MY TRIP

THIS TRIP WAS JUST WONDERFUL - TREMENDOUS - REALLY GREAT

Well I'm back from my trip to Melbourne for the weekend.

Melbourne's a great city which I've admired for many years first going there in 1970 at the end of secondary school where I spent three glorious weeks. I was staying with my older sister who moved to Straya in about 1968 and has never been back to NZ. Melbourne in that summer of 1970/71 was exciting for an 18 year old with the music, drama, film, political activity and the remnants of the free-love hippie era still abounding overwhelming me.

COME BACK GAIN

My sister played in a band and lived in a big communal-type house that was pretty eye-opening for a catholic educated St Pat's secondary school boy I can tell you. What I've discovered over the years and the many times I've revisited Melbourne is that the city still retains the bohemian, art-culture identity in the way that in New Zealand, Wellington does.

Flinders railway station

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I FLEW IN THE BIGGEST PLANE - THE BIGGEST EVER

NO, NOT THIS ONE

.

THIS ONE - AIR NEW ZEALAND's DREAMLINER

I had the best seat ever. I chose 35H as it has no seat in front of it and has excellent legroom (see star in diagram).

As a retired worker I didn't have the privileges afforded to ex schoolteachers who seem to be able to fly Premium Economy and so I flew Economy - steerage in old school vernacular. By choosing seat 35H though I got that all important legroom.

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TREMENDOUS PEOPLE THE AUSTRALIANS - TREMENDOUS. I GOT ON REALLY WELL WITH THEM. THEY LIKED ME

The Old Girl and I had a great time dining out on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings finding some excellent restaurants and wine bars. We were staying in the central city near Chinatown and it was an easy walk to wherever we wanted to go. Melbourne central city is laid out on an easy to follow grid plan which, if you've memorised the names of a few major streets means it's almost impossible to get lost.....


..... I did get lost on Friday afternoon though and had to ask for directions. When I pulled a map out of my pocket while standing at the intersection of Elizabeth street and Bourke Street I somehow unknowingly pulled out the hotel keycard that The Old Girl had given me and it fell on the ground.
It was in a cover printed with the hotel name (Mantra on Russell) that the hotel staff had written the room number on for me. I discovered the loss when I got to the hotel and guessed at how I'd lost it. I quickly returned to the intersection which was about a 15 minute walk away and lo .... there it was still lying on the footpath. I was relieved at not having to explain to The Old Girl why our hotel room had been robbed or at least not having to confess to losing the keycard.

On Saturday we went to the Flinders area which is  Melbourne's cultural centre with the galleries, theatres and opera house are located by the river. It's a great walking area with the backdrop of the city's skyscrapers seen beyond the Yarra river.

At the National Gallery of Victoria we went to some free exhibitions including the excellent Lisa Reihana installation which we had missed when it was at the Auckland museum because we were living overseas. This is a very special work, see:

IN PURSUIT OF VENUS

On Sunday we re-visited the National Gallery of Victoria to go to the MOMA exhibition.

What's not to like about seeing an encapsulated history of modern art? Fantastic! The best!

I particularly like this record cover art of a Clash poster from 1979:

The message is prescient as it made me think of that goof Trump and his current behaviour.

Of course looking at art is a valid way of looking at naked women without being called a voyeur:

NOT LIKE THIS!

LIKE THIS.

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SHOPPING - TREMENDOUS SHOPS - THE BEST

Walking around on city streets is hard on the feet though .......

........ So I bought a pair of comfortable shoes. Puma running shoes. Blue ones (not suede):

We lounged around the hotel a bit as well. The Old Girl is staying in Melbourne for a month on a work project so she had a really comfortable and well-appointed hotel room. It's a bonus when travelling to have somewhere nice to 'veg-out' in between activities.

I was able to watch the live final of the 2018 World Cup on Monday morning. What a great game - the best!

This hotel room had a rather strange and scary lamp in the lounge which would have been well suited to the National Gallery of Victoria.

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On Monday The Old Girl went to work and I filled in time before going to the airport in the afternoon. One of the places I went to was the Old Melbourne Gaol where Ned Kelly was imprisoned and hanged.

It's a great tour in a very sad place. I was able to go in to the cell where they had Ned - the one where the photo below was taken:

NED KELLY

The hanging platform on the second floor is still there and looks just like this painting:

I didn't feel all that sad for Kelly though as some misguided people do. He and his gang were murderers and terrorised the Victorian area for years. My great -great - great aunt was one of the hostages at Glenrowan who were held by Kelly and his gang.

I looked at the list of people hanged in the gaol from 1842 to 1967, see:

and was surprised at the absence of Prowses!

In 1860 there was a John McDonald hanged for murder though. I think that he is a distant relative of mine. The McDonalds settled in Victoria and a lot of them farmed at Tullamarine - the land subsequently sold to build Melbourne Airport.

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In all I met a lot of absolutely terrific Australians who were all thrilled when I left.