Joe and Lou's Travel Blog

After a delicious breakfast prepared by our host we headed to the Botanical Gardens to do a final self guided walk. It was a beautiful day and when we stopped for lunch a harpist was playing. It was lovely to enjoy the surroundings and the music together. 

We also took the tram to St Kilda where Lou checked out the Sunday markets and Joe explored the pier before heading back to the Southbank (via more markets) to have dinner with Monique and her friend Annette.

It was nice to finish off the day with a warm evening and some nice wine. We turned in early as we had an early flight back to NZ in the morning. 

We checked into a lovely boutique hotel called Robinsons in the City and immediately felt more relaxed. It was a nice change from the budget hotel we'd been staying in. The DFO shopping centre (outlet/discount stores) was just down the road so we headed down to check out the bargains. We came out empty handed and headed to the city centre to do another self guided walking tour. This one was through the famous 'Lanes' which are cute, narrow lanes with trendy boutique shops, cafes and restaurants. 

We had dinner in a restaurant on the Southbank with Jeff and his wife Nora. Joe and I shared a roast lamb pizza complete with roast potatoes and peas! After dinner we headed to the Regent Theatre to attend a performance of the musical Wicked. This show focuses on the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz story. It turns out that the wicked witch wasn't actually wicked at all. Because it was not too cheesy and had a good story Joe actually enjoyed it - he's not normally a fan of musicals. We also spotted Rove McManus in the front row of the circle....our one celeb spot of the trip. 

We took the train for 1 1/2 hours to Ballarat to visit Lou's Uncle and Aunty and cousins. Ballarat is a gold mining town and Sovereign Hill, a replica of the town in the height of the gold mining era, is its main tourist attraction. We enjoyed wandering around the old 'western' style building, watching a 'gold pour' and went on a tour of the underground mine. 

Afterwards we went to Lou's cousin Anna's house and enjoyed a lovely lunch and catch up with Lou's Aunty Connie, Uncle Les and family.

Today we did a self-guided walking tour of East Melbourne. This area seemed like the Chelsea (in London) of Melbourne with very expensive properties and leafy streets. It was also a good break away from the crowds of the main shopping and tourist areas.

We had some ingredients left over from the spaghetti bolognese we cooked the night before so we cooked another batch for lunch. You have to try to save some money with the exchange rate the way it is these days. In the afternoon we wandered along the South Bank to parts we didn't reach on our first attempt. We headed over to the Casino but they were doing renovations and the fountain which we were recommended to see was not working. Casinos are so depressing, lots of overweight Europeans and Asians pushing their money into machines.

That evening we went to see comedian Stephen K Amos' show in the Comedy Festival with Mon, Michelle and Steve. We'd heard good things about him and he didn't disappoint. He was particularly good at 'localising' his material and hassling the crowd. His opening 'Beyonce style' dance number was great too.

We finished the night with a good curry.