Brisbane day 1
Saturday 1st October
It’s probably almost inevitable that when leaving on an interstate holiday, you will head for the airport and reach the point of no return before remembering some vital thing you’ve left behind. In my case, it was medication — sitting on the bedside table at home — which is prescription-only and for which I didn’t have the paperwork. Happily I was able to convince my sister to bring it for me, as she and her family were heading up to Queensland a day after us.
Other than that the trip to the airport was uneventful — train to Southern Cross and Skybus as usual. It may not be as cheap as the train/Smartbus combo via Broadmeadows, but it’s frequent, quick from the city and doesn’t drop you in the boondocks at the airport. In fact the Skybus was as popular as ever, with virtually all seats taken.
We met Marita at the airport, and checked-in at the automatic kiosk thingy, failing to comprehend the full meaning of the warning about emergency rows. I assumed it meant just two of us would be in the emergency row, but in fact it meant it wanted to put all four of us in the emergency rows, and this is a No No according to CASA, who want all occupants of emergency rows to be over fifteen. Fair enough, but I suspect Qantas need to make the booking kiosk text clearer on this point.
This caused some disruption as we boarded, with the gate staff swapping us to different seats, but we still departed the gate more-or-less on time… which was where the punctuality ended, as the poor weather and a terminal security breach earlier in the morning had caused a queue of planes for take-off. I could see them all in a row in front of us, and it took about an hour to actually get airborne.
On the flight, which had personalised screens for every seat, I watched the movie Source Code, which was quite good (though rather far-fetched), and a couple of episodes of Parks And Recreation, which was very funny. (Though I was slightly miffed by a character claiming a loud noise was setting off her cluster headache — that’s not how they happen.)
Despite being a scheduled 11am-1pm flight, there was no lunch served — thanks Mr Qantas — just a fruit cake and an optional apple — which I took, thanks very much.
We flew into Brisbane about an hour late. Fortunately the checked bags turned up pretty quickly, and we collected our pre-booked Airtrain tickets and made it to the platform with five minutes to spare — unlike Skybus, it only runs every half-hour. (More about Airtrain vs Skybus in another post in the near future.)
Twenty-five-ish minutes later we were stepping off the train at Central, and despite taking the wrong exit out of the station, found the hotel without any trouble.
I say hotel, but I mean serviced apartments: The Republic Apartments in Turbot Street. I assumed the street name was some sort of sophisticated silent-trailing-T name, pronounced Turbo, but my uncle reckoned it was the rather more conventional-sounding Turr-butt.
The check-in desk had a pleasant surprise for us: we’d been upgraded from a two-bedroom apartment to a three-bedroom, complete with en suite for the adults, and on the very top floor of the building, providing rather splendid views.
By this point it was almost 4pm, and we were pretty hungry, and went out to find some lunch. A noodle place was open across the road, and we devoured some food, then bought some supplies from the Woolworths in the Spring Hill shopping centre, next to the apartments.
I made a mental note of the Woolworths’ curious and slightly restrictive hours: until 5:30pm Saturdays, 6pm Sundays, and 9pm weekdays — a far cry from the usual midnight closing times back in Melbourne, but not impossible to work with.
After a little TV (including the penultimate Doctor Who of this season) and a quick dinner (roast chicken, potato and salad from the supermarket) we had a walk down to the riverfront, snapping pictures of passing ferries and the very impressive Story Bridge… though actually I think it looks more impressive in the daytime:
Then we headed back to the hotel to watch Big Bang Theory and/or The Simpsons… I can’t actually remember which, but found during our stay that the two are almost interchangeable — when you have Fox8 and the Comedy Channel as well as Channel 9 and Go in a hotel room, one or the other is almost always on… before heading for bed and a well-earned sleep.
Tags: Brisbane, holidays, Qantas
3 comments
Queensland’s Go Card vs Myki
I’ll get to writing up our Brisbane trip in full excruiciating detail in due course, but first what everyone wants to know: How is Go Card compared to Myki?
First impressions
Go Card seems faster; more responsive. On buses, ferries and railway stations we consistently seemed to get sub-second response times when touching the card — clearly faster than Myki. This might reflect that the Go Card, provided by Cubic (which built London’s Oyster card system), is a more mature technology. It also doesn’t have Windows CE on all the devices, which may help to slow down Myki further.
The caveat however, is that major station fare gates open a good deal slower than Melbourne’s — both the older Metcard gates fitted with Myki readers, and the new Myki-only gates seen at Melbourne Central and Parliament stations. Quieter Brisbane stations had no fare gates, only standalone readers, like in Melbourne.
