Melbourne 2023 April

• Autumn has fallen
• Time by Rone
• Royal Exhibition Dome Tour
• Easter gin tasting
• Free Walking Tour
• VR at Eureka tower
• Expats in Melbourne meetup
• Imaginator
• Ballarat
• 6 month anniversary balloon adventure

Autumn arrived with all its chill, wind, rain, and clouds so we broke out the scarves, gloves, and down jackets to stay busy.

Rone is a popular street artist who took over the 3rd floor of Flinders Station to create a multi-room cultural snap shot of post WW2 working women. The woman in the art is a model and muse Teresa Oman. I enjoyed the art and experience.

Royal Exhibition Building Dome Promenade

The Royal Exhibition Building was built for the 1880 Melbourne International Exhibition but was just opened for tours after 100 years of being closed.

Here are some other things we did, sans photos:

• For Easter, we went to a colleague’s house for dinner and gin tasting. Yum.
• We’d never taken the free walking tour so we did that one free Monday. I learned new things!
• I did VR at Eureka tower which was more fun than I thought it would be. The show took me all over Melbourne including the horse track and formula one racing.
• I joined an Expats in Melbourne Facebook group and we had a meetup. I met lovely people and plan to go to lunch in the future with one woman.

Imaginator was advertised as an immersive play experience where imagination and technology collide to create a stunning audio-visual play experience from the future. There were multiple rooms, installations, and experiences that stimulated all senses. I particularly liked walking through drapes of lighted streamers, creating color explosions on a fabric circle, and lying down on a giant rotating bean bag with several other people to stare at the mirrored and projected images on the ceiling.

Ballarat

The trains were out so we had a bus replacement to and from Ballarat. We walked around the lake and visited the botanic garden which was heavy with dahlias. The mapped walking tours included notable buildings and public art. The next day we went to Sovereign Hill, a town depictting Ballarat’s first ten years after the discovery of gold there in 1851.

Surprise!

For our 6 month anniversary, DH2 surprised me with a balloon ride and champagne brunch. We often see the balloons wafting over the city so although the wind didn’t carry us close to the city, it was an amazing ride.

We only have one more week in Melbourne and then we’re off to the Gold Coast.