Melbourne to Sydney

I needed to slowly make my way back to Sydney so I booked myself on the oz experience bus from Melbourne to Sydney. I thought the oz experience would simply be a form of transport to jump on and off at places but on this particular route it seemed much more like a tour. This turned out to be a good thing as I could just relax and enjoy the scenery without having to plan anything. The oz experience pass included accommodation and most activities along the way.

I got up early after ending up playing drinking games in Roo Bar (Hotel Bak Pak) with some guys I got chatting to in the bar. It wasn't the greatest preparation but I didn't feel too bad considering.

The bus left and traveled southeast of Melbourne where we hiked Wilson Promontory Nation Park and walked along Squeaky Beach.

There was a strong breeze on the beach and the sun was beating down as half the group played a game of cricket, I had a good innings but was eventually bowled by a pea roller!

Again like most of the tours I've been on, there was a good mixture of people on the bus.

Whilst walking along Australia's most southerly point we spotted a wombat seemingly grazing just off the beach. Too me, he looked like a giant hamster and in a Muppet's kind of a way it didn't look real. The wombat was pretty cool and didn't seemed to mind everyone taking hundreds of photos of him.....or her.

From here we traveled through Snowy River Country and some stunning scenery, including a 12 k hike to the peak of Mount Koscuiszko. For one night we stayed at a Buddhist temple where we participated in a spot of meditation and plenty of vegetarian food.

It was pretty interesting clearing your mind as you meditated, for me this was the most interesting part of Buddhism. Once they started talking about the more religious aspects I thought it could be time to leave, on first impressions of the clientele it was definitely time to leave.

On the next day we took to the lake where some of the group signed up to have a go on a "hot-dog". A "hot-dog" is similar to a "Banana Boat" but much smaller. I jumped on with 2 other guys from the group but for some reason we were absolutely useless. I think we were too heavy for the "hot-dog". We had some spectacular wipe outs before I belly flopped overboard on our last tumble.

Before heading to Sydney the next day we visited Canberra. Canberra being the capital of Australia is a strange place, again like Singapore it reminded myself of "The Truman Show".

Canberra was chosen to be the capital of Australia and the city was designed from scratch, but the problem here is that it is a place just full of governmental bureaucratic. This causes the place to feel surreal as workers wander the streets like zombies wearing their swipe cards and name tags around their necks.

In Canberra we had a tour of Parliament which was a modern building that felt much more like a office than a place of government. I felt that in building Parliament they tried too had to instill some kind of deep routed history or culture, for example the colour of the chambers where the member of parliament sit is coloured in green to signify the colour of the Eucalyptus leaves. There were many other aspects of the building that signified this and signified that.In the UK the Houses of Parliament have a deep routed history and in turn have many interesting stories and traditions from years gone by. It just felt to me that in building the Parliament building in Canberra they tried just a little too hard to instill some kind of culture and interest in a building which is relatively new.

After a slightly surreal visit to Canberra we headed to Sydney where some of the group checked into Base Backpackers for a couple of nights. Overall the oz experience for Melbourne to Sydney was well worth the money, we did so many different things and it was good to sit back and relax for a change.