Orlando, Florida, was an example of this.

We left New York on Boxing Day and returned a day before New Years Eve giving us a full three days of tours, rides and theme parks. We decided to spend two days visiting Walt Disney World and the last day visiting NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

Disney World is huge, with four main parks and an additional water park; you need to spend at least a whole day visiting each one. There are even ten day passes available! As we had previously visited Hong Kong Disney Land, which is essentially a combination of Magic Kingdom Park and Animal Kingdom Park, we chose to visit Epcot and Hollywood Studios.

As expected, having visited right in the middle of the holiday season, it was extremely busy with families.

Day 1: Disney World – Epcot

The Epcot theme park was interesting, a lot of sciency rides and attractions; our first was a go at a Segway, which was really fun. Sonya didn’t quite get the hang of it. A lot of the more childish attractions, where actually quite enjoyable, like the Innoventions – Test the Limits Lab, slamming doors and dropping barrels.

One of the main attractions of Epcot, besides the giant Epcot sphere, is the World Showcase. The World Showcase is a section of the park divided up into eleven individual country themed areas, within each were replicas of the country’s most iconic buildings and landmarks, information on history, culture, and many restaurants and small themed rides. Visiting it all used up most of the day, being sunset when we left England, England even featured a replica Beetles band.  The World Showcase did make us want to discover more countries, and this was all while we were already on a holiday.

We finished the night off with some of the edutainment rides, and the Mission Space ride which simulated up to 2.4Gs of g-force. We both left the ride feeling quite queasy. We also had the obligatory photos with Disney characters; Mickey, Pluto, Minnie, Donald and Goofy.

Day 2:  Disney World – Disney’s Hollywood Studios

The second day was spent at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which I thought was a lot more fun. We started the day with a live performance of Beauty and the Beast, while we waited for our Fastpass (Disney’s solution to the enormous queues) time to the Tower of Terror to arrive. As we waited in the queue for Tower of Terror, Sonya started to have childhood flashbacks of the time she cried after the ride; after all, she was only 17. I didn’t know what to expect, thinking it to be more of a horror house, especially after experiencing Disney’s famous pre-ride entertainment. The ride turned out to be a series of ‘high-speed drops’ which left me grinning the whole time all while Sonya had her eye’s closed.

For lunch we shared a giant turkey leg, which at $7 wasn’t too bad value, given Disney’s ridiculous prices. After we visited The Magic of Disney Animation, a live show that gave an insight into the creation of the dragon Mushu from Mulan. The entry and exit to the show had a lot of cool Disney artwork and stills. “A Spectacular Journey into the Movies” was a ride that toured the audience around various movie scenes, some memorable ones being The Wizard of Oz, Casablanca and Indiana Jones. There was a little gallery on the history of Walt Disney, titled One Man’s Dream, which included his achievements and various memorabilia, which was also very interesting.

For the last part of the night, I managed to convince Sonya to queue up for the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster a “high-speed roller coaster”. It was a pain staking 80 minute long line, but the 2 minute ride was all worth the wait, I, again walking out with a cheesy grin. Sonya again had her eyes closed the whole time! And this was confirmed by the ‘memorial’ photo that gets taken during the most intense part of the ride.

Day 3: NASA – Kennedy Space Center

Visiting NASA was just one of those nerdy things I have always wanted to do, I wanted to always view a space shuttle on its launch pad, unfortunately I wasn’t able to do this due to arriving about a fortnight too early (Shuttle Endeavour was due to launch on 8th February 2010, and the shuttle is usually on the launch pad for about one month prior to launch). However, I was not left disappointed.

Kennedy Space Center, located at Cape Canaveral, located roughly 72 kilometers east of Orlando. After talking to our hotel’s tourist information lady, and being informed buses would cost $80 each, we were advised to rent a car. We were extremely lucky being able to rent a car in a days notice, due to the holiday season, we also paid and arm and a leg $135 USD for one day rental). When we casually hopped into the car for the first time, I was presented with a missing steering wheel, while Sonya on the driver’s seat, then it clicked, for that moment we had forgotten the driving sides were reversed to that of Australia. This would be fun we thought. However, Florida was very easy to drive around, as the roads were wide and long, which made things easier. I had left my GPS in New York as I didn’t think we would be driving in Orlando, but the locals were happy to provide directions.

The amazing thing about the Kennedy Space Center, is it is a working site, that huge Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) the tour bus drives past is actually where they ‘mate’ the space shuttle to the rockets, those huge dirt tracks (the Crawlerway) the tour bus drives next to, are the real tracks produced by the crawler-transporters when moving the space shuttle to the launch pad. We where taken to the closest observation platform for the Launch Complex 39 – A and B launch pads, but it was still a fair distance away, though, it was still a good feeling seeing them from afar (minus the shuttles).

One of my highlights was The Apollo/Saturn V Center, it started with a tour through the actual Apollo 11 launch control room which leads to the massive Saturn V rocket. I could have starred at those five F-1 rocket engines for hours, the size was overwhelming. In the Apollo/Saturn V Center you could also touch a real moon rock as well as visit an eerie dark museum which featured the original Apollo 11 space capsule and space suits from various time periods.

