Road Trip: Tower Hill , Warnambool, Colac, Winchelsea 2019

When sorting old photos recently, I came across photos of the road trip to and from a Port Fairy holiday in 2019  .  It was an interesting trip home.  I always meant to share these photos so now is as good as any time.  My manager had suggested that I take a week of leave because life was pretty stressful.  It was a welcome break.  We drove without many stops on the way to Port Fairy but we meandered home with a few stops.  It might have been reluctance to go home or maybe we started on the road earlier or it could have been I needed more stops because my back was sore.  Whichever, the trip offered quite a few pleasant surprises as well as one that was not so pleasant.

Before I tell you about our first stop at Tower Hill on the way home, I will share the lunch we had on the way to Port Fairy.  We stopped at Winchelsea where we went to the local market that I think was along the main street.  For lunch we bought a fantastic Zeally Bay sourdough baguette and some delicious soft brie that we ate a small table.  It was a lovely simple rustic meal without cutlery.

 

 

We had a quick look at the shops.  There is a small shopping strip in Winchelsea so it does not take long.   One store had some really nice sustainable items.  I bought my bread bag that I still have today.  Since then it has housed many loaves of bread.  It is much more stained and frayed around the zip than in this photo. 

 

 

Possibly the highlight of the trip was a stop at Tower Hill soon after we left Port Fairy.  We had enjoyed a trip to Tower Hill in 2013.  Six years later it was just as delightful to be out in the bush inside the crater of the dormant volcano.  As we made our way to the start of the walk, we saw a fluffy koala in a tree.  They always look like they would be great to cuddle but once I have heard a koala growling, I am not so sure.

We had a gentle walk along one of the paths through the bush.  It was soul soothing to walk among the towering gum trees in an crater of a volcano dormant for approximately 25,000 years.  A great way to put one's life into perspective.

I enjoyed seeing the wildlife.  Some of the flowers like the above thistle were lovely and it was very entertaining watching a willy wagtail (bird) darting among the trees.

Tower Hill is a huge expanse of bush (a lot of it reclaimed from cattle grazing).  There is a road to drive down into the crater.  I really love all the layered rock walls that you can see on the top photo with our car. that we had back in 2019.  The above photo is of the view as well drove out and looked back.

At the top of the drive out was a paddock of emus.  This fine chap was not at all shy in parading his feathers in front of us. 

Then we drove onto Warnambool, which is the second largest town on the drive from Port Fairy to Melbourne.  The largest is Geelong!  In Warnambool we happened to drive past this wonderful Ngatanwarr (Welcome) Mural by Adnate.

While the first photo of the mural shows the detail, the one above shows the impressive scale of the artwork.  I was so amazed by the street art that I stopped to take a photo.  I don't know Warnambool this well but this artwork and the cafe we visited for lunch gave me a better impression of the town than other times we have driven through on the way to and from Port Fairy.

We had a fantastic lunch at Day Kitty Cafe (52b Kepler Street Warrnambool).  I am really pleased to see that it is still open according to the internet.  When browsing Day Kitty Cafe's instagram, it looks like they are still serving beautiful healthy vegetarian and vegan food.  I would definitely return if I had the opportunity.

It was at Day Kitty that I first had this lovely Jiva Pomegranate Jiva.  It was so exciting to find such good kombucha back then!  Since then kombucha and other adult sodas have become more common but in 2019 the choice was far more limited if I could find any.  Sylvia was happy with a juice (probably apple, maybe freshly squeezed).

Another revelation was Sylvia's experience of scrambled eggs on toast.  She loved it so much that she was inspired to try making her own scrambled eggs on toast at home.  You can see one of her home versions of scrambled eggs on a 2019 post. 

As for me, I had was very pleased with my Nourish Bowl.  It was vegan and gluten free.  This was a full satisfying bowl of kraut, avocado half with mixed seed topping, pumpkin, greens, dukkah, pickled vegetables, kale chips, green goddess pesto, cashew turmeric hollandaise, herbed lentil salad & lemon on the house grain mix.  All for $16.50.  This was a wonder of a rural town where my expectations were so much lower than in the city of Melbourne. 

