Australia Adventure Dec 2014, 7 Sydney

Dec 13, Sat D07 - We had arrived at the 1-week mark of our holiday.

Today we braced ourselves for the longest stretch drive we would take. The distance from Melbourne to Sydney was about 850 km. This meant a 8-9 hour drive without break at a speed of 100 km an hour.

We managed to reach Sydney before 7 pm. Lodging was at Marco Polo Motorlodge at Summer Hill, which I had phoned in to book a family room in the afternoon after having greater clarity of our pace. (180).

With better planning this time round, we drove down to visit the world acclaimed Opera House, had our dinner at Hokkaido, a nearby Japanese restaurant and walked around the vincity. We also strolled around The Rocks to soak in the vibrancy of Sydney.

Australia Adventure Dec 2014, 6 Melbourne

Dec 12 D06 - the three great natural attractions of Australia were often said to be 'the road, the Rock and the reef '. The road is the Great Ocean Road, which ran west from Anglesea, round the treacherous Cape Otway, to Warrnambool. 

Today, we drove from Mount Gambier to arrive at Melbourne via the famous Great Ocean Road. The ocean views were spectacular and we took many pit stops to marvel in awe of nature's work.

"London Bridge" which had fallen due to erosion

12 Apostles

Great works of nature

We checked into Fawkner Hume Villa Motor Inn (180). Thereafter we headed for Matsumoto Restaurant for Japanese cuisine before charting out the route for tomorrow to Sydney.

Australia Adventure Dec 2014, 5 Mt Gambier

Dec 11 D05. After the serious episode of seasickness by our two boys, we changed our plan to stay in Kangaroo Island for 2 nights. We checked out of our motor lodge at Adelaide and made our journey to Melbourne which was a 880 km drive.

Before which we headed to the Cleland Conservation Park and well, just enjoyed nature.

Thereafter we visited Mount Lofty Summit and had our brunch at the cafe.

On our road trip, I chanced upon an advertisement of a farm visit nearby and off we went. There, we spent a good 2.5 hours feeding and patting farm animals.

We then continued our journey and would be putting up the night at Mount Gambier. In the car, we flipped the accommodation guide books and decided on Arkana Motor Inn (also from the Golden Chain group, 180) just based on the description. When we reached the motel, we were still a bit hesitated. However we did hi-fives when we reached the apartment. It was one fine place to stay! 

Australia Adventure Dec 2014, 4 Adelaide

Dec 10 D04 D05 - We made a last minute change of plan to visit Tahune Airwalk forest as we reckoned the earlier plan to St Helens, Launceston, Tamar valley might be a stretch. After all we had a flight to catch at Hobart. 

Airwalk 

Swinging bridge

While we had always been fairly free and easy on our trips deciding on our lodging place at our whim, we made our lodgings booking the night before. As usual, I flipped through from the booklets for tourists from the airport and decided on a motel from the Golden Chain of accommodation in Australia.

As the motel that we set our eyes on did not have a booking website and also the timing was tight, I used my prepaid card to make the booking. Wow, I felt like a local touring the country. This turned out to be a good decision as we only managed to check into the motor lodge around 11 pm. If we had not the booking, we would be hard pressed to find a place to put up for the night. (130)

While the motel building was old, it was fairly well maintained. The best part was that the service at Pooraka Motel was impeccable. Though we checked in late, the host was still around to welcome us. There were also milk available for our morning coffee. The host had all things thought out carefully. 

 

Australia Adventure Dec 2014, 3 Swansea

Dec 9, Tuesday D03 -  Today I made a brouhaha. I thought it was a Wednesday but was pleasantly surprised that it was a Tuesday. I was as happy as a lark when we made our great plan to take the 5 hour morning cruise to the world acclaimed Wineglass Bay. 

