Melbourne | Effortlessly Charming

This is our first trip together to this wonderful artsy city just south of Sydney in the state of Victoria. Melbourne is rank 20th (tied with Ottawa, Montreal, Perth & Oslo) according to Mercer's Top Cities For Quality Of Living 2024. We will find out at the end of this 17-day trip if this city does live up to it's reputation.

Day 1 - Flight to Tullamarine & Christmas Eve in Melbourne

This flight was serviced by Qantas Airways and it is considered to be one of the longest flight out of Daniel K. Inouye International, coming in at 11 hours and 25 minutes. The Qantas lounge is situated at the ground floor next to the beautiful Cultural Gardens.

On this segment, we were served two main meals - a breakfast and a 3-course lunch.

The flight itself was smooth. I was lucky to catch a short but beautiful glimpse of an island atoll as we flew by at 40,000 feet. I believe this island atoll is part of Noumea.

As we came in to land at Melbourne International at Tullamarine, the plane encountered severe crosswinds, in which the captain decided to abort and go around. In the end, the captain managed to land the aircraft very smoothly.

Go Around!

After getting our rental car, we headed into city center for some long awaited Malaysian goodies. Since it was Christmas eve, many shops were closed and those that were still open, will be closing much earlier. We managed to find a little quaint kopitiam-style shop called Lulu's selling typical Malaysian street food. We had their famous char kuey teow and teh tarik.

There were quite a lot of people roaming the streets, and it was quite difficult finding street parking. After our hearty meal, we checked into our rental home at Kew. Here are some photos of it.

After freshening up, we decided to take a drive around the city to check out the night lights. One particular area is called the Docklands. It is highly gentrified, with many old warehouses being torn down to make way for expensive waterfront condominiums and shopfronts. The area was still under construction as we could see the many cranes standing where new building were about to rise. The area is young and hip. Unfortunately, not all moved in so not as brightly lit. Give it a few more years when all is done and this will certainly be a bustling area with a waterfront promenade.

By the end of the day we were totally knackered! The sun doesn't set till after 9 pm; which makes for a great hiking or adventure day giving you lots of sunshine. However, on a travel day, it just fools you into thinking it is still early when you have actually been up and about for more than 24 hours before you finally lay down to sleep...

Day 2 - The Great Ocean Road & The 12 Apostles

Todays weather was cloudy and cool which made us decide to take a long drive along the Great Ocean Road. From start to finish it is about 243km / 150 miles. It was completed in 1922 and is dedicated to WW1. It starts from Bells Beach in Tourquay, and ends at Allansford just outside of Warrnambool.

This long and winding route is very scenic with many tourists driving along the way. Its best bits are when the road opens to the ocean and on the cliffs with the 12 apostles.

Here is the video of the drive & some stops along the way. Traffic was fairly light on the road due to it being Christmas Day. The only place brimming with people was at the 12 Apostles rock formation. Although it was well organized, it wasn't a pleasant experience for us as we had to squeeze through the overlook points to get a view of the rock stacks. Given the situation, it is a once in a lifetime experience for us as we probably would not be back with these crowds. It was also super windy and cold. If it wasn't too cold we would have braved the winds to climb down Gibson's Stairs to get a view of the stacks from the beach.

Some may wonder why this is called the 12 Apostles as each limestone sea stack should represent each apostle. However, if you look carefully, there are only seven left! Over the years several of them have since fallen into the sea. In looking at its history, they assumed that there were twelve at one time...

This adventure took us the entire day and by the time we got back to the CBD, we were quite tired. On top of that, because it was Christmas Day, the only place we could find open for our dinner was Maccas(!)

Day 3 - More Malaysian food & the Yarra River Walk

Today we decided to hunt for some mamak styled nasi kandar (rice balanced on shoulders). This flavorful meal is known for its whole fried chicken leg and many choices of curries. We found a Nasi Kandar store in Springvale called Penang Nasi Kandar. It purports to be open all year round seven days a week. The dishes are very authentic (at least the ones we tried) and it really brought me back to my childhood memories of Penang.

After a quick lunch, we drove up to the Dandenong Ranges National Park. It was packed with people. We wanted to walk the 1,000 steps Kokoda Trail but after seeing so many people, we decided to take a rain-check. Apparently, the Christmas holidays is the busiest time of the year for these nearby trails and parks with many lush gardens to enjoy.

Instead, we drove back to city center and walked around the banks of the Yarra River. It turned out to be a very good walk. Here is a short video of the walk and some views along the river.

We capped off the day with more goodies from another Malaysian restaurant called Jalan Alor. It is also conveniently located near Batman Park which is right near the river walk. The food here is pretty good. We tried their Hainanese Chicken Rice and packed for later the White Penang Curry Mee and Lobak.

We also managed to capture a couple of great night shots of the Melbourne city scape along the river.

This was a great end to our third day here in the city.

Day 4 - Werribee Gorge State Park, Ingliston

The weather in Melbourne is starting to warm up a little with the sun out in full force. It is forcasted to reach 90 degrees F / 30 degree C by Monday. Today it was still a nice 67 degrees F / 19 degrees C - just perfect for hiking.

So we decided to drive northwest to a place called Ingliston. It is the lesser known hike above Werribee Gorge State Park with its infamous Werribee Gorge Track. We combined three tracks - the Ironbark Gorge Track, the Falcon Lookout Track and the Ingliston Granites Track - out and back in a 3.6 mile adventure through the Australian gully, woods and pasture.

Here is the video of the hike.

In all the best views were at Falcons Lookout and we discovered that not many traverse to Ingliston Granite (so it was a little overgrown). Nonetheless, this was a good hike taking just about 2 hours to finish. The best part was the gully with its cool winds, challenging footing and climb.

