October 25, 2010

East Coast Road Trip

Traveling on a plane heading back to Perth is where I begin writing my first ‘proper’ blog entry, at the end of an East Coast Road trip, which saw us starting in Melbourne and ending in Sydney… with many stories in between…

We were pleasantly surprised upon arrival in Melbourne with our accommodation, even though we were in a totally different location to which I thought we had booked. It was fabulous that we were pleasantly surprised as we were dog-tired by the time we had dragged and lugged our luggage all the way from Spencer Street Train Station to the apartment, which turned about to be at the far end of Flinders Lane, instead of being centrally located. The apartment was massive, with two separate bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen and spacious living area, we were zapped and decided to hit the hay about 1.30am Melbourne time.

Melbourne… I love Melbourne, and as I keep on saying, if I had to live in an Australian city other than Perth, it would be my first choice, slipping just in front of Darwin and Canberra. I love the laneways, and just getting lost in the vibe and uniqueness of the city. I must profess that I am not much of a shopper, which people find surprising when I mention my love of Melbourne… but there are so many other things to love! The food (which I’m sure I will go into WAY too much detail about – and bore everyone to sleep), the footy, the cricket, the arts (mainly plays and musicals), people watching… We began our day with a beautiful breakfast, a Middle Eastern bean mixture with sourdough and bacon and eggs for Juz (a staple throughout the trip). It was raining, as it did for most of our trip, which I definitely didn’t pack for (it is October and meant to be spring after all), this didn’t stop us though, as we hit the shops and generally just meandered through the streets. We had a late lunch in one of the cafes located in the famous laneways, a beautifully presented and delicious share plate, with Sangria, followed by coffee for a much needed pick me up. Juz had arranged to meet up with some of her friends from Contiki, Kayleigh and Steph, and we made our way Collingwood for a Thai feast – star anise braised duck, with Asian greens and rice. I had never been to Collingwood before, and despite having a soft-spot for the footy team, had never considered stepping foot in. Next time I visit Melbourne, I think I will be spending a lot of time in that part of town, it was a great place to hang out and I’m glad that I’ve now been introduced. We decided not to head out that night, because Justine had hurt her foot in Greece and had reinjured it from the trek around inner-Melbourne. After dinner we settled in for a night of Armageddon, with Ben Affleck, who I’m learning to appreciate more and more as time goes by – isn’t it funny how tastes change over the years.





In the morning, after dressing Justine’s foot, we made a fly by visit, to a different laneway café, trying out their Canadian pancakes, one of my favourite inventions – how could you not like pancakes, covered in maple syrup and crispy bacon?!? Stocking up on cupcakes, from my favourite specialty shop, and salted caramel delices from Lindt was also a must before jumping in a taxi to commence our road trip. Arriving at Wicked, we checked out the stock before entering, putting claims on the vans that looked most comfortable and road worthy… crossing our fingers, we walked inside, hoping for the newest looking van with the Garfield design to be allocated to us. We signed all the paper work and paid the $2200 bond (that’s right – it was actually deducted from my credit card, not just swiped as a guarantee – that will teach me to read the fine print in the future), we were shown to our humble little van, fondly referred to as Jimi and not-so-fondly referred to a ‘that f***ing van’ and sometimes, if we were really angry ‘f*** you Jimi!’. Jimi had a design that wouldn’t make my mother cringe, so that was acceptable, and after a close inspection and a guarantee from the Mechanic, it also turned out to have roadworthy tyres, which would have made my Grandpa glad. The van needed petrol so we took it to the station for a drink, after seeking directions to Ballarat. After lurching the van and crunching the gears, with stress levels running high, we also decided to purchase a map to assist with our journey. Juz wasn’t too keen on driving the beast, so was set up to be the trusty navigator… After spreading out the map across the ice-cream freezer to make sure that I had the right one, and expecting Juz to be looking over my shoulder, I turned to find her reading the latest ‘New Idea’ – I totally spat it at this point, which didn’t help the stress levels. After purchasing the map (it was the one that we needed), we made our way around to the tyre-pumping machine, which turned out to be broken. Juz, trying to redeem herself from her earlier faux pas, or maybe just to get rid of me for a few minutes, ran inside to seek directions to the next petrol station. We must of looked like crazy ladies, trying to work out how much air we should put in our tyres, because a truckie, who had been cleaning his vehicle opposite us, wandered over to see if he could offer any assistance. After following his advice and then having a laugh about being cranky-pants, we were on our way again, heading for icy-cold Ballarat. We checked into the Big 4, a kilometre or so out of town, and then decided to visit the local shops and get some supplies for the concert and the van… we needed some cheap ‘throw away’ shoes, some sheets and a pillow… we wanted to see how far away the Powderfinger concert was from the main city area, so drove out to the botanic gardens, before grabbing a pub meal to begin the evening. We had a lovely pizza, and then drove the short distance to the concert, arriving just in time for Jet, the support band’s set. They are a great band and really enjoyable to watch. One of my favourite quirks of theirs is that they grab a camera, whether it is their own or a journalists and then take a picture of the crowd from the stage. Supposably, the band’s singer, had the picture he had taken placed on the front page of the Bendigo times the day before. The concert was fantastic, just as it had been in Perth, the month prior, although I reckon the Perth crowd got into it a little bit more. The main difference between the Ballarat and Perth concerts was the weather! It must have been raining in Ballarat for a few days before we arrived because the ground was so muddy and we kept on sinking into the earth. I enjoy that kind of thing though, as it adds a totally different atmosphere to the event. There were two guys that were dripping in mud, standing in the drinks queue – looked like they were having the time of their lives! The temperature got down to about 1.5C, freezing! We woke in the middle of the night to put all of my clothes in our sleeping bags for insulation.





