The Great Ocean Road!

Hi All!

It’s Monday! Which means that I’m back to posting regularly again. Yay!!! This weekend has been so much fun and so ridiculously strange. Larissa and I have pretty much just laughed the entire time. Good times. I’ll apologize in advance that this is a really long post, but I’ve just had such a great trip that I can’t help it! I want to share!

Thursday night, Larissa and I met up at the Gold Coast Airport (funny little airport that it is) and boarded our flight to Melbourne. The flight was unremarkable (well, if it was remarkable, I didn’t notice…I was asleep most of it), but once we landed, the adventure began. Tiger Airways is a very low cost carrier here in Australia (like, $20 if you’re willing to fly at weird hours low cost). What that means, though, is that you often land on the tarmac and then exit the plane via stairs and then go into the terminal. Not this time. We exited the plane and followed the arrows until we suddenly went through a gate and were on the street. No building, no nothing. Before the gate, there was a baggage carousel in a space that was chain link all the way around and covered by a tin roof, but still most definitely on asphalt and most definitely outside. Very strange indeed. We caught the SkyBus to the city and then proceeded to get lost trying to find our hostel. Eventually, after seeing what we’re pretty sure was a gang comprised mainly of high schoolers, we got on a tram and couldn’t figure out how to pay for the ride (sorry, City of Melbourne!) and finally made our way to the hostel.

Our hostel. Lol. That was a funny place and not our best decision. We knew that we’d be leaving the next morning fairly early (we wanted to get an early start on the Great Ocean Road), so we chose the cheapest one we could find, Elephant International for $18. I kind of have a policy of paying about $25 for a hostel, so this was a fair amount cheaper than what I would normally spend, but it was only for about 7 hours, so why not, right? And really, it did look promising. For starters, this hostel is in a great location, right in the trendy/old boho part of town. And the photos online looked pretty legit and clean. So when we checked in, we were like, ‘yeah, this is pretty cool, ok, we’ll stay here.’ But once we reached our “room,” we couldn’t stop laughing. I use the term “room” very loosely. This was a divider. It was an entire floor of “rooms,” each with 1 bunk bed in the divider. The walls, such as they were, did not reach the ceiling. In fact, if you were to stand on the top bunk, you could look into the surrounding cubicles. The place looks like it’s in the middle of a refurbishment, with random sheets covering the windows, patch marks on the ceilings, rough carpet edges. But I’m not completely convinced that it was—that might just be how it is. The place wasn’t really “gross,” but I won’t stay there again if I come back to Melbourne. While at Elephant, both Larissa and I couldn’t help but say, “I’m so glad I’m not alone right now.” Now, I’m not one to knock independent travel at all (I mean, how can I? I’m studying alone in Australia and planning a 2-week journey through New Zealand on my own), but this is definitely one of the times that, had it been a solo adventure, this experience would have quickly turned into a pity party rather than the epic adventure it was with two of us. Epic adventure trumps pity party every time. But, lesson learned, read and heed the reviews on Hostel World. We survived the night (albeit that neither of us slept particularly well all night) and laughed a lot about it. Really, how could you not? You have two options in that kind of situation: be angry or find the humor. Finding the humor is so much better. And it makes the memory much more fun.

The Hostel

The "Room"

The next morning, (Friday), we headed to Alpha Car Hire to pick up our rental car. As a 21-year-old, hiring a car is an expensive and, frankly, frustrating thing. You end up paying a ton because you’re not 25 and places rip you off with their “Under 25” charge. Alpha was the cheapest, but it was still expensive. And, by being the cheapest, it also meant that they were a fairly small company and very difficult to find on the street. But, we found them and then faced the daunting task of driving out of Melbourne.

