Australian Open 2011

22nd January we had ground passes to the Australian Open 2011.  This means that we couldn't get into the Hisense or the Rod Laver, but we had access to the outside courts, and Garden Square where they show the tennis on a big screen.

First stop - practice courts:

Svetlana Kuznetsova

Svetlana Kuznetsova

Andy Roddick

Andy Roddick

After the practice courts we went to Garden Square to see Andy Murray with a straight sets demolition of Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in round 3.  Murray tore the 32nd seed to shreds with eight breaks of serve in his 6-1 6-1 6-2 triumph.  Murray was broken once in the first set but had no further problems and came through in one hour 32 minutes. A good game to watch when you're a pom in Oz!

Garden Square

It was a scorcher of a day, so after the Murray game it was time to find some shade!  Luckily one of the sponsors of the Australian Open is Jacob's Creek, so it was a good excuse for a glass of sparkling!

The following day it was Mark and Emma's turn to go to the tennis, so we had Mabel and Kieran for the day!  Most of the day was spent either at the doctors or in jail (playing - honestly!), or having a go at some yoga!

Not quite sure which yoga position this is meant to be!

January 26th is Australia Day, and not only did we have the day off work (public holiday), but we also went to the men's quarter final of the Australian Open - Rafael Nadal against fellow spaniard David Ferrer.

Opening Ceremony

Ferrer enters court

Nadal enters court

The toss!

However, Rafael Nadal's quest to become the first man in 42 years to win four straight grand slam events ended cruelly, with a hamstring injury.

Nadal, the reigning French Open, Wimbledon and US Open champion, would have been within two victories of the historic feat - last accomplished by Australian legend Rod Laver in 1969 - had he overcome the No.7 seed.  But despite Nadal having won their previous seven meetings, with Ferrer claiming a set in just one of those, the lower-ranked player took advantage of his weakened opponent to win 6-4 6-2 6-3.

Nadal was dogged by illness coming into the Open, but had not dropped a set previously this tournament and showed no sign of injury when he started against Ferrer.  But, after a long first three games, the top seed called for a trainer and then a medical time-out.  After leaving the court, he returned with his upper left leg strapped and, obviously struggling, quickly fell down 5-2.

An increasingly forlorn Nadal showed spirit and sportsmanship by refusing to retire against his Davis Cup teammate.

Nadal's serve

Ferrer's serve

Ferrer's winning chat with Jim Courier

Rally For Relief

A series of floods hit Australia, beginning in December 2010, primarily in the state of Queensland including its capital city, Brisbane. The floods forced the evacuation of thousands of people from towns and cities.  At least 70 towns and over 200,000 people were affected.  Damage initially was estimated at around A$1 billion. The estimated reduction in Australia's GDP is about A$30 billion.  Three-quarters of the state of Queensland was declared a disaster zone, and at least 31 people have been killed.

In Melbourne on January 16th, the Australian Open preparations were put on hold for the "Rally for Relief" exhibition match in aid of those affected by the Queensland floods.  I was lucky enough to get a ticket, while Darren went to the cricket at the MCG.


A sold-out Rod Laver Arena witnessed Pat Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt captain teams made up of the likes of Andy Roddick, Andy Murray and Ana Ivanovic, followed by a match between dream team doubles combinations Roger Federer/Rafael Nadal and Kim Clijsters/Sam Stosur.
Much-needed funds were raised for flood victims, while the audience inside and outside at Garden Square were entertained and amused by the superstars' shenanigans - everyone that is except for Hewitt's son, Cruz, who was a little overwhelmed by the centre court experience.

Baby Eilidh - 2 weeks old and already been to the cricket and the tennis!

Last of the Summer wine!

All too quickly, there's only a few more days left of Jackie and John's holiday.  Looking forward to their final few days of Summer sun....it poured with rain!  Not to be deterred, they still went out and about exploring, and on their last night we took them to 'The Meat & Wine Co' on the South Bank for a delicious fine dining experience!

The grande finale!

To say thank you for 'looking after them', I got a beautiful bouquet of flowers - when really it should have been us thanking them for coming across the world to see us!  It was with watery eyes that we said our goodbyes.....until next time!

Great Ocean Road Trip continues.....

After seeing the 12 Apostles, we headed to the Otway Fly.  The Otway Fly is a unique walk through beautiful rainforest commencing at a visitor centre and descending gently to a steel trussed tree walk.  The ground progressively drops away taking you on a journey through the upper reaches of the rainforest vegetation down through the ferns of the forest floor to the tranquillity and beauty of the forest canopy.  The tree top walk is 25 metres high where you experience a unique, close view of the flora and fauna of the rainforest, and before you know it you are staring out above the tops of some trees and there are also some spectacular stands of ferns to look down on.

