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Seven years after our first visit, we headed back to Melbourne Australia to start a two week trip that will include a 10 night road trip around Tasmania.
We flew from Tampa to Denver to SFO to Melbourne. The whole journey took about 28 hours. We booked Economy Plus on United and upgraded to First Class on the first leg at check in. It was some of the worst service we’ve ever had on a flight. The First Class leg to Denver was the worst. The flight attendants served meals, one drink and then sat for the rest of the 4 hour flight. The SFO to Melbourne flight featured two flight attendants who seems to take a joy in ramming into mine and Glenn’s shoulders that were peeking out into the aisle. We both are now having shooting pains due to the repeated hitting. Shockingly, the other flights attendants and passengers had no problem avoiding our shoulders. The worst was at midnight when they slammed into us and then loudly asked if anyone wanted a sandwich. Then, they shined flashlights around the cabin to see who was awake and wanted one. We aren’t looking forward to the flight home.
Otherwise, the flight was uneventful and on time. A few things really helped me:
-
Breathe
Oil. It’s like Vick’s Vapor Rub. I rub a little bit under my nose and it fends
off the congestion I usually get on a long flight.
-
Rose
Hydrating Spray. When my skin started to feel dry, I’d spritz some on my face.
It worked really well.
-
A
small lotion – Also a great tool to fight the dry air.
-
I
got up every couple hours and walked around.
-
I
focused on sleeping a couple hours at a time by watching movies I’d seen
before.
-
Pillow
at the small of my back. This really helped my posture.
Next time, I’ll bring saline eye drops because my eyes got really dry.
We pre-booked Booze Makes History Better Tour. We usually book a walking tour for the afternoon of our arrival if we have an overnight flight to keep us going. This tour covered the main area of downtown. We visited two rooftop bars (Madame Brussel’s), a pop up bar (Park), and a specialty cocktail bar (The Croft Institute).
 |
| The Croft Institute - It's themed after a chemistry lab gone wrong. |
It was very fun. The other 6 guests were all from different areas of Australia so we had fun listening to them compare their different areas of the country. After the tour, we were very tired to headed to bed.
On the 12th, we pre-booked The Great Ocean Road tour. The Great Ocean Road is the world’s largest war memorial. It was built as project for returning servicemen from World War 1 to have something to do when they returned. It’s split into three regions: Surf, Green and Shipwreck.
In the surf region, we stopped at one of the popular surfing beaches in Torquay and enjoyed the scenic drive long the coast.
We stopped to take a photo at the Arch.
We saw koalas. This was a funny part of the tour. On the tour description, it said guaranteed koala sighting. Glenn and I assumed this meant we were going to a refuge or zoo. Nope. We pulled up to a neighborhood, walked up a random road and looked for koalas. We saw three.
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| That blob hanging out where the branch meets the tree is a koala. |
We had a delicious lunch at a Seafood Company in Apollo Bay.
In the Green Area, we went to Melba Gulley for a walk in the rain forest. It is a cool climate rain forest. The temperature dropped as we went further into the forest. It also hailed. We saw the world’s only carnivorous snail and the second largest tree variety – the Mountain Ash strain of eucalyptus.
In the Shipwreck Area, we visited the Twelve Apostles. It was so insanely windy. It had to have been 100 km/hour winds (56 mph).
We also went to Loch Ard Gorge – an incredible area of cliffs and beach.
On the way back to Melbourne, we stopped at a little town for dinner. We found a Vietnamese restaurant. Pho was perfect for the cold day. I'll let Glenn share the story of that dinner on his blog: https://www.yourgastronomyguide.blogspot.com
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