Australia

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Oz Week 1 - Sydney

Wednesday 4 November
Arrival in Sydney, although it was British weather that greeted us along with Tim with a Devon flag and a ‘Welcome to Australia’ goodie bags. We had a quick tour of Sydney before Tim dropped us at our hotel, the Menzies (which was very central) and headed back to work. We met up with Tim for a drink at the Lord Nelson pub and then a meal at the Harbourview Hotel in the Rocks, where we enjoyed kangaroo steak.

Thursday 5 November
Trying to be organised we had a pre arranged meeting with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, so even though it took an hour of filling in forms we left with 2 new pre ordered bank cards with our names on and 2 new bank accounts, even though we didn’t have a permanent address.
We then went and registered for Medicare (the Oz version of NHS) but being a bit American it won’t cover everything unfortunately including hearing aids and batteries. Thankfully this was all sorted out in the afternoon.

Friday 6 November
We met Silke (Liz’s sister, Rachel’s uni friend) at her office on Market St and checked out her offices and also our box of things that had been DHL’ed from UK. We spent the afternoon walking around the really nice Botanical gardens, seeing massive fruit bats too and then walked around to the opera house, stopping for a cheeky vino at the Opera House bar! In the evening went out for dinner in a restaurant in the Rocks where we picked and barbequed our own steak but unfortunately it started chucking it down with rain and so we had to move tables.

Saturday 7 November
We had a day walking round the shops - and doing some shopping and got an Oz mobile pay as you go phone from Vodafone for a good $49 (inc SIM and $10 voucher). Met Silke at 7 for dinner in Darling harbour at Nick’s seafood place. Good food and lovely to spend some time with Silke.

Sunday 8 November
We moved hotel to North Shore, Harbourview Hotel in morning to be nearer to Tim’s place and then we got train to Town Hall station and met Silke there. She drove us to K-Mart so that we could get some towels, duvet and sheets and pillow for campervan. We then drove to Bronte beach and back to her place where Andy and Silke decided to go for a 5 mile run! We then all walked to Bronte beach and saw sculptures on next beach north - the one below Bondi beach, where there was a national outdoor art exhibition.

Monday 9 November
We went to the western Sydney suburb of Parramatta & to meet the Deaf Society of New South Wales as it seems that unlike the RNID (Royal National Institute for the Deaf) in the UK things are covered in Oz on a state by state basis and local councils supposedly also providing some help by supplying smoke alarms/door bells that have a vibrating device to those in need. Overall this was helpful and we have some useful contacts to contact depending on where we decide to live.

We had a nice 45-minute ferry ride back along the Paramatta River to Circular Quay seeing lots of nice areas and some very expensive looking houses. We met Tim after lunch and he drove us through suburbs of north Sydney and to a great lookout point near a Military College (in Mossman?) where you can look out onto the Pacific. Also to Belmoral beach where we walked to an island and sunbathed for a while. Later on we went to Tim’s new place in Greenwich and then for curry in Crow’s Nest.

Tuesday 10 November
We went over to Kings Cross and Elizabeth Bay area where Zak Frost (from Prince William School days) & Clare & baby Ella live. Had a good catch up with them and then we walked/ran through the Botanical Gardens to get to the Lord Nelson pub to meet Mat (from Finsbury Food) & Gem for drinks and dinner. Had a good catch up - hearing about their travels so far and good/bad campervan experience.

Oz Week 2 - south coast NSW and Gippsland, Victoria

Wednesday 11 November
Ready to continue our travels we picked up the VW camper van (well a more modern and bigger version of Neil’s one from Swansea days, although it did bring back memories of a certain ‘considering a move to Memphis’ song!). Deciding that we were heading to Melbourne via travels along the south east coast we stayed first night at Corrimal just north of Wollongong. Also stopped at Woolies & Coles to get some food supplies.

Thursday 12 November
We decided to head for Kangaroo Valley, which is an area where Tim worked on a camp for a year between 6 form and University. Went passed Wollongong and stopped at Shellharbour for lunch - pretty place but not much beach and had a view of industrial chimneys to left. We then drove past Kiama, which looked to have some good beaches and nice views, and on to Berry which had very pretty tree lined streets. Finally we took the tourist route to Kangaroo Valley village where we set up camp for 2 nights. There were llamas/alpaca in the next field and lots of parrots in the trees….a nice campsite. Kangeroo Valley village is very twee with nice boutique shops, a pub and quite a few cafes.

Friday 13 November
The weather being a little grey we decided it would be good to review things and sort out a few e-mail before attempting to play tennis on a ‘free’ court. This was understandable as it seemed that due to the heat and wear & tear that we were playing on a seriously pot holed court.

Andy then decided to go for a 5 mile run but as the arch on his foot hurts afterwards he seems to need some new trainers. Later that evening we were reminded what a small world we live in, as a guy who was working part time on the site had a nephew who lived in Tiverton, Devon on Knightshayes Road!

Saturday 14 November
After a cold clear night sleep we left the valley and enjoyed great views across valleys (sorry Liz enjoyed the views whilst Andy was watching the windy road we were driving on!) as we drove through Bomaderry and Nowra on our way to Jervis Bay.