The final destination on the bus tour was the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) where International Space Station modules are tested. Unfortunately, it was very quite in the assembly plant as there was nobody working there.

Back at the Kennedy Space Centre park, we got up close and personal with a retired space shuttle, and finished the night visiting the Rocket Garden, a large collection of illuminated rockets.

After a long twelve hour flight from our stopover city, Tokyo, Travis and I found ourselves on the steps of JFK airport. We were tired, smelly (as we hadn’t showered in over 24 hours) and disoriented but that didn’t dampen our excitement at all! There was fresh snow falling from the sky (little did I know at the time this was the calm before the snowstorm) and I was particularly excited, make that ecstatic, about seeing my oldest friend (as in the one I’ve known longest!) Mandi after her almost two year absence from our hometown.

We emerged from the airport and frantically put all the warm winter gear we could find. It was excruciatingly cold that night, and I certainly was not psychologically prepared for the cold weather seeing as though 24 hours earlier, I had been basking in the sun at our annual outdoor office Christmas party.  The taxi ride to Mandi’s apartment was slow. The taxi driver had advised as that it was in his (and our) best interests that he drove slowly so as to avoid a similar fate to two cars which had driven/slid off the road due to the ice.

As we approach Manhattan I recognised for the first time the beautiful Christmas-feeling that Mandi had described to me during our chats and emails.  The streets were covered with snow, Christmas lights lit the busy street and it was just so picturesque.  We found ourselves at Mandi’s apartment in the quaint West Village and after all our hugs and greetings it was quite late already.  Whilst comfortably warm inside we decided to brave the cold to grab some late night dinner (or brunch as Travis and my brains told us) at a diner nearby in the Meat packing district.   The two block walk felt like an adventure (given the novelty of snow and cold) and so we were then rewarded with our first American meal – some yummy American burgers, buffalo wings, disco fries and Oreo milkshakes!

Day 1

We awoke leisurely on Sunday morning, had brunch (I had my first Bloody Mary) and made plans to take a walk through Central Park.  It was so pretty! The park was filled with white snow covered trees, children tobogganing off the slight hills, ice skating rinks, freshly created snowmen.  Not to mention the familiarity of scenes from numerous movies.  We visited a shopping mall near the subway picked up some hot coffee, some delicious macaroons (Bouchon Bakery) and headed back home.

That evening we met up with some of Mandi’s buddies at what I learnt was a speakeasy. Unlike their historical counterparts speakeasies nowadays are legal, sell alcohol legally and have only inherited the exciting underground atmosphere of the Prohibition times.  The speakeasy was located through a backdoor of a small corner-side deli. Upon entering the door we were escorted down two flights of stairs and through what looked like the restaurant’s kitchen.  The restaurant we went to served Mexican cuisine. The decor was amazing.  Dark lighting, big wooden tables.. it felt like we were in a swanky dungeon of some sort (which happened to serve tequila with warm apple cider, on the house!).  Anyway, dinner was fun and our first introduction to the many crazy New York apartment living/hunting/house mate conversations to come…

Day 2

First day of Travis and my self-exploration of Manhattan.  Mandi was working and so we decided to use our newly acquired Metro card to wander around the city.  We ended up walking from 14th St (around where we were staying) uptown to Times Square.  Took us a while as we were consistently distracted by all the people, bustling streets, quirky shops and photo opportunities.  Incidentally, good foot wear is essential during the Winter season and my Perth-bought boots didn’t meet the standard requirements for general footpath walking (no grip).  As a result, I fell down smack bang in the middle of Times Square which was very, very embarrassing.  Lucky my coat was black.   After Times Square (stopping to eat some breakfast at Maxines – bagel, cream cheese and smoked salmon for me!) we headed to the Rockefella Center to enjoy the views of the city.  On our way, we passed Radio City Music Hall, some giant Christmas baubles and various other New York things. Might I add we also ensured we visited all the uniquely American stores such as American Eagle, Old Navy, Urban Outfitters, Macy’s, Bloomingdales, etc.

That evening we caught up with Mandi and walked around The West Village, passing through some interesting sites including the Carrie’s Sex in the City apartment, SJP’s real apartment, Washington Square and various other famous people’s apartments.  We had pizza at nice little Italian restaurant (the mozzarella cheese was yum!) and then sampled some very unique desserts at Momofuku (the milk bar). We had:

• cereal milk™ icecream
• compost cookie™ – pretzels, potato chips, coffee, oats, butterscotch, chocolate chips
• crack pie™ – toasted oat crust, gooey butter filling

New York has everything!!

Day 3

We dedicated this day to general site seeing once again (since M was working – her last day).  Took the subway downtown to Ground Zero site (not much there), walked down Broadway, past City Hall towards Wall St.  Visited Tiffany & Co on Wall St and walked all the way around to the Statten Island Ferry Terminal. We decided to skip the Statten Island Ferry and go to Liberty Island instead (so walked further on to the next port) to see the Statue upon which we realised the line was gigantum! It was cold but we decided to do it anyway. Twenty four dollars later we were waiting in the queue (which was at least 500 m long) eating our all-American hotdog (with sauerkraut and mustard) and freezing our fingers off.  We finally boarded the Ferry and took a pleasant boat ride over to Liberty Island. Usual touristy stuff, photos. Met a friendly Columbian guy who seemed to be travelling alone.

