Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Muckies Trip report part 1

Australia Day 1 Melbourne
We arrived in Melbourne from Tokyo after a reasonable Qantas flight somewhat relaxed and really excited about the prospect of warm weather. Tokyo weather had been the same as here in Wales, cold and wet.
We proceeded to the taxi rank at the front of the airport and we were really surprised at the taxi wardens calling drivers to the pick up point and getting abuse from the drivers all the time, it was really quite funny that these wardens appear to be loathed by the drivers. The normal taxis were no match for our pile of suitcases and the four of us so we had to wait while a larger mini bus type taxi was called.
The driver was from Eastern Europe and he proceeded to tell us all about Melbourne, pointing out the sights as we drove along.
The guide books quote around $40 for the trip to CBD, but they don?t mention that if we have lots of bags and four people and get picked up outside the airport it would be $78.
Anyway the driver reeled of a number of reasons why it was dearer, notably we had found our way onto tariff 2, there was a fee for collecting at the airport and the rest was no doubt towards his next trip home to Europe.

We arrived safely at the Albert Heights Executive Apartments on Albert Rd.
We chose this accommodation for a few reasons, firstly it was not too expensive, secondly we wanted apartments, thirdly we didnt want to be right in the CBD, but just within a short walk to the tram.
In fairness it suited us well, the apartments were reasonable in size and we had a dining area with kitchen etc. The kitchen was well equipped and it was comfortable enough.
The staff were really friendly and helpful.
There was a small spa pool which cooled us off when we arrived.
This place was no boutique, but offered us good value. We discovered that visitors to the hospitals close by use it as a base when visiting relatives. So you understand its not really a holiday hotel.
My only real complaint was that the A/C was only in the main living area, which also doubled up as the childrens room. Our room was soooo hot. Surely A/C is possible in both rooms.

The very first thing any visitor to Melbourne should do is to take the Circle line free tram and take a full circle of the CBD, just to get bearings and to see where the things are.
It was really great eventually we got off the tram and wandered through the streets.
It looks so much like the UK (that was not so good).
I took the opportunity of downloading my digital camera pictures at a shop called Foto City at 100 Bourke street.
I tried around 8 different places to do this and only this one shop filled me with confidence that they knew what they were doing.
I left my memory card with them and they promptly for $10 put 170 of my valuable pictures on to CD ROM Great job!
That very first night we decided to eat at the Hard Rock Café, we had a wonderful meal, wonderful service a few beers a couple of glasses of wine and a really enjoyable time and it was so cheap !
There was a 20% discount voucher too in one of the information books in the hotel.
It was great Music, food, interesting surroundings and the teenagers were happy.
As any parent knows in this situation, if the kids are happy then we are too.

Day 2
Today we opted for a late start and headed out to see a few of the sights, we walked for 5 mins to the park and on to Captain cooks cottage which was not particularly interesting to us and we resisted the temptation to look inside, after all we have these places at home. The dolphin fountain statue was nice photo opportunity despite the water shortage forbidding the use of water. But my favourite place was the park itself. Tranquillity in a seemingly busy city.
Next place to visit had to be the Rialto Towers which were close by, and what a fabulous view it was from the observation platform, we stayed for a while and enjoyed the spectacular views. But forgot to use the 15% voucher in that same book !
The MCG was at the forefront of my wish list to visit and I could clearly see it from here, I was surprised at the amount of building work going on there, it will greatly enhance the stadium Im sure and it will be even more magnificent than it was before.
On the way back to the apartments we discovered a gorgeous deli on Albert Rd which served pretty much anything we wanted to eat and drink.

The temperature was increasing as the day went on and by now it was around 34C so we were glad for the cold drinks and the shade.
When we got back to the apartments we decided to hire a car for the next 2 days.
The receptionist recommended Avis as we could get a good rate with them and they arranged everything, car was to be delivered to the Albert Heights the next morning.
The cost was $55 per day for basic hire but together with everything tax insurance, waivers etc it totalled A$177.32.
Tonight we have booked to do the Penguin waters boat trip from the river out to St Kilda to see the fairy penguins arriving at the beach head.
We had some kind of BBQ which was ok and drank plenty of wine before arriving at the point where the penguins would surface.
At first we didnt see any then as it got darker and darker they began arriving, it was a good alternative to the drive down to Philip island and I guess we saw what we wanted to see...penguins.
Not sure if I would do this tour again, for me it was a long way to go to see penguins but the family enjoyed it, none the less.

