G'day mate...welcome to Oz!

Having been thoroughly spoilt by New Zealand, Australia has a lot to live up to. Our first destination was Melbourne, on the South East coast, where we were due to meet up with Dixy. Thankfully, after a long & nervy wait in the airport, it turns out he remembered his passport & arrived without incident...let's hope that's a sign of things to come!

That night we checked into a hostel in the south of the city, in a "trendy" area known as St Kilda. It is full of bars & cafes, running along the beach. We arrived on the day of the Aussie GP (which an Englishman won!), too late to watch the race - but early enough to enjoy the parties in the bars!
The next day we walked to the centre of the city, navigating ourselves & soaking the place up.

We went to the Telstra stadium, which is now known as the Etihad (new sponsorship).

It is not the biggest stadium I've ever been to, capacity of about 55,000, but it was very modern & plush all the same. The stadium has a retractable roof - enabling it to be used all year round for Cricket, Soccer (?!?), Rugga & Aussie rules - as well as concerts. We went on the tour, which was cheap & informative. We even got to go down to pitchside...

That night we stayed in the hostel & enjoyed some cheap wine ($12 a bottle), whilst getting involved with the open mic night...at least Smalls did!

After an excellent reception, we decided to head down to the beach after the bar, with some new friends, to continue the drinking & singing. An excellent & cheap night!

After three days of enjoying Melbourne we were very excited to collect our new vessel for the next 7&1/2 weeks. We hired a "spaceship," which Dixy named "Belinda."

As soon as we had collected our beauty, we headed off on one of the world's most attractive coastal roads - known as the "Great Ocean Road." Our first stop was at "Bells Beach" - which is a well known surfer's hangout, & the destination of the Rip Curl surf competition. This is also the location where Johnny Utar chased down Bodie in Point Break..."he's not coming back in" (if you don't get it, watch it).

After watching some of the surfers we headed on further along the coast, stopping occasionally to enjoy some of the amazing sights.

I am expecting all of you eighties children to remember this next reference/point of interest..."have you ever, ever felt like this, when strange things happen, are you going round the twist?"

Split point lighthouse was the central focus of a kids TV show called "Going Round the Twist" - I know my bros & I were big fans. The views from there were beautiful, as they are pretty much all the way along the coast!

We decided to stop off & explore a rainforest along the way, known as Otway Fly. They have a walkway loop, which includes a suspended section through the tops of the trees. It is very impressive, & the diversity of life is also huge - although we only saw the green stationary kind...

After our rainforest adventure we drove on to one of Australia's most photographed landscapes...the Twelve Apostles. There aren't actually twelve of them, if you want to get picky, but these rock formations just off of the coast are nonetheless incredibly impressive. Needless to say there were many many asians, taking many many photos ;-)

Our next stop after the Great Ocean Road was Adelaide. We had been warned that it was a bit on the lame side, as there was nothing to do there. We, on the otherhand, disagree strongly. The city is very clean, & not too big, with plenty of lovely parks, cafes & bars! Our first night out was excellent fun, as everyone was so friendly!

We arrived on the Rugby sevens weekend, so there wasn't even campsite availability. Therefore, we decided to stay in the public parking at the botanic gardens, as it was free & we had Belinda (our campervan). On our second evening we were on our way back to the Botanic gardens, from the campsite where we had snuck in for our free showers, when Dixy screamed about something on the windscreen. It took me a few seconds to realise what the excitement was about, but when I did my jaw dropped open...the BIGGEST spider I have ever seen outside of captivity. A "Huntsman" - not the most venomous, but still not one to be bitten by! After a week in the country, we had the sudden realisation that these creepy crawly killers were for real. Eye opener.

Needless to say, we are all now checking our shoes, the sunvisor, our tent & van religiously. Noneone wants a kiss from these spiders!!!

On the Saturday in Adelaide we bought tickets to the Rugby Sevens event at the Oval, which were a steal at $29 each for the day.

The Rugby went on from 12-6.30pm, with England playing twice. First beating Portugal a convincing 33-0, then drawing to Samoa 24-24 which saw us through to the playoffs stage the following day. As you'd expect the day was excellent, with plenty of beers & punters dressed in all kinds of crazy costumes! The atmosphere was brilliant. We continued the party that night in town, by checking out some more of the bars.

We throroughly enjoyed Adelaide, & would strongly recommend it to anyone coming to Oz. It is a bit of a drive from Melbourne, but anywhere in Oz is a bit of a drive from anywhere else (it really is BIG). Our next stop was the Barossa Valley vineyards, about an hour North of Adelaide. Obviously, we were there to test the locals vineyards out - which are renound for their reds. Smalls & Dixy were especially pleased, as a headcold kept me off of the vino & made me the designated driver for the day. I didn't mind, as it was an excellent day all the same.

We visited the Wolf Brass, Penfolds & Jacob's Creek (pictured above) amongst others. They were all very good, & the boys enjoyed their Merlots & Shiraz's!

The next day, Dixy decided it was time to try out his new clippers by giving his head a trim. He wasn't the only one...

Yes people, senior Smalls has given up on growing a mop - instead going for a look of the slaphead variety!! It is less effort, apparently. Have no fear, I shall not be joining them - my skin head days are long gone!

We are making our way back to Melbourne this weekend to watch some AFL & go to an all day Dance/Trance event, but that is for the next entry. I will leave you with the typical Aussie landscape that we are going to getting a LOT of whilst driving across & up the country...

...monotonous!

written by

johnnoble on April 8, 2009 from Melbourne, Australia

from the travel blog: John's year off...

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