On the way back we decided to walk up 6th Avenue. Stopped by a burger joint where I had the smallest burger I have ever seen (it was called a mini burger) so as not to disrupt my appetite.  Lucky for that because late that night M took us to dinner at Boka, a Korean restaurant in St Mark’s which specialises in fried chicken (Bon Chon chicken) – really delicious! We had a couple of dishes of that, some soju and after a satisfying night out, headed home.

Day 4

Christmas Eve. We started the day by taking the subway to Brooklyn. Since we were there, Mandi decided to introduce us to Brooklyn’s most famous Pizzeria, Grimaldi’s. It was so delicious! Definitely some of the best pizza I have ever tasted, the base was just so tasty. Highly recommended. We were lucky to arrive with only a 2 minute wait but when we left there was a 30 minute line!

After pizza we headed towards the Brooklyn Bridge to cross it.  This was fun but freezing!! Took lots of ‘creative’ photos. Upon reaching Manhattan Island we started walking towards Chinatown.  I could smell the Chinese food before I could see it! The streets were lined with markets selling I love NY shirts, designer perfumes (which look and are said to be genuine but at a fraction of the price), all sorts of jewellery, knock of handbags and other knick knacks.  We wandered around for a while and then explored some of the other cultural areas (Little Italy, Little Korea) around the area.  Before heading back to Mandi’s we checked out American Apparel & Top Shop.

That night we went to an All you can Eat Brazilian BBQ Cuisine. Churrascaria Plataforma. The restaurant was $60 per head and offered all sorts of BBQ meats and Brazilian side dishes, a buffet including fresh sushi and salad.  Needless to say I was extremely full afterwards!

Christmas Day

We spent the morning planning to visit museums. Whilst we didn’t make it to the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), we somehow ended up at the Museum of Sex (nothing particularly interesting I thought), had lunch at a pizza bar, then Travis and I wandered to the New York Public Library, took some photos and walked up Fifth Ave and visited the Apple Store.

That evening, we made a scrumptious dinner (well M did most of the cooking whilst I played kitchen hand/table setter) at M’s apartment.. pork belly, stuffing, roast vegetables, roast duck (courtesy of a shop in Chinatown) and pecan pie for dessert.  A couple of visiting friends from Oz joined as did M’s work colleague.. it was a fun evening with lots of laughs.. much of it related to the horrid BeanBoozled jelly beans.  Braving the cold, we later decided to go to Sing Sing Karaoke bar in St Marks for a few tunes.

Boxing Day

Now looking back I really cannot recall exactly what we did Boxing Day. Sometime between Christmas and Boxing Day Mandi and I went to yum cha by ourselves while Travis slept in and we also went to the MoMA where we caught up with Amy and Kim (friends from Oz).  MoMA was amazing.. and huge. We barely managed to see half of the exhibitions so decided we would visit the museum again the following week.

And one night we also had dinner at the famous Carnegie Deli where Travis had the shockingly huge corned beef sandwich and I had a tasty potato knish.

On the night of the 26th we left for Orlando for a short 3 day trip…hoping to escape the cold!

On exiting the station we were greeted with a very cold and lethargic Tokyo, perhaps it was due to being an early Saturday morning. After a bit of mindless wandering around we found an information centre that suggested we try SkyBus Tokyo (Tokyo’s open-top double-decker tour bus). After a lunch of Ramen noodles (how could we not have eaten one of Japan’s cultural icons) we hopped onto the tour bus.

The tour provided a 45 minute view of all of Tokyo’s important buildings, shopping and business areas and beautiful parks. We were even provided with English audio headsets that provided information along the route. The tour was a good choice with our time constraints and gave us a taste of how large Tokyo is. It would be really good to get to know the city in the future.

After the tour and with our new bearings we walked towards the old Imperial Palace passing Wadakura Fountain Park on the way. After a few photos we headed back to Tokyo Station and back to Narita airport.

Lets start with the planned flight path.

The cosy, family run restaurant in Mt Hawthorn was our first introduction to Balkan food. Given that Travis and I had been there once before, this time round we thought we would try the mixed platter for two which consisted of samples of a variety of dishes:

cevaps – grilled rolls of beef minced meat
pljeskavica – veal meat patty flavoured with salt, onions and peppers
kobasice – smoked grilled, pork and beef sausage
shishcevaps – grilled rolls of spicy minced beef and
raznjici – skewers with cubes of chicken meat.

The platter was served with some homemade bread, dips and a salad – more than enough food for the two of us, particularly as our table had also ordered garlic bread and lepina (air dried beef and homemade bread) for starters.

Our friends ordered pizza, burek (layers of pastry filled with meat or other filling) and sarma (minced beef meat, rice, onions, herbs and various spices mixed together then rolled into large cabbage leaves).

