After a tough decade in Christchurch, I am relieved to have started my year of refreshment leave from work. First stop, Melbourne…and tens of thousands of people.
We have been to Melbourne to watch the Australian Open Tennis several times, but it was always followed by a return to the chaos of getting school up and running for the next year as an Assistant Principal. This year without work beckoning, I took the opportunity to venture further afield and try to slow down amidst the mania of Melbourne.
This year, we discovered a city, like most of us, emerging from its Covid aftermath, learning to live with ongoing Covid issues, and a sense of relief that life is back to some sort of normal.
And so, my year’s refreshment leave begins with queues, an assault of the senses, great tennis, great food and awesome cultural highlights.
First the tennis. Loved the world class venue, Andy Murray slogging it out against Matteo Beretini for 4 hours and 49 minutes in only the second round, and the ice cold Balter XPA on a 39 degree day. 
A trip to the tennis involves world class sport, people watching, the ebbs and flows of sporting trauma/triumph, but also negotiating lots of people and queues. But I’d recommend it always as an iconic sporting event in a sport mad city.
For the first time this trip though, I managed to move beyond the tennis courts. Awesome free stuff to do in Melbourne all within walking distance of the CBD includes an early morning run around The Tan (a track around the inner city park and gardens), the Victorian Shrine of Remembrance (an evocative tribute to Australian service men and woman across global conflicts including the crypt, eternal flame and museum displays), the Victoria State Library reading room to read the daily Melbourne Age on a wet Wednesday morning, 
and finally the NVG (art gallery where you can see works by Picasso, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Cezzanne and Degas amongst floors and floors of displays I only touched on). And there is no one around during weekdays and you can wander unobstructed! A Picasso right there in front of you, alone, to enjoy!
A $22 Uber ride from the central city also gets you a day on the beach down at St Kilda for a beachside coffee and a swim to wash off the chaos of city life. And within the city itself we made use of the free tram zone to get around.
However, the city itself, although vibrant and busy, felt dirty. Lots of litter, quite a few people living on the streets, and many empty street level shop fronts. It is hard to tell if these are a by-product of Covid and labour shortages, or advance signs of the recession the media are predicting, or are what you would expect in a modern city.
Overall, despite being exhausted by the sheer number of people, a great start to a year off. Next up, the complete opposite at Aoraki National Park.
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