Back in December 2024, I had an outing with one of my university friends who had relocated to Melbourne and was telling me to come visit. I was keen to take that offer, but then I ended up going to other places, so it fell by the wayside. Early in the year when I saw that Australia tickets were on sale, I decided to finally go see her. I didn’t think too hard about making plans because my objective was to go see her. Besides, when I browsed the travel section of The Service 95 blog, it was “eat here” and “get coffee here.” Then my other friend told me to do what she says.

This was my first time travelling internationally alone and my first time leaving the airport in Australia. Melbourne seems interesting because it is apparently just like Wellington, but with a population of 5.5 million people, I am a bit unconvinced. With that said, let’s look at what I did.

Emporium Melbourne

I have been to Melbourne airport before, but this time I left! My friend and her flatmate picked me up, and we went to their flat. After I had unloaded my stuff, we took a tram into the city, public transport is free because of the fuel crisis this month. My first impression is that there is a lot of greenery, and the houses are mostly brick. I also saw hookway turns, and I don’t understand the need for it.

We got off at the Emporium, a mall. My friend, then led me to an alley, and I said, “Are we supposed to be here?” She said these are “laneways” and that there are shops down here. She led me to a bakery where we got a pastry, then we wandered the mall. It was larger than the malls back home, and the clothes stores had better pickings. We went inside EB Games, as they aren’t in NZ anymore, and Uniqlo. There were so many clothes, but no point in overhauling my wardrobe now. We went to another street where I had an iced matcha latte and an ube cheesecake. It tasted sweet and earthy, so good!

State Library Victoria

We next went to the State Library Victoria, established in 1854 and the oldest public library in Australia. There were paintings and some history about Melbourne. I liked seeing how different the city looked now compared to the paintings in the gallery. There are digital spaces and reading rooms, but most of our time went to Rebel Heart: Love letters and other declarations.

Quite fitting for single people like us. The exhibition explored the history of love in the city, from people writing letters to creating mixtapes, sending text messages, and even using AI chatbots. Some of these also included expressions of appreciation in fandoms, such as through writing fan fiction or sharing friendship bracelets at the Eras concert. Fascinating.

ACMI Museum

From the library, we went to get a pastry from Lune, but our stomachs betrayed us, so we went to the museum nearby. The Australia Centre for the Moving Image is Australia’s national museum of screen culture. It went through the history of motion pictures, gaming, and television, and you could collect information on the exhibits through discs. It started with storytelling through shadows, then we moved on to stage plays. We saw the set of a stop-motion animated film set in Melbourne, as well as other animated shows. It was really interactive, creative and innovative. It made you appreciate human ingenuity and learn about locally produced films and TV shows.

Royal Arcade

From the museum, we went to the Royal Arcade, Melbourne’s oldest covered shopping precinct, built in 1869. Why? Because we were cold, and it has a Koko Black store, where we shared an orange-flavoured hot chocolate. It was sweet, refreshing, and soothing, with a chocolate flavour. I also tried their chocolate, and it was really good. We wandered through a few shops, including the gift shops in the Royal Arcade and Mecca nearby. We had dinner at a Korean burger place, and we called it a day!

The Rose St. Artists’ Market

In the morning, we went to get coffee and a pastry before sightseeing. On the way, we passed a place that sold tofu doughnuts near the University of Melbourne; the doughnuts were up to 50% tofu. I remember asking my friend, “How did you even find this place?” We then arrived at the Rose St. Artists’ Market, where local artists showcased their work for sale. Some of the stuff was so cool and really pretty. My problem is that I always get inspired to create art rather than buy it.

The Fitzroy Mills Market

Nearby, another market had a more Saturday market vibe. Where you could get produce, clothes, art, jewellery, and books. We spent a lot of time at the book stall and the jewellery one, coming out empty-handed. Just not big consumers, I guess.

From there, we went down the main street of the suburb, which had some cute shops. I brought some gifts, and then we went back into the city.

David Myers

This time we went to the David Myers department store. It is quite big, and they had a café that sold so many desserts, but was so full. It was also community day in Pokémon Go, so we were playing it. We wandered there and to the mall, had bubble tea and an iced matcha. We went back to the flat on the train and ordered pizza for dinner.

South Melbourne Market

The next day, we went to South Melbourne market, which is less of a tourist trap than the Queen Victoria market. It had your usual fanfare: clothes, gifts, produce, jewellery, and pastries. I tried the dim sims, which are Chinese dumplings deep-fried and popular in Australia. They were really good. Quite filling compared to regular dumplings. There were so many cool shops to browse and buy from, I guess.

South Melbourne

We then wandered the nearby streets, bought a pastry from a pop-up store, and went to a second-hand bookstore to browse books. Then there was a store that sold Japanese pottery. It was really cool. I bought Maneki-neko (Feng Shui lucky cats) for my mum and cousin, as they were so cute.

City Centre again

We then went deeper into the city and wandered in and out of bookstores. I found a comic book store, Minotaur. They had a special edition of my favourite comic book ever, so I brought myself an early birthday present (Yes, I know it is six months away). We then had bubble tea.

Chinatown

We then went to Chinatown in Melbourne and had dinner at a Malaysian restaurant. It was a nice way to end my visit. Then it was time to pack, as I had a relatively early flight the next day.

Final Thoughts

Overall, my time in Melbourne was pretty fun; it was a breath of fresh air to my daily routine. Emphasis on the fresh, as I was cold the entire time. I have always been upset about living in NZ, given that NZ and Australia don’t have coat weather. But with how naturally cold I am, coatwear and knitwear are a sound investment for me.

The food scene in Melbourne is pretty interesting, though my ventures are more into bubble tea, pastries, and matcha lattes. The food is very diverse, with so many fusion restaurants and bakeries.

Everyone says Melbourne is really similar to Wellington, but I would say it is a bit more complicated than that. Both cities have similar weather and appreciate a good coffee, but there are differences. I found Melbourne to be cleaner than Auckland and Wellington, and it smelled better, but there is way more graffiti in Melbourne, even in the nicer areas. It was also quite jarring not to see mountains everywhere I looked, as the landscape is flat. Architecture is another difference: NZ architecture, I feel, is influenced purely by the UK, whereas Melbourne architecture was influenced by other places as well, like China, Italy, etc.

If I were to go back to Melbourne, I don’t know the specific reason, but I saw Melbourne through my friend’s eyes. It would be nice to broaden my horizons a bit. Like, Melbourne is really inspired by Italy as well, so I would want to try their Italian food, then go to the museums (we ran out of time), and try the pastries from other places I missed out on. Be more intentional about where I get coffee from so I can properly compare the coffee culture of Melbourne and Wellington. However, the most important thing would be to walk with purpose, because no matter which way I walked, I was constantly in everyone’s way!