Day 13

Day 13 started where day 12 left off. We finally made our way to the airport at midnight, to find that checkout didnt open until 1:00 (when they had told us that it was to open at 12:30). Boarding was suppose to start at 2:30, but come 3:00 we were still waiting to be called. We finally got off the ground just after 3:00 in the morning, 15 hours after our initial departure time.

                                                     

The flight and the morning back in Melbourne were spent catching up on sleep. We headed out in the afternoon to Southland mall to pick up some goodies for Andy's birthday party. 

The weather in Melbourne has been shaping up quite nicely. The mornings and nights are cool, but the days when the sun is shining it is a gorgeous day. With that we spent part of the afternoon kicking the footy around. 

For Andy's birthday we went over to a friends house for dinner and a table tennis tournament. It was good fun seeing some of Andy's friends that I had met before and being introduced to others. My table tennis skills were quite below par, but birthday boy made up for it as the winner of the men's tournament.

I can't believe how quickly the time has flown by, only two more days before saying goodbye to Aus once again :( 

Day 12

If you thought yesterday was a terror of a day, today definitely rivalled it! We got up and got packed, before going out for breakfast at the hotel. The day was quite a cracker with the sun shining bright and not a could in the sky. We went for one final walk down the esplanade. Andy ended up going for a swim in the lagoon pool to cool off before heading home. 

We arrived at the airport and boarded the plane, as per any usual airport experience. As we were taxing down the runway the plane suddenly turned around and headed back to the gate. The pilot announced that there was a pressurization problem and it would be another 15 minutes before we would know more. Everyone sat patiently awaiting to hear what would come next. About 20 minutes later we get the news that were going to have to disembark the plane, this is when murmurs of complaint started to come from the crowd. Another 2.5 hours waiting in the airport, the voice over the loudspeaker announced that our flight had been rescheduled for 2AM tomorrow morning. So we then had to plan how to kill 11 hours! 

We made our way back into the city and our hotel was nice enough to let us drop our bags off. We spent the next few hours exploring the casino, walking along the esplanade, enjoying dinner and getting some final massages at the night market.

Day 11

Today was our last full day in Cairns and we spent it doing what I was most excited for in Cairns, diving the Great Barrier Reef! 

We got at what felt like the peak of dawn to head down to the boat. We managed to catch the beautiful sunrise on the way down. 

There were probably about 40 people on the boat, a mixture of young and old. The ride out to the reef took 2 hours from the dock. About 30 minutes in, my biggest fear happened... I started to feel sick. I went to sit at the back of the boat when all hell broke lose and I said goodbye to my breakfast. It was pretty much all downhill from there as Andy got sick and nothing seemed to help my heaving. Needless to say, the boat ride was no fun at all. 

We finally reached the reef and I hoped once we were anchored I'd begin to feel better. Unfortunately that hope was just that, a hope. The nassau refused to go away. All the crew members told me that if I got in the water it would make me feel better. So I timidly got dressed in all the gear and hopped in the water. After about 15 minutes of swimming and snorkelling around, the feelings were still not gone away and that's when I called it quits and back on the boat I went. I then proceeded to fall asleep and woke up around the time the second dive was supposed to take place. There was no way I was strapping on any scuba equipment right now, but I did go sit on the edge of the boat with my feet in the water which helped me feel a bit better. 

Soon after it was time for the 2 hour journey back to the mainland. Surprisingly this was the best part of the trip. I actually started to perk up and the feelings of sickness I had, had for the last 6 hours were fading. Of course that's how things happen! 

Finally my feet were planted firmly back on land. I think Andy and I had a sense of relief that we had made it through the day. What started off as being the day I was most looking forward to ended up being one of the worst unfortunately. 

We spent our last evening enjoying a meal out and exploring the night market for one final time. 

Tomorrow we fly back out to Melbourne!

Day 10

Day 10 was another early one, as we got picked up from our hotel to make our way up to the Daintree Rainforest.

The first stop on the tour was a croc tour along the Daintree River. Although it was quite a disappointment only seeing 1 croc.
Can you spot him?

After the croc disappointment, we went for a hike through the rainforest to learn about the plants and animals of the famous area. 

Before lunch we stopped at a beautiful beach called Four Mile Beach. It was secluded and felt like a little private piece of heaven. 

Lunch was at a cute little hostel in the middle of the rainforest, followed by a stop at a local ice cream shop. This wasn`t your usual ice cream though, it was ice cream made from local fruits grown on the property. So flavours were a little odd, but it was a nice midday treat. 

It was a long drive back to Port Douglas where we made our final stop at Mosman Gorge. The gorge is an aboriginal heritage site where we learned about the aboriginal traditions and Andy even went for a swim in the gorge. 

