Day 10 – Australia/New Zealand Adventure – Melbourne

(Sunday, March 16, 2025) by Ann Silverthorn with Jim DeDad

We were grateful for an easy day, waking at six, enjoying another awesome breakfast, and meeting the bus at eight for our 9:40 a.m. flight out of Ayers Rock Airport (also known as Connellan Airport). 

The flight to Melbourne was around three hours. I may have mentioned, once or twice, that on all of the interior flights to our vacation, Jim and I sat apart because the seating for our group was arranged alphabetically, and mine always turned out to be the middle seat. On this flight, though, Jim scored a window seat in row 25, and because the window seat remained open in my row, I scooted over. I was in row 23, so that’s about the closest we had been thus far, because his surname is near the beginning of the alphabet and mine is toward the end. 

We flew the budget JetStar airline, which were were cautioned had no frills, but our group got $15 vouchers each. I was full from breakfast, and I couldn’t eat another bite, so instead, I bought three multifunction pens from the inflight menu. I thought they’d be three different colors, but they write in black ink, can be a stylus, and also a bottle opener! One, two three. 

The flight went quickly as I worked on my blog drafts and afterward, listened to the YouTube recordings I had downloaded of our Spring 2025 season for the chorus I belong to. I had also scanned my music, into the forScore  app, so I was able to listen to other choirs sing these songs AND follow along with my music.

Soon, we touched down, and whole different world greeted us in Melbourne. Rain and 61 degrees! Brrr! Well, that hat would come in handy now!

Our accommodations for the next two nights were at the Crowne Promenade, which sits on the Yarra River and is one of the nicer hotels we stayed in on this trip. The Promenade is one of several hotels in the Crown Melbourne  complex, which also includes a casino, restaurants, and high-end shopping. During the two-day stay, we did lots of exploring, not only in the city, but in the Crown complex itself.

We hung out in our room and relaxed after checking into the hotel. I did some laundry (underwear, etc.), and we would send some out the next day. At 6:00 p.m. we went downstairs to meet our group for dinner. We all snaked through the complex, up and down escalators, until we arrived at an Italian restaurant. We enjoyed talking with our fellow travelers, so much that none of us realized how long it was taking to get our meals! By the time we did, we were all a bit hangry. We finally did receive our food and it wasn’t quite up to par, but we did enjoy the company.

Here are some fun facts, some supplied by Cam as we toured the city on our bus before checking into the hotel.

• Kangaroos were spotted in the distance on the way to the city from the  airport. They looked like brown dots to me, so I cannot verify this.
• Melbourne is split by the tidal river, Yarra.
• Melbourne is the biggest container port in the world. 
• The Australian Grand Prix was finishing up as we arrived. 
• Melbourne is in constant competition with Sydney.
• Melbourne has trams rather than Sydney’s ferries. You can ride the trams for free within a portion of the city. The free City Circle Tram 35 takes a big rectangle around the city. 
• The city of Pittsburgh, PA, was used as a model for Melbourne’s design. 
• MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground), which seats 100,000, served as the main stadium for the 1956 Olympics. 
• Rod Laver Arena was the first tennis venue in the world. Originally called the National Tennis Centre at Flinders Park, it was renamed for Rod Laver, the #1 professional tennis player in the 1960s . Evonne Gullagong, the #1 ranking woman’s singles player in the 1970s and 1980s, was born into an Aboriginal family in Australia.

Tomorrow, the Shrine of Remembrance, a war memorial, which was particularly interesting to me having done a fair amount of research on both world wars. 

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