I didn’t notice any Go Card readers or machines that weren’t working, though on the bus between Nerang and Surfers Paradise, I did see a nearby reader go to “Please wait…” status for an extended period on the trip to and from the beach. Perhaps it does that when crossing zone boundaries or something.
Judge for yourself:
Go card:
Myki:
Given the fast response times, peak hour buses didn’t seem to be a major problem for Go Card, with hordes of people able to enter and exit, touching their cards as necessary. However I didn’t see any crowds or conditions that were comparable to crowded Melbourne trams (with wide doors used for both entry and exit at the same time).
It appears that if you fail to touch-off a Go Card, you get charged a “fixed” (default) fare which is often more than the cost of simply travelling to the zone at the end of the line as on Myki.
Costs and refunds
Our Go Cards cost a refundable deposit of $5 each, half the cost of getting a Myki card — however this is because there is also a Go Card issue fee of $5 which is currently waived.
As tourists into South-East Queensland, we can return the Go Cards by mail, and get full refunds on unused balances, plus (I assume) the $5 deposit.
This is a feature that Myki does not yet have (unless you are willing to pay a $9.80 administration fee). This is particularly important given the Myki plan to have no short-term/paper tickets available.
Top up
Like Myki, Go Cards can be topped-up can be done online or at the machines, or via bus drivers in $5 increments. (Top-up via bus drivers is currently possible with Myki in regional cities, for any amount, but it’s not clear if this will ever be available in Melbourne). You can also register for auto top-up, as with Myki.
We used station machines to top-up. They had touch screens which perhaps weren’t as sensitive as they should have been (nor as responsive as the Myki machines), and sometimes took a few more presses than necessary to get to the right options.
One top-up via a credit card didn’t work, just moments after I’d used the same credit card to top-up another Go Card. But it didn’t seem to be an issue with doing two transactions on the same credit card, as that worked on another day. Using cash worked fine.
One problem we had is that it’s hard to work out how much your trip will cost. The fares are on the web site (if a little difficult to find, as they are not linked from the Go Card pages), but the (excellent) mobile web Journey Planner didn’t mention the zones or costs. Printed timetables and maps did show zones.
This made it difficult as we didn’t want to put too much money on the cards since we were only staying for five days. In the end we had about $8 left on our cards when we flew home, though this can be refunded (see above).
Fares
South East Queensland’s Translink system has 23 zones, much smaller than Melbourne’s two zones (though bear in mind the comparable area would include places like Geelong, which is slated to be zone 4 under Myki). Suburban Brisbane, as far as I can make out, stretches up to about 8-9 zones from the CBD.
This is both good and bad. Lots of smaller zones means travel across zone boundaries isn’t such a big jump, though the cost of a short trip is not that much cheaper (a single zone trip on Go Card: $2.65; on Myki $3.02 or $2.02).
I wonder if the smaller zones encourage more people to drive to zone boundaries to get a cheaper fare, or if the smaller increments prevent this problem. In Melbourne this happens, but because there’s only one zone boundary, it limits how many locations get swamped by park and riders.
Go Card offers off-peak fares at 15% off, including all weekend, which is quite good, though not as bargain-basement as Myki’s $3 all-day weekend fares.
Go Card does not have a daily cap system, so if you happened to be making lots of trips all day, it could add up, though you do get up to five hours and three transfers onto other services, with a maximum of an hour between transfers.
There are no weekly/monthly/yearly passes on Go Card. All they offer is a “frequent user discount“, which is a 50% discount on any trips after your tenth journey in any Monday to Sunday period. Robert Dow from the Queensland lobby group Rail Back On Track (the PTUA-equivalent) tells me it’s a weakness of the current implementation, so there may be not a lot they can do about it, though he says they could adjust the discount amount, and when it kicks in.
Go Card can be used on Airtrain, but you don’t get the same discounts, because Airtrain has special fares. In contrast, Myki can’t be used at all to pay Skybus’s premium fares (though rumours abound that it will eventually be possible).
The alternative: paper tickets
My sister was wary about the expense of getting Go Cards for her family, and spent the first day travelling on paper tickets. This turned out to be quite expensive, as those fares are about 45% more. No wonder 80% of trips in South East Queensland use Go Card. She got Go Cards for the rest of the holiday, including travel to and around the Gold Coast.
