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Published: April 9th 2009
Day 59 - Christchurch - Melbourne
Not much to tell from today as we said goodbye to New Zealand and hello to Australia! We had the unexpected shock of having to pay departure tax but apart from that the flight went very smoothly and we arrived in Melbourne on time. We had our walking boots even more thoroughly inspected than in New Zealand through customs and we were quizzed as to where we had been walking but we got through OK eventually.
We made our way from the airport to our hostel on the Melbourne train system during rush hour, it was really nice to see so many people again and for the first time in a long time we could not walk in a straight line! We did not arrive at our hostel in South Yarra until the evening so we got an early night.
Day 60 - Melbourne
We got up nice and early and got the train into town to see the main centre of Melbourne - Federation Square, with it’s cafes and bars. Shopping was next on the agenda as we had a few key items to secure before we hit the
Melbourne
Sarah in the Botanical Gardens.road in our campervan i.e a TomTom (Sarah is useless with maps) and a campsite directory. We also went to Victoria market, which is huge. Sarah um’d and ar’d over some Ugg boots (which are half price here) and then we went on to the zoo.
We had heard the zoo was really good and it didn’t disappoint. We saw feeding time for the lions and also orangutans, snow leopards, mandrills, monkeys, gorillas, tigers etc… We also made the mistake of going to the reptile house where every second tank seemed to contain a highly venomous snake native to Australia - at least we know what to look out for now!
Day 61 - Melbourne
Luckily we made the most of the dry weather in the morning before the crazy storms hit in the afternoon. We took a walk around the botanical gardens and along the river to Southgate, a really nice posh shopping center, before heading for the center of the city when it started to rain. We could not do much while the torrential rain was falling (especially as Rob did not take my advice and was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt!) so went
to the nearest internet cafe to look up a few things.
After a late lunch and once the rain had calmed down we went to check out the South Yarra and St.Kilda regions of the city. We took the tram to St.Kilda and had a walk along the sea-front and choose a cake from one of the many famous cake shops in St.Kilda before starting the long walk back to our hostel in South Yarra. This part of Melbourne is really up-market with all the standard designer shops popping up all over and really nice cute bars and cafes lining the streets so it was a nice walk back and we stopped off at one of the nice bars for our first taste of Aussie wine and beer.
Day 62 - Melbourne (V Festival)
It was time to pick up our campervan this morning. Luckily it is much more spacious than I thought it would be (or how Rob portrayed it to me!) and it even has a mini microwave and a fridge that works off a second battery! We have named it Henrietta High Top. As the name suggests it has a high top and
Melbourne - MCG
Anyone who grew up watching "Transworld Sport" knows the importance of this signal. you can stand up in it 😊. Once we had sorted it all out we parked it for the night in a side street in Melbourne and set off for the V-Festival.
We decided to walk as it was only about an hours walk away but as we were walking we had to check we had the correct day because the streets were so dead leading up to the park - apparently Aussies do not walk anywhere! When we arrived we were surprised to discover that the venue was really small compared to anything you would see in England. We reckon there could only have been about 20,000 people there which meant we could get so close to all the acts. It also had a really nice chilled out atmosphere, with really good seating around the two main stages. I am pleased that no fights kicked off as the security was rather limited and there was plenty of alcohol flowing!
We saw the whole of Elbow and Razorlight but only saw the beginning of Kaiser Chiefs so that we could be there for the beginning of Snow Patrol. We had to leave Snow Patrol a little before the end to
Torquay
Me enjoying a Pot Noodle in the campervan. catch the whole of The Killers. Snow Patrol were my favorite but everyone was amazing and we were really lucky as the rain that was forecast stayed away.
Day 63 - Melbourne - Torquay (MCG)
We used the extra hour gained from the clocks going back to do laundry and to sort out the campervan ready to hit the road. I made the executive decision that we would drive across town in the van and find some parking near to the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground). It was a baptism of fire driving the old girl through the centre of Melbourne on a busy Sunday lunchtime heading to a stadium (which happens to be right in the middle of town - not like in England) with 35,000 other people.
