The Great Ocean Road

Wednesday, November 5th

Our day started at 6am, when we got up to get ready for our day tour of the Great Ocean Road with Go West. It was tiring, but we did it. Natasha was kind enough to drive us to the train station at 6:30am. We took it to flinder street station and picked up some churros from choco churros. We prefer the us squishy inside churros better. They were a bit too crunchy for us.

We arrived at our pick up stop on time, the van was pretty full already but we managed to find three seats next to each other. But that didn't matter. Our annoying driver asked Steph to sit in a single seat all the way far back so that another pair of travelers could sit next to each other. He separated us three to accommodate another two. Annoying!

At 9:15am we arrived at the aboriginal cultural center, where we learned about some weapons and tools of the aborigines. Most aborigines live in the cities of Australia now. It was basically a quick stop for us to use the potty, have some coffee/tea and cookies.

Our next stop was at Bells Beach at 10:25am. It's the surfing beach and Australia's most famous point break. There are pretty consistent waves, and we saw some people surfing it, but the waves weren't that big that day. We thought it looked pretty cold though.

Our guide pointed out the Split Point lighthouse. Basically the inlet has a split in it where the ocean comes through. In 1993, there was a large bush fire by the inlet that killed 75 people.

So Ocean Road was designed in 1915 by William Calder. He was inspired by the Pacific Highway of California, and said Melbourne needs it too. It was built by soldiers that returned from the First World War who needed jobs and was completed in 1932. The road is constantly being maintained because parts of it fall in to the sea every now and then. There were lots of expensive houses by the road with beautiful views. One of the one bedroom houses with a panoramic view, raised on top of the coastline was sold last year for AUD1.7mn. It looked beautiful.

We then went to the Great Ocean Road memorial to snap a quick photo with the sign to show we were really there and not just any ocean road. We did the lovely korean heart photo. Steph and Bernice were the heart and I was the face in between with my head between my hands like this \O/. Snap snap!

The Great Ocean Road was pretty windy, but with beautiful views of the ocean coast. Definitely really nice. It would be fun to drive I think. Very peaceful and scenic.

We made a quick stop at Kennet River for our first koala spotting. They're eating their way around the Great Ocean Road, as we saw huge eucalyptus trees that were barren. Koalas eat only 17 types of the 1,000+ species of eucalyptus trees and are very slow moving, it reminded us of the pandas.

Lunch stop was by Apollo Bay shopping center. We shared half a chicken, salad, and potato wedges. The chicken is still a little bit off, can't figure why, but if you drown it in ketchup it all tastes the same. We watched the elections on the tv, since our blackberries weren't working properly. At that time it looked like Obama was leading. Go Obama!

Afterwards we started our drive through the green coast. It was really green. We did a quick 20min hike of Mait's Rest rainforest. This rainforest housed the 2nd tallest species of trees, 1st being the red woods of California. Although it's the 2nd tallest tree species, the tallest tree found was the Myrtle beech tree at 113 meters tall, most are around 80ish meters tall. The rainforest also had many different types of ferns. One type grows is a coil, very cool.

We then got to the ocean coast, where we stopped by the 12 apostles. Only 7 of them were left. It was once called sow piglets. It was a very beautiful picturesque site. Definitely the best one we saw that day. When we got back on the van we found out Obama had won the presidential elections and heard his acceptance speech. He is 47 and the 44th president of the United States. It is the year of change. Everyone on the bus was very happy. We are amazed how closely Australians followed the elections.

The next stop was Loch and Gorge. It was pretty cool. Basically all these formations were beautiful because it is by the coast with aqua marine colored water crashing into the beautiful land formation in the color of sand. The colors were amazing and surreal. Don't worry I took plenty of photos.

The last tourist stop was London Bridge. The land formed into a bridge-like formation, but overtime it cracked and part of it fell off, so the bridge is no longer connected. When this happened, there were two people standing out on the bridge. Luckily they were not standing on the crack when it came down. They were stranded out there for a few hours before the helicopters came for them. They tried to avoid the media interviewing them...because unluckily they weren't supposed to be there. They were both married...not to each other. Sneaky wasn't so sneaky after all.

At around 6pm we stopped by the town for some dinner. We went to the noodle shop, since the only other choices were chinese or kfc. It was surprisingly very tasty and fresh. We all finished it. Delicious.

On the bus ride back to Melbourne, we each got a ps2 to watch movies. I watched Priscilla Queen of the Desert. I figured it was about time I watched it since that's usually one of the first things that people say to me when I introduce myself. I thought the movie was pretty funny and enjoyable. Bernice and Steph also watched it.

We arrived back at Melbourne around 9ish and Natasha picked us up. She wanted us to see the flames on southbank at 10pm, but we couldn't find parking around there quick enough to make it at 10pm. Since it is displayed on the hour, we just roamed through Crown casino for a bit and watched the dancing water (not that eventful) waiting for 11pm to hit. It was surprising to see there were a lot of asians at the casino. I swear gambling is an asian thing. Eventually we sat down at automatic restaurant to wait for the flame show. We did our cheers to Obama being the next US president and enjoyed the flames on south bank. The flames were so big you could actually feel it heating you up. It's a bunch of big columns in a row, and they do a sequence of lighting up the torch or spitting fire balls...literally fire balls like dragon ball z. It was really cool. While we finished our drinks, Natasha told us some hilarious stories of her 3rd/4th graders. It was funny, but it would suck to be their parents...or teachers. Good thing Natasha is patient.

After a bit, it was time to call it sleepy time. Natasha drove us back. We quickly washed up and called it night night.