Overall consensus was that the food was enjoyable, abundant (dishes were extremely huge!) and we were all simply very full post consumption. While we didn’t have desserts this time, we did try the baklava on our first visit which was delicious but the small slice didn’t quite satisfy my appetite for the sweet pasty!!

I resorted to trusty eBay which immediately resulted in plenty of hits, but these seller were all overseas and with many specifically stating ‘will not post to Australia’. However, there was one seller selling five portions of miracle fruit granules at about $17 AUD including postage (from reading; a single berry goes for about $2 US in the states). I immediately purchased and now it was just a matter of waiting for it to arrive.

It arrived concealed as a letter with a small quantity of miracle fruit granule hidden inside. Before arranging the picnic, I tried a small sample with a lemon as a tester. It seemed to work. Next I arranged a surprise picnic with Sonya, but didn’t mention the miracle fruit, which caused her to be quite confused. Now it was time to go shopping, I briefly researched some foods that worked well and others I thought would work well, on the list were:

• lemons
• tomatoes
• cocktail onions
• gherkins
• salt and vinegar chips
• goat’s cheese
• Guinness (a dark beer)
• tequila

I packed up the picnic set, and then we headed to Perth’s Kings Park. As we walked towards an ideal spot I briefed Sonya on Flavor Tripping, she wasn’t quite sure about it yet. Luckily I brought a print out of the miracle fruit Wikipedia page, which once reading the effects of turning sour foods sweet, was all excited to try it.

We both took a small portion of the granules and swirled it around our tongues. Sonya made the mistake of swallowing a little too early. After a minute or so and some more granules we began food tastings.

We started with lemons to confirm everything was working, and it was, as the lemons tasted like candied lemons dipped in sugar. We moved on to cocktail onions and gherkins, which were difficult to decipher as the cocktail onions now tasted like sweet brown pickled onions and the gherkins the sweeter bread-and-butter pickles variety. What we then realised was that we should have done a control tasting before consumption of the miracle fruit.

The tomato was an interesting choice that turned out well. Chosen due to its natural acidic taste, consumed after miracle fruit, the tomato could justify its botanical classification of being a fruit as it turned extremely sweet. From fruits and vegetables we moved to the salt and vinegar chips. I am not sure why no other flavour tripping parties had any mention of these, as I thought it was a much better idea than drinking a shot of vinegar. Sonya, a big fan of salt and vinegar chips in their unmodified form, wasn’t happy when the vinegar was missing, complaining they tasted like the original variety. I thought they tasted like salted sweet potato chips.

Having consumed a large amount of foods, it was time to crack open the can of Guinness. This one was one of my favs. Guinness tasted pretty much like lolly water, and Sonya, not usually a fan of Guinness found it very easy to drink. Our final food was goat’s cheese which I had read tasted like cheesecake. Sonya thought it did, describing it as a creamy cheesecake; I wasn’t too sure, not liking the taste.

Finally we had a little bit of tequila. This one was also an interesting one, it did taste nicer, which was a surreal feeling given it still had the strong alcoholic smell and burned on the way down. The fact that we were drinking tequila in broad daylight in a public park probably also helped on the surreal feelings.

The miracle fruit experiment was an interesting experience both enjoyed by Sonya and I.  It was also an interesting experience having a sour themed picnic, with passers by wondering why we had a plate of lemons.

I wouldn’t mind trying to grow a miracle fruit plant and hosting a flavour tripping party with real berries. From what I have read though it is at least 2-3 years for a plant to develop fruit from seedlings, and a 25% rate of seed germination, well, best start early then.

• travelled a total of 8248 kilometres.
• filled a total of 1106 litres of fuel.
• averaging 13.4 litres per 100 kilometres.
• average price of fuel was 115.6 cents per litre.
• spent a total of $2094.
• travelled a period of 16 days.

and a quick pie chart of our expenses.

Day 1: Great Ocean Road drive (Melbourne – Geelong – Apollo Bay – Port Campbell)

We left Melbourne on the morning of 4th January to start our long journey back to Perth. Our first stop was Urquhart Bluff where we stopped to have lunch. Urquhart Bluff, located 200m above sea level gave us a nice view of the beaches while we enjoyed lunch.

Continuing along Great Ocean Road we stopped at the Split Point Lighthouse overlooking Airey’s Inlet. After the lighthouse, we came across a more official overpass signage for the Great Ocean Road, naturally we stopped to take more photos of the sign and the statues. The Great Ocean Road is as you would expect a great road that follows the ocean. The 243km road is interesting for the first hour, but after a while the scenery becomes repetitive and the bends inconvenient. A journey that should only take a little over two hours turns into an over six hour ordeal, and for us the whole day.

Some of the interesting things on the way were some koalas in the trees on the side of the road which were quite an attraction; we also managed to catch the Twelve Apostles before sunset. The Twelve Apostles have been highly touristized to the extent of making accommodation extremely difficult to find in nearby Port Campbell. That night we set up tent on the town’s recreation oval, but at least it was free.

