Melbourne to Yarra - day 3

Up early, showered 10 min walk to car hire at airport. Tried to programme sat nav but couldn't get any map After a quick check in and a long walk to find the car turns out it was an Automatic - yuck yuck Yuckety yuck yuck yuck! I find automatics non-sensical  for starters how can Park be forward and drive be further back than reverse? Walked all the way back to the office, re-queued but no manuals left. Drove it joylessly to the hotel. Discovered that the sat nav needs the Australia map downloading and to do that it has to be connected to a computer (wirelessly to iPhone doesn't count), gave up after 20 mins and went for a hearty breakfast. Reluctantly I gave up on the sat nav debacle and resigned myself to the £5 daily charge to use my data roaming in order to google map my way to yarra valley. This included a five mile stretch on an unmetalled road - not ideal in a small Kia hire car! Weather is typically Melbournian, four seasons in one day - sun, wind, rain and hail. Got to Balgownie two hours before check in so drove on to Chandon for a gorgeous lunch and watched the storms roll in from the Dandenongs. Beautiful scenery with gum trees a plenty and gallahs roaming the fields. Gorgeous lunch and a few bubbles. Back to Balgownie for check in and a wander around to stop us falling asleep before a huge dinner. Baby blackbird flew head long into patio window (hopefully not a social comment on the futility of life but rather am attempt to join us in living the high life!) but thankfully after a stunned five minutes and evacuating half her weight on the patio, she lived to fly another day. We toured our grand apartment and settled in then I made Adrian walk to the restaurant and spa before we succumbed to the jet lag late afternoon snooze. We managed to book a massage for the day we check out so I can be thoroughly de-stressed just before I have to navigate Melbourne traffic with no sat nav!!

Dinner was a lovely treat although after a full English and a large lunch neither of us could manage desert but did at least get to sample the wine from the Estate with a bottle of their Black Label Sav Blanc. Perhaps tomorrow we'll conquer three courses!!