Guest Andy Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Hi guy's Just a quick update from our trip so far, We flew with Quantas from Heathrow to Sydney with an hour stop over in Bankok, the flights were fina even a bit better than expected although i was pretty uncomftable being quite a big lump, the rest of the family were fine though and the flight crew were great. We then had to fly from Sydney to Adelaide which was tough after such a long first flight but the scenery from the plane over oz made up for that. We then stayed in a hotel in Adelaide called the Grand Chancellor on Hindley which was very central and fine. We had a quiet couple of first days just sleeping and exploring the city which is beautiful especiall;y by the river Torrens and the cricket ground. We then picked up the motor home from Apollo and stayed at our first big 4 site which was in Adelaide shore's, nice site with loads of amenities but we did not use any as we were busy sorting the motorhome out then we done some shopping and it was then time for :SLEEP:. Today we have driven down to Port Elliot and spent the day at Victor Harbour which is a nearby town which is stunning with a long jetty out to an island where penguins live, also their is a whale museum and loads of other stuff going on. We are now the Port Elliot site which is fantastic and right on a stunning beach, i have bought a couple of rods and me and my 2 lads are going fishing in a short while. The weather was hot on Saturday and Sunday, chilly yesterday and sunny but windy today so a bit of a mixed bag :cool:. My thoughts so far for what they are worth, Australia from the tiny part we have seen is stunning and the landscape is awesome. The cost of stuff is very expensive IF you buy in small outlets in the city and in restraunts, for instance you will be charged $4 for a litre of water, $3.50 for a mars bar and $3.75 for a can of coke, although today we had a very reasonable meal in Victor Harbour for $70 for 5 of us including drinks. The key we reckon if you want to save money is shop in the supermarket, we went and done a big shop in Woolworhts and we reckon it's the same as in England, for example you could buy 48 cans of real coke for $36 which is something like :cool: 80 cents a can so really good value if you buy in bulk and meat and fruit and veg also seem pretty reasonable. The big thing we have noticed so far in our short time though is how friendly the Australians have been, they cannot wait to have a chinwag and are very polite and incredibly helpful. Update in a few days :wubclub: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shirleyt Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Glad your having a good time, keep us posted! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest16631 Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 ..................so pleased its all you thought it was so far................good luck on the fishing............hope you catch something you can eat.!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BackToAdelaide Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 We'll be there soon too as my parents live in Port Elliot and we're staying with them for the first couple of weeks Just thought I'd mention there's a great little place just outside Victor Harbour called Urimbirra Wildlife Experience. It's not as big as the more famous Cleland Wildlife Park but it's so easy to get to from where you are and they have a good range of animals including kangaroos, wallabies, koalas (my avatar picture was taken at the park!), dingoes, crocodiles, echidnas, emus and other birds. You can pat the koalas if you go at the right time too More information here http://www.southaustralia.com/info.aspx?id=9000031 As for food, if you're missing a good roast the Hotel Victor does a good carvery and I like the stone baked pizza place on the seafront at Encounter Bay. I also love the Port Elliot Bakery. Mmmmm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Great to hear you have arrived safely. Try and chill these first few weeks as it takes a while to get over the jet lag. Did you sign yourself up as Big 4 members? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockola57 Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Keep on Truckin' Andy!Have the time of your life mate.All the best me 'arl Mukka!:wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackboots Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 happy Holidays !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saz Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Glad you are enjoying your time so far. Look forward to reading more of your posts. Have a great holiday :yes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Andy Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 Great to hear you have arrived safely. Try and chill these first few weeks as it takes a while to get over the jet lag. Did you sign yourself up as Big 4 members? Yep 10% off everything :yes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Andy Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 Hi all, So we then left Port Elliot and headed for Robe, the drive took us about 4 hours although we did take an unplanned detour after the sat nav sent us the wrong way, or it could have been the wife :biggrin:, anyway when you get to the Murray river in Ashville you have to cross by ferry which was very exciting for the kids, and free by the way, we also stopped in a town called Strathalbyne for mid morning brunch. The drive around that kind of penisular is a bit tricky and easy to go wrong but once you hit Meningie the drive onward to Robe is easy with straight roads and beautiful scenery for about 200k. Robe itself is another lovely town with a fantastic beach and plenty to see and do. The big 4 site like the