Melbourne Day 4 - Zoo Safari, Street Art, Luna Park and WINTER

Another early rise and this time off to Werribee Zoo. Today was absolutely freezing - around 8 degrees with an icy wind and very ominous, overcast skies.

Despite this, our group of brave tourists layered up and plowed onward for a morning with the animals. The safari tour in a jeep train through the savanna was an absolute highlight - students were able to see up close and personal camels (inquisitive enough to come right up to our open carriage), giraffes, rhino, zebra, ostrich, an antelope and her one day old baby, hippo, bison, long horn cattle, the list goes on.

We also had a serval demonstration - this remarkable cat showed her clever jumping and hunting skills. We then went to see the lions and watched a presentation. Hearing the two males roar and rumble at each other to establish their territory was impressive, and we were lucky enough to have the lioness come down to the fence for a milk bottle treat.

Some respite from the cold in our bus to head back to the CBD for our Graffiti Street Art Tour. Our tour guide Chris is a renowned Melbourne street artist who collaborates frequently with a group of highly diverse, talented and successful artists. We began at Federation Square and made our way through the lanes of the CBD inspecting various forms of street art and gaining a different perspective on graffiti as an art form.

Our tour culminated in the Blended art studio where the students were given a snack and saw where the artists base themselves from. The vibrant colours, creative pieces of art and their associated political and social commentary was a fascinating way to spend the afternoon.

From here Ray took us on a seaside tour of Melbourne, along the Formula Grand Prix home stretch and pit lanes to our final destination for the day – St Kilda. The wide grin of Luna Park stretched before us, holding promise to several hours or fun (and fear, for some). Students were given their unlimited pass bands and off they went on ghost trains, vertical drops, being flung upside down, spinning all over the place, bumper cars, 100 year old carousels … you name it. The shrill screams emanating from the rides (actually that was mostly Mr Franich when Miss Kybus made him go on some rides) were mostly of delight and the students had a blast, despite the icy temperatures.

Off to dinner across the street at McDonald’s (maybe not the most highbrow of restaurants but warm and delicious) before our weary bodies were taken back to the hotel for hot shower, PJs and packing to depart the next day.

Despite the at times uncomfortable cold, it had originally predicted a 90% chance of rain over the previous two days and we didn’t get wet at all – we are all very, very grateful to the weather gods for holding back on the rain for us!