Melbourne

Saturday night was our first formal night and Captain’s Cocktail party with 1000 guests invited.  It was held around the pool in the centre of the ship with the roof closed for warmth as it was a bit chilly.  We met another couple from our dining table who are much younger, much fitter and much better looking than us.  They both surf and spend most of their day in the gym.  He told us that he rode his push bike from Brisbane to Sydney.  They have friends joining the ship in Melbourne so they will complete our table of 8.  The show was the usual P&O dancing and singing troupe performing “Another Opening Another Show”  which was pretty much the same as any other show we have seen on a ship. 

We woke around 7am when we were coming into the port of Melbourne and just as the sun was rising to another beautiful day.  There were about 10 hot air balloons out which was nice to see. 

After breakfast we headed off the ship at around 10am and walked the 4.5km to St Kilda along the waterfront. It was quite busy as there was a Weetbix Triathalon for kids taking place so some of the roads were closed which created a bottleneck of cars.  We walked through the beach markets then ended up at a bar on the beach where we had a refreshing drink and a rest.  On our way back we got side-tracked at a Wine expo which was part of the Wine and Food Expo which was part of the Moonbah Festival being held that weekend in Melbourne.  After Peter tried every wine from every vineyard (about 6) we then had to walk the 4.5kms back to the ship but not without stopping halfway at a café for some energy food!!

Last night was a casual night with a violinist for the nightly show which was very good but pretty boring with only a handful of people in the theatre. 

Our clocks went back half an hour in preparation for Adelaide time which gave us a bit of a sleep in.