The paper tickets are thermal paper. They appear to have more restrictive transfer rules, and you have to find a human to let you through station barriers — along with the cost, these all encourage you onto Go Cards instead.
They are also only available as single trip tickets. This may have been to further encourage people to switch, but caused Translink and the government major embarassment in August at the Ekka (Brisbane’s Royal Show equivalent), as thousands of occasional users had to queue to buy tickets to get home, with police eventually ordering rail officials to let people board trains without tickets, to prevent a crowd crush.
In contrast, for many fares, Myki is only marginally cheaper than short term/paper/single Metcard fares. For instance, regional bus fares are only 10% different, resulting in many people continuing to buy single short term tickets off drivers (which are an expensive cardboard semi-smart card).
The plan for Myki of course is to have no paper ticket option at all. This would be a retrograde step, since occasional users and those unable to obtain a Myki card before travel would have no fare option.
Conclusions, and lessons for Myki
Go Card is quite obviously more mature than Myki, despite being initiated around the same time, with the system going live about a year before Myki started in regional cities. It’s older technology though, using the (now hacked) MiFare Classic cards.
Myki has more secure cards, better fare options (with daily caps and passes available).
The key lessons for Myki, are, I think:
- Response times have to be made consistently fast (as well as the other well-documented problems ironed-out).
- Some sort of paper ticket option should be provided, preferably with thermal paper tickets, which are cheap to produce and require staff assistance to get through gates. Myki fares should be at least 30% cheaper to further encourage their use.
- A refund system should be provided for Myki.
(There’s a bunch of other stuff they should fix about Myki, too.)
Update: Some discussion on the points above on the Rail Back On Track forum. Regarding the Journey Planner showing zones, this is true for the main Translink web site, but not the mobile version. And I did know that Go Card refunds can be done over-the-counter, but assumed we wouldn’t have time to do this when catching the Airtrain back to the airport.
Update 2: Note that the Myki $9.80 refund fee was removed in January 2012 — however although you can get a full refund of the card balance, the cost of the card itself ($6 full, $3 concession from January) can’t be refunded. And unlike Go Card the refund can’t be done over-the-counter — they send you a cheque in the mail.
Tags: Go Card, Myki, public transport, Queensland, Translink
9 comments
Brisbane
Going to Brisbane soon. Have some plans, but suggestions welcome, especially teenager-friendly places to have dinner or near the CBD.
(Very disappointed to be missing the Emulator retro games exhibition. Ah well.)
Tags: Brisbane
9 comments
The memorial bench
At the University of Queensland this week, they installed a park bench, a memorial to my father, who studied there and was editor of the student magazine Sempor Floreat sixty years ago this year.
I’m told it’s beside the lake (obviously) next to College Road, close to the intersection with Staff House Road.
Judging from the pics, I reckon Dad would have liked the spot, though I bet he’d have his head buried in a book rather than be enjoying the scenery.
I’m hoping to get up to Brisbane later in the year with the family to see it for ourselves.
Many thanks to the Property & Faculties division of UQ for being able to organise this for us.
A short break in Inverloch
Got back yesterday from a few days in Inverloch. We rented a house near the beach with my sister and her family.
Sunday
Drove down as sorry, but even V/Line’s new improved services only provide 3-4 services a day. Anyway we had lots of stuff to carry. Stopped at Korumburra for lunch at the Kelly bakery (not sure what Ned Kelly’s link to Korumburra is), and checked out the tourist railway but didn’t ride on it.
Then onward to Inverloch. Drove around the town looking for the supermarket, which we found eventually. Very crowded with fellow holidaymakers. We stocked up on stuff and then headed for the house.
Quite nice and comfortable, if a little basic. One toilet was a stretch for so many people. Isaac ended up on a mattress on the floor, but seemed to get used to it. No actual dinner table — just an island kitchen bench with not enough stools, so the adults got used to having meals standing. And a TV which was tiny and had no proper antenna, and was therefore unwatchable. I was glad I’d brought a radio to be able to listen to the news and the cricket.
But these minor issues were forgotten when we found the slot car set in the cupboard.
After settling-in we strolled down to the beach (about 10 minutes walk). It was a little cold, but very nice. The kids kept themselves entertained by wading in the water and scrawling pictures and words into the sand.
Strolled back and Adrian (genuine Italian) cooked us all pasta. Yum. Then we had a go of RoboRally, which took some study of the manual. I won, perhaps reflecting that I was the only participant who had played previously, as veteran rallier Marita decided she wanted to just watch.
