The first section of our Australian tour was actually more of a reunion!
Flying into Melbourne, the home of two fellow geographers from Reading University, we made the most of having the opportunity to catch up 9 years later (and for some great tour guides!).
Having picked up our hire car after an overnight flight we headed straight for St Kildas on the coast for breakfast with a view! We then drove into the CBD and parked up at Harbour Town so we could make the most of the fantastic Free Tram Zone in the city and in particular the Heritage Tram that circles the centre.
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| Boarding the tram |
We finally made it to Federation Square decorated with a huge Christmas Tree made of Lego, and our meeting point with Nick Earl (wannabe weatherman now Dr and runner!).
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| Lego santa! |
We grabbed a sandwich and enjoyed sitting by the river catching up on old times and getting top tips for our Great Ocean Road adventure. So much so we lost track of time and Nick had to race it back to work quick!
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| Geographers reunited take 1 |
After looking around more of the city lanes we then headed back to the car and on to Greensborough on the outskirts of the city to our next few days of reminiscing with Stuart Packham and his Australian wife Megan.
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| ...and 2 |
We were welcomed with open arms and cold beers having driven through the Melbourne commuter traffic and spent our first evening celebrating the amazing news that Stu and Megan were expecting!
Having caught up on some sleep we then headed out to Mornington after lining our stomachs with a bacon and avocado breakie and a milkshake stop and began our wine tasting tour!
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| The beach!!! |
We started at Ten Minutes By Tractor, a small but friendly vineyard, who showed us the wine tasting ropes by bringing out a box full of scents designed to help with identifying the scents and flavours within each wine...we were pretty rubbish at our game of 'guess the scent', and even when we read the tasting notes for the wines we still couldn't get how one of the Pinot Noir supposedly tasted of toast!
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| Wine smells |
Our second vineyard was called Red Hill which was more a commercial set up, who had a good Shiraz and we were able to have a lunch platter between the three of us.
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| A vineyard... and us |
The final stop was at Drongas Vineyard who were very friendly and chatty despite it being the end of the day. They had delicious bubbles and a really smooth Sauvignon Blanc which didn't had the fresh citrus flavours that you usually get.
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| After a few... |
After a day of savouring the grape juice delights of the Melbourne area we headed back to Stuart's for Chinese Takeaway and a movie (home comforts!) before hitting the Great Ocean Road the next day.
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