from New Zealand.  It was awful, all rubbery and dense marshmallow-like.  Oh, for those people who don't know about the pavlova wars - both New Zealand and Australia reckon they invented pavlova.  NZ did, of course.....

above: me, at St Kilda Beach

above:  St Kilda cake-shopping area where the trams finish (you can see two trams at back of picture).  You can hop on a tram from/to Bourke Street Mall, like I did.  Or from/to the casino.

Last but not least I went to two buffet lunches:  Conservatory at the casino (I had 10 oysters on the shell) and Grand Hyatt Sunday buffet (12 oysters on the shell)....

Next holiday?  Well, that's going to be Sydney to see "Back to the Future - the musical"

Roller Coaster zipline, Melbourne, Lorne area.

 Hi there

Here is the promised follow-up re the zipline ...

I went on a Roller Coaster Zipline when I went on my Lorne day trip from Melbourne, via www.amazingoceanroad.tours.   I loved it.  Thanks, Kel, for the pictures; you're the best tour guide ever.

Okay, the above three photos are out of order:

top photo:  I'm getting put into harness

middle photo: after the roller coaster zipline.  I'm on the tree walk

bottom photo:  just about to take off on the roller coaster zipline.  I don't look scared at all, do I?  Do I????

I'm back from Australia

Hi there

I returned yesterday from a week in Melbourne.  At 10 pm, the night before I left I couldn't find my mobile phone and I was due to leave the house at 4 am the next morning. 

I had to leave without my phone.  I never realised before how many times it would be necessary to have a phone when on holiday.  Several times a day in Melbourne, I was told that a firm, business, hotel, shop, restaurant, airline would ring me soon, and please could they have my number?  I was so stressed.

I saw the stage show "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Reimagined".  I'd seen "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts 1 and 2" before in Melbourne.  Twice.  Because of covid, the show had been cut down from playing over two nights, to one night.  I wanted to see if the show still could be understood after cutting out about three hours.  Yes, it flowed fairly smoothly.  There were a couple of little info dumps but I guess that's understandable.  All the magic trickery was still there.

I also saw "Hairspray - the musical".  This show has sort of followed me around the world over the years.  I often ended up in cities where it was playing - dating back to New York in the year 2000 - but I never really cared about seeing it.  

The show was a nice part of my Melbourne holiday.  More modern shows have great CGI effects and I sort of missed that with "Hairspray".

I went to the Queen Victoria Night (food) Market, the QV day market, and the casino where I spent $5 on a poker machine and won back $6.60.  I also visited Conservatory buffet where I scoffed down 8 oysters on the shell.  

I took the tram to St Kilda, walked the beach and bought a couple of really gorgeous cakes at the famous street of cake shops which used to have about fifteen cake shops, all running side by side but now - unfortunately since covid - has only two such shops in the street.

I love to walk along South Bank, between the river and all those fancy-schmancy restaurants, reading the menus.  The weird thing is that I suddenly craved good old-fashioned fish and chips whilst I was in Melbourne,.  Couldn't find a place anywhere in the CBD that sold them, not that there arent thousands of other restaurants and cafes, selling all sorts of international food, to pick from.

 And talking about fashion.  It was Melbourne Fashion Week.  A couple of times I passed venues where the fashionista were gathering for parades and whatever, with the paparazzi outside and the elite of Melbourne clustered around the doors.  I even saw the most gorgeous male models posing for a fashion photographer outside the most grungiest building, in amongst graffiti walls, empty crates, dirty pavements, boarded windows.  It was behind Victoria Market.

Over two days, I was confined to David Jones/Myers/The Emporium Mall/Central Mall, all places that were joined together and I could escape the serious rain.  The state of Victoria was suddenly in the midst of serious and sad flooding.  I'd only taken one pair of shoes with me and I did every shuffle step imaginable to escape the deep puddles, and the rain.

Because I didn't have my phone, I couldnt take any photos.  Curses!  

I found my phone under the sofa today, hooray...  But not before I'd done a lot of cancelling at Vodafone.

 

Melbourne and After

Hi there

I was so scared taking the plane to Melbourne because I still have this cough, left over from last November.  I had my doctor write me a letter saying it was an acute cough and nothing to do with the Corona Virus.  Luckily, I got through Melbourne Airport without coughing.

However, I was wearing this clumpy ankle brace (stupid sprained ankle).  The brace had the maker's logo in some sort of metal on the front of it and I got stopped in Melbourne as I went through the x-ray machine.  Staff came running.   My brace was swabbed for explosves, then I was taken to the side and swabbed twice more for drugs.  I was highly indignant.  I would have enjoyed it more if they had been filming for "Border Security".  Darn.

