My 2008 Australia Vacation

Today I visited Freycinet National Park, off of the town of Coles Bay, about 20 minutes south of my hotel. Coles Bay has one of those vibes that screams “tremendous amounts of drugs were used here in 1970.” But today, it’s a small town with rental properties and a few businesses, boat tours, stuff like that. I stopped and looked around and picked up a late breakfast, then made my way into the park.

My purpose for the visit was similar to most people there: to do the hike to the Wineglass Bay lookout. There were shorter walks, and there were multi-day camping scenarios, but 90% of the people there were going to see Wineglass Bay. Most of us would do the hike from the parking area to the lookout, situated between two mountains above the bay. A few more athletic souls would do another hour of very steep hiking to get down to the beach itself, then wonder how they were going to climb all that way back!

Personally, I thought the lookout walk was steep enough, thank you very much. It has over 600 steps, making it the biggest elevation differences I’ve climbed - the previous had been at the Vatican. The path was well marked through the stone, and they had made wooden step frames about 80% of the time.

The hike is marked at 45 minutes, and most people were doing it in 35-40. Of course, I’m not most people, not to mention that I’m not in shape at all. It took me 66 minutes following a very rigid protocol: stop every four minutes or every 20 consecutive steps for a minute, stop every 15 minutes for five. After all, what else did I have to do today??

The view from the lookout was worth the climb. I stayed up there for about 45 minutes before starting to make my way back down. What amazed me was how so many people were getting up there, staying 5-10 minutes, and then leaving! If you are not going to enjoy the view, save yourself the aggrevation and buy a post card from the gift shop… The walk down should have been much faster, but a lot of the steps had their front faces smoothed downward, so I had to be very careful where I planted my feet when climbing down. It took me about 45 minutes with only one break. After that, I rested at the bottom for a while, then drove over and did the boardwalk-style walk around the lighthouse at Cape Tourville.

I came back to the hotel and just chilled out for a few hours, including doing three days worth of laundry so that I have enough clean clothes for the rest of the trip. I spent dinner working through my photos in Picasa, but I don’t have a good enough Internet connection to load them up today. I have about 520 photos to date for the trip, of which a fair amount of duplicates of landscapes.

Tonight, I am going on a penguin watching tour here in Bicheno. It leaves at 9:45pm, and goes out and watches the penguins come back onto the beach at sunset. It’s either going to be a blast or a tourist trap, or maybe both!

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This morning I had planned to get up very early and beat the traffic out to Port Arthur.  I’d been told that the highways would take a long time because they are narrow and winding.  But when the alarm went off at 6am, the answer was a resolute no.   Eventually I made it up around 8:45 and was on the highway by 10.   With a stop in Sorrell for cash and breakfast, I was at Port Arthur just before noon.  The drive was beautiful.  Being on the wrong side of the road is not bad when it’s two lane highway.  The only time it bothers me are on slight uphill curves to the left, where the oncoming traffic is crossing in front of me visually going into the curve.

Port Arthur is a very interesting place.  For the most part, it was an open-air prison camp; where else where the inmates going to go?  The agency running the historical site today has a good setup, with an introductory walking tour, a harbour cruise, optional tours of the outer islands, and several buildings partially open for access.    The walking tour was especially informative for a non-Australian.  I also took the walking tour of the cemetery island, but I did not think that was worth the extra A$10.   After walking through some of the exhibits and buildings, I left at about 3pm.

The drive to Bicheno had two parts: first I had to head back almost all the way to Hobart,  then continue northeast.  The second part of the drive was fantastic.  It takes you through a variety of scenaries, from hugging the coast line similar to Hwy 1 in California, to crusing through ranges of sheep.  The only issue was the limited number of places to stop along the way: plan carefully.   It took me four hours to get to Bicheno.  I had originally planned on stopping in Swansea for dinner, but there was not much there.   Bicheno, by comparison, is a thriving hamlet of 771 people.

I checked into my functional Best Western: it is clean and has no odor of mold/mildew, which is a concern so close to the water.  I deliberately went low-end on the hotel here to avoid any kind of ‘posh’ trappings that would just breed mold.   But since the driving was so fast, I’m only going to stay here two nights.  I will cover Coles Bay and Freycinet National Park (about 25 minutes south of here) tomorrow, then work my way to Launceston on Thursday.

The only bad thing about the day is that I basically have no mobile phone service.  This makes me feel very uncomfortable, but I should have realized that a town of 771 is not going to have a GSM tower hovering nearby!