others so far is really good, everything is so clean and the shower and toilet facilities are the best i have seen by a mile and at on average about $50 a night for a powered site you cant go wrong imo. We are crashing out at about 9 oclock in the evenings as we have all been knackered especially as we like to be back on the road at 8am. This morning we drove from Robe up to Mt Gambia for a butchers at the blue lake and then we drove onwards to Port Fairy where we are now which again has everything we need. We have been swimming today also had an hours fishing in the port and are now going to play crazy golf :cute:. See ya Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toolbox Posted October 27, 2011 Share Posted October 27, 2011 Glad your all enjoying it mate, sounds great, looking forward to getting down there myself sometime. By the way... thanks for your company on sunday... it was great to get out and have a beer and a natter with some like minded blokes like yourself and roc :wubclub: Put the world right did'nt we :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Andy Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 We'll be there soon too as my parents live in Port Elliot and we're staying with them for the first couple of weeks Just thought I'd mention there's a great little place just outside Victor Harbour called Urimbirra Wildlife Experience. It's not as big as the more famous Cleland Wildlife Park but it's so easy to get to from where you are and they have a good range of animals including kangaroos, wallabies, koalas (my avatar picture was taken at the park!), dingoes, crocodiles, echidnas, emus and other birds. You can pat the koalas if you go at the right time too More information here http://www.southaustralia.com/info.aspx?id=9000031 As for food, if you're missing a good roast the Hotel Victor does a good carvery and I like the stone baked pizza place on the seafront at Encounter Bay. I also love the Port Elliot Bakery. Mmmmm. We were tipped off about the bakery and had some lovely pasties and cakes and sat outside in the little seating area with some of the locals, very nice :yes: With regards to eating in Victor Harbour we went to the pub/restraunt at the front of the parade where all the locals seem to go to play the slot machines, very nice reasonably priced meal, i even got a free pint of beer off the barmaid as she was keen for me to try the local brew. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Andy Posted October 28, 2011 Share Posted October 28, 2011 Morning all you aussies and evening all you brits :wubclub: Now i am really going to bore you with our incredible journey yesterday so if easily bored turn away :laugh: When we arrived at the big 4 camp in Port Fairy we were chatting to the lady at reception and saying our next destination was Frankston, she was very concerned that this trip would be to much for us in one day especially as we would be hitting Melbourne on a Friday evening so we decided to try and book a night in Appollo Bay which is about halfway which we were able to do ( well we didnt do it the lady done it all for us because like everyone else we have met she was incredibly helpful :yes: ) So we left Appollo bay the following morning and headed for the Great ocean road, on the way we stopped at Tower Hill which is a kind of small open nature reserve which again the nice lady had told us about, we saw our first koala chilling out in a tree and managed to get within about 10ft of him much to the excitment of the children we also saw emu's wandering about, the reserve is about a 3k drive round in a loop and you pretty much end up back where you started so i would highly reccomend anyone in the area to visit it :yes:. Then we done the sites on the ocean road which included the 12 apostles, thunder cave and London bridge broken all spectacular. With the time then being about 11:30 me and the wife started discussing the possibilty of carrying on and heading to Frankston, the main reason for this is that we still had plenty of time and we had booked a cabin for 3 nights at the big 4 park there and the thought of 3 nights in a comftable cabin as opposed to the motorhome was quite appealing, so we consulted the children who were happy about this and decided to give it a go, so then we headed for Appllo bay and had lunch and carried on along the ocean road which was the wiggliest road any of us had ever been on and the max speed you can do is about 40kph. Anyway we drove up through Lorne and past Torquay, bypassed Geelong and hit Melbourne at about 4:30, i had no idea just how big a city Melbourne is :shocked:, its massive and the traffic at that time was just like London in rush hour, and it was lashing down so i felt right at home :laugh:. So we hit Frankston big 4 at about 6:00pm absolutly knackered after doing approx 430k but pleased we done the extra journey. We are just chilling out in the park today to give the kids a break so they can use the facilities and swimming pool and just relax, the weather is overcast and rainy but it seems to be brightening up a bit. Tomorrow we are heading into Melbourne for the day which is a 1 hour train trip where my youngest Freddie is meeting up with an old school mate whose family emmigrated to oz last year, he is so excited about seeing him :yes:, we are joining up with his family and heading to the Tuhtankamun ( spelt wrong ) exhibition in the city so that should be good. Anyway a couple more of my thought's on oz, Again i cannot stress this enough the people we have met have been amazing and cannot do enough to help and give advice so that has been great. The roads have been fine, South Australia was a breeze and the roads were well maintained, they are not so good in Victoria but better than in England in my opinion. The drivers contrary to what i had read