Day 3
08:30 One Mid range Red Toyota Corolla duly arrived, we packed it up and off we went.
After several recommendations on this site we headed towards Bendigo and Ballarat.
Unfortunately the outside temperature was fast approaching 39C and whilst we stopped for a short time at Bendigo, the kids were getting crotchety and we quite quickly moved on to Ballarat and Sovereign Hill.
Sovereign Hill was a great experience a really good day out for all the family, unfortunately we struggled with the heat and only stayed around 1.5hrs. The A/C in the car helped us that day.
We moved over to the Gold museum and enjoyed the displays and the stories depicting the gold rush era and history of the Chinese, English and of course the Welsh who came to the area in search of their fortune.
We left there just as a coach full of Chinese tourists arrived and we headed down back to Melbourne, as we headed towards Melbourne we could see a storm was in action above the city and after around 20 mins we too were in the storm. We were suddenly in the middle of a flash flood. Hell ! the car was 3 foot deep in water, cars were breaking down everywhere, people were desperately trying to push their vehicle to the road side.
Strangely within 10 mins it was all gone the road was dry and we were wondering where all this water had got too.
Its true Melbourne has all 4 seasons in about 25 mins !
We continued on our way looking for a Chinese take away. We found one on the outskirts of Melbourne after we had come off the motorway to avoid the tolls.
(People who know me will understand my feelings towards paying tolls, I would rather spend £5 on fuel driving round than pay a £4 toll..lol)
We arrived back at the apartment and devoured our take away a few beers and off to bed, shattered after a long hot but enjoyable day.

Day 4
The next day we decided to head to Healesville sanctuary, my daughter loves animals and it was a good opportunity to make her happy.
Heallesville is a nice place to visit , we enjoyed the plants and the trees along with the animals. It is well worth visiting, fortunately it was cooler but raining.
We didnt care too much to be honest it was nice to be cool.
I adore the Duck billed Platypus and was able to see my first one here fantastic.
Having spent half a day here we headed off to find McMahons Creek which is in the Yarra valley, this valley is absolutely gorgeous and I wish we had stopped for a little wine tasting and perhaps stayed there, but it is difficult trying to please everyone and our priority was to keep the kids happy.
We never did find McMahons creek although we did find Tipperery creek and embarrassed a few skinny dippers in the process lol
The scenery was stunning, next time we get there we will head to this area for a couple of days (minus the teenagers of course)
One of my fondest memories of films as a child was picnic at hanging rock. I felt I couldnt come all this way without seeing the rock location that the film was made on.
Wow is that a spooky place ! we arrived too late for the park which was closed, but that enhanced our visit as there was no one around at all. The rocks are really spooky and we all felt a chill when we first saw those rocks protruding over the woodland.
It is a fascinating place and we intend to get that film out soon to see this eerie rock.

