MELBOURNE TO ADELAIDE

Waking up at 2.30am. on a cold Waikanae morning and catching a shuttle to the Wellington airport at 3.30am. is not my ideal way of starting a holiday but things could only get better I thought. Leaving Wellington at 6am. with the temperature showing 18C we were looking forward to having some warmer weather. Owing to Qantas cancelling our original flight to Melbourne, we had to travel from Wellington via Sydney to Melbourne. Anyone who has experienced travelling from international to the domestic terminal at Sydney airport will understand the turmoil, especially if you have only limited time to get to your next flight. It was total chaos and if we hadn’t jumped the queue we don’t know where we would have ended up. The temp. in Sydney was a pleasant 22C and once we were on board the Melbourne flight the pilot had great delight in telling us that Melbourne was having a very cold winter’s day and the temp. was only 9C!!! It was absolutely freezing. So much for the warmer weather! Stephen picked us up in our Prado and the friends we met in Balina last year were also at the airport to welcome us. It just felt like coming home again. We went and picked up the caravan which was looking good after being under its cover for 6 months and headed out to the Melbourne Airport Caravan Park. We spent the next week getting everything organised and sorting out where everything belonged again. We spent quite a bit of time with Stephen, which was great and on the Friday night we went to the casino to watch the Hurricanes beat the lights out of the Blues. It was a good night.

On Tuesday 5th May we left Melbourne and headed for Ballarat. We knew that most of Victoria was in a state of drought but nothing could have prepared us for the dry barren land we passed on this trip. It was worse than anything we had seen last year. Paddocks with no grass on them at all, only brown dust. There was no stock on any of the farms and even the gum trees have given up the fight to stay alive. I wonder what these farmers would think if they could only see the lovely green grass on NZ farms.
We had stayed in Ballarat in 2001 and we remembered the lovely stately homes around Lake Wendouree so we decided to stay in that area. The first shock came when we pulled up at the caravan park to find it had been closed and was for sale and the second shock was to find that Lake Wendouree was no more. It had completely dried up and was only a large area overgrown with weeds. It had just evaporated with the zero rainfall. I’m sure the value of some of those stately homes have disappeared with the demise of the lake. Ballarat was know as the “garden city” but the gardens have all disappeared tool We had intended staying 3 days in Ballarat but it was so cold we cut our stay short by a day and moved onto Hall’s Gap in the Grampians.

This little town at the foot of the Grampians is the centre of the Grampian National Park. It reminded us of St. Arnauds in the Nelson Lakes region of the South Island.
It is totally awe
inspiring. There are more than 160 kms of walking tracks in the region varying from easy to very difficult and the surrounding mountains with huge rocky outcrops supply the backdrop that really blew us away. Our caravan park was situated just below part of the range and in the morning when the sun came up and shone on the mountains, it was a sight to behold. We tramped around most of the smaller walks and on the Sunday, Mother’s Day, we decided to climb Mount William, the highest peak in the whole Grampian area. The powers that be made it a bit easier for us by putting in a road to within 2 kms of the summit. It still wasn’t easy. There was a very steep climb to the summit at 1,167 metres but what a view from the top. Magnificent. We nearly gave up a couple of times but just took it a bit easier for a while and it was just exhilarating to get to the top. Many more climbs like that and we will be like mountain goats by the time we get to the end of this trip. We just loved Hall’s Gap for the scenery but also the great people we met there. This was the first camp that most sites had their own camp fire. The people opposite were from South Australia and Tasmania but they were quick to welcome two Kiwis. It’s amazing what a difference a few wines and a camp fire make in the freezing cold. We cooked our dinner on the fire and every time we went out, we would keep our eyes open for wood to bring back to add to the wood pile. The bird and animal life around us is just the best and the sulphur crested cockatoos are everywhere. Jim went out with a few crusts for the birds and they ate out of his hand and were all over his head, shoulders and knees. The kangaroos are all around us and come in and eat up all the scraps and just ignore the humans. The cockatoos are very destructive though and they picked at our rubber matting so much we had to put it away. We were very sad to bid farewell to the Grampians.

We intended to have a stopover between Hall’s Gap and Adelaide but as the road was one of the best we have struck in Australia and the speed limit 110 kms per hour, we decided to press on and drive the 500 kms to Adelaide in one trip. The farmlands in this area were mostly wheat and the paddocks looked a bit greener than they had in Victoria. We were very surprised to see lots of lambs in the paddocks so obviously the farmers don’t expect to get the cold winters here. We booked into a caravan park in the suburb of Mitchum. It is in a valley with lots of maple leaf trees. It is so pretty with all the autumn colours but I’m glad I don’t have to pick up all the leaves. Yesterday we went for a drive to the Fleurieu Peninsula and to Victor Harbour. We drove through lots of vineyards at McLaren Vale and didn’t stop at any. We intend to go up to the Barossa Valley in the next few days and I’m sure there will be some sampling done then. There were some lovely beaches and sea views on the Peninsula and lots of interesting shops, cafes and old hotels.

I intended to get this all done last night but just as I was getting my computer out there was a loud bang and the whole camp was plunged into darkness. I tried reading by torchlight but that wasn’t very satisfactory and after an hour of no computer; no lights and no television we decided to go to bed. It was quite cold and I couldn’t even put my electric blanket on! How we get to rely on home comforts.

We intend having a week in Adelaide and then move onto Port Augusta to begin our trip up the middle of Australia and into the wide blue yonder. I’m not too sure what sort of internet coverage we will get from now on but I will endeavour to keep you as up to date as I can.