Melbourne – Sealife Centre, AC/DC Lane, King Pin (Amusement Arcades), The City Circle Tram and The Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit (Day 7)
Today is our last day in Melbourne; as we fly out early on Wednesday, so out early today as we have lots to fit in and still packing to do.
The Sealife centre was a lot less busy today than on Saturday, when we attempted to last go. We nearly lost Dad when we entered the car park as parking in the week was over $12 dollars an hour, but Mum reassured him that the car park fell under the Sealife centre and you could get a cheap day ticket.
The Sealife centre was really good and on par with Sydney. The ground level part had three rooms all off a centre point/room and this made it easy to navigate. The rooms consisted of: The bay of rays, the rock pools, and the dive into the deep section (which was where we found Nemo and friends). The rock pools was where we could touch the animals; our favourite was the star fish. We then went downstairs and stood by two huge windows that were used to frame the huge aquarium behind. Lots of impressive Queensland grouper, southern eagle ray, smooth stingrays, leopard shark, large tooth sawfish and a honeycomb whipray. Turtle cove was also down here, the turtle we found seemed to be trying to bite itself!
We also enjoyed the sea horses and the jelly fish, who were also being observed by the marine biologists at the sea life centre, who also had a science workshop and were breading the jelly fish on site.
We then went upstairs and viewed a huge saltwater crocodile, that was massive and over 50 years old. The video playing said he was retired now after being used to breed for 25 years.
We then watched a 4D Ice Age 10 minute movie, which was like the Lego one a few days ago, but without getting wet. It has been our favourite of the trip, and much better than the Lego one or the Sydney tower one, maybe it was because we knew the characters more?
Then we went to view the penguins, a small selection of very furry birds and the emperor penguins that were cute, but very stern looking.
A lot of fun and the ticket came as part of a bundle with the Lego Discovery Centre so only cost $10 extra each.
Now our next location was all for Alexander (and us)! But Mum and Dad had promised to take him to an arcade after he asked to go in Sydney when we ran out of time. A bit of Googling and here we are at King Pin Crown in the centre of Melbourne. Dad doesn’t like these places much but doesn’t mind when we go out to the coast in the UK. But over in Australia things are done a bit differently. Here you need to purchase a card with an amount on (minimum of $10) then each game in the complex is between $2.50 and $3.00 per go, you just tap the card and go like paying cashless for things. When you run out you can top up your card and also like another place in Australia in Sydney and like Skegness, tickets are the prizes and at the end you can exchange your tickets for prizes. The tickets were automatically added to our cards. which was quite a good facility.
We spent about an hour in the arcade tapping our cards on a whole manner of games, from an angry birds in the hole game to, shooting games, to the worlds biggest Crossy Road machine that we had ever seen. We also had play on a, 4 player, hungry hippos game that even Dad had a go at. Mum had a game of air-hockey with Adam who let her win as it’s her favourite game.
At the end of this we each exchanged our electronic tickets for various sweets and candy from the exchange shop. A couple of us had a $2 dollars left on our cards, but we cannot get that refunded, but you can add to it and use if at any Australian King Pin.
Back in the daylight and out into the sunshine we walked back over the river and along the road for about 25 minutes for a treat for Dad and possibly Mum. We say that as mum was liking her step count for the day but like us not the time it was taking to get there.
Dad had found out a street called AC/DC lane which had some street art work on display. We all know Dads love of music and also Mum enjoys AC/DC as well. What we found was a colourful horseshoe shaped street with some very imaginative and tasteful images. Mathew spotted a few symbols from the Rolling Stones, and we liked the Rick and Morty picture although not as detailed as others.
As the street name suggests there was also pictures of the members of AC/DC who have passed along with other great art work of other artists, album covers and other works of art.
Finally the city circle free tram was caught and we enjoyed the 10 minute ride back to the car which saved our legs. You can get any of the trams within the city centre free of charge to aid you getting around the central business district (CBD). It was nice to go on something older than Dad!
Dad (Mark) here, we are staying close to Albert Park in the city and I woke up during the night, thinking about the Melbourne Grand Prix. Anyway at 4am a quick google and it was confirmed the park I ran into and partly round a little around earlier in the week is the same Albert Park that the Grand Prix is held at. Weirdly, we also realised today that we are staying just 1 block away from the hotel Lucy and I stayed at in 2010 when we last visited Melbourne together.