Melbourne, itself, wasnt that spectacular for me because I couldn't walk very well.  I went to three shows, two of which I had a seat in the dress circle.  And no lift to get up there.  I tell you, my four readers, that I took for.....ever to get up and down those stairs.

Tell you what, though -  thank you, Thin Lizzy concealer:  you saved my days, otherwise I would have been walking through Melbourne with two black eyes.

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This weekend is the first anniversary of the horrendous killings at the Mosque in Christchurch.  I cannot understand how some people can have no empathy for others.  My heart goes out to the community.

More Melbourne

Hi there
I walked my feet off around Melbourne;  the malls encourage it.  I discovered Chadstone Mall which is a little out of Melbourne CBD but there is a free return shuttle bus that leaves many times a day from the side of Federation Square (just behind the Hop On Hop Off bus stop, look for a sign standing on the curb).  The driver points out sights along the way and he even drove us along the F1 track, lined by tiers of seats and road markings etc.  The race would be on after my Melbourne visit.  Chadstone Mall has over 550 shops from top end Tiffanys, Gucci, Prada etc to Target, KMart, and $2-type stores.  Tons of eating, fresh fruit .... and walking, walking, walking.

I went on an afternoon tour to Botanical Gardens, St Kilda's famous and yummy cake shops and beach, and Brighton Beach -

  above:  Brighton Beach, with beach huts reminiscent of those in England and put up by early British settlers to Australia.  These huts are classed as heritage.

above:  I guess I'm in the heritage class as well.

above.  I went on a punt in the lake at the Botanical Gardens.  I forgot to take my own picture, but here's the couple in front of me.  We were given parasols to use.

below Botanical Gardens,photo  taken from punt

Things I dislike

Hi there

In life, there are two things that I have always hated with a passion:  soup and scarves!

On my last day in Melbourne when the temperature dropped down to 12c from 30c, and the wind was worse than in Wellington, and the rain was non-stop thundering down, and I was plodding through the Queen Victoria Market with sore feet and cold bones,  I gave in to both of my dislikes.

I bought a scarf.  I got myself a bowl of soup.

Ooohhhh, yes, the scarf was so so so cuddly, and the soup gave my insides a deliciously warm feeling .  Suddenly my world was better in a nice rainbows and roses sort of way.

Have I been converted?  Who knows? It's hard to break a 50 decade aversion.  Tune in on the next really cold Wellington day.  The story continues ...

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below: another pic of Queen Victoria Night Market:

Melbourne Australia

Hi there

I've just returned from 5 days in Melbourne.  Five of the hottest April days ever in Melbourne.  Here's a quick take on my holiday:

.     Was lost a lot.  About five hours a day walking in the heat.   Stiff painful legs and feet.  Groan...
.     Saw "Beautiful" : the Carole King musical.  "Let's write a new song," says Carole - the audience claps, sings along, and yells uproariously.  Then we're on to new scene which starts off with "let's write a new song" and audience claps, sings, and yells, etc, etc. And so on and so on.
.     Went to wrong theatre for the Carole King musical, and without map or knowledge I ran panicked for 45 minutes through the streets of the city, finally located the theatre within one minute of curtain-up.  It would have been a three minute walk from first theatre.
.     Visited Victoria Market.  Very tacky but somehow hypnotising.  Bought a small backpack.  Plus a fruit tart, a meat pie, and a vanilla slice.  Whoopee, I'm on holiday, no dieting.
.     Went to the zoo.  Last time I visited there I had been covered in lemurs when I was in their enclosure.  This time, not a sign of one.  Didnt see one otter, one hippo, one chimp.  I spotted the rear of a tiger, and the hide of an elephant.  Last time there'd been a herd of elephants, including babies.  I was hot and grumpy after being lost getting to the zoo, and so I stomped (plodded?)  away from the zoo after 40 minutes. (temper, temper...)
.     Went to the Vikings exhibition at the museum.  Great, but not spectacular.  Why isn't each item labelled how old it is?
.     Walked my feet off through the main CBD mall buildings.  Especially on my last day when the heavens opened and I couldn't get outside.  It's fortunate all the malls and arcades sort of bleed into each other.
.     Stayed at the Causeway Inn on the Mall which was in the Bourke Street Mall.  Couldn't be more central.  Hotel so-so.
.     Had buffet lunch at the Conservatory Restaurant at the Crown Casino.  Ate 15 oysters on the shell.  Yum.
.     Wasted $10 and 45 minutes on 1 cent pokie machine at casino.  Got back $10.80.

above:  the river

below: Queen Victoria Night Market.  It was huuuuuge.

