After months of planning and counting down, the day had finally arrived - Day 1 of Melbourne Tour!
The Year 7 students, teachers and parents alike were buzzing as we met at Townsville Airport earlier yesterday morning. For some students this would be their first time to Melbourne and for the majority their first time flying without their parents - what an exciting adventure!
After a lunch and sushi/red rooster stop in Brisbane, we found ourselves landing in a very chilly and rainy Melbourne. With temperatures this week ranging from 8-18 degrees, we have been anticipating a belated winter experience and we certainly have it!
A delayed flight from Brisbane meant we had a very quick and efficient check in process to our hotel, before racing (very safely, parents) across the road to our tour of Old Melbourne Gaol. Our tour guide Troy was one of the most entertaining tour guides we've all ever had - he kept the students totally absorbed with tales of what prison life was really like back in the 1800s, including the prison wide and city-wide "pee and poo disposal" problem (cue lots of giggling), the effects of the gold rush and of course the infamy of Ned Kelly, who spent just one hour in the prison before meeting his death.
We had a little free time in our rooms to unpack and freshen up before it was time for dinner. All that hard work sitting on a plane had obviously taken its toll as we were ravenous! Pizza, chips and salad overload made for some very happy tourists!
Ahead was a night walk of the CBD. This involved seeing the lights and sights of the city, a quick shop for all tourists at H&M in its spectacular heritage building (where, with only a small window of time, the girls literally ran through finding things to buy in something impressively reminiscent of the Amazing Race), a Yu-Gi-Oh card stock up - with a very excited Daniel Lee who finally got some highly coveted cards - a frantic jump on to busy trams for a ride down to Federation Square and past Flinders Station, and at long last the much anticipated Krispy Kreme donut pit stop.
Well and truly past most bedtimes, we meandered back through the city (with some kids heard exclaiming "gee it's busy for a Thursday night!") to our hotel, where the students, of course, immediately went to sleep in preparation for our first full day in Melbourne - watch this space to read all about it!!!
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