Trip to Melbourne

On the Australia national day the 26/1 we left for Melbourne, and arrived there early morning for a four day visit to the area. In short this is what we managed to cram in:

26/1

Arriving in Melbourne on Australia day (40 degree C)
Australia Open (A lot of tennis)
City Tram (A lot likeLisebergslinjen)
Volvo Ocean Race (Big yachts)
We stayed at The Nunnery, a former convent, turned into accommodation for international visitors.

27/1
After spending one night in Melbourne we took a drive to Yarra Valley to see some vineyards.

Checking out the rental car (Stick shift!)
Yarra Valley vineyards (83 in the area, we only visited a few)
St Huberts (The first we visited)
Chandon (Moet Chandons Australian vineyard)
Coldstream Hills (Very good red wine)
De Bortoli (Wine tasting followed by cheese tasting)
Yarra Station (Strawberry champagne, sweet)
After spending the day at the winerys we drove down to the coast. In Torquay (Surf Mecca) we checked in to a guesthouse and went to a restaurant. Since it was a little chilly we finally got to wear our sweaters!!!
Warm sweaters! (First time since arriving in Australia)

28/1

After some surf shopping in Torquay (New sunny’s) we started on our Great Ocean Road trip

Bells Beach (Classical surf beach)
Anglesea golfclub with bunches of kangaroos!! (Wicked)
Lorne, Erskine Falls (Rainforrest walk)
Otway Ranges (Lovely hills)
Kenneth River (Koalas climbing through all the trees)
Cape Otway Lighthouse (Fresh wind)

Port Campell National Park (Offering spectacular views)
Gibson steps (Leeding down to the beach)

Twelve Apostles (Wonders of the nature)
The Arc

London bridge where we also saw some mini penguins


Port Campell (Small, small town) where we stayed for Bead & Breakkie at the wonderful “Sounds of the Sea”

29/1

After driving through drizzly landscapes in the morning mist, and getting spectacular views of Great Ocean Road Hinterland we headed for Melbourne and the airport. But on the way we had time for some quick stops...

Victorian Rose garden at Werribe

And got to see our first ever Polo game
Then we got on our flight Melbourne to Brisbane (Home sweet home)

New Links

Erik who also is from Gothenburg and lives in Brisbane (If you scroll down you will find him on a picture from the birthday party) have his own blogg, http://fanoverk.blogspot.com/. And we got a little bit jealous at him when we found it, because he has many great links. But instead of crying we stole them. So now you could find some new links on this blogg about the time and the weather here in Brisbane thanks to Erik.

Freedom

Together with the stuff that we brought from Sweden were our bikes. Saturday morning we took them out for a ride and went to the cinemas. It was a great feeling to finally be biking here. After months of only being able to walk around the town or driving the car we now got to see new sights in the city.

The movie we saw was “Narnia”, witch was really good, and afterwards we ride our bikes to a part of the city that’s called West End. It is a neighbourhood with lots of 2:nd hand stores and small restaurants. This was the first time that we went there and we really liked it. It’s a lot like “Haga” in Gothenburg. After having lunch at a sushi place, where we also met a Swedish guy that had studied Maskin at Chalmers (Ex-91), we biked in to the city again. This time we weren’t able to ride along the boardwalk where there is a bike track. Instead we biked amongst the traffic and that was really scary!!! It all went well but next time we will keep to the bike tracks.

We got the stuff!

Today we finally got our stuff! Due to some mistakes by the Kungsholms moving firm our stuff has been out travelling around the world for about one month more than they were suppose to. The latest mistake was that they had sent the stuff to Sydney instead of Brisbane. But now it is here, and the day has been pure joy!

It feels like Christmas to get to open the boxes. Along with our clothes and small necessary things like the blender (Hmm.. smoothies!) we also got our bikes.

Birthday party!

On Kristin’s birthday we had a BBQ, witch is the Aussie way to have a party. We had invited a few friends (Heather, Luke, Damien, Kristen, Bec and Eric) , to our place, the River Place.

The fish and prawns on the Barbie were a success and so was the fresh spinach salad.

We watched the sun set over the City and enjoyed a fantastic Cheesecake with strawberries accompanied by creative birthday songs.

Heather, Luke and Kristin by the BBQ








Heather (again), Patrik, Bec and Erik cheering for the birthday girl.

Birthday girl!

Today is Kristin’s big day, and it started with cake and presents.
Note the black- berries,on the cake.

What’s in the packets is not a secret any more since they’ve been opened now. In there it was a big Australian flag (the Australian national day is coming up next week), a surf mat (a kind of inflatable body board), a kangaroo t-shirt (from Patrik’s parents), a pink sun protector for the car and some Brazil-nut body butter.

Tonight we are going to throw a birthday BBQ party with some friends here at our house. And there is going to be a lot more cake then.

Lift-off

After almost three weeks touring Australia, Patrik’s parents headed for Bangkok on Monday morning. They got around seeing all different kinds of things here. After starting of in Brisbane and celebrating New Years at the Great Barrier Reef they went to Sydney and the famous opera house. Then they went to Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road and finally they came back to Brisbane to celebrate Ronny’s 60^th birthday at Fraser Island.

They did enjoy the whole trip very much and they where especially pleased with all the animals they’ve seen on there journey. Parrots at Agnes Waters, Kangaroos at a golf course outside Melbourne, Koalas in a forest along the Great Ocean Road, Dingo at Fraser Island and Kookaburras in Sydney.

Here they are as they are about to leave.
p.s. Note the 2 Didgeridoos

Fraser Island

The 14:th of January Patrik’s dad, Ronny, had his 60^th birthday. To celebrate this we all went to Fraser Island, the world’s largest Sand Island. To get there we hired a 4x4, It is impossible to drive out there with anything else.

Here we are with the 4x4 in the background.

The only way to get there is by ferry witch goes straight out from the sandy beach.

Driving on sand was a new experience. On the beach were the sand was wet, it was easy and smooth as driving on a freeway. They even use the beach as a landing area for aircrafts on the island.

But the small roads with dry sand that runs through the rainforest was very tricky. There is very little friction in dry sand and it is easy to get stuck when the wheels spin.

On the world’s biggest Sand Island there is a lot of sand to play in.

Turning 60 should be special and this whole adventure was all very special.

Finally broadband!

At last we got our broadband installed. It is a great relief to finally be connected to the internet from our home. After months at creepy internet cafés together with smelly youngsters that playing network games 24-7, and weird looking elderly men looking at sights that they probably shouldn’t, it is good being connected from home.

Party

Ronda and Dough joined in on the New Years Eve party for a while.

Sydney visit

We couldn't let Marie and Michael leave Australia without seeing the fantastic Opera House in Sydney of course.

Here's the whole tourist group.

Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney is pretty extraordinary. It has tributes to Carl von Linné and his friends as well as many "flying foxes".