At this point in time, I hadn’t driven in nearly four months. That is a fairly long time for me, considering that in Orlando I drive to work at least three times a week, if not more. And add to that that I’m driving in a city that is unfamiliar in an unfamiliar car on the left side of the road? Let’s be honest, this had every potential for disaster. Fortunately, I made it out of the city and was only honked at twice, so that made me fairly happy. And once I was on the highway, it was fairly similar to driving back home, just on the other side of the road. We soon figured out, though, that we were not on the right road and we were going to need gas. Crap. We pulled off and tried to find gas, a map, and someone to get us in the right direction. Gas was easy enough to find, though finding the gas door release was a bit of a trick (if you ever drive a Nissan Micra in Australia, it’s by your right knee under the steering wheel). But, strangely enough, the gas stations (or petrol or servo stations as they’re called here) did not have maps. What? Why would a gas station not have a map for sale? I feel that they’re missing a huge market by not having maps. Nor did they know how to get to where we were going, so that was a bust. We ended up going down the road to the news agency and finding a large map as well as a clerk who has property on the Great Ocean Road and was able to point us in the right direction. So, finally, we were truly on our way. Yes!

This is important: REMEMBER IT! 

Our little car!

Feels good to drive again! 

We've got maps, we've got music, we're ready to go! 

Larissa the Navigator!

Driving itself was not as frightening as I expected it to be. The biggest issue I had was the switch of blinkers and wipers—I’m used to hitting the blinkers with my left hand, but they’re on the right side of the steering wheel in Australia, so pretty much every time I went to turn, the wipers came on. Whoops. Haha. But, I feel like the Great Ocean Road was a good place for me to practice driving on the left side of the road before New Zealand (Mom may disagree with me…it is curvier than the road leading up to camp with a much further drop into the ocean than that road) since our car was pretty much alone on the road and I could go my speed until I felt comfortable to speed up. The first half of the Great Ocean Road is carved into the side of the continent with the ocean RIGHT THERE. It is absolutely amazing. If anyone is heading to Australia, I highly suggest you put this on your list of things to do. This is one of my favorite things I’ve done here.

Twists and Turns everywhere! 

We pulled into Apollo Bay about 4:30PM and found our hostel. Again, pity party vs. epic adventure. We really had bad luck selecting our hostels at this point. Our hostel was the “Apollo Bay Backpackers” on this little side street of Apollo Bay, which is in itself a tiny town. Larissa and I went in and found it totally deserted. Hostels that are deserted are really unnerving and from the outside, this looked so sketch. Ok, so it wasn’t totally deserted. There was a mangy looking black and white cat chilling on the front porch…I don’t know if that makes it better or worse. (I learned later on that the cat looked mangy because it has cancer, not because it’s a stray. Sorry, kitty!) We called the number listed on the door and the lady told us she’d be there in an hour, so we went to get food instead of waiting in the semi-creepy hostel.

Signs of a good hostel...

Welcome to Apollo Bay

By the time we got back, it was dark and, really, it looked much more inviting in the dark. We went in and got checked in and whatnot before turning on our space heater and trying to warm our room up as best we could. We also watched the new British comedy, “Come Fly With Me” with the hostel host (a guy from Germany that we didn’t ever catch his name). Very funny show, though. We laughed a lot. That night we both slept a heck of a lot better in our now-warm room with walls that reached the ceiling. Haha. And once again, it could have been a pity party alone, but as a duo, it was an epic adventure.