Spotted a huge huntsman spider in the bathroom just before going to bed, but happily didn’t see it again all week.
Monday
Went for a nice long triangular walk down to the beach, along the coast into the town then back to the house. Seemed to be plenty of people about, and (for whatever reason) I snapped a few moderately entertaining signs with unfortunate pictogram men falling off cliffs and being carried away by strong currents.
After some lunch we did the slightly amusingly named Screw Creek scenic walk up to Townsend bluff, taking a few wrong turns along the way. It’s one of those scenic walks where it turns out the best view isn’t at the proper End Of The Walk, but about 200 metres back down the hill. But oh well, there was some interesting stuff to see along the way.
Adrian fired-up the wood-fired barbecue in the evening and we feasted like kings yet again, before a game of Cluedo.
Tuesday
Into the car (we must have made an amusing little convoy, my sister’s Golf and my Astra, carrying four people each and both with matching orange “More trains = Less traffic” PTUA stickers on the back), we went for a spin down the Cape Paterson Road. Lots of glorious views of the sea, and after a stop at some place called Eagle’s Nest (great view of the cliffs) we took a look around the State Coal Mine in Wonthaggi.
Some really interesting stuff around the mine — it’s free entry to the surface exhibits. Time and the presence small children prevented us doing the hour-long mine tour (for which there is a charge); maybe another time — if it’s half as good as the one in Bendigo, it’d be well worth while.
The lady behind the counter recommended lunch at the Caledonian hotel in Wonthaggi, and sure enough their BLT burger went down a treat. Then we headed back to the house for a rest before hitting the beach.
The promised beach weather never quite eventuated, but it was nice enough for some paddling, sand-castle building and beach cricket, before home made pizzas for dinner. Yum. Followed by another game of Cluedo, and a quick go of the telescope the kids got for Christmas, though not many stars were out.
Wednesday
Time to head home, but beforehand a ride on the South Gippsland Tourist Railway, from Korumburra to Nyora and back in a 1950s diesel railcar (apparently once used on the Adelaide suburban system). It’s a bumpy old track, but some great scenery along the way, and my nephew Leo was thrilled to be able to watch out the front window to see the track ahead.
After lunch, back to the car and the drive home to the big smoke. A nice little relaxing break.
Tags: beaches, Cape Paterson, holidays, Inverloch, Korumburra, Ned Kelly, South Gippsland Tourist Railway, spiders, V/Line, Wonthaggi
10 comments
Who are these clowns whose Twitter posts get into the paper?
From last Saturday’s Herald Sun Weekend section:
It was sent when we were passing through Kangaroo Flat on the way to Bendigo the other week.
(Thanks for spotting it, onegirlinmelb)
Tags: Bendigo, Herald Sun, Kangaroo Flat, Twitter
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Trams, pies, and getting in touch with my roots
(Posted 5th October. Backdated to the day it happened.)
While waiting for breakfast to arrive, we flicked around the TV, noting that Channel 9′s Today Show kept showing bits of the previous night’s Hey Hey special. After breakfast (eggs on toast x 3) we gathered up all our bags and checked out and strolled across the street to the bus stop.
A bus showed up which wasn’t one of those listed on the bus stop sign (which, by the way, was identical in design to those now in Melbourne). “Do you go to the station?” “We all go to the station.”
My Myki money was running out, so I put some more dosh on it. We weren’t actually heading home just yet, but decided to chuck the bags into a locker at the station ($2.70) and then continue exploring.
We strolled back via the shops, and noted the first of a large number of Army Landrovers drive past with “Driver Under Instruction” plates on it. In the following few hours we must have seen a dozen or more of these drive past, sometimes alone, sometimes in convoy.
The Hargreaves Mall in central Bendigo is being redeveloped, including some big screens which judging from a letter in the morning’s Bendigo Advertiser, are seen by some as a waste of money.
Back to the tram stop. The first tram was headed down to the mine, so we caught that. On arriving there, the driver changed ends and the tram conductor urged us to cheer him as he reboarded the tram, so we and a couple of other passengers did so. Then we set off back through the centre of town and arrived a little while later at the tram museum.
This time we wanted to take a proper look. The staff there offer a half-hour tour around the place for anybody interested. We and a couple of older couples took it, and we learnt about how Bendigo’s tramways got started (the first incarnation was battery-powered; they didn’t last long as they kept running out of juice on the hills, and passengers would have to push them back to the depot) and how the system was shut down and the vintage tram tour put in place.