As I mentioned before keeping the kids or teenagers happy is a parents priority and one of our intended places to visit was Ramsey st . Thanks to Marg who has been a great help to our planning we found the place easily, took a few photographs, felt a bit stupid too walking round looking at houses lol I can say that this satisfied the curiosity of the kids, we can all say we have been to Ramsey st now lol
Having received so much great information from Marg I really wanted to drop off and say Hi/thanks to her, so we headed to her place and met both marg and hubby and had a nice hour chatting. Thanks Marg for your help and kind hospitality.
Marg informed me of pending disasters in our hotel in Sydney as stated on this site,but Alan (the cavalry) was sorting that out for us, but allowed me to use her PC and check it out. It was very nice of her.
We left Margs house and headed to the shops a large shopping center called knox .
We ate there and did a little shopping before heading back to the apartment.
Agreat day was enjoyed and we picked up a bottle or two and had a quiet drink and snacks 'at home'.
Day 5
Having spent some time around Melbourne shopping and seeing the coaches pull up outside Myers store with tourists viewing the xmas window displays we decided to spend more time in the shops. Then we headed on the circle tram to the immigration museum , which is quite a good resourse center for anyone tracing relatives who came to Australia
We then proceeded to Melbourne Gaol.
This was really enjoyable, the criminals heads made my wife feel sick but it was my kind of place to visit and we stayed there for some time reading the stories of those as well as famous Ned Kelly who died in the Gaol.
In the afternoon we headed to Melbourne Zoo. My daughter wanted to go here and it was worth the visit it is a really nice half days visit, not too crowded but worth the tram ride.
Using our daily tram passes we headed down to st Kilda to see what was happening.
We decided to go into the Luna park funfair and take a few rides, would you believe it was only my wife and I who wanted to go in there the children didnt !!!
So we just walked around, took a few pictures had an iced cream, there are some really unusual shops in St Kilda, I thought it felt like a typical beach resort much the same as the kind I avoid here in the uk.
The weather was wet so the beach was deserted, but its a good beach destination if you have young children.
This was our last night in Melbourne and we decided to go back to Hard Rock Café for another wonderful meal. And it was too.

Day 6
Off to Brisbane.
We ordered a taxi to collect us to take us to the airport for our flight to Brisbane and this time is was $34 surprise surprise !

Flight was uneventful and we arrived in Brisbane looking forward to a relaxing 2 days at the Albert Park Hotel.
I don?t know why we chose Albert again, it just happened but the hotel was very nice and reasonably priced, but it was quite a down hill walk to the shops and an even steeper walk back.
We chose to have a day by the pool and generally chill out.
In the evening we took the opportunity to dress for dinner and had a really formal meal at the hotel. This pleased my wife and children. Personally I prefer things a little less formal, I get quite irritated when the waiter appears from nowhere and re fills my wine glass when I am not looking. Sorry just a personal thing !

Being just before Christmas we wondered what was going on in the shopping centre.
We were surprised to see a metal scaffold in the square and a band/orchestra playing whilst being suspended from elastic ropes difficult to describe but quite entertaining.
They were called Suspended Rhapsody
Two nights in Brisbane was not enough really we would have loved to have gone further affield but maybe next time we will.

