| Frank & Lisa's Amazing Cross-Australia Adventures |
| on to New Zealand ...or |
| The Melbourne Hat. Dubbed the biggest annual ultimate hat tournament in the southern hemisphere. Also known as the most fun. For the uninitiated, a hat tourney is where players of various skill levels (ie. beginner, intermediate, advanced, worlds) are split up evenly across teams to form relatively equivalent teams of players of varying skill levels. The teams are decided by drawing names randomly out of a hat. The intention is to give all teams a shot at the title, and all players a chance to really get involved in play and meet new people. Here we met up with many an old friend. This included Dan McNaughton (pic below right), newly returned home after a couple of years in Canada, where I repeatedly ran into him at ultimate tourneys and other random events... Also at the festivities were my roommate Phil and his girlfriend Emma, so it was a bit of a stange reunion after several months of us not actually living together on any regular basis! Other Brisbanites, girls from my Melbourne women's ultimate team from Nationals, and miscellaneous ultimate regulars abounded! Frank was actually on Dan's team (pic below left), which had an amazingly fun time all around. Drunk teammates, good cheers, and on field rule change antics made for a good fun tourney. Barely a mention was made of their 1-5 record because they were too busy making sure their teammates had a good time. Actually, Dan came out with the most spirited player award, and thanks to Canadian Beaver Dave, they also won the party! I, unfortunately, ended up on a team with several expert players who took themselves too seriously and who let the spirit of a hat tourney get away from them. Beginner and intermediate playes were looked off in favour of a point scored between the top players (which drove us to a stunning 2-4 win-loss record, might I point out), and not a single team cheer was made in two days... After 3 years of anxiously looking forward to attending this supposedly fabulous tournament, I was obviously somewhat disappointed with the result. (Hence, no photo of my team...) This, however, was assuredly the exception to the rule, as everyone else I know raved about what a fabulous time they had with their teams. |
| Victoria - Melbourne |
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| Our social activities over the course of the tourney involved hanging out with Phil, Emma, their Melbourne friends, and Mel from Brissy. No party for us, but we had a nice time and no hangover on the second day of play was a bonus for folks our age! ;) Our next day was spent hobbling around the National Gallery of Victoria (reminiscent of the National Gallery of Quebec?) slower than many of the geriatrics with walkers! Four months of no exercise followed by 6 games of ultimate in 2 days of intense heat will do that... The front entrance has this cool wall of water that you have to walk |
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| That night we hit the Greek precinct for dinner. We were originally planning to hit the Italian precinct, but it was several blocks further away, which at the time seemed much farther than it actually was! Trivia fact: Melbourne has the largest Greek population outside of Athens. This made for a great meal! On the way we wandered through downtown and stopped to hear an |
| Colonial Wheat, 3 Weissman, Portland Pale Ale, and James Squire India Pale Ale. Fantastic atmosphere and the best micro-brew down under made for a perfectly mellow late afternoon. Then it was Chinatown for dinner before we headed back to the hotel to pack for the next day's flight home! All in all, Melbourne reminded us both very much of Toronto, except the tram system running through the main streets made driving even crazier! They had lots to see, buy, eat & do to keep you busy there for quite a long time, but at the end of the day it was a city like any other. |
| mouth and a personal guide! After going down a couple of dodgy alleys in Chinatown and passing many a very smelly dumpster (as only a dumpster behind an Asian restaurant can smell), you arrive at the Institute. The inside is done up like an old science lab you had in high school (pic left). A still on the second level makes their own vodka, and the bar on the third floor is actually made of live grass! Strangely, the |
| only other people in the bar included a group of ultimate people we knew from Brissy! After a couple of martinis, our poor legs and our return tram tickets said it was time to go home! |
| around to get inside (pic left)! It had just opened after being closed for 3-4 years of renovation, so it was actually good timing! They specialize in international art, while the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra focuses on ANZ art (which I actually preferred). Rembrandt's etchings are particularly popular there, and they have some cool stuff from Egypt, too. |
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| orchestra playing out in a little park on Swanston Street (pic above). After a fabulous meal, we met up with Phil and company to go to a bar our friend Brian recommended. It is called The Croft Institute, and no one would ever find it but through word of |
| Our last day was spent just the two of us! We started with breakfast at one of the unbelievable bakeries on Acklund St. Then we went shopping at the factory outlets on Bridge St. We then hit the James Squire Brewhouse (pic right) downtown for some superb microbrew! On tap and unavailable in bottles we had |
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| Northern Territory: Red Centre , 2 / Top End , 2 NSW & ACT: Hunter Valley / Sydney / Canberra , 2 Queensland Coast: 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 South Australia: Barossa Valley / Kangaroo Island / McLaren Vale & Coonawarra Victoria: Great Ocean Road , 2 , 3 / Melbourne New Zealand (North Island): Aukland / Rotorua / Tongariro / Wellington (South Island): Nelson / Westland / Queenstown / Milford / Dunedin / Mt Cook / Christchurch |