Having had a great workout we then proceeded to look for a good drink at the local Starbucks. Unfortunately, my Starbucks app for the USA does not work here in Australia. One will have to download a new Australian app; I guess its not so much a "global" brand... There is also no 40oz option as the largest here is a Venti - sorry no Trenta here. I think its just the USA that always wants things supersized(!) The drink was also a little different - more mango and less dragon fruit. Regardless, it was pretty good and we had two to go.

As we made our way back we found another Malaysian restaurant called Roti Road in Footscray. Little did we know that Footscray is a little sketch... So we stayed on the main road to visit this restaurant. The restaurant itself was quite hip. We tried their Fried Chicken Berempah and the Roti Canai with Beef Rendang. Both were very tasty. We also had for drinks the Lime with Pepermint and Malaysian Ice Coffee. If only this place was in a better location!

Having had our fill we returned to our comfortable home and called it a day.

Day 5 - Churchill National Park / Lysterfield Regional Park, and Brighton / St. Kilda Beaches

We started the day slow today - sleeping in this morning, then doing some laundry and cleaning up the house a bit. The weather was clear with bright sunshine and not a single cloud in the sky. At about lunch time we decided to look for some good Vietnamese food on the east side. We found a spot called Yummy Pho Noble Park. It was just a 25 minute drive from where we were and it was close to some hiking spots that we wanted to check out.

The Bun Bo Hue was really good and they had Dim Sum; so we had to try their Siew Mai and Char Siew Bau. All was good, so this may be a place that we return to...

After our hearty meal, we then made our way to Churchill National Park and Lysterfield Regional Park. Both are just south of the Dandenong Ranges. We decided to take a tour of the parks by doing a 4.5 mile circuit through woods, ridges and topping off at a triangulation station at the highest point called Lysterfield Lookout. From this vantage point one can see the Melbourne city skyline and the surrounding hills.

Along the way we were hoping to see some roos and wollies, but no such luck. Instead we saw several Magpies and Rabbits. Perhaps the heat of the sun kept most of the hopping wildlife away! Got to find them at dawn or dusk instead.

Here is a video of our walk. It wasn't very difficult but the heat was up there. No sighting of our hopping friends...

Having completed our walk with the entire park pretty much to ourselves, we then took a drive down to the beach. We visited Brighton with its colorful Beach Boxes and drove down Saint Kilda's where the crowds had congregated. With the heat rising, this was truly summer in Melbourne!

Before we knew it, it was already past 7pm but the sun was still high and bright. So we made our way back to Roti Road for our take out dinner before heading back.

Day 6 - Cathedral Range State Park: Sugarloaf Peak via Canyon Track

Today the temperature is forecasted to be well into the 90s F / 34 C and it certainly did reach that if not more. Just sitting in the air conditioned car we could feel the heat and we were thirsty throughout the day. Regardless, we wanted to do a short but steep hike up Sugarloaf Peak in the Cathedral Range State Park.

Before heading out, we stopped for lunch at a Vietnamese place just 10 minutes from where we stayed. This was a mom & pop store with authentic Vietnamese food. The vegies were very fresh and the soup was very tasty. It was a good start to our day!

Our drive to the Cathedral Range State Park would take about 2 hours; not because it was far distance wise, but rather because to get there we would traverse the scenic wine country roads mostly on B390. This is the hilly north of Melbourne passing through Yarra Valley. There was one very nice section of winding road passing through tall gum and eucalyptus trees with tree ferns in the undergrowth. Just a very pleasant drive, albeit slow...

Once at the state park, the road because an unsealed dirt road. Nothing too bad as our Mazda CX-30 could certainly handle. Just super dusty! Once at the Sugarloaf Saddle Day Visitor Area, we parked and started our quick climb straight up hill. The steep climb quickly turned into a rock scramble and soon we were needing to scale up some pretty difficult Grade 5 sections. Nothing life threatening, but fun. It was a great workout. The views at the top were worth it as you could see across the entire range and out across the valleys. This was certainly a fun spot to hike and climb. See our video of the hike here.

Here is our track from AllTrails. We topped at 3,106 feet, although Sugarloaf itself is just 2,992 feet.

At the end of the hike, we were definitely feeling it. Having used muscles that we normally don't use on a regular basis. It felt good though but tomorrow will probably be a different story...

On our way back we stopped at this place called Singapore Gu Chia Cui Chicken Rice (phew.. long restaurant name!) The place was small yet packed to the brim. Lots of take outs too. They specialize in the Hainanese Chicken Rice - both original and roasted. Too bad they were out of the roasted version. Got to come back to try that. It was pretty authentic, and made for a great dinner. We were so hungry that we forgot to take a picture of the food!

It was a great way to end the day. Great hike and great dinner! We'd be sleeping pretty soundly tonight.

Day 7 - Driving around Melbourne CBD

This morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see a few hot air balloons above our house. It was a nice sight to see as they were catching the drift over the city with the early sunrise. Its not a very cheap adventure as it costs about A$500 per person. Regardless, it must be a nice way to start the day.

So we did figure out today why there are so many South East Asian restaurants in Melbourne. Surprisingly, of these there are more Malaysians here in Melbourne than there are in Sydney. Numbering at approximately 57K in 2025, it starts to make sense as to why there are so many Malaysian Restaurants here as well. I imagine that because many Malaysians came to Australia to study in the 70s, 80s and 90s - that these remained in Australia and so too did their families immigrate. Now, 30 to 50 years later we see a great mix of Malaysian immigrants who now call Australia home. Hence, the burgeoning demand for good quality Malaysian food, along with Singaporean, Indonesian, Vietnamese and Thai varieties. I wonder if this is the largest congregation of Malaysians outside of Malaysia(?) Regardless, Melbourne is certainly a very diverse city as seen below.

