After a long holiday dry spell, we had an epic holiday to see the AFL grand final, indulge at Bora Bora, and snuck in a little visit to NZ on the way home.
Off with an early start leaving Perth, we had a lovely first day in Melbourne starting with a long lunch at MoVida with Andrew’s parents. After establishing that each tapas was a small bite that you can’t share, we proceeded to share pretty much everything because it was all just too good not to!
Next we caught up with Greg over a few beers at Hippo, Molly Rose, and then danced to some raucous jazz at Rooks Return. The Rookies were so much fun!
Second day in Melbourne started off with finally choosing a table for having breakfast on Degraves Street, then heading to the Pierre Bonnard exhibit at the National Gallery of Victoria to admire his beautiful paintings of landscapes, dogs, his wife, and the “I’d like you to paint me a cat. A what? A cat. You know what a cat is, right? You’ve seen a cat? Yeah, of course” cat painting.
Neville wasn’t so impressed, and thought the one Monet was the best painting there. We also stopped in to see the most expensive painting at the NGV, which we can’t wait to watch the documentary about!
Next was cake and a coffee stop at Brunetti on the way to the Melbourne Museum which has Phar Lap’s pelt (we’ve now almost seen all the parts of the horse), the most complete triceratops skeleton in the world, and great geology and insect exhibits.
Dinner at The Lincoln really hit the spot after a long day of walking!
Third day in Melbourne started off with a run around the tan (one lap for me, two for Andrew) and a tour of the MCG with an absolutely lovely volunteer who was clearly very passionate about sport.
We met our friends Moana and Nathan for drinks and dinner at Amarillo (great negronis, paprika chips, and a sbagliato that looked like Oblena from Aaahh!!! Real Monsters), Old Culture (wicket sour negroni), Bar Liberty (great food, was excited about the cabbage rolls but they were probably the least good thing), and a secret drink at Above Board.
Grand final day!!!
The breakfast was fantastic, laughed so much at the witty banter and inappropriate comedy, so unexpectedly fun! We placed a couple of $5 bets and as is tradition, I bet on the players with the best names (McLuggage and Steel Sidebottom).
The grand final was truly a once in a lifetime experience. KISS did an incredible job at getting everyone revved up for the game, which was the best footy I’ve seen for a long time. It was close the whole way, with the scores level at half time, and a hectic last quarter that Andrew says if it had been Freo playing, we would have probably vaporised with stress. Bobby Hills huge mark happened right in front of us, I’d never seen that happen so up close before! The Collingwood roar was huge, you could feel the MGC moving!!
Afterwards we met Georgia and headed into Richmond and found a pub to squeeze into where the game was being replayed, as well as the Collingwood song many, many times, we definitely know all the words (including “as all barrackers should”, which always eluded Andrew).
We met Heath who was full of name drops from his time at the September Club, and enjoyed the atmosphere on the streets. We joined in with a weird celebration that involved the crowd repeatedly throwing up an air mattress, then went to Stalactites for the best end of night kebab ever.
Our last full day in Melbourne was a chill one. Neville managed to get some pastries from Lune when he noticed the line was suddenly not insane, Andrew did another run around the tan while I used the gym, then Melbourne Markets, a drink at Kewpies and Black Pearl, and dinner at Cumulus Inc, before a full day of travel to Tahiti and Bora Bora ($75 for the lounge in Auckland was well worth it).
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