Advertisement
Published: August 8th 2007
Edit Blog Post
We left New Zealand very early in the morning only for the captain to turn around the plane half an hour after departure. Someone on the plane was seriously ill, we suspect a heart attack, for the crew to act like this. Never mind, it's not like we had plans. We still arrived early in Melbourne and so we left our trusty Wicked steed "Angels" only to swap it for another "Thai Budda Kids" in OZ. The quality of the steed in OZ was slightly suspect from the outside but we had to put our faith in it as it was to take us nearly 5000km up the east coast. Breaking down was not an option we wanted to explore, but we bought a mobile phone SIM , just in case it did happen 😊 The thing looked like a real bomb, and sounded a bit like one in reverse as every time you went backward it emitted a loud and painfull sounding squeeking noise "NO just leave me to die in peace it was saying! I want no more smelly travelers sleeping in me, please!". We took no notice of this noise, unlike the passers by in the street, and
carried on in the beast regardless.
Our first night was spent in a carpark in Melbourne, which is actually a really nice spot by the sea just out of St. Kilda. It was us and truckdrivers (and the rats), parking for free is always so liberating. Josie had arranged to meet up with her former boss's cousin (thanks for the great contact Jamie), in Healesville, which is a really lovely little foodie place in the Yarra Valley about an hour outside of Melbourne. We spent a day sightseeing in Melbourne city and bought a blanket and few pans from the salvation army as the wicked van was not very well equipped. You should have seen the look on the woman's face who was selling them to us, she felt such a pity and said "The nights are getting cold, aren't they?" That made us feel truly homeless. We even had a shower at the bus station - yes, we are qualified pikeys now, something else to add to our CV. In the evening we spontaneously made our way to Healesville after Becky found out that we attempted to stay another night in the car park. We were welcomed with
I can't see you.......
...you can't see me. We have an understanding open arms like long lost members of the family which was so nice of Becky, Mark and the two year old Henry, as they don't know us from Bruce (not Adam, we are in OZ!) To add to our luck, Mark was a winemaker for the Yarra Yering vineyard, one of the best in Australia, so yes, we had scored us a great place to stay with what turned out to be lovely people. Next day was an open day at the vineyard, which happens not very often, so Mark kindly invited us scruffs along to lower the tone slightly and try out their fabulous wine collection. The open day was very nice with a ton of really lovely wine on offer to sample. Needless to say we did our duty and sampled them all, to try and gain some education in the finer things in life. A small amount of education was gained and we left with a pleasing glow in the stomach, as we headed back to our new family in Healesville. Our particualr favourites from the day where the Merlot and the totally awsome Potsorts (Vintage Port) which was rich and delicous. Andy could quite happily give
So famous they named a road after her
... and the cottages, and the B&B and ... ;) up water and drink only this as his 2L a day liquid intake, but sadly this would lead to bankruptsy, dehydration, alcoholism, a red nose and probably gout. Back at the ranch Becky had prepared us a fablous dinner and we spent the evening sipping on fine wine and having a good old natter. Next day followed pretty much the same pattern of drinking and eating as we explored the little town and the food delights on offer. For dinner Josie made her polish chocolate cake, Murzynek, which won us the entry into the Healesville celebrities cookbook made by Becky for a charity fundraising. Have that for a travelling achievement!
Someone we have to mention is Henry, the younger member of the Haisma family. The little fella wasn't too keen to see us in the first instance, which is apparently normal, but surprisingly to all of us I think he eventually warmed to us. I say warmed, I probably mean tollerated our presence in "his" house, but that is never the less an achievement in our eyes. Andy saw the challange in taming the two year old and got down on the floor to imitate Henry in his own
12 apostles
.... not all 12 obviously, but a few of em little way. But what really scored us points with Henry was the house car, our old battered van. As long as we had this toy we were his friends. How lucky! So we were allowed to stay and were awakened each morning to the ritual of reading the diary of a wombat, a story which words followed us for miles.
We had to get a visa to China so our next stop was Melbourne to go to the embasy, then off down to the Great Ocean Road and the 12 Appostles, or rather 11 as one collapsed. The drive down there was very nice, in the ocean sections, and took us throught Tourqay (home of the legendary Bells Beach) where Josie bought what she claims to be the finest and most beautifull flipflops that man ever crafted. Andy purchased himself a new fishing rod and reel at the low low price of AU$16 which was an absolute bargin and would prove very useful. Yes, Andy was going fishing, AGAIN! There are some really nice , laid back feeling little towns on this stretch of coast to just stop and have a coffee at. The 12 Appostles proved to live
The mighty sea
This is from in the blowhole up to their status, and on the day we were there the weather was equally as stunning. It is worth walking all around them to get the best views and also stopping off at Loch Arch close by. There is a walk around there which has a slightly historical theme, and the blowholes you can walk into and the coast are absolutly stunning. It is one of those places where the power of the sea is thrown right into your face and you are totally humbled by its awsome distructive power, and yet natural beauty. We spent a few days down there and headed back up to Healesville to see the Haismas and pickup our visa. That day we received our own personal tour of the vineyard by Mark who explained to us how a year of a winemaker lookes like. It was amazing to see an end to end business all in one place. From growing the grapes to botteling the wine, all is done on the estate with great care and years of experience. We also found out that Mark & Becky are doing their very own wine, the "Ridgeline Wines". How exciting! Next day the Chinese Embassy
luckily had demed us worth of entry to China, and for our $50 got a page sized sticker in the passport, hurah!!!! We took the afternoon to visit the Melbourne museum which was interesting but slightly dissapointing as to what it had to offer about the aboriginal history and culture. We realised how different the integration of native peoples was handeled here in comparison to New Zealand. That evening we once again spent drinking and eating before we left Melbourne for good the next morning. Of course Becky and Mark did not let us go empty handed, so we left their house with 7 bottles of seriously good wine. This is where we advanced to a more sophisitcated piky status. Now we tasted the best, there is no going back 😉
Our next road trip took us to the coast again, east of Melbourne. Over the next few days we visited several little places on the coast stopping our van whenever we could and wherever was nice. One place was particularaly special as a beautifull little bay, made special by the spectacle that greeted us at nightfall. It seemed something was going on in the water that night, and
Brave surfer at Bells Beach
The waves looked WAY BIGGER than they do in this photo this flourcent glowing thing was lapping up on the shore. Everytime you disturbed the water, it glowed a flourcent blue colour which was totally astonishing. We have been told it was a plancton type thingy, perfectly natural but quite rare so we were very honoured to witness it. Unfortunately we do not have any pictures of that spectacle as it is far beyond Josie's photography skills to take a picture of something in the dark glowing for only few seconds.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.425s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 29; qc: 139; dbt: 0.2152s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.6mb