There's a 45 metre high lookout, ascended via a spiral stairway through the under story to emerge amongst the crowns of the giants of the forest, and also a springboard cantilever that bounces precariously high over picturesque Young’s Creek.  We'd done these before so we left them to Jackie and John to experience on their own - too high for me!

From the Otway Fly we headed to Apollo Bay.  Apollo Bay has both swimming and surf beaches, as well as a large boat harbour and marina which is home to a major fishing fleet. Apollo Bay had many shops and restaurants to keep us entertained for the night - and we ended the evening in a bar with decidedly dodgy live music!

Our Apollo Bay accomodation

After breakfast in Apollo Bay, we drove the Shipwreck Coast to our final stop - Lorne.  Lorne is a seaside town on Louttit Bay. It is situated by the Erskine River in the Surf Coast Shire.  The sun was still shining so we headed to the beach, until it got a bit chilly, and then went to a wonderful restaurant - Flowers - for dinner in the evening.

As you can see by the photo below, the weather turned through the night, and we woke to a gloomy day and pouring rain!

Our Lorne accomodation

We had breakfast in Lorne, and were still optomistic that the weather would improve, so we went to Bell's Beach.  Bells Beach is the home of the world's longest-running surfing competition – the Rip Curl Pro Surf & Music Festival.  The competition was first held in January 1961 and then at Easter every year since.  Jackie and John braved the rain to see the beach from the vantage point - Darren and I stayed in the car!

Vantage point at Bells Beach

We had planned to get a ferry to Sorrento and drive back to Melbourne via the Mornington Peninsula, but because of the weather we decided to do some shopping at Surf City in Torquay and then head for home!  It was a shame that we couldn't finish off the trip like we'd planned, but it was still a wonderful break away......and on the plus side, we went out for dinner in our local pub when we got back, where Darren and John had the biggest pies!!!!!!

Great Ocean Road Trip!

Our Christmas present to Darren's parents was a 3 night trip on the Great Ocean Road.  The Great Ocean Road is a 243-kilometre (151 mi) stretch of road along the south-eastern coast of Australia between the Victorian cities of Torquay and Warrnambool. The road was built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932, and is the world's largest war memorial; dedicated to casualties of World War I.  

We woke on the morning of January 7th to a lovely hot day, and drove inland to our first destination - the beacutiful bay of Port Campbell.  Port Cambell is a seaside village towards the Western end of the Great Ocean Road - a good place to start our trip back along the Great Ocean Road.


 
We spent the afternoon on the beach........

and then trying to find some shade.....

Our Port Campbell accomodation

Waking in Port Cambell, we went to a lovely restaurant for breakfast - Waves - before heading to the see some of the amazing natural sights that the Great Ocean Road has to offer.
First stop - London Arch - a natural arch in the Port Campbell National Park. It was formed by a gradual process of erosion, and until 1990 formed a complete double-span natural bridge.  The arch closest to the shoreline collapsed unexpectedly on 15 January 1990, leaving two tourists stranded on the outer part until they were rescued by a helicopter. No one was injured in the event. Prior to the collapse, the arch was known as London Bridge because of its similarity to its namesake.

London Arch

The Arch (in the background of this photo!) - formed by the sea cutting through a rock ledge

Next stop was Island Archway near Loch Ard Gorge - which was a 25 metre high arch when we visited almost two years ago! It is now two new features after the middle section collapsed into the sea in June 2009. The pillars have since been officially named Tom and Eva after the two teenage survivors of the Loch Ard shipwreck

This used to be Island Archway!

Pudding Basin Rock in the backgroud (I think!)

And then a short walk to Loch Ard Gorge.  It is named after the clipper ship Loch Ard, which ran aground on nearby Muttonbird Island on 1 June 1878 approaching the end of a three-month journey from England to Melbourne. Of the fifty-one passengers and crew, only two survived: Tom Pearce, a ship's apprentice, and Eva Carmichael, an Irishwoman immigrating with her family, both of whom were 18 years of age. According to memorials at the site, Pearce was washed ashore, and rescued Carmichael from the water after hearing her cries for help. Pearce then proceeded to climb out of the gorge to raise the alarm to local pastoralists who immediately set into plan a rescue attempt.

Loch Ard Gorge

And no trip on the Great Ocean Road would be complete without seeing the Twelve Apostles.  The Twelve Apostles are giant rock stacks that rise majestically from the Southern Ocean and are the central feature of the rugged Port Campbell National Park. They have been created by constant erosion of the limestone cliffs of the mainland that began 10–20 million years ago. The stormy Southern Ocean and blasting winds gradually eroded the softer limestone, forming caves in the cliffs. The caves eventually became arches, and when they collapsed rock stacks up to 45 metres high were left isolated from the shore.