Melbourne and The Great Ocean Road

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Well everyone we are in New Zealand now and have already said our goodbyes to Australia. This is the last blog in Oz, hope you enjoy - it's a good one!

Arriving in Melbourne was brilliant after an exhausting bus journey from Sydney. Our last ever overnight bus! Yipeee! We had big plans for Melbourne!

After getting settled in to our hostel rooms we met up with some familiar faces - Tom and Linsey, the English couple we met whilst in Cairns! Throughout the whole Oz trip Linsey and I had been messaging eachother on facebook to see if we could meet up along the way but didn't get the chance until Melbourne. They had a few days left in Oz before flying to NZ to pick up another camper and continue their adventures. It was really good catching up with them - swapping stories of what we'd been up too. They were heading to a comedy night in Melbourne city centre that evening so Andy and I thought we'd tag along as we'd never been to one before. It was a brilliant night - I didn't think I would laugh as much as I did. The host was a woman and she just scared me trying to make a joke of her daughter being witch like was just weird. We saw 5 acts including her, the best being a British guy who just dropped in made us all laugh and then left again.

The next day we headed to the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) to watch an AFL match. It was on the list of things to do in Oz but I wasn't quite sure how it would work out. Luckily, there was a game on that Sunday we were there - North Melbourne v Collingwood. Collingwood, we had heard were like the Manchester United of AFL so we had an idea of how the game would end. We didn't buy tickets before the match we just headed down there with Tom and Linsey and a girl Lois from our room who had been instructed by her Dad to see some sport whilst in Oz. Luckily, there were plenty of seats.

The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) is located in Yarra Park and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light towers at any sporting venue. The maximum seating capacity to just over 100,000. The MCG is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register and was included on the Australian National Heritage List on 26 December 2005. On 30 January 2009, the MCG was named as one of the seven wonders of the sporting world. It is referred to within Victoria as the "Spiritual Home of Australian Sport".

We didn't really completely know what was going on in the game but it was entertaining. Tom had looked up the rules on the internet and giving us the run down before the match. Unfortunately, North Melbourne side had no chance and the end result was a staggering 147 - 30! It was the biggest gap the two sides had ever had since playing eachother. What I was dissappointed about was the lack of song and chanting. Occasionally, there would be a "COOOOLLIIIIIIIINGWOOOD" in the dreariest drone ever but that was it. Suddenly when they won and the whistle was blown there was this huge song played out over the grounds - Collingwood's song. It made me laugh, it sounded like a sailor song when their swabbing the decks - youtube it!

When we got back from the game in the evening the hostel do bargin meals for $5, that night was pie, mash and peas. I have to say it's worth a mention on this blog as it was the nicest mash I'd ever had in my life!! I've even put a picture up on here so you can see how much we got, it was brilliant! The following day Andy and I just had a wonder around St Kilda where the hostel was. It's a well known seaside surburb of Melbourne, I'm sure it's lovely in the summer but in the winter there isn't much going on. The big attraction they have is Luna Park - an amusement park which we did take a look at as it has the oldest rollercoaster in the world still operational there. It wasn't working whilst we were there though - maintenance. We didn't go on any of the rides either as it was like $40+ to get in! It was just a bunch of fairground rides too.

That evening we met up with Tom and Linsey who had had an exhausting day going around Melbourne, we knew we had a while after the Great Ocean Road in the city so we thought we'd leave it until then. Andy and Tom played in a table tennis tournament much to the same ending as Noosa. But bless them for trying. Linsey and I drank a couple of bottles of Rose between us so you can imagine we were both quite drunk. It was a good night, just chatting and playing some bingo in the hostel bar. Love the bingo!!

Whilst in Melbourne I wanted to go on the Neighbours Tour around the set and the street and to meet the characters, but it was $60 each and we had already bought the tickets to the Neighbours night which will come later. Linsey really wanted to go on the tour too but they didn't have enough time so I came up with a brain wave. As we were picking the car up the next morning for the Great Ocean Road why don't Linsey and Tom come with us and we'll go to Ramsay Street and see what we could see. It was perfect. Andy and I were so excited to pick up the car - we were given a Hyundai I20, neat little thing and Andy managed to squeeze all our bags into the boot which was perfect.

