Part 2, Week 4: February 11-17
- Katie and Webster
- Feb 17, 2019
- 8 min read
We have officially been travelling for one month!
On Monday, we spent our last day on the Gold Coast. We had a nice long sleep in, a big hotel breakfast (for $1!) and then headed out to explore. Our first stop was the driving range. It had been almost 4 weeks since Webster went golfing, so he was itching to get out and hit a few balls. We spent about an hour at the range soaking up the sun. He even tried to teach me how to hit a golf ball! I had more fun than success, but we both tried!
In the afternoon we headed down to Surfers Paradise. A popular tourist area right along the beach on the Pacific Ocean. We wandered through some souvenir shops, had a cold drink on the waterfront and then headed up to the SkyPoint Observation deck. We went 77 floors above the city for a great view of the beach. It was so cool to see the ocean meet the big city.
We spent the early evening back at the hotel by the pool. We had a nice swim, enjoyed the sun a little more, and used up the rest of our groceries for dinner.
When the sun went down, we headed back to Surfers Paradise to go up the Observatory deck once more in the dark. Our ticket was good for two visits, so we wanted to get a different view for our second visit. We got there a little bit too early, so Webster quickly jumped in the ocean for a swim before we went up! It was neat to return back up to the same spot for a totally different view at night. The city was sparkling and the ocean was pitch black.
On Tuesday, we had a long travel day. We left the Gold Coast at 9am to drop off our rental car and catch a plane to Canberra. Oddly enough, the cheapest flight took us to Melbourne and then back to Canberra so we spent about 6 hours travelling between flights, layovers, and baggage collection. At 5pm, we arrived at our AirBnB in Canberra. We spent the evening getting some laundry done, getting some groceries, and figuring out our plan for the next day.
On Wednesday we spent our first, and only day, in Canberra. Our first stop was the Australian Parliament. When we arrived, we realized that my camera wasn’t working. It had been acting up for a few weeks, and on Wednesday, it decided to call it quits. I was so disappointed and the timing couldn’t have been worse, but thankfully we did have my GoPro. I was a mess for the rest of the day and finally called home to talk to Dad about fixing it. Thankfully, he had another camera he was able to part with for a few months and it has been expedited to meet us in Sydney. We enjoyed a morning exploring Parliament, looking in the Senate and House of Representatives chambers. Parliament was sitting so we weren’t able to take too many pictures but we really enjoyed watching them fight with each other over legislation.
After Parliament, we enjoyed our lunch in a city centre park before heading to the National Museum of Australia to learn a bit more about the history of the country. Webster read EVERYTHING in the museum and we even made our radio debut on an outback radio station simulator. It was a great museum, that was completely free!
Our next stop was the the The Australian War Memorial. We didn’t make it in time to tour the museum as it closed at 4:30pm, but we were able to attend the Last Post ceremony before they closed the gates. We watched the military personnel honour a fallen soldier, and welcome the French Ambassador and Defence Secretary to Canberra. It was a really neat event that was better than walking through a museum.
You can watch the full ceremony here. You can see us on the top left balcony at 9:20-10:00.
We ended our evening at our AirBnB making some dinner and packing up for Melbourne!
On Thursday, we took an early flight from Canberra back to Melbourne. The Melbourne airport is a bit outside the city but we were able to get an Uber to take us into town. We booked a wonderful AirBnB with a rooftop terrace and swimming pool. It was a great location near public transport and with great amenities. We were quite tired but wanted to make the most of our time in Melbourne so after unpacking a little bit we headed into the Victoria State Library. This library has gotten really popular because of its beautiful Dome Reading Room. We toured around the library and then headed to the Dome to see what all the talk was about. It was a beautiful space, but quite loud, so not the best for reading or studying.
Then we found a TKMaxx so I had to go in! We spent a half an hour exploring the store, which wasn’t as good as the ones at home.
We walked around the city a bit more before heading to the Southbank for the South Melbourne Market. We love eating out at markets because it is how the local people live (and they normally aren’t as expensive as restaurants)! Webster had Greek food and I had an Instagram famous chicken burger. There was great live music and tons of people enjoying themselves on a nice summer evening.
After the market we walked towards the river to check out Ponyfish Island. One of Webster’s friends recommended it for great views and it sure did deliver! We sat on the river, underneath the footbridge while the sun went down. It was a neat little place that was very popular.
