Day 8: Storm of the Century

When we planned our trip to Australia we were expecting that we may have a day or two of rain, but this was a bit too much for our liking.

The day started off sunny and warm, so we decided to head to downtown Melbourne to check out some more sites and participate in the Moomba festival. After having a quick lunch we started to stroll down Elizabeth street towards the Art Gallery, when the skies went really dark. Not being prepared for rain, we whisked Avery's stroller under the store front covers so she wouldn't get wet.

Within minutes there was hail the size of golf balls coming down. About 10 minutes later there was a huge downpour, and we retreated into a pharmacy to take cover. The rain continued to come down and suddenly the roof at the front of the store started to leak and water started coming out of the floor. Outside, what used to be a city street was now a river, with cars barely able to drive down it.

Fortunately, we parked our rental car in an underground garage, so it didn't suffer any hail damage. Once the rain let up a little we headed back home. The traffic getting out of the city was horrific. On an almost empty tank we headed to a gas station only to learn that a transformer blew out in the area and there wa no power for a few hours. We made it home (on what was likely gas fumes) to discover that we had no power. After living with no power in a Toronto winter for over 24 hours, we felt like professional power-outage survivors, so the thought of going without for a few hours wasn't bothering us; but the thought of pushing our rental car to a gas station with power so we could drive to the airport in the morning was making us a little worried. Fortunately, within an hour the power was back on.