Bellarine to Mornington Peninsula

After a weekend of much laughter with Ros and Pete, good wine and great appreciation of the beautiful Bellarine Peninsula we caught the 11.00 o'clock car ferry this morning, from Queenscliff over to Sorrento Pier on the Mornington Peninsula.

 We hadn't realised before today that the Spirit of Tasmania sails this close to the peninsula on its way back to Melbourne Port.

 Heading into Sorrento Pier the surroundings looked very "North Shore".

 We drove straight off the car ferry (after a very smooth 45min. trip) and headed over to Sorrento Back Beach - facing out to wild old Bass Strait (but looking very mild today).

 We had lunch at Itali.Co on the esplanade at Sorrento and enjoyed wood fired pizza, calzone and linguini - and a fair portion of Italian attitude too from some of the wait staff...... still, when in Rome!!!

We drove around the bay then, heading NE to Mount Martha, through Blairgowrie, Rye Rosebud and Dromana.  All these beaches are popular summer holiday haunts for Melbournites. We stopped at Rosebud and checked out the distinctive waterfront area and pier............

We made it to our Airbnb at Mount Martha by 3.00pm and spent the rest of the afternoon settling in, stocking the pantry and working out a plan for tomorrow.  Our accommodation is clean and comfortable but suffers in comparison to our luxurious accommodation at Highton with Ros and Pete. Oh well, when in Rome .............

Bellarine Peninsula

We had a guided tour of the Bellarine Peninsula today. First stop was the iconic Bells Beach, on the Great Ocean Road near Torquay. Although this picture makes it look pretty deserted there were actually hundreds of surfers here and the carparks were full of people chasing some of the best surfing waves in Australia (or people like us looking at the beautiful lines of even wave breaks from afar).

We then drove back along the coast through Torquay and on to Barwon Heads, where we just had to check out Diver Dan's place from our fave "Sea Change" series from all those years ago. It's a very crowded waterfront cafe these days.... way too crowded for us to tackle this morning!

 More very familiar scenes from "Sea Change" (Pearl Bay) ................

 Next stop was the historic village of Queenscliff - time for great coffee from Saltbush Fine Foods and a chance to check out the ferry terminal for tomorrow's trip to the Mornington Peninsula.

The Bellarine Peninsula produces great wines too (cool climate maritime) and Ros had booked us lunch with Erin, John, Sam and Lili, at one of the best wineries of the region : Jack Rabbit Vineyard

 The vineyard cafe and restaurant overlook the bay across to Geelong, the You Yangs and Melbourne - an absolutely stunning outlook ........

 Lili has a birthday later this month so it was a great opportunity to deliver her presents in person this year!

 But it wasn't fair to leave Sammy out of the birthday fun - so we made sure he had deliveries too.

  

 Sam (and Lili) got almost as much fun out of playing with the gift's box as he did out of the gift itself!

These two gorgeous kids coped really well with our three hour long leisurely lunch, keeping us all entertained with their games and endless energy.

We saw such a range of stunning landscapes today in this beautiful part of our country. We can really see how lucky Ros and Pete are to have chosen it as their new home.

Geelong

We've travelled all over the world - but never been to the bayside city of Geelong before.  We drove most of yesterday, an easy (but long) drive on the Hume Highway, skirting Melbourne city until Ms Google found our way to Ros and Pete's new home in the riverside suburb of Highton.

We've loved what we've seen so far of Geelong: hilly, upmarket Highton, gorgeous river walks, character filled Pakington Street in Newtown and glorious Corio Bay ...........

 It was windy and very cool today. We didn't come prepared for this weather after weeks and weeks of over 35oC in Canberra. But that's Victoria.. if you don't like the weather you only have to wait 5 minutes and it will most likely change - but it's stayed windy and very cool ALL DAY today.

 Fresh mussels have been everywhere on the menu today!

 I thought these camels were a very exotic sight on Eastern Beach today!

 We worked hard to avoid thinking these were a team of Tony Abbotts..... but he's rarely seen in Victoria these days (thank goodness).

 This pair make wonderful hosts. It is so good to see they have really landed on their feet in Geelong Victoria!

 The "ocean pool" at Eastern Beach - pretty deserted today in these very cool windy conditions...........

 We ate well today: lunch at The Sailors' Rest - opposite the Geelong Pier and then an afternoon beer at the big, bold and buzzy Little Creatures Brewery in Swanston Street.

Lobster lunch (lucky 13)

We all look forward to our annual lobster lunch weekends at beautiful Rosedale. Judy and Jurgen are supremely generous hosts and the gorgeous Rosedale setting creates a special kind of magic for these get togethers . 

But of course it's also about the food!! ……………………

The gorgeous Jane and Louise no longer cater for our lobster lunches (sob sob) but they did something absolutely amazing for us this year …. personally delivering one of  their stunning Bombe desserts ….. as a lovely gift for us. How lucky are we!

Lunch started bang on 12.00 yesterday (as planned) with the opening of the Majella and Jennie's appetizers on show (gorgeous flavours: fig, mushrooms, pesto, duck - yum!)  

 James and Fiona had "crossed the ditch" to be with us this year - and did their usual fabulous job with the Clyde River oysters entrée.

But our lunch is all about the celebration of the lobster (BTW we all know it's about more than that - especially celebrating friendship!). 

The lobster this year was stunning; luscious and brimming with flavours of the sea. I really enjoyed the Tyrell's Hunter Valley Semillons served with it too (both from 2009 and each with its own special character) 

 With the lobster devoured the Bombe emerged for dessert - plated up with plums and syrup and sparklers for Jurgen's birthday!

 Jurgen allowed all the February - March birthday boys and girls to join the Bombe fun. Maxie was invited to join too - just because!

And so ended another wonderful lobster lunch - taking many hours, many bottles of wine and many topics of conversation and laughter covered. And we're sitting outside at Rosedale, constantly reminded of the amazing and unique environment surrounding us …... 

 You can hear the surf as a constant backdrop to the noise of parrots and kookaburras and the rustle of trees in the breeze.  This is Judy and Jurgen's backyard view...…….

 Talk about generous hosts, Judy and Jurgen invited us all for a sleepover on Sunday night - meaning no need to drive home over Clyde Mt after all that amazing food and wine - and more time to share the company of this gorgeous group of people.

A late afternoon walk along Rosedale's pristine beach is another tradition of our lobster lunch weekends.

 And there were more walks (and swims) on the beach this morning - another perfect day on the south coast. We rounded off our Rosedale stay this year with a very long lunch at the Mossy Café. We spent hours eating more great food, good coffee and continuing hilarious conversations about tennis stars, favourite(?) politicians and family dramas, with a few well directed character assassinations thrown in for good measure. 

I wish we could see this wonderful group of people more often and spend many more happy hours in their company, but thank you Judy and Jurgen for making all this happen for us THIRTEEN times already. 

Can't wait for the next one!