Melbourne to Grampians National Park

Wednesday, November 7, 2007 Mainly sunny +22°

Our little alarm clock had us up at seven (Aiden), which we thought was pretty good considering the time change we have gone through.We had breakfast here at the hotel before heading out to try and cross some items off our to do list. Stopped at a Telstra store to look at our mobile phone options. Communications here are much more expensive then at home. We ended up picking up a mobile phone for $299.00, which only includes $10 talk time, and we will be on pre-paid plan. Spent the rest of the day looking at used car dealerships. We were lucky that there were three within walking distance. However, after spending a good part of the morning talking with the various dealers, buying a car may prove to be more difficult then expected. After exhausting Aiden's patience looking at yet another car, we headed to the Melbourne Museum. We spent some time wandering through the museum and playing at the playground. Aiden has been asking about school and when he will get to go. He is definitely missing the social interaction with kids. Luckily there were a couple of boys at the playground that he was able to hangout with for a bit.

We came back to the hotel and had an early supper of sandwiches. Aiden and I hung out while Sean did some more searching on the Internet for a car. He found a dealership that looks promising a little ways away in South Melbourne. Aiden was asleep by 7:30 and we crashed around 9 pm.


Thursday, November 8, 2007 Mainly sunny + 24°

Aiden was awake at 4:30 am. I knew it was too good to be true to think that we adjusted that easily. We managed to keep him somewhat quiet and in bed until 6:30 am. Sean headed off by 8:30 to catch a bus to South Melbourne, to see about a vehicle and some GPS maps for Australia in St. Kilda. Aiden and I hung out in the hotel room until about 10 am and then went in search of sunscreen. We did some window-shopping until we found a bookstore where we spent a good hour looking around. I purchased an Australian scrapbooking magazine. I’m interested in seeing if there is much difference. Sean surprised us by returning around 12 pm. He found a car, a 1991 Mitsubishi Lancer, and put a deposit on it. He had a quick bite to eat and then headed a few block away to try and arrange registration/ownership transfer. That turned out to be a frustrating task. He needed some sort of signed document that proved we would be living in Australia. For some reason, our Visas did not count even though we needed to have an address for them. The only way around it, other then going out to Halls Gap and getting a rental agreement signed by both parties was to have someone who has known us for 12 months and currently owns a Victoria drivers licence. Lucky for us, we knew one of the previous Parks Victoria rangers who came to Riding Mountain and he was willing to fax in a declaration. Sean also found out that his credit card had been frozen. Note for next time; make sure to call the credit card companies that we are going to be in Australia for 6 months. Sean was back by 4 pm so we went out in search of a place to eat. We found a Fish and Sushi bar only a couple of blocks away from the hotel. It was reasonably priced and the food was very good. Aiden was quite happy with the choice since they had chicken fingers. We had an enjoyable supper, sitting at the street side tables taking in the sights and sounds around us. Once we got back to the hotel we turned in early since we had to be up early the next morning.

Friday, November 9, 2007 Sunny + 26°

Up around 6 am and packed a few things before heading down for breakfast. Sean took off for VicRoads to get a client number in order to take possession of the car and returned, just in time for Mike to drive us over to the car and guide us out of Melbourne. Mike graciously escorted us to the edge of the city and got us onto the Western Highway. Sean did wonderful with driving on the opposite side, he took to it quite naturally even in the Melbourne traffic.

We made it into Halls Gap just in time for afternoon tea at 3 pm. We went directly to the Parks office and met Sean's supervisor, another Mike. At afternoon tea, he introduced us to several Parks employees. We hung out and chatted briefly with a number of them. Around 4 pm we headed out to find our new home for the next six months.

Our house is located on the north end of Hall’s Gap. It is a 3-bedroom holiday rental place close to the end of the town bike path, so it is a pleasant walk from the downtown area of Hall’s Gap and about 4 km from the Brambuk Center where Sean works.

We got inside and looked around, unloaded the car and that was about it for me. Since about 2 pm I have been feeling progressively worse. Not sure if is the cold that was lingering from Manitoba or I picked up a new one somewhere in our travels, but I was feeling downright miserable so I pretty much crashed for the night.



Sean and Aiden headed into town to have a look around. While they were passing the cricket field, what’s that in the field but a dozen kangaroos grazing. We’d been promising Aiden that he would see kangaroos when we got to where we were going to live but didn’t realize that they would show up so quickly. They are all over the place. Aiden checked them out and one of them even had a joey in her pouch. After a while they became old news and he finally got to stretch his legs and run like a madman all over the field like a cricket star. They came back to share the exciting news and everyone crashed early.