If you want to hire a care in Melbourne, Australia, or any city for that matter, and you want a specialty item, such as a convertible, you’ve really got to do your research and plan ahead by several months.

In Melbourne, Avis has a Holden Astra 2 Door convertible available for a one week rental in June 2011. Budget and Hertz allegedly offer the Holden Astra 2 Door convertible for hire, but even a year from now those models are listed as “not available” – at least not through DriveNow.com.au, an Internet site that aggregates car hires in Australia.

Budget’s own Web site makes no claim about renting convertibles in Melbourne, and neither does Hertz’s Web site.

Europcar has an Audi A5 Cabriolet available for hire in November for an estimated daily rate of $101.62 AUD. The car has air conditioning, can seat four people, can hold two large bags and has automatic transmission.

So it looks like Europcar might be your best bet, as long as you reserve four months in advance.

Once you’ve hired your convertible, check out the Boneo Maze and Wetlands Centre, just five minutes from Rosebud, off Boneo Road.

One of the great drives in the Melbourne area is along Great Ocean Road, on the Shipwreck Coast, where over 200 shipwrecks dot the landscape. Many have been there for years, since the gold rush years of the mid 19th century.

Even after many searches, the fate of the Mahogany ship remains a mystery. It’s rumored to lie buried beneath the sand near Koroit. If found, it would prove that Portuguese sailors were the first Europeans to discover the Australian continent.