10 days in australia

I’m back in New Zealand after 10 days touring the southeast of Australia with a friend from the Bay Area, and WOW. What an adventure! We arrived in Melbourne and set off west right away in a camper van rental on the Great Ocean Road. We then retraced our steps and headed back along the coast east and then north up to Sydney. Here’s a peek at some of the highlights by region:

GREAT OCEAN ROAD: From Melbourne, we drove this coastal route as far west as the famed Twelve Apostles limestone stacks, then turned around and did the route again with different stops. I loved the shrubby, cliffy coastline around Torquay, Jan Juc and Bells Beach and watching surfers there; seeing koalas in the wild in the eucalyptus trees around the Kennett River Holiday Park; meeting a cute little girl who showed us how to pick up the birds at Kennett River (I think they were green rosella parrots); spotting our first kangaroos and wallabies on the dirt road behind Kennett River; and walking the beachfront by the Twelve Apostles towering in the surf just feet in front of us. This stretch of road also gave me my first real taste of driving Bela the van’s manual transmission. I’d only ever driven a few manual cars on very short distances before, and doing so here—and on the opposite side of the road—was a challenge but one I’m so happy to have conquered!

WILSONS PROMONTORY: Southeast of Sydney, this amazing national park is the southernmost point of mainland Australia. Here we hiked Mount Oberon for stunning views of the coastline and dozens of islands; journeyed to watch the sunset on the rocks at Squeaky Beach; trail ran out to Tongue Point; and were awoken by wombats rocking our van as they scratched themselves on our mudflaps throughout the night. I loved their sneaky ways of pretending they were just eating grass when we’d open the door to catch them in the act.

EAST COAST: Up the east coast of Australia we popped into numerous beach towns and parks. Favorites on this stretch were hearing kookaburras laugh and seeing tons of washed up coral and sponges at our Cape Conran camp; relaxing on the colorful slickrock coast at the Pinnacles; seeing a joey in its mother’s pouch at our camp in Tathra; venturing out to eat lunch on the tiny and steep Burrewarra Point at Guerilla Bay; eating boxes upon boxes of McVities Digestives; and relaxing on the bright white-sand Murrays Beach in Booderee National Park and getting hassled by a resident blind wallaby there.

SYDNEY: We dropped off the Bela the van south of Sydney and trained over to Bondi Beach, where we were able to stay with a mutual friend with an AirBnB. I loved Bondi’s coastal track; seeing swimmers in the ocean-fed swimming pool at Icebreakers there; the ease of the city’s train system; ferrying into the city from Rose Bay so that our first glimpses of the city center were from the water; and catching up with a friend in Terrigal and relaxing/exploring the coastline up there—saw tons of windsurfers and kite surfers one windy day!