I know it was on your bucket list and I'm glad you ticked it off. But I think you've found another reason why Aussies travel overseas to ski. The cost of 5 days on mountain skiing would more than cover my costs of flying to the US, my food AND spending money.
But your pictures on Buller look great.
We need to wear the special 3D glasses.
oh wow I love the photos from Mt Buller. I've never been to the snow, as you say it gets rather $$$ quite quickly, but it looks like you had good weather for the day trip! Friends of mine who are ski bunnies leave Melbourne at crazy hours in the morning (think 4am) and return home at 11pm the same night, I'd be exhausted!
Just quietly I think you've experienced more of Australia in your short trip than I have in my entire life!
So glad you enjoyed your day, cause that's a huge effort!
Glad you made it and got to tick something off your bucket list-sometimes hang the expense-its something you have to do. We're more of those who have never skied. Left it too late now, DH knee and back would never stand it. Know plenty of people from here who swear by the ski packages in Japan...the area where they have the cute snow monkeys in the pools too...unless you live in Melbourne/Canberra I think everyone else in Aus goes elsewhere to ski '*** of the expense...and yes, now you know why we all drool over the US food and prices so much! Though I still argue good food for (Ok not as good as US) prices can be found over here -its just not easy to find as a tourist (and that includes Aussie's travelling interstate too)...for example I had a superb Turkish meal Monday night with a group of work mates, generous serves for around $24 a main meal.
The procedure illustrated below is that used in Melbourne, Australia, where cars drive on the left. In a country where cars drive on the left, it is the right-turning cars making the hook turns; in countries where cars drive on the right, it is the left-turning cars making the hook turns. The general procedure is as follows:
1. Approach and enter the intersection from as near as possible to the left. If there is insufficient room to enter the intersection due to other cars waiting to hook-turn then you must wait until the next cycle of the lights.
2. Move forward, keeping clear of any marked foot crossing, until your vehicle is as near as possible to the far side of the road that you are entering.
3. Remain at the position reached under Step 2 until the traffic lights on the road you are entering have changed to green.
4. Turn right into the road and continue straight ahead. Cars on the cross road must give way to hook-turning traffic before commencing through the intersection.
(People have asked us why we didnt go to a show, the only thing playing while we were there wouldve been cool to see the Symphony was playing live in front of a showing of Lord Of the Rings: Return of the King but I dont think DD wouldve tolerated that movie.)
Love the pictures from your Opera House tour! After seeing the iconic building from the outside for so long, I bet it was really interesting to see the inside. I didn't really have an idea of how it should look to begin with, but it still wasn't what I expected, if that makes sense!
That sounds AMAZING!!
It's really cool that you were able to ski while you were there. I don't know, what other continents are good for skiing that you haven't tried yet? (I guess there's a trip to Antarctica somewhere in your future? ) Kinda sucks that they made you pay all that money just to go up there though!
Very cool that you were able to have a DIS meet down under! And very kind of Princess to host you guys for the evening and cook you dinner.
Sorry I was so behind, getting ready for & then going on a Disney trip and coming home to Halloween and work will do that to you!!!
We did some serious souvenir shopping here, it was a great location to get small knick knacks at a very low price. Certainly beat many of the tourist shops! However, I would wonder if a lot of tourists would know about these markets, so it sort of surprised me that there was as much here as there was.
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There is a wonderful network of public transportation in the city in their trolley service.
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Past that is the bridge o
ver the Yarra River @ Swanston Street the main waterway through Melbourne. This is looking Southeast, toward I think is the cricket grounds.
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You CAN actually ski on all 7 continents. The skiing in Africa is very limited, and while Antartica is covered with snow it's not really easy to access, which is why I've always targeted the other 5. Japan would count as Asia (remember they had a winter Olympics there a few years back) and actually South America has some very accesable skiing, particularly Argentina and Chile. http://www.welcomeargentina.com/ski/index_i.html (Remember the Andes are very high mountains and extend all the way down to the bottom of South America.) It's actually been almost 30 years since I skied in Europe though, so I want to get back there when DD is old enough to enjoy it, and before DW is too old to enjoy it.
Yay - glad to see you back. I'm really enjoying this trip report.
The Vic Market is a pretty big tourist attraction - it's in all the guide books and most hotel concierges would recommend it, so it does get a lot of tourist traffic.
We call them trams, not trolleys
Yep, that's the Melbourne Cricket Ground on the left in the background, where we also play footy (also known as Australian Rules Football / Aussie Rules / AFL), soccer, held the 1956 Olympics there, and have big rock concerts there. It seats just over 100,000 people. On the right, the white building you cam just see behind the boat sheds is the tennis centre complex where the Australian Open is played.
That last picture is the Town Hall, not St Paul's
Glad to see that you're up to our DisMeet. Coincidentally, I had one today at the Walt Disney Family Museum at the Presidio in SF with 3 Dis-sers from Sacramento. And your comments about meeting in 3D/real life are spot on.
I'll be back home at the weekend; so I'll post that picture of the two families on your TR when I get back.
Glad you liked "my" market. I go shopping there every fortnight and those prawns/shrimp and the beef dish that I cooked....the ingredients were bought at that market.
The Vic Market is one of the major tourist attractions in Melbourne. Lots of tourists go there.....and even some locals (like me) go there to pick up gifts for overseas friends.
I'm so glad you enjoyed the penguins. I haven't been for years, but always enjoyed it.
I'm sorry about your not-so-good restaurant experiences though.
Nice pictures of the animals and it looks like you got your money's worth heading towards PI; if your intention was to see the animals.
As to the restaurant service....I'll leave the pros and cons of the respective systems alone.
But I am sorry that you consistently struck restaurants that brought out meals at different times. I know it does happen but I also know of quite a few that bring out meals at the same time.
Have to admit, Americans put us to shame when it comes to service! Still, the meals should always come out together, although we would always ask for children's meals to come with the appetisers .
I am ok with tipping, Australians have a hard time understanding that it is not really optional.
That wild animal park looks pretty incredible. I'd love to be able to get up close to those kangaroos! The emus kind of freak me out though, I don't know if I'd be spending a lot of time around them. Looks like DD was enjoying feeding them. Seems right up her alley!
Wow, the Penguin experience sounds AMAZING!!! Being so used to a zoo environment, it is such a rare thing to see animals like that truly in their own element doing what they know and being able to see it. Too bad you couldn't take pictures, but that definitely makes sense why it is prohibited.
Frustrating about the meal service you experienced. Your food should really come out all together unless you had specifically asked for DD's food to come out first (we do this now with DS when we go out to eat, but he's a toddler, so different story). Did your two entrees generally come out at the same time at least? Nothing is worse than one person getting their entree and waiting for the other person to receive theirs.
I feel sort of bad putting down anything in Australia on here, as all my Aussie friends here have been so nice. (And honestly, the Aussie people were nothing but wonderful when we there!) And I really liked the way you do some things there BETTER than we do in America - the money system for example, getting rid of the penny completely, and having $1 and $2 coins, as well as having tax included in all prices instead of adding it on. As I said, I'm sure there are good restaurants with fine service out there, and we did have a little of that, but when "Pancakes On The Rocks" is the only restaurant that I would go back to on a return trip, that doesn't speak well for the experience we had.