Can it be over so soon?

We arrived Melbourne on the first of December and made our home base in the neighborhood of Fitzroy.  Fitzroy is a lot like New York’s East Village 20 years ago.  Great street art, small cafes and bars, tons of vintage shops.  People are wonderfully diverse: the young, old, barefoot, and well-heeled all mix easily. In the small supermarket there are people sporting tattoos head to toe (seriously every visible centimeter) and others dressed in full burka. At the local coffee shop, professionals meet up to sign contracts with counterparties that are often wearing shorts and flip flops but just as often wearing dress shirts. Gentrification is just getting under way are but so far its edgy and vibrant energy is unaffected.

We stayed in a warehouse loft that we found through AirBnB and the owner Kenneth could not have been nicer, or more interesting.  Born in Germany, educated in South Africa, now living in Australia after working in London. He is not only well traveled but he offered a unique perspective on the legacy of Mandela and the current politics in South Africa.  We thoroughly enjoyed his apartment and his company.

Andy spent the first week getting the necessary authorizations to pilot a plane here in Australia – a lengthy process that only he can adequately describe.  The girls caught up on schoolwork (and How I Met Your Mother)  and attended another Bieber concert thanks to Mark, one of Andy’s business colleagues. I passed the week resting my ankle and researching the second half of our RTW journey.  We took a drive to the Yarra Valley to check out the vineyards and an animal sanctuary with the full complement of Australian wildlife – wombats, platypus, kangaroo, wallaby and tassie devils. We also watched a fair amount of The Ashes, a cricket Test (tournament) between England and Australia where apparently the ashes of a wicket are the prize.  Wiki offers up a summary.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ashes

We met up with our friend Stacey from the Milford Track, went to a prohibition era vodka distillery called Naked for Satan with Kenneth, and explored little Italy with Mark.  In fact, I could write an entire blog post about the nice people we’ve met along the way – in Kyoto and Hanoi, Siem Reap and Bangkok, Milford and Melbourne.  (Some of you may be reading along now and if so, please stay in touch!)

Week two we set out to explore the outback, visiting Alice Springs and Uluru (see prior post).

This past week we flew Air Andy to Flinders Island and Tasmania.  At Flinders we had the best farm to table meal – lamb, steak, oysters, fresh veggies – and took a “bushwalk” along the coast with the locals (the wombats and wallabies).  In Tasmania, we went to a very interesting museum (MONA – Museum of Old and  New Art) in Hobart and took an cruise around Tasman Island and Port Arthur where we saw dolphins, seals, gulls and albatross in a feeding frenzy.  (See video at the very bottom to see just some of the action.)

During our final days in Melbourne, we did a little shopping for Rose’s “secret Santa” exchange, went back to favorite restaurants, walked along St. Kilda beach at sunset and watched the fairy penguins come ashore in the evening.  They are impossibly cute and nearly impossible to photograph.

And now week three is ended.  Onward to Bondi (bond-eye) Beach and Sydney where we will close out the year 2013…

We are sure to be in touch once more but just in case, we wish all a very happy, healthy 2014!

Karie

Flinders Island:

Hobart Harbor and MONA

Tasman Island

Life in Melbourne (check out the Instagram links at top of the blog to see more daily life, coffee and street art photos!)

Video of the Feeding Frenzy off of Tasman Island (this is for you Duke!)