It’s been a minute! In post-peak-pandemic 2022 I still haven’t left Australia, but have been out and about having the odd adventure. To get into the swing of blogging again, here’s a post about my first travel outside of New South Wales in 2½ years.
Back in April, JJ and I got on a flight to spend a full-on 24 hours in Victoria’s capital. Our Melbourne trip mostly revolved around sessions at the URBNSURF wave park, but we also squeezed in a gallery visit and of course some foodie times.
THE LUME DIGITAL ART GALLERY
On arrival, we dropped our bags at our hotel and caught an Uber to South Wharf. THE LUME is Australia’s first permanent digital gallery and is inside Melbourne’s Convention and Exhibition Centre. Van Gogh will be at THE LUME for a limited time, so I booked early Saturday morning flights to make sure we’d be able to see the exhibit.
Every surface comes to life with animated masterpieces while a choreographed soundtrack plays, it’s a very cool multi-sensory experience. As well as viewing digital displays, you can step inside a recreation of Van Gogh’s bedroom, stroll through a space filled floor-to-ceiling with sunflowers, or dine at Café Terrace 1888. THE LUME was definitely worthwhile, I really enjoyed it.
BRUNCH @ HARDWEAR SOCIETE
Born in Melbourne’s famous laneways, Hardware Société is a bit of an institution. Starting life as one small 33-seat café, they’ve since opened a larger location in Melbourne, as well as outposts in Paris and Barcelona.
Knowing that brunch spots get busy on weekends, I reserved a table at Katherine Place, (10-minutes walk from South Wharf). If you love a tasty brekkie and decent coffee, you can’t go wrong with Hardware Société.
URBNSURF
When I asked JJ what he wanted to do for his birthday, this was it. URBNSURF Melbourne is Australia’s first surf park. Lessons cater to all levels from absolute beginners to experts. The beauty of a facility like this is that waves are consistent, as is the number of people allowed on them at any one time. If you’ve ever been surfing off any popular beach, you’ll know how crowded the best breaks can get.
I arranged two time slots for us within the 24 hours we were in Melbourne. The first was an intermediate open session at 7:00 pm on Saturday for JJ (I watched). The second was at 9:30 am on Sunday – an intermediate lesson for JJ and a beginner lesson for me. Wetsuit and board hire is available on site, which was perfect because that meant we could fly with carry-on bags only.
There were supposed to be three others in my group but they all cancelled, so I got 1:1 tuition for my first ever surf lesson 🙂 Don’t know why I hadn’t tried surfing sooner, it’s so fun! JJ said he picked up some great pointers in his lesson too. If you’d prefer to spectate, URBNSURF has other amenities including hot tubs, day beds, a kids playground, and an excellent restaurant.
THREE BLUE DUCKS RESTAURANT @ URBNSURF
Far from the usual water park snack bar, Three Blue Ducks offers delicious fresh dishes made with locally-sourced produce. Founded by a team of passionate chefs and avid surfers this restaurant serves up some seriously flavourful fare.
Since JJ’s Saturday night surf session finished fairly late we decided to stay onsite at URBNSURF for dinner. To start we shared spiced lamb ribs and raw kingfish. For mains JJ had a roasted free-range pork chop and I had the salmon. It was all so yum.
After dinner, we only had a 10-mins walk back to our hotel, the Mantra Tullamarine. As we were in Melbourne for just 24 hours and had planned multiple sessions at URBNSURF, staying near the airport rather than in the city centre worked well for us. The Mantra was quiet, clean and provided a good buffet breakfast – recommend.
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Our whirlwind trip to Melbourne was a big success, we both agreed we’d like to do it all again. I’m looking forward to the 2023 opening of URBNSURF in Sydney Olympic Park.
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