Around the pier area 

My mood was dampened greatly as both my boys were down with a serious bout of seasickness. After a short 1 hour fun with the sea breeze playing our hair, they were confined to the back of the ferry. Especially P he was in so much agony that at times, he roared like a sick lion. Most of the time however, he just whimpered in pain and was shivering from cold. It was no doubt that the dog is the man's best friend. A dog just came to lay beside P and looked up with concern whenever he groaned.

Wineglass Bay

Once on land, the boys were back to their old selfs again. We then made our way to visit Freycinet national park to visit Cape Tourville lighthouse.

We decided to drive to the nearby town, Bicheno for dinner. We checked our Parinsi and it turned to be one of the best dining Devi we have had thus far. The Norwegian salmon was very fresh and done to perfection. The seafood pizza was also awesome. It was no wonder that the restaurant encouraged booking for dinner. We were lucky to have a table albeit it was alfrenso style. The waitress was very considerate and brought out our chocolate out which kept us warm.

 

Australia Adventure Dec 2014, 2 Swansea

The We The Dec 8, Monday D02 - After a good night sleep, we checked out of our motel and drove down south. That was not before a cheery good morning Tasmania from yours truly.

Southern Tasmania is known for charming cafes and galleries, MONA, Australia's oldest bridge at Richmond, the heritage listed penal settlement at Port Arthur, Bruny Island and the tallest trees and magnificent waterfalls in the picturesque Derwent Valley.

We headed down Tasman Peninsula. However we took a wrong turn and were somewhere in Tasmania. Regardless we were on holiday. So we took the opportunity to enjoy the scenery and snapped away.

Before long, we reached the Pirates Bay. We took some photos before moving on to Blowhole and Devil's Kitchen and Tasman Arch (1hr drive).  

Pirates Bay

Blowhole

Devil's Kitchen

Then we drove to Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park before heading down to Port Arthur Historic site.

It was close to 4 pm before we continue our drive to Swansea, East Coast of Tasmania. (2hr drive)

We booked our accommodation at Swansea seaside chalet. It was touted as one facing the sea and with free wifi access. When we checked into our cabin. We found that it was not facing the sea. And for the wifi access it was available at the reception area opened from 9 am to 6 pm. Effectively we were not able to use it... On the bright side, the cabin was clean and smoke free, with 2 portable heaters  - they kept us warm and cosy. We did have 2 good night sleep. (254)

Oh yes, I have to say the seafood here especially oysters were really fat and juicy.

Australia Adventure Dec 2014, 1 Hobart

Dec 6 - The Lim family went onboard the plane in the night after having sushi for dinner. We were in for a movie treat on the plane as the latest Doraemon movie "Stand by Me", was on air. Yippee!

Dec 7 D01 - After a 7-8 hour plane ride, we arrived at Melbourne the next day at around ETA0745hrs, Australian time which was 3 hours ahead of Singapore. We then took a 2 hour connecting flight and arrived at Tasmania, Hobart at ETA1225hrs. It gave us enough time to buy 2 prepaid SIM cards from Telstra at an attractive price of Aus30 after a hefty 50% discount. One for P and one for myself. Hey, we lived in an internet connected world!

We were taken aback when we arrived at Hobart. The temperature was below 15 degree celicus and we were ill-prepared or at least for my boys and I. We only had a thin red patterned red scarf to wrap around for the much needed warmth. (See photo below for a glimpse. Yes, that was the scarf.) Mr Lim, however, whipped out a blue wind breaker and smiled gleefully at our misfortune. He then said to his defence that "I have asked if you would want to have jackets to bring up the planes." Magnanimous, I was. I said my piece that as a family we should look out for one another and rest my peace.

We checked into Argyle Motor Lodge (125) in North Tasmania. Thereafter we made our way to visit Mt Wellington to see sunset. On our way, we did a slight detour to a vineyard to do wine tasting and bought a bottle of Riesling at Aus25 to enjoy in the 3 nights in Tasmania. Due to the persistent shower, the view was obscured but we did enjoy the cool and fresh air up in the mountain.