"Melbourne in Winter" a Melbourne Travel Page by Lacristina

Good lord, the warnings I read and received.

"Oh, they do have weather in Melbourne! Lots of it!"

"It's so cold!"

"I just hate the winters here!"

But I ask you: What do you see the in this photo? PALM TREES! PALM TREES for pity's sake! I ask you, how cold could it be with PALM TREES????

My fellow Northern Hemispherians - these people do NOT know winter. It NEVER gets below freezing! What kind of winter is THAT? The closest snow is 4 1/2 hours away! This is not winter - this is a coolish break from the heat of summer.

Look at the rest of these photos - all taken in June 2005 - the equivalent of the Northern Hemisphere's December - and weep! Here is a winter to die for!

Little more than 100 kilometers from Melbourne, we stopped at this small, quiet beach where we watched these three boys frolic in the last hour of sun on my last day there. The mother kept an eye on them - but let them run free through the pools made by a small stream on its way to the ocean, less than 100 meters away. If my visit to Melbourne had to end, this was the perfect way.

We all know how sports minded Australians are - so of course, they have their winter sports. Like, um, ah.....surfing. Do these people not understand winter at all?