Similar to other posters from late last year, my original intent was to drive the Great Ocean Road from SYD to MEL as part of a larger three week trip to Australia & Tasmania in February.

Sadly, the terrible situation in NSW / Victoria has caused me to rethink those plans as several of the stops we had planned are in the middle of the fires and even the route itself is a now a problem. So regretfully, onto a Plan B.

Now I'm looking at just flying to MEL from SYD and then hiring a car to tour / stay on the Mornington Peninsula (or areas) instead. I'm currently thinking of about 3-4 days wandering around there before to finishing the trip with a few days in MEL checking out some of our favourite foody restaurants.

I'm sure there's some interesting places to visit, stay and drink in the Mornington and/or Yarra Valley area. It's another part of Oz we've never seen (except on some wine labels) and hopefully won't be significantly impacted by the awful bush fires. (While I'm not much use at fighting fires but perhaps stimulating the local economy can be of some benefit as well.)

I've learned to be flexible with our vacation plans and this trip proves that out. But FTers always seem to have great opinions on potential things to do/see and, if anyone has some keen insights, I would appreciate the input and will factor those into our plans. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!