9th to 10th March, 2016

Yes, me again and so soon!! Now, the main reason for coming to Melbourne was to visit Kumar, Val’s oldest brother (or is that older as she only has two of them?) (but, they are both older, so what to do?). OK, we were there to meet the older of Val’s two brothers, Kumar!

He was keen to get out of the city early to avoid the traffic, so we met at 7.00 am (!), had a quick breakfast and set off on a trip to the Dandenong Range and the Yarra Valley. It was a nice day (NOT 40 degrees!) and we had a beautiful drive, ending up in the vineyards for a spot of lunch. The hills of the Range are home to some quite twee shops for the tourists and I hope you appreciate the Miss Marple’s Tea Room in the photos.

On a whim en route, we stopped at an animal sanctuary (more of an outdoor zoo), which was great, though Val did manage to get lost at one point. So, here is the moment you have been waiting for, oh loyal followers – the bird photos (and other animals, as Lawrence Durrell said)!!!

Thought you would enjoy that!

We had tea at Kumar’s house and then collapsed contentedly back at the hotel.

Not a very early start the next day, but we trammed back to Errol Street for brunch (Malaysian) and then trammed on (is that a verb, trammed? Well, it is now) to the Victoria Museum, a modern building housing a very good number of displays in a very innovative way. There was something on the First Peoples (ie aborigines), some excellent dinosaur exhibits and bits on the body and mind, the history of Victoria and a whole bit of forest. There were also some silly mirrors, which I know you will enjoy. And, amazingly, there was the stuffed remains of a very famous racehorse icon, Phar Lap, which was a horse from New Zealand that was trained in Australia and won the Melbourne Cup in 1930 as well as many other races 37 out of 51 in 4 years of racing (being placed in most of the other races) before dying early in strange circumstances (see Wikipedia). It was particularly significant and emotional for Val and me as when we were living in Papua New Guinea we liked to play a new game called Trivial Pursuit – but it was the Australian version. This meant the Geography questions were a doddle (Name the river that runs through London) but the Sports ones were near impossible, so our standard answer to any horseracing question was Phar Lap, which was often right! So it was nice to meet him in person (if dead!). The visit was all very educational and it kept us dry as it was now back around the 20 degree mark and raining). That evening it was dinner with Kumar and Eileen, his wife at a very nice Japanese restaurant and then back to pack for an early start for the airport in the morning and our flight to Auckland.

OK, that’s all folks. New Zealand here we come!!