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After a week and a half on foot and using public transportation, it’s very different with a car. My flight landed at 8am, and by 9am I had figured out the car and driven to the city to my hotel. The Grand Chancellor is your typical small city primary businessman’s hotel. It looks about 25 years old, Holiday Inn quality in the rooms, a little better in the common areas. Even though the room was not ready, I ditched one suitcase and the car, and set out on foot.

About three blocks away was the tourist information center. And starting a few minutes later was a $39 three-hour mini-bus tour, maximum capacity 28. Sold…. Most of the people on the tour were Americans from a cruise ship that had just arrived from Melbourne earlier that morning. The tour was solid for a small city, with a decent mix of historical sights and various vistas. I thought they stayed too long at most stops, but I was also pretty tired…

After the tour ended, I walked back to the hotel and got into my room. After a few minutes of unpacking, I collected the car and drove to the tourist trap of Richmond. Richmond is supposed to be a quintissential small Tassie town. That’s ok, it was a very pleasant drive past several vineyards, and a solid one-street town with mid-1800s buildings converted into stores and restaurants. I was starving, so I stopped for soup and a ploughman’s cheese platter at a local restaurant, then wandered around and windowshopped. There was an old jail there, but the wait was too long and I had better things to go see.

Having looked at my Tassie map from Hertz, I saw that the street where my hotel is located is Davey Street, one of the main streets in the city. After leaving the city, Davey Street becomes the road to Mount Wellington. Mount Wellington is at about 1250 meters, and is situated west of the city. Once you get to the base of the access road, it’s another 25 minutes to get to the summit. Monday at 3:30pm has to be one of the best times to do this drive, as there was very little traffic on the access road.

The view from the summit was absolutely stunning. There is no way that my camera is going to do it justice. Imagine being three times further up than the top of the Sears Tower. Even though there was a bit of a haze, the view was easily 75-100 miles.

After that, I drove through a couple of areas of Hobart looking for a Westpac ATM. I never found one, but I found a Coles supermarket and stocked up on cheap water and Schwepps Diet Lemonade. Then I came back to the hotel and crashed for about 90 minutes. I decided that I’d better eat something, so I stopped at Mures’ across the street. They catch their own seafood, and have a quick service place on the ground floor and a full restaurant on the upper floor. I had some chowder and a scallops-and-chips from the quick service place - other than bland chips, everything else was fine. I then walked over to Salmanica Place to burn off dinner and look unsuccessfully for an internet cafe. Instead, I’m in the hotel lobby business center, as I did not see the point of paying A$27 when I’m going to be asleep in a few minutes, and an hour from the business center is A$5.

Tommorrow I head to Port Arthur and then to Bichemo, so lots of driving.

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The alarm clock went off at the ungodly time of 3:30 this morning.  In retrospect, I could have probably slept another 45 minutes, but I could not remember if I had an advance seat assignment on my JetStar flight from Melbourne to Hobart.  I had packed the night before, so it was pretty quick to get out of the hotel.   I left my large suitcase at the hotel with the non-essentials: the clean clothes I want to wear next weekend, the dirty clothes from the last few days, some extra books and electronics such as my DVDs.   So for the next five days, I’m travelling with just my backpack and my 22″ roll-aboard (which here still has to be checked).

At that time of the morning, the shuttle bus from the Southern Cross rail station to the airport only runs once/hour, so I splurged again and dropped another A$50 for the taxi to the airport.  I arrived at 4:40am for my 6:45am flight, and had to wait until 4:45am to check in.  I had in fact pre-requested seat 6C when I bought my ticket, and after checking my bag I got a thermal paper “boarding pass.”  I made it through security - so nice not to have to take everything apart - and picked up a light breakfast at the coffee shop.   After dawdling with that, I used up some of the Qantas Web connect kiosk credit I had purchased the other day in Sydney, then went and slept at the gate.

The JetStar flight was uneventful in every sense of the word.  The pitch between seats stinks (probably 31″)  but they are A320s with nice wide leather seats, so for 65 minutes it was not exactly difficult.  We arrived at the gate at Hobart, and used jet-stairs to disembark.  While I was waiting for my luggage, I went over and picked up my rental car.

Now for the fun part:  driving in Australia.  First of all, my car is a Toyota Aurion, an offspring of the old Toyota Avalons and plenty big enough for head/leg room.  The only thing is that the windshield is low, but I’m use to that with most sedans.  I find that the car handles very well, except that I tend to lose it wide left because I feel too close to the center line.  I even parallel parked it flawlessly today on the first try, and manuevered it later around a grocery store parking lot.