We decided to take it easy today as we were still somewhat recovering from our rock scramble of yesterday. So we did some chores (did the laundry, took the car to the car wash and did some groceries) and went for a drive around the CBD. There weren't many people around the CBD as the roads were pretty clear and parking a plenty. However, there were many shoppers in Chinatown and along the main shopping sprawl. Regardless, it was good to see the city with its contrasting architecture of the old colonial terrace house shops against the new glass skyscrapers.

One thing is for sure - Melbourne has this "dingy" feel to it as there is graffiti everywhere. Some of it truly art, while others... just rubbish(!) Here are some highlights of our drive.

Having had our drive around the city, we then decided to pay a visit to Gai Wong - a place said to have the best Hainanese Chicken Rice in all of Melbourne. It is located in North Melbourne right next to the University of Melbourne. We tried the chicken rice and their Kon Lo Mee. Both were very tasty!

The weather today turned from the very sunny to the foggy and cold weather that I remember Melbourne to be. Its a 40 degree F shift all in one day! As they say, "If you don't like the weather in Melbourne, just wait five minutes..." So it is air conditioning to back to heaters. Of course when it was hot it was a good day for ice cream.. but it was also good on a getting cold day at Rebo. We tried four chocolate flavors - Classic Chocolate, Rum & Raisin, Ferrero Rocher, and Dark Chocolate Gelato. All were very good but it left us stuffed!

We decided to head back and have a salad dinner at the house today. Malaysian food on a daily basis was certainly taking its toll without veggies. So it was a visit to Cole's where we picked up a really tasty salad instead. All was good as we ended the day.

Day 8 - New Year's Eve!!!!

The year is finally coming to an end but it is certainly not an end to our adventures around Melbourne. We took a drive to Dandenong, but before that, we stopped at a Singapore/Malaysian eatery called Nan Yang at Glen Waverly. The tastes were pretty authentic.

The white curry noodle (vegetarian) and the pork kon-lo mee were spot on. After our quick lunch, we drove up to the township of Dandenong to check out this suburb which is quite well known for it's asian foods. We had also watched a YouTube episode that listed Dandenong as one of the most notorious townships in the Melbourne greater city area. To our surprise it was not the hardcore rough city that the episode made it to be. instead we found a pretty decent town with some gentrification occurring. Town Center had a nice large shopping mall and there were many of the original shops along its high street still preserved. I guess the YouTube maker had never visited Philadelphia or New York city in the 80s when crime was at its highest. At that time it was literally scary to walk the streets. Dandenong on the other hand has cleaned up nicely. Having said that we only drove the main streets - so there still may be other areas not visible to us - that could still be having issues.

Having driven around Dandenong, we then decided to burn off some calories by doing the Kokoda Track which is known for it's 1,000 steps to the top. It took us less than 30 minutes to complete the steps and we definitely felt the burn. This memorial walk is quite interesting as its path tells the story of the actual Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea. Many died in the fight to secure Kokoda, and sadly it was all for naught as both sides in the end did not achieve their objectives even after sacrificing so many lives in trying to achieve it.

Past the steps is a gradual slope to One Tree where there are several more memorial cairns. Also at the top are several private homes. All of which had beautiful gardens.

Here is the video of this hike. It would be a real adventure if we can hike the actual Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea!

It was starting to get cold again, so we decided to grab some good Malaysian food at a nearby mall from a place called Nasi+Mi. This was quite a hip spot with many eateries in the mall. Everyone was out in full force - grabbing a meal before the evening's NYE events. So, we joined them taking home with us a great nonya meal, some dark chocolate gelato, and a Mango Pomelo slush to top it off. We were stuffed!

We then drove into town trying to get a good view of the NYE celebrations. There were tons of people at each of the celebration locations. It is said that over 500K people came into town for the celebrations. Because we didn't want to mix in shoulder to shoulder with everyone else we decided to do a driving NYE view. It turned out to be not bad as we had the radio tuned into the celebrations. The music was loud and in time with the countdown, fireworks and laser light show. Here is the video of what we saw and heard as we rang in the new year in driving style!

The year has gone by quickly, but it was nice to see everyone enjoying the sights and sounds as we said goodbye to 2025 and hello to 2026!

Day 9 - New Years Day - Mount Macedon & Rest Day

On this day we took a drive out to the north west side of Melbourne. Our intent was to hike Mount Macedon and to visit the Organ Pipes National Park. Before leaving the city we stopped for lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant called Viet Table in Camberland. The food was well presented and tasty!

We tried their Lemongrass Chicken Bun and their Crispy Chicken Maryland Rice Plate. It was not only tasty but also very reasonably priced. We certainly will be coming back here again.

It took us about an hour and a half to get up to the Hanging Rock National Park in Macedon. However, when we got there, it was packed with people and the entrance was jammed up with a long line of cars. Little did we know that there was a public event at the race course right next to where were wanted to hike. For an entrance fee of A$25 per person, we could attend to watch the horse races. In asking the attendant if it was worth it, he promptly replied "no!". We'd be stuck with the racing crowd when hiking the park should be free...

So there ended our attempt to see the hanging rock. Instead, we headed the neighboring Mount Macedon to see if we could perhaps hike to the Memorial Cross. But in heading that way we started to note one common factor across all these sites - that is that they were very crowded with many local and tourist visitors. This week of Christmas and New Years is marked by a lot of folks out and about with family, and so the beaches and the parks were packed. Even as we drove into each area we could see cars parked out along the road indicating an already full car park at the trailheads. So we took the drive instead of the walk, just so that we didn't have to hike with a whole bunch of other people.