Day Kitty Cafe also had a small groceries section of fancy and healthy groceries.  We bought this coconut and vanilla flavoured Serious Popcorn.  The photos is taken on our stop in Colac where I had a quick walk at the Colac Memorial Square.  The trip was at the end of Spring (November), hence all the daisies among the grass.

At the centre of the Memorial Square is the impressive sandstone Colac War Memorial that was unveiled in 1924 in memory of the local soldiers who had enlisted in World War II .  Since then, more names have been added.  We had the added pleasure of seeing the roses in bloom that are planted in front of it.

Our last stop was to look at this street art on a signal box in Winchelsea.  Above is an orca and below is a seagull.  In the background of the gull photo is the sign of a petrol station.  These are so important when doing a long drive.  It is not the cheapest petrol but they are an essential stop when the tank is low and you know it could be some time before you have the opportunity again.

We then drove on to Geelong where I was stopping to see my parents.  Before we got there I was pulled over by the police because my car was unregistered.  I was so certain that I had paid the registration that I convinced the police officer to let me drive on to my parents to check on the their computer rather than paying on the spot.  When I checked in Geelong, I found I had not paid so I instantly deposited the money online with VicRoads.

The holiday had been so relaxing and wonderful that it was such a shame to end on a low note.  However I have great memories of the holiday and the trip back.  The unpaid registration saga ended with my doctor kindly writing a letter to support an appeal and the fine being waived.  

The sadder end to the story was that the Orchard Cottages where we stayed at Port Fairy in 2019 (as well as twice previously) were a casualty of the Covid pandemic and have now closed.  I have yet to find another holiday accommodation at Port Fairy to rival it but I still hope I will and that we will return in the not so distant future.  Six years since our last trip to Port Fairy is too long!  It is such a wonderful place for a holiday and the drive there and back has lots of interesting places to stop.

Juniper Eatery and Meeya Cafe cake painting, South Melbourne

For her birthday this year, Sylvia chose to go across town for lunch at Juniper Eatery followed by DIY decorated cakes at Meeya Cafe in South Melbourne.  It was a fine way to celebrate.  The drinks were excellent, the food great and who doesn't love to paint a picture on their cake like an artist with a paint palate.

Before cake painting, we stopped at Juniper Cafe for lunch.  It was busy.  I had not noticed how close it was to the South Melbourne Market until I started to look for parking.  It was crazy.  And so busy on leafy Coventry Street.  When we arrived at Juniper, there were people waiting in the alleyway by the entrance.  We were told that there was about 15 minutes wait and we could hang out in the cool design shop next door rather than outside in the sun. 

By the time we browsed the design shop and noticed that the wait staff took dishes in and out to the outdoor seats via the shop, we were called in.  And we hadn't even finished going through the swatches of fabric colours for the couch!  Our seat on a long bench in front of a mirror.  Juniper isn't a big cafe but they use the space well.  Bench seats, mirrors and window seats.

To drink, Sylvia had a difficult choice between the frappe and the matcha latte.  She chose the latter.  It was an iced sweet milky coffee  with a creamy coffee froth.  Sylvia assures me it was very different to the milky foamy froth that is on a latte or cappuccino.  As well as lots of regular ice blocks, the drink was topped with an unusual oblong ice block that Sylvia thought might be made with a shaved ice or crushed ice.  It was certainly not ice as we know it.  She hadn't had a frappe before but loved it and looks forward to more.

I ordered the Yumbo blood orange soda.  The staff were great.  When I asked for the soda, I was told that the blood orange Yumbo was not chilled but I had an option of having it over ice or choosing the lemon or grapefruit flavours.  I went with the room temp blood orange over ice.  The ice melted so much quicker with the room temperature drink that I asked for more ice.  The staff quickly brought a cup of ice.  So I was very happy with my Yumbo.

