Sunday 19 June 2016

Melbourne - Indented head

So here we are again in Melbourne Australia, but this time we are at the furthest point from the city at the tip of Indented Head. Our flight from New Zealand took about 5 hours and cost 490 NZD (today's exchange rate £240) for two people with Air New Zealand.

When we arrived in Melbourne airport we were greeted by border control and pulled to one side. We had no idea why we were asked to stand and wait for an officer, the lady at border control must have been new and was asking for help. After a few moments of standing there wondering what was going on, we were met by the most rude and obnoxious man I have ever met. There was no introduction as to who he was or what was going on, he just stood there with his arms folded asking why we wanted to come back to Australia?! Now we were surprised to be stopped as we had stuck to our visa terms and left Australia after 3 months and returned after what we thought was ample time of 6 weeks, but this guy stood in front of me, telling me he knows the rules and wasn't explaining them to me, I was getting annoying. He was telling us that 6 weeks was not long enough out of Australia but when asked what is a suggestible amount of time he didn't have an answer. After 20 minutes of him looking through our phones and contacting previous house sits he let us through on the basis that we get a visa extension? WHAT!! you can not get a visa extension on the E - visa we had? he clearly didn't know what he was talking about and power had gone to his head! So we went to get our bags and met up with Jim to start out next house sit. 

With everything that happened at border control we decided to get the train to city, from Geelong. This cost us $50 AUD (today's exchange rate £26) for two people, return. It took us about an hour and then another hour looking for the immigration office. When we got to the office we explained what had happened and could we get some confirmation that we had the correct visa, but the office told us that yes we are in the right leaving every 3 months and returns, but there was no guide lines as to how long you should stay out of Australia on each visit, it is all up to the person at border control in the airport. This to me is ridiculous, we abide by the rules but immigration can not set out clear guidelines. What if the person at border control has had a rubbish day, he can be really awkward and deny entry! Come on Australia sort it out. If you think 3 months is long enough to see Australia why offer a 12 month visa? Set a time limit on re-entering Australia, its not hard!!!!

Note - Print out your visa requirements so you have them handy if you get into a situation like us. Also take peoples names as reference.


The main town to us without going into Melbourne city itself was Geelong. It had everything to offer from shopping to eating out and had a good cinema there too, although the bigger screens are the better ones. The town was about 45 minutes drive from indented head and had plenty of shops along the high street and a lovely walk along the pier. There is also a Botanic Gardens close to the center.





The drive to Indented Head  from Geelong is filled with winery's. There are many that offer restaurants on the vineyards as well as wine tasting. The one we were recommended was Peter Rabbit Winery. Also look out for small markets along the way selling fresh seafood, we got 1kg of mussels for $5 AUD (today's exchange rate £3) and they were very tasty.








Of course I think the main attraction in Melbourne is the Great Ocean Road. We joined the road at Torquay and as you will know spans for quite a long way so we didn't drive it all, but there was plenty to look at from status in the sand to the large cliffs which wind along the ocean.





We were in Melbourne for 4 weeks with too lovely dogs, Ralph the Labrador and Bess the Boxer. They were such lovely nature dogs and we really enjoyed looking after them. Although there is not much in Indented Head we are glad we chose the house sit here because I don't think it would have been an area we would have come to if not. Next week we will be back in New Zealand at Wanganui. 

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