Monthly Archives: April 2011

This is what Christina’s sat nav had on display in the morning.

The PA system on the boat woke everyone up at 6AM sharp, we all basically woke up and met up at the bar. It was at this point that we found out Nath had to share his tony room with a random guy, and gay jokes ensued.

Epic twisty roads.

Tassie was sunny. Cold in the shade and bitey hot under the sun. Perfect weather so we hit the twisties and Nath led us (yes his R36 is damn fast!) through some of the best roads I’ve ever driven. Sections of tight twisty roads, fast sweeping sections, you name it, Tassie has it.

View from one lookout.

VWGolf RPRSNT!

Another lookout with a glassy lake.

It was at this lookout that I spotted a picture where the guy holding a trout looked (to me) a lot like Cam. Funny thing was that Cam cracked up and thought so too. For the rest of the trip Cam was known as Tassie Cam!

We unfortunately came across a dirt road, but slowing down wasn’t so much a problem when there were views like this to be had.

It’s the me. Tassie Cam outside was being chased by a huge bumblebee (he was attacked by bee’s all week!).

After the twisties we headed into town to check-in. Fish and Chips at the wharf and of-course some local beer to wash it all down.

When we got to our Hotel (Hotel Charles) it turns out Porsche had chosen it to be the hotel of choice for their 60th Anniversary guests. Perfect!

Carerra GT – this thing was parked in the hotel foyer. I’ve never seen one in real life. Blew my socks off.

I made love to it with my camera, lol, seriously though, it’s art.

Our hotel room was small but cozy, the King size bed was extra comfy and it turns out the staff have all bought one as well, so too the Royal Family in England (note to self: must get the brand name off Nath!).

Our hotel carpark later that night. I creamed my pants pretty much.

Damn, so nice.

Fuuuuu.

We had dinner at the Black Cow which came highly recommended. I had the Rib Eye, dry hung, 21 days on the bone. The taste of their grill was epic, so was the cut of meat. As good as Rockpool on a good night.

Creme Brulee.

Nath cracking us up with some dirty stories from his time in the Navy. Yep that’s me crying with laughter.

So much belly laughter it hurt!

This is a shot of the group leaving the shell on the m5 towards Melbourne. Chris and Cam are in Chris’ red MKVI GTI. Jason’s alone in his MKIV GTI and Nath’s alone too in his R36 sedan.

Day 1 we got up ridiculously early. Jason met us at the beach and we started our drive out to the Shell/McDonalds at Suttons Forrest. To our surprise the sat nav system in Christina’s car was pretty damn accurate and despite the distance and lack of traffic we got there at 6.30AM on the dot.

In this photo Jason’s washing his car with multi-coloured car foam (very cool!).

Our sat nav systems forced us onto Sydney Road once we got into Melbourne city, the road was a 40 zone and there was heaps of traffic. Due to the long drive, tired eyes and traffic the boys got a little delirious and much walkie talkie laugther was had (we were all dialed into channel 33). We stopped off to wash our cars before meeting up with the Melbourne Crew.

Some of the VWGolf.net.au Melbourne guys + JDMST/Jtype guys met us at the infamous garage cafe where you’re welcome to park your car inside the venue (a cool concept which I wish existed in Sydney).

We had a meal (they serve up Indonesian food) which went down a treat. Despite being tired we were eneergised by meeting some new faces as well as catching up with the old. Cool guys, cool city.

One of the boys brought down his newly finished BMX which was loaded with NOS (new old stock) parts. Gotta love the fusion. Cars, bikes, all in!

We could have spent heaps more time with the Melbourne guys but we had to get going to load our cars up on the Spirit Of Tasmania.

It was a long wait getting the cars on, but it was exciting too and since we had walkie talkies we managed to make time fly faster by cracking silly jokes. It was at this point tht I decided to take 2 travel calm tablets “just in case”.

Into the boat we go.

SUGA’s final parking spot.

VW represent! Chris and Cam were parked just a few cars behind us.

The travel calm tablets I took absolutely wasted me. We were having a few drinks at the bar and they made me feel even worse. Christina and I both passed out early before anyone else. The boat rocked pretty hard at times in the night, amazing considering how massive the Spirit is.

3AM, we’re up and soon we’ll be off to start our journey to Tasmania!

First we’re hitting the M5, meeting up with the boys at the McDonalds/Shell in the middle then heading to Melbourne for a bite and Melbourne crew meet-up at Garage Cafe. Later tonight we’ll (our cars as well!) be aboard the Spirit of Tasmania and over the next few days we’ll be checking out Targa Tasmania, as well as doing our own scenic drives (looking forward to bringing back some nice wines too!).