Crowe Embarks on 'Self-Drive Honeymoon' in E. Australia

[Brett Ferino]

HOLLYWOOD (Zap2it.com) – They tried to keep it a secret but the word is out that "Gladiator" star Russle Crowe and his new bride, Danielle Spencer, are honeymooning on the Easter coast of their native land.

The honeymoon has so far provided a significant contrast to the couple's lavish, $600,000 wedding, held over three days last weekend at Nana Glenn, Crowe's Coff's Harbor estate. The newlyweds were spotted this weekend in the city of Rockhampton on Australia's east coast, where they stayed in a motel and dined on takeaway fried chicken.

The couple is now on a "self-drive honeymoon" around Australia, Brisbane's Courier-Mail newspaper reports. The paper ran a photograph of the newlyweds outside the Red Rooster chicken restaurant in Rockhampton.

On Friday night, the couple was spotted at Sumatra's, a Rockhampton restaurant that prides itself on its "tasty affordable meals," which start at about three American dollars. While enjoying a $7.80 bottle of house wine, Crowe signed autographs for locals outside a bar and chatted briefly before he and Spencer drove off in their Mercedes.

Although the coast of Queensland is peppered with upscale resorts and tourist towns, Rockhampton, about 340 miles north of state capital Brisbane, is known as the "beef capital of Australia."