The Juniper menu the waiter handed us seemed quite light on for the sort of food I wanted (ie too much meat and eggs and sweet dishes).  Then I noticed that there were sandwiches written on the mirror and considered the Roasted eggplant, stracciatella, gremolata and crispy shallot sandwich.  

I was glad I remembered that there seemed more at the counter.  They had salads and sandwiches and pastries.  So I chose the salads after all: Pearl couscous zucchini, asparagus, sun dried tomato chilli & lime crema, Tomato, cucumber, olives, nigella, herbs, lemon & maple dressing, Runner beans, snow peas, ricotta salata, mint & red wine vinegar.  I love a mix of salads and was happy with my choice. 

Meanwhile, Sylvia found her meal easily on the menu we were given.  She had the soft eggs on sourdough toast with an optional side of pickled mushrooms.  She was delighted with it, and described it as seeming quite Scandinavian.  The soft boiled eggs were quite pretty on the toast.

I rushed Sylvia out of Juniper because our 1 hour parking metre was expired and we drove to park the car elsewhere, even though we could have easily walked to Meeya Cafe.  As I parked the car, the thunder rumbled and the heavens opened.  Fortunately I had umbrellas in the car because we walked to the cafein incredibly heavy rain.  I arrived at Meeya with a wet back and wet sandals.  Then the sun came out again once we sat in the corner with a cute Miffy and flowers.  The weather was back up into the 30s and made photography slightly challenging.  Classic Melbourne weather!

We were at Meeya for the cake painting but Sylvia wanted an iced strawberry matcha.  She had read that they were worth trying and loved it.  The brilliant green with pink strawberry was a wonderful sight.

For the cake painting we paid $17 for a vanilla sponge cake with vanilla frosting.  It came on a wooden paint palette with red, blue, yellow and vanilla blobs of frosting, paint brushes, a palette knife and forks.  We asked if there was black paint but there was not.  Though I was told if we needed more frosting, we could ask for it.  We also had a the blue cup of warm water to wash our brushes and serviettes that I used to dry off the brushes and palette knives after washing them.

The object was to paint or decorate your cake with frosting and then eat it.  It was harder than it sounded.  If I tried to paint with the paint brush the icing was unwilling to part with it to be styled on the cake.  Sylvia was pretty savvy and showed me how to scoop some frosting up with the back of the palate knife and spread it on the cake.  She was also wise to start with mixing up the primary colours - orange green and purple.  There was quite a bit of colour mixing to be done as we started with quite basic colours.  Sylvia did a simple but gorgeous design of coloured flowers.

As we entered Sylvia suggested I do a mushroom and so I ran with the idea.  Getting the frosting on the cake was doable with the palette knife but shaping small shapes was still quite hard.  My fingers and the paint brush could be useful in shaping.  Fine lines were still very challenging.  I think that this is where piping would be useful - although I can also find piping frosting challenging. 

Here is my finished cake.  I was happy with the decoration.  I enjoyed experimenting with different sorts of flowers., though I might have tried to balance the colours a bit more.  (At the end I was concerned about colours being too similar together and did an impatient darker green stroke by the base of the toadstool that I regretted - it was  not the fine line I had envisaged though I should have known better than to expect it at that point.)  Mixing up the paints was fun.  I had expected to need more white or yellow but managed to just use the paint I had been given.

Once the our cakes were decorated, we then had the pleasure of eating them.  Sylvia had decided she did not need to wash her brushes in the water we were given.  Instead she just licked the frosting off her brush when she wanted to change colour.  I was impressed that the frosting was not too sweet.  The made the light fluffy cake all the more enjoyable.  And there was great satisfaction in having decorated our own cake.  

It was such a fun activity.  The cafe was full of people with their heads down like serious artists at work.  I wondered if it was only me who struggled to achieve my vision.  On the way out we chatted to the women at the neighbouring table who were working out how to use the equipment and I felt like maybe we weren't alone in being on a big learning curve.  I would be keen to return and have another go at cake painting with the experience of one completed "canvas" under our belt - in more ways than one!
 

