6^th December (Tuesday) – Lake Entrance

The day started out with drizzle but we had booked a 10am tee-off-time at the local golf course so headed off with some wet weather gear – not what I was expecting from an Australian summer. The drizzle was hardly an issue and soon cleared up but the biggest issue was the number of flies. At times we probably had 30-50 on our backs. As one swung back in the swing plane the flies would go airborne resulting in having to hit through a swarm of flies. Next time we will try the hat nets that we were loaned for Uluru.

Flies flourish in Lake Entrance

On our trip we spotted a couple of rainbow lorikeets, a pelican, a kookaburra plus a couple of black swans and goslings.  The latter I mistakenly used as a target when trying to decide the angle to clear a lake!

Sheila strikes out on a par 3

After a beer and a pack of crisps to recover we headed off up towards the snowy mountains. The terrain quickly changes from the planes around the lakes to rolling hills.  By the time we got back the sky had cleared up.

Lake Entrance in the evening sun

Footnote, we spotted a nice little story in one of the local papers:

“A British receptionist thought a couple of ornamental reindeer would be a suitable addition to her Office’s festive decorations. But after an order mix-up that may go down in history, Prancer and Dancer - a couple of live, fully grown reindeer – were delivered. The pair were kept in the office bike shed until they could be picked up.”

5^th December 2016 - Melbourne to Lake Entrance

We had breakfast, packed our bags and said good bye to my two cousins and Brendon and then headed north east towards Lakes Entrance where we would spend the following evening. The land we saw was largely farm land with cattle and cereal crops and extending as far as the eyes could see. This was the first leg of our journey up to Hope Island just south of Brisbane to meet up with my Australian cousins, Helen and Carole, their partners and my uncle.

Full planned journey from Melbourne to Hope Island

Malvern, Melbourne to Lakes Entrance

On route we stopped at “Stratford on Avon”, the UK version of which is where Sheila was born. There are apparently four in the World, one other in Canada – no idea where the fourth one is located. The Victoria version of Stratford on Avon prospered in the 1860s as a supply centre of diggers at the Omeo and Dargo gold fields.

Australia's Stratford upon Avon

The local Avon Hotel had a great sign outside.

Husband Creche

Lakes Entrance is in Gippsland Lakes and apparently Australia’s largest and most beautiful inland waterways of marshes and lagoons covering 600 sq kms. Lakes Entrance is on the Tasman Sea and has a fleet of over 100 fishing vessels.

Some of Lakes Entrance Fishing Fleet

We decided that we had better have fish for an evening meal so took advice and purchased fish and chips from Reggie’s Slipway.  Sheila had Blue Grenadier and I tried flathead tails, neither of which we have had before – I think Sheila got the best deal.

4^th December (Sunday)

After a leisurely start Sheila and I headed off to the beach and walked between Brighton and Elwood, originally with the intent of walking all the way down to St Kilda. However, there were lots of flies buzzing around, which significantly reduced the pleasure of the excursion and the distance we were prepared to walk. This sea front onto Melbourne’s Port Philip Bay has some very attractive million dollar properties and draws the crowds on a warm day, so with a temperature of 23C+ the beach was crowded in parts with a lot of action on the sand and in the water. 

Multi-million dollar pad along Brighton 

There were at least three dingy races taking place and one being filmed with a drone, plus kite surfers and jet bikes bombing around. One part of the beach is dedicated to dogs and their owners and this we have never seen before.

Hi-tech kite board

Sheila on Brighton Beach

In the evening we met up with Amanda Sinden in Richmond only 5 stops down on the train from Malvern were my cousin lives. We had an excellent meal in the “Feast of Merit” restaurant.  It seems to be trend these days to order courses that are shared and this was one such restaurant that encourages this approach, as was a Spanish restaurant called “Remy Bar de Tapas y Vino" that we had eaten at on Saturday evening with my cousins..