Day 2: Port Campbell – Warrnambool – Portland – Mount Gambier – Kingston – Victor Harbor

Our first stop for the day were two arches; The Arch and London Arch, both natural arches formed by the erosion of limestone, followed by two bays; Bay of Martyrs and Bay of Islands. The end of Great Ocean Road brought us to the large town of Warrnambool. As we drove around we found an interesting sign ‘Granny’s Grave’ which we found out was the grave of the first white woman buried in Warrnambool.

We reached Mount Gambier early in the afternoon and were greeted by the Lady Nelson; a sail ship at the entrance to the visitor’s centre. After gathering more tourist information we headed to Kingston, famous for the Big Lobster (which apparently was For Sale). We continued north along the coast, passing a number of salt lakes heading towards Wellington. As we reached Wellington we abruptly arrived at Murray River and were a little confused to the lack of bridge. It then clicked when we saw the car ferry approaching from the other side. It was quite an interesting experience, the ferry even managed to fit a road train besides us.

Realising we were quite late if we wanted to get to Victor Harbor that day, we hastily drove nonstop for the rest of the day.

Day3: Adelaide (Victor Harbor – Adelaide)

We planned to give ourselves a whole day to spend walking around Adelaide, which gave us a lot more time to enjoy things. We arrived in Adelaide a little after 9am and starting walking down King William St, through Rundle Mall towards the cultural boulevard of North Terrace. Walking along Adelaide’s streets we stumbled upon many statues, sculptures, memorials and interesting buildings. In the town hall we saw a statue of Queen Adelaide, along Rundle Mall we met bronze pigs, and towards North Terrace the South Australia National War Memorial.

On the North Terrace are situated the Art Gallery of South Australia, South Australian Museum and the University of Adelaide all magnificent Victorian style buildings. We briefly visited the Art Gallery, and then walked though the University of Adelaide’s buildings towards Torrens River. As we walked along the river, Sonya enjoyed photographing the wildlife, particularly the ducks (she he has an abnormal fascination with ducks). By accident whilst heading back down Frome Road we stumbled upon Adelaide’s Botanical Garden.

The botanical Garden was the highlight of Adelaide for me, there were a ridiculous amount of plant varieties, unfortunately we didn’t get to see them all. there were plants with weird seed pods, a green house featuring the giant Amazon Waterlily and plenty of roses in the National Rose Trial Garden. As we exited the gardens we came upon the National Wine Centre, not surprising as Adelaide is famous for its vinification. The National Wine Centre has an exhibition area with information of grape varieties, viticulture and all other things associated with wine making.

We left Adelaide in the early afternoon and after a little over four hours of driving, reaching Port Augusta where we camped. That night was the windiest night we had experienced, I couldn’t get much sleep as the tent flapped and I worried it would blow away.

Day4: Port Augusta – Whyalla – Wudinna – Port Kenny – Ceduna

On the way to Whyalla we stopped at three Geocaches, which were all a short distance from the main road, one did require the crossing of train tracks though.

Whyalla greeted us with the HMAS Whyalla J153 at the entrance to the Whyalla Maritime Museum, after a number of pictures with the ship we continued towards Cowell. Cowell is known for its farming of Pacific Oysters, so naturally we had to purchase some for lunch ($5 for half a dozen). One of the more interesting Geocaches was the old Mindrow Creek School located about 10km from Cowell on the Birdseye Highway. The school was opened in 1918 and was in use for twenty years. We decided to have lunch at Cleve a small agriculture town.

Towards Streaky Bay from Port Kenny are interesting shaped rocks, known as Murphy’s Haystacks. The name arrived due to initially being thought to be hay stacks from afar; the peculiar shaped lip is due to the strong winds blowing from only one direction. South West of Streaky Bay between Corvisart Bay and Sceale Bay is Westall Way Loop Drive, which is a scenic drive that follows the coast and provides access to a number of beaches and natural features. In order of arrival to these were High Cliff, the Dreadnoughts and the Granites. The Granites are a rocky coastline with areas of small pools.

From Streak Bay we drove to Ceduna where we camped overnight.

Day 5: Nullarbor Return (Ceduna -  Point Sinclair – Koonalda – Balladonia)

The unfortunate thing about the Nullarbor is that there is really not much to see, and if you have been through there once, you have pretty much seen it all. Unfortunately, this day of driving marked our return trip across the Nullarbor. To break the driving up, I tried to stop at as many Geocaches as possible (Sonya wasn’t quite so happy about this), and we would take the time to travel away from the Eyre Highway which did bring us to some very nice spots which we would have normally never found.

Heading towards Point Sinclair (about 20kms of the main Eyre Highway), we came across an interesting salt lake known as Red Lake, as the name suggests, the lake was red in colour. What was further interesting was that across the Panong to Point Sinclair road was Lake MacDonnell which was your normal looking blue colour. Unfortunately, the Geocache at Point Sinclair had been muggled (broken into by the non-Geocaching public, if you needed to read this, that would be you).

