Melbourne: Discovering the city's hidden delights

Oct 12 2009 by Steve Murphy, Birmingham Post

Take a brave pill...
To get the best out of a visit you have to be brave. Graffiti-covered alleyways and unmarked doorways hide some amazing bars and restaurants. It’s well worth the effort, as Melbourne is a food lover’s paradise, with fantastic home grown cuisine and a vast array of international restaurants scattered across the city.

The underground bar scene is a big thing here. Less is more, and from the outside it’s a case of ‘the harder to find, the cooler the bar’. Alleyways strewn with litter and stale food mark the gateway to hip venues of choice. Once inside these offer luxurious decor, sophisticated cocktails and cool retro furniture to lounge around on.

Mention Melbourne and most people will think of the recent wild fires that hit the headlines around the world and devastated the region. Within an hour’s drive from the city is the Yarra Valley. The land is scorched and burnt but the people are not beaten. Wine tasting trips to this area used to be big business but the last month has seen visitor numbers suffer.

The Healesville animal sanctuary was in the front line, looking after some of the animals caught up in the disaster. The sanctuary has a new hospital which is open to visitors and offers the chance to watch operations though windows and CCTV monitors, as vets treat injured and sick animals ready for their return to the wild. The bushland setting is calm and tranquil which makes it an ideal place to get close to koalas, kangaroos and even the bizarre looking platypus.

Life in this region is quickly returning to normal. Rain has begun to fall and tourists are venturing back. I visited two breweries in the area; the Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander and the Domaine Chandon. This is great way to spend the afternoon, tour the wineries, get a behind-the-scenes look at the breweries and wine cellars before getting stuck into the fun stuff: “It’s more fun to drink than watch,” I was told. This sums up the spirit of the people in this state, where car number plates carry the motto Victoria ‘The place to be’. They love their wine and are rightly proud of their region, and despite the recent events everyone is positive, confident and upbeat about the future.

Dalesford - a country retreat
At the end of my trip I travelled to Dalesford, a country retreat that has the feel of a frontier outpost in the American westerns. This is the ultimate chill out zone - local spas will pamper you offering all manor of treatments to relax, unwind and rejuvenate.

For my visit to Dalesford, I stayed at the Lake House, a calm intimate family-run luxury hotel where the soundtrack of cars and trams is replaced by an amazing melody of bird song. Never have I felt more welcome, and after a sumptuous meal I woke up feeling refreshed and through the melody of strange bird song, I sensed an all-too familiar sound… rain pattering on the leaves.

I really did feel at home.

Travel Facts
For more details about about booking a holiday to Australia visit Tourism Australia’s consumer website on www.australia.com
Emirates flies twice-daily from Birmingham to Dubai and onwards to over 100 destinations worldwide including four destinations in Australia – Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Sydney. Fares from to Melbourne (via Dubai) costs from £764 per person. Brisbane (via Dubai) costs from £773 per person. www.emirates.com/uk

Hotels Crown Promenade, 8 Whiteman Street ,Southbank VIC 3006 Tel: (03) 9292 6688www.crownpromenade.com.au
Lake House, 4 King Street, Daylesford VIC Tel: (03) 5348 3329 www.lakehouse.com.au

All aboard the Airbus SuperJumbo
It’s not that I don’t like flying, it’s just once I go farther than any EU boundaries it takes half my holiday to get my legs back into the same, usable condition they started the journey in. When I was offered the chance to jet across the globe to visit southern Australia, the prospect of seven flights in ten days filled me with dread. All this is a thing of the past. This change of heart can be attributed to one thing, albeit one very big thing… the new Airbus A380.

This is the new super jumbo passenger plane and I got the chance to enjoy its many charms on a flight from Sydney to Dubai with Emirates. The double decker can seat 14 first, 76 business and 399 economy class passengers. As soon as you board you know things are going to be different, very different. The staircase leading upstairs is wide and welcoming; no squeezing through the aisles here.

My seat was a pod-like enclosure trimmed in teak with a personal mini bar, and with enough space to stretch my 6ft frame as far as I possibly could. Each pod gives the traveller plenty of personal space. I chose a meal from the menu before laying back to watch a film.

The Airbus’ bar is as smart and stylish as you could hope for, and it was here that I found myself chatting to fellow passengers before sleeping for the last 4,000 miles. If only the world was bigger.