on this site have been fine and very patient and i have not had a problem with them. The landscape especially what we saw in South Australia is awesome and much greener than what we had imagined a lot of it reminded me of England. The other thing i have noticed especially in the towns are the incredible number of fast food joints, their are Macdonalds and Red Roosters everywhere. All of my thoughts on oz are just that my thoughts, i appreciate others may have had different experiences but these are mine. Also me and the wife have both said we would like to keep out of the cities as much as possible as it is just so much more relaxed in the small seaside towns, driving through Melbourne yesterday just re confirmed the fact that we are town/village people :yes:and the city life is just not for us, London, Melbourne and Adelaide are great cities but give me the aussie/English countryside anyday :notworthy: Hope i have not bored you to much :SLEEP:, catch you later :hug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleabo Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Nice read mate! Keep having a great time. Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pablo Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Nice one mate,hope the weather picks up for yer:wubclub: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest 47403 Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Great read so far Andy keep up the write ups mate and have a safe trip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PityTheFool Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Great thread Andy!!! Keep the posts coming. Were planning on heading to Melbourne (poss Berwick / Frankston area) so any experiences / observations are greatly appreciated! And keep the 'my thoughts' coming - they may just be your opinion but they help us Brits who are just sat here starring at our PC screens doing research research and more research!!! Shane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Ropey HOFF Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 It reminds me of when we were there, it is just fantastic, the scenery, the beaches, warm sea, lovely helpful people, just everything really, i hope it all goes really well for you mate, it sounds as though your blooming loving it Andy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hannz Posted October 29, 2011 Share Posted October 29, 2011 Andy sounds like you are having a blast mate. Something to do in every port, nice. Keep trekking and enjoying yourselves. Lovely to read your posts, nice to hear about different locations and what is going on. Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BritChickx Posted October 30, 2011 Share Posted October 30, 2011 Well! I just wrote an essay and my Internet died lol, but in short, glad you're having a good time and look forward to the next update Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sh7t man no way Posted October 30, 2011 Share Posted October 30, 2011 sounds as though your having a great,and interesting time mate--enjoy--you've earned it:wubclub: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Andy Posted November 3, 2011 Share Posted November 3, 2011 Hello all, So from the big4 park in Frankston on Sunday morning we caught the bus to Frankston train station which is a 10 minute trip, then from there it is a 1 hour train journey into the centre of Melbourne. From there we went to the Melbourne Aquarium where we met up with Freddies friend and his family who moved out here 6 months ago from the same town we live in back in the UK. The Aquarium was great with plenty to see, from there we got a tram to the Melbourne mueseum where we saw the king tut exhibition which has been in town for quite a while. Funny enough on this particular day the city was full of young people dressed as zombies and when i say full of people i am talking thousands, i later looked it up on the internet and discovered that it is called a zombie march and happens in lots of cities around the world on this day every year and originated in North America, anyway they were all good humoured and pleasant enough ( for zombies :laugh:). Just some info on our friends, they moved to a town about 40 minutes north of Melbourne, he is a designer in the door industry and had no trouble getting a job and earns $75,000 a year, that is topped up with $600 a fortnight from the government for having 3 children, they can manage perfectly well on that income. They all seem very happy and have both said thet although they have only been here for 6 months that they have not considered going home or even thought about it yet, although their move was probably made easier by the fact Emma's sister already lived in Melbourne. We left Frankston at 7:30 am on the monday morning and drove cross country along the Princes Highway to Bairnsdale which is an easy drive with some nice views, probably about 260k. Bairnsdale is ok but not to much going on and we moved on at 7:30am the next morning again along the A1 princes highway, we drove through Lakes Entrance which looked lovely and then we were driving through mostly forest and slightly inland and there was hardly any traffic. We drove on up past the Cann River and stopped in Eden for brekkie, Eden is stunning and we wished we could have stayed longer but we had to push on, fro there it was straight up to Nelligan near Batemans Bay the whole trip a whopping 470k :swoon: and we arrived there about 2:00pm. It is difficult to describe the scenery as you pass into NSW from Victoria and then up to Bateman Bay it is simply breathtaking with rolling hills, forests and amazing coastline including stunning towns like Bega and Narooma. I thought Southern Austrlia would take some beating but NSW blows it out of the water imo, it is without doubt the most beautiful