From Point Sinclair we travelled towards the heart of the Nullarbor National Park another Geocache took us to Koonalda Homestead, an abandoned sheep station and road house situated on the Old Eyre Highway. The surrounds of the homesteads served as a graveyard for cars that couldn’t make it all the way across the Nullarbor, there were many vintage Holdens and Fords, which presented nice photo opportunities. I wanted to go into the buildings but Sonya wouldn’t let me. The whole area was quite spooky.

The rest of the day we spent making headway, finding two more Geocaches and again crossing the “Australia’s Longest Straight Road”. We arrived after sunset in Balladonia and had a very simple and quick dinner of corn, tuna, rice and packet soup. Note to fellow campers, the rice was a mistake as it took an extremely long time to cook.

That day we travelled over 1000km taking a little over 12 hours. The advantage of driving east to west is every days worth of driving you gain about 30 mins more before sunset.

Day6: Balladonia – Norseman – Esperance

We woke up early, ready to drive to Esperance, I initially wanted to take a little shortcut onto the gravel Balladonia Road, but after driving about 14km taking about 14 minutes we decided that it was too risky for our car, especially given it was supposed to get a lot worse further on. After wasting about one hour, we got back on the Eyre Highway and headed to Norseman.

In Norseman we searched for a Geocache on Beacon’s Hill, it took as a little time to find the correct road with most of the roads being private mine site roads. A little from Norseman near Bromus Dam we found another Geocache. There was a spider web with spider above the location of the Geocache which Sonya was quite scared off. From there it was non-stop to Esperance where we arrived a little after lunch giving us plenty of time to explore the surrounding areas.

For the first time we set up camp early in the day, had a very cruisy lunch next to our tent, and then headed out to Cape Le Grand National Park. Cape Le Grand is 56km east of Esperance and features some of the nicest looking beaches. Once in the national park the predominant Frenchman Peak catches your eye as your begin to approach the park. We arrived at the base of the peak; a sign stated it was a two hour return journey to the top, so we decided to give it a miss.

We decided to spend the rest of the day exploring the beaches, first was famous Lucky Bay, which as per photos had amazingly white sand and blue water. From there we drove a little to Rossiter Bay which was a let down as the beach was covered in seaweed. We drove back past Lucky Bay to Thistle Cove; the beach had an interesting mix of rocks and sand. Finally we drove to Le Grand Beach passing some kangaroos along the way.

That evening for our last dinner we had steak, a side of pasta and salad, not too shabby at all.

Day 7: Esperance – Ravensthorpe – Hyden – Perth

We packed up the tent for the last time and left Esperance towards The Great Ocean Drive, (Western Australia’s version of Victoria’s Great Ocean Road, not the subtle naming difference). By now I was in Geocache crazy mode and the only reason I was keen on this drive was that my GPS was showing four Geocaches around the area.

Our first stop was Rotary Lookout, while Sonya took photos from the lookout, I went into the bushes (to search for the Geocache). The next Geocache was on a hill next to Twilight Bay. Again while Sonya photographed the beautiful beach, I went in search of the Geocache. We had a brief stop at Observatory Point, which gave us nice views of the smaller islands, unfortunately no Geocaches was near. From Observatory Point we headed to Ten Mile Lagoon Wind Farm, I think this was our third or fourth wind farm on the trip. However, it was better then the others as we could go right up to the tower. Coincidently, there was a Geocache right next to the tower as well. From there we continued on the Great Ocean Drive loop which headed back to Esperance, passing Pink Lake, which wasn’t pink at all.

We left Esperance at a little after 10am, Esperance to Perth is about a 700km journey, meaning it would take roughly eight hours. We had a few stops along the way with the main one being to visit the famous Wave Rock in Hyden. We left Wave Rock disappointed, maybe it was the heat or maybe the travelling had finally worn us down.

We reached Perth at 7pm, on arrival we washed, waxed and buffed the Tucson before returning it to Sonya’s dad.

The holiday was a great adventure, and it turns out that crossing the Nullarbor is extremely easy. There are a few things we would have done differently, with the main one being more time. The allowance of two and a half weeks was simply not enough to view and appreciate the Australian landscape. Secondly, a decent 4WD is also required if you want to not be confined by the bitumen roads. I am sure we will cross the Nullarbor again someday.

I must note that Travis had installed some GPS software on his laptop so it was like being a control room in the passenger seat on the drive over. Not only that, we also had an FM transmitter connected to the laptop so that we could listen to our mp3’s through the car stereo, and a number of battery chargers hanging out of the car’s charger.

Anyway, we used the GPS software to navigate to Travis’ Aunt and Uncle’s house, whom we were staying with, which was surprisingly very easy to get to. Upon our arrival Travis’ Aunt fed us with some delicious rice and curry and his Uncle provided us with some great stories.

