Ringing in the New Year Down Under

Happy 2019 to all! It's crazy that another year living abroad has come and gone already. 2018 had some good adventures and some less than stellar parts but, all in all, it was a good year Down Under. The absolute best part about 2018 is the fact that Ross moved to Melbourne from Wellington on December 23rd. He is going to be writing his dissertation from Australia and going back to New Zealand once a month or so to meet with his committee. After 20 months of living in different countries and seeing each other once a month or so, this was the best Christmas present that either of us could ever have asked for. Ross is going to be a visiting student at Monash University (meaning that he'll have a desk on campus and won't have to write from our apartment), so once he gets that all sorted out, we'll be applying for a visa for him (he's on a tourist visa at the moment), but that's a challenge for another day.

Wilson's Promontory National Park

As this was our first Christmas in Melbourne (I was in NZ for the last two), we made sure to do all of the touristy, Melbourne Christmas stuff.  We went and saw the giant Christmas tree in Federation Square, looked at the Christmas windows at Myer's, saw the light displays around the CBD (aka - downtown) and went to the Gingerbread Village. The Christmas windows at Myer's are a huge Melbourne tradition (this was the 63rd year) and there is often an insane line to see them before Christmas.  Ross and I waited until after Christmas once the chaos had died down some and then wandered along admiring the "Alice in Wonderland" theme. The animated windows are cool, but not worth standing in line for an hour or more to see. 

Fed Square Christmas Tree at night

Melbourne Town Hall dressed to impress

See above.

The Gingerbread Village is probably my favorite Melbourne Christmas attraction. All of the major Melbourne landmarks are recreated using 560 kg (1,234 lbs) of gingerbread, 420 kg (926 lbs) of icing and 185 kg (407 lbs) of marzipan. This year there was also the Osaka Castle from Melbourne's sister city of Osaka, Japan. The entire thing is a fundraiser for the Royal Children's Hospital.

Luna Park
Do you see the Superhero?

Osaka Castle

Brighton Beach Huts

Flinders Street Station

Melbourne Cricket Grounds (MCG)

My office is closed for two weeks over the Christmas/New Years period, so Ross and I were able to have a pretty lazy week around Christmas and get him settled in to the apartment. One of our friends from when we lived in Minnesota was visiting Melbourne just after Christmas, so we were able to spend some time catching up with him.  It was really nice to see a familiar face and catch up on the last couple years. Plus I enjoy playing tour guide in Melbourne and St Kilda, so we made sure to hit the major spots.

Artwork in Hosier Lane

Artwork in Hosier Lane

Ross said that this is album art from six different albums.
AC/DC Lane

Artwork by AC/DC Lane

Artwork by AC/DC Lane

Ross and I had decided that we needed to get out of Melbourne for the second week of my break (over NYE). Initially we had been looking at going over to Tasmania but we waited too long to book anything and all of the campgrounds that we had wanted to go to were full. Plus renting a car for a week in Tassie would have been $1,200 (without the added cost of insurance). Needless to say, we decided not to go to Tassie.  That being said, there is a bunch of stuff that we want to do in Tassie, so we'll have to plan a trip for later and make sure that it's not over some school holiday.

Instead of spending an arm and a leg to go to Tassie, we went down to Wilson's Promontory National Park and went backpacking for four days. The park is located about three hours southeast of Melbourne. This was Ross's first trip to Wilson's Prom and my second (I drove down with my parents last March and did a couple short day hikes). We ended up having great weather (low 70's most days and sunny) and saw some fun wildlife (wallabies, birds galore, so many skinks and a couple snakes). 

Mountains in Wilson's Prom

Rosy Hyacinth Orchid

Fern Tree

Since we had to drive down from Melbourne, our first day hiking wasn't too long, maybe 5 or 6 miles. We hiked in to a campsite called Halfway Hut from where we were dropped off by the shuttle at Telegraph Saddle. It was mostly downhill or flat and mostly through the forest. We got into camp pretty early, so we ended up playing some card games until dinner time. We had a little rain during the night and a spectacular thunder and lightning storm. Ross loved it because, while it rains all of the time in Wellington, it's actually very rare to get thunder or lightning there.

Our trusty tent.

Halfway Hut

Southern Water Skink

Evening views from Halfway Hut

The second day we moved to the Roaring Meg campground, which was only about 5 km (3 miles) from our previous campsite. Once there, we set up our tent, dropped off as much stuff as we could, grabbed some lunch and water and hiked out to the lighthouse (built in 1859) in the southeast corner of the park and back. It was about a 7-8 mile roundtrip hike to the lighthouse, so we definitely got some good miles in. The lighthouse was gorgeous and you can actually stay out there for a night or two in one of the cottages.  We had been thinking about staying out there but it didn't end up working out for this trip - next time... We managed to show up right when the ranger was giving a tour, so we were able to go up into the lighthouse and learn a bit about its history.

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Ross on the way to the lightstation

Lightstation from afar

Wilson's Promontory Lightstation
These are the cabins that you can stay in, if you're willing to walk 20 km (~12 miles).

Ross looking out to sea from the top of the lighthouse

Dinner time back at camp

Wallaby that  hopped by our campsite

The third day of the hike, we went from Roaring Meg to Oberon Bay (about 6-7 miles). We were able to snag an isolated campsite and spent the rest of the day walking along the mile+ long stretch of beach that was mostly deserted - I think the most people that we saw on it at any one time was 10, counting ourselves. It was absolutely gorgeous and we were blown away by how few people were around considering that it was New Year's Day.

Oberon Bay from afar

Oberon Bay from the path to the campsites

Our home for the night

Sooty Oystercatcher

No one as far as the eye can see but Ross.

Great Crested Terns

Empty beach

First sunset of 2019 from Oberon Bay

On the fourth day we hiked out to Tidal River (about 6 miles), which is essentially a village during the summer. There are ~500 camp and caravan sites, plus cabins that you can rent. The walkout was really nice, as we traced the coastline and walked along Little Oberon Bay before coming upon the herds of people at Tidal River. We treated ourselves to ice cream at the general store and then headed back to Melbourne.

One last look at Oberon Bay on our way out.

Little Oberon Bay

Common Heath

Ross getting excited about ice cream as we near the end of the trip.

The rest of the break passed pretty uneventfully - running errands, watching movies, going for walks along the beach and seeing the penguins on the St Kilda pier. We had typical Melbourne summer weather with 108 F with blazing sun one day followed by mid-60's with rain the next day. Life is really never dull Down Under.

Until next time and all of the best for 2019!