place i have seen :yes:. The big4 park at Nelligan ( bateman bay ) is also stunning and the best by far by a distance surrounded by the river Clyde where you can fish, swim or take a boat out.We originally were only staying there for a day but because it was so lovely and we were so knackered we decided to knock our trip into the blue mountains on the head and stay a further day and night which was a difficult decision but the right one we feel. Some info, Their is clearly a problem with graffiti in Melbourne as on the train journey in everything that could have been sprayed was including all the barriers, fencing, shops, sides of houses, telegraph poles, literally everything was covered, having said that we did not see any in the city centre. The travel into the city cost $39 for the five of us including the bus, train and all the trams so really good value. The Aquarium was $33 for an adult and $19 for a child pretty much the same as the Melbourne museum. We ate in the museaum cafe which was $80 for all of us but the quality of food as in the rest of the places we have eaten was excellent. Travelling through Victoria we were amazed at how much building work is going on, its everywhere, huge great estates going up everywhere, however we have heard from lots of Australiand that that is not the case in NSW and Queensland where the building industry is not great. Again the aussies have been incredible and so helpful we have been so overwhelmed by that, they really are a friendly bunch :yes: Have got loads more to say but not enough charge on my lappy, so will say goodbye for now. Btw we are now on an eco park in Sydney :err: which is interesting :laugh: but tomorrow we head to Bondi beach for some surfing lessons we have booked for the kids :jiggy: Ta ta :wubclub: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Andy Posted November 4, 2011 Share Posted November 4, 2011 Have had a great day today but very tiring, we got the 8:30 train into Sydney this morning and then got another train to Bondi beach where the children had a surfing lesson, Bondi beach is amazing, we had heard some indifferent views on it but in reality it was just how you dream it might be, lovely long beach, great waves, poser's galore :cool:, some cracking shops and the sun was out and it was hot at last :yes:, anyway the children had a fantastic hour surfing before we headed back into the city where we went into the native aussie animal zoo on the wharf which was well worth a visit if a bit on the expensive side for what it is. We then got the ferry into the bay for a trip under the harbour bridge and a trip around the opera house. Sydney is an amazing city with so much to see and do, their is loads for the kids with an amazing water park for them right in the middle of the city, also i reckon their is enough on the wharf to keep a family busy for days, everything was spotless and their is always people out keeping it that way. Sydney is certainly in our opinion ( from what we have seen ) the best aussie city so far but on the downside it is incredibly expensive, $5.95 for a litre of water and the same for a litre of coke. However the zoo was $130 for a family of 5 so probably the same or cheaper than London, and again as Melbourne the travelling was cheap, $50 for the 5 of us all day for all of the transport including the ferries. Food seemed about the same as Melbourne. By the way, i connected our van into the electric point last night and their was a huntsman spider sat in the box :shocked::laugh:, i hate spiders :cool: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest37336 Posted November 4, 2011 Share Posted November 4, 2011 Have had a great day today but very tiring, we got the 8:30 train into Sydney this morning and then got another train to Bondi beach where the children had a surfing lesson, Bondi beach is amazing, we had heard some indifferent views on it but in reality it was just how you dream it might be, lovely long beach, great waves, poser's galore :cool:, some cracking shops and the sun was out and it was hot at last :yes:, anyway the children had a fantastic hour surfing before we headed back into the city where we went into the native aussie animal zoo on the wharf which was well worth a visit if a bit on the expensive side for what it is. We then got the ferry into the bay for a trip under the harbour bridge and a trip around the opera house. Sydney is an amazing city with so much to see and do, their is loads for the kids with an amazing water park for them right in the middle of the city, also i reckon their is enough on the wharf to keep a family busy for days, everything was spotless and their is always people out keeping it that way. Sydney is certainly in our opinion ( from what we have seen ) the best aussie city so far but on the downside it is incredibly expensive, $5.95 for a litre of water and the same for a litre of coke. However the zoo was $130 for a family of 5 so probably the same or cheaper than London, and again as Melbourne the travelling was cheap, $50 for the 5 of us all day for all of the transport including the ferries. Food seemed about the same as Melbourne. By the way, i connected our van into the electric point last night and their was a huntsman spider sat in the box :shocked::laugh:, i hate spiders :cool: You are now 'officially' a member of the 'JESUS WEPT, WTF IS THAT' club Andy.:biglaugh::biglaugh: Glad it's all going good mate, enjoy.:yes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerberus1 Posted November 4, 2011 Share Posted November 4, 2011 Thanks for the updates Andy. I agree with you about Eden, it's stunning round there. We half considered moving there at one point a couple of years ago, fantastic coastline. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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