We came into Australia later than intended. Because of the rough conditions in days prior, El Capitan decided we should take our time crossing the Tasman, thus fouling up a lot of shore excursions and plans in general. Safety by damned, I say, but that’s why I’m not Captain. We had an excursion booked for the morning, but it got bumped to the afternoon, so after disembarking we took a tram into downtown Melbourne.
Unlike the thwarted expectations when landing in Auckland, Melbourne looked and felt like it should: it looked like the place we’d crossed half the world to reach. And I struggle with why it felt right in a way that New Zealand didn’t. Where Auckland, Wellington, and
Christchurch seemed as though entire buildings had been shipped directly from the UK, Melbourne had a more distinct style—like they’d started with the same source material but improvised upon it. Our visit into the city itself was brief, just a few hours. We had time to wander the wide streets, browse through a bookstore or two, buy a tie and a bottle of wine, and then we had to tram it back to the ship.
After dropping off our purchases, we met up with Tammy (from our dinner table group), and caught the bus for our afternoon excursion to Healesville Sanctuary. Terrible start. On the ride over, the guide treated us to about twenty minutes of feedback. “You’ll notice on theEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE… on the riEEEEEOOOOONE… the right side of the SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE… I’m sorry, you might not have noticed, but it seems I’m getting a little bit of feedEEERRREEEEEEE…” Literally twenty minutes later, she switched to the “old mic”—which of course worked perfectly fine.
Healesvilles had all manner of wildlife, which I truly expected to be one hundred feet away from any visitor walkway, but we got remarkably close to everything. We started with koalas, and the first one was right above our heads. They don’t do much, the little stoners, but they’re exceptionally cute. It was over to the kangaroos next, and while these guys weren’t right alongside, they were only a short ways away from us at the other end of a pen. While relaxing, kangaroos often lay on their sides, propping themselves up on one elbow, just like your favourite teen idols did in Tiger Beat centerfolds. This might be common knowledge to everyone else, but it was news to me. Hee-larious new
s. We also saw dingos, which are just about the cutest looking puppies ever and not at all the baby-eating monsters I was led to believe. Following this, we stopped by a Platypussary to check out some platypi (and for the record, “platypussary” makes a nice substitute for the word “tomfoolery”), then we saw various uber-deadly snakes in the reptile room, and ran back to the bus again. Our whole stay in Melbourne was too short by far, but was still one of the highlights of the trip. We’d go back in a heartbeat.
(Only mildly related: throughout that day, we witnessed no less then ten instances where Americans were shocked, appalled, and bewildered that Aussie merchants didn’t accept US dollars. “You don’t take American?!? But… but… we don’t have any Australian money!” Arms were tossed into the air, pearls were clutched. It was quite the spectacle.)
Unlike the thwarted expectations when landing in Auckland, Melbourne looked and felt like it should: it looked like the place we’d crossed half the world to reach. And I struggle with why it felt right in a way that New Zealand didn’t. Where Auckland, Wellington, and
Christchurch seemed as though entire buildings had been shipped directly from the UK, Melbourne had a more distinct style—like they’d started with the same source material but improvised upon it. Our visit into the city itself was brief, just a few hours. We had time to wander the wide streets, browse through a bookstore or two, buy a tie and a bottle of wine, and then we had to tram it back to the ship.After dropping off our purchases, we met up with Tammy (from our dinner table group), and caught the bus for our afternoon excursion to Healesville Sanctuary. Terrible start. On the ride over, the guide treated us to about twenty minutes of feedback. “You’ll notice on theEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE… on the riEEEEEOOOOONE… the right side of the SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE… I’m sorry, you might not have noticed, but it seems I’m getting a little bit of feedEEERRREEEEEEE…” Literally twenty minutes later, she switched to the “old mic”—which of course worked perfectly fine.
Healesvilles had all manner of wildlife, which I truly expected to be one hundred feet away from any visitor walkway, but we got remarkably close to everything. We started with koalas, and the first one was right above our heads. They don’t do much, the little stoners, but they’re exceptionally cute. It was over to the kangaroos next, and while these guys weren’t right alongside, they were only a short ways away from us at the other end of a pen. While relaxing, kangaroos often lay on their sides, propping themselves up on one elbow, just like your favourite teen idols did in Tiger Beat centerfolds. This might be common knowledge to everyone else, but it was news to me. Hee-larious new
s. We also saw dingos, which are just about the cutest looking puppies ever and not at all the baby-eating monsters I was led to believe. Following this, we stopped by a Platypussary to check out some platypi (and for the record, “platypussary” makes a nice substitute for the word “tomfoolery”), then we saw various uber-deadly snakes in the reptile room, and ran back to the bus again. Our whole stay in Melbourne was too short by far, but was still one of the highlights of the trip. We’d go back in a heartbeat.(Only mildly related: throughout that day, we witnessed no less then ten instances where Americans were shocked, appalled, and bewildered that Aussie merchants didn’t accept US dollars. “You don’t take American?!? But… but… we don’t have any Australian money!” Arms were tossed into the air, pearls were clutched. It was quite the spectacle.)
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