Australia: Melbourne – Great Ocean Road (1995)

Melbourne is the coastal capital of the southeastern Australian state of Victoria. The Great Ocean Road is an Australian National Heritage listed 240-kilometre stretch of road along the south-eastern coast of Australia between the Victorian cities of Torquay and Allansford.

🙂 Fantastic Scenery. Wine. Canasta. Friendship.

🙁 Car problems. Visa problems. Canasta!

Headed on the Ocean Highway from Adelaide. Very windy and van began playing up – misfiring and no power. Saw Bay of Islands and Twelve Apostles – beautiful but windy!

We then broke down and had to call RAC. He finally arrived and fixed our belt and we were on our way again. We followed him to his garage where he fixed other odds and ends and all seemed OK so we drove on and camped by the side of the road. Up early to continue the drive, decided to drive though mountains via Prince’s Highway which was scenic. Arrived at Simone and Erik’s at 4pm. Showered and Richard and Louise popped over to see us. Drank lots of beer and wine and played Outburst – great fun!

Woke up with a hangover and Eric had sorted kids out! We basically spent the next two week with them eating, drinking and playing Cannasta as well as some sight seeing including wine tasting and wildlife sanctuaries and famed the train ride. We also visited the Neighbour’s set (Ramsay Street is really Pine Oak Close) – very exciting.

One evening we stayed over at Louse and Richards and they took us to the Sky Bar at the top of the Hyatt which has spectacular views over Melbourne – David Cooper joined us as a surprise!

During our stay we had the van fixed in readiness to sell and submitted my application for my American Visa. Chris and Rhona were flying out to meet us in Hawaii to be our witnesses at our wedding on the beach. Unfortunately my visa was declined as they said it was not clear whether I lived in the UK or SA and I was in neither location! The Easter weekend started the next day so we were completely down. as there was nothing we could do other than change our flights and let Chris & Rhona know that we would get there as soon as we could. We watched Schindler’s List and drank wine and felt better because that film puts it all into perspective. Went to watch an Aussie Rules football game which was unusual and fun. The children enjoyed the Easter Egg hunt and we played Ten Pin Bowling. Back to US Embassy on the Tuesday armed with letters of employment from SA and they said it would take a week! On the Friday we drove to the US Consulate feeling very nervous BUT Hoorah – visa granted! Thanked Eric and Simone from the bottom of our hearts for their warm and generous hospitality and apologised for over staying our welcome! Headed to Sydney. Van struggling!!

Stopped off via Canberra – quite a dull down but a must stop!

Arrived late at Wayne & Tina’s in Sydney …

Go To: Melbourne (2011)

Go to: Australia

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