29 March 2012

Pellegrinis, A tall tower, Waterfalls and Dumplings


And so onto our second day in Melbourne town.

It was one of my favourite days in Melbourne despite another 4.30am start. Although we are getting better by half an hour each day, so at this rate we might just have the boys' body clocks onto Aussie time in time to go back home to NZ! We decided it was worthwhile to buy a daily tram pass today as the free tram doesn’t start till 10am and we have been raring to go by 8am each morning which is one upside to the early starts I guess! First stop was Parliament House and a very cool reverse fountain in the gardens that you could stand in the middle of without getting wet!













Melbourne architecture rocks – I so love the juxtaposition of new vs old, colonial vs modern, glass vs brick that co-exist beautifully side by side.

We then found ourselves getting coffee at the hippest coffee bar ever – Pellegrini’s, and when Mark sent his mate Gareth a text to tell him where we were, he was like 'Mate, Pellegrini's is a Melbourne institution, how did you manage to stumble upon it?!'  Clearly, we must have good coffee noses to have ended up sniffing this place out amongst the many other potential cafes in the vicinity?!





Then we wandered down Bourke Street taking in all the shops…until a need to find a toilet meant we found ourselves heading down into the David Jones department store foodhall where some lovely looking macarons were softly calling our names. We treated ourselves to a 6-pack and the passionfruit chilli one was particularly delicious. After our wandering took us past the entrance to Chinatown alley, we decided we would definitely be putting Chinese on the list for dinner tonight!


Little boys feet were getting tired so the perfect rest for weary feet was found in some comfy chairs inside the General Pants Company store while Mark looked for some new Havianas to replace his pair that had literally snapped in half walking off the plane (how?!) as we arrived into Melbourne.


Then we took in the sights and sounds of 3 of Melbourne’s most well-known malls one after the other – GPO (General Post Office) where I loved the light and bright feel and the oversize letters everywhere and then onto the QV building which was a bit of a maze but we did manage to locate a Woolworths to stock up  on some groceries.



Then we headed over to Melbourne Central which again was very impressive with the old brickwork being surrounded by an amazing glass dome letting natural light in – man Melbourne knows how to make shopping malls look good!



We headed home for some lunch and a much needed nap for the boys, before heading straight back out on the tram to Flinders St. We walked across the foot bridge towards the Eureka Skydeck – the highest tower in the Southern Hemisphere, easily dwarfing both the Auckland Sky Tower and Sydney’s Tower. The ride up 88 floors only takes 38 seconds and we found our ears popping several times on the way up. There were awesome 360 degree views of the city from up top – and we thought about (but in the end decided against) doing The Edge experience where for an extra $30 you go out on this glass ledge which is frosted to begin with and then it clears and you can see the city 88 floors beneath your feet. In my opinion, the views themselves were spectacular enough on their own!



After an icecream stop at 7 Eleven, we found our way to the National Gallery of Victoria. Outside was this amazing waterfall glass wall feature that you could touch, it was both soothing and beautiful staring into the reflections it made. Inside we also found a stained glass window roof that we lay and gazed at seeing how many colours we could see – being horizontal also proved a great opportunity to rest our weary feet for 2 minutes!






I love this shot - it looks like Noah is using The Force! 


After this we jumped on a tram heading back over the river, finding ourselves back at the Melbourne Central mall with a bit of time to kill before dinnertime. In the end, we grabbed a bargain on some kids Nike shoes for Noah ($20) then wandered the lanes in Chinatown in search of the Hu Tong Dumpling bar for a truly yummy authentic Chinese, with great service.




I made the most of a bit of time to kill between the courses, and took advantage of the lovely natural lighting with my 35 mm lens attached to capture a couple of lovely shots of Noah.




Four pairs of tired feet then caught the tram home but after negotiating with Mark, I got a pass out and stayed on the tram one extra stop to go down to the pier and take some sunset shots.  It was one of those moments to be seized where beauty had to be explored, although the results of this twilight capture will be a post in itself to be saved for another day!

3 comments :

remaliah said...

Wow, this makes me want to hop on a plane and see Melbourne for myself! It looks like a beautiful city to visit. Wonderful photos! What a great family adventure :)

jacksta said...

lovely pix!
Im still drooling from those macron shots!

Jaz from Treacy Family said...

mmmmmmmmmmmmm yum.
Yummy pics, Meg. Thanks for sharing xxx

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