Nov. 3-22, 2014 Tour

HuntNfun

My husband and I are booked on the Nov. 3-22 tour. We would love to meet online ahead of time others who are on this tour. Anyone arriving in a Melbourne early or staying longer in Auckland?

Edd and Ruby

MarvinF

We're also going on that tour and are arriving just 1 day early.

HuntNfun

We are from NC and are arriving early also. Where are you from?

MarvinF

We're from Manhattan. This is our third Tauck trip and really looking forward to it.

MGtraveler

I will be on the Nov. 2, 2015 trip. I found out that the Queen Victoria Market is closed on Melbourne Cup day,Tuesday, the day you are to visit it. I'd like to know if Tauck scheduled something in its place. Or were you able to do something else that you would recommend?

jkm

We were on the Sept 22nd - Oct 11 tour. The market was open and we had about a 20-25 minute stop there. It was adequate time to pick up a few things. We found a great Australian hat for my husband for $35-40.

British

The Queen Victoria market is nothing special in my opinion, so don't worry if you miss it.

jdurkin

British wrote:

The Queen Victoria market is nothing special in my opinion, so don't worry if you miss it.

I just wrote a detailed rebuttal of your post. I gave reasoned arguments and quoted historical time lines. I put passion and enthusiasm into my argument. But I deleted it. Why bother to provide a contrary view? If people are not interested in the heart, and soul, and guts of the places they visit how could my passion convince them otherwise. What is the point in trying? What is the point in asking why people travel in the first place? If people don't want to see and experience new things, I can only wonder why they put themselves to the effort and expense of leaving their own front porches.

No, the Queen Victoria Market is nothing special. It's just a symbol of so many other parts of the world. Places that are different to where you come from. Places that are special … to their communities, their culture and their cities generally. Places that have meaning beyond the fresh produce sold there. I know I am very lucky to have this. It makes us all special, too. Lucky us.