NZ/AUS EPIC HOLIDAY - Days 77-79

Sydney to Melbourne

Day 77 - 15th Apr - Sydney to Thredbo

Today I got up early, far too early. I was joining the bus tour that was taking me to Melbourne over the course of three days. Looking on the map it's only crossing the tiniest portion of Australia but distance wise it's about the length of Great Britain. Australia is big by the way! I was using Adventure Tours Australia to make this trip. This particular company uses small off-road buses and provides a more intimate and exciting trip than a coach tour due to the smaller number of people on board so it was just what I wanted.

I boarded the bus along with around ten other weary looking backpackers and we were off down towards out first stop: Canberra. Now almost every Australian person I've spoken to about Canberra talks about how awful it is. Bill Bryson, in his hilarious book about the country, mentions a local who claimed that Canberra was inferior to having a broken arm, since a broken arm can actually get better. During my travels the affection directed towards the Australian capital has been similarly absent. One travel agent suggested I just miss it out altogether! I mean that says it all really doesn't it? When a person who represents their own country and gets paid to do so advises skipping their own capital!?!

In all fairness it's quite likely that Melbourne and Sydney residents are both bitter that their own city didn't get picked to be the capital. They are both splendid cities but in order to avoid making the difficult choice it was decided to put a completely new city halfway in between the two rival cities. That's the unofficial explanation anyway. I can only imagine how perturbed the citizens of Melbourne or Sydney would have been if the other was given the prestigious distinction of being the capital. They would have probably seceded from Australia and formed their own country.

Of course I always try to refrain from judging a place on the negative opinions of other people. I have to admit I quite enjoyed Canberra. Of course I like almost everywhere in the entire world. I probably wouldn't want to spend more than a few days here but it was still a rather agreeable place. First stop was the parliament building, the centrepiece of this artificial city. It certainly didn't look like a government building from outside, more like a modern art gallery, and after wandering inside this opinion was reinforced even more.

The tour of the building revealed some interesting insight into Australian politics. The house of representatives and the senate both have separate meeting places in chambers opposite the central area of the main building. The public are allowed access to these areas even when meetings and political discussions are taking place. Sadly there were none during my time there, I've heard that tempers can flare up sometimes during debates and some quite colourful language can be used.

After leaving the parliament building we headed down to the splendid war memorial. The long road leading up to the main building was filled with memorials to every war that the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) were involved in, including Vietnam, Korea as well as the two world wars. I remember thinking that they would have to reserve space for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars if they ever bloody finish! The main building was a fascinating museum filled with displays that could take days to fully appreciate. They even had some preserved aircraft and even a Japanese midget submarine that was sunk when it tried to enter Sydney Harbour. Above the museum was a memorial shrine to the soldiers that had died in all of the Australian wars and the names of every serviceman was etched into bronze plaques decorated with poppies all along the walls. Sadly we didn't spend nearly as much time here as I would have liked to.

Leaving Canberra we set off for our final destination of the day, the small resort town of Thredbo. In winter it is one of Australia's most popular skiing resorts. Since it was still autumn now it wasn't covered in snow but it was still starting to get cold, quite a change from the pleasant coastal weather. In our hotel we met up with the other Adventure Tours bus coming in the other direction and one of the passengers was turning twenty that day. It was pretty much a good excuse as any to drink so everybody joined in the party and got completely plastered although I didn't overdo it myself. The birthday boy did completely overdo it however and later on he spent most of the night spewing his guts out over the ground outside.

Well why not? You're only twenty once!

the inspiring war memorial

they call this drinking game Shot-Ski!

Day 78 - 16th Apr - Thredbo to Lakes Entrance

We got up early and although it was a sunny day it was absolutely freezing. It was cold enough at ground level but today we were going go climb Mount Kosciuszko, Australia's highest peak. This is not quite as impressive as it sounds, it's only a little baby compared to the peaks of New Zealand. It's also one of the easiest summits you can climb, let me put it this way, you can drive up to within ten minutes of the summit and you can get a wheelchair to the top. Still it was a good walk and the views were still pleasant albeit somewhat flatter than I was used to! Despite being a laughably easy summit to ascend, some of the other walkers still gave up before the end! Lazy buggers!

Returning to the bus we left Thredbo and headed out into the Snowy River National Park, although at this time of year it was still quite green with no snow in sight. This was a real off-road experience with a meandering dirt road that made its way around and over the peaks through some extremely wild terrain. We hardly saw any other vehicles on the road other than a couple of 4x4 trucks. We made several stops to admire the views and enjoy the solitude.

When we finally left Snowy River NP we joined a highway and soon the coast was in view. Before long we were in the town of Lakes Entrance and we enjoyed a decent meal before retiring to the hostel for a night.

Snowy River NP looking not so snowy

Day 79 - 17th Apr - Lakes Entrance to Melbourne

Today we skirted the coast almost all the way to Melbourne. On the way we stopped off at Wilsons Promontory National Park to go for a coastal walk. This was one of the areas that was recently affected by the devastating bush fires that swept across the area just a few months ago. Entire hillsides were a charred blackened wasteland, obliterated by the unstoppable flames caused during the summer heatwave. Standing in the mild autumn weather it was hard to imagine this place being subjected to what were quite literally sauna temperatures.

Bush fires move fast, you can't outrun them on foot and often not even in a car. One family got lucky after a close call in their vehicle. They were fleeing the onslaught but the fire caught up and overtook them, setting fire to the tyres and causing the glass and metal to partially melt and buckle. They were fortunate to survive but many others didn't. The speed and ferocity of the bush fires were just too much. I felt strange sitting there looking out the window with my camera in hand, after all many people died very recently. In the end my indecisiveness caused me to miss the photo opportunities anyway and we soon parked the bus and went on a pleasant beach walk.

After the walk we were back on the road and spent the rest of the day driving. It was dark by the time Melbourne appeared over the horizon and it was a very welcome sight. We were all dropped off at our respective hostels and eventually, after getting a bit lost due to the labyrinthine nature of Melbourne city driving, we found the place where I was staying.

I was dropped off near my hostel which was a massive building that catered to hundreds of backpackers, a well run though somewhat impersonal place due to its enormous size. I met one of my roommates and after a few introductory pleasantries I revealed that I intended to head up towards Uluru/Ayer's Rock. Hearing this he replied "aah why the hell would you want to go there? It's just a stupid fucking rock in a stupid fucking country!"

I completely ignored this asinine comment and curtailed my conversation with this imbecile. It was startlingly obvious that I was dealing with a gentleman with the cranial capacity of a poorly educated goldfish. In my head I vowed to not waste any more time conversing with this plank and I started to unpack without a further word.

I didn't do much else that night, after all I would have plenty of time to explore Melbourne and I needed to catch up on some sleep after those long days on the bus.

Australia's black swans seem much nicer and
friendlier than our grumpy white ones!