Monthly Archives: October 2015

Road Tripping in Australia

Hi friends! I’m Courtney and I blog over at Alkeks Abroad. My husband and I moved from Houston, Texas to Brisbane, Australia a little over a year ago and I write all about our life and travels in the land down under.

Since we are here for my husband’s job we really don’t know for sure how much time we will have in Australia, so we are trying to do and see as much as we can of this amazing country while we are here. One good way to see a new part of the country is to rent a car (or drive your own) and get out on the open road.

We have taken two weekend road trips in other states since we have been here, and this weekend we are taking off to Tasmania to make that three! So for the sake of reminiscing and to get me even more pumped for the weekend, here are my favorites from our last two trips.

Trip 1: The Great Ocean Road

We have had this on our imaginary Australia bucket list since we moved here, and in March we finally got to tick it off. For those of you that don’t know The Great Ocean Road is a 151 miles drive down the coast of Victoria. It starts an hour and half outside of Melbourne and ends in a small town of Warambool.

We left early from Melbourne on a Saturday morning and returned straight back to the airport the following afternoon after spending the night in a quaint little cottage (pictured below). You can really make the trip as long or as short as you want it. Some people do it all in one day and others take weeks spending time in each destination. Here are some of our highlights:

BellsBeach

Anglesea

airleys2
aireys

lochard

cottage
apollo

waterfall

National parks, gorgeous rolling hills and a stunning coastline? This drive has something for everyone. To read more about the Great Ocean Drive, check out my guide here.

Trip #2: South Australia Wine Country

We love a good glass of wine around our house (or apartment actually) so the wine regions in the state of South Australia had been on our radar for quite some time. My husband works in Adelaide pretty frequently so we decided to have me meet him there at the end of the week and head out to see some vineyards.

There are 18 different wine regions in South Australia and over 200 cellar doors, so we had our work cut out for us. We headed out from Adelaide and first spent time driving through the McLaren Vale Region, which was absolutely picturesque in the crisp fall weather.

McLarenVale4

CourtneyCoriole

Corielle

Next up was the famous Barossa Valley– where we spent two nights. It was the middle of the Barossa Valley Vintage Festival which is a big community celebration throughout the entire region. We had fun seeing all the locals out in full force celebrating their town and livelihood.

DSC_0213

DSC_0133

Last was the Adelaide Hills region, which along with vineyards there were apple orchards lining the roads as well. We stopped in the cutest little German town for lunch before heading home (nine bottles of wine heavier).

DSC_0419

adelaidehillsapple

adelaidehills5

I can’t wait to see the scenery that Tasmania has to offer this weekend. We will be creeping up the East coast of the island and checking out the tulip festival before heading back to Hobart. Feel free to follow along via Instagram or Snapchat (@courtneyalkek for both). Happy Travel Tuesday!