Juniper Eatery
269 Coventry St
South Melbourne VIC 3205
Open: 8am-3pm, 7 days a week
https://www.instagram.com/juniper.eatery

Meeya Cafe
191 Clarendon St
South Melbourne VIC 3205
Open: Mon-Fri 8am-4pm, Sat-Sun 10am-4pm
https://www.facebook.com/MeeyaCafe

NGV Yayoi Kusama retrospective, Melbourne 2025

In January my sister gave me a wonderful birthday present of taking Sylvia and me to see the Yayoi Kusama retrospective at NGV International in St Kilda Road.   It is the biggest show of Kusama's work in the Southern Hemisphere.  Two hundred works of art include 10 of her iconic infinity rooms and more dots than you can poke a stick at.  They tell stories of courage, fun and warmth of the 95 year old artist's decades of creating amazing artworks.  She seems to ride the zeitgeist, being an irresistable selfie opportunity for instagrammers, and yet has such a fascinating history of being present in so many moments in time.

The exhibition runs until 21 April so I highly recommend it to locals and visitors to Melbourne, if you don't mind paying the entrance fee (and even if you wont pay, the free stuff is great in the Foyer Great Hall and Kusama for Kids).

Ascension of polka dots on the trees

My sister was not impressed by the entry fee for the exhibition ($38 for a child and $18 for an adult).  She rightly pointed out that public art should not be too expensive for part of the population.  So it was great to see that some parts of the exhibition could be seen without paying the fee.  Above is the spotty tree trunks in St Kilda Road outside the entrance to the NGV.  They can be enjoyed by anyone walking, cycling, driving by.  You don't even have to go into the gallery to see the signature spots!

Dancing Pumpkin, 2020

Kusama is famous for her dotty pumpkins so it is a coup for the NGV to have purchased this 5 metres tall dancing pumpkin installation that is currently in the forecourt of the gallery.  While young adults posed for selfies, younger kids played among the kinetic limbs.

Spots in the great hall

This was one of the few pieces of art I could not find a title for.  The giant yellow balls covered in dots look modern and playful against the serious colourfest of the Great Hall's stained glass ceiling.  The simplicity of the balls placed just so is genius.  I could just lie on the floor and look up at this sight for hours.  If only we had had the time and I wasn't whisked away quickly to the fee paying section of the exhibition.

Narcissus Garden 1966

Anyone familiar with the NGV will know the waterwall at the entrance where so many children (including me and my siblings) have placed theirs hands to watch the flowing water part around them and trickle over their fingers.  For the Kusama exhibition it is rendered bright pink with lots of giant dots.  Inside under its rosy glow is a recreation of the iconic Nacissus Garden from the Venice Biennale in 1966.  You don't have to pay to see this in the floyer.

Once inside the fee paying area, we encounter a smaller recreation of the Narcissist Garden.  The original in 1966 was an installation at the Venice Biennale that today we might call art bombing and back then was called unauthorised. She stood in the midst of the installation selling off the silver orbs cheaply as a comment on elitism and the commodification of art.  It was cut short by the Biennale authorities because it was not formally invited but it has been recreated around the world many times since.  There must be a lot of these silver orbs out there!  She looks so young and fresh faced almost 60 years ago and yet by then she was in her 30s with a lot of experience as an artist.

The section in the first part of the exhibition showed artwork from her early decades as a child in Japan and a young woman seeking like as an artist in the USA before she returned to Japan with poor mental health.  Since 1977 she has voluntarily lived in a mental health facility in Tokyo and takes a daily short walk to her studio.  It is a form of art therapy but also so much more.  The above photos are of her wild life in 1960s New York staging staging outlandish happenings in public places often involving naked people painted with polka dots.  She was a part of the 1960s counter culture that expressed love and sexuality in a wild and challenging way that was bound to shock.

