Great Ocean Road

I just got back from spending the weekend on the Great Ocean Road. There are three things people MUST see in Australia, the Rock, the Reef, and the Road. Well now I've seen one of them! The great ocean road runs from Melbourne to Adelaide (which means it runs west), and almost all of it is right along the ocean. Its kind of like Californias Highway 1 (Pacific Coast Highway), but it is in Australia, so its like 400,000 times better. (honestly, it is). This trip was put on for international students, and it takes like 20 students every weekend for a few months.

So, we got on our little rental bus/van thing and drove up to Geelong, where we had surf lessons. I've surfed in Santa Barbara, and wow, that was NOTHING compared to this. We had full body wet suits, booties and caps, and thank god! It was cold at first but once you're in you are having so much fun you do'nt care. The waves were huge (to me) and I realized how not strong of a swimmer I am. I got good at riding waves in, but usually on my knees, because I was always too scared to stand all the way up. We only surfed for like an hour but I was so exhausted! It takes SO much energy to surf! After surfing we went on to Lorne, a little beach town, where we stopped for a quick lunch, pretty sights. After that, we headed on to Kennett River, where we saw a ton of koala bear's in the wild! It was SO exciting, they are SO cute, and I really wanted to steal one...but I didn't. :( The unusual thing was that there was a koala just above eye level (maybe 7 feet up in a tree), so you could go right up to it...it was crazy! Seeing a koala in the wild is SOOOOOO much better than seeing one in a zoo. And, on top of that, every time I see koala's in the zoo, they are just sleeping, but a few of the koalas we saw moved around, ate some eucalyptus leaves, etc. Fabulous fabulous. After the koalas we headed towards our hostel (called a backpackers) in Apollo Bay.

The entire trip was BEAUTIFUL, and we kept pulling over to get out and take pictures and take in the amazing sights. There are huge cliffs, the water is greenish blue and its just breath taking. So, we got to the Surfside Backpackers, cleaned up and went out to dinner, after dinner we just hung out in the living room at the backpackers and chatted with Phil, the guy who was running our trip. In the morning, as we were loading the van/bus thing, Robyn (the sweetheart that ran the backpacker) came running out to tell us that there was a whale! The backpacker looks out over the ocean, and so we all ran back there and sure enough, there was a whale! Actually, there were two! A mother wright whale was feeding her baby, so they were just hanging out, they kept bobbing their heads up, it was really cool! It is so weird to think that the next land mass past us in Antarctica! The whales are migrating right now, so there are a bunch of sightings i guess. So, after we watched the whale, we loaded back on the bus and headed towards Otway National Park. Inside the park, we went on this tree-top walk through the (temperate) rainforest. Although my friends thought it was a bit bland, i'm a huge dork and thought it was pretty cool! We walked on these walkways that were like 20-50 meters off the ground, so we were up near the top of the eucalyptus trees and stuff. Pretty cool.

After the rainforest walk, we headed out to the 12 Apostles. No picture could do justice to how beautiful the sight was. There are actually only 8 apostles left, but they were so amazing. The crazy thing is that if you just drive by on the road, you wouldn't notice them, but then there is a walkway out onto the edge of one of the cliffs that juts out, and you get this AMAZING view. The sun was out, (although it was really windy) and the water was its amazing green-blue. What a sight.

After leaving there, we stopped at a gorge down the road, which was also beautiful. So many amazing things! I couldn't stop taking pictures (I took 215 in all...) We headed home inland, which is about a 3 hour drive, and everyone was so exhausted that we slept most of the way. The footy game was on the radio, and so that was pretty loud (go St. Kilda Saints) but besides that, it was a quiet ride home. Phew!

Incase you are curious, the ladies on the trip with me were Sarah, Nicole, Claire, Erin and Molly. We had a ton of fun, and there were a bunch of guys we know too, so it was a good group. The weekend was amazing, beautiful and so much fun! We're headed to the Grampians next weekend and I can't wait.

I'll post pictures soon, and I hope you liked reading about my trip! Don't forget to email me! I miss you all!