Driving on two-lane highways is pretty easy, except for the centerline issue.  Urban traffic during rush hour was interesting, but I’m getting the hang of it.   And I drove it all the way to the top of Mount Wellington, which is an interesting drive.

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I cannot believe that I’m already at the halfway point of the vacation. Tomorrow morning, I leave for Hobart. Today, I took a guided tour of the Great Ocean Road stretching west from Melbourne. The tour covered about 500 kilometers of driving. The bus (seats 21 in 1-2 seating, very convenient for a solo traveller like me) picked me up at the hotel at 7:15am; by the time all the tourists were picked up it was 8am. The tour was basically broken into the following sections:

• Getting out of the city and to Torquay, where the Ocean Road starts;
• Various photo stops in the first few small towns, including Bell’s Beach, Anglesea, Lorne, and Apollo Bay;
• A half hour forest walk through Myrtle Beach and eucalyptus trees near Cape Otway;
• A quick lunch;
• The “Twelve Apostles” oceanside rock formations - the highlight of the day; and
• The long boring, this is why you own an ipod, ride back to the city.

The weather was great, a litle cloudy and a little cool, but comfortable. And windy. Very windy. I actually slept a fair amount on the bus, because there were stretches of 25-30 minutes betweeen cities where we were just getting between places. I saw a new ocean for me (the Southern) and at one point the next piece of land in front of me would have been Antarctica.

I got back to the hotel just before eight pm, and took the recommendation of the hotel clerk and went to the Crown Casino complex for dinner. I decided to splurge and went to one of the seafood restaurants. I had a terrific appetizer: scallops topped with a tiny dot of sausage, with a very thin carmel syrup underneath and some jicama. The main course was chili prawns with cream sauce and rice. Then I wandered around the casino for a while - it is long and thin and confusing to get around. They have an excellent poker room, but tomorrow starts the main event of the “Aussie Millions” championship, so it was a bit of a zoo down there. They did have open seating for 1-2 No Limit holdem, but I don’t like playing No Limit. On the way back, I’ve stopped in at an internet cafe about a block away from the hotel, since I only needed a half hour of time tonight.

I need to get back and pack and get a few hours of sleep - my flight is at 6:45am and I do not have a seat assignment. Then I get to see about driving on the wrong side of the road.

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The first dozen photos are from the last day and a half in Sydney. The other hundred and forty odd photos are from Melbourne and environs.

Link to Shutterfly Album

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On the train back from Mornington this afternoon, I read an article about traffic accidents on the Great Ocean Road.  It turns out that 12% of the drivers involved in accidents are visiting from another country.  Sounds awful, right?   But what they didn’t say was what percentage of miles driven on that highway are from non-locals??  If it’s substantial, and I’d think it would be, then the actual rate of accidents per 1000 miles driven may be no different for locals vs. foreigners.

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I had a fun day trip today out to the Mornington Peninsula southeast of Melbourne.    I had thought about doing a guided tour there today, but a) it wasn’t going to guarantee getting me back in time for my dinner engagement, b) they had a couple of very silly shopping side diversions, and c) they wanted $148.

So instead, I did the layman’s version for less than $20.   I paid $10.10 for a Zone 1&2 day pass, and took the train from Flinders Street to the end of the line at Frankston, about 45 minutes.   The train ride wasn’t particularly scenic, but I enjoyed passing through the small towns along the way.   I got misled about the buses, and that turned what should have been 20 minutes in Frankston into 60, but that was ok.    [If you do this, ignore anything anybody tells you at the station, and take the 781 or 785 bus and don't wait for the 788.  The 788 is only if you plan on going further south beyond the main strip of Mornington.]   Frankston is just a typical little bay-side town with a small central business district, but I was able to get some water and some great small 15 cent nectarines.  I passed the time listening to Anthony Hamilton and Al Green on my ipod, and eventually the 788 bus came for the half-hour ride to Mornington.

Mornington was a great seaside but not beachy town, but without tremendous crowds.  Just a lot of Australian families enjoying their weekend, I’m pretty sure I was the only American in the entire area.   I walked the mile from where the 788 bus sets you down along the main street and out to the water side, and somewhere along the way picked up a take-out chicken curry pasty for lunch.   There were a lot of real estate agencies on this little main street, maybe seven.   Residences ranged from a “beach box” - literally a corrogated shed similar to a mobile home and maybe even smaller - for A$55k, to mansions well over A$1M.   A few places were advertising renting townhomes for A$700/week.    Once I’d seen everything, the 781 bus was heading back, so I got on and rode back to Frankston, then caught the train back to Melbourne.

