Day 10 - Melbourne to Lilydale via Puffing Billy Railway This morning we packed up our home for the last four days in Melbourne and found ourselves a hipster breakfast venue before heading off into the Dandenong Ranges, east of Melbourne. Our main aim for the day was to retrace childhood memories and ride the puffing billy steam train. We made our way to Belgrave, and having arrived with what we thought was plenty of time, discovered unsurprisingly that many ot...

Day 9 - Exploring Melbourne on Easter Sunday Despite being away from home, the Easter Bunny / Bilby found us on the road. Today we trammed it back into the city and made our way to the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) and to the Australian Sports Museum. Unfortunately it was an "event day" so tours of the MCG weren't operating, but we managed to do a lap of the museum before it closed early for the sporting event on for the afternoon. The museum covered a...

Day 8 - exploring Melbourne This morning we got our heads around the complicated tram ticketing system and caught ourselves a tram into the city. Not really sure how the philosophy of encouraging people to take public transport works when it cost us four times what it cost to park the car in the city yesterday. Yes, part of the cost was a one-off for setting up the ticket cards for each of us - but really - even without that, it would have still been double the ...

Day 7 - Melbourne - 0kms (sort of) After a late night last night, we weren't in a rush this morning. Mid morning we wandered around the corner to Lygon St to see if there was anything open on the Good Friday holiday. After finding somewhere that only did coffee and pastry, and enduring a few rain drops, we decided to hop in the car and drive around to find some options. Eventually we found a place on Sydney Road - Vietnamese for breakfast - who'd have thought! I...

Day 6 - Blairgowrie (Mornington Peninsula) to Melbourne (Brunswick) via Phillip Island - about 300kms We got away about 9am or so, and dawdled towards Phillip Island. Our first stop was Arthur's Seat - the high point on the peninsula - where the views from the lookouts would probably have been amazing except for the foggy / misty morning that hadn't yet quite lifted. From there we found our way in the right direction, and knowing we would need an early dinner, ...