The kids wanted to do a bit of filming with the video camera in the cab of the Z1 tram, as well as at the controls of a “simulator” (which looks like it was a driver console ripped out of a tram and placed against a wall) for editing together later with other footage. I pottered about the souvenir shop and looked at the various other trams.
Then we walked back the way we came, more or less, to the Chinese museum, noting more Army Landrovers passing.
My dad’s parents came to Australia in the late-1800s; not to the Goldfields, but to Far North Queensland, settling on Thursday Island. (If they were anything like me, they might have planned to go to the Goldfields but decided they couldn’t be bothered going all that way.) So the museum’s history of the Chinese in Bendigo isn’t my personal family history, but it was really interesting nonetheless.
The dragon, at 100 metres long, is impressive enough when dormant, but must truly be a sight to behold when it’s out and about at Easter. And we took a look at the neighbouring gardens and the temple, both of which were most impressive, and very calming once inside. In the gardens you can feed the fish. We didn’t, but obviously plenty of people do, as some of them were looking pretty chubby.
Then we headed over the bridge, through the gate, stopped briefly for a snapshot with one of the statues, and headed along the road to the Tourist Information Centre.
Arguably we should have gone there when we’d first arrived, but in fact I’d researched stuff to look at online. In the basement they had an exhibit about telegraphs, as well as the development of Bendigo. One section had a video from about 2001 describing how the local council was advocating for the rail link to Melbourne to be upgraded, and also for the Calder Freeway to be duplicated. Well, the rail line upgrade was finished in 2006 (though it’s been left with mostly single track beyond Kyneton), and the Calder Freeway duplication finished this year, so maybe that video needs upgrading.
Lunch was next on the agenda, and we couldn’t go past Gillies pie shop. Apparently they’ve been in business since the 1950s, and it’s not hard to see why — totally delicious, and the pastry was a joy to behold. Then we strolled around looking for dessert, which we eventually found at an ice-cream shop back on the highway, serving Norgen Vaaz, which was expensive, but tasty.
By this point it was about 1pm and we were thinking about calling it a day and heading for home. A walk back to the station via a postbox and a newsagent (to buy a paper to read on the way), and soon we were boarding the 13:38 to Melbourne. It was only a two-carriage set, and already filling up. We found ourselves sitting in with a snooty lady who was steadfastly concentrating on her iPod playing The Seekers, and seemed determined not to make eye-contact. Maybe she was wishing she hadn’t tried to nab four seats to herself.
At one stage the conductor went past and was heard to say to some people “Where do you live? I’d like to come around and put my feet on your couch”, which gave me warm fuzzy feelings inside.
The train left on time, and filled up steadily at each stop. By the time we reached Woodend, the automated sign was still saying Kangaroo Flat, and all the seats were taken. By Sunbury the sign had been turned off, and a number of people were standing, one bloke gripping the sign to hold himself up.
See, sometimes V/Line is just like Connex.
The sign-gripper was chatting to his mates about things — apparently he was a Sunbury local and a regular train traveller; the others weren’t. One asked what he thought of the electrification project — a number of Sunbury people oppose it. He seemed to have an open mind; noted that some had said the suburban trains will be slower, some faster, but he’d be welcoming the fact that there’d be more trains, and they’d run later. Good for him.
We were back in Melbourne by about 3:30, and home by about 4:30. A short trip, but an enjoyable one.
Tags: Bendigo, Bendigo trams, Chinese culture, Myki, V/Line
2 comments
Sending my kids down the mine
(Posted 2nd October. Backdated to the day it happened.)
Originally the plan had been to go to Canberra for 4-5 days, possibly driving up via Lakes Entrance and perhaps back via Kelly country. One of the reasons for wanting to go to Canberra was that I’d been keen to see a display at Old Parliament House: the Living Democracy: Power of the People exhibition, because part of it highlights community organisations, and one of those featured is the one I’m involved with.
However, Kerryn was up in Canberra a few weeks ago, and it turns out that this is nowhere near as interesting as it sounds: merely a logo and blurb on a piece of cardboard in a display case. Oh well.
In any case, school holiday schedule considerations meant the break would have to be cut back, and I ended up with a completely revised plan: Bendigo for just two days. Short and hopefully sweet.
So on Wednesday morning we set out for the station, V/Line tickets to Bendigo in hand. They have a Family Traveller deal which gets you tickets for two kids free with each adult, as long as you travel outside peak hour. And it includes metropolitan travel, which frankly makes it a bargain at $15.80 each way.
