Arapiles has been a highlight of the trip – the people here were super friendly with energy and drive that I had been missing rubbing shoulders with grey nomads for much of the rest of my journey. The evenings joining others to listen to Flamenco guitar and chew over wide ranging topics was fantastic.

Leaving Arapiles I headed SouthEast and arrived at Wannon Falls late avo having picked up supplies at Coleraine. Met some really friendly folk along the way and the roads were quiet which was nice.

The next day provided challenging conditions as a cold front came through drenching me as I left Hamilton and providing drizzle and strong crosswinds for much of the day. Reaching Mortlake I decided to make the most of a local campground.

Tuesday saw me on little used roads and an unexpected 500m climb up Lavers hill to see me wild camped behind the Ferguson hall and tennis courts. Beech forest!!! looked like Mountain beech back home and was welcomed and made for nice memories and hoped for reacquaintance with Kaweka/Kaimanawa Beech in the coming months.

Wednesday saw me descend to the coast and make the most of the regenerative braking to fill the batteries again down to the Great Ocean Road which was narrow and busy 🙁 but beautiful of course. The day ended in Geelong at a motor camp.

Thursday was a mixed bag with some busy roads, quite a lot of dedicated cycle tracks through Melbourne with random track closed parts that made for dodgy routes to get myself back on the bike path again. Looking at my recorded track I could certainly have ridden a more efficient route but I suppose it was all part of the journey to explore the place. I rocked in to “Days Walk Farm” early afternoon which is the WWOOFing property that I am at now. It is quite close to the southern approach to Melbourne airport with planes overhead every few minutes which keep me focused on the trip back to NZ on Thursday 17th. I have found a bike box and got the bike and trailer all packed up ready. As I write this it is Tuesday avo so only tomorrow to work on the farm and then one of my co-workers will drop me off at the airport first thing Thursday – a 10 minute drive.

All going well my next post will be a wrap up of the Australian journey with thoughts on what gear worked and what I want to change. My thoughts on the coming months and where I intend to travel to next.
If any of you reading this are interested in anything that others may be interested in then let me know and I’ll attempt to include it.