Days on the trip: 194
Earlier this year we had been looking for Santa all over northern Scandinavia. Now we were on our way to Melbourne, to spend our first warm Christmas in Australia. However, before it was Christmas time we had a couple of days to settle in and learn some Aussie slang.
Chrissie, Martin’s sister, and Bruno, top bloke, are living out there, so we had our own local guides showing us St Kilda and the penguins, Melbourne’s botanical gardens, a pop up croquet place, the river, south bank, the city centre with some awesome graffiti and of course plenty of nice bars and restaurants.
On Christmas Eve, the main day for Andi, we went to a winery in the yarra valley with Bruno’s family and a fun group of close friends. Got to celebrate in style! With some delicious wines and more food than we could eat we enjoyed sunshine whilst singing snowy Christmas songs. A fantastic day out and definitely a different Christmas eve.
One Christmas day, Jessie, Bruno’s sister, did an incredible job of hosting and cooking a delicious meal. It was a fusion between Finnish (where she is from) and Aussie xmas. The Aussie part was definitely the bbq’ed shrimps. The Finish part was the mulled wine, ginger bread and a trip to the sauna. Given that it was about 35 degrees we weren’t sure why people were so keen to jump in the sauna but you can’t stop a Fin, and it makes the outside feel much colder when you get out they tell us. Sensibly, we just drank some more sparkling whilst the others were sweating. Oh and the international part was a very fiercely contested Jenga competition.
It was a fantastic Christmas, thank you Jessie for hosting us and everyone for making ua feel so welcome.
After a lazy boxing day doing some washing, planning and various other bits of admin we hit the Great Ocean Road, a 243km drive along the coast about 1h away from Melbourne. We started at the far end in Warrnambool and then headed on the road east. The weather wasn’t quite on our side in the morning (Martin being blown away and the umbrella taking a big hit), but the coast had some stunning rock formations and we took in all the different view points: London bridge, the arch, the grotto, … and of course also the 7 Apostles – and where necessary Martin would stand in a big puddle to get the best angle.
At Apollo Bay we took a nice stroll along the beach before continuing to a koala walk – where we saw a koala, and then to Anglesea lighthouse. This was our last stop for the day, which Martin was quite happy about that after an early start and lots of driving. In a nice hotel nearby we could relax, drink some wine, and Martin could watch his new favourite sporting event on TV: Big Bash League (BBL). It’s a 20-20 cricket game between Australian states.
The next day we briefly went to see some kangaroos (hiding at a gold club underneath some trees because of the rain, and then headed back to Melbourne. We once more met up with Chrissie and Bruno, who had been to Tasmania in the meantime. We had a nice refreshing drink, witnessed super heavy rain showers and enjoyed a lovely evening with Bruno cooking and trying out his new pasta making kit.
From here it was time for Sydney. For this journey Martin had to buy Andi a flight since he messed up booking Andi’s bus, while Martin took an overnight bus journey via Canberra.
Road Monkeys 