On Tuesday two of our friends came to Sydney from Melbourne to spend some time with us before they go back to Melbourne for their return flight (about a week later from our flight). When they had settled in to their hostel, we gathered in our hotel room to figure out the plan for the day.
I’ve been wanting to come to Sydney for almost 20 years now, I think. I don’t actually know how long I’ve wanted to do so, but as long as I can remember, I’ve been wanting to see the Sydney Opera House. I am so, so glad my friend agreed to extend our trip to Australia so that we had time to come here to do some extra sightseeing. The main destination in my notes, of course, was to see the Opera House.
Saturday and the end of WIMA International Rally 2015 came faster than I would have thought. It can only mean that I had a great week as time just flew by. The day started with the parade through town. We tried to decorate our motorhome with flags as well, and the only thing we could come up with was to put one large Finnish flag between the door to the back of the car. We tied the corners into knots and then put some rope to make sure the wind couldn’t pull it out while we drove. We also hanged one flag inside to the back window.
The Rally had Friday as a free day. We decided to use the day by looking around Phillip Island. One of the things I had wanted to do the whole time we’ve been here was to visit the Phillip Island Wildlife Park, and S wanted to visit the Grand Prix Circuit.
After breakfast on Thursday, we got ready to drive to the Wilsons Promontory. It’s a peninsula that forms the southernmost part of the Australian mainland. There is also a national park and views to stare at for hours. We only spent about three to four hours there, because we needed to get back to Phillip Island before 7pm as we were going to see the Penguin Parade.
After the welcome dinner and official start of the WIMA International Rally on Monday evening, we decided to leave after breakfast on Tuesday to make our way to the Great Ocean Road and the main attraction of our day: the 12 Apostles. We also wanted to try to get to the Grampians National Park to spend the night there before getting back to Phillip Island on Wednesday afternoon after walking around the park first.
It’s a bit hard to realize we’re actually in Australia right now with S, as this trip has been in the making since May. All that time of planning and waiting, and finally we’re here!
We decided it would be best to try to stay awake on Friday, instead of sleeping for a couple of hours and then waking up after 3am so that we would be on time at the airport after 4am. Our flight was scheduled to leave Helsinki at 6:40am for Berlin, and I think we left on time. At least the boarding started when they said, so after 6:05am we had to take a bus to the plane. The morning was quite cold and foggy. We didn’t have jackets with us, so the cool morning made us a bit more alert, haha. I couldn’t really sleep on the first flight and there was no movies to watch, so I listened to some music and tried to doze off.
