Monday 28^th January

Up at 4:45 am to catch the plane from Auckland to Melbourne with another couple (Australians Nikki and Ross) staying at the same motel, who we chatted with at the airport while we waited for the delayed flight. My old school friend Tony (aka Tone) Rigby and his wife Margaret had a bit of a wait, but eventually we were zipping away from the airport to their beautiful restored Victorian townhouse in the Albert Park area of Melbourne.

We took a walk in the Botanical gardens on what was the Australia day off and it was very pleasant sharing the lovely sunny (and not too hot) day with the tourists and the Aussies.

Tuesday 29^th January
While Margaret went off to work but Tone is self-employed, so his boss gave him time off and the three of us took the tram downtown the next day to one of the two huge covered Melbourne markets. Melbourne has some beautiful old Victorian architecture such as this train station

as well as some very modern buildings such as this highest residential building in the Southern hemisphere.

After an excellent outdoor lunch Tony headed back home to pick up Margaret from work and we went to take at look at the Australian Commission for the Moving Image, a sort of movie museum where we were treated to an exhibit of the work of Chris Marklay which had its moments.

We were squashed into the tram on the way back ‘home’ so I was quick on the uptake when Tone suggested a trip to his local for a few schooners (the other sized glasses are called pots) of beer. Afterwards it was back to their place for wine and a great meal and an earlier night. This is not great place for abstinence.

Wednesday 30^th January
In the morning Tone took me to his favourite liquor store which he is justly proud of. The picture only shows a small part of it and the prices were incredible – quite quaffable Australian Shiraz at 4 bucks a bottle.

In the afternoon we went off on the tram to the aquarium where we spent a couple of entertaining hours looking at some very strange fish.

No, that isn’t a piece of seaweed, it’s a ‘dragon seahorse’.

When they built a huge casino complex in Melbourne they transformed a crummy area along the river and it now has a walking area flanked by the river on one side and an endless row of restaurants on the other. On Wednesdays they practice bell-ringing in the church opposite a huge food court where you can choose from several ethnic foods, buy wine and beer and then take it outside and eat with a terrific view of the city. And that’s precisely what all four of us did.

Thursday 31^st January
They day started with welcome (to Melburnians anyway) rain. This was the day set aside for Tony to drive us up to Healesville which is in the Tuscany-like wine growing Yarra valley. After retrieving yours truly’s wallet from the bar of the previous night we set out in the rain to visit the wildlife sanctuary and perhaps do some wine tasting. After an excellent (I use that word a lot but it’s well deserved) lunch we went to the sanctuary where thankfully the rain eased a little and we had a very special time wandering round the facility. Highlights were wallaby's

koalas,

platypuses (at the end of the rather dark clip he/she was rolling round on its back)

and birds of prey.

Friday 1^st February
We hit the city again on the tram and did some shopping at the Victoria market and a few other places and then back to Tony & Margaret’s before going out to pick up some most excellent fish and chips at the classiest fish and chip shop we’ve ever seen.

Saturday 2^nd February
It’s the weekend and Margaret is off work so the four of us head for the Mornington peninsula at the lower end of Melbourne bay. Lunch in Sorrento and a swift half in Portsea both very popular places on a weekend. Then we did our first down under wine tasting with a trip to the beautiful Red Hill Estates

Where we got to sample several of their wines

and came away with a couple of bottles of their dessert wines.

On the way back to Melbourne we were dropped off at Carol’s Aunty Vera who has lived in Foxton since she emigrated 43 years ago.

Sunday 3^rd February
A day of rest at Aunty Vera’s and a chance to update the blog and organize photos etc.