melbourne: our big day out and the mornington peninsula

on friday we had tickets to go to a music festival in melbourne called big day out. it is a one day festival that travels around australia and new zealand. jam was particularly excited as pearl jam were headlining and i was really looking forward to seeing arcade fire. in typical festival fashion on friday morning it was tipping it down so we made sure we were fully prepared with rain macs and good shoes but actually it had cleared up nicely by the time we got there. we saw tame impala, primus, the hives, beady eye, arcade fire and pearl jam.

guest review of pearl jam's set from jam:

"the pearl jam" (as davey at work insists on calling them) played a blinding 26-song, 135 minute set. and despite this being around an hour shorter than their typical gigs, they played to a festival crowd consisting of a surprising amount of die-hard fans. i saw many with pearl jam tattoos similar to my own, including one thrifty genius who had made his own pearl jam t-shirt by scribbling the band's name on the front of a plain t-shirt and ripping a large hole in the back to expose his tattoo. the grunge spirit obviously lives on, and a perfect circle of inescapable sunburn is surely but a small price to pay. as the sun set behind the band, it was a perfect gig in a perfect setting. jeremy, given to fly, and dissident were my personal highlights, but it was great to see a few from the new album live for the first time. unforgettable.

on saturday, jam, jo, jurgen and i packed up the house and made our way to their friends', herbie and alison's, beach house where we would be spending the next few days with them. it's a gorgeous house in rye, a popular beach resort on the mornington peninsula near melbourne, about an hour and a half away from the city itself. it was australia day - sorry, 'straya day! - long weekend, so absolutely packed around the beach. we obviously weren't the only people with the idea. however, up in the house - standing on stilts on a hill edge in the trees - there were no crowds to bother us, and we had a lovely, peaceful weekend in rye. when we first arrived, jam, jo and i headed off for a little walk. unfortunately i didn't take my camera, but we saw some huge eleven-legged starfish on the beach, much bigger than my hand. whilst admiring the starfish we were approached by a wannabe steve irwin, who grabbed it out of the sea for us and held it close enough for us to touch and examine, repeating his one known fact over and over to us: if a starfish loses a leg, then it just grows it back again.

we were greeted back at the beach house by a glass of lovely champagne with hibiscus flowers dropped it it and a beautiful pulled pork, cooked by alison.

we watched both the men's and women's finals of the australian open while we were at the beach house, as herbie is a big tennis fan. jam loved this.

on sunday morning, the six of us went on a beach walk with some amazing scenery. jam and i joked that the walk was like a mini ocean road trip because the scenery was so stunning. we even saw some little nipper lifeguards in training!

on sunday night herbie showed jam and i the southern cross constellation in the sky (something that you can only see in the southern hemisphere) and how to use this to calculate the direction of south. i hope i'm never in a position where it's necessary to navigate late at night (without the use of a smart phone), although i did practice last night and i could still find it, so i'm prepared in case! we spent monday at the beach where we had a dip in the sea and walked along the beach.

we came back to melbourne on monday night and yesterday jam and i popped into the city where we had yum cha in chinatown and went to see wolf of wall street at the lovely, art-house cinema nova! now it's our last few days in australia before heading off to christchurch on saturday morning so we are starting to get ourselves ready for that - washing clothes, checking the itinerary and confirming bookings!