Melbourne, Australia’s cultural capital, offers a dynamic blend of entertainment and culinary delights that captivate both locals and visitors. In the year ending September 2024, Victoria welcomed approximately 86.9 million visitors, contributing $39.7 billion to the state’s economy. 

October 8 & 9, 2004 – Abi and I rented a car and quickly learned to drive on the “wrong” side of the road.  Actually, it wasn’t the driving that was the hard part, it was turning on the blinker when you wanted the windshield wiper!  Everything is opposite of what you know, that’s the challenge!  Oh, and driving round-abouts when you’re on the wrong side of the road, those are tough.  We drove our rental to the Tongariro National Park, the land of the Lord of the Rings.

October 6, ‘2004 – Abi and I said farewell to Australia and boarded our flight to Auckland, New Zealand.  We arrived in the early evening and took a cab to our hotel, and when I say cab I mean a mini-van with a trailer attached which holds all of the luggage and you kind of hope your luggage doesn’t get unloaded at the wrong stop.

October 4, ‘2004 – We said good-bye to Dustin as he winged back to Melbourne, the night before Abi and I took a full day tour of the local wine country.

October 2, ‘2004 – After a 2 1/2 hour delay out of Melbourne, due to nasty weather in Sydney, our flight took off and the three of us bumpity, bump, bumped our way to Sydney; arriving to torrential rains.  Sydney is an awesome city, very cosmopolitan.  So much to see, so much to do.

The Great Ocean Road.  Gary, our guide for the day, along with his young son, Jamie, took us on a 12-hour drive. We experienced the beautiful coastline, The Twelve Apostles, kangaroos hanging out on a golf course fairway and Koala Bears in their natural environment.

Melbourne, Australia. In the fall of 2004, our son was an exchange student at the University of Melbourne for a semester. It was during his junior year at Georgetown University.  Of course, we had to go visit and help him celebrate his 21st birthday, right?