We did manage to snap a few un assuming pictures of the telecom infrastructure at the top of the mount and of the Avenue of Honor in Macedon.

If one is looking for solitude at one of the parks, this weekend is not a time that one will find it. So we headed back, a little disappointed that we didn't get to hike today.

Day 10 - Mornington Peninsular

Today we were determined to get our hike in for the day and so we headed south instead to see if perhaps the beach would draw most of the crowds and that would at least reduce the number drawn to the hills/mounts/parks. Mornington Peninsular is an interesting geography south of Melbourne. It follows the bay to the gap in which ships enter Port Phillip. There is a tunnel roadway that crosses the gap underwater to pop out on the other side at Queenscliff. So one could do a full drive circling Port Phillip from Melbourne CBD down to Nepean Point across to Queenscliff up through Geelong and back to the CBD.

We stopped for a brief lunch at Yummy Pho at Noble Park before starting our coastal drive from Mordialloc Pier. The coastal road call Nepean Highway or Hwy#3, ran along the many beach towns. With beach front housing blocking the view, it was not a very interesting drive at first. But soon, the housing gave way to cliffs from which we could then see the many beaches, boats and people flocking to the sand. There weren't as many folks in the water as it was still cold; but the sun certainly made it feel better.

We finally reached our hiking spot called Arthurs Seat. But again we could not find a spot that wasn't crowded! So we tried one of the back roads through a housing area. Here it was quiet and crowd free! We mapped out a route from Cook Street utilizing the Two Bay Walk to the Ministers Lookout and back. We had the entire trail to ourselves except for a few kangaroos and a copperhead snake!

The view from Ministers Lookout was quite spectacular - seeing all the way to Nepean Point. The trail itself was well shaded with many types of indigenous trees. As we walked the trail, we were reminded that Australia is home to the Top 5 most poisonous creatures in the world. This includes: 1) Box Jellyfish, 2) Inland Taipan snake, 3) Eastern Brown Snake, 4) Blue-Ringed Octopus, and 5) Textile Cone Snail. So when I ventured a little bit off trail to look at one of the water holes, I spooked a large Gray Kangaroo which in turn made me miss stepping on a Copperhead that was hiding in the tall grass!

Here is the video of our hike.

Post walk we drove down towards the light house on Nepean Point. Here too it was crowded and the way to the point was slow with many traffic jams before each major round about!

Apparently, there are about 170K folks who live in Mornington Peninsular. But its population grows to about 250K during the summer time. It is known to be Victoria's most populous holiday spot - thus resulting in the major traffic jams in the area during this time.

As we drove back, we noted two things. One that Bata was alive and well in Australia! It was the main brand of shoes that we wore when we were growing up. So it was nice to still see advertising for it. Secondly, it was nice to see the old colonial style buildings still in good shape and use.

The sad thing though is that there is garfitti everywhere... and not all of it art.

Day 11 - Rest Day

Today we started slow as we weren't feeling so good. Too much Malaysian food, sun burn from not having enough "slip, slap and slop", and the feeling of a cold/flu settling in. The past few days had signs leading up to this, so we decided to stay in and rest. The house is very comfortable and the weather did its weird swing again from the very sunny and hot day yesterday to a cool and somewhat thunder stormy day today. We actually heard several thunderclaps which was weird because it wasn't raining as yet.

In reflecting on our stay thus far there were several things to note about Melbourne:

1. Although it is effortlessly charming, it is also effortlessly dingy... Every city has its urban downsides, but this was evident everywhere not just in the CBD. Graffiti as art was nice in the art areas and the tight downtown streets, but when you have it all along the highways, between the shops, along the walls in the suburbs - it just doesn't seem right. Then you see the rubbish strewn along the highway and in the lanes, and we know immediately that Melbourne is no different than the dingy urban cities of the USA.

2. We did notice some houseless folks but there weren't that many. I think if Melbourne would like to keep it that way, it needs to learn from what's happening in the USA top avoid it here. Those that we did see were obviously on drugs. So that too creates a different issue.

3. Everyone can have a house. At least that is what the sprawling housing suburbs seem to indicate. There aren't many high rises or apartment complexes. Most are single family homes, terrace or semi-Ds. Its good that it is remaining at about 0.5 to 1%. This is about 3 times less than in Hawaii.

4. There are many schools in the Melbourne area - which supports why Victoria is known as the Education State. Some of these schools are really fancy. Beautiful facilities and a very competitive environment.

5. Melbourne is very diverse. Every where we went we saw a mix of people. In fact, in some areas there were no white people to be seen(!)

6. Everyone loves the beach. Comparatively, although there were many people in the parks, there were exponentially more people on the beach. Now not necessarily swimming in the water, but literally on the beach - with their chairs and barbees (BBQ). No wonder there is a horrible statistic of more than 50% Melbournians will get cancer.

7. There are SOOO MANY Malaysian or Singaporean restaurants! Of all types and sizes. We could eat at a different place each day consecutively.

8. Being exposed to so many people will test our ability to fight off viruses and germs! The food places are cramped with people. The plane had a whole bunch of people coughing and hacking away... On the streets there were lots of people too. So this is what an urban holiday is(!)

It was good getting some rest today. Hopefully, this will pass and we will be ready to go again tomorrow!

Day 12 - Nanchangs Over Melbourne

It was a bright and early start today with a wake up call at about 6:30am. The weather was somewhat gloomy, cold and windy. We were hoping that it would clear up by the time we were scheduled to take off. We were definitely feeling better - or could it be that we were just excited and wanted to be airborne that feeling ill was not an option??!

