by Leanne Guenther

"Ackk!" I squealed, bolting upright in my seat as Darren swerved the wheel quickly to the right. "What are you!?...eep, lane!" I scolded and he pulled the car back into the left lane.

"Sorry," he blushed, "but I found one...look there!!"

"One what!?" I gazed around seeing nothing but a parking lot with a few shops - no kangaroos or koalas in sight. Surely it couldn’t be one of the brightly coloured boards lined up in front of the Surf Shop that he was after?

"A McDonalds," he announced with fierce pride, "THEY will have real coffee."

I groaned and leaned back in my seat shaking my head. Since arriving in Australia, my wonderful husband had become increasingly frustrated by the lack of drip coffee. He loves his "double double" from Tim Hortons — a medium coffee with 2 milk and 2 sugar from the most popular small town Canadian coffee chain.

Australia has great coffee but it’s different than coffee at home and we’ve discovered that when travelling for longer periods, those little familiar comforts are the first things we missed. I’m not sure if that’s the case for everyone, but for us it is.

Pulling up to the drive thru window I chuckled quietly realizing almost immediately that Darren was about to be disappointed again. I read faster than he does, but it only took him a minute to notice the coffee section offered the Australian standards — short black, long black, flat white and cappuccino.

Darren groaned and ordered our standard Aussie coffees (flat white for me, cappucino for him) and we continued on our way to our next stop.

Point South by the Sea was a beautiful place to stay. One of three self catering cottages near Apollo Bay on the Great Ocean Road, it had a lovely view of the ocean during the day and the Milky Way at night.

Bryan, the owner, was a great host! He pointed out the resident koalas, checked on us frequently but still gave us plenty of privacy and always had a cheery disposition. His wife Jeanne was behind the scenes but you saw her touches everywhere in the well appointed cottage and gosh she made an amazing tomato relish!

While we were there, I gave Darren a big hug and told him it was time for him to embrace Aussie coffee. He normally loves making coffee in the morning, and since we finally had self catering accommodations he agreed to at least try out the milk frother and hop on the espresso based coffee bandwagon.

Three weeks later, we checked into the Pullman Hyde Park in Sydney — our last stop in Australia — entering the room, Darren exclaimed, "Where’s my milk frother?"

I patted his shoulder and assured him that they’d have coffee at the breakfast included in our stay.

He sighed, "That’s not as much fun as doing it myself."

I laughed and promised to buy him one for Father’s Day.

Hopefully he can readjust to harmless spiders, driving on the right side of the road and drinking double-doubles when we get back home!

Disclaimer: As always, my opinions are my own. I did not get a free stay for this article nor did Darren get a free milk frother or even a free coffee. No one involved is ever even aware I’m doing it.

You might also enjoy visiting these sections on DLTK's Sites:

• DLTK's Australia Activities
• Kidzone Australia
• Coffee Filter Crafts
• More Family Travel Journals