After our campervan adventures and spending the night on the Spirit of Tasmania we arrived into Melbourne on Easter Sunday, it was a perfectly calm morning and the water over Port Melbourne was like glass, the hot air balloons floated silently over the skyline and it felt a little like coming home after more than a year in New South Wales.


We met a group of very close friends and had lunch at Mya Tiger at the Hotel Esplanade, an iconic pub located in St Kilda, the meal was great, lots of delicious food – more than we could eat, fabulous cocktails and the chatter and laughter of friends who we had dearly missed.

We spend the rest of our stay visiting excellent pubs and restaurants, something Melbourne is well known for. Nearby the recently renovated ‘The Graham Hotel’, with the best combination of delicious lamb pie and tasty pinot noir for a cold night. We even managed to head out for a kite the next afternoon, albeit in full wet suits as the water was chilly.

On Tuesday we had a lovely lunch at The Yorkshire Hotel after visiting our friends beautiful new house in Abbotsford. Sam pictured below with Lily.

Mid-week we discovered a new restaurant in the CBD called Hochi Mama which was packed, exciting to see as Melbourne is clearly recovering post the covid lockdowns with locals and visitors heading out to enjoy all of the culinary delights Melbourne has to offer.
Sam joined some of her friends for a day trip to the Peninsula Hot Springs, stopping for lunch on the way while Ben was working remotely during the week, taking a break on Friday to have Japanese for lunch including a whiskey soda.

Keeping the Japanese theme we headed to Summer’s Garden Bar, a Japanese-inspired bar in North Melbourne specialising in Japanese whisky, sake, wine and beer before having an amazing Italian dinner at Amiconi restaurant across the road.

We went walk-about on Saturday morning, heading to the South Melbourne markets between bouts of rain and yes, the eating and drinking continued.


After a big day of walking, our final night out was at Crafty Squire’s, in the city followed by crepes at Leona Cafe on Sunday as the cold weather really set in and it was time to head back north.
We miss Melbourne but we don’t miss the cold and our waistlines could do without all the temptation!
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