On the road {from Nowra NSW to Port of Melbourne, VIC.}

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Tasmania Road Trip - Day 1.
Nowra, NSW to Port of Melbourne, VIC to catch the Spirit of Tasmania.

Money spent… $7,000
Kilometres driven… 3,500
Photographs taken… 1,900
Days on the road… 21
Memories created with family… PRICELESS.

To start our road trip, we needed to drive 8 hours to Melbourne to get to the ferry.
This meant an early start at 5.45 and 8 hours in the car with a 2 year old.

We decided to make a few stops along the way to alleviate boredom not just for the young but the old too. We chose to visit the "bigs" along the way...

The Big Merino in Goulbourn, the Big Submarine (a.k.a. HMAS Otway) in Holbrook and the Dog on the Tuckerbox in Gundagai.

All wonderful places to stop at and in central locations along the Hume Highway.

We stopped for breakfast at Goulburn and to see the Big Merino.

The Big Merino has a wonderful display of the history of sheep shearing and wool manufacturing in Goulburn.

There is also a platform that you can climb to that goes up to the top of the sheep, you look through its eyes and it gives you a scenic view of Goulburn.

In 2007 the Big Merino was relocated to the existing spot, the reason for this was Goulburn had developed and expanded so greatly that the Big Merino (a.k.a. Rambo) was left abandoned and without a view.

Rambo now resides on the Southern side of Goulburn on the north bound side of the freeway.

Next stop was Gundagai.

It seems every trip to Melbourne deserves a stop at The Dog on the Tuckerbox.

Not only is there the Dog on the Tuckerbox to see but the complex has wonderful old ruins to explore, old sheds and wagons. The perfect setting for a camera mad traveller like me.

It was actually a pretty good drive… well for me it was. I had a stash of novels to read and I gave Lillee a bag of books and a Dora colouring in book to play with. She had a wonderful time colouring in and reading.

We arrived on the outskirts of Melbourne at around 5.30 and had to get to the other side (entering from the Hume Highway) but our GPS took us straight through the middle of the city in peak hour traffic.

We travelled approximately a kilometre every 10 minutes and arrived to the ship at 6.45.

Once we got to Port Melbourne, we queued up and got our Quarantine Inspection done, got our cabin keys and got on early (one of the first cars on) so we decided to take the luggage to our room, settle in then explore the ship.

Lillee conveniently found the play area for kids so we had to promise her a play after dinner then Peter and Lillee got an early night while I went shopping and grabbed a coffee.

Just as I was off to bed, we hit the rockiest parts of the Bass Strait and seasickness kicked in.

The Bass Strait is known as one of the rockiest parts of the ocean and being on that ship is like being in a washing machine, we did prepare ourselves by taking seasickness tablets but it was still rough.

The ferry from Melbourne to Devonport, Tas was an overnight sail, we docked at Devonport at 7.30am.

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Photos

Station Pier.
Taken from the Spirit of Tasmania ferry.

Port of Melbourne.
Taken from the Spirit of Tasmania ferry.

Port of Melbourne.
Taken from the Spirit of Tasmania ferry.