So just before tea I set off to see it for myself, I tried to stick close to the road as I was running and taking photos to. Most of the track had chained small fencing around, I assume to stop people from parking on the grass (almost all of the way around there was on road parking). Anyway, I am not the greatest runner and after jumping 5 chains to cross junctions number 6 which was only about 6 inches off the floor tripped me up. My pride dented I continued on. Past the paddocks and you can see the corners they use and normally have painted red and white.
If you are a runner, cyclist or even if you hire a car, it’s definitely worth while going around the 5km track, so next the grand prix is on TV you can smile to yourself and say you have been round that.
Dad
Melbourne – The Great Ocean Road & The 12 Apostles (Day 6)
We set off today on our trip on the Great Ocean Road! We didn’t really know what to expect although Mum and Dad had done some of road as part of a tour over 12 years ago.
We were quite excited to go on a road trip in the hire car as we re-configured the seats so we had the middle one of the first row down as it turned into a table for us to play games on together or watch a movie on iPad together. It’s the best car for a road trip! The seats even recline for a nap!
First stop was Torquay which was a 1 hour, 30 minute drive from our accommodation at St Kilda. What a play area we found! If we could of stayed there all day we probably would have. Great large play area, climbable trees, communal BBQ’s, free parking, toilets and a lovely beach. This was a great start to our day.
We then set off and seemed to stop every 10 minutes for Mum and Dad to stare and capture the view. It was nice and we were amazed just how few people we saw on the beaches. If only we had time to stop and play on the beach and in the water.
We did stop again at Split Point lighthouse, where Mum and Dad had stopped at all those years ago. We played in the undergrowth near the lighthouse, it was a lot of fun.
We then stopped at this official looking sign for the Great Ocean Road and a bit further round the corner took this picture where only 1 other person was on the beach. The road was built in honour of the world war I soldiers.
A toilet break was then scheduled. As we sat in the car, we had a visitor that nearly gave Mum a heart attack as it hoped onto her wing mirror. We think it must of been fed by visitors before and was wanting food. It’s still strange seeing such beautiful birds flying free and around all the time.
About 20 minutes later Dad almost caused us to panic as he was driving and then swiftly steered the car into an entrance to a camp site. He then said to Mum, we have been here before, she agreed and told us there was something very special here! We were hoping for another playpark, but she promised it was better!
We went into the Kafe Koala which was at the front of the campsite. It offered some bakery type food for lunch, so we all chose something (as we hadn’t seen a public BBQ for some time and abandoned the thought of cooking the sausages we’d brought with us). The food was delicious!
Whilst we were outside taking photos of stunning parrots that were so friendly, Dad spoke to the owner. Dad took us for a short walk and within 50 meters we spotted a wild Koala sleeping in the tree! It all made us smile lots seeing one in the wild, and this was exactly what Mum was so excited about. Her and Dad had seen them here all those years ago. We spent about an hour here and off we went again.
About 10 minutes after that Dad got excited and said look Kangaroo’s, Mum jokingly said she didn’t believe him, so Dad swung the car around and there we saw 2 kangaroo’s eating (just above the arrow on the road, almost behind a bush, but he was right!)
We all said how green the countryside had become and it reminded us of the UK, though with a lot less traffic; until now we had only see around 20 cars on the Great Ocean Road. We drove through the rainforest and Alexander was surprisingly knowledgeable about rainforests that he said he’d learnt about them at school.
With the sun starting to set (it sets around 17:45 here), Dad guided our car into a crowded car park so we could visit the Twelve Apostles at sunrise (Dad said this was the plan) we were not so sure. We did enjoy seeing this as we have seen photos of them before and will be able to talk about it for years to come. Bethany told Mum all about how they were created as she’d learnt about it in Geography.
We only spend about 45 minutes at the Twelve Apostles before setting off for home. Waze (the Sat Nav App we usually use in the UK) told us it was going to take 2 hours and 45 minutes to get back and it was 145 miles, we didn’t realise we had driven that far.
Dad was keen to get out of the country side before all the light disappeared which he did. We did enjoy this but the stopping for different family photos was a bit of a pain, but when we did stop the scenery was simply stunning.
Melbourne – Zoo (Day 5)
At the weekend children can visit the Zoo for Free! Guess what Mum and Dad said we were going today (Sunday)? Adults were £24.16 each in advance and parking was £2.20 for up to 5 hours- bargain! We were in car park 5 so quite popular, but still only a 5-minute walk away.
When we entered we were all excited, we wanted to see lizards, tortoises, monkeys, and giraffes.
First stop the meerkats, who were on the lookout, when they spotted a zoo keeper they hopped down and ran to the glass. We assume they think food is coming as soon as the keeper was out of range they hopped back on lookout duties. The giant tortoise was in the same area and must have been very, very old given its size.
