Australia
Melbourne & Sydney
January 2017
After a full 24 hours of traveling from Cincinnati to Chicago to San Francisco to New Zealand, we finally landed in Melbourne, Australia for a week long trip down under. When we began our trip it was snowing in Ohio, so we weren't dressed for the 90 degree heat that Australia welcomed us with. First things first, we checked into our Airbnb in St. Kilda East. After cleaning up and getting a meal we hit the city. First stop was Hosier Lane, where there are alleys and alleys filled with remarkable street art and graffiti along the walls. We ended the day in the central Melbourne city area checking out all that the city had to offer.
On Monday, we took a guided bus tour of the Great Ocean Road. This was one of my favorite parts of our trip. With the beautiful sights such as Teddy's Lookout, Loch Ard Gorge and the 12 Apostles, what isn't to love? Over the duration of our trip, we even got to experience Australian animals in their natural habitat, such as seeing a cockatoo at our morning tea in Anglesea, seeing koalas asleep in their trees along the Kennett River and kangaroos hopping around in a field. The Little Penguin Bus Tour did a wonderful job at showing us both the highlights of the Great Ocean Road as well as some hidden gems. Make sure to check out my upcoming blog post "A Great Guide to the Great Ocean Road."
Tuesday was a completely outdoors day. We started off with breakfast at the Beachcomber Cafe and Restaurant in St. Kilda, then made our way right down to the beach for our paddle boarding lesson. We were all a little shaky at first (the morning mimosas had nothing to do with that) but definitely got the hang of it soon after. After that and some extra beach time, we headed down to Brighton Beach to look at the beautifully colored beach boxes. These cute storage shacks will run you a couple grand each but the location can't be beat if you're an avid beach goer.
Next up came my number one, most favorite moment of the trip. On Tuesday evening after eating a delicious meal at the Chinese restaurant Chin Chin (make sure to get there at least an hour before you actually want to eat) we were taking a final walk around Melbourne before we left the city. We were crossing Princes Bridge that has a great view of the city, lights and all, and I wanted to stop and take a few final pictures. That's when my boyfriend then stopped me and got down on one knee and proposed! It couldn't have been more perfect <3 We then celebrated by getting bottles of champagne on a dock bar and then heading to a local casino.
The next morning we packed up our things and made our way to the airport where we would then go to Sydney. After checking into Macleay Hotel, where we had a room view of Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, we went out to explore. One of our best ideas in Sydney was to buy an iVenture card, which comes with pre-paid activities that you choose all loaded onto a credit card. This was great because our activities were already paid for and that was one less thing we had to worry about. First up in Sydney was to hit the harbour and take a look at the world famous Sydney Opera House by guided tour. One thing that I didn't know about the opera house until the tour was that there are actually multiple stages and halls inside. We then checked out the harbour area and hit up the Eastbank Cafe, Bar & Pizzeria during happy hour. That night we wandered into the annual "Sydney Festival" and then went up to the top of the Sydney tower to view the city and it's lights.
Our next day began with visiting all of Australia's native animals at the Wild Life Sydney Zoo. Here we were able to get up close and personal with koalas for a small fee. Unfortunately you aren't allowed to touch them, but if one bumps into you that doesn't count, right? We also rode on a harnessed pulley system over top of the zoo and got to see the exhibits from a new perspective. The kangaroos weren't being very social that day (it was also very, very hot in their outdoor exhibit) but it was still a successful visit.
Next, we went down to the Olympic Park, where Sydney hosted the 2000 Summer Olympics. Here, we took a tour of ANZ Stadium, where the opening and closing ceremonies as well as some of the events took place.
On our last day in Sydney, we spent the day on a hop-on, hop-off cruise. We got to see the Sydney Opera House from the other side, go under the Harbour Bridge, spend an hour at Fort Denison (a prison-turned-restaurant), go to Darling Harbour and end our day at Watson's Bay where we had our last Australian meal at the Watson's Bay Beach Club and took a hike near the water.
Boomerangs were bought on this day as well as we got our touristy souvenir shopping out of the way. After an unsuccessful attempt at getting them to return us as we practiced in Alexander Gardens, we headed to Dandedong to watch our friend Ally compete on the Dandedong Rangers WNBL team. Go Rangers! Ally was the MVP of the game and treated us to pancakes (the most expensive pancakes I've ever had) with the gift card she got as a prize.
After a much needed night of sleep to help cure the jet lag, on Sunday morning we had the most delicious breakfast that I have ever had in my entire life at an adorable cafe called "Darling Cafe," located in South Yarra. Here we selected from a wide variety of morning drinks to start our day off right and some tasty treats that were definitely more dessert than breakfast. Add the super cute pineapple cups and this place was a 10/10, would recommend.
We had the greatest week in Australia and even though we were only there for a short amount of time, we really hit everything that we could, and definitely made it to all of Melbourne and Sydney's top attractions.
