Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia after Sydney.

The weather and temperature are very variable. When we visited we went out in the morning and it was about 14 degrees and within 90 minutes it had climbed to near 30 degrees.

This is the first and only time, so far, that we have been away from home at Christmas so we wanted to make the best of it and put up a few special cards just to remind us.

Melbourne Cricket Ground

The main reason for visiting Melbourne is the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), also known simply as “The G”, It is located in Yarra Park, Melbourne.

Home to the Melbourne Cricket Club, it is the 2nd-largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, the largest cricket ground by capacity, and has the tallest light towers of any sporting venue. One of the great assets of the MCG is that it’s within walking distance of the city centre.

It was the venue for both the first Test match and the first One Day International, played between Australia and England in 1877 and 1971 respectively.

The annual Boxing Day Test is one of the MCG’s most popular events.

The MCG is also used for Australian Football League (AFL) and is referred to as “the spiritual home of Australian rules football” for its strong association with the sport since it was codified in 1859, it hosts Australian Football League (AFL) matches in the winter including the Grand Final in which the stadium fills to capacity.

As you walk along the Yarra river with the ‘G’ in the distance It is hard to describe the excitement that I (Keith) felt at this point as I was about to enter one of the most famous cricket ground’s in the world. It took just under 50 years for me to get here.

The closer you get to the “G” the more impressive becomes.

The ground is often empty at the start of the day as many people come in after lunch. The game started at 10:30, we were there at 9:30 to soak up the atmosphere.

The ground wasn’t full the attendance was 67,138. We would love to go when it is full.

Excitement builds as the presentations are performed before the start of the days play. This seemed to take an eternity, it felt like when a child is given a present and told not to open it yet.

Australia were the fielding team, everyone is preparing for the first ball of the day to be bowled.

It was a great days cricket, we saw 306 runs and 13 wickets to fall. The score at the end of the day was:

Sri Lanka 156 all out in 43.4 overs
Australia 150 for 3 in 39 overs.

Many People have asked why we didn’t go to watch England play, the reasons are:

England weren’t touring in my 50th birthday trip.
If England had won then it would have been an amazing experience but if England had lost this would of been the lasting memory of the trip.
When you are a neutral you can enjoy the game for what it is.

One of our traditions is to stay up on Christmas day and watch the first hour or so of the Boxing day test, it brings back so many memories.

Melbourne at Christmas

David Jones’ and Myers

One of the big attractions in Melbourne is the famous Christmas display in the windows of two adjacent shops, David Jones’ and Myers. Each year the window there is a different story. The day we arrived there were 80,000 visitors and during our stay you had to queue up to see the window display, even at midnight.

Still hard to grasp Christmas in the sun and heat.

Melbourne City Hall

The decs are ready bring on the big day.

Melbourne City Hall by Night in all its splendour. Absolutely fantastic.

Anglican Cathedral

We had planned to go to the midnight service on Christmas eve but by the time we arrived back from Phillip Island the congregation were coming out of the church so I guessed we missed it.

Inside the cathedral with it’s festive tree.

Christmas Day in Melbourne

Early morning stroll along the Yarra river with the central business district in the background. In the opposite direction is the “G”.

We headed off to St Kilda beach for the day. Although it was sunny there was a bite to the wind as it was coming from the South.

It felt just like being in North Wales in the summer, if you lie flat against the sand is was warm and sunny but as soon you got up you can feel the bite in the breeze.

Christmas day party time for the locals. It is odd that in Melbourne you can drink alcohol on the beach but in Sydney you can’t.

What do we normally do on Christmas day? Eat a big dinner then fall asleep watching the Sound of Music or some other film that is wheeled out every Christmas. This was different in Melbourne, people still ate a large dinner and then go off to the beach.

Simple question, what does Father Christmas do on Christmas day once all the presents have been delivered? He and a few friends go and play cricket on the beach at St Kilda. As there is only one Father Christmas the others must therefore be in fancy dress.

Wedding on the beach

Whilst we were in Melbourne a wedding was being performed on a very hot day on St Kilda beach.

The bride was late so all the guests went inside out of the heat.

Eventually she arrived and the wedding was to commence.

Phillip Island

Phillip Island is about 140 km (87 mi) south-southeast of Melbourne. The island was named after Governor Arthur Phillip, the first Governor of New South Wales, by explorer and Seaman George Bass, who sailed in an open whale boat, arriving from Sydney on 5 January 1798.

We went on a day trip to Phillip Island the highlight of which was to watch the Penguin Parade at sunset. This is when little penguins come ashore in groups from the sea. These are the smallest species of penguin and old grows to about 33cm.

The penguins come ashore in large groups just as it gets dark and then return to the sea just before sunrise to avoid predators.

Small wooden nesting boxes have been built to provide additional protection. These are so cute..

A penguin nest showing the little penguins waiting for there parents to return.

On this trip we saw a very tired Koala, they spend between 18 to 22 hours a day asleep. They sleep a lot to conserve energy as their diet requires a lot of energy to digest.