Day 1 (New Years Eve)

New Years Eve. We decided to explore the city so we took a train there and wondered around. We walked. South Bank. Crown Casino. Federation Square. Bourke Street. China Town. And walked. To the Melbourne Library. Art Gallery. All the usual spots. Feet were very tired, especially having gotten used to all the sitting in the car over the past five days. By late afternoon, we headed back to Travis’ Aunt and Uncle’s place as we were to go to a NYE party with Travis’ cousin Cindy and boyfriend. The party was at an apartment in the city and that night we counted down, watched the fireworks and had a few drinks – it was fun! Thanks to Cindy and Jake for taking us out :)

Day 2 (New Years Day)

The morning of day two was recovery from the night before. By midday, everyone had slowly woken up and it was decided that we would go on a drive to the Dandenongs. A big group of us, consisting of relatives and friends went on the drive. We stopped in Little India and had some food. We ate chicken biryani, prawn curry, dahl, chapatis and sampled a variety of sweets and Indian icecream, kulfi.

Day 3

On Day 3 we met up with Travis’ cousin Priya and friends Jo & Dan (who were visiting from New Zealand) for a day at the zoo. Melbourne Zoo was like any other really, but it was funny taking photos with all the animals and eating unhealthy zoo food such as greasy chips. Whilst the rest of the crew went shopping, T and I decided we would brave the new Melbourne Southern Star, a giant observation Ferris wheel 120m high in Docklands. Apparently it was found to have structural problems and was shut down soon after we visited it!

That evening we drove to Clayton to meet with my Godmother and some of her visiting friends (who were also from Perth). We had ‘make your own Korean Barbeque’, which was the first time for me. It was delicious! After we went for coffee at a suburban shopping/cafe precinct which was buzzing with people. My navigational skills led us to taking an extremely convoluted route returning home that night – including spending an unnecessary $12 for going through the tollway.

Day 4

Our last day in Melbourne was quite relaxed. We thought we would visit the sites which we had missed in the vicinity of the city. We were rather touristy and took the tourist bus with our first stop at the Royal Exhibition Building. Such a marvellous looking building! Next door was the Melbourne Museum which we spent a few hours wandering through. It had so many exhibits – wish we could have stayed for longer.

From the museum we walked along to Lygon Street scouting a place to eat. After much deliberation we ended up in the Greek Precinct eating lamb souvlakis – it was a great way to end the day!

That night, Travis’ uncle and aunt organised a dinner for all the extended family. There was so much delicious food, it was a pleasure for the eyes and the stomach. That evening the “younger” generation decided to hit the town for some Melbourne nightlife. We headed to Chapel Street and stopped first at the Electric Lady Lounge for some drinks. It was an extremely packed bar so I wasn’t able to appreciate it’s deco. But, from what I remember there was an interesting drawing of a semi nude female, taken in a very artistic manner, of course! ;) We decided to go for a bit of a boogie and found ourselves at Club 161, it was very modern and luxe.. with a huge staircase leading up to it. We danced ourselves until our feet were sore & voices were hoarse.

The following morning, Travis and I said our goodbyes to all the people that had made our trip to Melbourne so memorable, his aunts, uncles, grandma and lovely cousins.. and headed towards the Great Ocean Road.

So why did we chose to spend our holidays driving for over 11 days? Well, we wanted an inexpensive holiday, and during the peak Christmas and New Years period flights are actually about the same as the cost of driving (which is mostly the cost of fuel). The poor Australian dollar meant overseas holidays looked less attractive, and the fuel prices were actually coming down. But the main reasons were it gave us an interesting experience, the opportunity to see a lot of Australia we had never seen before and an opportunity to catch-up with friends and relatives in Melbourne.

Having camped before, we had a better idea of what to bring and what not too, though we still forgot some key items. As much as I tried to convince Sonya to take my Holden Gemini (are car almost my age), for some reason she preferred her dad’s Hyundai Tucson (a semi four-wheel-drive).

We started our journey on Boxing Day morning aiming to travel roughly 750kms a day, or about 7 to 8 hours.

Day 1: Perth – Northam – Kalgoorlie – Norseman

Northam was the first country town 97km north of Perth, and merely served as our first Geocache of our trip. We stopped a little of the main road and found Northam Vista, a scenic lookout. From Northam to Kalgoorlie we followed the famous Goldfields Pipeline, a 530km pipeline originally constructed in1903 to supply water to Kalgoorlie.  Along the way we had the opportunity to stop at the original Cunderdin pumping station, No 3 out of 8 original pumping stations now converted to a museum.

Kalgoorlie is a famous gold mining town and on arrival we immediately went to view The Super Pit, basically, a 294,700,000 m³ hole in the ground. The town of Kalgoorlie was formed in 1893 with the finding of gold by the famous Paddy Hannan,  we walked down the main street (Hannan St), taking photos of the old buildings and photos next to Paddy Hannan (a memorial).

From Kalgoorlie we travelled to Norseman and arrived there during sunset, where we camped at a caravan park overnight.

Day 2: Norseman – Balladonia – Eucla (- Border Village – Eucla)

Norseman marked the start of the long hours driving and towns that consisted of no more than a hotel and fuel station. On the outskirts of Norseman we picked up a nice Geocache Buldania Rocks which was a little from the main road.

One of the most unusual features of the roads on the Eyre Hwy was large zebra crossings that seemed to exist in the most arid areas. These marked the occurrence of Emergency Landing strips for the Royal Flying Doctors Service. Sonya and I had some fun taking photos of us crossing these zebra crossings.

