MELBOURNE..
Well many of us know Melbourne pretty, if not very well. This was probably the longest time I have spent there without it blurring into some type of three day hangover, and it was just lovely. Mild and sunny, with many locals out of town for Easter, we wandered around and took in the sights, caught trams, gorged on food, reaffirmed coffee addictions.
Melbourne Street Art.
More Melbourne Street Art.
Balcony Room at Hotel Tolarno
We stayed at Hotel Tolarno in St Kilda, which in itself was good value and an excellent choice. However, we paid a little extra for a balcony room which was largely a bad idea because most of the time it was out of the sunlight (so was a little cold and dark) and the pubs and venues in the area ensured we had one night of disrupted sleep, with the usual noise problems and drunk people cruising up and down the street.
Crazy Acland St Cake Shops! (There are at least 4 like this, and we didn't eat a THING!)
I liked staying in St Kilda because it is out of the Melbourne CBD and gave Mark and I some breathing space, and trams and cabs were always available. Upon arrival we wandered up Acland Street and gaped at the cake shop windows, and back down The Esplanade via Luna Park and the wharf. There were markets and it was warm and sunny, and it was a lovely start to our trip. I will say however, that St Kilda is not quite the same place as I remember from a few years ago and now in spots reminds me more of Oxford St in Sydney. It was a shame to see the arrival of a few 'New York Pizza Slice' food outlets and the like, seemingly at the cost of small boutiques and the more eclectic and colourful stores of the St Kilda I remember.
Scenic Railway at Luna Park. Notice the guy standing up operating the brake!
Kewpie Doll on building, Flinders St.
Other highlights in Melbourne mainly involved food. We ate at Mirka which was a wonderful experience, sitting amongst all the artwork and murals. I really enjoyed my 'Bombe Glacee Pavarotti' which was basically hot raspberry sauce, surrounded by icecream, then meringue. A triumph! We also made our usual trip to Pellegrinis Espresso Bar and visited various bookstores around town including Metropolis Bookshop. Remembering we were in the middle of an Easter weekend, we got quite a lot done!
Me at Pellegrinis, Melbourne.
Mirka Restaurant.
The Paperback Bookshop.
Free push bikes at Little Creatures Alehouse, Melbourne. Mark actually drank a beer here!
GREAT OCEAN ROAD.
So we picked up a hire car and were disappointed that we had no GPS, even after requesting. Boo Thrifty! After a few nervous moments we made it out of town and on the road to Geelong and The Great Ocean Road.
The Great Ocean Road.
I'm not really sure if I should air this view, but the Victorian Government has done a pretty good job of talking up The Great Ocean Road. Sure, parts of it are awesome, but most of it is really no different to driving south from Sydney. The real action doesn't really start until after Apollo Bay, where we stayed at the excellent eco beach YHA Apollo Bay. This part of coast was busy with holiday makers, lots of cute cottages and houses to stay in, and even in the Autumn breeze people were swimming! This coastline is obviously a favourite for Melbournites as it seemed everywhere was booked out, although everything still seemed relatively quiet.
I really enjoyed the drive from Apollo Bay to Port Fairy the most. Of course, this is the area where the Twelve Apostles are and some of the other major natural attractions. I like the more jagged and atmospheric appearance of the area, the rocks and the more powerful oceans. On this part of the coast I was also reminded that fishing is indeed the great unspoken national pastime, and we saw many long jettys jutting out into less gentle seas, whole families of people fishing, and rusty trawlers full of 'pots' for crayfish/lobster fishing.
Mark at the Twelve Apostles.
Somewhere on the road.
There is not too much else to say about The Great Ocean Road unless you are there, or you have been there. It is something that is worthwhile doing, although I would recommend doing it over 3 or 4 days for a more relaxing trip, we missed a few things as we needed to move on towards Mount Gambier. It would be a great place to holiday and this is evident from all of the many people staying there year round. I think it would pay off to have a holiday house on The Great Ocean Road!
MOUNT GAMBIER.
It was awesome pulling up at the petrol station, turning around and seeing Kristyn, Ava, Edie, and Gabe waiting for us! By total accident we had chosen exactly the same place in town to wait and meet up, and our friendship resumed as if we had only seen each other days, instead of years previously!
Alfie the little cat.
Mount Gambier is a town about the same size as Orange or Bathurst in NSW, it is farming and forestry country and the 'welcome to Mount Gambier' sign has a picture of a logging truck on it. Ben and Kristyn have a wonderful home and one hundred head of cattle, chooks, a dog called Chasey and a little cat called Alfie, who I almost took home with me, such a bundle of sweetness!
Alfie and Laura.
Alfie the Hunter.
Ava and Edie made us pictures and showed us how to collect eggs and hold a chicken, Gabe took a few shaky first steps and we visited local Coonawarra Wineries where I bought enough bottles to put my bag overweight at the airport in Adelaide! I picked up a few bargains at local antique shops (an old seed sack is now a pillowcase!)and we heard about the 57 or something snakes that were killed on Ben and Kristyn's farm over the Summer.
This really is a wonderful little corner of the world. Kristyn is a member of a very supportive arts collective called sole sisters; making, exhibiting and selling artworks locally in addition to running a web design business as well as raising three beautiful kids! The earth is golden from limestone and there are beautiful coastal areas nearby like Penola and Robe where I could imagine returning to have a very relaxing and scenic beach break in the future!
Mark at The Big Lobster, somewhere on the road.
KANGAROO ISLAND.
