Melbourne, Australia – Feb 16

Melbourne, Australia – Feb 16

This is a new port for us, and we decided to wing it. There is Phillip Island that has the smallest penguin, known as the Little Blue or Fairy Penguin (and a few other names), but we have seen them before so didn’t look into going there. There is also a wildlife encounter Moonlit Sanctuary very much like Featherdale from Sydney. If we hadn’t already done that, we would gone to that. Featherdale is wonderful and we have seen some of these critters in the wild, so not critical to us to go there. We opted to get transportation tickets for the day and visit the Royal Botanical Gardens and see some of the sights in the city.

sunrise from the balcony

We went to the face-to-face immigration which was done as we went off the ship.

Princess had a free shuttle to city center, so we didn’t need the transportation tickets. We walked from there to the gardens. We started with the Queen Victoria Gardens which are part of the Domain Parklands, which stretch along St Kilda Road from the Yarra River to the botanic gardens. The gardens were created as a memorial to the monarch who named the state, and two of its grandest statues depict Queen Victoria and her son, Edward VII. The best-known feature of the gardens is the large floral clock, which contains around 7,000 flowers and is redesigned twice a year.

lighted signs of birds

event

Australian Magpie

The Queen Victoria Gardens' Floral Clock

Magpie-lark

Edward VII

Maned Ducks

Rainbow Lorikeet

Water Nymph

Chestnut Teal

Dusky Moorhen - Adult

Pacific Black Duck

Noisy Miners

Dusky Moorhen - Juvenile

Maned Ducks

Maned Duck

The Queen Victoria Memorial

Little Corellas

Eastern Rosella

Long-billed Corella

Laughing Kookaburra & Noisy Miner

Laughing Kookaburra

Brown Thornbill

Kings Domain is an area of parklands in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in 1854. It surrounds Government House Reserve, the home of the governors of Victoria, the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, and the Shrine Reserve incorporating the Shrine of Remembrance.

Kings Domain is part of a larger group of Domain Parklands, which includes; The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kings Domain, Alexandra Gardens, Queen Victoria Gardens and Gallipoli Gardens - The Memorial Garden was developed jointly with Friends of Gallipoli Inc. to remember the 92 fallen Diggers from Bayside. The names of all 92 Diggers are etched on steel plaques affixed atop ten rocks, representing the cemeteries at Gallipoli where they are buried.

Government House

Noisy Miner

Noisy Miner

A Tribute to our War Horses

Shrine of Remembrance

The diverse Royal Botanic Gardens are a popular spot for locals and tourists alike.

entry to the gardens

mural in the cafe

Eurasian Blackbird

gondolas for hire on the lake

Common Moorhen

on larger photo you can see the spider webs

Fern Gully

later in the day we passed by the clock again

After wandering the gardens, we went in search of lunch. We ended up at a Korean Chicken place. (fast food type) Then we went for gelato, which turned out to just be ice cream made to look like gelato. It hit the spot though.

street art

looked like we made a wrong turn to Barcelona

lunch

Prawn Dumplings

Garlic Chicken Noodle Bowl

mural near the food court

Then we walked along the river until it was time for our 2-hour boat ride.

The first boat ride was to see the Yarra River that goes past the gardens, and we ended up in the middle seats with no view or airflow. For the City loop I got a window seat which was hot in the sun, but it had a breeze, and I could take some photos. Greg spent most of the time out back taking photos. (and there were fans back there)

the river boat

going upriver past gardens and more

break between boat rides - captain's area

inside the boat

Princes Bridge - 1888

our boat going under Queen's Bridge

Queen's Bridge 1889

King's Bridge - 1961

under Spencer Street Bridge - 1930

reflection shot on the building

We walked back to the ship’s shuttle with the intent of walking back out of the port to have dinner and gelato. After getting back on the ship we decided to scrap that plan and just eat on the ship. It was a very hot day (97*) so we were beat. We ate upstairs at the buffet, and I got tacos from the Grill. As always, desert was “more of the same”. However, we overheard people talking about strawberries and went in search of them. We eat a bunch of them. They were the small very flavorful ones. There have been no berries to be found on this cruise. (only as a garnish on something)

from the ship

magnet

We came back to the cabin to shower, and we decided to go see the show that was a “Hypnotist”, Dale K. Always funny to watch people act out up there under the guise of being under the influence.

We saw 2 new birds today (though many birds were seen). We added the Pacific Gull and the Brown Thornbill to our life list.

Port Area: 

Silver Gull

Pacific Gull NEW

Pied Cormorant

Welcome Swallow 

Parks:

Maned Duck

Pacific Black Duck

Chestnut Teal

Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)

Dusky Moorhen

Laughing Kookaburra

Long-billed Corella

Eastern Rosella

Rainbow Lorikeet

Noisy Miner

Brown Thornbill NEW

Australian Magpie

Pied Currawong

Magpie-lark

Common Myna

Eurasian Blackbird

For larger photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/TVJAW6vrKX3jQKtt8

We now have one day at sea before Sydney.