The next morning, bright and early, we headed back out onto the Great Ocean Road. At this point, the Great Ocean Road isn’t really along the oceanfront anymore. Instead, it leaves the ocean scenery and cuts pretty significantly inland and you end up driving through gorgeous rolling green hills and amazing rainforests. It looks a bit like a car commercial. At one point, though, there is a lighthouse turnoff that we thought looked cool, so we went. As we’re driving this crazy narrow/twisty road, Larissa suddenly pointed to the side and was like, “Hey, look! A wallaby!” All we really saw a ball of brown fur and a tail that disappeared into the bush, but we were pretty stoked. As we kept going, now on wildlife alert, we saw something in the middle of the road. It had rained the night before, so it was entirely possible for it to just be a large palm branch or something, but we slowed down and then we stopped, shocked. There, sitting in front of us on the road like an abandoned stuffed animal was a KOALA. He was just sitting there, chilling like it was no big thing. We both just scrambled for our cameras and started snapping away. Our photos ended up being a bit fuzzy because we were shaking with excitement. But he just got up on his paws and started with the funny way koalas walk down the road, in search of eucalyptus trees like the fact that he’s just been chilling in the road was no big thing. Well, maybe not for him, but for Larissa and me, this was a great big thing. We watched until he got off the road and then continued on our way to the lighthouse. Then, again, Larissa was like, “STOP! There are koalas in that tree!” So we stopped the car and got out and started looking around and they were everywhere! They were just sleeping, eating eucalyptus, and chilling in the trees. We were so excited to see them! What a great way to start the day! Of course, stopping and taking photos in the middle of the road got us a few funny looks by passing cars, but it was a non-busy side street, so traffic was minimal. We did eventually make it to the light house, but it was $15 to go in and, apparently, could take up to an hour to see all of it, and we didn’t really want to spend the money or time on it, so we turned around and headed back to the main road. We can’t complain about the detour, though—wild koalas are awesome.

It looks like a stuffed animal...but it's alive!

Here he comes!

Look! Up there! 

At about 11, we reached the beginning of the sandstone formations that are the famous point for the Great Ocean Road. They are absolutely amazing. Our first stop was the Gibson Steps, where you can go down on the beach and take photos, although “Swimming is Not Recommended.” Really, I think I would be allowed to call you insane if you wanted to swim here, though. The surf was ROUGH. It would destroy you. From there, we drove to the 12 Apostles, trying to beat the storm that we’d been battling the entire morning. We beat it, but just barely. (As you can see from my photos, the wind was wicked and the gray rainclouds are working their way inland.) From there, we headed to the Loch Ard Gorge with the Razorback, Thunder Cave, and Island Archway. This area is famous for all of the shipwrecks in the area. With how quickly the weather changes and how harsh the ocean is, I can’t say that I am at all shocked. We stopped at Port Campbell for lunch and to reserve our hostel for that night (this time, we chose one with good reviews and that cost a little more). From there, we went to the Arch, The London Bridge (which is halfway collapsed now), and the Grotto (I think this one was my favorite—with the London Bridge and 12 Apostles not far behind). There’s not a lot to write about these—they’re just amazing and it’s hard to describe them. Pictures are better. Honestly, it’s a lot of driving and then stopping, getting out, taking photos, and getting back into the car and heading to the next spot. Sounds dull, but it was awesome. Fortunately, the sun came out for the second part of our day and so we have some beautiful pictures from this part of our trip. Once we finished up at the Grotto, we turned around and headed back to Melbourne through dairy farm country. There were lots and lots of cows. Lots of them. But it was still really pretty.

Gibson Steps

12 Apostles

12 Apostles

12 Apostles

Loch Ard Gorge

Loch Ard Gorge

Island Archway

The Arch

London Bridge

The Grotto

When we reached Melbourne was when we had our only near-death incident in the car. We were driving past the Crown Casino and I was trying to turn but couldn’t see my lane due to all of the cabs in the way, waiting to pick people up from the casino. Fortunately, after a few cars honking at me and a bit of stress, I made it. No injuries to myself to anyone else or to the car. Thank goodness. I can’t say I wasn’t a little relieved to ditch the car in Melbourne—I miss driving, but I don’t like driving in this city. We walked to our hostel (and got a little lost) but eventually got moved in and that was very good. We were both totally exhausted. This hostel was by far best choice. We chose Urban Central where not only do the walls reach the ceiling, but there is heat and it was really clean. Yay for good choices! After we rested for a little bit, we went out and wandered around and Larissa took some great city at night photos before we came back and hit the hay.

