Arriving in Melbourne

With bikes boxed up and superfluous belongings sent home, we reached Auckland airport with no bother (thanks Kiri!) and checked our luggage in. Utter horror when the Jetstar lady said we had a $300+ excess baggage fee to pay (we had checked weights so meticulously?) ! Taking pity on us she recommended we redistribute some things across our two holdalls, then she re-weighed everything… Miraculously the fee went away! When Amanda wholeheartedly thanked her (with a tear in her eye?) she told Amanda she had a lovely face!

Safely through security we resisted the strong urge to binge eat all duty-free Whittaker’s chocolate. Ah, we will miss thee so, delicious friend.

We arrived safely in Melbourne at 10.45pm, and passport checks and immigration were all done in an impressive electronic trice. We also breezed through customs surprisingly - we’d heard customs officials were scrupulous about soil entering the country, but they took zero interest in our bike tyres, which was a relief.

✨🇦🇺 We’re in AUSTRALIA baby! 🦘🐨

We found a quiet space in the airport and took time reassembling the bikes and repacking panniers. It took us until 1am, after which we cycled to our hotel a half-hour away and slept soundly, despite the wind’s strange ghostly howling along our corridor on what was a blustery night.

Our first day in Australia felt good!! The first time Amanda had been here was 28 years ago! and she felt strangely at home with bursts of joy at seeing familiar things - the white of the eucalypt branches, the sound of the magpie calls, the rainbow flash of a lorikeet flying over, the huge sky.

It was also great to be back on the bikes, even though we were not cycling far - just 12 miles to our Airbnb. We stopped for breakfast in a cafe on an industrial estate on route. Although just stumbling upon ‘Best Bean Best Cup’ (Bbbc) the cafe was brilliant, with a good inviting atmosphere and excellent coffee. Lilz liked the drum kit perched in the corner, Amanda liked the tall tower of plants. Lilz got chatting to the owner, Jimmy Tran, and learnt about his Vietnamese coffee-farmer family roots. His passion for coffee and his customers was effervescent. With a big infectious smile and swift efficiency characterising his every action, Jimmy has a wonderful vibrant energy. When Jimmy heard about our trip, he insisted Lilz take two bags of Bbbc’s ground coffee and fervently wished us luck on our travels.

Feeling warm and lucky from this experience we cycled on, leaving the industrial estate to join a valley cycle path winding alongside the Maribyrnong river. Surrounded by beautiful eucalypt trees, the calls of vibrant new birds, and the sweet scent of sunshine-yellow wattle flowers was a joy.

We soon reached Yarraville, a suburb west of Melbourne city where we would stay for the next five nights. We were looking forward to some time in one place, a place to stop and plan our coastal route to Sydney, do a bit of city sightseeing, and grab time with an old friend. With the luxury of being stationary for six days we visited the supermarket to stock up on food we normally couldn’t carry. We were delighted to find that food in Australia is considerably cheaper than New Zealand, and that there were exciting new biscuits to try!Read more