Day 137 2/02/2015

Part of Simon's back tooth had fallen off when we were in Sydney. We wanted to get to a dentist before we leave for South America and thought it would be good if we could do so whilst we're in Melbourne. Our insurance states that we have to register with Medicare whilst we're in Oz in order to make a claim so after breakfast we headed off to their local office with Bill, who's recuperating from his knee replacement op (poor Raewyn had to go to work). Medicare are based with the equivalent of our job centre and we met some of life's best examples there, much as we'd do at home. The staff even set the alarm off at one point as a result of one rather unpleasant person shouting and calling the staff "morons". We finally got a registration number, even though we were told we didn't need one, and then drove to Bill's dentist to book an appointment for later in the day at 4.30pm. The receptionist was originally from Harrogate and moved out here with her Aussie husband 6 years ago! With that sorted we drove south towards the Mornington Peninsular stopping along the way to take in the lovely views and look back to see Melbourne city on the horizon. The peninsular curls around Port Phillip Bay's eastern half and is primarily a mix of holiday communities and some rather grand houses owned by Melbourne's rich and famous. We stopped off for lunch at the marina at Safety Beach before continuing on to Sorrento to see the ferry dock from Queenscliff on the other side of the bay. It's interesting to see the shipping come into the bay which basically passes through The Rip and then heads directly east before turning due north towards Melbourne. From here we drove to Point Nepean National Park, the peninsulars' tip and originally a quarantine station for incoming immigrants and later an army base with large areas being out of bounds due to unexploded weapons.  After looking round the exhibition we headed back in time for Simon's appointment. The dentist rebuilt the side of the tooth and 30 minutes and $350 later we were back at Raewyn and Bill's house! In the evening we went to Waves for dinner, one of Raewyn and Bill's favourite local restaurants, and enjoyed a lovely meal with great views out to the bay.

Mornington Peninsular coast line

With Bill at the Sorrento ferry port 

The ferry from Queenscliff 

Point Nepean National Park 

With Raewyn and Bill at Waves