Day 16 Tuesday March 2, 2010

Map at the entrance to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne

View of a pond in the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne

Riverside walk along the Yarra River in Melbourne

Downtown Melbourne on the Yarra River

Downtown Melbourne- railway depot is domed building on right.

After our last breakfast on the veranda we re-packed our bags and re-weighed them until we got our suitcases under 20kg and the extra duffel bag well under the limit. We missed hearing the tea bell but joined the Diggers crew before they had finished all of the good morning tea treats. It was nice to have everyone gathered together so we were able to once again express our thanks and say our good-byes.

Thinking we could do some last minute blogging we headed back to the house but the internet area was in use so we shut everything down and packed the computer up too. Clive arrived with boxes of books for his office area and we tried to give him a hand moving them in. After finishing , he invited us to tea at Fork to Fork. Although we had already had tea with the gang, who can refuse tea and freshly made scones with the boss? It was so nice to have one last visit with Clive and to thank him again for his generous hospitality. Clive's wife Penny was going to be our ride into Melbourne around noon and as we were all packed and ready to go, we were able to enjoy our last minutes at Heronswood sitting on a bench overlooking the beautiful gardens and the Bay.

Penny wanted to drive us in to the city as she had made plans to meet her grandsons there after school and later stay overnight with her daughter in Melbourne. We enjoyed each moment of our ride into town as Penny shared her experiences and philosophies with us. Unfortunately we got a later start than she had hoped and with our hotel being on the far side of the city near the airport, and some slower traffic, we did not get to our hotel until after 1 and back downtown to the Botanical gardens until almost 2. So instead of joining us for lunch in the tearoom, Penny dropped us off at the garden gate with instructions on how to reach her in case we couldn't find our way back to the hotel and then hurried off to meet her grandsons.

We had a lovely stroll through Melbourne's Royal Botanical Gardens seeing lots of new trees and birds and just enjoying the warm sunny weather. We did have a lunch snack at the tea house and bought some last minute souvenirs before leaving the gardens and then walking along the Yarra River and crossing a bridge into downtown. We found our way to the information center where we stopped and got directions on how to get back to our hotel.

At about 5PM we decided to say good-bye to Melbourne and walked to the railway depot where we bought MET tickets and boarded an underground train for Essenton station. There we switched to a bus that dropped us off pretty close to our hotel. A short walk and we found ourselves back together with our luggage. As the Aussies say "No worries."

A supper meal of leftovers brought from Heronswood ended our day. This will be our last blog entry from Australia as tomorrow morning we head to the airport and our long flight home to the states. As our new friend Rex put it, "It is nice to go away and see wonderful things. But it is nicer still to be going home again."

Thank you to all of our new friends in Australia; for your generous gifts of food and knowledge and laughter and time. We will cherish our memories of your beautiful country and share our pictures with family and friends back home. Ta!