Dateline March 2, 2015, Melbourne to Sydney

Goodbye, Robinsons.

We enjoyed our final breakfast at Robinsons with Stanley saying his goodbyes. We packed the car and Paul gave us directions to the M-1. His suggestion for the first night was Metung, a delightful small fishing village where Paul's family had summered when he was a boy. Being mid-week and school vacations over, Paul thought it would be easy to get accommodations all the way to Sydney.

Metung.

We tried to find the "I" booth, which was in a local store and not open. We went to a place up the street called The Moorings. They had a beautiful two-bedroom unit on the water, with a great deck out in front. We took it and immediately fixed a few cocktails to celebrate. Well, anything, really.

Paul had told us there was a great pub overlooking the water, so we headed out for dinner, walking the beach boardwalk to the pub in the Metung Hotel. Delightful.

Lakes Entrance and the Bega Valley picnic.

We wanted to play golf along the way, so we headed out toward the town of Eden. The owner of The Moorings had suggested we stop in Lakes Entrance for fresh prawns. We thought they would go great with the leftover steak from the night before and the last bottle of Lambert Estate sparkling wine. We stopped at a state forest in the Bega Valley.

Lunch was wonderful. Prawns, steak, and Lambert bubbly. What more could you want?

In the Garden of Eden.

Following lunch we headed into Eden, listening to the Iron Butterfly seventeen-minute rendition of "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," which, drugged-and-drunken slurring translated into normal English, becomes "In the Garden of Eden."

We walked around town trying to find rooms at a motel or B&B without success, then drove down the road to the Golf View Motel across from the course. As John put it, the bed was a $79 bed. We had a few drinks at the picnic table, then went across the street to the Eden Country Club. The place was packed. We think the whole town was there, eating, drinking, or gambling. Go figure: the menu was Chinese. Not bad.

Eden Golf Club.

The next morning we drove across the street to the Eden Golf Club for our 8:30 tee time. In the pro shop, the pro told us they did have kangaroos and they were friendlier than the ones at Anglesea, and off we went. Not long after starting we began to see tens of kangaroos lying down on the fairways and others feeding on the grass. Amazing. We saw a female with the joey sleeping in her pouch, head dangling. We continued to play. The course was in fantastic condition and an excellent test of golf. We passed another mom kangaroo and the joey's feet were hanging out of the pouch — feeding, we guessed.

Anchors Aweigh.

After golf we took off for Narooma. Nick at Eden Golf Club had told us it was a great course and not to miss it. Just before we left the motel, Janice had searched for a place to stay in Narooma, not wanting another $79 bed, and she had found a B&B called Anchors Aweigh. We arrived around dinner time and met Heather and Kerry. Kerry and Pete hit it off immediately. Kerry also flies remote-controlled planes for a hobby.

We had learned that the golf club could not get us out until one o'clock, so we made a quick decision. Unanimous: stay at Anchors Aweigh for two nights.

Heather recommended we have dinner at the Inlet restaurant. It was right down on the harbor, and the food was excellent.

Looking for manta rays.

The next morning, John and Janice took a ride into town. John needed some additional medication at the pharmacy, and the pharmacist provided it as an "emergency prescription," so a doctor's script was not necessary. We picked up Bunny and Pete and went for a ride around town.

We were looking for the manta rays. Janice thought we were looking for manatees. We found neither, but we did find some lovely scenery and rock formations.

We later found out that the manta rays were near the boardwalk.

Narooma Golf Club, and the crow.

We arrived at Narooma Golf Club and checked in for our tee time. The pro gathered carts for us; the morning was a championship round for the men, so carts were scarce.

We got to the third hole, a par 3 from cliff to cliff. It was magnificent. This hole is considered one of the most beautiful in all of Australia.

As we approached the green, a crow was playing with John's yellow golf ball, moving it about three feet. We laughed and moved the ball back. Two holes later we approached John's ball, and a different crow picked it up in its beak and flew out over the ocean. No more ball.

As we pulled to the next tee, the gentlemen ahead of us told us they had an orange ball that one of the crows had flown away with. John went to a white ball without any more problems.

The bridge.

The first seven and last two holes are on the water; the others are in the forest — the Aussies call it the bush. After the 7th hole, we had to take our things out of the cart, carry our clubs and personal items across a bridge that could not support a cart, and load them onto a different cart on the other side to play holes 8 through 15. We were all wondering if it was strong enough to hold us.

Breathtaking scenery and dramatic golf — these words encapsulate what Narooma Golf Club has to offer.
— Brendan James, editor of Golf Australia

We cannot say enough about this course. The condition was perfect, every lie in the fairway was perfect, and the greens rolled beautifully.

Dinner, and the train in the walls.

That evening we went to dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant in town. Thank God we shared meals because the portions were enormous.

The next morning's breakfast by Kerry was scrumptious, and we learned about their travels in the US. Kerry was an information technology executive who specialized in logistics. Both Kerry and Heather were collectors, and the bed and breakfast was full of endless collections.

A favorite story was about the "expressway table." Apparently, when they were driving from Washington DC, Heather saw a garage sale and told Kerry to get off the road because she just knew there was a table she wanted. Guess what: there was.

There is a train that operates on a set of tracks that hangs from the ceiling, going from room to room through the walls. There are wonderful collections of coins and buttons and many other items, including a baby carriage with Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

The kookaburras on the porch.

Janice was sitting on the front porch with Heather, looking at the rainbow parrots, when they saw kookaburras up on the electric wires. The pair had two chicks. Awesome.

We had a wonderful stay with Kerry and Heather. If you are heading up or down the coast between Sydney and Narooma, this is a must-place to stay. Thanks to Kerry and Heather.

The drive to Sydney.

Our drive to Sydney from Narooma was to be about four hours, with a few points of interest along the way, plus lunch.

We headed to the Blow Hole in Kiama, a place that Heather had told us we could not miss. We stayed as close to the ocean as we could as we drove north on the highway.

We arrived in Kiama, a beautiful seaside resort town, and drove out to the lighthouse and the blow hole. Then we changed drivers, so Pete the wheelman could take us into Sydney and fight the city traffic.

We arrived at our last hotel of the trip, The Russell Hotel, on the Rocks. We returned the car to Avis and completed the 4,200 miles of driving between New Zealand and Australia.