[VIC] Bendigo,Coburg,Surrey Hills,Braybrook (Melbourne)

Sacred Heart Cathedral

We drove away from chilly Avoca and headed for Bendigo on Sunday 17 October, where we were surprised by the size of the city and knew we could easily spend a few days there, in fact we stayed for four nights. We finally enjoyed some fine sunny weather and filled in our days by taking the bus into the city centre and doing the tourist things - riding the vintage talking tram tour which tells stories of Bendigo's past, climbing the Poppet Head lookout tower for the view over the city, walks to grand heritage buildings such as the Sacred Heart Cathedral and the iconic Shamrock Hotel built in 1854.

Loong dragon

Another day we visited the Golden Dragon Museum and Chinese gardens. The museum is home to Loong:  the oldest imperial Chinese dragon in the world, alongside culturally significant collections of regalia, furniture, artefacts and geneology.

Awesome burger moment

Lots of walking around the city worked up an appetite one day and we stopped in at the Grill'd hamburger cafe for the most delicious and healthy burgers - where they even do gluten free options which Paulie really enjoyed - he's never been able to get a gluten free burger anywhere. One day as we were walking around town, a newspaper reporter asked our thoughts on the Bendigo airport upgrade. Well, we hadn't even seen the Bendigo airport but Paulie responded by saying that Bendigo was a nice and happening place and that an upgrade would only add to the infrastructure. The photographer took his photo and so next day his photo and comment were in the Bendigo Advertiser! 

Melbourne busker

Thursday 21 October we moved on to Coburg, a couple of hours closer to Melbourne city, just spending one night before stopping over in Surrey Hills for two nights visiting our friend Norm there. Melbourne traffic was insane and so fast, Paulie said it was a bit stressful driving but thank goodness for our Tom Tom - what a lifesaver. We then stayed at Braybrook for three nights - this is the closest caravan park to Port Melbourne where the boat leaves for Tassie. So over these three days we took the bus into Melbourne city for shopping, visiting the Victoria Markets and more shopping. One day, Paulie just sat in the mall reading his newspaper and waiting while I went in and out of various clothing shops. When I returned to him, he said he had been asked for money twice as well as being asked to do a couple of surveys - he was a real target just sitting there. We saw this popular old busker in the mall with his piano belting out his tunes! We also had a great evening catching up with our friend Chris (Carrot) one night as he was staying in Melbourne for work.

Our "Spirit of Tas" cabin

On Thursday 28 October we filled in time at beautiful St Kilda beach and strolled around the shops at Albert Park until we had to drive onto the Spirit of Tasmania for our night cruise to Devonport in Tasmania. The process to get onto the boat with our van was quite lengthy but we finally got through and up to our cabin (which was spotless and very comfy, with our own shower and toilet). Due to my previous sea sickness experiences, I popped a Quells tablet prior to the boat's 7.30pm departure. However these do cause drowsiness and so by the time we were sitting down to eat our delicious dinner, my eyelids were getting droopy, but I managed to stop my head falling into my meal. Needless to say, we didn't party all night on the boat. The trip through the night was quite smooth until about midnight when it turned a bit rough and we were awoken and then struggled to get back to sleep.