Melbourne:: Saturday 7 Jan - Monday 9 Jan
A massive early start again, to be honest, I really do not know how I organised this, but at the time, it seemed like a good idea so that I didn't waste the day travelling, but I booked it so long ago, I'm now wondering what on earth I was thinking!!
Something to note, which has been on my mind now for a while, but I keep forgetting to mention it. Locks on doors in public toilets are random over here. There is only one type of lock, so, if the door opens from the right, then that's fine and the lock works fine. However, if the door opens from the left, they just use the same lock and turn it upside down.. this has caught me out a few times, where I have been convinced I was locked in the bathroom.. Essentially, you turn the lock as if to open it and it locks, then, you turn the lock to lock it and it opens.. difficult to explain on here, but honestly, it has had me in a pickle and I can't believe the Aussies haven't just got locks for both doors.
So, arrived into Melbourne Airport at 8.15am and got straight into a hire car - the Hyundai Getz, in pistachio green, which we named The Green Hornet. An excellent little car, which we used to drive the Great Ocean Road!! It was a bit strange driving an automatic, the other thing that got me stressed is the window wipers and indicators are on the opposite sides to england, so, when I wasn't concentrating, I would put the window wipers on to indicate.. hilarious for vicky.. but I got continually annoyed at myself for doing it!!!
We drove to the 12 apostles in good time and it was nice to stretch the legs a bit as it took us 3 hours and I was driving. We had a little look at the apostles and took some photos, but the weather wasn't as great as promised. Vicky took over driving and we had the windy turns, changing speed limits and slow campervans to contend with. We even saw some koalas in natural habitat and took some time to watch them in the trees, it was pretty spectacular.
The hornet then took us to a random place in the middle of nowhere in Jeetho to meet Laura!!! Who I got on with particularly well on the Kiwi Experience. She was visiting her sister and invited us over for dinner and to stay the night. The plan was to go to Philip Island, but it took us sooo long to get to Jeetho, we missed it all and didn't have time to stay longer. Altogether, it took 12 hours to drive to the 12 apostles and then back along the great ocean road and then off to Jeetho. We were pretty tired and resulted in singing to the radio, which provided us with some entertainment - you know how I love a bit of free karaoke action!
Laura's family were very welcoming and we ate a lovely dinner (we were completely starved) and met the most delightful 3 yr old child called Clancy, he was pretty amazing (although Laura tells me I'm lucky not to have witnessed a tantrum..). This was where we were told that we would be sleeping in a tent! BONUS!!! road trip and tent action, how brilliant.. Vicky wasn't so sure and was worried about spiders. I had a fabulous nights sleep though :)
Scrambled eggs were on the menu for breakfast cooked by myself and my able hand, Clancy who whisked them to perfection. Then time to get back into the little car and get it back to Melbourne before we ran over the time limit... Vicky drove this time and the weather was pretty bad, raining hard.. but the car survived it and vic's driving got us back - then I map read us into the city centre and was only an hour late, but they let us off! bonus!
Hostel was pretty nice, called the Nunnery and I could have stayed there longer to be honest. Breakfast included and everything. It was just very homey, which I like. We went on a little adventure on the free tram around the city centre, wandered the Lanes, then for a walk down Southbank and finished the day with a trip up the skytower to see the views. We stayed until the sun set and then walked back to the hostel.
Day 3 was pretty good too, we went to Melbourne Museum.. slightly disppointed on the lack of audio tours so far this trip, I haven't actually done one, so I went for the next best thing and got a guided tour instead, which was excellent, you get to know so much more, and a taster of all the best stuff rather than having to look around everything. It's good when you're tight on time. I found out that on my birthday (9 May) in 1901, Melbourne hosted the first parliament session when Australia became a Country and part of the Commonwealth. Interesting fact of the day for you there..!
We got on a tram, headed out to St. Kilda for the afternoon. Grabbed a spot of lunch, walked along the beach, had a trip down the pier and then got back to the hostel to pick up our stuff and get to the airport again to fly to Brisbane. I really enjoyed Melbourne and would really like to visit there again given the opportunity.
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