Some of our dearest friends have lived in Melbourne for a couple of years, so it made sense to make a quick stop over for well overdue hang outs on our way back to NZ.
We flew into Sydney from Bangkok, waited around for our connecting flight and finally arrived in Melbourne early on Friday evening. We were lucky enough to be picked up from the airport (thanks Kimb!) and well keen for some real CHEESE - something we sorely missed in Asia - we headed to the Preston Market to get supplies for the evening. We spent the night with a couple of wines, a delicious platter of market brought goods and in excellent company.
If you’ve been to Melbourne, you’d know that it’s all about the food, the coffee, the bars and the shopping. Nowhere does brunch like Melbourne, so this was high on our list for Saturday. On our friends recommendation we went to Milkwood in Northcote (‘North Kit’) for super good coffee and the best food we’ve had since we don’t even remember. So effing good.
Having been to Melbourne a few times before and lucky enough to have friends with cars, we avoided the standard stuff and went for a drive north east of the city on Saturday to the St Andrews markets. In a typically Australian bush setting, we picked up a few vintage bargains (win!), basked in the early spring sun and enjoyed a good old Carlton Draft.
We had a table booked at The Standard Hotel in Fitzroy so we could get some of our Melbourne based friends in one place for an evening of catching up and probably boring them all with our travel stories. Chur to the bros that made it. Mean as.
Sunday was slow-ish: an amazing brunch again but this time at Small Victories in Carlton North, mani/pedi’s, a spot of shopping in the city and a few beers at the Carlton Club.
Sunday ended with a fabulous dinner at the one and only Movida - actually there is two of them now but we went to the original one just off Federation Square - delish! It was the perfect end to our short stay in Melbourne on our roundabout way home.
Thanks Melbs! Wish we could stay longer but as always, we’ll be back. It is our favourite city after all.
So like, New Zealand aye? It’s been awhile. Not sure how we feel about it but looking forward to whanau, a pie and some chocolate milk. Oh and maybe a V.