Sunday was spent exploring Melbourne. I really like Melbourne. It’s a lot more unique than Gold Coast or Sydney in my opinion. Plus, they have a free bus and a free tram for tourists that takes you around the city and you can see a lot more and get around a lot easier than in other cities. The tram is so cool—they’re all old streetcars and I just love them. A lot of people say that you can experience all four seasons in one day in Melbourne and, so far, this has held true. It will be hot then just on the verge of snowing and then just a warm rain all very suddenly. This is best dealt with by getting a fantastic cup of coffee or small scoop of gelato. I’ve been told a number of times that Melbourne is the coffee capital of Australia and I believe it. There are some incredible places for people to eat and probably a million places to get coffee. Which, did I mention, is fantastic? Because it is. We wandered along the river for a long time before moving our way north past Batman Avenue (another thing that I think Melbourne is missing out on—if you have a street called Batman Avenue, play it up!), and then through Degraves Street and Centre Place, which kind of looks like it was yanked right out of Harry Potter. It’s so cool! We also went to the Queen Victoria Markets, which are absolute chaos, but in the best way possible. There are little stalls everywhere and you can get really fresh food there. It was great. We spent most of the day walking around and seeing different parts of the city. That night, we cooked dinner in the hostel and then went out to take some more night photos of the city (well, Larissa took photos. I was out of battery by this time). Pretty much as soon as we got back we went to bed—we think we walked around 8 miles throughout the day. Yay for a good workout!

So much unused potential.

It's like Diagon Alley, only you can't buy magic wands.

AHH! Dinosaur! 

Tourist Tram

Tram Ride!

Which brings us to today! Larissa left for Gold Coast early this morning and I have had the day in Melbourne. I walked down and heard the bell art instillation and then just explored some parts of the city Larissa and I hadn’t hit. I had some incredible (and cheap!) sushi and the cheapest/best flat white coffee I’ve had in Australia. I also explored the Australian Center for the Moving Image. It was a really cool museum. Plus, it was free. All the better. This week is also the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, so I caught a free jazz concert before I headed back to the hostel. It was super fun. I really love Melbourne. Right now, in addition to the Jazz Festival, they have “The Light in Winter” celebration.  It’s a huge celebration of light and hope and enlightenment around the winter solstice. There is not another word I can think of other than “inspiring” for this celebration. I’m in love with it. It’s almost like the “Christmas” atmosphere in the USA/Northern Hemisphere. You know what I mean, the general good will to all men and happiness and everything that is prevalent throughout December (which is why Christmas is my favorite holiday. Well, that and the carols/hymns). Only this is in June. And has a new theme every year. Maybe it’s just the time of year (weather wise, that is!), but I just love the feeling of the city right now. And, oddly, it’s nice to be a little cold and wear a hat and gloves! I think the chill makes the celebration of light seem that much better. The focus on sharing warmth and light when it’s cold is just beautiful. This year’s theme is “fire” and there’s a fire burning in one of the squares in honor of the Aboriginal people as well as lots of light and fire-based installation art. It’s absolutely beautiful. I’ll upload photos once I get them from Larissa, my camera was not wanting to take the pictures very well. This is definitely the time of year I’d want to be in Melbourne when I come back. It’s just been wonderful. I wish I could stay longer! However, I leave Melbourne tomorrow and fly to Adelaide for a few days. I’m very excited and I’m sure that I’ll have a great time in Adelaide as well. This has been such a great trip, I’m so glad I decided to do this instead of just studying! (I’m studying as well, just between adventures!)

Best Flat White so far!

Shuffle Club

As a side note, thank you for any good thoughts/prayers that you sent my way over the last few days. No driving incidents, strange and interesting (though not necessarily bad) hostel experiences, and my flights have been shifted so that now, to miss my connection, the first plane would have to be about 7 hours late. Thank goodness! Less stress for sure!  

It’s becoming strangely real to realize how soon I’ll be flying home. I’ll be home in 35 days and will be leaving for New Zealand in 19 days. It’s gone so fast! I’m going to miss Australia, but I’m also very excited to be home again. Really, the top things I’m looking forward to are: seeing my family and friends, DRIVING, my cell phone, and $1 coffee or Coke at the gas station.  In that order.

So, I hope that everyone is having a great day. RTLC Staff is getting ready to hike Eagle Peak in the next couple days, so hope that goes well for them! Everyone else, hope life just as fabulous as you are! Keep in touch and I’ll be home soon!

Cheers!

leahj.