DAILY UPDATE #12 – AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND 2018

Return to Melbourne

Our time in Tasmania has come to an end, and after a short flight across the Bass Strait we are back in Melbourne for a few days.  What do you do in Melbourne on a Thursday afternoon?

Hobart airport

I have to highlight this airport — it’s just so cute!  I have not been to an airport where you can see each end easily, there was no wait to go through security, and all gates are at ground level providing a great view of the runway and apron.  This picture, of a Virgin Australia 737 set up for boarding.  Flights pull up to their apron position, unload and load passengers, and then when ready for take-off, turn around and head down the end of the runway, turn and take off.

go to the movies

Once back in Melbourne, we headed to the movies.  Australia and other parts of the world had the scheduling windfall of having the Avengers: Infinity War (part 1) movie released before North America.  I really wanted to see the movie on Australia’s opening day, ANZAC Day, however the movie was sold out at the theatre by our hotel in Hobart.  Today though, we were successful in getting to a theatre and getting good seats.  We routinely see movies in the VIP theatre at home, largely because we enjoy the large comfortable reclining chairs.  The equivalent here is called “Gold Class”.  Between each pair of seats is a table that had space for all the food, snacks and drinks we ordered. What stood out for us was that the theatre had around half as many seats as the VIP theatres we visit.  Also, if we had known the seats recline so much, we would have opted for the front row.  As for the movie itself, I will not give spoilers other than it’s a long movie — from ads to the final credits & cut scene was almost 2 hours 45 minutes.

From there we travelled downtown to our hotel for the next few nights.  We are busy planning our day on Friday, as the evening has already been planned.  As usual, more on that tomorrow.