Australia Part Three: Great Ocean Road – June 14 – 28

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]

 

Australia Part Two: Canberra – June 14 – 28

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]

 

Australia Part One: Melbourne – June 14 – 28

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]

 

Tane Mahuta

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.

 

Stewy in the Mount – May 23 – June 2

For over a week, we hung out with my old university friend Robin Stewart and her husband Zach Alison in the relaxed surfing town of Mount Maunganui, where Robin is teaching and Zach is building. They were great hosts, and we had long chats about the lifestyle of New Z compared to what seems like the rush and bustle of living in Ontario. It is hard not to enjoy life more fully when you live five minutes from the beach and run by the ocean everyday. Drew also got a two-stage haircut.

  

 

Heading to Australia

We leave for Australia on Thursday June 14 to visit with Em Wade in Melbourne, and hopefully, Tam Chafee in Canberra, for two weeks. Since leaving the Mount, we’ve road tripped through the Northland, stopping at every possible beach to find surf for Drew. We had a small world incident when we arrived at the beautiful hostel Endless Summer in the beach town of Ahipara. As we were walking up the steps of the lodge, I see this familiar face but one I haven’t seen in years of an old high school friend Barb. One of the beauties of travelling, you never know who you will meet.

       

 

Booking it off the South Island – May 18 – 23

After our three-day tour of Dunedin, we were pretty much done with the South Island. We booked it through the central region of the island, whizzing through the Waitpi Valley, Mount Cook National Park and Lake Tekapo, Arthur’s Pass National Park and the Nelson Lakes Region. It rained hard every day so we avoided any intense or long day hikes. We free camped every night. There were hardly any white, rental camper vans on the roads, leaving us with the feeling that we were the only tourists left on the South Island.

We made a pit-stop back at Beaconstone on the West Coast to pick up one of our large suitcases we left behind in storage. Grae and Nancy were in Australia. In the pouring rain, we hopped the fence and retrieved the bag from one of the unused washroom stalls where it was safely hiding for the three weeks we toured around the rest of the South Island.

We took the 5:45 a.m. ferry back to Wellington on May 22 saying goodbye to the South Island. I don’t ever want to have to get up that early again for a boat.