According to the V/Line web site, single tickets (of which we had two; they issue separate tickets unless you’re returning on the same day) are meant to be time-stamped by station staff, but both on the way and on the way back nobody seemed to think this was necessary. *shrug* Maybe they’ve realised that allowing only an hour of travel either side of your train trip isn’t very practical, especially when they advise you to allow at least 30 minutes interchange time at Southern Cross to ensure you make your connection.
We got to Southern Cross in plenty of time for the 9:15 to Bendigo, and spent the time observing four promotional people dressed as the Village People, singing YMCA, with a placard nearby dubiously linking this to Hallmark Cards.
The train zoomed out of Melbourne. Given it was a V/Locity train I wondered if we’d reach the full 160 km/h, but it turns out that of the two tracks that go most of the way to Bendigo, only one has been upgraded to 160, and the other only to 130, and the faster line is used for peak direction. So we had to satisfy ourselves with 130 km/h, which still seemed pretty fast from where I was sitting.
In-flight entertainment was courtesy of a family sitting opposite: a lady with her three-year-old girl (“Brooke Livinia! Get back here now!”) and a ten-year-old son (who spent the first part of the trip in a long and presumably smelly session in the toilet, then the rest of the trip trying to teach his sister what seemed to be an impenetrably complicated card game).
I thought they were going all bogan on me when the mum started ranting to the boy about how his father shouldn’t have “borrowed” ten dollars off him. But we got chatting later; they were doing a similar thing to us — a 2-day break in Castlemaine, sans motor vehicle, and they’d be riding the Maldon stream train.
We got into Bendigo a bit after 11am and went and found the hotel. I’d booked one on View Street, which looked to be reasonably central to things, and had a room available with three beds. Despite the theoretical check-in time being 1pm, they were happy to let us into the room early, and we dropped the bags and things before heading out again.
Rosalind Park is closeby, so we went and climbed the old mining tower thingy there that now serves as a lookout. Back onto View Street for some lunch, then we walked along MacKenzie Street past the awe-inspiringly huge Sacred Heart Cathedral, noting the gargoyles looking down at us. We snuck a peek inside, though a sign warned there was a service going on.
A little further along the highway we got to the Central Deborah mine, where I’d booked us in for a 2pm tour. We were a bit early, so got to look around the museum and so on beforehand.
The “Mine Experience” tour was fabulous. After donning hard hats with torches, we went down in a cage to 60 metres down (the equivalent of 20 storeys) and got shown around one of the levels of the mine. Having to wear the hats and tramp about in the dark just added to the experience, making it all terrifically atmospheric, and Bob our guide was excellent, and knew how to keep the group entertained as well as informed. I can’t recommend this tour enough; the kids loved it and so did I; it was great.
Back on the surface we got onto the vintage tram (it stops outside and they do combined tickets which include the mine tour and two days of riding the tram — perfect for us — $73 all up for the three of us). As in days of yore, the model we caught had no doors in the middle section, and we sat there enjoying the fresh air. The tram took us back through the city centre, with an automated voice recording describing the sights along the way. There was a short stop at the tram depot/museum, and we planned to visit it properly the next day.
We took the tram to the end of the line, then back a little way to Lake Weeroona. (For some reason at some places the tram only stops in one direction.) I’d read there was an Adventure Playground there, though it was a little underwhelming.
The tram conductor had warned us we had been on the last tram, but we had a plan. Bendigo’s bus network is reasonably fathomable (unlike, say, Geelong’s used to be, and partly still is), and thanks to the miracle of technology, it’s very easy to check bus times on the Metlink Mobile site — well at least it was as soon as I worked out that Bendigo is in their “Lodden – Mallee” category. Hmm. Still, simply noting the route number (8) on a nearby bus stop, and checking the times, we were able to know that there was a bus back to the centre of town every half-hour, and when it left.
The bus was dead on time, and I dug out my Myki ticket from Geelong which still had $3.20 on it, which worked like a charm (though the scanners were a tad slow), and got two 2-hour short-term tickets costing $1 each for the kids. Easy.
Back in central Bendigo, we went and found some pizza for dinner, and while we munched I tried to determine where the nearest supermarket was. Being the age of technology, rather than just ask one of the waiters, I tried White Pages online on my phone, and found there was a Coles just a couple of minutes walk away, where we picked up some bananas to eat later.
Back to the hotel, we put our feet up. I tuned into the Hey Hey It’s Saturday reunion, which I might blog about separately later. Eventually it was bed time, and we dozed off, a good day’s exploring behind us.
