Adventures of NaDave: NaDave Aussie: April 11/12 & 18/19

After our trip to New Zealand , we had the rest of April to spend around Melbourne & Geelong. We had plans to explore each city a little more, collect some gifts & souvenirs, and catch some much-anticipated rugby & footy matches. Even though we had only 1 month to go, we still had plenty to do!

April 11 & 12

After returning to Melbourne from NZ on Wednesday, the week ended quickly. It was a pretty quiet weekend, mostly filled with unpacking, sorting, and resting up. Autumn had begun to arrive, as the temperatures began to drop, and the time change shifted the sunset to before 6pm. We also quickly realized how difficult it can be to get around via bike when it’s colder & darker. The warmth and delight of summer had no doubt given way to the brisk grind of Fall.

On Sunday, we went to our 2nd of 3 rowing lessons at the nearby rowing club. We were a little rusty since our first lesson in March, but it was a sunny morning, and enjoyed the challenge again. We also came up with a plan for our last three weekends in the Melbourne area. We purchased tickets for the local AFL ‘Footy’ Team (The Geelong Cats), and each of the Rugby teams in Melbourne…The Melbourne Storm and The Melbourne Rebels. We also figured out our return flights back to the USA would be on May 12. We were entering our last month in Australia…wow!

April 18 & 19

During the week, Nadine found out that the Melbourne Int’lComedy Festival was finishing up (one of the biggest in the world). So with some planning on Thursday, we said “oh heck, lets do it!”. We decided to meet in downtown Melbourne on Friday, catch two shows, and then hop a late train back to Geelong. It was high-paced, but TOTALLY worth it. We first saw a local Aussie, Dave Hughes, and we laughed our butts off with his Aussie accent and phrases. Then we went across town to the theatre district to see Russell Kane, a young guy from the UK. And get this, during the show he asked where the audience was from, and Nadine yelled “New York” and the comedian heard her! Throughout the show, he kept referencing back to “Nadine from New York”, and we again laughed our faces off as the comedian made stereotype jokes about Brits, Aussies, & Americans alike. It was a really neat experience to be ‘part’ of the show. We then ran to catch the 11p train home (yes, literally ran), but made it!

Saturday morning we woke up early in Geelong and headed back into Melbourne for an action packed day of purchasing gifts/souvenirs we’d been talking about & then ending the evening with a Melbourne vs Sydney rugby match. We bounced around from the Market to local stores, grabbing a bunch of goodies. We took a slower pace, catching a coffee at a café and a drink at a pub. Then it was off to the Rugby match.

The Melbourne Storm played the Sydney Roosters in a ‘National Rugby League (NRL)’ match (think Arena League Football in the States). The teams are mostly located around Sydney, as NRL is the main sport in Northern AUS. Well the rains came, and made it a sloshy match. But it ended in thrilling fashion, as Melbourne converted a game winning kick in the last minute…final score 17-16! We again caught a late train home, full of Melbourne pride. (Think Boston vs NY…for Melbourne vs Syd).

Sunday we slept in and then headed to a yoga class to work out everything from Friday & Saturday. Then after a relaxing, yummy home-cooked brunch, we biked over to the local AFL Footy match. Footy is the main sport in southern Australia, and it was great to see the two sports back-to-back. The Geelong Cats played the Gold Coast Suns on a chilly day with temps down in the 50s. Good thing we brought our ponchos, as the skies did open up a few times. The match was exciting, and it was also fun for Nadine to cheer for her ‘hometown team’. Geelong fell behind early, but pulled out a late victory in the 4^th quarter….final score 105-96! What a great weekend for sport…our teams went 2-0!