We then drove around St Georges Basin to a lovely site in Swanhaven where we were next to the estuary leading from St Georges Basin into the Pacific. We stayed at the Sussex Inlet and enjoyed a meal by the side of lake for sunset.

Sunday 15th
Continued drive south and stayed at Noorumba where the site backed onto a very big nice beach. We only saw another couple on the whole beach. The campsite was nice and seemed that the local birds must have been after some food (which they didn’t get) as we had parrots, some other birds and ducks flying down besides the campervan.

Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th
Getting used to seeing some interesting names of towns/villages over here we stopped at Eden for a lunch of locally caught fish and chips, which was very nice. We then carried onto Lakes Entrance, which is where Andy stayed at in 2002 with Neil, Katie and Marty Moo.

It is a lovely area with an appropriately named 90 mile beach that has inland a very large estuary area with lots of islands, including the private one with an airstrip that Andy, Neil, Katie, Marty and Lucy (Marty’s dog) walked around before being told it was a private island!

We decided to take a tour of a vineyard where we were picked up in the harbour for a boat trip around Lakes Entrance before a ‘sampling’ tour of a vineyard and a very nice lunch. They specialised in frozen Muscat…..an interesting taste. We meet some nice people over lunch who were all from Victoria on holiday and we got to hear how not many people are too fond of Kevin Rudd, the Aussie prime minister.

Having seen some great views there are times that it isn’t interesting driving along some very long straight roads however whilst going through a few towns we have had some interesting events, with a police car coming up behind us with its lights going but then thankfully overtaking us to pull over the car that was in front of us! Then about 30 minutes later it seemed that the Victoria police where breath testing the drivers of every vehicle coming in our out of a town, which is reassuring but it seems they are worried by too many pre Christmas celebrations over here.

Oz Week 3 - Catching up with Marty Moo and exploring Melbourne

Wednesday 18th
Driving through Devondale and Fish Creek (are you getting used to these names yet?!) we headed onto the Wilson’s Promontory National Park, known locally as ‘The Prom’. The whole peninsula is a national park and is lovely, although unfortunately due to a lightening strike in February suffered a massive bush fire. Even though there were lots of charred remains the vegetation is recovering well and you could see lots of new green shoots bursting through, so the natural recovery is on its way. Luckily we did still manage to see a lot of local wildlife with Rosellas (a parrot), Stumpy tailed lizards (basking in the sun on the edge of the footpath and being confident enough not to move as we walk past), a wombat (eating next to the river besides the camp site), a brown snake which crossed the path about 2 meters in front of us (not sure if poisonous!!), cockatoos, hermit crabs (100’s of them that dug themselves into the sand whenever getting close to them) and kangaroos that were eating next to the road. Along with the wildlife the scenery was great and we enjoyed walking out along peninsulas and onto an appropriately named squeaky beach, where the sand is so fine and white that it squeaks when you walk on it. Stunning beach!

Thursday 19th
Leaving the Prom we were looking forward to catching up with Marty so headed to his place just south of Meeniyan, which is set out on the top of some hills of lovely farmland where you can see for miles and miles (it reminded us very much of Devon). Marty arrived and it was great to see him and Lucy, the dog, again and we were also introduced to Will, another dog companion for Lucy. Marty then drove us down to Venus beach where we went for a nice walk, playing with the dogs and watched a great sunset. We then headed back to Marty’s where he sorted out a great BBQ and we enjoyed some wine (no Margaritas this time!) and hearing his plans for the new ‘Moo Café’ he is setting up in Meeniyan which with a popular road running through the village (South Gippsland Highway) we are sure will do well.

Friday 20th to Sunday 22nd
Marty very nicely had spoken with his Mum, Ruth who lives in Melbourne and she was happy for us to stay at her place whilst we enjoyed the city. We enjoyed touring the city on a free tram and had a great time even though it rained most of the weekend! It hadn’t rained for 4 weeks until we arrived! After a meal in China town we then caught up with Carl Muller who used to work with Liz at the Met Office and his partner Nick in the nice Berlin bar. Besides the rain, rain and more rain Andy finally got his new Adidas supernova trainers and to stay dry we enjoyed a few hours touring the National Art Gallery next to the river.

On the Monday 23rd after a great few days with Ruth we set off to get Andy’s new hearing aid filters that keep getting clogged up with the moisture in the air over here and then started our trip to the 12 Apostles along the Great Ocean Road.

Driving through Torquay we headed south following the Great Ocean road round lots of hairpin bends, past Peterborough (very different to the one in UK….this one has a lovely sandy beach and beautiful ocean) and stunning scenery to a picturesque Apollo Bay for afternoon tea (well you have to keep some British traditions going you know!). We then drove further west to see the 12 Apostles. The tourist information and car parks have been set up very nicely on the inland side of the road with a path and tunnel leading you to a peninsula where you can view the 9 ½ Apostles, as unfortunately coastal erosion has taken effect over the years. Happy that we had seen them we decided that it was now time for us to continue our journey north towards Brisbane. We camped at Port Campbell campsite just by the Apostles for the night looking forward to the forthcoming trip up to Brisbane.

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Photos

Rocks beside Balmoral beach
The effect of the sea on the rocks at Balmoral beach.

Gem, Mat , Andy & Liz
Mat (from Finsbury Food) and Gem met us for dinner at the Lord Nelson pub in the Rocks.