This is Melbourne, Victoria, second city of Australia after Sydney with population of almost 4M.One of the best views is from the 88th floor of the Melbourne tower, the skydeck.
View from a different angle - Melbourne is an interesting mix of modern and and older buildings.
The city is built around the banks of the Yarra river.
The day we were in town was an annual parade - a sort of festival that Melbourners celebrate their city on annually.
L in front of Flinders Street station, the major transport hub in town and a landmark building.
St Kilda is a seaside suburb with a good beach. This is the view back towards downtown.
D on the pier at St Kilda.
Melbourne is of course home of one the richest races in the world, at Flemington Racecourse.
When we heard that the races were on Saturday we could not miss this. A card of nine races with three Grade 1 events.
L arrived early enough to study the form and pick a few bets trackside. Though it may be hard to believe looking at the pictures the race meeting had to be abandoned after race 6 due to weather. When we arrived it was sunny and hot. However a few hours later, within a matter of minutes, a super storm cell changed all this. Just after the 6th race everyone ran for cover as the cyclone hit. The city was pounded with hail the size of golf balls - seriously. Cars were destroyed, roofs collapsed and 60 mm of rain came down within an hour. Anyone caught in the hail sustained cuts and bruises. 
On to more sedate pass times - Wine tasting, Yarra valley. Mmmm, the merlot or the shiraz - at 10 AM in the morning it is hard to know. They all taste pretty good to me.
Hire a guy to drive you around the Yarra valley all day and you can get 5 wineries in!!
Of course it is well known that many people in Ireland have relatives who emmigrated to Australia in times gone by. Gnome is no different. There we were in a winery minding our own business and he spots one of his relatives flogging Shiraz!!
L in Yarra valley after we persuaded Gnome it was time to move on.
Vineyards in the Yarra valley - bushfires last year nearly wiped out many of the vines - the trees on the hill behind still show evidence of the fire. A number of townships were destroyed with heavy loss of life.
We ended our Australian travels with a journey down the great Ocean road for two days. This is the coast of Victoria that runs West from Melbourne towards Adelaide. It is reputed to be Australias best coastal drive. You can see why.
Inland from the cliffs and ocean are vast Eucalyptus forests which are home to one of Australias most recognisable creatures - The Koala. During our fews days we came accross many sitting or more typically sleeping in the trees. They don't seem to mind being photographed as they are high above the ground and away from people.
SNOOOOOOZE..........
L arrived early enough to study the form and pick a few bets trackside. Though it may be hard to believe looking at the pictures the race meeting had to be abandoned after race 6 due to weather. When we arrived it was sunny and hot. However a few hours later, within a matter of minutes, a super storm cell changed all this. Just after the 6th race everyone ran for cover as the cyclone hit. The city was pounded with hail the size of golf balls - seriously. Cars were destroyed, roofs collapsed and 60 mm of rain came down within an hour. Anyone caught in the hail sustained cuts and bruises. We have never seen anything like this - there were flash floods in downtown and everything ground to a halt. This made national news here and was a 1 in a 100 year event.
Luckily for us a very kind Australian gave us a lift back into town in a 4X4 as all public transport was off. Anyway, we did get 6 races and an astonishing experience weatherwise.
On to more sedate pass times - Wine tasting, Yarra valley. Mmmm, the merlot or the shiraz - at 10 AM in the morning it is hard to know. They all taste pretty good to me.
Hire a guy to drive you around the Yarra valley all day and you can get 5 wineries in!!
Of course it is well known that many people in Ireland have relatives who emmigrated to Australia in times gone by. Gnome is no different. There we were in a winery minding our own business and he spots one of his relatives flogging Shiraz!!
L in Yarra valley after we persuaded Gnome it was time to move on.
Vineyards in the Yarra valley - bushfires last year nearly wiped out many of the vines - the trees on the hill behind still show evidence of the fire. A number of townships were destroyed with heavy loss of life.
We ended our Australian travels with a journey down the great Ocean road for two days. This is the coast of Victoria that runs West from Melbourne towards Adelaide. It is reputed to be Australias best coastal drive. You can see why.
Inland from the cliffs and ocean are vast Eucalyptus forests which are home to one of Australias most recognisable creatures - The Koala. During our fews days we came accross many sitting or more typically sleeping in the trees. They don't seem to mind being photographed as they are high above the ground and away from people.
SNOOOOOOZE..........
An so ends our trip around Australia. We arrived here on February 11th and now on March 11th it is time to leave. We leave Melbourne to travel on to New Zealand with the South Island our next stop.
G'day to all and au revoir to Australia!
No comments:
Post a Comment