On the way back, I got off at the train stop closest to the Queen Victoria Market, which was starting to wind down for the day.  I got the basic idea of it, and most of food that they’re selling is for home/grocery.    But to have truly splurged, I would have gone to the QVM first and picked up a picnic, and then taken the train/bus to Frankston.

I’m sure I’d have enjoyed the winery tour or the Aschcombe Maze, and I’m sure I didn’t have the best view  since I didn’t to Arthurs Seat.   The tourism board compares the entire penisula (not just the little part I saw) to Monterrey, I was thinking more along the lines of the towns from La Jolla north in San Diego.   But if I come back to Victoria, I think setting up base in the SE for a week with a car and a townhouse, and doing the Peninsula and Phillip Island, would be a marvelous idea.

Tonight I’m heading to dinner with additional relatives, then tomorrow I have to be in the lobby at 7:30am for a 12-hour minibus tour of the Great Ocean Road.

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I’m feeling much better. I’m still not 100%, but I sound worse than I am.  But what I have left can be classified as “really nasty hay fever the normal allergy medicine isn’t quite touching.”   At this point, I’m basically just working on preventing a re-infection.   My family has planned a dinner out tonight for the other aunts and uncles who have not been able to get away until the weekend, so my original plan of doing the Great Ocean Road tour today has been scrapped.  I’m going to book it for Sunday before I leave the hotel.

I was going to do a guided tour of the Mornington Peninsula today, but it will not return in time.  Instead, I’m going to head to Mornington (50 miles away) by public transit after stopping off at a few local sights I’ve driven by but not seen on foot.   Mornington is a two hour commute, with two hours once I’m there.   Times like this is when I miss not having a car, and why I’m looking forward to experimenting with driving on Monday in Hobart.

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Just before I went out for a late-afternoon round of sightseeing on Thursday, Steven called me and asked if I’d like to go out for a ride to one of the heavily-Greek suburbs called Doncaster.  He had a customer out there he had to visit for about twenty minutes, and then he’d be free for the rest of the day.   Doncaster is a pleasant upper-middle class bedroom community about 17 km ENE of downtown, and the drive starts to take you into some light foothills.   I sat and chatted with the residents while Steven fixed the equipment, and after some obligatory beverages, we were off.  We went to the house of Steven’s sister Helen and her husband Nick and their two children, and eventually all moved on as a group to their parents’ (my dad’s cousin’s) house where I met Uncle Niko and Aunt Chrissoula.  The grandparents eventually kept the kids while the rest of us went out for dinner and chatted until almost midnight.   We also made plans to resume the next day at about 4:30pm.

Friday, I had originally planned to do a day trip, but with the high again being expected to be 102 I had decided against it.   Instead, I combined a few sights I had missed the first day.  I got up very early, and at 8am I bought a one-day tram pass and travelled about 25 minutes south to the seaside town of St. Kilda.   I pretty much had the town to myself, and I got off before the actual beach.  It was not as much as some of the tour guides crack it up to be, but the 8:30am Friday quiet certainly had something to do with it.  It was a pleasant streetscape, I got some coffee in me, and it was a good way to kill some time.   By 10, I was back downtown at the Rialto Center, at 53 stories one of the largest office buildings in Australia.   I spent about 45 minutes at their Observation Center, taking in the views in all directions and wishing I had a better optical zoom on my little 6mp digital camera like I used to have on my 35mm point-and-shoot.   Then it was off to the Aquarium, specifically to see the sharks and stingrays exhibit.  The Aquarium is smaller than I thought it would be, mostly because I’m used to the fantastic Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, but the sharks and especially the sting-rays were neat.

At this point, I was starving and it was 100 degrees, so I walked over to where I had to pick up my laundry and stopped in a Greek restaurant across the street.  I realized that I’ve only been picking at food most of this trip, between feeling dodgy and being hot.  I ordered a lamb souvlaki plate with extra meat and sat in the cool for about an hour.

When I emerged, it was very cool outside.  As in maybe 78.  When I got back to the hotel with my laundry, I checked online.  Sure enough, the temperature fell almost 20 degrees in an hour.   The stiffle was gone, replaced by a beautiful sunny day.   I spent the next couple of hours doing shopping for gifts and postcards, and the only thing I did not accomplish was to visit the Queen Victoria Market (which I’m going to try to do today).  Then by 3 I was back at the hotel for good to catch up on communications, restock the medications, and get ready to go out with family.

Steven’s wife Betty came by and collected me, and we took the subway for about 20 minutes and then walked a little over a mile to Nick and Helen’s house where everybody was congregating for dinner.

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