Kangaroo Island is much like The Great Ocean Road, but I enjoyed it much much more. Unless you've been there or are going there hearing all about it would be about as enthusing as watching a prolonged slideshow of your uncle's trip to Hobart in the 1970s. But Kangaroo Island is unique! It's just a shame that we saw so much but often forgot to get our camera out of the car, although Kangaroo Island really is a place of awe and beauty that is best seen with the eye.
Umm, Kangaroo Island is really hard to describe because it's sort of environmentally conscious, and empty of people, and overflowing with nature, with early 1980s kit homes in small towns, tasty seafood and home businesses that like you to 'visit and take the tour!' And tour we did.
We picked up a hire car after catching our ferry over on Sealink, although I'm pretty sure that next time I would fly over to Kingscote. The ferry trip itself was pleasant, but the bus connection from Adelaide to Cape Jervis was tedious and made me quite sick. We stayed at the Penneshaw YHA, which had really comfy beds and was nice and close to the ferry terminal! There were many great little houses to rent, however with only two of us it would have been a waste of money.
We spent a few days driving around the Island (called 'KI'), checking out the sights and local business. Highlights included a visit to Island Pure Sheep Dairy, where we saw Sheep getting milked for cheese, and they all looked so happy and contented, and the cheese was gorgeous to taste and so cheap! We also visited Cliffords's Honey Farm and snapped up lots of gifts, as well as sampling the famous honey ice cream. Kangaroo Island is famous for its Ligurian Bees and it was wonderful to see the whole process in action, I was also happy to pick up a few pure beeswax candles as I love the smell of honey candles and they can be quite expensive here in Sydney...
By far the highlight of Kangaroo Island is the wildlife. On the first night Mark and I went up to the pub for food and on the way back were greeted by penguins! There are penguin tours around the area but you don't really need to be taken around to find them, they are just running around on the foreshore, making their funny honking sounds!
We drove to Seal Bay and watched Sea Lions (many, many Sealions) on the beach, which was so interesting we lost all track of time. Seal pups suckled their mums and Bulls chased Cows around the beach, as well as lazing around and diving through the surf. There was also a skeleton of a Humpback Whale on the beach which was pretty cool to see, I think if I lived on Kangaroo Island I'd like to work at Seal Bay!
We also visited the New Zealand Fur Seals down at 'Admirals Arch' where they played by the water and were generally very smelly. We also stopped by 'The Remarkables' which is a series of strange volcanic rock that poke directly out of the coastline. Enough said, you'll have to see it for yourself!
NZ Fur Seals at Admirals Arch. I have no idea why we don't actually have any photos of The Admirals Arch itself!
Laura at Lighthouse on Kangaroo Island.
Laura.
Laura at The Remarkables.
You can learn more about Kangaroo Island overall here. I would genuinely recommend a trip to Kangaroo Island, although I think a five day trip is more appropriate than the three we spent there. There are many walks around the island we had to skip as we did not have time, which would have been a good break from all the eating we did! I'd also recommend that you hire a 4WD, we almost flipped our car on a dirt road and although everyday cars are 'fine' I think a 4WD would offer more peace of mind and comfort on the many dirt roads around the island.
Mark at The Remarkables.
ADELAIDE.
Adelaide, no need to be so self conscious! It seemed that wherever we went people were apologising for the fact we were visiting their city, which surely would be so boring and inadequate compared to Sydney! Sure, Adelaide is no more than a two day city, but it has a wonderful set of shops on one end of Rundle Street, including a great boutique called Bauhaus which had a great collection of Mexican homewares (sorry, no website!)
We stayed at the very nice Clarion Hotel Soho which was on the 'right side' of town, very quiet, with lovely louvered windows that gave us an uninterrupted sunset and fresh air. It was by far the best hotel we stayed in on our entire trip, and at least $100 cheaper than their equivalents in Melbourne or Sydney. If only we had stayed a little longer, it was so relaxing!
Room at Clarion Hotel Soho, Adelaide.
I also had the pleasure of visiting the restaurant of Simon Bryant, the Chef from the TV Show 'The Cook and The Chef.' His restaurant is called 'The Brasserie' and is the mid range restaurant at The Hilton Hotel Adelaide. I was disappointed that Simon was 'in and out of the restaurant' that night because of a cold, but I sensed he wasn't there, oh well. The food however was delectable, with Mark eating one of the best servings of king george whiting and chips I have ever seen! If I were an Adelaide local, I would be visiting The Brasserie often.
Beehive Corner, Adelaide.
While on the subject of Adelaide food, one must visit the Chinatown cafe for a meal. I stumbled upon this restaurant while waiting for the bus to Kangaroo Island, and had some of the best Asian greens and rice I have ever eaten anywhere! Definitely food for the soul, this place was hustling with customers during lunch when I returned with Mark for more food. I'm sure locals are all about this place, but don't make a trip to Adelaide without visiting Chinatown Cafe!!
The Art Gallery of South Australia was also a lovely surprise, with a eclectic collection of colonial and Australian Modernist works, it felt as if my HSC Art Textbook had come to life! A great gallery store with plenty of art postcards made Mark happy, and I loved seeing early Margaret Prestons and Arthur Streetons come to life, complimented by some serious colonial furniture and quirky silver on display. Like I said, nothing to feel embarassed about Adelaide, you certainly hold your own!
And that was our trip to Victoria and South Australia. Nine Days in total, two hire cars, one speeding ticket, one misplaced NSW driver's licence, a few kilos heavier, two loaded credit cards and two happy faces. I think you should try this trip.
