Driving 5000km in 9 days in just under $1250

by Norman Leibovitz

Me

 

So this is me

Kent

 

and this is Kent!

Our trusty Mitsubishi Outlander!

We have decide to do a road trip in Australia, so we rented a SUV and this is our Car, it’s a mitsubishi outlander 2.4!

Checking in!

This trip kinda start out with Kent when he was still in Arizona, USA. I’m suppose to like go over to find him and tour the few states with him, but as i was still in NS, i could only get max 9 days leave(maximise) and i felt that going to USA would not be the best options as get there and back is already 2 days gone, nothing much can be done in 7 days.

He would be back when i ORD, so USA is a no go.. So….

Blue skies!

We started planning our trip to Australia..

Initial Planning Stage

So all went according to plan except at the last min, we’ve decided not to go over to Adelaide because that would making going to Brisbane super far like more then 24hr drive. We have to make a last min cancel on our Airbnb host and try to make a last min booking at Brisbane.

Actual

And this is our actual route! Yes, that route from Melbourne up to Brisbane, we’ve seen sunset and sunrise twice. More story on it below!

Back on the road!

The roads are really driving perfect road, where it’s just one straight road down and perfect flowers and grass(not in picture) by the sides with sheep and cow grazing the grass with nice road users and occasional kangaroos and wombats (road hazard)  ❤

Taking the wheel

Always have awesome drinks in the car!

First thing we did was to dash to Woolworth/Coles to grab snacks/food/drinks that are on discounts LOL! The discount in the stores are REAL! It’s like literally slashed by more then half or more! You get super excited when you see those food that you want to eat with the yellow tags LOL! Just only.

Lunch

Since time is not on our hand, we can’t really do much stops and have to pack lunch from the supermarket and eat on the road! Mainly breads and meat! But we also do stop by once a day at restaurant to eat different types of food(i.e fish and chips, pizza, burger, japan, korean and different different types of different food). The thing about Australia is that they don’t really have a “Australia food” so, it make food choice kinda boring as we have those food here in Singapore too!

Pepper and I

This is our first Airbnb @ Wangi Wangi!! John, our host, is really nice and that’s his dog, together with three other cats, played a really nice host to us. We booked a single room, queen size bed, but john is nice enough to let us use two rooms, as they are empty! The picture below is the room that we stayed in, His apartment is located on top of this super steep hill and at the immediate back, it’s like forest! LOL

Our bed at Wangi Wangi!

Living Hall

And that’s his living hall! That’s on top! He sleeps below!! We even made use of the kitchen! Whip up some awesome buffalos wings to go with the beer!! Goes damn well with the super cold weather!

Sydney Opera House

Sydney was not one of our stop point because, sadly, I visited Sydney just a week before this trip! LOL! So we’ve decided to just pass by and skip this beautiful city! And Kent wanted to see the opera house, so here we go! But we have only like a good 30mins to see this place because the parking is SO EXPENSIVE!! like 1hr AUD15 or more, can’t remember..

Been here twice in two weeks!

3 hours drive later, we reached our new Airbnb apartment!!

Driveway to our Airbnb in Canberra!

Okay.. I only managed to take a photo of the driveway just before we go because I forgot to take picture of the apartment! LOL! It was like 10pm when we reached and the whole place was like dark! The next day we just kind of like pack out bags and moved on to tour around and then to the next location!

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Some of the scenic view we had at random rest stop along the highway, going towards Melbourne!

Found this in a random rest stop!

We found this waterfall on Google Maps and just decide to make a little detour to take a look. Although it’s not like “wah, sibei swee” or what but it’s nonetheless breath taking! We just took our shoes off and soak in the ice-cold water!

Found a random national park! Waterfall!

Spot me!

^^

Bolte Bridge in Melbourne!

We then proceed down to Melbourne! It was pretty dark when we arrive, so we quickly checked in with our Airbnb host and went to bed! LOL Yeah, we sleep like alotttttt this trip! Driving is very mentally draining! LOL Out host was asleep when we reach and we had to spam call her to wake her up! LOL! Thankfully he managed to wake up from her beauty sleep and open the door for us. Then we quickly settle in as it was like 8 degrees outside >.<

And the next day, we met up with Kent’s primary school friend for lunch at this restaurant which serves like awesome thai food !

