As everyone in the Northern Hemisphere is enjoying the arrival of leaves, flowers and warmer weather, we are most definitely moving into autumn. It's gotten cooler and most of the trees around our apartment are starting to turn yellow and lose their leaves. After a couple April autumns, I still find them weird. It feels like we should be getting close to Thanksgiving and Christmas, not moving toward July.
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| Point Nepean National Park |
Ross and I didn't do any big trips this month but we did get out on a couple weekend adventures and we went to a bunch of movies. There is a theater near us that we love (The Astor) which shows older movies and cult classics. This month was the 20th anniversary of "The Matrix" and the 40th anniversary of "Alien" - talk about making me feel old! We also went to "They Shall Not Grow Old" on ANZAC day. It's a fabulous film that looks at the life of a British soldier during WWI and is incredibly well done. If you get the chance to see it, I highly recommend it.
Towards the beginning of the month, we went to the Macedon Ranges, which are about an hour north of Melbourne, to look at the leaves changing colors. There are a number of gardens in the Macedon Ranges but we went to Tieve Tara because their website said that they had aspen, which are my favorite trees. We were a little too early so not a lot had really starting to change yet but it was still really nice getting out of Melbourne and having a picnic lunch in a pretty garden.
We also swung by Hanging Rock Reserve for some hiking. You might remember me talking about Hanging Rock in a previous blog as it was my parent's one request when they visited last year. When I went with my parents we went on a Monday so the place was pretty deserted. Since Ross and I work, we went on a Sunday and it was swarming with people. It detracts from the slightly eerie quality of Hanging Rock to have so many people around but it was still nice to get out walking and we even saw a decent sized mob of kangaroos.
For Easter I had a four-day weekend because Good Friday and Easter Monday are both public holidays in Australia. Ross and I had been thinking of getting out camping but we're going to Perth at the end of May for a long weekend and I stumbled across an air fare sale in mid-April, so we're also going to Cairns at the beginning of September for a long weekend. As such, we decided to hang out in Melbourne for the long weekend and save a bit of money. We did end up borrowing the work car for a day over Easter and driving down to Point Nepean National Park on the Mornington Peninsula.
I had been to Point Nepean previously with my parents during their 2018 visit but Ross had never been to the Mornington Peninsula before. We lucked out with great weather and walked out to the fort at the end of the peninsula. We didn't see much wildlife but there were a ton of people around, so it wasn't too surprising. I think that Point Nepean is probably one of my favorite parks close to Melbourne. The hiking isn't the best (you're mostly walking on a road or within earshot of it) but the views are amazing.
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| Galahs |
We wrapped up April with a Ray LaMontagne concert at the Palais Theater, which is just down the street from our apartment (we can see it out our kitchen window). Neither Ross nor I had ever been to an event at the Palais Theater and the building is gorgeous. Ray LaMontagne put on a fabulous show and we both had a really good time.
As I mentioned earlier, we're going to Perth at the end of May but I'm also running in the Great Ocean Road Running Festival (just the 14 km) in mid-May so the next blog will have adventures from a bit further afield. If you're in the Northern Hemisphere, enjoy the spring weather for me!
