My 600km Australian road trip in a Nissan Z400 & an unexpected surprise

The handling around the corners was absolutely phenomenal, and so was the road noise from the tyres.

BHPian Old_Salt recently shared this ith other enthusiasts.

The voyage was to begin from Sydney and head down to Melbourne. I flew down from Delhi and went straight onboard, like an arrow.

Moonrise, somewhere in Tasman sea.

Ofcourse size matters, nobody wants a small cup of coffee, especially when you make ship happen.

Threading the needle, Sunset in Bass strait

Yarra river inbound

Called up my friend, who was my schoolmate back in Delhi and has been settled in Melbourne for almost 2 decades, that I have a day to kill in Melbourne, before I fly out to the next one.

He said, give me some time to clear my calendar.

Quite quickly he texted..lets go on a drive , how about Great Ocean Drive?

I had my jaw drop!

Next morning he was at the hotel bang at 10am. The ride was his Nissan Z 400 in Ikazuchi Yellow.

The plan was to head towards Geelong, then towards Colac, past Lake Colac and then to Princetown / 12 Apostles.

Stopped at Geelong for coffee and a quick bite.

This was my first encounter with a sports car. As soon as I settled into the seat, the first thing that caught my eye was the triple pod cluster. It provides information on battery voltage, turbine speed and turbo boost.

The steering wheel is GT-R inspired, and the cockpit ambience including the gauges and display are angled towards the driver. During actual use, the angled touchscreen was a bit annoying as typing the correct alphabet was a struggle.

The handling around the corners was absolutely phenomenal, and so was the road noise from the tyres. My friend mentioned the factory fitted ones do have this complaint and he is considering an upgrade.

The design of the taillights gives them quite a modern look, and those dual exhausts.

Reached the 12 apostles around afternoon. Place had some tourists and venomous snakes too, though we didnt encounter any.

 After the 12 Apostles, next stop was at Lock Ard Gorge. Lock Ard was a sail boat which ran aground in 1878, with just two survivors. That’s a 150 year history. The stairs giving access to the beach below were closed saying the cliffs on which they were built, were unstable.

From Lock Ard, we went to Port Campbell, London Bridge ( which has partly fallen but still attracts tourists), Bay of Martyrs and Bay of Islands, before deciding to turn back and take the Great Ocean Road back home.

Finally made it back home late night after driving almost 600kms

Couldn’t thank my friend enough for doing this once in a lifetime road trip but little did I know there was a bigger surprise in store.

Last month he received his Ineos Grenadier, one of the first lucky customers in Australia.

Next morning, I managed to take some quick pics of this monster before my friend dropped me back at my hotel. Soon I was on a flight to Brisbane.

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