 We finished off the day driving back to Cairns. When back we had dinner at the Cairns night market and came across one of the best finds of the trip: Chinese massages. Cheap and relaxing :)

Day 9

Today we woke up early to enjoy breakfast on the esplanade. The sun finally decided to shine bright!

We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon walking around the city and exploring the different shops, along with the lagoon pool that lies right in the city centre overlooking the water.

Cairns doesn`t have a beach, so the pool makes up for it! 

Later on we rented a car and drove up the coast to a resort town called Port Douglas. The drive along the costal road looked right over the ocean, along all the twists and turns. 

After walking along the main drag and enjoying dinner in Port Douglas, we went to a rather unusual evening of entertainment... Cane Toad racing.

I was the score keeper and Andy a toad jockey where he used birthday noise makers to get the toad to hop off the table into his hand.

It was definetley and interesting one of a kind experience.

Day 8

Today we boarded an early morning flight to Cairns. Cairns is in north Australia and about a 3 hour flight away from Melbourne. 

When we arrived the weather was a lot warmer than Melbourne, but still a bit overcast. 

After checking into the hotel, we took a little wander around the city and stopped at the local shopping mall. The esplanade is the "main drag" that overlooks the ocean, and has a ton of shops, resteraunts and tourist information centres. 

After an afternoon of watching footy, we went for dinner on the esplanade at a nice Italian resteraunt. Following dinner we checked out the famous Cairns night market. The market contains all sorts of souvenir stalls, which were fun to look around at. Following the night market we checked out the Cairns casino. It is a smaller casino, but we enjoyed looking around and losing and few dollars on some bets. 

After a long day of travel, it was early to bed to get set to enjoy our next day in a tropical Australian paradise.

                                      

                         

Day 7

Today we were all a little tired after the busy day of the wedding yesterday. So the morning was pretty chill. The weather was really nice today so we went out for a kick of the footy. Somehow I think my skills have regressed since being here, sadly. Andy was a good little coach giving me pointers. 

Tonight we headed to the docklands to the Ice House to watch the Melbourne Mustangs hockey team take on the Newcastle North Stars. The hockey was actually of quite good quality coming from Australia. The Mustangs lost but it was a great atmosphere and good to see hockey all the way on the other side of the world! 

After the footy we jumped on the tram down to Richmond to the MCG just in time for the footy game where Collingwood was taking on Geelong. Although neither is really my team, I have a fairly big distain for Collngwood, so i was barracking for Geelong tonight. The footy is a great atmosphere especially during a close game. Unfortunately Collingwood won by a single goal, but it was a great match to watch live!  

Day 6

Today was a very special day of the trip was Andy's brother was getting married. The day started off visiting the hairdressers, who is one of Andy's friends that I met on my last visit here. After suiting up in our best attire we headed to the Amora hotel in Richmond to have photos with the bride, groom and family. 

Then it was off to the church in Toorak for the ceremony. Andy's nieces were the flower girls and were all so cute dressed in their mini wedding gowns. 

Between the ceremony and reception we ventured off with one of Andy's nieces, Jasmine, for a special treat of McDonalds. It was funny being all dressed up and eating at laid back McDonald's.

The reception was at a beautiful venue on the Yarra River called Leonda. After cocktails and a beautiful dinner we danced the night away to a band. The best were Andy's two littlest nieces who came out of their usually shy shells and danced to their little hearts content. 

The whole wedding was very beautiful and a lot of fun. 

Day 5

Today was what Andy deemed our "shopping day", but by day he meant an hour and he'd had enough, lol. I do have to hand it to him he was a pretty good sport as we visited both the Direct Factory Outlet mall and the local mall called Southland. 

After shopping we picked up Andy's niece Jasmine from school and took her to basketball practice. 

The rest of the even was quite laid back as we have a very special today tomorrow... 

Day 4

Another day in one of the most fabulous cities I know!

I started the day off by wondering around the suburb of Richmond. I ended up along Bridge Road browsing in some of the shops. 

I then look the tram into the city centre where I enjoyed a 'traditional' Aussie lunch, of pie. Now when I say pie I don't mean the apple one your mom used to make. I mean the hearty steak and meat pie that Aussies are well known for.

 After that I stopped in at one of my favourite cafe a Brunetti in the Melbourne city centre. 

The Australian centre for moving image is a building I had passed by several times, but had never given any thought to going in. There had been signs around the city for a Hollywood costume exhibit that was on, so I decided to go into that. They had costumes from some of the most famous movies including gone with the wind, breakfast at Tiffany's and batman; and the exhibit explained some of the stories behind them and how the costume came to be. It was quite interesting! 