We skipped breakfast as we didn't want to have stuff to throw up(!) We were also too excited to eat. Besides only a few cafes were open this early on a Sunday morning. Traffic was very light if non-existant. Made for an easy 20 minute drive from Kew to Moorabbin.

The Moorabbin Airport is famous for being the most prolific flight training airport in all of Australia. It was evident by the rows of Skyhawk Cessnas all parked neatly on the tarmac.

Apparently this airport has been going through several upgrades which includes resealing the runways, new led lighting and various infrastructure upgrades to the tune of A$300 million by 2029. The airport has five runways, with ample space for the many trainers, tourist flights and general commuter flights. Its passenger terminal isn't very big and one can drive right up to its control tower!

When we arrived at the terminal, there was no one in sight... Then typical to a pilot, Mac arrives on a Royal Enfield! Not exactly the kind that a Top Gun would ride... but a motorbike all the same!

Soon after the pilots' arrival, we then had our standard briefing to sign away our lives as in theirs and their aircraft's capable hands. There really is no emergency exit or safety features. No life jackets or parachutes. If the engine fails we can at least glide for a bit - so its best that you do know how to open the canopy.

The Nanchang CJ-6 is a very small yet agile plane. It is pretty light and therefore, it doesn't need a very big engine. Standing on the ground looking at the plane we were surprised as to how small it actually is. I guess we were just used to seeing the very large American planes - with the P-51 or T-6 Texan with their huge protruding engines. Most notably the Nanchang only has a 2-bladed prop versus the P-51's 4-bladed version. I guess that's the difference between a trainer versus the performance fighting machine at that time. Its instrumentation is also pretty minimal. Thus making the Nanchang definitely easier and cheaper to maintain.

As we taxied out to the runway, we went past the air fire brigade. Fire fighting in Australia is a critical public service. Much like California, Victoria has had its fair share of fire tragedies. This craft is a super heavy lifter used to carry tonnes of water to the fight. Standing by itself it doesn't look very big, but put a person in the shot for perspective and you will see that even a very tall person would be tiny next to this monstrosity.

Soon we were taking of in a side by side formation. This is what we wanted - having flown many craft but all singular; it was a treat to be flying in tandem formation! With Mac in the lead, Tom was constantly adjusting to his line of sight toward's Mac's plane.

We didn't want anything too crazy, so we started out with some easy turns and a nice sight seeing flight up to the CBD. It was fun to see Brighton Beach and St Kilda from the air and it was also pretty neat to fly by at a thousand feet over the high rise buildings of downtown.

Having had our views it was time for some aerobatics. So we sought out the clearer blue skies on the south side of Port Phillip. Once we were in the clear Tom did several barrel rolls, a hesitation roll and a few cartwheel dives. These would pull just about 3Gs. The really interesting thing that made this plane different from others was how agile it was to turn, and how it would float when inverted. The floating was a pretty good feeling. For a 30 minute flight, it went fast. Here is the link to our video.

If we were in a true combat, I don't know how the pilots can keep an eye on each other. I guess this is what it means to really have your head on a swivel. Another thing that happens when pulling Gs - you don't realize how much you are actually working till you are on the ground and you see how much sweat you have worked up! It was all good fun, but also glad to be back on the ground. Definitely a flight to remember.

Day 13 - Phillip Island

It was a long drive down to Phillip Island, well known for its wildlife spotting and surfing. It was supposed to take just about under 2 hours to travel from Kew to the South Point Lookout on Phillip Island. Since it was a work day, we weren't expecting it to be too busy at Phillip Island; especially since we weren't there at dusk - when the penguins come home.

What we didn't account for was an overturned semi truck that didn't quite make it around one of the many roundabouts along the M420 at Pakenham. This created a long line of traffic needing to be rerouted through the farms on unsealed farm roads. It made for a scenic detour but added at least another 30 minutes to the commute!

We finally arrived at Phillip Island and proceeded along the southern coast to the Phillip Island National Surfing Reserve. There weren't many clean or large swells today, but there were surfers out along the various surfing spots in the reserve.

From here we then proceeded straight to the Knobbies. There weren't as many tourists, but enough the keep the immediate car park pretty full. The views from here were very scenic as folks made their way down for a better view.

The visitor center was closed for repairs, so no shade for the visitors... This is a common spot to stop at when visiting Phillip Island.

Beyond the Knobbies, one can drive along the coastline following an unsealed road to many stops along the coast line. There were several people at the South Point Lookout, so we didn't stop. Instead we drove on to the next pullout where we could look back at the South Point Lookout.

There were no seals or penguins to be seen this day. Just clear beaches and relatively calm breaks. There were several Cape Barren Geese with their distinctive gray plumage and yellow-green bills. Curious looking bird that was once on the brink of extinction but now back in full force especially here on Phillip Island. We also got to see a whole large flock of pelicans on the north side of the island - patiently waiting for some scraps of fish from the fisherman who was cleaning his catch of the day. These birds are huge!

As we completed the coastal drive, we came to the jewel of the crown... Summerland Beach. This is where the Little or Fairy Penguins come ashore every evening after a day of fishing at sea. These are the smallest of all penguins and they participate this is great tourist attraction called the Penguin Parade. When I first visited in the 80s, Summerland was mostly beach and not a lot of infrastructure. Today it is home to a large visitor center, three amphitheaters and many boardwalks used to bring in as many spectators to witness this natural event. I guess now not so natural... I wonder how the Penguins feel about this as they head home to their beach burrows.

On our way back we decided to stop at the National Vietnam Veterans Museum. This is right off the main road on Phillip Island. It cannot be missed with its two aircrafts and large sign. We stopped to look at the external displays, but did not actually go into the museum. It was just interesting to see American planes with Australian livery. There were several visitors - so business was bustling.