Reaching Balladonia, a ‘town’ made famous by the re-entry of the Skylab Space Station, it marked the start of Australia’s longest straight road at 146.6km. Fortunately, there was a Geocache along the way to allow us to both stop, and at the end of the Straight we reached the town of Caiguna. A little more driving (392km) we reached Eucla. Unsure if we wanted to stay the night in Eucla we drove through the Western Australia / South Australia border to a town rightly names Border Village.

On arrival in Border Village we realised we made the wrong decision and turned back around to Eucla having to pass through the Western Australia customs which took our 2 lemons and 2 onions. After setting up the tent we decided to visit the old Eucla Telegraph Station opened in 1877 and formed the initial town site of Eucla. There and on the way back we managed to see many kangaroos giving Sonya the opportunity to take many photos.

Day 3: The Nullarbor (Eucla – Ceduna – Streaky Bay)

After passing the WA/SA border for the third time, we drove along the Eyre Highway with the Nullarbor National Park on one side and the Great Australian Bight on the other. Even though all the driving is done through the hot, arid Nullarbor Plain, there are about half a dozen stops along the Great Australian Bight with magnificent ocean and cliff face views.

About 200km from Eucla, we reached the Nullarbor Roadhouse, another fuel station in the middle of nowhere. A little further east we reached the Head of the Bight, as the name suggests, this is the tip of the Great Australian Bight.  At the Head of the Bight there were some stunning rock faces and vertical cliffs (though not quite as nice as photography stop 4 along the way).

Driving further south, past Fowlers Bay, we reached the lovely small town of Penong. Penong is famous for its windmills, which there where plenty of. Sonya and I both enjoyed taking lots of photos of the iconic Australian structures.

We passed through Ceduna, and through large fields of yellow, which we worked out were Canola (Sonya takes full credit). After taking a number of photos near the fields, we finally reached our final destination Streaky Bay just before sunset. Streaky Bay, by far had the nicest caravan park, with the camping area located on the edge of the beach, pity about the overcast weather that day.

Day 4: The Gawler Ranges (Streaky Bay – Clare)

This day was made up of an event that Sonya and I (but mostly Sonya) will never forgot, the Gawler Ranges. The day started out like any other day, from Streaky Bay we drove to Minnipa the entrance to the Gawler Ranges National Park, Sonya was craving some real Australian country, and naively suggested we visit the Gawler Ranges Nation Park. How lovely we thought, I’m sure it we be just like Yanchep National Park back home. We entered park from Wudinna, along Barns Road, through the self-serve entrance station.

Reaching the Old Paney Scenic T-junction, we made a (bad) decision to drive around a little 43km loop, which would start to the left and end back on the right, while passing through Kolay Hut. We realised it would be a 4WD track, but didn’t realise there would be little or no track, predominately large rocks, something our Hyundai Tucson wasn’t really designed for. The drive started of well with a slow but relatively easy drive down the Turkey Flat Track, from there as we drove towards Kolay Hut; we ascended up and around Mt Fairview.

At one point track disappeared to just rocks and I needed to get out of the car to see which way to go, Sonya was about to break down in tears. The rest of the journey was painfully slow, I would count down each km we had to go, taking about 10 mins per each km. Finally, we reached the 2WD track again to our relief, and arrived at the shearing shed where we had a well earned break and took some photos.

We exited the Gawler Ranges through Buckleboo Road, which took us to the town of Kimba. Kimba is famous for two things; the Big Galah and being the town on the Eyre Highway that is ‘Halfway Across Australia’ both witch are located at the same spot. Travelling further East and passing through Iron Knob (famous for iron ore), we reached Port Augusta.  Port Augusta is a fairly large town located at the head of the Spencer Gulf. We decided to skip Adelaide, favouring to see it on the way back when we travelled along the coast from Melbourne, so we travelled a little inland along Main North Road which would eventually  lead us to some of Australia’s best wine regions; Clare Valley and then further south the  famous Barossa Valley.

We did plan the stop at Barossa Valley, but having spent fair too many hours in the Gawler Ranges, we could only reach the town of Clare and being after sunset we decided to stay at a motel for the night.

Day 5:  Barossa Valley - Murray Bridge – Ballarat – Melbourne

We woke up earlier than normal as we had to do a large amount of driving as we didn’t reach our intended destination the night before. From Clare Valley we headed to Barossa Valley with the intent of stopping at Penfolds (producers of Australia’s most famous wine).

We took some photos in front of the Penfolds building, and wandered inside. It was evident how commercial Penfolds had become with the large range of branded items. Penfolds is also bloody expensive, but they had a nice sale so we picked up three of their cheaper varieties.

With not enough time to follow all the wineries on the wine trails, Sonya suggested we stop at Jacob’s Creek. We tasted a number of their wines and took some photos near the vineyard. From Barossa Valley we headed straight to Ballarat with minimum stops along the way.

Ballarat is a about 100kms north-west of Melbourne, originally formed during the Victorian gold rush. We arrived around sunset which gave us enough time to walk down the main street snapping photos of the buildings and monuments. When it was too dark we finally made our way to Melbourne.