We managed to park about 1 mile from the ground and headed off. They have a sports museum underneath the MCG which we went in before the game. It was really well presented and had some interesting exhibits like the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame and a whole piece on the Olympics. It was a shame we didn’t have a little longer but kick-off beckoned.
We took our
Great Ocean Road
Me with Henrietta Hi-Top. seats and we both agreed that the MCG is a really nice stadium. The match we were watching was the Western Bulldogs (Melbourne) vs. North Melbourne Kangaroos. We decided to support the Kangaroos because if we’re going to support an Aussie Rules Football team they might as well be called the kangaroos! Unfortunately they lost but had a chance to win the game with 3 minutes to go but messed it up! After the match finished at around 5 we headed out of town to Torquay, the start of the Great Ocean Road.
Day 64 - Torquay - Warrnambool (Great Ocean Road)
After a cold first night in the campervan we headed out on the Great Ocean Road. Our first stop was a famous surfing beach and then on to a golf course where we saw wild Kangaroos for the first time! Aireys Inlet lighthouse was the next stop which is not that spectacular other than the fact it was used for the TV show
“Round the Twist” which I was a huge fan of back in the day - so I insisted we went. Other stops included a couple of waterfalls and short rain forest walks and
Great Ocean Road
A Koala chilling out in a tree. various rock formations off the coast which you can see in the pictures - “The 12 Apostles” and “London Bridge”. The only problem is there are only 8 apostles now and London Bridge fell down in 1993 so it doesn’t really look like it anymore!
The road itself is 250km of winding ocean road built into the cliff and you get gorgeous views the whole way. We stopped in a lay-by on a cliff top to have our soup for lunch and at one point we even found some Koalas (see the photos) in the trees! We didn’t arrive in Warrnambool until about 6.30 and it was just about dark as we got to the campsite.
Day 65 - Warrnambool - Wilsons Prom NP
Today we had 500km of ground to cover as we were cutting all the way back to Melbourne and then past to get as far as we could towards Wilsons Prom NP. We stopped at a few towns on the way for breaks and manged to resist the plethora of fast food on offer. Every town in Australia with a population of more than 800 has a McD’s, Hungry Jacks (Burger king
to you and me), Subway and KFC without fail! We got to the park at dusk and still had 30km to go to get to the campsite. I drove very slowly as you shouldn’t really drive after dark because of the wildlife and we saw a Fox (not that exciting), a Wombat (which Sarah has now developed a phobia because apparently they sometimes attack people!?) and a Kangaroo hopping in the middle of the road - we just had to cruise along at hopping pace for a few hundred yards before he hopped back into the bush. We got to our campsite and pulled up next to a couple of Kanagaroos who were having their dinner!
Day 66 - Wilsons Prom NP - Sale
Since we had arrived in the national park after dark we had to go and pay for our campsite and see which walks were open as they were still sorting everything out after the bush fires. We decided to split the day so in the morning we did a nice little coastal walk from the camp site and after lunch (in our van) we headed up Mount Oberon. Unfortunately the cloud came in
Wilsons Prom NP
Some of the scorched earth from the bushfires. so we didn't get much of a view!
We were constantly on the lookout for snakes and at one point Sarah got startled by a Kangaroo who hopped out on us round a corner! Wilsons Prom was a really nice park with some stunning scenery, including the strangely beautiful site of all the scorched earth, and some great wildlife. In the afternoon we decided to hit the road and get to Sale so we could get out to the coast in good time as the weather forecast was good and apparently all the Australians are out in their campervans for the long weekend so it’s hard to get sites!
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Ann
non-member comment
Great blog
This blog will be a wonderful souvenir! Really enjoying reading about your exploits, feel quite envious. You obviously did some amazing planning before the trip and it is all paying off.Looking forward to the next instalment.