Before we called it a day, we drove through the suburbs of San Remo. There were some new homes in what looked like a new subdivision. The modern homes were boxy and spaciously placed on the hill with views of the ocean. I would think that most of these are second homes for those vacation days by the beach.

Australians do seem to have a good life. Though I have to say that all the pictures look very sunny, which it was, but what you can't tell from the photos is how cold the water and the wind is...

Day 14 - Victoria Volcanic Plains

Today we decided to travel west again but this time to visit the inner side just north of the Great Ocean Road. Here is a vast landscape with many lakes and cones(!)

This area is called the Newer Volcanics Province of Victoria, and it is the world's third largest volcanic plain. We wanted to visit two main geological features in the area. To the south is Red Rock (a quaternary complex volcano), and to the north is Mount Elephant (a scoria cone). There are many other cones in the area too, though none are as prominent as Mount Elephant.

Our drive to this area took about 2 hours. It was also another 50 minutes to get from red Rock to Mount Elephant. This is because there are no straight or direct roads between the two. Once has to travel the many farms road through large rectangles of farmland. The farms here were mostly of Wheat, though there were a few corn and wineries too. One distinguishing feature of the area are the golden color of the farmland that is already harvested. Hence, why its called the Fields of Gold.

Red Rock has a small park with facilities. It also has roads leading up to the top of each of its three mounts. At the highest point there are exposed red rocks, and we can see the basalt strewn over the area. From this high point, one gets to see all the neighboring cones and lakes.

The climb to the top of Red Rock is short and assisted with wooden steps. So this was not a place that we would be able to get our exercise in. Hence, we moved on to Mount Elephant.

Once we got to Mount Elephant, it was a blistering 34 degrees C / 93.2 degrees F. With the main gate locked we then had to hike in from the main road. This added about 1.6 miles to our overall hike. We originally thought that we would do a full round of the summit rim, but since it was so hot we only did an up and back to the highest point.

There was at least a bit of a breeze along certain parts of the route, and the views were of the vast plains. We could now see Red Rock in the distance. Here is the link to the video of our hike.

On our way back, we stopped by another Malaysian restaurant called Hawker Lane. Here we met the Malaysian Chef and owner. He cooked us a Chicken Curry and Sambal Belacan Stir Fried Vegetables with rice. The food was good, though not outstanding. The worse part was that he didn't take credit so I had to withdraw cash for the meal. And the total ATM fee was about USD$10(!) I don't think we will be eating here again.

By the time we got back it was past 9 and the sun had just set!

Day 15 - Running from the heat to Mount Buller

The forecast for today was over 40 degrees C / 104 degrees F(!) So high temperatures along with high winds. A real recipe for fire... So to make the most of it, we decided to run away to the alpine mountains closest to Melbourne. This took us northeast past the Cathedral Ranges over the Yarra Plains and onto Mount Buller. This is about a 3 hour drive from Kew to Mount Buller.

Mount Buller is actually an alpine ski resort area. No snow today, but there should be clear skies and cooler temperatures (around 24-28 degrees C). That's still much better than the oven heat at 41 degrees C expected in and around Melbourne CBD.

The drive was pretty smooth with no incidents along the way. We drove up through the usual greater Melbourne suburbs, out to the main highway and then on country roads, up the trees/forests of Yarra, and then out to the hilly slopes of Melbourne's wine country. It was pretty dry with acres of golden fields as far as the eye can see.

We drove through many small towns with interesting names like Bonnie Doon, Merrijig, Kanumbra, Molesworth, Yea and Yarck. Much of the local business is in farming and tourism. The main town of Mansfield is where all the adventure outfitters are located for adventures on Mount Buller and Mount Sterling (the two major mountains in the area).

Like with all ski resorts, Mount Buller is also looking to attract summer mountain bikers to their bike park. They have invested in converting one of their chairlifts into bike-lifts with 2 Black and 2 Blue downhill runs. What's nice is that it wasn't very busy... but then we arrived too late in the afternoon. This place had a rental facility - manned by Archie - at the top which is great for folks like us, who are just visiting. Alas, we didn't get to ride as the lifts shut down by 4pm and the bike rental shop closes at 5pm - even though the sun does not go down till 9pm.

Additionally, the mountain was shutting down over the next two days because of the fire danger. Very high temperatures and winds starting to increase. Management did not want anyone to be stuck up on the mountain - as there were several fires already lighting up in the area. Regardless, we enjoyed the views and the much cooler weather before heading back.

Along the way, we did get to see from a distance the Longwood Brushfire. There were many warnings on all the radio channels as Australia has a fire communications system that warns folks to evacuate before any fire cuts off escape. This particular fire had reached a level whereby it was too late to evacuate and folks were being told to shelter in place as best as they can.

As of this writing, the fire is still burning and travelling south. Emergency warning to evacuate has been communicated to the townships just south of Longwood. Hopefully, it will be contained soon.

Back in the city it is hot - at about 42 degrees C. We travel to Fern Tree Gully to grab dinner at the Jalan Alor Malaysian restaurant there. This is one of three branches available in the greater Melbourne area. We tried their Char Hor Funn and the Chicken Curry Roti. It was pretty tasty!

As we made our way back, we remembered seeing a place called Hokkien Market. Since we were in the same vacinity we decided to stop by to see what makes it a "Hokkien" market. It was a pretty big store in a very busy mall that also contained a KMart, Aldi and Coles. Upon entering we could see a lot of Asian treats, fresh produce, all kinds of spices, noodles and sauces; even frozen Durian.

