Skip to main content

Melbourne Zoo

I remember a number of outings to Melbourne Zoo as a child. I daresay a lot has changed since then. The zoo train sadly went during my childhood and today even the hints of tracks have disappeared. However, you can still catch a train to the zoo.

After a breakfast at the outlet centre above Southern Cross Station (known as Spencer Street when I was a kid) we went to catch a train. Unfortunately, the Myki stored on my phone has expired in the two and a bit years since it's last use. Very annoying! I have to get a new one.

The Upfield train is an a refurbished Comeng. I did an assignment on them in grade 3.

The short train ride to Royal Park at the rear entrance of the zoo brings back a few other memories. I could have ridden it further!

Despite having visited both the Canberra and Adelaide Zoos this year, the Melbourne Zoo manages to impress.

It's not just the range of animal species, but the beautiful surrounds and enclosures. We especially enjoy the bamboo and Southeast Asian settings and buildings of the Trail of the Elephants. The butterfly house is fun too, with the insects taking a special liking to B.

The elephants themselves bring back memories of Thailand and I just wish that we could have a lunch of genuine noodles in the gorgeous traditional wooden buildings that surround the trail.

We manage to see most of the animals, from the shy orang-utans hiding beneath their sheets, to posing ring-tail lemurs and elegant jabiru.

There is also the most beautiful Japanese garden I have seen in Australia. The weeping cherry trees must be stunning in Spring.
Our feet are exhausted by the time we exit through the old iron turnstile gate of the main entrance. A tram takes us down Royal Parade, bringing back memories of childhood trips to the city and to school in Carlton.

Our arrival in the city leads to further exhaustion as B goes clothes shopping in H&M, Zara and Uniqlo while us males suffer.

By the time she finishes it is almost dinner. I lead us to Gypsy and Pig, a tonkatsu restaurant, but it doesn't seem to be open. Alex refuses to eat Malaysian food or ramen, of which there are other potential eateries within range.

We end up returning to Hardware Lane and sitting down at an expensive grill whose steak disappoints, though my kangaroo was nice.

As we walk back to the tram stop we pass a popular char kway teoh restaurant and B wants to take some away, despite the lack of a microwave. I suggest we return tomorrow.

The tram returns us to Crown Casino. After B buys another of the brown suger bubble teas that she's fallen in love with we sit outside and feel the blasts of heat from the gas show. Then back to the hotel to give the feet a well deserved rest. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ho Chi Minh to Hoi An

The easy way to get to Hoi An from Ho Chi Minh City is to fly to Danang then go via car for the final leg. Then there's my way. We had to wake at 5.30 am to get ready for a 6.15 departure from the hotel. A hotel car took us the few kilometres to the domestic terminal at the airport, where we checked into our Vietnam Airlines flight to the central Vietnam city of Hue. The airport was nothing flash, but it seemed functional. Alex had sandwiches (refused banh mi) for breakfast, then we went to the gate. Our blue Airbus A321 was parked at a remote stand, which necessitated a packed shuttle bus ride. It was nice to be aboard a full service airline again, even if the service was just a cup of water. We took off over the hazy skies of Ho Chi Minh City and for most of the smooth flight were cruising over a carpet of cloud. We descended over mountains poking their heads through the cloud, across lakes and paddy fields and over the beach. It was lovely scenery.
4 comments
Read more

The Carlingford Line

We close the year and the decade with a local adventure to mark the closure of a railway line. On the January 5, 2020, the Carlingford Line from Clyde will close to be partially replaced by the Parramatta Light Rail. This is Sydney's quietest line, a single track branch for most of its length from the industrial centre of Clyde to the northwestern suburb of Carlingford. According to Wikipedia, power supply and signalling issues mean that only a single four car train can utilise the line at a time. Newer Sydney trains run in fixed eight car configurations. This will be the first and last time I traverse the Carlingford Line in its current configuration. The weather of the day is certainly appropriate for an ending, the brown smoke haze lending an apocalyptic air to proceedings. I drive to Padstow and catch the T8 line to Central, followed by the T1 towards Parramatta and Penrith. The historic homes of the Inner West give way to industrial complexes, rail storage yards and t
4 comments
Read more

A lazy day at the beach

It's 2am and somebody is still setting fireworks off on the beach in front of the hotel. I can't see the explosions as I have the window shuttered, but I can still hear them. I've wanted to have a lazy day and today was the closest I got. I woke up in the night from a very sad dream. Dreams follow crazy paths, but this one resolved itself as so. An entity had been causing disruption of computer systems around the world. It turned out that this entity had emerged from the computer networks and had been struggling to gain access to more computing power so that it could live. The entity had taken on the persona of a woman. The protagonist who had "defeated" the entity discovered that it was alive, spoke to it. Ultimately fell in love with her. But his prior actions would lead to its death. As a gift to her he downloaded his memories so that she could experience life even as she died. I know it sounds like a pulpy sf or technopunk plot, but dreams are about feelings,
2 comments
Read more