We ended our evening getting some groceries for our next few days in Melbourne.
On Friday, we headed into the city during the morning commute. We had signed up for a free city walking tour that left at 9am so we got to see all the crowds coming into the city too. We met our local tour guide at City Hall. Paul was a Melbourne resident and was able to share some unique spots and stories with us throughout the tour. We explored Town Hall, St.Paul’s Cathedral, Flinders Street Station, Melbourne Olympic Park, Presgrave Place, Young and Jackson’s Hotel, and Degraves Street. It was a great way to get a good overview of the city centre!
After our tour we headed to Queen Victoria Market for lunch. We expected more of a market with food stalls and food trucks, but it was a real fresh food market. We wandered through the aisles impressed at how similar the prices were to home. We got some Turkish pastry pies for lunch before continuing on.
In the afternoon we headed to the Old Melbourne Gaol. The prison was used for about 90 years before being shut down in the 1990’s. We toured the cells, read about their most famous inmates, and even got to take part in a Watchtower Experience where the sergeant locked us up in a cell, let us have outside time in the yard and took our mugshot.
After the jail, we had to try some famous Melbourne coffee so we headed to one of their famous coffee shops, the League of Honest Coffee. I tried an Australian speciality, Iced Coffee with ice cream and Webster had a fancy cappuccino with art on top! It was delicious, and very reasonably priced!
We came back to our AirBnB to get changed and head out for one last stop. It was on Webster’s bucket list to go to a hidden bar in London but we couldn’t find one. Luckily I was searching online for things to do in Melbourne and found a secret bar near our AirBnB. I didn’t tell Webster where we were going (he thought we were going to Top Golf). I brought him to the front of the shop, which was a sandwich take out place. He was so unimpressed with my excitement to take him for sandwiches but then I opened the freezer door behind the counter into a small tiki bar. It was SO cool! We had fun watching people order food in the restaurant without knowing what was behind in the “kitchen”. The waiter told us that they have a customer who comes to get a sandwich once a week, and after about a year, he still hasn’t figured out that there is a bar hidden behind the counter.
On Saturday morning, we woke up early to head to Royal Melbourne. Webster has been talking about going to this golf course since we arrived in Australia, so it was exciting to be finally going! We took an Uber to the course since it is a little bit outside the city. It was very private, we couldn’t even look around the clubhouse or the course without being members. Webster spent some time snooping and looking around in the Pro Shop. He even found the President’s Cup trophy for the tournament at the end of the year!
We spent Saturday afternoon finishing up our groceries from our few days in Melbourne and writing the blog on the rooftop terrace.
In the evening we headed into the city to go see Nickelback! Nickelback is Webster’s favourite band and I got him tickets for Christmas. We first took a tram into the city centre to get dinner at “Australia’s Best Burger” restaurant. The burgers were delicious, but not the best we have ever had. Then, we took a tram to the Rod Laver Arena in the Australian Open complex. It was a really small venue, only 15,000 seats. Nickelback played for more than 2 hours and Webster sang along to EVERY song. There were tons of Canadians there, mostly people who were now living in Australia, but it neat to feel at home with a Canadian band in Melbourne.
On Sunday, we woke up at 5am, after heading to bed at midnight for a very early flight to Adelaide. Helen, one of Grandmom’s relatives, met us at the airport. It was so wonderful to have someone to pick us up in a new place. We collected our bags and headed into the city. We were quite tired from our early morning so we had a nap before getting on with our day. In the afternoon, we headed to their central shopping area to visit the information centre and pick up some groceries. We read through lots of brochures and planned our two days in the city with lots of activities.
Then, we wandered down the main road stopping to listen to buskers and learn more about the Fringe Festival they have going on this week. It is basically an arts festival, showcasing local and national talent. We watched a belly dancer teach the crowd some moves and then decided to check out the fairgrounds in a couple days to see more performers.
The last picture shows how they sell pancake mix here - so funny! It is in a plastic container, you add water, and then it comes out the top for a controlled mess, no cleaning required! We will definitely be trying this before we come home!
We spent our evening relaxing, getting some things organized for our arrival in Sydney, and finishing up the blog.
This week we are spending a few days in Adelaide before we head to Sydney. I have school orientation at the end of the week and Webster is on a mission to find a reasonably priced bike!
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