Above: a daytime cafe in one of many lanes.

below: view from Conservatory Restaurant

above: a daytime lane full of cafes.

H & M Store, Melbourne, Australia

Hi there

Just one more little thing about Melbourne....

Melbourne was all a-buzz when I arrived there this month. 

An H & M Store had just opened!

H & M's stupid advertising that was plastered everywhere failed to actually mention where the store was located.  So, a traveller like myself who didn't know the geography of the streets had no hope of finding the place.

On my third day, I finally chanced upon the building.  It was hard to miss.  The queues were going through the building, weaving along a long verandah, down the steps, back along the footpath, and around the corner.

What some (a lot?  most?  all?) women will do for fashion....

Food in Melbourne

Hi there

My five readers are well aware that over the past year and a half I did nothing but mope around the house feeling sorry for myself, hating that I had a bad heel, and couldn't walk.  And I ate a lot.

Then last month I went to the dentist, had a crown put in,  and could only eat mush for a month.  So when I hit Melbourne a fortnight ago, I was rarin' to go.  Both footwise and foodwise.

I loved the Queen Victoria market.  It is so huge, both indoors and outdoors.  I purposely picked a hotel that was almost on the QV Market's doorstep just to be near the figs!  I love fresh figs.  They're sold in farmers' markets up the top of the north island but down here in Wellington, sigh, we never ever see them.

I shouted myself to a buffet lunch at the upmarket Observatory Restaurant at the Crown Casino Tower.  I was in the act of demolishing my twelfth oyster direct-from-the-shell when I bit down on a piece of shell.  I was petrified I might have destroyed my new $1650 tooth.  But, crisis avoided.

At one restaurant - Othellos -  I had to wait an hour and a half for my order.  If I hadn't been trudging around Melbourne for hours already, I would have walked out, like so many other diners did.  I was just pleased to rest my feet.  On that day, there had been a marathon-y sort of race  right through the heart of the city with thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people participating.  I guess Othello's hadn't figured on so many people thronging the restaurants.  The burger I finally got was nothing to write home about.  I feel my order shouldn't have been accepted in the first place.

Below dessert choices from the Conservatory Restaurant buffet.

Below the Conservatory Buffet, Crown Towers

Some of the inside space at Queen Victoria Market.

My meal at Othellos Restaurant Melbourne

Below:  a do-it-yourself pancake machine in restaurant at my hotel in Melbourne.

A pancake machine?  Really?  I pressed a button and a pancake came out!  This reminded me of the food replicators on the sf tv programmes "Red Dwarf" or "Star Trek".      Is it, perhaps, what classy chefs are really doing out back in their kitchens, and we pay through the nose for something called, maybe, "Pancake a la Posh".....?

I'm back from Melbourne, Australia

Above is a lemur who was fascinated by me at Melbourne Zoo.  I am very rarely the object of another creature's fascination.  A lemur?  Doesn't matter... I'll take any type of fascination I can get.

Hi there
I've had five nights in Melbourne, yes I finally got there but my hotel bookings were all mucked up because of the fog at Wellington Airport and I ended up in a terrible apartment instead of the standard room I booked - and I had to pay triple the price.  It wasn't until my last morning I realised they'd stuck me in a 'disabled' apartment.  No wonder my feet dangled above the floor when I was sitting on the loo!  NB: in a such a bathroom, always clean your teeth before taking a shower.  I had to plough through water to get to the sink because the whole room had turned into a wading pool.  I should have brought my wellingtons (as the British call them ... or 'gumboots' as they are for kiwis).

I went to a show - Bernadette Peters in Concert.  Peters is a Broadway star and I loved almost every minute.  However, the minutes did get a fraction draggy after the first hour when all the songs seemed to have the same 'show-tune' pathos and torch-song beat associated with them.  I did love Peters acting out the 'vamp', especially when she sang 'Fever' lying on top of a grand piano

I went to see a Dreamworks animation exhibit highlighting many of Dreamworks movies, eg, Shrek, Madagaskar,  and "How to Train Your Dragon'.  I really enjoyed it, especially the big wrap-around screen where we were taken on a dragon ride above a village.  I hope this exhibit might come to Wellington one day, though I'm positive if Te Papa put on a Peter Jackson/Weta exhibit, it would be far better!  Biased, anyone?

I went to the zoo.  Got in staring matches with lemurs over territory   They didn't want to move-it-move-it...

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