Melbourne, AU

“People forget years and remember moments.”

Anne Beattie

It amuses me that I spent three months in the relatively tiny country of New Zealand, and only had plans to spend about three and a half weeks in Australia. There’s just so much of the world to see and I decided I couldn’t be spending multiple months at a time in just one place.

I quickly learned that trying to drive around Australia takes a really long time and it is much quicker and cheaper to fly. I had seen flights for as cheap as 40 USD around Australia; that’s basically the cost of a tank of gas (petrol) there! Thus, my mom and I packed our bags and flew to Melbourne to explore Australia’s second largest city. 

City Centre

On our first day, we dropped our bags off at our hotel and walked to Victoria Street Market. This is a large space filled with vendors selling all sorts of items including touristy gifts, clothing, bags, toys, games, food, and more.

Bustling with life on a Sunday, the day before a holiday in Australia, we made our way through the crowds and admired various trinkets. My mom and I bought a variety of cheeses, meats, fruits, and olives to enjoy a delicious charcuterie board later that night.

Among the many beautiful buildings in Melbourne, one that stood out to me was the State Library of Victoria, which contained an impressive oval room.

The combination of the brown shelves and flooring with the white walls made for a gorgeous room. I would thoroughly enjoy spending my day working or studying in a place like this. 

Melbourne is known for its street art and graffiti, and we came across numerous alleys covered in murals and art.

The most well-known and packed with tourists was Hosier Lane; every possible space was decorated with vibrant colors.

It’s also a popular location for photography, and we happened to see a wedding party strolling through and being photographed. 

We spent all afternoon walking around the city center, and in the evening, went up in a very tall building, to the Eureka Skydeck, to get lovely 360 degree views of the city.

From the top here, you could see the Australian Open tennis courts. Unfortunately they had been closed for reconstruction, so we couldn’t actually do a tour (my mom and I both love watching tennis), but at least we got to see the courts from up above! 

We finished our day with our charcuterie board and watched Mad Max on Netflix. I enjoy having some evenings off and just watching Netflix; it’s a nice way to do something familiar in an unfamiliar place.

Over the course of the next couple days, we enjoyed shopping in Melbourne, as there were tons and tons of shopping malls and boutique stores.

It was satisfying to freshen up my clothing, as I had been wearing the same things for several months now.

There is also a large Asian community in Melbourne, and we enjoyed lots of delicious Asian meals. Half the time, we weren’t quite sure what we were eating or drinking, but it was delightful!

Great Ocean Road

While general driving around Australia is not the most exciting activity, one drive in particular is worth it; the Great Ocean Road. It is similar to driving along the Big Sur in California, and there are lots of stunning stops along the coast.

We hired a car and left Melbourne to drive to the 12 Apostles, the most famous stop on the Great Ocean Road, which was about four hours away. 

While leaving the city, we stopped by to observe the Pink Lake in Westgate Park. You would think the color is caused by some toxic spill, but it is a natural phenomenon.

The salty lake turns pink when salt levels are higher than normal, in addition to high temperatures, low rainfall, and abundant sunlight. During these conditions, the algae in the lake produces a red pigment, causing the overall color of the lake to be pink. Pretty cool!

There were many spectacular lookout points along the drive. In a number of stops, we enjoyed watching bold surfers tackling on huge waves. I had never seen such large glorious waves before!

About an hour away from our accommodation that night, we enjoyed dinner in a small town and watched the sunset. A spectrum of orange and pink colors splashed across the sky, reflecting on the water; a lovely sight to see for the end of our day.

We got up early in the morning to watch the sunrise over the 12 Apostles. The 12 Apostles, which are now down to nine, are a series of rocky statue-like formations along the beach.

They are a very popular natural attraction, and we were among many that got up to watch the sunrise.

Afterwards we drove a bit further down the coast to see other natural attractions on the Great Ocean Road. This included some more stone arches, beaches, caves, and a place called the Bay of Islands, which was a large bay full of more stone formations.

During one of our walks at the stops, we spotted a large hairy spider sitting on one of the posts, which left me absolutely traumatized. 

We wanted to see a waterfall, so we drove a couple hours out of our way on the way back to Melbourne to stop by a park. Upon entering the forest, we first had to drive on an unpleasant dirt road for several kilometers before reaching the park entrance.

There, we saw that we were the lone visitors at the park, and it was a narrow path of about half a kilometer you would need to descend to see the waterfall. 

My mom was incredibly scared of encountering snakes, while I of more spiders, and neither of us could summon the courage to walk down the path to see the waterfall.

I was disappointed in myself, that I left my fear get the best of me like this! I had been warned by so many people about spiders and snakes, and we just kept expecting to see them everywhere.

We drove back to Melbourne eventually and spent the night in an AirBnb near the airport. In the morning, I drove my mom to the airport, only to find that her flight was over two hours delayed!

At this time, many planes (the Boeing 737 Max) around the world were grounded, so this led to a butterfly effect of delayed flights everywhere. As a result my mom ended up missing her connecting flight in the States, and had to find another one.

I felt so bad for her having such a long day to get home! But overall, I was beyond grateful that my mom came out to visit me on my travels.

We had a blast together, and saw lots of cool things in Sydney and Melbourne. I was very teary eyed when she left!

Moonlit Wildlife Sanctuary

I wanted to see more of the non-scary wildlife in Australia so I paid a visit to the Moonlit Wildlife Sanctuary. I did a short daytime tour admiring the animals, and then I also booked a nighttime tour to see the nocturnal animals, which was most of them. Our tour guide loved chatting about the animals, full of passion for her job, and we learned many fun facts.

The tour began with us holding a friendly python, and learning that 9 out of the 10 most poisonous snakes can be found in Australia. That being said, they are not dangerous. There are about two deaths per year from snakes in the country, which is vastly small in comparison to other countries, such as the 46,000 deaths in India for instance. In Australia, if you come across a snake, you should just stand still because they have poor eyesight, and can’t see you if you are still, and will just scurry away.

One fun part of this tour was getting to feed the sugar gliders. These little critters were absolutely adorable and friendly and we all just wanted to cuddle with them. Additionally, we got to feed kangaroos and wallabies, my favorite part! There were at least a hundred of them in the area, ruthlessly surrounding us to get at our palms full of corn and nuts. 

I spent a couple more days in Melbourne on my own, running errands and relaxing before leaving the bit city. My next adventure was to stay with a family I met in New Zealand in their home in Adelaide, and I was very excited for that! I packed my bags, and was off on the long drive through South Australia. 

-Anastasia