On the road again!

After all the public transport (buses, trams and trains) we were glad to get out on the open road in our own car…well, our rented car.  We decided to fly out of Sydney to NZ because we could store some luggage for one month there at the Sydney YHA, free of charge.  Also, the cheapest flights were out of Sydney.  We picked up our car at Avis in downtown Melbourne on Monday, May 4th.  It was supposed to be a Hyundai Getz two-door manual, but we were upgraded to a Toyota Camry at no additional cost.  Tim reckons it was much better to have had an automatic over a manual due the high volume of traffic in the cities.  Traffic is the manual car’s one true vice apparently.  So we said farewell to cat woman and hit the open road destined for fun.  Our first stop was in the Grampians National Park in Victoria.  While driving into the Park the sun was setting and many kangaroos were frolicking about on the sides of the road.  We stayed at the YHA ‘Grampians Eco Lodge’ for two nights.  It was by far the best YHA we had experienced, mainly due to the really nice facilities and secluded location.  There were also Kangaroos sunbathing right outside the hostel and chickens poking around!  We did a four-hour return hike nearby and experienced some spectacular views.  At night we would make gourmet meals and talk of our New Zealand adventure to come.  We left the Grampians destined for The Twelve Apostles – ancient rock formations along Victoria’s southern seacoast formed by erosion.  The weather turned from rain to sun as we surveyed the magnificent rock structures.  They were once connected to the coastline thousands of years ago but now remain as individual rocky islands towering in height.  We traveled further on Australia’s southern coastline famously know as Great Ocean Road - beautiful views but a very long and winding road.  We drove straight back up through Melbourne and onward to Sydney. 

While on the highway we watched the sun set beautifully over the hilly landscape, not long before I drifted off to a peaceful sleep. A while later I woke to the feeling of the car slowing down and Tim putting on the hazards and slowly getting out of the car. I was startled and was asking, “What’s the matter? What’s going on?” Tim was frantically brushing off his shoulders and acting freaked. Finally he told me a large spider was in the car, on the dash. I was sure he was over reacting when I insisted he get back in the car and keep driving. Then! Oh my Gosh, I saw it scramble across the dash in my direction. It was big and black and quite scary looking.  After briefly debating on a plan to get rid of the spider Tim put on his ‘mittens’ and with a wad of tissue tried swiping the spider out of the car.  (Why Tim refuses to just squash the horrible insect I don’t know).  He missed on the first try but insisted that he got it out on the second swipe.  We never actually saw it on the ground for confirmation so we continued to drive with some anxiety, especially because our plan was to sleep in the car.

 Sometime shortly before midnight we pulled over at a McDonalds rest stop to sleep for a few hours.  We slept in our sleeping bags with the trunk folded down.  It didn’t quite work out as envisioned and we basically ended up entirely crouched in the fetal position in the trunk.  In the morning we drove to place called Wollongong, famously known for its great surf.  Tim had wanted to catch some nice Australian waves before we left.  Wollongong’s reputation as a great surfing town as it turns out falsely precedes itself.  There is one shop in all of town to rent boards from, and the boards are foam (which is lame). When we visited Byron Bay a bit further north earlier on our trip we discovered a plethora of quality surfboard rental shops, and good waves.  So we left Wollongong and made it into Sydney for the evening.  We stayed at the Glebe YHA, a nice familiar hostel where we had stayed two months before.

The next day we secured our luggage storage at the Sydney Central YHA and made for the airport.  We were destined to arrive in Christchurch, New Zealand late that night.  Our Kiwi adventure was about to begin…

 

By Julie M Vakalis

Contributions: Timothy James Aloysius Parker