My final city stop was Melbourne Central, a large shopping centre in the middle of the city. I didn't do much shopping but it is nice to look in some of the shops to see what the trends are here. 

I took the train back to Andy's place where we packed up the car for a mini road trip. We drove down the coast to Rye where we visited the peninsula hot springs. I have been a few times before, but like it so much that it never hurts to go again. The hot springs are a variety of different pools, saunas and other water sources that you relax in. It was nice going at night, as you got to gaze up at the stars while bathing. A late night drive home concluded day four! 

Day 3

Finally get used to the time here, as I actually woke at a normal time. We spent the morning watching the leafs game 7, which I was surprised to find on here. 

After getting over the sorrows we headed to the southland mall for midday massages and shopping. 

We then headed into the city for the evening. We started off exploring the crown casino, which is more than a casino but a giant entertainment complex with shops and resteraunts galor. After each losing $20 on roulette we walked along south bank into the city to a Chinese resteraunt. The resteraunt was cool in that you did all your ordering from a touch screen at the table. 

After dinner we headed back to crown and had a friendly game of bowling, although Andy will quite proudly tell you who won. That concluded day 3! 

Day 2

Andy and I both said today how it feels like I've been here for ages, but yet it's only day 2! 

Jetlag still remains a bit of a setback as I was up at 4:30 this morning, but that meant an early start to the day. After watching the F1 Spanish GP on TV I headed into the city, as Andy was off to work. The city is exactly how I remember, always bustling and busy. And I surprised myself in that I can still navigate around like a local no problem. 

We were joking today about how I'm a hybrid between a tourist and a local, as I know my way around well enough but aren't afraid to go pick up the brochures about what's going on. Anyhow... 

I walked around the city looking in a few shops. I made my way down Swanson, then down Bourke and Collins looking in a few shops. I then met Andy in Camberwell for lunch on a cue little street called Mailing Road. They've preserved the street so all the store fronts are still how they looked 30-40 years ago. 

After lunch and a gym workout we headed to a local pub where I still claim has the best parmas of all the ones I've tried in Australia! Then it was off to the footy to watch Carlton take on St Kilda. When purchasing our tickets the sales women mentioned that they still had some tickets left in the cheer section. I couldn't refuse this offer, as this has been on my dream list since attending my first footy game. 

Now for those of you who don't watch footy, the cheer squad is a large section of people who sit behind the goals and wave banners and Pompoms to show both encouragement and distract the other team. These people are diehards who attend every game! 

Every 5 or so minutes the man we deemed the "cheer master" would begin a cheer. Carlton was down pretty early but had a comeback fourth quarter to lose by only 2 goals. What a great experience for my first game back in Aus. 

That concluded an action packed day two! 

Return to my second home

You'll have to forgive me for some of the sleeping errors and typos as I feel a bit in a delusional state at the moment due to lack of sleep. 

The trip down actually went a lot better than expected, that was after spending 30 minutes navigating my way out of the Toronto airport parking and sorting out the weight of my luggage. The first flight to LA, I was surprised and overjoyed to have both seats next to me open, which made for the perfect 5 hour long sleep the whole way. I really thought my luck for the day ended there, but my praying as the last few people boarded the quantas flight to Melbourne must have really worked as I had two seats all to myself on the long haul flight. 

After dinner and getting half way through Les Miserables I passed out, no drugs required. It was tossing and turning, as happens with most flight sleeps, for the next few hours before killing the rest of the time with multiple movies. Before I knew it we were touching down in Melbourne 45 minutes ahead of schedule. 

Despite all of my worst boarder security fears, customs and collecting baggage was a breeze. Because my flight was so early, there was a little bit of waiting for Andy to pick me up, but I don't hold it against him. 

After a shower and some unpacking, we went to one of my old favourite breakfast spots Brighton Baths. We even got a spot on the deck overlooking the city. The fall weather here in Melbourne has surpassed expectations for the locals, but unfortunately there are talks that is going to cool down in the next few days... just in time for my arrival of course. 

After a quick stop at the mall we visited with Andy's family who all enjoyed their Canadian treats. 

I'm now at Andy's basketball game trying to keep my eyes open, mostly for the sake that I don't get a stray ball to the face. It will definitely be early to bed tonight, to try and throw off this jetlag. 

Our most exciting plan for tomorrow is to watch my favorite team take victory (fingers crossed) as Carlton play ST Kilda in round 8. 

It feels weird being back, as in many ways it is like I never left. I remember my way around and all my favourite spots. All the people, places and things. Even the accents seem routinely familiar. I think it just verifies that Melbourne will always remain in my heart as my second home.