Tuesday 06 February, 2024

This morning we woke up to a much cooler day; Melbourne is so like Christchurch with the up and down weather… super hot one day, cool the next.

We had a free breakfast at the hotel this morning, and nobody loves a hotel breakfast more than Jessie does… pancake machine come at us!!

It was quite packed in the breakfast area – lots of lanyards, so I imagine there was a conference going on in the hotel. I watched in amusement as one lady tried to navigate her Nutella on toast… I assume there was toast, all I could see was a huge square of Nutella.

After brekkie, we headed out to walk about 1km to the NGV (National Gallery of Victoria AKA Night Goggle Vision), which is not too far from Flinders Street Station, heading towards St Kilda. We’d seen the NGV was free to enter (until the start of April), and thought it would be good to do something a bit more on the cultural side. Across the road (in the centre island, amongst the trees) we noticed a bunch of LED signs which had the outlines of birds moving around like real birds would… really cool.

The Gallery is an impressive building that kind of gives that mild feeling of megalophobia. The first exhibit we went to see was called Rififi – Jean Jullien For Kids. Child or adult, the imagery is fun! Jessie got to put on a little fish costume, pick up a bucket and wander around collecting rubbish from the coral, and then emptying it. Super vibrant, cute sounds… an all round fun sensory experience (with a good message about keeping our oceans clean).

The other exhibit that really stood out to us was Heterobota – robot “animals” which “play, rest, and paint” in their studio. They were absolutely fascinating, and somewhat scary to watch.

Honourable mentions go to Comedian – literally just a banana taped to the wall, which has a whooooole heap of merch based on it (I bought the washi tape), and The End, an animatronic mouse living in a whole in the wall… Jessie loved it. It was pretty cute.

It was a really cool gallery, even the videos playing around the cafe while we had a coffee were cool – of one of those hydraulic presses crushing things (I’ll admit, I’ve seen them come up on Facebook reels many times, and a few of those times I’ve mindlessly watched it for a little too long) while the artist, dressed in similar colours to the item being crushed, interprets the movements with her body.

When we left the NGV it was raining out, so we rushed over to the tram outside of it and jumped on one that took us close-ish to the hotel. So handy those things! They should really think about light rail for Christchurch 😉.

Our next stop was Operator Diner on Little Lonsdale. Self-described as “an American diner that’s very Melbourne” and that about sums it up! Have you ever watched a scene on an American movie where the characters visit a diner and the sounds of the sizzling bacon, eggs being cracked onto the grill, and bottomless coffee being poured looks/sounds so good, even though you know it’s probably not? Well this place is all that, but it actually is so good! Batch brew coffee for Craig, Milo milkshakes for Jessie and I; a Reuben-style sandwhich for Craig, prawn Mac and Cheese for Jessie and I. It was really fun… well, until the woman next to us began yelling and swearing at the man she was with about how toxic he is – Jessie stood right in front of them and stared, and still they persisted! Luckily that was at the end of our meal, and so off we went to our final stop of the journey – Monopoly Dreams!

Craig picked Monopoly Dreams for our last activity, and it did not disappoint! “A fully immersive and interactive Monopoly experience”… this was so much fun and we recommend it to anyone going on a family trip to Melbourne! Challenges and 4D movie aside, I really enjoyed looking at the history of Monopoly (apparently Monopoly helped allied POWs escape during WW2! They used copies of the game to hide escape tools and money), and at all the super boujee game boards you can buy (one was $700!). You can redeem your Monopoly money on retail or at their perfectly curated Monopoly cafe next door, which was our choice – Craig certainly enjoyed his special drink.

This was the perfect note to end our mini holiday on!

A quick stop to pick up obligatory Caramel Koalas and Frogs Alive, and we were about done (with one last swim snuck in before bed).

See you again in April, when I head to Sydney with my Dad for the Incubus and LIVE concert.

Thanks for reading!

❤ Laus