In fact, we managed to find every type of Malaysian "biscuit" - things that we barely remembered from our childhood days; yet there it was. The two things we tried to find and we successfully did find was the Pounded Peanut Candy / Kacang Tumbuk and the Ipoh Heong Peah biscuit. Amazingly, there they were! We had to try it.

Ahh.. well not as fresh as we remembered it, but pretty close. Unfortunately, with progress all the packaging is now plastic or foil. Can't seem to find the original white paper with the red stamp/seal that each biscuit used to be wrapped in.

By the time we got back it was already past 9pm. It was a good day of good sights and good food.

Day 16 - Driving Around the CBD and Sunset at Albert Park Lake

Today we discovered a Malaysian restaurant in the nearby suburb of Balwyn. This is literally 7 minutes away from where we stayed at Kew. Its called Kakilang and it is famous for its Char Koey Teow. Its menu also include all time favorites like Hainanese Chicken Rice, Penang Hokkien Prawn Mee, and Kun Lo Char Siew Wanton Mein. So we had to have some for lunch!

As it turns out the food was pretty tasty and authentic - nice touch of extra Wok Hae on the Char Koey Teow... Surprisingly, there were many customers in the store for lunch even though it was a Thursday afternoon. We should have found this place earlier! We are definitely coming back for more.

We then proceeded to drive around the Yarra River north of Kew towards Heidelberg. We definitely noticed the housing in the area. Many were brand new while others were in their original state. Some were in the process of being gutted. This made for a very strange set of houses within the same neighborhood... At least the majority of folks have single family homes. I'm not sure if we like the architecture though.

Earlier this week there were reports of a huge sink hole appearing in the middle of one of the park ovals (large grassy play areas normally for soccer or cricket). It wasn't hard to miss as the city had quadrant off the area with bright red flagging and a huge fence around the field. There were also men doing geological surveys of the hole as it is said to be growing in size. Net of it, most believe that it is caused by the extensive digging that is going on nearby for the very large and expensive Eastern Link infrastructure project. This includes the highway completion of M3 on the east side, the bike and roadways, plus the underground tunnels. Many believe that this project is causing the ground movement, even though the city is saying that it is not the case and that they don't know yet what is causing it.

Luckily, no one was hurt as the hole showed up overnight. From this distance, it certainly looks like the hole in the ground from the series called Outer Range(!) I guess no one has tried to time travel through it as yet??!

There were several of us coming to visit this spot in the middle of a Thursday afternoon... I guess its a main event of the week for the locals!

Later in the evening, we decided to drive down to Albert Park Lake for a few sunset shots of the city skyline. The water wasn't still enough for a full reflection, but there was plenty to look at in the golden hour. Not as colorful but still popping for a nice city scape shot. There are a lot of birds in the area so one certainly has to watch out for all the bird poop in the area.

What was also interesting was to see the preparations starting for the F1 race in March. Albert Park Lake as been hosting the F1 since 1996. This race normally starts the annual season. Many of the spectator stands were already up, and what's even more interesting is that you get to drive the circuit(!)

As the day came to a close, we wanted to give our stomachs a break from all that oily and spicy Malaysian food. So we headed to the nearest KFC to see if it was different from what we get in the USA. We ordered a regular 3 piece meal and a Zinger meal. The drinks came in a can, and the food was less than expected! The chicken drumsticks looked like drumettes! And there was no coleslaw. Just fries and mash with gravy - way too many carbs. At least they had the sweet roll instead of the biscuit. I guess we won't be eating at KFC in Australia...

Day 17 - Catastrophic Fire Day

Our day started out not too hot as it was cloudy yet comfortably warm. So we made our way back to Kakilang for our customary Malaysia brunch. We revisited their Char Koey Teow and Kolo Char Siew Wonton Mein - but we also added their Koey Teow Thng. Again all was very tasty and satisfying. We wondered why did it take us so long to find this spot as it was found only on our second last day here(!) I guess better late than never.

As we left the restaurant, it was already oven hot. It was weird as the inside of our car parked on the street in the sun was cooler than the outside! No wonder the authorities are calling today "catastrophic". Just here in the shady tree lined Kew it was already 42 degrees C / 107.6 degrees F! Thankfully it will cool down tomorrow.

North of us the Longwood fire was still burning out of control. It is hard to believe that we were just there the day before yesterday... We drove through highways B300 and B320 to Mansfield on to Mount Buller, and today the fire that we saw in the distance at Longwood has now cross the roads that we drove through. The towns of Molesworth, Yarck, Alexandra and Kanumbra have all been evacuated - with Kanumbra and Alexandra bearing the brunt of it. Hot wind gusts of over 80 mph are generally fanning the fires south.

Three people (husband, wife and child) are missing, while many homes and buildings in Ruffy have burnt to the ground. At this time about 85K hectares have been burnt. It is very sad as there really isn't much that you can do in this situation. The folks that live in this area all know the risks. The authorities are saying that this is just as bad as the Black Summer fires back in 2019. Below are pictures from the local 9 and 7 news reporting agencies.

So far no fires have started in the west and hopefully it will remain so. That side is crispy dry and if a fire did start, the Fields of Gold will burn black in a flash. It seems that some of these fires start due to lightning and the winds have been changing direction throughout the day - making it difficult for evacuees to know where to go.

Back in Kew it was very toasty. Its also the first time we have had to use the air conditioning downstairs. Thanks goodness that this house has both heaters and air conditioners. The hot wind was also gusting on our street.

All this heat had us thinking about ais batu kacang... but alas we opted for Korean BBQ instead! All you can eat sides and cold macha/vanilla soft serve.

We found this place in Hawthorn East - just about 10 minutes away - called Gamsa Korean BBQ. Apparently, there is also a branch in Bangkok, Thailand. This one just opened last October and seems to be doing quite well. There was a pretty healthy dinner crowd.

