We are still a bit torn on how to handle the balance of recovery of Meg’s broken kneecap. We want to keep going and see more stuff but it is tough. The reality is telling us that we just can’t do everything that we normally do with healthy knees. And, that it is important to give the body adequate time to heal. Our normal travel style includes lots of walking, whether we are in a city or in the countryside. We just spent 2 weeks in the middle of nowhere New Zealand and got really really bored. I went on plenty of rambling walks, while Meg rested. After 3 and a half weeks of New Zealand recovery… we decided to revert to our original itinerary and get moving again, so we flew to Melbourne, Australia for a 5 night stay. Australia is a new country for us and we are really excited to see as much as we can considering our limitations.
Getting in and out of a car is still difficult for Meg because her leg still needs to be mostly straight with the immobilizer splint. We had planned to not have a rental car anyway in Melbourne because of the extensive tram and metro network. We found that we were able to do some sight seeing using the trams, and Ubers when we got tired. While not all the trams in this city are accessible, a good number of the ones in the central downtown are “low floor” that were ok to get on and off. This allowed us to see a couple of excellent art museums (Victoria National Galley and the Ian Potter Australian Art Gallery), and do a little bit of walking around downtown. Meg felt good to finally see something besides the inside of an apartment, and the cows of the last couple of weeks. We are still deciding if it is better to be healing in cities with a tram, or if it is better to get out of civilization and rely on sorta uncomfortable rental cars. We did fine in Melbourne, but still need to come back when fully healthy, so we can really see all of the city. Besides being a beautiful city, it is also a very fun city with lots of things to do.
One of our biggest victories this week was staying in Melbourne’s Fitzroy neighborhood. It is an eclectic neighborhood with lots of clubs, bars and many types of restaurants. It really felt like some of our favorite Seattle neighborhoods like Capital Hill. Meg was no longer reliant on my basic Airbnb cooking and we got to eat a lot of good food. We especially like the Australian pubs. We even met up with some nomad friends had some fantastic pizza. It was nice to talk to people besides ourselves again! Our Airbnb was in an old department store “Patersons” that has been converted into apartments. It was a great location, right across from a grocery store and in the middle of all the action on Smith street.
After trying a city on crutches, we are now going to try something a bit different. Our original plan was a 9 night car road trip and we are going to try to stick with our plans, even though it could be a bit difficult. This could be a bit uncomfortable with a lot of getting in and out of the rental car, but it will also allow Meg to see a bit more of Australia. We are going to take it slow and do a lot more roadside attraction than the hiking we had planned. Stay tuned for some good scenery pictures from Tasmania!!!