Next, there was an area for smaller children, which we actually quite enjoyed. Our favourite part was the mock vets within the zoo, where there were cages, an examination table and x-ray facilities. This was also great because it backed onto the parrot enclosure and they were very friendly coming up to the glass and interacting with us.
Dad’s worst section came next, the reptile enclosure – he did like the tortoises but that was it. We liked the lizards too, even though they didn’t do too much, that was also the same for the frogs and snakes, but one large snake did put on a show moving about on a branch and lifting its head and poking out its tongues.
We then found Matthews’s favourite; a red panda who wasn’t active to start with then shot up a tree! During the day there were lots of birds in all areas, we captured a lot of the local ones that were just in the zoo roaming free. There was then a small aquarium where we saw some lovely fish a couple of seals, a cute turtle, and some penguins.
On reflection, we all enjoyed watching the giraffes the most, in the sunshine they were most majestic until they had a run. We also saw them interacting with their keepers and they seemed to love the attention.
All in all a lovely 5 hours, we think maybe an extra hour would have been good as we didn’t get to see the elephants. But weirdly you couldn’t top up the parking!
We have also made a video of our adventures here, we hope you enjoy it.
Melbourne – City Centre (Day 4)
Today we were meant to go to Melbourne Sealife centre, but on driving past, the queues were out of the door. A quick look at the Sealife centre website, and we saw from the booking system that it is busy all afternoon. They are limiting places due to Covid still which is understandable, oh and it’s a Saturday.
So we drove past to look at the city by car. The centre of the city (which the trams run around and through) is made up of a mix of old and not so old buildings, whilst the roads outside of the trams have shiny new towerblocks reaching for the sky.
We even drove down to the docks and harbour which was really impressive with its waterside apartment properties, Mum and Dad could imagine sitting on the balcony with drink in hand!
We then went into the centre for a wander around. The usual mix of shops were there, but we wanted to buy a football and we came across a shop which looked like all forms of sport…..apart from football in the UK sense. Oh well, we will keep on looking.
All the shops were nice, but we did notice strangely that most shops had a security/staff member on the exits even though they had the usual security alarms at the doors. And we also noticed a large number of people sleeping rough on the streets which was very sad.
Finally, we found a H&M, which mum said was the prettiest she had seen, it was in an old building which had still kept a lot of its features. We brought some more hoodies as this is Australia’s winter we don’t need coats like in the UK, but hoodies help keep us warm when we need to.
Melbourne – Lego Discovery Centre (Day 3)
Today we had tickets brought for us to attend the Lego Discovery Centre in the Chadstone shopping centre, Melbourne. The shopping centre was amazing and very posh. The Lego element was on the top floor which also had a cinema.
When we first went in we spent several minutes creating characters in a virtual simulator which was fun, it was against the clock too, so some weird creations came out.
From here some of us went on the ride Kingdom’s Quest which was a classic game of laser quest from a moving cart. This was a lot of fun! Adam got 4x as many baddies as Mum.
We then walked through a Lego mini version of Melbourne. We recognised some of the landmarks as we wandered around. Some of the displays were interactive too. We really enjoyed the horse racing.
Then into the main room where we watched a 4D movie on Ninjago where we had flashing lights the same colour as the screen in the room, a rush of air when something rushed onto the screen, and our favourite a light covering of water when something got wet on the screen. As it was 4D we had to wear the glasses to get the full effect. We watched Alexander try to touch a bird in flight that was in front of our faces during the movie too.
Back in the main room and we had a great time building and testing sports cars on a downhill track, trying to create a tall structure in Lego to test its strength as the plate it was built on mimicked an earthquake and rocked and shook at the touch of a button.
Bethany spent time in the underwater quest room where she used some stop/start motion software to create a great piece of animation that can be seen below.
And we all went on our final ride; Merlin’s Apprentice, which was fun before we left.
All in all, you only get a 2-hour slot inside at the moment due to Covid, we could have probably done with an extra 30 minutes and lots more money as the attached lego shop had lots of really cool things to add to our birthday and Christmas lists! Mum and Dad, take note.
After Dad spotted a Tesla shop on the second floor of the shopping centre, we are not sure how the cars made it into the store…..but Dad was excited to see a model Y in the flesh. We all jumped in, pretty much pushing and pulling every button we could. If Dad’s ever gets his delivered we will have to behave in his. #tesla
Here is video that we made of our adventure to the Lego Creative Centre in Melbourne.
