Friday. Ben had taken the day off work, and we decided to take the train in to Melbourne (about a 15 minute journey) and visit the Melbourne Museum. The Boards have a family membership, so they’re able to go any time, and for good reason, because the Melbourne Museum has one of the best kids’… Continue reading Oz Report – Part 11 – Melbourne Day 1

Thursday. A week since we’d arrived in Oz. We awoke at 6, give or take, and I pulled on some clothes and rushed out and across the road to get some pictures of the dawn. I’m not sure that my 360 panoramic effort is going to turn out, but dawn over the marina was pretty… Continue reading Oz Report – Part 10 – Melbourne At Last

Wednesday. We left Narooma at about 9, planning to stop in Eden (the last town before a long stretch of driving) for lunch. We had our usual (by now) hot chocolate and other brunchy things in Eden, which was a nice little town with a wide high street where cars parked in a central divide.… Continue reading Oz Report – Part 9 – Lakes Entrance

Tuesday. Today was our one day in Narooma before heading south again. Originally we were going to Montague Island – a four hour tour to see seals and other wildlife – but owing to the expense and under-subscription of the tour and the fact that we were too early for whale-watching season, we decided to… Continue reading Oz Report – Part 8 – Narooma and Tilba

I’m now back at home. Some pictures (more to come) are up in a flickr collection. I’m inlining some of the good ones. Monday. We picked up our hire car – a Ford Falcon XR6 – in the morning, from the Budget place down the road from the hotel. Hire car tip: picking up a… Continue reading Oz Report – Part 7 – Narooma via Shellharbour

Sunday. We had a relatively easy day planned; a visit to the Australian Museum in the morning followed by meeting our friends Dean & Lisa in the afternoon and mooching around a bit. The Australian Museum was pretty good: the fossils and meteorites were interesting, and they have a hall of skeletons which mini-Elbeno enjoyed.… Continue reading Oz Report – Part 6 – Last Day in Sydney

Saturday. We got up early again and went down to the ferry wharves. Today was our harbour cruise day! We bought a combo ticket for the harbour cruise and Taronga Zoo, and had breakfast at Rossini right on the wharf. Two jam doughnuts as big as our heads, half a pig’s worth of bacon, enough… Continue reading Oz Report – Part 5 – Harbour Tour and Taronga Zoo

I’m blogging this from Melbourne as we are staying with our friends the Boards (see the Ben-n-Em link on the blogroll). Friday. We got up early and headed over to Henry Deane Plaza to have breakfast at Henry Henry, a nightspot and cafe/bar there. Mini-Elbeno managed to fall over and although it didn’t seem like… Continue reading Oz Report – Part 4 – Sydney Aquarium

The first day: After 14 hours, the sun caught up with us and we landed in Sydney a few minutes before sunrise. A SE wind meant a NW approach for our 747-400, which afforded us a lovely pre-dawn view of the downtown area. Arriving at the hotel at about 7.30am, we went straight in to… Continue reading Oz Report – Part 3 – Sydney Day 1

The flight: Mini-Elbeno: a gem. Sleeping, smiling, watching Bananas in Pyjamas on the in-flight entertainment system. Food: mediocre, where it was edible at all. As expected. Entertainment: Borat – hilarious. Sunshine – reasonable “hard science” content. Enjoyable. The Chaser’s War on Everything – an Aussie comedy sketch show I got by mistake while trying to… Continue reading Oz Report – Part 2 – The Flight