The intention was to get up and leave the hostel bright and early. Laura and I were in search of a rental car. The mission: get her bridesmaid dress fitted and ready for shipment to Canada.
Is it completely impossible to get a decent price on a same day rental without all the hidden fees? I guess their advertising works since we went to all the places that advertised $30 rentals. Funny how those weren't available and the only thing they had was way more. So we went to the cheapest place only because we could return it late tonight and it was cheaper than other places. Off we went to a sketchy mall north of the airport and Laura got the dress done!
We went out to the parking lot, got into the car and.... nothing. The car wouldn't start!!! Battery dead, caput! What the hell are we gonna do?? We were out of the city. Laura looked at me and realized I wouldn't have a clue of what to do, I'm passenger/navigator material only. We got out of the car and stood in front of it and just stared. Anybody gonna give us a boost? Anybody? We went for the stereotypical search for a man to help us. We didn't think that Mama and her baby were gonna cut it (sorry ladies, the feminist in me failed and I let this decision go Laura's way). One of us had good karma or a horseshoe up their ass because a minute later we see a truck pull in with "Battery Repair" written on the side of the truck. Are you kidding me?! It was the local RACV guy (think CAA roadside assistance) taking his break at the mall or something. Laura went over and asked for a boost and he (thankfully) said yes! Ten minutes later we were ready to get back on the road and didn't charge us.
We decided to test our luck and continued North. Along the freeway we saw a sign for a winery along the way so we thought we would stop off there. Goona Warra Winery. It was small and cute but very quiet. We took a quick walk around the winery and got ready to continue the drive. We got back in the car and... nothing! The bloody battery was dead again, or so we thought. Laura called the rental company this time and complained because it had only been a couple of hours and they gave us a shit car. They told us to call up RACV on their dime and all we hoped was that it wasn't the same guy from the mall boost. Not our fault but that still would have been embarrassing! Luckily not, he did something or other and said it was the modulator (is that a real thing)? *stunned look again* Uh, ok, whatever. Are we gonna breakdown again?? That's all we cared about. No one likes to have a car breakdown but who wants it to happen in a foreign country, english speaking or not? The secret was to lock and unlock the car with the little clicker thingamabob instead of the key.Seriously? Yeah, seriously. That's what Laura had to continue to do throughout the day.
Next stop on the agenda was Hanging Rock. There was a story turned movie about a group of girls that went up on Valentine's Day in 1900 for a picnic. Throughout the day, word is that a few disappeared never to come back. Sounds like a good reason to go check it out. En route we came across a field with cows we hadn't seen before and actually stopped to take a picture. Can we say tourist?! Next on the animal viewing was an alpaca. We didn't know until we made the mistake of stopping on someone's driveway to take a picture. Turned out to be a one way drive of sorts and they were coming at us. They looked annoyed. We backed out and before we made it all the way out, cranky-ass lady got out of her car, came over and just stood over Laura in the driver's seat. Laura mentioned that we were heading to Hanging Rock and that we just stopped to see the animal and we didn't know what it was. Laura being her bubbly self, cheery, yanno, Canadian, Aussie's love Canadians! Cranky-ass lady wasn't as cheery and just said "it's an alpaca - hanging rock is that way". We understood the look and it meant get off my damn driveway and don't come back! Almost ruined our day - we found our first mean Aussie!
Along the winding roads and steep inclines we drove through the Macedon Ranges to Mt Macedon and finally to Hanging Rock. We got a work out climbing Hanging Rock but it was worth it. It was a great view and the only thing that would have been better is if the rain would go away. We could see that the sun was trying to peak through the clouds. Guess what we saw as we walked along the path - a cute wallaby! He was just sitting there eating berries. I should say - Laura had to point him out. I was lo
oking the other way and all she said was "get your camera out!" I don't think I've ever been that close to an animal in the wild. I'm a city girl remember? He didn't run from us and let us take way too many pictures trying to get the perfect one. I think the only reason he finally hopped away was because he was bored with us.Overall a really nice day out of the city and I finally took some pictures. Lovely scenery and good laughs after the crazy car stress. I really need to learn the tricks of my camera and get creative. I see too many people with stunning pictures and I realize how amateur I really am. I guess that's one way to make use of my time! In the meantime, be happy with these.
For more pictures from the day click * here *
