Here I sit on a chilly June evening pondering my place in the world and feeling pretty satisfied all told.
I’d lie if I said our transition to the mainland had been as seamless as our past moves have tended to be. Something about the combination of a big expensive city, and a wariness of the ‘move every 6 moths’ life style isn’t exactly conducive to feeling very centered. Funny thing, that. But with time all places can become home and now, nearly halfway through our time in Melbourne Meredith and I are starting to really feel settled here in this sprawling city.
We’re starting to feel fully ingratiated at work, we’ve been slowly cultivating groups of friends to head to to drinks (or recently, off to an escape room) with, and we’ve got our schedules blessedly synched up allowing for some much needed off time to explore both this great city and the ever surprising Victorian countryside.
Around town, predictably, we’ve filled our time with a series of world-class art exhibits and unforgettable meals out. Not bad for life at the bottom of the world. Turns out when people say Melbourne is a bit of a cultural capital they aren’t deluded by the lack of competing cities (Sydney aside) within a 2,000 mile radius. There’s legitimately a lot to do here down south. With dozens of large event venues, and endless string of museums, heaps of sports teams our list of things to do seems to be growing faster than we can check things off.
But you know we haven’t been just killing time around town. There’s plenty of nature to explore at the city’s doorstep and beyond, and our restless bones are constantly called into the “wintry” hills. With the impending arrival of winter I took the opportunity for one last snow-free trip up into the high country to get some riding in up on the ski mountains before they close for the mud season, as well as to explore the aptly named Cathedral Ranges.
For as sprawling and flat as this city can often feel it is pretty remarkable how close at hand some seriously rugged bush really is. Just up past the rolling, vine-covered hills of the Yarra Valley rise the scraggy peaks of the Cathedral Ranges, barely a stone’s throw away by Australian standards. What was most striking about the visit to the area though is just how jungly the country can get. Sure there’s plenty of dry podocarp forest about of the type we saw plenty of in Tassie, but turn the right corner to a more southerly exposure and you’ll find yourself in a fern-laden jungle. It’s a good state of affairs for my New Zealand starved soul.
Most recently though, Mere and I lined a couple of days off together and struck south by south west (ha) along the famed Great Ocean Road. This famous drive wraps through the national park that covers the far southern tip of the Australian mainland. The Otway national park preserves some of Australia’s oldest rainforest while various marine parks protect the wild waters of the southern ocean. Only a bare few townships lie amongst the winding turns of the rugged coastline. Naturally, this area of pristine natural beauty is an insane tourist hotspot…during the summer months. Fortunately for us, we’re not scared of a little wild weather and headed out well off of tourist season. Victorians love to brag about the unpredictability of the weather that the Southern Ocean serves up; while Colorado would like to have a word about their notion of unpredictable weather it is certainly true that you have to be ready for four seasons of weather in a day when you head out into the southern winter.
All this wild weather had the effect of positively draining the towns of their usual tourism bustle, which suited us just fine, being a pair who prefer solitude and self-made adventure. It was a positive treat to get to drive along this wild coast watching towering waves crash against the cliffs below as we (unsuccessfully) scoured the trees for any koalas who may be living above. But of course there was a destination in mind for this escapade, the famed Twelve Apostles. You almost certainly have seen photos of these iconic sea cliffs with 12 spires (now more like 8) rising from the sea. As you may expect the area is typically overrun with coaches and camper vans, but rolling up on a windy June morning found us alone looking over one of Australia’s most beautiful vistas. Sometimes tourist traps really are worth the hype and the view of morning light glinting off the Apostles with a rainbow arching off over the ocean beyond truly was a sight to behold.
We'll have to get out and find some more of these incredible Aussie sights no matter what the winter decides to throw our way.