Australia: April 2026: Day 5: Yarra Valley / Melbourne

Australia

April 2026: Day 5: Yarra Valley

View of parliament from the hotel room.

View of the hotel pool.

Breakfast buffet.

Fried rice, bacon, lamb sausage.

Hash browns, pancakes, bread pudding.

Har gow probably frozen, but welcome all the same.

Add in some congee and some mushrooms, and an omelet.

Cloudy blue skies.

By the theatre. Posing.

Posing.

The train station.

Street art.

Looking pretty.

Street art, part two.

Cruffins at Lune Bakery.

Almond croissant.

Cookie croissant special. Too sweet.

Trying out chicken flavor potato chips.

Yarra River.

First winery, Helen and Joey Estate.

Raisins are healthy.

Beautiful art on the bottles.

Terrific colors in the vineyard.

Wine was not particularly full-bodied due to cool weather the past few years.

Beautiful woman amid the fall colors.

Weee'rrreeee here!

Payten and Jones tasting room.

Inside with the tour.

Soumah Winery is the third and final stop.

Didn't even notice she was posing til long after.

Taking our time to enjoy the wine.

Helllooooo legs. Cheers.

Cheers.

Cheers, part two.

Soumah Winery is not quite in full fall colors.

Happy place.

Happy place, part two.

Happy place, part three.

Happy place, part four.

Back to Melbourne.

Apollo Inn for oysters and champagne.

Supper Inn in Chinatown.

Not sure this is real shark fin, but do we care?

Beef chow fun.

Many oysters were consumed.

Is she happy? Yes, she's happy.

Even found her desired dessert.

First proper day in Melbourne was actually a bit of a half day. Enjoyed a solid if unmemorable breakfast at the hotel, gawked at all the Chinese tourists we were sharing the hotel restaurant with, then stretched our legs walking around Melbourne's Central Business District (CBD). Plenty of character to be had here, from rows of old churches to parliament to Flinders Street train station, to the bridges and skyscrapers lining the Yarra River.

Did some shopping, had an overly sweet pastry or two at Lune Bakery (clearly Western-sweet, not Asian-sweet, croissants), skipped a few other well-known bakeries and coffee places due to insufficient stomach space. Could have wandered and shopped more, but instead strolled down to Arts Centre on the south bank to catch our wine tasting tour in the Yarra Valley.

Several relatively cool years meant a lack of full-bodied wines in Australia. The bottle of Giant Steps Harry's Monster we picked up at a random wine shop two days before might have been better than any of the wines we had on the wine tasting tour. Helen and Joey Estate is a beautiful winery with an expensive feel, and was deep enough into the fall colors to be quite pretty. Wines were all on the lighter side, with fancy artwork on the bottles. Rushed over to the next stop, the tasting room for Payten and Joes in Healesville, which was much less impressive. They also apparently source wines from all over, so a very different approach, and that's before you get to their affinity for skin-contact wines.

Third and final stop was Soumah Wines in Yarra Valley, where a very welcoming, more mid-range/accessible vibe was immediately obvious compared to the luxury feel of Helen and Joey. Their NV Blanc de Blanc d'Soumah wasn't too bad, although still fell short of a proper champagne. The lack of full-bodied wines was evident as well, but we at least had a slightly longer visit here to enjoy the outdoor patio and another glass of wine. Fall colors were not quite as strong, but not a bad way to end the tour.

Return to Melbourne was smack in rush hour traffic, but at least Yarra Valley isn't so far away that it's too awful a drive. Almost ended up at Gordon Ramsay-recommened Lee Ho Fook for dinner, but it quickly became apparently we needed something more authentic for our taste buds. Had a stop at the rather luxurious Apollo Inn's tiny bar for proper champagne and oysters while we regrouped, and then on advice of one of our waiters, ended up at Supper Inn in Chinatown for a proper Chinese meal. Noms.