Melbourne - Sydney

Boxing day was not very eventful. We were in Melbourne still, popped to St Kilda Beach, wandered around there, Emma and I packed our stuff up and we had a meal out on Lygone Street. Very nice.
On Wednesday 27th December 2006 Emma and I got up ready to leave. We said goodbye to Rod and Tracey and picked up L&G.
We drove down towards Phillip Island and stopped in San Remo where we had fish and chips and, Dad this will disappoint you, Lorraine and Graham took great pleasure in feeding a load of seagulls - I have photo evidence!! Fish was great, nice bit of Barra. So after that fun we drove over onto Phillip Island.
We explored the Island a bit and stopped in a few little towns including Cowes. We headed to the Koala Conservation Centre. We got in there and walked along the raised walkway area where we saw quite a few koalas, there were 6 or 7 in there so good stuff. A highlight for me though was seeing a wild copperhead snake on the ground below the walkway. We watched it for quite a while, they are venomous(sp??) but have small teeth so if you have shoes or jeans on etc they wouldn't get through. That was cool and it was quite active - exciting!!
We then walked round the woods. Lorraine, Graham and Emma were walking a bit fast to spot koalas so I slowed down and looked around, I saw about 7 round the woods and one baby put on a little show for me by climbing right to the top of the tree whiles its mum watched from below.
I really enjoyed it and met the others back in the gift shop. We all got into the car and drove to Seal Rock.
Emma was tired so she stayed in the car. Graham and I walked round the walkway (although kinda separately as he was originally waiting for Lorraine). Seal Rock is quite far away from the shore but could kinda make out things on it..... The coast was really nice again. I bumped into Graham on my way back and he said that there were some of the little penguins under the boardwalk so we headed back that way and I laid down and got a couple of photos of them standing under there, that was cool. When we got back to the top there were some under the boardwalk there as well. You can't take photos of them while they are doing their parade in the evening as you can't use the flash so it was good to get pictures.
We popped back to Cowes and had a look round the night market there, had dinner and then headed for the Penguin Parade at 7.30pm. We looked round the gift shop and then walked along the boardwalk to the beach and raised seating area looking out to sea. Every evening the penguins come into land to their homes to rest and sleep, some of them walk miles!!
We had quite a while to wait but at 9ish the penguins began to emerge from the water, there were also seagulls just standing on the beach watching!! You would just notice a little group of them just on shore getting ready to make a run for it and then a seagull would just move slightly and they'd all turn and jump back into the sea!! Quite funny. We sat and watched quite a few groups. Once they had began moving they then had to tackle a pile of seaweed then had the rest of the beach and then onto grass and hills!! There was a group of 3 which were funny to watch. Sometimes a group would've made it over the seaweed and almost to the end of the beach when one penguin would panic and run all the way back down, over the seaweed and into the sea!! Not too clever. They were funny to watch because if they were lagging in the group you could see them really struggling to keep up.
After watching them for quite a while we walked back along the boardwalk where we could watch them there going along side or under it. I asked one of the ladies that worked there if we bothered them but she said they'd normally live near a seal colony where they would have the threat of being eaten and the seals are really loud so that's good to know, well maybe not the eaten bit! They are such tiny cute penguins!!
We left at about 10.30pm and drove off the island in search of somewhere to sleep for the night. Everywhere seemed closed, until about midnight and we were all sat in the car outside one and Graham called the number - they had room thank god. Straight in and to bed!!
The next day was mainly a driving day. We left at 9ish and drove through Sale, got breakfast, and Bairnsdale.
We drove to Lakes Entrance where we stopped for lunch. it was quite a nice little town with lots of Black Swans, a few wooden sculptures and a river/lake! Lorraine, Emma and I walked down along the shops, got an ice cream each. Graham drove!!
Emma and I got the Dirty Dancing Soundtrack for the next section of the drive, being fed up of Rod Stewart, Don Williams and David Cassidy with the Partridge Family - god knows why....!! We drove through Orbost and onto Eden where we thought we'd stay but everywhere had no vacancy and when we asked anywhere noone thought we'd have any luck!! Oh dear. We drove on to Merimbula which was much the same. We eventually found a room in a caravan type site. Thank god! Just went for dinner then bed.
The next morning we got up and left by about 8.30am. We stopped in Bega for some breakfast, it was good, I had some scrambled egg with mushrooms on toast....yummy!
We drove on and turned onto the Snowy Mountain Highway towards Canberra. We stopped at a lookout and it was really cold, I could see my breath!! We pretty much just drove all the way to Canberra, arriving there just around lunchtime.
