Australia: Day 22 - Back to Melbourne and Home

Oct. 7th

I woke up super early, well before our wakeup call, which actually turned out to be a wakeup knock. We were ready nearly immediately and ran down to check out of the hotel. They called us a cab, and we were whisked off to the airport. We were so early that we had the option of taking an earlier flight, but we opted not to for some reason I don’t really recall. The Canberra Airport is very nice – airy, clean, and comfortable. While waiting, we proceeded to get rid of a lot of our Aussie change in the vending machine, enjoying chicken-flavored crisps and other delights. The actual flight on Qantas was lovely, too, with an extremely friendly crew and treats in the form of apples, cookies, and juice. Once we landed in Melbourne, we collected our luggage and went over to Thrifty to get things settled as best we could. I felt a bit like they blamed us for the accident, but we eventually straightened things out somewhat. Then we headed across the street and checked into the last hotel of our stay. It was a luxury business hotel, and honestly, after what we’d been through, we more than deserved it.

It was only mid-day, and we didn’t want to waste our last moments in Australia just sitting around re-living what had happened the day before. There were still a few more things we wanted to see in the Melbourne area, and frankly we didn’t like the city enough to want to come back, so it was now or never. On a whim, I decided to check the Luna Park website to see if there was any chance at all that the Scenic Railway roller coaster might be running. It sounded pretty grim when I’d talked to the staff several weeks ago, considering they were remodeling the entire façade. Well, it turns out that we happened to be back during spring break, and as such, they decided to run the coaster after all! I could not believe our luck! We caught a bus to a depot downtown where we caught a tram that took us directly to Luna Park. We bought our ticket and headed right over to the Scenic Railway queue. It was a bit overcast, and somewhat drizzly, and we were informed of the danger that they may shut the ride down due to rain. We waited 45 minutes to ride, nervously watching the skies, talking to the extremely excited little boy and his sister in front of us in line (his excitement almost rivaled mine!) and reading all the warning signs about people with neck injuries not riding. I was sore. Unbelievably so. But I wasn’t going to miss out on the chance to ride the oldest continuously-running roller coaster in the world, and the last remaining coaster with a brakeman. This thing was happening, whiplash or not. When it was finally our turn, we were ushered into the third seat back and began our ride.

And what a ride it was! I really wish I remembered more of it, but I spent most of the time struggling to keep my head upright. I just didn’t have the strength to do so, and my head was knocked around like mad, which is weird because it wasn’t a particularly complicated layout. At the bottom of each hill, it was excessively rattly, and I braced myself each time as best I could. I spent most of my time concerned with that, and not really paying attention to the ride itself, sadly. Still, the ride was basically gentle, circling the perimeter of the park twice, clockwise, as we flew through tunnels. We'd listen to the brake lady as she'd tell us when to brace for rough spots and when to put our hands up. As for her, she stood the entire ride! What an experience!

After riding, we took some more pictures of the park and headed down to Craik’s, an Irish pub, to get a bite to eat in the form of fish and chips and beer. Then we wandered down to the pier with the intent of waiting for nightfall to get some nice pictures of a lit-up Luna Park. What better way to spend our time than a leisure stroll along the water? Weren’t we surprised to discover signs indicating that this very pier, so unassuming and regular, was a reserve not only for the fairy penguins we missed out on seeing at Kangaroo Island, but also for a native water rat known as the rakali! The signs indicated that these animals would be more active toward dusk, so as evening set in, we swept back and forth along the pier, peeking in every rock crevice we could find. Then we heard a slight commotion from some other people. We hurried over to their spot to discover a little fairy penguin, hiding amongst the boulders, just awaiting nightfall. The more we looked, the more penguins we spotted!! We also saw a few rakali, both foraging on shore and swimming expertly in the sea, searching out shellfish for dinner. What an awesome treat, and a great end to an overall amazing trip. After seeing lots and lots of awesome wildlife, we took a brief stroll in a nearby park, returned to the pier a second time to look for more critters, and took a final stroll past Luna Park to enjoy the brilliance of all its lights before catching our rides back to the hotel. It was an amazingly perfect end to our trip.

Our long flight home the next day was uneventful. Lots of movies to watch, and we also discovered that adult beverages were available at no extra charge, so we made sure to enjoy ourselves. We got home in one piece, a bit sore, but full of memories to last a lifetime. We both eagerly look forward to our next big adventure.