With boarders now opening up between the states of Australia (some of them at least) it was time to head out on road trip / work trip to Victoria. Kevin had some work to do around Melbourne so decided it was a great opportunity to tag on a road trip along the Great Ocean Road. Then another work day was added in South Australia so we added on another week to head back home.
At 4am we got up, packed the last bits & pieces into an already very full tesla, said our goodbyes to the puppies, made tea & coffee, and were on the road, as planned, by 5am. Not the best weather, unfortunately, and it was raining on and off.
The teslas is great because, being electric, it’s very cheap to take on a long road trip, but it does require frequents stops to recharge. We didn’t find it a pain though as by the time we had to stop we were always in need of a toilet or meal break. Our first stop of the day was Goulburn.
It was still early and the Visitors Center was closed so we took a walk over the toilets in the gardens across the road. The gardens were a real surprise and I was glad of the opportunity to see them and take some photos.
By the time we walked back to the car it was charged enough to continue to our next stop.
It was about 8.30 when we arrived at Gundagai and we were ready for breakfast at Olivers Real Food. Kevin had the vegetarian burger and I had the vegan one. They are same except Kevin’s had haloumi cheese and mine had hash browns (be sure to order extra hash browns as there is only one small one of the burger). It’s been quite a while since I had one of these (funny that during a pandemic and lock downs) and I’d forgotten how good they are.
Since Kevin had never been to to see the dog on the tuckerbox we walked (a whole 2 mins) to see the statue.
Back on the road…to Aubury – where we tried, unsuccessfully, to find parking – still can’t believe how busy the town was. So we drove on (over the unseen border) to Wodonga in Victoria for another charge. It was raining pretty steadily here so we just sat in the car and watched a youtube video (which you can do in the tesla).
More driving, and thankfully some better weather.
We finally stopped at a service station that had a number of food options, and electric car charging. Kevin chose McDonald’s nuggests and I chose a falafel wrap -which was delicious. We sat outside to eat and it was nice to get some fresh air before getting back in the car.
We were getting to the stage of having enough of being in the car, though the trip had actually gone quite fast due to frequent stops and listening to a book.
The skies continued to clear the further South we travelled and before too long we were arriving into Melbourne.
For the first time we aren’t staying right in the city, but in St Kilda – Kevin has one work day here. We arrived just on 4.15pm, which is when we got a phone call from the guy we were meeting to see how far away we were – which was less than a minute away. He couldn’t believe we were so on time. We parked the car and he took us up to the apartment. We had had a bit of a hassle with information the booked agent had wanted from us that we were reluctant to give (photos of the front and back of a drivers license) but we were SO happy when we saw the apartment and the view.
Nice as the apartment is, the best part has to be the view.
We then got the car unpacked and most of our things put away and settled in with a cup of tea and relax after the long drive.
We eventually ordered some delivery vegan pizza for dinner from Vegan Bar on High. I had the BBQ tofu which was really good but missing the promised pineapple. Kevin didn’t really care for his Hawaiian pizza but he’s not the biggest fan of many vegan cheeses.
While we watched TV we were able to enjoy a lovely sunset.