We drove around a little bit, really quiet place, and then went up the hill to the Telstra Tower - good views. Lorraine and Graham went up the top of the tower but Emma and I didn't. It was a nice warm day....
We went off to find somewhere to stay and after looking in a book, calling somewhere and checking out their rooms we were unpacking the car. Stayed at the Forest Inn.
We decided to do a load of washing before heading out for a wander so we got that sorted out. It started to rain so Emma and I ran to the laundry to put the washing on but then didn't have enough change, and it was really raining hard now, so we jumped in the car and drove round to reception for change. We headed back and just as we parked up the hailstones started.....Big bloody hailstones.... Emma and I were stuck in the car!! They were banging so hard on the roof that we had to shout to be heard by eachother!! We sat for quite a while before Emma thought up a plan, she would drive up close to the laundry door and I could jump out and put the washing on.... Seemed ok so we got the car as close as we could and after a moment hesitation I jumped out, slipped, fell over and caught my fingers under the machine.... I was stuck, Emma was shouting from the car to see if I was ok.... Luckily I dislodged my fingers kinda looked back in a "I'm still alive" way and after putting the coins in the machine I decided to rinse my fingers under cold water - always fixes things doesn't it!! I eventually jumped back into the car, which was now a little wet, as was I, since I'd left the door open - ha, and we drove round to our door. Well that was an exciting event.....and do you know the most annoying thing!?! When we went to check the washing later, although I'd put the coins in the slots I didn't push them in!! All that for nothing! Oh well gave me a little story about the massive hailstone storm in Canberra.
Well we couldn't do much while the weather was like this so we just chilled, showered and ate nibbles while we waited for it to pass.
We all got changed ready for dinner and at about 7pm were able to go out. We headed up to the Parliament House, looked around the outside, took photos and did a full circuit before heading to where all the restaurants were - so we'd been told. The place was dead, hardly any cars, streets were empty.....Ghost town. We walked a little way to the street and when we arrived there it was buzzing - this is where all the people were!!! Strange place...
Quite a few of the restaurants on one side of the street were flooded due to the storm so we picked a corner one which seemed ok. We had a nice meal there, except for Grahams hard potato (which they did nothing about), and then headed back to our room. We all went to bed, I watched a little TV before I dozed off as well.
We left Canberra at 7.30am, sorry that we weren't able to see more, and drove off through Goulburn to Sydney - was quite excited about returning to Sydney.
We got into Sydney and to Lorraine and Grahams hotel with no problems, we unpacked everything there and then returned the hire car....
And so we were in Sydney. We spent a little time wandering, had lunch and took Emma down to see the Bridge and Opera House, so much busier than when I was here in July - something to do with the weather maybe!? We wandered around the harbour. We also decided to go onto a Jet Boat, we booked it and got a family ticket(Emma and I under 16!!), so after a short wait we headed down to the jetty thing. We were given out waterproof poncho, stored our things and then jumped into the boat. Emma, Lorraine and I were in the front. This was good fun and by now the sun was out and warm. We headed out the harbour where we did emergency stops and spins, we weren't too wet so that was ok. We headed under the bridge and did another spin, this was when a little kid complained about not being wet enough......that was it. We went back under the bridge where another emergency stop took place and we got drenched!!! Got in my poncho so I had a nice big wet mark on the front of my top....lovely! It was still great fun.
We all jumped out, grabbed our stuff and Lorraine and Graham decided to get the ferry round to Darling Harbour, Emma and I decided to walk round and said we'd meet them there.
We walked through the Rocks and up to Darling harbour, picking up an ice cream on the way. We still bet them there so we waited. Apparently the ferry's were so busy!
Once they arrived we all just got a drink and then chilled drinking it. We discussed that we all felt a little burnt, we were... We got the monorail back to the city.
We got to their hotel, sorted our stuff out and looked at our burn marked, put cream on!! Oh dear! Emma and I left around 5/6ish, walked down to Circular Quay and jumped on a ferry to Manly. It took about 30 minutes and when we arrived we had no idea where our hostel was so after a couple of phone calls we jumped in a taxi bound for the castle on the hill!!
When we arrived it was pretty impressive, normally a management college, its over 100 years old (old for Australia) and looks like something from Harry Potter. We got our room, dumped our stuff and headed for some dinner. Much to Emma's annoyance (sorry Emma) we walked down the hill and grabbed some food down there. Food was good although the service was crap! No tip there... We walked back up the hill and after chatting a little went to bed.
Hope you are enjoying!!!
Dawn
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