Land Down Under
Australia was never on my list of countries to explore for two stupid reasons.
The heat
The spiders
My reason to go was to watch one of my best friend’s get married to the love of their lives. After which I would head straight to New Zealand. Of course when I got there I was very happy to stay longer and do some sightseeing, leading to some of my best memories and kick starting the awesome trip ahead of me with some van driving experience!
RG lives in Melbourne, and I’m not a city lover (Bath does not count), but Melbourne has some of my now favorite locations. We stayed in Balaclava but St Kilda was my favorite. Cool shops, bars with live music and a vibe besides just booze, incredible restaurants, unlimited coffee shops and a long, lush beach for walking, sun bathing or dipping in the sea - just remember to “Slip, Slap, Slop!” Walk far enough and you’ll find the botanical gardens and lush parks. One of my favorite areas in the city was the Royal Botanical Gardens where we sat by the river with the city surrounding us, until one of the swans tried to attack us and we moved on.
Also, Trams - so easy to hop around the city and I think everywhere should now have trams.
As well as time catching up with old friends and making new friends at BBQs and wedding prep nights, I did some typical tourist stuff in the city - walked around Victoria market, visited the MCG (mainly for my dad), many Gardens, Hamer Hall, The Music Vault and the National Gallery. One of my favorite days was with AJ when we visited Metartworld. On the first floor were sculptures made entirely out of old car parts which were so impressive and nerdy (they had a chewbacca and a gollum). Then the second floor we got lost going through the mirror maze which led to rooms of different light art that my words cannot do justice for so will have to share my photos and videos (or go see for yourself).
After the most beautiful and fun wedding it was time for a little adventure, so AJ and I rented a van through camplify and took Betty (the van) onto the Great Ocean Road.
We did not have a plan except to put “Great Ocean Road start point” in google maps. We stopped when we saw signs and went down long stairs, across huge beaches, dodging scary waves, through Jurassic parks and up dodgy hills and bendy roads. We stayed at the same nice campsite twice and in a parking lot another after reading true crime stories for some reason. We found sleeping koalas, dodged road skipping kangaroos, hunted waterfalls, did some dodgy star jumps in awesome places and belted out meatloaf behind the wheel.
AJ and I used to live together but sharing a small van with someone really puts your friendship to the test. It was one of the best experiences of my life and I’m so grateful to have had her with me. I ugly cried a lot when she left, but we will get back out on the road together in the future - maybe with more of a plan, or maybe not!
Committing to my no plan lifestyle I rented Betty again a couple weeks later after trying a bit of hostel life, which was strangely not for me. (I’m getting old) This time it would just be me and Betty in what would be a perfect solo start of vanlife.
We headed south along the coast down to Portsea, not sure why but I liked the coast! It was all quite similar and a bit of a dull day weather wise, so with not much else to do I found somewhere on the map that thought would be brilliant. Sommerville - Dinosaur World. Oh, my, god. I wish AJ would have been with me - it was a little park that I thought would be super cheesy (maybe it was), but I thought it was brilliant. We (me and Betty) drove through a huge “Jurassic Park” style gate which lead to a Christmas tree farm with robotic dinosaurs that looked incredible and even a little scary. I was the only “adult” there without a child but loved every minute of it.
Moving on from my nerdy afternoon I headed to Wilson’s Promontory! Though the first night I was low on petrol so camped outside a closed truck stop till I could fuel up the next morning. (I’m learning my lessons).
Wilson’s Prom was the perfect place to enjoy alone. There were so many walks, great photo practice of wild kangaroos with bright pink collars on, and one my favorite sunsets. I kept missing sunsets whilst in Oz and I needed one. I’ve always been a sucker for a sunset, but my lockdown walks to the beach made them very special to me. So when the sun started setting on Whisky Bay Lookout, I put a camp chair out on the deck and sat in the rain with a 0% beer and watched in amazement until my eyes got a bit blurry.
I felt so proud of my self for my little independent journey and ready to start my big one. So a 3 nights later I was hitting the tarmac at Auckland airport….
Oh and the biggest spider I’ve seen on this trip was in my mates bathroom in New Zealand, not Australia. But yes, I did get burned - Slip, Slap, Slop!!
