It is ridiculous o'clock and we are in Melbourne! We have booked a Mazda MX5 to drive to Adelaide along the Great Ocean Road but when we get there there is a slight problem - no our 2 huge rucksacks, 2 small rucksacks, 2 sleeping bags and tent plus hand luggage do fit in it (who'd have thunk it?) but actually we can't take the car out of the state to Adelaide (incase there is an accident) so at 8:30am we are sat in a shopping mall trying to figure out what to do and talking to an old man who's granddaughter once had an elephant step through her tent whilst she was asleep. Anyway, I digress.. we decide to just go into town to Carys and Tom's flat and figure it out from there.
Luckily Carys and Tom, friends of Duncan's from Disney who moved to Melbourne, have a spare room with our name on it! woohoo! Not only that but we can drink as much tea as out bellies can handle - love this place. They also have the most beautiful view from the rooftop over parks nearby (where they do the grand prix) and out to town and the beach.
During our first stay in Melbourne we get ourselves acquainted with the town. I love the little backstreets and walkways between the main streets that are filled with cafes and boutique shops. And we get to meet up with Andy and Jemma who we met in Fiji for a few park drinkies and wander around the evening Victoria market. This is fabulous (sorry I didnt take any photos!), filled with food stores from any place on Earth you can imagine and market stalls selling anything from wine and schnapps to candles, fairy costumes, clothes and trinkets. And it is so busy! Apparently there are more people living in Melbourne than the whole of New Zealand! It's a great few days and we even get to see some devil cats up close and personal!
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| On the tram! |
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| Picnic in the Park |
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| Melbourne |
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| Devil Cat |
We have now figured out car hire and are on our way down the Great Ocean Road to Adelaide. The views of the first bit are pretty and there are some really gorgeous beaches. We don''t stop as much as we should as we left Melbourne pretty late and need to get to Lorne before 9pm! Lorne is lovely but be warned - nothing is opened past 9pm...as we found out when we went out to dinner looking for a nice restaurant and came back to the hostel with a tin of canned spaghetti, a sausage roll and some crisps from the local garage which was just closing!
Back on the road again the next day, and the rain starts... bleurgh. The second part of the Great Ocean Road is nowhere near the Ocean and is pretty dull. Then we get to the 12 Apostles, which is a huge stopping point looking out at these 12 (I only counted 10) stacks of stone that have been eroded away from the mainland. They are pretty massive though! Unfortunately it is raining and windy so we don't stay long. There are loads of other lovely rock formations in this area too including the Grotto, Bay of Islands and London Bridge. We then make a mistake. A huge mistake.
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| Apostles |
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| Grotto |
We have come to the end of the GOR and need to go to Adelaide. We think there is a road that continues along the ocean that we should take for the views...it doesn't go anywhere near the ocean and it takes twice as long as the main highway. We stop again in Robe, although this time at a huge manor house with a library for enjoying a glass of wine in! How civilized.
Finally, after driving down very straight, very long roads, we get to Adelaide and Katy and Lucy! Hurrah! Again we are lucky enough to have friends from Fiji to let us stay! Whilst in Adelaide we celebrate Katy's birthday with an epic game of Monopoly Deal, visit a German settlement town Hahndorf (where we buy mos of Tom's Christmas gifts - Tom is German by the way!), watch an entire series of Glee and enjoy a couple of nights in Adelaide town including a night out at a Chinese for my birthday. It is brilliant and super-relaxing! oh and I see my first super-huge huntsman spider! They aren't poisonous but I still wouldn't want to get too close! I also get presented with the largest chocolate frog in the history of the world for my birthday! Wow!
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Epic 9 person game of Monopoly Deal
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| Birthday Dinner |
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| Largest frog ever! |
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| HUGE Spider! |
Sadly though we have to leave and decide that we can make it back in 1 day! On your marks, get set, GO! We do pretty good and even make it to the Apostles to take some sunset photos - although unfortunately the sun doesn't set behind the Apostles as it shows in the photos so the best we could do was sun......seaaaaaa.....apostle.
And now we are driving down the Great Ocean road and it is dark, so we see nothing. And the deal was that I would drive on the way so Duncan could see the views and Duncan would drive on the way back so I could see the... suckered! We did see a kangaroo and 2 koalas though! Koala's look evil at night though! They don't move, even for a moving car and I thought they might attack us so I wouldn't let Duncan stop to take a picture - evil koalas. And then around 9pm the fuel in the car looked pretty low.. remember how everywhere closes at 9pm, including petrol stations, yep so I started doing fuel saving driving - not too much speeding, not too much breaking and coasting - does anyone know if this actually works?! And hurrah we make it to a petrol station in Geelong! Just as we are about to leave a hitchhiker approaches and we have no choice but to give him a lift (there is only 2 directions and it is obvious we are going his way). I don't know who is more scared - me of the midnight hitchhiker or him of my driving, as he gets out about 3 minutes later!
And then we are back in Melbourne for Christmas and New Years!
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