Road tripping through Australia and NYE in Sydney

On the official Christmas Day of the Australians, December 25th, Michelle (we know each other since about 6 years through confirmation class training) and I made our way 'south'. We rented a 5-seater through GoGet for 5 days. Our plan was to drive down the east coast from Sydney to Melbourne first. After seeing several beaches (Murrays Beach, 7 Miles Beach, Eden..) and it was already dark, we made our way to find a parking space to sleep, but the more parking spaces we visited, the spookier it became. Therefore, we decided to drive through the night, so we would have more time in Melbourne as well.

Although we were warned at a petrol station not to take this road because allegedly there would be hundreds of kangaroos on the road at this time, we decided to go through it anyway.

Fortunately, only a few kangaroos came towards us, but my first 'encounter' with a kangaroo was rather disappointing, as the first kangaroo I saw in the wild was unfortunately dead by the roadside..

After about 10 hours of driving, we arrived at the Royal National Park. We drove around there, visited two beaches and set off towards Phillip Island, where we also explored the area a bit. Then we drove to Melbourne and took our first real break in a shopping mall, after which we planned the next few hours.

Actually, we wanted to sleep all 5 nights in the car, but since we had been sitting in the car for 18 hours without 1 hour of sleep and there were no parking spaces for a long stay in Melbourne, we decided to spontaneously book an accommodation via Airbnb. The only cheap option available there was a bed in the corridor of a single-family house, but it was enough to catch up on sleep and it was worth the experience.

The next day we explored Melbourne. We had breakfast at the Matcha Cafe in St. Kilda, drove around a bit on the tram, went shopping, and visited some of my friends.

In the evening, we made our way towards Geelong, the next largest city after Melbourne before the Great Ocean Road begins. We spent the night at another friend's place there.

Since we still had 3 seats available in our car, we decided to take a few other people with us. Early in the morning the next day, we first picked up a couple from the train station with whom we would continue the rest of our road trip. (Funny fact: both are from Northern Germany, live about 30 minutes away from me, and after a short time, it turned out that we even have the same circle of friends -> the world is so small).

Then we started our trip to the GOR. Within one day, we saw the entire GOR (Torquay, Bells Beach, Split Point Lighthouse, Teddys Lookout, Apollo Bay, Kennetriver where we saw our first koala, Otway National Park, Maitis Rainforest, Gibson Steps, Lord Ard George, and last but not least my personal highlight: the sunset at the 12 Apostles.

Late in the evening, we arrived at a campsite close to the GOR but on the way to the Grampians National Park, which we explored the next day. We saw a waterfall (disappointing compared to Bali) and walked to various lookouts. Then we made our way to Ballarat to pick up another girl. From there we drove to Canberra, where unfortunately we arrived around midnight and thus we made a sightseeing tour by night (government buildings, etc.). Around 1 o'clock in the morning, we arrived at a campsite at Lake George.

Early in the morning the next day, we set off towards Sydney. Although it was still a day until New Year's Eve, we were often warned to leave early enough before the real 'New Year's traffic' begins in Sydney.

Arriving around noon, I caught up on my sleep all day long. In the evening, we had a DVD night with friends and then New Year's Eve was already approaching.

It sounds crazy, but we actually stood in line in front of the Opera House 11 hours before the fireworks started. Unfortunately, we had the bad luck that suddenly there was no more admission. So we needed another alternative. We made some phone calls and then met up with friends on the other side of the bridge at Balls Head. We waited around 10 hours for the fireworks, but surprisingly the time went by very quickly. We played a few card games, ate, and sunbathed. The fireworks were amazing, unbeatable! But shortly afterwards, we started our way back home, as it was very crowded in public transportation and we were flying to Byron Bay the next day.

New Year's Eve in Sydney was unforgettable and the road trip as well! Very exciting and sometimes very nerve-wracking, as Michelle and I are both more of the planning ahead type, but this time everything was more spontaneous.. But in the end, everything worked out fine.

In the next blog post, I will write about our trip to Byron Bay and the Gold Coast!