Melbourne (8 nights)

We have had an awesome time here and today we leave!! We have been staying with my old uni friend Cherie and her hubbie Huw and wee girl Esme, it has been full house but a fun house.  They live in Hawthorn very close to the central city.  The night we arrived was the AFL final at the MCG with Hawthorn Hawks against Sydney Swans, the Hawks won so we were based in celebration central.
Things we have been up to include:

• Cherie and I took the kids to a place called Bounce (a big shed full of trampolines), its quite noisy there.
• We visited funky shopping areas like Fitzroy and Brunswick
• I got a day in the city be myself shopping and photographing transport geek stuff, the boys went to St Kilda
• I had a good night out with my buddies Sandra and Cherie
• We all went to Williamstown yesterday for ice cream

But generally we have been taking it easy and getting rid of stuff.  The vehicle has been sold to Richard from Adelaide who we met in Esperance and a deal was done some weeks ago.  The camper trailer is now owned by a friend in Melbourne and the roof tent is now with Cherie and co. Some other friends are moving back to NZ so they have kindly added a few boxes of books and nic-nacs to their container load. Sorted!

I can't believe its all over but also looking forward to getting home!  I will post an Epilogue soon covering the overall experience, has to be done!

Enzo, Leon and Esme at Bounce

View of Melbourne from Williamstown

Huw on the barbie

Cherie and Esme

The Great Ocean Road (Port Fairy 1 night and Apollo Bay 2 nights)

As an aside…after leaving the Grampains, on a grey dizzly day, we passed through a town called Hamilton and spotted this sculpture (Nucleus Divides) in the middle of a roundabout…..people from Christchurch will recognise this as being very similar to the one on High Street (same sculptor) umm..

Sculpture in Hamilton

Once we got to Portland we followed the coast and stopped at Port Fairy for the night, a cute historic town with a stunning port, one of the busiest fishing ports in Victoria.  

Port Fairy

The next day we set off for Appollo Bay along the infamous Great Ocean Road.  The road is a “permanent memorial to those who died while fighting in World War I, carved in rock, it winds around the rugged southern coast. Built by returned servicemen it was a huge engineering feat ending decades of isolation for Lorne and other coastal communities”. The first section through to Appollo Bay features dramatic cliffs and rock stacks where the cliffs have eroded over time.  There are multiple lookouts along the way, it is very tiring getting in and out the car, the boys declined after the third stop.  By the time we got to the 12 Apostles it was pouring and we weren’t feeling the love but we did spot hundreds of tourists, they probably only stop at that feature and neglect the lesser known features such as the bay of Islands, the Grotto and London Bridge.

Part of the Bay of Islands group

The Grotto

London Bridge

Appollo Bay is located at the foothills of the Otway Ranges.  We had intended to stay in one of the Great Otway National Park campsites but the weather was still grim and our enthusiasm for bush camping was waning (travel fatigue had spread through the entire party).  From Appollo Bay we visited Cape Otway (the oldest lighthouse in Australia).  The road leading to the cape is where you can spot koalas, once we again we developed ‘koala neck’ looking out for the little cuties, along with all the other vehicles, I suspect they have a high accident rate along this road!  We found loads of them making Enzo very happy!  We went for a walk out at the cape and came across a red bellied wallaby – more cuteness! We then checked out the Maits Rest Rainforest Trail, a walk through ferns and tall myrtle beech (Nothofagus cunninghamii) and mountain ash (Euculyptus regnans) – beautiful!.

Sleeping Koala at Cape Otway

Red Bellied wallaby

Enzo on Maits Rest Rainforest walk

Maits Rest Walkway

The second part of the Great Ocean Road from Appollo Bay to Lorne is very scenic but pretty much like the Drive to Kaikoura.  We stopped at Torquay further up the coast for a snack and watched the surfers/paddle boarders in their hoards.  Then we arrived in Melbourne - job done!  I will post a trip epilogue shortly.

Surfer central

Add caption