In the morning we stopped at the local pancake parlour to have some brekky, a blintz (Jewish traditional food), with lemon, cream cheese and the like encased in a pancake, for me… and I’ll let you guess what Juz had…  We then went to the Eureka Stockade Museum, which was yet to reopen after a refurbishment, but did have some historical facts outside the building, I was glad that we had visited after finding out that it was the birthplace of trade unions and democracy, as we know it, in Australia. I do love a good history lesson! Upon departing Ballarat, I was beginning to feel a little more comfortable with Jimi and let Justine put some music on the radio. We drove solidly through Melbourne and then into the countryside, until we reached a restaurant/café attached to a dairy farm where we decided to stop for lunch. We shared a vegetable stack and a mushroom and steak pie, accompanied by milkshakes…. Which turned out to be not such a great idea about two hours later, when my stomach was tossing and turning… We decided to drive on a bit further than we had originally mapped out because we had quite a bit of light left in the day and thought it would shorten the next days travel. We arrived in Port Welshpool, our accommodation for the evening at about 4.30pm, hitting the local jetty to do a spot of fishing before checking into the Caravan Park (its prime industry is fishing – and there wasn’t much else to do). We had a chat to some locals, both on the jetty and in the pub that evening. Everyone was very friendly and more than happy to share a yarn. The local shop owner told us about a nice walking trail that we tried out before leaving town the following day.





Intending to pay a visit to the highest waterfalls in Victoria and some caves, became accidentally forgotten in the morning as we made our way to the evenings pit stop. Originally we thought we’d stay at Lake’s Entrance, then we discussed a night in Cann River, before making our final decision to travel further on to Cooma (we made this decision after having lunch at a place called Funky Monkey at Lakes Entrance, where the waitress was chatting to us and told us we’d be better off driving straight through to Cooma, as there wasn’t much to do at Cann River). This meant that we pretty much spent the whole day travelling. Cooma is a beautiful and quaint little town that would be quite lively in snow season, and had a fantastic pub, where we had dinner. We shared a trio of dips and a steak for dinner – the meals definitely didn’t disappoint on this trip!

Having never seen snow, I was really keen to pay a visit to the snow fields…. But we didn’t know what the roads where like and if Jimi would survive the ride, so we got up early to ensure that we were at the visitors centre when it opened. The lady that served us made us feel at ease about the trip, so we paid a quick visit to The Lott, a local café where we had breakfast, banana bread with poached pears and ricotta, with a side of bacon and mushrooms… and I’ll let you guess what Juz had… after brekky we hit the road, driving through Jindabyne to Thredbo. When we arrived we thought that the lady may have given us the wrong information, because it was an absolute ghost town and the chairlifts all appeared to be stationary. We wandered through the streets, to find the trusty information booth, where they pointed us in the direction of the summer chairlift. I braved my slight fear of heights, closing my eyes during sections of the journey, before we got to the peak of the mountain. The snow was amazing, it made me feel like I was a kid again, playing in what the locals wouldn’t even dare to visit! We made a very handsome snowman, threw snow balls, I made a snow angel and we finished the visit by staking a claim on the area by writing our names in the white dust. I can now claim that I have eaten in Australia’s highest restaurant, where we ended our trip, before plunging into the valley. We had originally intended to travel back to Cooma that evening, but decided that Jindabyne would be a better option. We managed to keep on forgetting that we had our house in our van and didn’t have to be trapped by our original intentions. The drive between Thredbo and Jindabyne was beautiful and we stopped off at a Schnapps distillery, and then the town centre before checking into the Big 4, located right on the lake. We went for a late afternoon walk along the lake, where I got snap happy and took loads of pictures as we wandered through the walking tracks. We found it difficult to find some to eat that evening, finally choosing a seafood pizza, with way too much salt!! We ended the night with the movie Julie and Julia, back at our van and campsite. The film was interrupted when I received a call from Kirstie, upon sitting up to take the call I noticed that an enormous spider had entered the van and was making a home for itself on our windscreen. I woke Juz, who thought that my screaming was because it had started snowing, and we removed the spider from its newly discovered abode.










