Oz Pre-departure Planning

I have traveled to Australia on business 10 or 12 times in the last 15 years. Usually fly in to Sydney or Melbourne, spend a couple of days in meetings and fly back home and try to recover from jet lag. Since my trip in June ’11 will almost certainly be my last business trip, I have decided to take an extra 10 days before my meetings and drive from Sydney south along the coast to Melbourne and then along the Great Ocean Road to Warnabool and then back to Melbourne for my meetings. On my first business trip to Australia, Virginia joined me and we spent some time driving to the Hunter Valley and around the Sydney area and then flew up to Cairns and spent a week on Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef. That trip was magic and ignited a love for Oz that I have never shaken; good food and wines, stunning country-sides, beautiful beaches and a killer national cricket team. Pretty compelling! Since that first trip, with all the best intentions in the world, I have never managed to get to the interior or to the West Coast or the deep North. However, 10 days is all the time I have, so it will have to suffice.

All reservations are complete; flights, car and hotels at each end. Will make reservations on the road on a “catch as catch can” basis and try to keep this journal posted daily.