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The State of Victoria / Melbourne revisited
- del.ico.us
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- Last edited: 18:27, May 18 2007
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Travels around the State of Victoria and back to Melbourne.
I’m not homesick yet – but I am sick of the State of Victoria. Since landing here the weather has been sh*t. Not compared to Wellington (of course), but I have now realised that Melbourne is actually several degrees lower on the globe than Auckland. And I chose to come here in winter. I am also going through caffeine withdrawal in a major way – last night I saw a baby crawling on the roof of the living room! Whinge whinge whinge.
In the face of horrible holiday horror one has to make life interesting. On Tuesday Stu and I drove down the Grand Ocean road from Torquay and Bells Beach to the 12 Apostles. Bells Beach is the home of the Bells Beach Surf Classic surfing competition. Needless to say it was flat, rainy and uninspiring.
We then travelled to the Otways flywire which is a tree top canopy walk. Interesting concept. It rained.
The 12 Apostles were inspiring. We caught them at sunset and the clouds and mist floated amongst the columns. The pillars are created by the sea slowly eroding limestone rock. I couldn’t find a definitive answer to how many apostles are still standing. Eventually there will be none.
The following day was tourist attraction day. Sovereign Hill at Ballarat is an interactive museum about the gold rush days. Victoria’s standing, character and wealth are all derived from gold. The gold rush here occurred in the mid-1800s and Melbourne has been rich ever since. The museum was hilarious: there are paid actors to hold mock conversations, shops which sell ‘authentic’ souvenirs and the keepers are all dressed appropriately. One I spoke with mentioned getting odd looks when she went to the supermarket adorned in a Victorian dress.
The children were the highlight – local schools send their kids here to role play a Victorian era school day. They dress up, do lessons on slate, play with diablos and other toys made of rope and wood, and get mock beatings from the school masters! I turned up outside one school house to see a 10 year old girl laughing her head off while every now and then screaming as the school master used a cane on a nearby barrel. The giggling of the other children inside could be heard.
On the way back to Geelong I had to stop and take a photo of the cloud formations which were amazing. Fork lightning later ripped through these columns.
Back to Melbourne
Melbourne is a very ‘livable’ city. It is not a tourist city. My recommendation for travel here is to come when there is an event or two that you want to see. The city is not geared up for spontaneous travellers in the way that Sydney or London always have something to see. There are regular new events here and the city is very cosmopolitan, but to get the complete Melbourne experience one would need to live here.
I parted ways with Stu and his lovely flatmates (unfortunately the photo of them I took is stuck on my camera rather than my memory card) and am now staying in town with Mieke.
There are dinosaurs at Melbourne Museum! I felt six years old again. But then I went to the human exhibit and the naked bodies everywhere soon stopped that feeling. I tried to take a photo of some life sized nude replicas but got told off in good fashion by the staff. It was a bit porno anyhow, all grandmas and little boys. The museum is very similar to Te Papa and quite underwhelming by global standards. Still the evolutionary section was great – makes me feel all warm and gooey to visit my church.
Mieke and her boyfriend Mike took me out for dinner and a drive around town. We did the typical Melbourne things, lights, ferris wheels, gas flames outside the Crown Casino. The following day we went to an exhibition of plasticised people. They were created by a German Doctor who using an elaborate technique would skin and peel back the layers of bodies and pose them in Classical Greek stances. I got told off by a security guard for taking photos (I’m noticing a trend) and he asked me to delete them. I had only taken one though and pretended to delete it. Muwhahahaha!
