The Best Activities in Melbourne

It’s time to start planning how you’ll keep entertained. We’ve put together four family-friendly activities for you.

Some visit the show for the thrilling rides, the others feel amazed at award-winning cakes, the cutest baby animals…or maybe you’re all just united in a love of sugar-filled show bags. This year’s Melbourne Royal Show is set to be bigger and better than ever, running for 11 days, with all the fantastic attractions that we know and love.

If your family has a love for the fantastical, you can get up close to mysterious dragons at Kryal Castle. There will be a wide rage of activities themed around the famous creatures, including an exciting dragon egg trip and dragon soldier training. You’ll come face to face with dragons, and catch the thrilling Dragon Cup Tournament, where noble soldiers and brave knights battle for the Dragon Cup.

The activity is inviting kids to express their creativity at the immersive (沉浸式虚拟现实的) art experience. The organizer will have little kids use their personal creativity to create their own artworks that can be taken home, surrounded by the world of art and culture as inspiration. There will also be free gifts and interactive art plays. It’s suitable for age 5 to 12.

MoPA is a kids’ museum, a place where kids can engage with fun exhibits. The exhibits at MoPA are designed for kids aged 1 to 9. Kids can practice their fine motor skills, build and race in the Zoom Room, climb up to Sunset City for a sweet view of the museum and get creative at the MoPA Art Car.

I am a mother of three children and have recently completed my college degree. The last class I had to take was social study. The last class was asked to go out and smile at three people and document their reactions.

Soon after we were given the project, my husband, my youngest son, and I went out to McDonald’s one cold March morning. It was just our way of sharing special playtime with our son.

We were standing in line, waiting to be served, when all of a sudden everyone around us began to back way. I turned around and found there standing behind me were two poor homeless men with a horrible “dirty body” smell. The short gentleman, close to me, was “smiling”. His beautiful sky-blue eyes were full of light as he searched for acceptance. The second man played with his hands uneasily as he stood behind his friend. I realized the second man was mentally challenged and the blue-eyed gentleman was his salvation(救赎). The short man just asked for a coffee because that was all they could afford.

I smiled and asked the young lady behind the counter to give me two more breakfast meals on a separate tray(餐盘).I then walked around the corner to the men’s table. I put the tray on the table and laid my hand on the blue-eyed gentleman’s cold hand. He looked up at me with tears in his eyes and said “Thank you”.

I started to cry as I walked away to join my husband and son. When I sat down, my husband smiled at me and said, “That’s why God gave you to me, Honey. To give me hope.”

On the last evening of class, I turned in “my project” and the instructor read it. Then she looked up at me and said, “Can I share this?” I slowly nodded as she got the attention of the class. She began to read and we all knew that we need to heal people and to be healed.

I graduated with one of the biggest lessons I would ever learn: UNCONDITIONAL ACCEPTANCE. “LOVE PEOPLE AND USE THINGS--NOT LOVE THINGS AND USE PEOPLE.”

As humanity has got richer, animal’s roles have changed. People need their services less than before. Fewer wolves and thieves meant less demand for dogs for protection; the internal combustion engine (内燃机) made horses unneeded; modern sanitation (卫生设备) kept rats in check and made cats less useful. Domestic animals are no longer necessities, but commonly seen companions. Pet-keeping seems to become more and more popular, as a recent survey found that 69% of American households keep at least one pet.

The pet business is growing even faster than pet numbers, because people are spending more and more money on them. No longer are they food-waste-recyclers, fed with the remains that fall from their masters’ tables. Pet food shelves are full of cuisines tailored to satisfy a range of appetites, including ice cream for dogs and foods for pets that are old, diabetic, or suffer from sensitive digestion.

In the business, this is called “pet humanization” — the tendency of pet owners to treat their pets as part of the family. This is obvious in the names given to dogs, which have evolved from Fido, Rex, and Spot to Bella, Lucy, and Max.

People still hold the false assumption that pets must be working for humanity in some way, perhaps making people healthier or less anxious. But the evidence for that is weak. New research suggests that dogs have evolved those “cute eyes” to affect human emotions and control them, which works very well. Humans now work very hard to pay for the care of their pets. For example, Americans often refer to themselves not as cat owners but as the cat’s “mommy” or “daddy”. South Koreans go one step further, describing themselves as cat “butlers (管家)”. Watch an unlucky man walking his dog, plastic bag in hand to pick up its mess, and we have to doubt: who’s in charge now? Is this relationship what we really want?