Victoria- The place to be!

We have spent the last 3 weeks in Victoria, and now it is time to say goodbye! Melbourne has been a very charming, charismatic and cool city to explore and be in. It has a real character and history to it, which made us warm to the place alot quicker than we did to Perth.

A view of Melbourne CBD from the shrine of rememberence

Shrine of rememberence built as a memorial to Australians &new zealanders who served in the war.

 Arriving in Melbourne we spent the first week being tourists and exploring what the city had to offer. After our first week, we felt we had a good feel for the place and had managed to see

alot, but not enough! Which is why we decided to cut our 2^nd HelpX stay a few days short so we could spend our last few days in the city before flying to Sydney.

Melbournes answer to the Eiffel tower at the Arts Centre

There has been lots to do and see, even when the unpredictable weather wasn’t in our favour! So what did we get upto in Melbourne? Visited museums... Spotted cute little penguins on the St Kilda pier... Discovered the pretty botanical gardens, but on a very rainy day... Ate Anzac cookies on Anzac (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) day at the Victoria shrine of remembrance... Shared one too many boxes of goon... Viewed a numerous amount of art in the numerous art galleries... Participated in a backpackers $5 pub crawl and got 4 free drinks... Ate a burrito which was actually just a fajita at a dingy little cafe in Fitzroy... Visited Drank litres and litres of coffee in the many coffee shops throughout the city... Consumed lots and lots of Asian food...it’s hard to resist the $2 sushi rolls! Went to a wildlife sanctuary... Searched for wombats... Watched an aboriginal throw and catch a boomerang 3 times in a row...

Flinders street station, built in 1854

Our first HelpX stay was with a really nice Australian family, high up in the hills near to the Yarra valley (famous for its wineries!) in a little town called Heallesville. They lived 6km from the nearest town up a long and windy mountain in a quirky house surrounded by forest and lot’s of Australian wildlife! Here we spent a work doing general farmwork alongside Mike, the host, and another helper from Germany. Together we did lots of painting, tidying, tractor driving, wood collecting and cutting, coffee and beer drinking, wine sampling, cooking, as well as lots of trampolining with their daughter...which was all really fun, so much fun that the week flashed by in an instance and we wished we could of stayed longer if it wasn’t for the next host we had committed to in another town about 30km south in Cockatoo (Home to a famous little steam train called the puffing Billy!).

Up on the roof, fitting a chimney!

After a busy morning of chopping and moving lots of wood

 The second HelpX stay was at a smallholding, home to chickens, dogs, horses, ponies, reptile, resident kookaburras and an interesting Dutch family. Here the weather wasn’t really in our favour and there was a lot of heavy downpours and storms, but we still managed to do lots of painting of a shed frame which had been built, digging and levelling of ground in preparation of horse stables, gardening, fencing and enriching the lives of the chickens, or chooks, by giving their enclosure an autumn clean and makeover! Whilst here we learnt some random dutch ways of life, such as their term “wax nose”, aniseed powder on toast for breakfast, card games, and some dutch words like Hallo (hello), hoi (hi), wat is dat (what is that?) and proost (cheers)!

 

Kevin the Kookaburra

So the last leg of our Australian adventure will be in Sydney, starting this weekend after a night of sleeping in Melbourne airport in a bid to save a few dollars! We will also be spending a precious hour in Cairns (more than likely the airport lounge...) due to a flight mix up which means the 3 days that we thought we would spend in  Cairns has been reduced to a measly hour...oops! It’s a shame as a lot of people we have met on our travels have recommended Cairns, but I don’t think 60 minutes will be quiet  enough to get a real feel for the place..

and in less than a week’s time we shall be landing in Singapore to start our Asian adventure alongside some more voluntary work we have signed up for and just waiting for the go ahead!

A view of Melbourne CBD from St. Kilda pier

“On the move”, “the place to be” or  “Garden”are slogans seen on the car registrations in Victoria.