Tangalooma Day 1
Next day we moved to Moreton Island. This was to be our home for Christmas. We have stayed at the Tangalooma dolphin resort before and thought it would be an ideal place to spend Christmas. We were right it was still lovely our apartment was right on the beach. My initial fears about not having A/C were discounted as the wonderful sea breeze and the fans more than adequately cooled us down.
We were collected from the hotel by the Tangalooma bus and took the ferry across Moreton bay.
Arriving at the new Jetty at around 12 mid day.
We were introduced to the important places on the island while we waited for our room to become available. We waited and waited. It was hot we were now tired, we didnt have our bags a they were to be delivered to our room directly from the ferry so we couldn?t even go for a swim. It was 2:30 before we got to our rooms I was fuming. In fact the children went to find the room at 1:30 and it was fully cleaned and ready we were just left to wait for another hour while the cleaners failed to notify the reception staff that it was available. I discussed this with the staff and they said they have to wait for the cleaners to say its clear. I hope they review their system because it annoyed the hell out of me. The problem being is that officially the rooms are not available until 3pm so really I had no argument.
So a good tip if going to Tangalooma, keep your swimming gear separate while you wait for your room. I wish we had.
Anyway a few beers later I had forgotten about it all and we made our way to book our feeding sessions with the dolphins.
As there are 4 of us we liked to do it on alternate days, that way there is always someone on the jetty to keep the video camera going.
There are plenty of activities on Tangalooma, the first thing we did once finally getting our room was to dive in the beautiful warm turquoise sea, it made the wait seem a long time away.we were in paradise.
Quad biking around part of the island was great fun as was kayacking.
The sunsets are beautiful in this area of the world and we sat and watched the sun go down from our balcony overlooking the sea---yes paradise.
Tangalooma has two restaurant areas and the food was quite reasonably priced and portions were plenty. Beer was $5 for a small glass or $12 for a litre jug. What an incentive !
Our package was the dolphins in paradise package which included transport and breakfast which was really good value. We had a return visitor discount of 5% and another 5% because they messed up our original Villa booking making it necessary to stay at the Driftewood apartment.
When we booked this part of the holiday we were concerned that since we visited 2 years ago the island may have been spoilt, especially as Scooby Doo the Movie was filmed here we had really hoped that it had maintained its unique tranquil appeal, the same appeal which first brought us here in Oct 2001.
We noticed it was slightly busier but we put it down to christmas holidays. But our fears were unjustified it was still lovely here.
Day 2
The next day we booked a snorkeling session of the Moreton Island wrecks, I tried to do Scuba diving introductory session but couldnt as I had asthma due to animal allergy when I was 11 yrs old !!!!
Pathetic really, unless I had a Drs note saying its ok I couldnt dive. Next time I wont bother telling them!
This might explain why no one did Scuba while we were there, as the majority of people have asthma in some shape or form at some point in their life, it sems that Scuba diving is out for most of us. I understand the safety implications of swimming and diving, but the dive was around 10 feet under in clear water and supervised 1:1 .
Anyway they wont make their fortune with that one.
So a word of caution to anyone wanting to dive, if you suffer from any chest complaints either get a Drs not before you travel or dont tell them.
This may mess up the insurance if anything does go wrong but its a calculated risk.
And a risk I would have taken.
The snorkelling was great there are so many beautiful fish around the wrecks we took in bread and the fish feed from the hand.
My only complaint was that there were too many people snorkelling and it was impossible to swim without getting clobbered by someones flippers, so my daughter and I stayed right at the back and took our time, it was good.
Christmas eve in Australia is a bit different to that here in UK.
We normally attend a carol service in church so we decided to attend the Aussie equivelant here. It was so funny the Tangalooma Tabernacle choir were dressed up with antlers and santa hats and had been practicing for months.or was it minutes not sure but it sounded like they never practiced at all..lol
We sang some Aussie versions of the 12 days of Christmas and Jingle bells and had a great night. Santa landed on the beach pulled by the famous reindeers that looked suspiciously like the quad bikes with tinsel we had been on earlier in the week.
But the effect was good and he brought a small gift for all the young children, but nothing for the dads.
We went back to the apartment to see in Christmas day from the balcony and wonder if Santa really would arrive for us the next day.
Guess what? he did !! good old Santa.

Christmas dinner at Tangalooma was interesting, the starters was a sea food platter, very nice if oysters mussels and King prawns are for you , unfortunately we have never been big sea food eaters here so we left most of it, but not without sampling some oyster first, it was interesting but not really for me, we did however tuck in quite nicely to the beef pork and turkey main course which was delicious. It was very strange to eat christmas lunch in hot surroundings. The food was good and we enjoyed our first Christmas away from home ever.
7:00pm was the time for the first Dolphin feed, My daughter and I had the first opportunity and we walked down into the sea at around 7:30 and fed Echo the dolphin, this fish is apparently only 10% of their food requirements for the day. I reckon they had a real Christmas feast that night as there were about 200+ people feeding them.
Day 3
Boxing day, today we hired a motor boat, not those big huge things that churn up the water, but a small 50cc O/B motor metal can.
It was really nice to go up and down the coast.
We had a confrontation with a turtle who decided it better to swim away from us than stay.
This evening was the turn of my wife and son to feed the Dolphins, there were less people there tonight and the Dolphins showed up on cue for their evening supplement.
Echo was fed too tonight.

I took time out to watch some cricket on the TV in the bar and India were having a good go at Australia, much to the annoyance of the aussies, as a neutral I enjoyed this game.

Day 4
We will leave Tangalooma for Sydney on the 4pm ferry crossing and plan to get the flight with Qantas at 8:10.
We spent the day chilling out by the pool and in the sea and we have a lovely time on Tangalooma.
The ferry was about 90 mins and the flight arrived at sydney on time.

On to Sydney.