So we were invited to attend one of Whit's former co-worker's weddings in the Outback. After much debate, we decided it was one of those "once in a lifetime" events that we simply could not rationalize missing out on.
After realizing what a long flight it is to Australia (14 hours going west, 16 hours going east), we decided to make the most of our visit and try to see as much as possible. Whit saved up all her vacation and personal days for 2009 and we planned our 16 day voyage.
We flew from Phoenix to San Francisco to Sydney, spent 2.5 days touring around Sydney and then "hired" (rented) a car to drive to Melbourne. The drive was estimated to take 10+ hours so we decided we'd divide the trip in half and find somewhere to stay in between. We were not in any sort of hurry to get to Melbourne, so we hopped on and off the Hume Highway at our leisure visiting small towns, wineries, and other dots on the map when we wanted to.
We stayed the night in a small town called Wagga Wagga, which we can officially say has Australia's WORST Mexican food. I don't think we've ever paid so much for food so terrible before. So if you ever find yourself in Wagga Wagga, DO NOT eat at Montezuma's.
After our night in Wagga Wagga, we hopped back in our little car and headed to Melbourne to meet Whit's college friend, Jenny Chambers (formerly Jenny Muth). Along the way we stumbled across a FANTASTIC brewery in Beechworth (Bridge Road Brewery) where we didn't meet any beer we didn't like. We hopped back on the road and ran into a DELICIOUS winery (Sam Miranda Winery) in Snow Valley. Eventually we made it to Melbourne in time to meet Jenny for dinner. We spent 2.5 days in Melbourne touring around in the rain. Fortunately, the rain held off long enough for us to attend the Footie Finals at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds. Jenny came to the game with us and served as our unofficial footie interpreter - what a bizarre sport.
On our final morning in Melbourne, we headed back to the airport and waited for our flight to Perth to meet up with the wedding party...