It boasts of the finest cuts of meat and the friendliest staff that will even do the grilling for you. So, having had our fill of Malaysian food, we decided to give this place a try. Service was indeed friendly and the meats were excellent. Probably the best we have had in Korean BBQs. We tried their Wagyu set which came with fillet, flank and ribs. They had several types of kim chee and a lot of iceberg / romaine lettuce. The banchang sauce was delicious as was the kim chee - all made fresh at this store.

What was really interesting was the type of charcoal the used, which had no smoke. The only time there was smoke was when the food was cooking.

There were also fresh fruits and ice cream for deserts. In the end the number of choices of each was not a lot, but sufficient for an excellent meal. We were stuffed!

Now that we were stuffed we really needed to walk some of it off. So we took a drive into the city to visit the Queen's Botanical Garden. We walked to the Observatory Gate, but it was unfortunately closed. There were still some interesting plants and trees in the area.

Since the main gardens were closed, we opted to walk to the Shrine of Remembrance instead. This is a World War I memorial that captures Australia's participation with battles won and lost. We had seen it from the air previously when we flew over the CBD, so it was nice to have the added perspective from the ground.

From the main steps looking towards the city, one has a perfect view of the downtown buildings against the botanical greenery. This is why there are many events held here; most recently it was one of the three main community spot for watching the New Years Eve fireworks.

Surrounding the shrine there are four distinct courtyards. Added to the shrine in the 2003 and 2014, each represents a specific theme related to Australia's military history.

North West Garden Courtyard: Recalling European and Dardanelles landscapes, this area includes a transplanted olive tree symbolizing endurance and peace, with seating and surfaces designed to evoke wharves and battlements.

North East Entry Courtyard: Serving as the main visitor entrance, this courtyard features red-pigmented concrete walls inscribed with phrases such as "lest we forget" and incorporates texts and emblems from the Great War.

South West Terrace Courtyard: Designed to reflect conflicts in South East Asia and the Pacific, this garden incorporates tropical plants from those regions and elements suggesting a jungle bunker, such as rusty pipes and rough concrete.

South East Student Courtyard: Intended for school groups, this courtyard is acoustically softened and shaded by a large red poppy sculpture. It features a floor pattern with a "dazzle" camouflage design and walls perforated with a world map in Morse code.

There are these little details on the shrine that gives one pause. In this case at the top of each of the grand staircases up to the shrine the names of the various battles are enshrined. It was interesting to look up each of these town names as each has a particular history relative to the efforts of the soldiers involved.

As the sun started to set, we then drove through downtown; catching our final view of the main sights in the area. From the spire of the Art Center Melbourne, to St Paul's Cathedral, and to Australia 108 residential skyscraper. This is Melbourne's very distinguishable skyline.

Day 18 - The Longest Saturday

It was time for us to say a hui hou to Melbourne. This will be a very long day as we get to experience Saturday twice! We packed up, cleaned up and closed out our stay at the Sweet Fig by 11am. We then took a slow drive up to the Costco in Epping to get a fill up, and then made our way to Tullamarine. Since we had time to kill we drove around the airport to see if there were any good plane spotting locations.

There are three plane spotting locations but all were dusty with no-shade. So we didn't stop for long. When we got to the terminal, it was packed with cars heading to the drop-off and pick-up locations. Luckily we went straight to the car rental drop off instead. This was a smooth drop off and a very quick check in through all the automated gates and airport security. We then made our way to the air port lounge where we could then reflect on our Melbourne experience.

The lounge was located in a basement-like location. Unfortunately, there were no open windows to spot planes. Regardless, it was quite well laid out in that there were two ends with food, a middle section for computer work and a bar-like area that was bright with a long bar and bar service.

Our wait at the lounge passed pretty quickly as it was very comfortable. Soon we were at the gate and then onto our A330 flight back to Honolulu. The plane is the same as the one that we flew to get to Melbourne but it was also laid out a little differently.

Our flight took about 10 hours and 54 minutes. It was pretty comfortable and we slept most of the way. The crew was attentive and very friendly. The seats were very spacious with lots of storage. This time we were both in individual window seats.

The service was pretty good and the food excellent. There was a good selection of chicken, pasta, fish and lamb. The starter was a tomato bisque soup with a side salad and for the main we both had the lamb which was tender and juicy.

We were hoping to be able to see the fires as we took off, but we flew towards the coastline instead. So we caught a glimpse of Moorabbin before the clouds and smoke obscured our view.

The flight was smooth and uneventful - which made for a good sleep before starting Saturday again in Honolulu.

It was a good time in and around Melbourne. This time it felt unrushed and very much like living there. The food scene was really good, the city busy enough with some good views and events, the suburbs sprawling with single family homes and community high streets, the streets lined with trees, and the regional or national parks were abundant and varied.

So, without repeating the observations already made on Day 11 here are our final impressions:

1. Because Melbourne is so diverse, there are so many choices for good food. Not just Malaysian or Vietnamese, but also Korean, Urghur, Indian, etc.

2. City drivers love to tailgate and cut - even if they aren't really going any where faster(!) At least this city is not so honk happy and there are still folks who will give way.

3. I hope I don't get a speeding ticket... There were several city sections where the speed limit would change from 60 to 40 and back to 60 kmh, and following everyone else on the road = speeding(!)

4. Guess which retailer in Australia is the largest? Costco! These seem to be everywhere.

5. In terms of costs, food here in Melbourne definitely is cheaper than what we pay for in the USA. This is probably because the USD to AUD exchange rate is currently very favorable, but regardless, the food quality here is also fresher and of the appropriate size.

6. Its so nice to not have to think about tipping. A service charge is always included.