The only real road tripping we undertook in Australia was our four-day drive along Great Ocean Road. You can actually drive the route in just under six hours but we extended it from Monday to Thursday, taking in all the possible pit stops. We could only imagine how heinous it would be during the peak summer months but at this time of year, there was hardly a soul on it. The highlight was the golden orange limestone formations, the 12 Apostles being the most famous (there are actually only seven limestone stacks left).
[Photos l-r: Split Point lighthouse in Ainsley’s Inlet, classic vista of the road, the 12 Apostles, Drew at Loch and Gorge, the Arch, the sun finally comes out, another limestone arch, and the Grotto]
We flew to the Australian capital to visit Kirk’s old friend Tamara Chafee. Everyone wondered why in the world we’d visit one of the country’s most boring cities, including Tam’s husband Will. Drew was disappointed in my planning when he learnt that Sydney is only a three-hour drive from the capital.
While Canberra is definitely a boring place we did manage to see both a dead kangaroo and our first natural sighting of the marsupials. Drew fought off a bad cold for most of the time we were there but we did visit the interesting war memorial and the Ned Kelly exhibit at the National Gallery.
[Photo of the war memorial]
Don’t be deceived. Australia is not as golden as it seems. We experienced cold temperatures, 6 degrees Celsius. I buckled and bought a pair of mitts in Melbourne.
Em Wade and her now fiancé, Aussie football journalist Jonny Ralph, were exceptional hosts, touring us around and putting up with our antics for a week in Melbourne. While we were in town, Em and Jon completed the Run to the G 10-kilometre run, and Drew and I ran the shorter 5-km (Drew surprised us all by placing 88 out of 3,600 with his old school hightop adidas runners).
Melbourne is definitely Australia’s cultural capital – we sampled galleries, museums, diverse architecture, cafes, music and shopping. There are so many different shopping districts in the city that Melbies must spend all their hard earned money on clothes.
[Photos l-r: Streetscape in Chinatown, inside the National Gallery, the historical Flinders Street Station, typical Melbourne street, St. Kilda’s pier, Em and Kirk by the Yarra river, aboriginal art at the National Gallery, before the 5-km Run to the G, a winter picnic at the botanical gardens]
This photo does not do justice to this god of the forest. Estimated to have sprung to growth over 2,000 years ago, this giant kauri tree is one of the oldest living trees on the planet. What is striking is not so much its height – 18 metres – but rather its girth at 13 metres. It is the kind of tree you only wish you could hug.