We didn’t have much time to spend at Melbourne as we’re kind of trying to get on to The Great Ocean Road, to reach the twelve Apostles by sunset to capture the postcard photo of it ;v

Well, for the next few images, you’re suppose to be looking at some real awesome pictures of the sunset at the twelve apostles! LOL But yes, as you can guessed it, yes went we reach, it was like dark dark LOL The sun sets really early >.< So below are some of the shots we managed to capture!

The Great Ocean Road!

LULZ! Along the road to the Light House!

So along the way to the twelve apostles, we just randomly stopped whenever we see some sign that says some beach and stuff with a vantage point! Surprisingly those were the ones with the better view LOL

Somewhere along The Great Ocean Road!

 

The Grotto

The Grotto, it’s one of the beautiful place that we’ve visited!! Look!! It’s a sinkhole formation located just off port campbell! Super beautiful!

“London Bridge’

By the time we reach this the twelve apostles, it was already dark! But thankfully we stayed at Airbnb mansion nearby and we made another detour back!

The Twelve Apostle (left)

The Twelve Apostle (right)

So the pictures you seen above was from the next morning!

And if you’re wondering why the Brighton Bath House pictures are here and not above, don’t worry! HAHA I’m not crazy, i’m just a little bit unwell.

That’s because we actually edit our plan! We intend to head for Adelaide this morning, after the visit to the twelve apostles! But then we wanted to head to Brisbane to meet Clara instead, and going to Adelaide and then to Brisbane would cause us a crazy amount of driving time(more then 29 hours) and we’re talking like non-stop driving.

So after considering, for a while, we’ve decide that we should just head straight to Brisbane directly(22 hours) and in the meanwhile, we’re able to re-visit the Brighton Bath House, which we missed the other day we’re at Melbourne!

Brighton Bath House!

It was about 6-ish PM when we reach.. so the lighting is not that great for photo taking~ Just managed to capture just a few shots before the place became dark.

Brighton Bath House at Dawn

Beautiful hur..

Million Stars at 3am under 2 degrees @.@

This image was taken at about 2-3am in the morning! We just stopped by the rest stop, feeling groggy from the lack of sleep and braved the 2 degrees weather and head out to capture the picture with the stars!! The whole area was so pitch black =O So awesome!

No Milky Way ;(

And sadly, we can’t see the awesome patch of milky way ;( But nonetheless, the pictures we got with the stars is kinda awesome!!

After 22hours of non-stop driving later (We swap drivers every 2-3 hours and take turns so sleep) we finally reach Brisbane!!

As this was a very impromptu decision we make to skip Adelaide and head straight for Brisbane, we didn’t have a place to stay and we even had to cancel our apartment that we booked at Adelaide!

Kangaroo Selfie!

First stop, visiting the cute animals at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary!! We didn’t have much chance to visit any animals, EXCEPT the plentiful wombat and kangaroos carcasses and mince meat along the side of the highway ;(

Oh, btw, we just randomly asked if we get like discount for military personnel. Lo and Behold! We saved more then half the price!!

Whoa Whoa Whoa

Over here, you get to interact with the animals up close! You can even feed them, touch them, lift them and do whatever you want ;V! How awesome is that!

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Look at how muscular this guy is! LOL!

Look at that muscles!!

Emu!

Koala!

❤ ❤ ❤

LOL Damn cute! The previous trip to Sydney, we didn’t get to be so up close with one! But the experience with this one is really different! We get to really touch it! And if you like to carry it, it’s also much much cheaper!

Wild Lizard!

This lizard just creep up casually behind us @.@ So cute

Kookaburra sitting on a old gum tree!

That’s like a half rat that the kookaburra is eating! How cool is that! LOL

After we’re done with the kangaroos, we went over to Clara’s hostel to pick her up! She then brought us around the area! Pretty cool!

Met up with Clara!

University of Queensland! Feels like we’re shooting for some posters for movies like “The Fault in Our Stars” or some sort HAHA!

University of Queensland!

Can I study here too? ❤

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Coincidentally, that night it was also the Riverfire 2015 – Brisbane Festival! They have like the night of celebration and even fireworks!

So, we got ahead of ourselves and went to the highest point in Brisbane hoping to get the best view of the fireworks! LOL! Look at what we got! Tiny fireworks Zz

Brisbane Riverfire!

Well, all in all this trip was kind of really fun! And we had lots of different experiences! Most importantly, we’re able to keep the budget low! Which is really a great part of the trip!

Along the way we also met many friends that were studying overseas! How awesome is that!

If you have any enquiries, feel free to drop me a PM!

Till then,
Norman Leibovitz