Statue of Venus Obliterated by Infinity Nets 

Across the forecourt in the second section of the fee paying exhibition were the later infinity rooms and spectacle. Above is a statue of Venus de Milo covered in Kusama's signature dots.  It reminded me of Andy Warhol's pop art and then I read that Kusama had influence pop artist such as Walhol and Claes Oldenburg.  What an icon and an innovator!

The Spirits of the Pumpkins Descended into the Heavens 2015 

One of the first things we saw in the second section was a queue.  This must be the famous infinity mirror rooms.  We had to see it to get our money's worth and if we had to queue, we would see it.  After over 20 minutes of queuing we were questioning if it was worth it.  (We had breaks one or two at a time from the queue to run in the next room and look at other artworks.)  Yet our excitement rose as we finally were in the yellow room with black dots around this first mirror room.  It was actually a peep hole into a mirror room of an infinity of glowing yellow pumpkin lanterns covered in black dots.  It was amazing.  More amazing to be there peering in that any photos or videos can show.  We were told beforehand that there was a 30 second limit per person and still it was difficult to drag our eyes from the spectacle when our time was up.

Dots Obsession 1996/2024

While waiting to see that first infinity room I wandered into the infinity mirror room of red spheres covered in white dots.  So simple and yet so fun when seen with a new perspective.  

Kusama has a prodigious output.  As well as the infinity mirror installations, she has created painting, sculpture, poetry, videos, fashion, performance art and fiction.  Wikipedia describes her work as "based in conceptual art and shows some attributes of feminism, minimalism, surrealism, art brut, pop art, and abstract expressionism, and is infused with autobiographical, psychological, and sexual content."  Wow!  What an impressive artist!

As Jo Higgins writes for the ABC, Yayoi Kusama's NGV exhibition offers up more to ponder than just her Infinity Rooms.

Works from my Eternal Soul series 2009-2021

There paintings were displayed in a room so large that it was difficult to photograph the top ones.  Some had sculptures in front of it as you can see in the photo above the photo above.  My sister and Sylvia were keen to move on so there wasn't a lot of time to stop and read.  However when I saw the titles of a few of the pictures I took photos to enjoy the poetry of them later.  Here are a few samples:

• The Urge to Die Comes on a Daily Basis. Hoping That You Come Across My Death 2014
• Billions of Sparkles of Love Fade Away in the Silence of Death Like a Gust of Wind 2017
• Here, Another Night Comes from Trillions of Light Years Away 2017
• Dear Death of Mine, Thou Shalt Welcome an Eternal Death 2017
• Let's Exclaim the Youth 2019
  
  

Chandelier of Grief 2016 

The boundless landscape of bright chandelier lights in a dark space filled the second infinity mirror room we saw.  It had some of the attributes that are common to Kusama's installations.  The endlessness of images crafted by artful arrangement of the mirrors.  It can be a challenge to work out what is real and what is just a reflection.  The lighting and music were an important part of the experience.  Lights were choreographed to shine and dim in rhythms, rotating through gradually changing colours.  We stood and watched in awe as the ambient melodies of "If everything was good" (by Silicon Estate (featuring Mimi) played around us.  

It was like stepping into another world.  Somewhere dreamlike where you could lose yourself in beautiful sights and sounds.  To be there alone for a long period would be just so relaxing.  It is less relaxing because there are other people in there.  They have also queued to see it so I can't resent their presence but it does make it harder to take photos.  And I am so busy taking photos that the 30 seconds is up quickly and then the museum guide is opening the door and herding us back into the bright lights of the real world.  I arrive outside and wished I had taken less photos and spent more time just absorbing the room.

Ladder to heaven 2019

I don't think this infinity ladder counts as a mirror room because it is just one round mirror on the floor and one on the ceiling that makes the ladder look like it goes on forever as I crane my head upwards.  But there is another ladder in the room and queue for the Chandelier of Grief and maybe a few other bits and pieces so it is more exhibit than installation.  There is no queue for this which is great and also means that people crowd around it and there is not the space when a limited number of people are allowed into the infinity rooms.