Meeting up with Amanda in Richmond restaurant

3^rd December (Saturday)

We had a slow start the morning after the Allan Soirée and eventually headed off to explorer the Victorian mansion of Rippon Lea a few miles away from my cousin’s house. This was a National Trust property so Sheila was able to get free access since she is a volunteer for the English National Trust.  

Sheila & Mike's new pad in Melbourne!

The gang at Rippon Lea House

2^nd Dec (Friday)

Sheila and I took a trip down into the heart of Melbourne with the intent of checking out the cottage of Charles Joseph La Trobe, whose drawings of Ightham Mote, near Sevenoaks have recently been exhibited there.  Sheila acts as a National Trust volunteer at Ightham Mote and Charles La Trobe rented Ightham Mote for a year in the 1860’s when he returned to England from Australia.  La Trobe travelled extensively and sketched as a record of his journeys.  He was appointed in 1839 superintendent of the Port Phillip District of New South Wales and, after the establishment in 1851 of the colony of Victoria (now a state of Australia), he became its first lieutenant-governor.

La Trobe's Cottage

La Trobe’s cottage is very close to the Botanical Gardens in Melbourne and at first we thought that the cottage was in the Gardens but this turned out not to be the case.  Nevertheless, we explored the Gardens after taking a look at the cottage.  The cottage had original been located in Jolimont but had been transported to the current location many years later.

Sheila enjoying a snack in the Botanical Gardens 

In the evening my cousin and her husband were holding a pre-Christmas soirée so we headed back to help with the final touches and get changed. The soirée was a great success.

Frances & Hazel find time to smile during soirée preparations

 1^st Dec. (Thursday)

We had a relatively slow start Thursday morning. We were planning on playing golf with my cousin, Hazel, and her husband, Brendon, at the Sandringham Golf Course just opposite the Royal Melbourne Golf Course Club. The conditions were good and all enjoyed the round.

Sheila & Hazel out on the golf course

After an evening BBQ and a few glasses of wine we played a few hands of Bridge. Only three of us were Bridge players but my NZ cousin, Frances, offered to be the intelligent “dummy”.  Frances had travelled over from the NZ north island for a few days holiday and it didn’t take her long, with Brendon’s excellent teaching skills, to get into the game. Hazel could see a strong similarity with “Five Hundred”, which she has played, and is a trick-taking game that is an extension of Euchre with some ideas from Bridge. 

Pre-BBQ drinks

30^th November (Wednesday)

We had a morning flight to catch out of Ayers Rock on our way to Alice Springs and then onto Melbourne to stay with my cousin.  Ayers Rock is a very small airport and has a crazy arrangement in that the café doesn’t open until 9:30am even though the place was full of passengers well before 9am waiting to catch the 9:50am plane to Alice Springs.

For the second time we were commandeered by Qantas staff to handle the emergency door on the flight. One odd thing is that they insist on presenting the emergency life jacket drill even though there is no ocean within a few thousand miles or any significant billabongs.

From the air the land looks greener than one might imagine, with a few dried up river beds, but also in places signs of water and what look like salt beds showing that at some stage in its history it had all been covered by sea water.

Vicinity of Ayers Rock from the air

The flight out of Alice Springs into Melbourne was late and by the time we arrived in Melbourne we were an hour behind schedule. Normally this wouldn’t have mattered too much but we were planning on meet up with my Australian/NZ cousins at a restaurant ahead of seeing the “Kinky Boots Musical” at Her Majesty’s Theatre at 7:30pm.

We picked up a hire car and headed into the Melbourne traffic, which was building up as people left work. Fortunately my cousin’s husband had booked us a place at a car park near the restaurant, which saved some valuable time. We eventually arrived at the restaurant at 6:20pm resulting in a fairly swiftly eaten meal.

Mike & the girls gather before the show

The show, based on a true story, in which a drag queen saves a struggling shoe factory with a line of footwear that resembles “two and a half feet of tubular, irresistible sex’’ is brilliant and well worth watching. Sheila and I had previously seen it on film in the UK but nevertheless enjoyed every minute of the musical with its very punchy performance.