We started the day in my home town of Canberra, after having driven there the previous night, directly after de-boarding from our flight from Rotorua. We had some errands to do around town, so we all had breakfast and then headed into Civic (town centre).
My main interest was to visit Landspeed Records to pick up the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack on Cassette. Toni bought some shoes, and we bought some outfits for the boys. We also had my hair and Jake’s and Damian’s cut at the barber I use in the city, before hitting Oporto for chips for the boys for an early lunch.
Once we’d returned home, we madly repacked Toni’s car and then set off south for the distant Victorian capital of Melbourne. We had a wedding to attend, and one day to get there. The route is nearly 700kms, and takes on average over 7 hours of driving, without stops. With two small boys, we knew we’d be stopping.
Albury
We managed to avoid stopping as far south as the NSW/Victoria crossing at Albury. Here we attempted to find another lunch option, but most places were closed. We eventually ate at a place called Burgerbar. It was very, very hot – somewhere in the vicinity of 40’C and we were slightly taken aback.
The town is actually quite charming. There are many old buildings, including an old time theatre hall. Albury really begs for a trip of its own and one day we might make it happen. However, for now we spent only a little time, and continued south.
Not far past Albury, the car’s A/C decided to stop working, and instead to blow hot air. We travelled the next 200 kms with no air conditioning, and had to manually cool the boys down by spraying them with cold water. It was a tough trip, and we had to stop about 150 kms outside of Melbourne to eat and get some paperwork from the boot of the car.
Eventually, we found the city outskirts and navigated the freeways until we were in the city CBD. Our hotel for the night was the Mercure Treasury Gardens. It’s worth noting that Toni did most of the driving, and did a very good job of it.
Once we’d checked in and unpacked, I got in touch with Ted (bride groom) and we decided to catch up. Ted picked me up in the city and drove us to St Kilda where we caught up and had a couple of drinks. At 11:40pm I caught a tram back to Southbank and finally a Taxi back to the hotel. We’d arrived.