This photo looks down where the same infinity ladder goes down without end.  The light rotates through different colours so it took quite a few photos to get this one with the green lighting.  Green is such a lovely colour but I guess there is something for all tastes.  I love this photo that looks as if my phone has the power to throw out the light of this dotted ladder.

The Hope of the Polka Dots Buried in Infinity Will Eternally Cover the Universe 2019 

This installation is an infinity room where there is no queue.  It is a thoroughfare from one part of the second section to the other.  I first check it out when we were queuing to see the pumpkin lanterns but was glad I had the opportunity to return.  The bright yellows are cheery and the huge tube turn and twist through the room like a slithering snakes or alien tentacles.  The yellow dots on the yellow tubes look a little scaly to add to the feeling of being in a room with something monstrous.  Though it is more friendly than frightening. 

I read that the ceiling is 6 metres high (or 20 feet).  You can hear the sound of the air being pumped in to keep the snakes plump and floating through the air.  This installation feels endless like the other infinity room but it but uses artwork rather than mirrors to create the atmosphere.  It a fun place for kids to playfully run in and out of the tubes than in the infinity mirror rooms where people wander around cautiously in the gloom. 

With All My Love for the Tulips, I Pray Forever 2013 

This infinity room has a tulip painted to match the multi coloured polka dots on white that cover the walls, floor and ceiling.  It is camoflagued so carefully that it is not immediately obvious. 

But when you are close up you see the flower very clearly and it is beautiful.  It is so big that it reminds me a little of Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors but this is no venus flytrap that will gobble you up.  It is a very bright and friendly presence.

Love is Calling 2013 

This infinity mirror room was Sylvia's favourite.  Stalactites hang from the ceiling and stalagmites stand at attention on the floor, covered in black dots.  The lighting rotates through bright colours so that at any one time the structures are all different hues.  And the mirrors make an infinity of these coloured pointy dotty shapes like being in a magical cave. 

The entrance to this infinity room was less conspicuous than the other ones.  Perhaps this is why the queue was much smaller than others.  There were only a handful of people waiting.  When we came out exclaiming at how amazing it was, we looked a short wait and queued for another 30 seconds inside.  We could have gone in a third time but by then time was marching on and so did we!

My Heart Is Filled To The Brim With Sparkling Light this infinity room

My favourite infinity room was "My Heart is filled....".  This installation debuts at this NGV exhibition.  The darkened room is filled with pinpricks of red, blue, green and purple lights that shine out of small halls in mirror balls.  The lights sparkle and shimmer and change colour like clusters of twinkling stars.  Like other infinity rooms this is a wonderful immersive experience, even with the limits of a time limit and sharing the space with other people.

I did not take the name of these paintings but I liked that they all featured green.  Some of Kusama's painting remind me of Indigenous art.  It has a lot of beauty and simplicity.

Flower Obsession 

The final installation is an old friend.  Flower Installation impressed and entertained me years ago in 2018 at was exhibited at NGV in the Triennial.  Every visitor takes one red flour and places it anywhere on a series of white rooms with white furnishings.  It is so much fun to decide where to leave my mark.  And satisfying to look back and feel part of the installation.

We did not go to the Kusama for Kids exhibit - which is free.  This features the obliteration room with a similar offer for visitors to take a coloured polka dot and places it in a white room.  Unfortunately we only had time to browse the gift shop quickly and then my sister decided to squeeze in a quick trip to St Kilda (and who wouldn't when on holiday from Ireland).  So we farewelled Chris before she headed home soon after and we had an amazing drink and cake at Tori's bakery cafe,

Yayoi Kusama exhibition
NGV (National Gallery of Victoria) International
St Kilda Road, Melbourne CBD
15 December 2017 to 21 April 2025
www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/yayoi-kusama/