Melbourne – Beach Road (Day 2)
Seeing as the weather forecast didn’t show rain and more importantly showed some sunshine, this was the day to hit the coast. Using Tripadvisor we found out about Beach Road, a 27km road running as you would imagine along the coast of Melbourne.
We chose to drive down the length of the road, determined to look for a good spot with a play area and beach. There was lots of lovely houses opposite the beach areas we passed, but everywhere was pay and display parking in either small car parks that led through a cutting onto the beach or on-the-road parking with the same charges applying. This was a bit of a shock as in Perth, almost all parking apart from the city centre had been free. As we were going to pay we wanted to make sure the location was right!
We kept going and marvelled at the different types of properties that overlooked the coast line, and the different types of towns we went past. At the end of Beach Road the road changed and the road then ran adjacent to the railway line all the way down the coast.
We finally stopped as we entered a small coastal town called Chelsea which had some shops on the main road that we thought would be good for lunch. Following the signs to the coast, we found the car park (Victory Park) with again chargeable parking, but it did have toilets, a play area, and was only a 10-second walk to the beach.
We loved playing on the beach and in the play area, it was quiet with only a couple of mums with very small children around. We all built some volcanos on the beach and proceeded to make them erupt with water from the sea. Then we had some lunch, purchased by Dad and Alexander whilst we were busy in the play area and off we went again.
We then continued to drive back the way we had come and saw another larger play park in Frankston that we must have passed earlier. So again we paid for an hour of parking and went to explore, this play area was a lot bigger with a good mix of equipment for most ages including a wheelchair swing that truly made the play area accessible to all.
After a while, we took a walk and headed to the beach, a 3-minute walk away where we found a pier, with some keen fishermen making the most of the weather, although near the water it was very breezy. So we had a nice stroll and talked to them, but we didn’t bring them any luck and their hooks remained empty.
Dad then went with Alexander back to the park (as Alexander doesn’t really like the sand or sea) to explore and play some more and to top up the car parking by another hour.
We stayed at the beach and Bethany found a couple of clams that she tried to convince mum and then dad to let her take back to the accommodation as pets, but they both said no!
Matthew dug a hole under the pier and we all played billy goats gruff under the bridge with passers-by. Bethany’s witches’ voice of “Who’s that trip trapping across my bridge” made a few people pause and wonder where the noise has come from. We really enjoyed ourselves!
After this, we started to drive back and passed an Aldi, which we needed to call at to get some more food for our stay. 30 minutes later and the car was full! Just like being in the UK, although mum and dad say the price of food is a lot more here.
We also created a video of our day on Beach Road.
Arrival, Our Wheels & Accommodation (Day 1)
Flying into Melbourne in the daylight we were amazed at the size of the place from the air, although the plane had to fly past the whole city and the airport, to turn back to get onto the flight path, so we literally did see out the window for quite some time.
The baggage reclaim was very organised and didn’t take long to get all of our luggage, and off we went to find the car hire place.
We were back to hiring a bus at the airport and when we got to it, it was very rock and roll, and black! It seemed taller than the last one, and it had three seats at the front that Adam and Bethany dived into first leaving Mum in the back. It also had automatic sliding doors.
The drive to the accommodation was about 40 minutes in traffic. We marveled at the city as we drove past (including the Marvel stadium, we wondered what that was) and then into the suburbs. We are staying in St.Kilda in an apartment between the city and the coast.
When we arrived at the property we immediately knew we may have a problem; there was parking at the property but the maximum height into the car park was a good meter less than our latest bus. There was pay and display on the road but it charged by the hour with a maximum of two hours stay. Dad said that would keep him on his toes; having to run down every 2 hours that we were in the property.
We checked in and were shown to our apartment, which was large and big enough with kitchen facilities and full laundry facilities which mum was pleased about. There was also a gym on the top floor, but sadly no pool.
Due to the time, and the fact our tummies were groaning; we went to a kebab hut around the corner from the property. It was nice and the owners were friendly. Whilst we were there Dad rang the car hire company and easily arranged for a swop into the same type of vehicle we had in Ayres Rock; a Kia Carnival – which at this point we had found that wasn’t available in the UK as there wasn’t a market for them. Mum was sad about this as she would love to have one back home as we can get more in it than Dad’s big Landrover discovery.
We had a little walk further and found a Woolworths, (not like the old ones in the UK, Mum said). We bought some essentials and we went back to the apartment whilst Dad and Bethany went back to the airport and made the vehicle exchange.
On the way back from the airport Bethany and Dad really loved the tunnel that we’d passed through earlier thinking it was strange, but now in the dark it was all lit up with lights and very pretty.
Car exchange done, we unpacked a little and went to bed.