The day began early, as we wanted to arrive in Wagga before Dave, my cousin from Tasmania, finished work. When we arrived I was stressed and tired from the drive, as I had done all but two hours of the driving and it was wearing me out. We made our way to a wine and cheese factory to try some local produce before making our way back to the city, where we visited the glass gallery and paid a visit to Witchery before meeting up with Dave. We went to the local pub for a beer and a cider and Juz and I quizzed him about living on the base! Very interesting for us but I think we may have driven him insane with our abundance of questions. After politely and thoroughly answering our questions, he offered to take us on a tour of the base, which we jumped at the opportunity. We had to sign in for security purposes and then spent about half an hour driving around the base asking even more questions. We then made our way back to the pub where we had a lovely meal and chilled out before we decided to head back to the caravan park.

The next day, it was time to pay a visit to Canberra, another city that I adore. I do love capital cities!! After travelling down the Hume Highway, and stopping for breakfast in a tiny town, we drove past a sign post for the ‘Dog on a Tuckerbox’ – a statue for the local pioneers in the region and telling the story of a very loyal cattle dog, and decided to stop to take some pictures and found out more about the story. We made it into Canberra just before lunch time, making a visit to the museum, before a Mexican mid-day meal, followed by Old Parliament House and the War Memorial. On the way to the War Memorial we got a little lost and had to trudge through a construction site, along the main road – it wasn’t all bad, we did get plenty of attention… Although I think it may have been because we were, very obviously, lost! We arrived at the War Memorial with just enough time to see the grave of the unknown soldier and watch the last post performed, closing the memorial for the evening. I think that the War Memorial is a very special place and the area where the unknown soldier is kept is one of the most beautiful and significant places you could visit, as an Australian. It is most definitely goose-bump worthy. The day ended with a walk back to our car and then a trip to collect Aaron, my cousin who has only recently moved to Canberra to work for Treasury. We spent a lovely evening with Aaron at an amazing restaurant called Mecca Bah. We shared some lovely food and got to catch up on all the latest gossip.

Back on the Hume Highway, and headed towards Sydney, we had to pull over at a garden centre about 60kms from the city because the thought ‘that f***ing van’ was going to overheat, causing us to lose our bond. After our unplanned rest stop, we continued on the road, and it was all going perfectly… until we got lost… in the middle of the CBD! Eek! Justine was cool, calm and collected and perfected her map-reading skills to steer us back to Wicked HQ to drop off the van. We were slightly flustered by this time and decided that a drink was definitely on order. After dropping our bags off at the hotel we walked along the King Street Wharf until we decided to have lunch and some cocktails at Nicks. After cooling down a little, we decided that some more relaxation was the answer of the day, and we found a place to get manicures and pedicures. Feeling less stressed, and hungry we found our way to China Town and our evening meal… Asian greens, Pippies in XO sauce and prawn dumplings… yum…! There were some Japanese restaurants on the way to dinner that sold okinomayaki – if only I had four stomachs!! We decided to be totally lame and see a movie before heading back to the hotel for the evening. We watched The Town, starring… Ben Affleck!

Bills was the order of the day… and after finding our way to Surry Hills we had a lovely breakfast – Corn Fritters and Bacon for me…. And I’ll let you guess what Juz had! Yes…. I’m a crazy lady, because even though I was so full from breakfast that I thought I might vomit, I then made Justine follow me to Bourke Street Bakery… Lemon, Chocolate and Raspberry Tarts, and Vanilla and Strawberry Brulee were the orders of the day – more than pleasing my curiosity!! To counteract my demands, we then made our way to Bondi Junction, where we shopped until becoming weary and needing a snack to tie us over until dinner time. We jumped on a bus and found our way to Bondi! Stumbling across Bondi Ink – we enquired about my future tattoo and was eventually brave enough to ask if they could slot me in that afternoon – I was actually disappointed when they said that they were totally booked up for the rest of the day. To fill the void, we decided that coffee and a cheese platter were a must! We found a lovely café, to rest our weary legs, and it turned out to be the ultimate destination for people watching. After returning to the hotel to freshen up, when then decided to have dinner and wander around Circular Quay – my first real look at the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. They definitely lived up to all expectations – even if it was raining!









And today, the last day of our trip, the weather was miserable and didn’t stop raining! We began the day with a ferry ride to Manly, having a lunch of soft shell crab, squid and Caprese salad on the beach. We then made our way to the free Macca’s wifi hotspot, googling to find a location for High Tea, and we definitely weren’t disappointed! We ended up choosing to visit The Observatory and had the most lovely afternoon – filled with tea, cakes, scones, sandwiches and quiches! The rest of the day was filled with a trip to the airport… and a flight home – bittersweet, but am definitely looking forward to a good nights sleep in my own bed….













Until next time… Au revoir! 


-E