This past weekend, we went to Healesville Sanctuary for the Wine & Wildlife event. After a stressful morning navigating public transportation, we spent the day sampling wines and looking at animals! Definitely coming back to this awesome place whenever we can.
australia
National Gallery of Victoria
I went to the NGV last week to see the Festival of Photography, and then I just walked around admiring everything. My favourites were the William Eggleston and Ross Coulter exhibits. The former is a window to the past, while the latter is a kind of modern take on performance art.
Photography is so diverse and amazing.
Great Ocean Road
My husband and I took a trip to the Great Ocean Road for our anniversary. Even though the weather wasn’t great, everything was beautiful! We even saw some koalas.
We started in Portland and drove all the way back to Melbourne in three days.
Dog Walk at R.J. Hamer Arboretum
We took the dogs for a long walk at R.J. Hamer Arboretum. They loved exploring, and got pretty muddy! There are so many more walks in the Dandenong Ranges that we want to see.
Friday Fun – Tasmania
During our Tasmania road trip, my mom took a lot of pictures of me taking pictures. So here are some of hers, next to the photo I was taking. Some of them are pretty amusing 🙂
French Food Festival – Melbourne
Spent a lazy Sunday at Fed in French in Federation Square last week. Delicious cheese and champagne!
Tasmania – Cataract Gorge Reserve
We explored Cataract Gorge in Launceston. It’s such a cool spot so close to the city. The walk goes to the historic Duck Reach Power Station.
Tasmania – Wineries & Richmond
My next post about Tasmania features Richmond and nearby wineries: Coal Valley Vineyard, Frogmore Creek, and Pooley Vineyards. Richmond is a really neat historical town with a lot to see! Including the oldest Roman Catholic church in Australia and the Richmond Bridge.
This is the third post about our Tasmania adventure. The others show Cradle Mountain and Bicheno.
Tasmania – Bicheno
Here is the next post about our Tasmania road trip! Bicheno was an adventure in itself; we climbed on the rocks by the water, saw wild penguins on a late night nature walk, and went to East Coast Natureworld to see Tasmanian Devils up close.
Tasmania – Cradle Mountain
I recently went on a road trip through Tasmania with my family. I have so many pictures so I’m splitting them up into a few blog posts. First up: Cradle Mountain National Park! We walked around Dove Lake and then went up to Marion’s Lookout. One of the hardest but most beautiful hikes I’ve ever done!
City By the Yarra with No Fixed Address
Last month, I got to photograph a tour by No Fixed Address. Their mission, from their website:
“We are offering competitive, world-class walking tours, delivered by experts who are considered homeless or living in supported housing. As our guides are from the streets, they’ll be able to comment on not only the history of the city, but also delve into the
impacts of historical events that affected our society.”
Our tour guide, Pete, showed us parts of Melbourne I didn’t know existed! It was a great time and I highly recommend it as something different and interesting to do in this city.
Car Shows
I met up with a photography group to go check out some classic car shows this past Saturday. These were taken at the Souvlaki Hut Charity Car Show and Rockabilly Rats, Tatts N’ Pinups at the Waltzing Matilda hotel. There were a lot of American cars that were good to see. I was extremely happy to learn that rockabilly music is popular here and people know how to swing dance!
Melbourne | Scenes
A few scenes around the beautiful city of Melbourne (my new home!)
St. Kilda Beach
St. Kilda Beach
Melbourne Star
view from the Star
view from the Star
Royal Exhibition Building
Royal Exhibition Building
Melbourne Museum
Just a few shots from the Melbourne Museum. We learned about the history of Melbourne, and then we went to the Human Body exhibit, the Wild animal hall, and the Darwin to DNA exhibit. I predict many more visits to this museum in the future!
Queen Victoria Market | Melbourne
One of the greatest things to do in Melbourne is visit the Queen Victoria Market. It’s the largest outdoor market in the southern hemisphere, and it has absolutely everything you could think of. From home goods and clothes, to all kinds of fresh foods, to live chickens.
These were taken on two different days: a busy Saturday and a Wednesday winter Night Market. We plan on doing all of our grocery shopping here 🙂
Sydney | Taronga Zoo
A trip to Sydney isn’t really complete without a visit to the Taronga Zoo. It’s beautiful, and huge, with so much to see. I definitely recommend the bird show!
Road Trip – Brisbane to Sydney
We rented a campervan to travel from Brisbane to Sydney. It was a week of camping and exploring the coast in the best way possible! We actually went up north to Noosa and Sunshine Coast before heading south. We saw so many beautiful places. I can’t wait to go on another road trip in the same style!
Noosa
Wild Horse Mountain Lookout
Byron Bay
Cape Byron Lighthouse
Japanese Curry at Byron Bay
Forest Sky Pier
Coffs Harbour
Bago Vineyard and Maze
camping 🙂
North Stradbroke Island
North Stradbroke Island is a quick ferry ride away from Brisbane. Another short bus ride brings you to Point Lookout, where the North Gorge Walk holds some absolutely amazing views. It is currently the height of whale season, and we saw at least 3 humpback whales. We also spotted a pod of dolphins, some adorable wallabies, and kangaroos.
We will definitely have to come back here someday!
Around Brisbane
Most of our days here have consisted of walking around and exploring. Some of it planned, some of it completely spontaneous. Either way, this city has not disappointed!
Here are some of the sights in and around Brisbane.
walking by the river
Story Bridge
Roma Parklands
Kingscliff
Recycled art exhibit
Sunset from the cliffs
Cliffs Cafe
Brisbane – Food & Festivals
It’s winter in Brisbane, and I swear there’s still at least one festival every weekend. Everyone here just loves to be out all of the time having fun. Just how I like it! We have gone to the Teneriffe Festival and the French Festival, as well as Eat Street Markets.
We have gone out to eat way more than we probably should, but it has been completely worth it. We have simply never had a bad meal. Every international cuisine you can think of is here, and it’s all authentic and wonderful.
There’s also free live music to be found every single night of the week. That’s heaven for this Texas girl.
We’re on vacation so I’m having way too much fun and probably not taking enough pictures, but here are a few, and there’s more of Brisbane to come!
salad with proscuitto and pumpkin
chicken yaki soba at Eat Street Markets
Eat Street Markets
live music at Eat Street Markets
Teneriffe Festival
Halloumi
cheese plate at the French Festival
the French Festival at South Bank
wine tasting at the French Festival
baguette!
We’re Moving to Australia!
Today my husband and I start our new and biggest adventure yet:  we’re getting on a one-way flight to Australia! We will be starting in Brisbane and making our way down to Melbourne, looking for the right spot for us. We have no jobs lined up yet, but we have a 5 year visa and big dreams. I’ll be posting our adventures on this blog! My camera can’t wait 😉
The picture is of Bondi Beach when we went to visit 3 years ago. Many more sunrise/sunset pics to come, I’m sure 🙂
Christina Hardcastle photography 