Australian Road Trip!

Caribbean version 3.4
🇦🇬🇻🇨🇯🇲

3 o’clock inna di morninn 🎼

I’m in a car (in New Zealand), with a Jamaican driver (a friend), and we’ve just picked up another Jamaican and a Vincentian (For those that don’t know a Vincentian is a person from St Vincent & the Grenadines – another Caribbean island). After saying hi to everyone I immediately got a beer thrown on my lap and was told to “Drink up”. That’s when I was like “Oh THIS is the type of trip we doing”. I smiled from ear to ear as as I remembered is CARIBBEAN people I goin wid.

Mentioned in my last post, two of my Caribbean friends called me up about a month before to tell me of their plan to visit Australia for 5 days. They were making a road trip out of it and asked if I wanted to come. I said I was down and so now, here I was

5 days, 3 cities, 2 days of driving thousands of miles, a road trip from Melbourne to Brisbane Australia is what I signed up for. Now, I’d only ever hearddd of these cities. I had no true understanding of the distance we were about to trek and journey we would embark upon (needless to say it brought stares of bewilderment from any New Zealander or Australian we told thereafter). But lemme tell ya, it was worth every. Single. Second (and cent).

This trip was all sorts of fantastic for many reasons, the main one being the PEOPLE. The people I traveled with (shoutouts to Daniel & O’Neil) and the people we hung out with (as well as accommodated us) made this trip the worthwhile experience it was. Now, as yall know I can chat, so I’m simply going to provide you with a brief summary of each city, what we did and then throw in loads of photos (or else we’d be here all night).

Ready? Ready…

Melbourne

Probably would be my favourite city of them all, if it wasn’t so cold. We were in Australia in June (the beginning of winter on this side of the world) and Melbourne ensured we knew dat. About 9C at night (48F), it was colder than Auckland so that wasn’t fun (for me at least). But, we had a great time regardless. While in Melbourne we

Saw penguins on St Kilda’s beach (so cute!)
Had a night on the town with a friend from the UK (we met her in NZ previous to this trip). She took us all around bar and club hopping and it was a night to remember. I also met an Aussie who described me as a Caribbean princess – I was flattered 💁🏽‍♀️.
Had quite the sleeping experience with our Air BnB. Let’s just say the homeowner knows how to pack a house! He also knows how to make great breakfast too though so it was worth it #foodovereverything.
Visited Victoria Market.

My bed for the night!
BnB or Air BnB ?

The architecture, ease of transport and action were all features of the city the made me say “I really like Melbourne!

Sydney

Sydney is the largest, (and maybe oldest) city of Australia that knows it’s the ish and doesn’t care. Its beauty however allows you to forgive all that with the way the small harbour inlets snake through the different suburbs and the tremendous greenery balances out with the tall skyscrapers. The Sydney Opera house and Harbour bridge also add to the ‘aweness’ of it all

While in Sydney, a cousin of mine took us out and about. We did:

Bondi to Coogee walk.
Visited the Opera House.
Had drinks & dinner with a bunch of other Australians (my counsin’s friends).
Saw Vivid (a light show where they light up major buildings in the city).

All in all the experience was phenominal. Why? Once again because of the PEOPLE. My two road trip buddies, my cousin who took us up and about, his friends that took us for drinks, the scenary, the fact that we were in SYDNEY AUSTRALIA, all combined to create this wonderful experience. [Side note: I’d also like to say that both of my friends were Engineers, so seeing hte Opera House was a MAJOR deal to them. It’s something they’ll remember forever and I’m glad I was able to be a part of that experience with them]

The Sydney crew along Circular Quay for Vivid

Brisbane

The smallest city of the three, but also the warmest, Brisbane was cute, but not big enough for me. We had a good time there regardless though as once again we were well taken care of. Connections gave us a place to stay, and a tour guide on our 5th and final day. Here’s what we did:

We got to sit and chat with people that lived in the area to hear what Brisbane was really about.
We visited a Koala Sanctuary and petted kangaroos
Checked out a lookout that gave an entire view of Brisbane
Got to the city and explored a lil bit
Took a trip in their version of the ‘London eye’

We then got lunch and a pack of beer for the airport, returned the vehicle and reminisced on our travels over the last 5 days and the experiences we really just had.

We were all in awe, grateful for the experiences we just shared and appreciative for being able to do so.

It was a full fledged road trip around a chunk of Australia successfully executed by a group of Caribbean young people.

Did we drive for two full days with 2 hour shifts and 10 -12 hr drives? Yes.

Would we do it all over again? In a heartbeat.

We then said our goodbyes to this wonderful country and headed back to New Zealand, the place we all called ‘home’.