The past week has been hectic. We landed in Sydney and spent two days there with our cousin J.Ho who is currently helping to engineer a malting factory outside of the city. We were there over a weekend, so he had some time to show us around the harbour. The city reminded us of Vancouver, and we repeated this obvious comparison ad nauseam, much to J.Ho's irritation. We finally realised that we were not in BC when we went for a walk through the botanical gardens to feed the cockatoos instead of the Canadian geese.
Kate and I took a train to Melbourne after our time in sunny Sydney came to an end (yes, it was sunny and warm despite it being late winter). The differences between the rivaling cities were immediately apparent. Melbourne is shorter, funkier, and super artsy. Also, it seems as though there are two-to-three cafes on every block, which instantly made the city more attractive. We stayed in a sweet, old, quiet guesthouse on St Kilda, south of the city, and enjoyed the walk into town through the Alexandra Gardens everyday. We have yet to visit a city with such a thorough and generous Tourist Information Centre. The city offers a free circle tram around the city, a free hop-on-hop-off bus, free state museum entry, and a plethora of free walking tours/maps/guides. The first time we walked into the main Tourist Information Centre we asked this small Asian lady if they offered any sort of free walking tour and she laughed in our faces..."Free walking tour? We have TONS of free walking tours!" she cackled. Highlights of our four days in Melbourne included meeting up with Kate's friend Dan for dumplings and beers in Chinatown, shopping at Queen Victoria Market, and hitting up some of the city's uber trendy lanes (DeGraves and The Causeway) for coffee.
Victoria Market Snacks
Dan, Al, Kate - Post Dumplings in Melbourne
J.Ho flew to Melbourne on our fourth day and rented a car in preparation for our roadtrip along the Great Ocean Road to Adelaide the following day. Our primary goal in travelling this famous scenic route was to view the Twelve Apostles. After a leisurely afternoon of driving, stopping at lookouts, eating coastal fish n' chips, and goofing around, we realised that we may not make it to the Twelve Apostles before sundown. This freaked J.Ho out and he put the pedal to the metal...as hard as one can on a super-super-curvy two-lane road. Not only did we arrive before twilight, the clouds parted to reveal a dramatic, mentally orange sunset. We spent the night in Mount Gambier, and ended up eating Dominos pizza for dinner at 11:30pm, which was the only business open in this small South Australian town.
Blue Lake Jumping Outside of Mount Gambier
Twelve Apostles Sunset on the GOR
Adelaide Approaches!
Our second day of driving (and by "our" second day I mean "Jamie's" second day because Kate and I are developmentally challenged when it comes to the operating of motor vehicles) took us through the Coorong, a large National Park that is known for its sand dunes and unique ecosystem. We only saw one or two cars along this remote stretch of road, but we did see four dead wombats. Poor little, fat, slow, roadkilled wombats. We arrived into Adelaide by 5pm, just in time for dinner with our aunt and uncle. Show us what you got, Adelaide!
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