How much can you pack in, in a Melbourne mini-break? A lot it seems

A trip to Melbourne to see the musical Come From Away is the inspiration for an action-packed weekend in a city that really knows how to lay on the entertainment.

Chinatown in Little Bourke Street is always great for a bite to eat while visiting Melbourne.

I’m hopping on a plane from Hobart to the big smoke for the Australian opening of celebrated Broadway musical Come From Away.

I will be staying one night, but I’m planning to make a weekend of it, booking the first flight from Hobart on Saturday and the last home on Sunday. With only carry-on baggage, I’m aboard a Melbourne SkyBus by about 9.30am ($36 return) and at Southern Cross Station by about 10am.

It takes 20 minutes to stroll to the Mantra hotel on Russell St in Chinatown. It’s clean and comfortable, but it’s the central location that grabs me. From a bevy of nearby lunch options, I settle on Wonton Master for a vegetable hotpot ($13.50), watching a parade protesting recent actions by the Chinese Government marching by.

My Tasmanian expat friend Sam swings by the hotel and we walk the 25 minutes to the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Sitting in the roaring crowd to watch an AFL match is something every visitor to Australia’s sporting capital should experience.

Dustin Martin in action for the Tigers during the Round 18 AFL match between Richmond and the Port Adelaide Power at the MCG in Melbourne. (AAP Image/Julian Smith)

It’s a Richmond home game and supporters in yellow and black are making Port Adelaide fans welcome with plenty of cheeky banter. We laugh, cheer and enjoy the stadium’s signature cuisine — overpriced beer, chips and a hot dog.

Next stop is Comedy Theatre. It’s the opening night of Come From Away and the c1928 playhouse in Melbourne’s East End theatre district is packed.

The show was written by Canadian Tony and Grammy award nominees Irene Sankoff and David Hein. It tells the true story of the rural Canadian town of Gander, on the east coast island of Newfoundland, in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks when 38 planes carrying 6579 passengers, nine cats, 11 dogs and two endangered apes (one pregnant) were forced to land at the Gander International Airport.

The town’s population almost doubled in a day and the locals dropped everything to accommodate, feed, console and entertain the stranded, confused and frightened passengers for five days.

Scenes from the Broadway musical, Come From Away, now showing in Melbourne. Picture: PATRICK GEE

The play opens with a foot-stomping song and the audience launches into applause. Through the opening number, we are introduced to the town with “the wildest weather that you ever heard of”, where there’s “fish ’n chips and shipwrecks” and you’ll only understand “about half” of what locals say.

We meet the quirky locals in a comical exchange in a Tim Hortons — a Canadian coffee and doughnut franchise and a cultural institution. When the attack happens, we get a sense of the immense task of those working in air-traffic control to direct airborne planes to a safe landing.

From here, the show focuses on the good in the world and, despite being set in the wake of an event so overwhelmingly terrible, it’s uplifting and reassuring.

The end is met with rapturous applause and standing ovation.

The real Mayor of Gander, Claude Elliott — a central character in the show — comes on stage. “Tonight you have seen a snapshot of what happened in our community for five days,” he says. “People needed help, and it was our honour and pleasure to help them during a very difficult time in their lives.”

Scenes from the Broadway musical, Come From Away, now showing in Melbourne. Picture: PATRICK GEE

Sitting in a room full of crying theatregoers is the highlight of my trip.

I ease into Sunday with a stroll at Southbank along the Yarra River, heading to Left Bank Melbourne bar and restaurant for a waterside brunch. After googling the pronunciation, I order the chilli squacquerone (pronounced skwakkwe-ro-ne) – fluffy salted truffle scrambled eggs on grilled pinsa flat bread with Italian cheese, chilli and salsa.

A stroll along Southbank to watch the sunset over the Yarra River is always good to include in a visit to the Victorian capital.

A short walk to the National Gallery of Victoria takes longer than expected as I stop to watch street performers and browse a Sunday arts market before reaching the astonishing Terracotta Warriors and Cai Guo-Qiang exhibition.

With time for one last activity, I pick up a $7 MyKi card from a 7-Eleven and take the No.11 tram from Collins St to Fitzroy to meet friends at a beautiful old pub called The Rose Fitzroy, where we drink beer and watch the West Coast Eagles take down the Demons.

A tram and a bus later I’m back at the airport. Two days have felt like a week.

MAKE A NOTE

SHOWTIME: Come From Away is on at Comedy Theatre until November 10. Tickets range from $75 to $165 on Friday and Saturday and $55-$154 on other days.

STAY: Studio apartments at Mantra on Russell start at $169.

SEE: General entry to the NGV is free, but tickets to the Terracotta Warriors are $30 adults, $10 children 5-15 years old and $65 for a family of five.

PLAY: AFL tickets start from $27 for general admission, $6 kids, and $18 concessions.

Patrick Gee was a guest of Come From Away and Visit Victoria