Tom navigated the way - Linsey and I feeling a little delicate that morning. It wasn't far from the city - about half an hour drive. We didn't really know what to expect so we were shocked to find the street empty apart from a security car. Andy went to ask the guard and she said we could take pictures of the houses but not go on the property as people actually live in the houses. I was really excited to be there, but shocked by how small it looked! Andy took a video and and pictures of each house whilst I did a run down on who was living in each one! I had my pic taken with the real street sign Pine Oak Crescent as there was no Ramsay Street sign in sight. Maybe I can photoshop it later?

We dropped Tom and Linsey off in the city, we hope to see them at some point in New Zealand too, so that's nice. Then it was just us FREE on the road. It was great. Andy drove first, I navigated, there was no way I was getting into a car again after 4 and a half months in a city! Our first place we stopped in was the start of the Great Ocean Road. Torquay. It was a nice little place, can't make too much judgement as we didn't stay long. Andy bought some new trainers as his Kuala Lumpur addidas specials literally fell apart.

After Torquay we headed to Apollo Bay where we would be spending the night. It was a crazy drive, the road was so windy, right near the cliff edges, there were hair pin bends. On each corner the sign would tell you what speed to take going round the corners which I found really helpful. I can see why the Great Ocean Road is a big accident area! Luckily, the road was so quiet, we didn't see anyone which was really nice. Along the way we stopped off at Aireys Inlet where there's quite a famous lighthouse called Split Point Lighthouse. I recognised it straight away as it's the lighthouse from the children's programme from years ago: Round the Twist! It was great to see it and we stopped off for a quick photo!

We got to Apollo Bay just before dark and checked in at this lovely homely hostel. The chap who worked there was really helpful and he gave us loads of maps and information of the areas where we were going. He told us some off the beaten tracks to take to see some wild animals!

Our first stop the next morning was on one of the turn offs the chap had told us. I drove us down this country lane, it was a bit muddy and made the car quite filthy. He told us that at a certain point would be lots of koalas! I drove really slowly so Andy could see and we were beginning to lose hope until the car in front stopped and the bloke got out with his camera. There were about 6 koalas all up in about 3 trees. It was great to see them in the wild where they belong!

We headed along to the lookouts at the Gibson Steps, Twelve Apostles, The Loch Ard Gorge, The Arch, London Bridge and The Grotto.

The Gibson Steps was a nice lookout area, apparently you can see a step formation on the rocks but we didn't really see it. Think you had to be down on the beach to see and we were already been blown about on the viewpoint. Next was the world famous Twelve Apostles! I was really looking forward to seeing these. The Twelve Apostles is a collection of limestone stacks off the shore of the Port Campbell National Park. The apostles were formed by erosion: the harsh weather conditions from the Southern Ocean gradually eroded the soft limestone to form caves in the cliffs, which then became arches, which in turn collapsed; leaving rock stacks up to 45 metres high. Sadly, there are only 6 to see now.

The Loch Ard Gorge was an interesting story to learn. The gorge is named after the clipper ship Loch Ard, which ran aground on nearby Muttonbird Island on the 1st of June, 1878 approaching the end of a three-month journey from England to Melbourne. Of the fifty-four passengers and crew, only two survived: Tom Pearce, a ship's apprentice, and Eva Carmichael, an Irishwoman immigrating with her family, both of whom were 18 years of age. There were no signs of the wreckage but it was interesting to see where it had happened. That is why this part of Australian coastline is known as the Shipwreck coast as there have been many incidents.

The arch was another impressive sight of erosion. London Bridge was really cool to see even though it's half fallen down.
This rock was formed by a gradual process of erosion too, and until 1990 formed a complete double-span natural bridge. The arch closest to the shoreline collapsed unexpectedly on 15 January 1990, leaving two tourists stranded on the outer part until they were rescued by a helicopter.

The Grotto was our last bit of rock seeing for the day. It was nice to see the sinkhole from the viewpoint but by now we were shattered and a bit wind swept to make the trek down to the bottom.

That afternoon we headed to Warrnambool which is the end of the Great Ocean Road. It also has the only cinema on the GOR. We booked two tickets for the following day (my birthday) to see the last Harry Potter film! We carried on after to Port Fairy for the night and booked into a cabin in a holiday park for the night. It was really nice as it had a little tv so we watched a few films and counted down the hours until my birthday!

The next morning we decided to go to another recommendation the chap from the hostel made and that was the Tower Hill Game Reserve. It was on the way back to Warrnambool anyway so it was perfect. He told us we would see kangaroos, koalas and emus. Great! It encompasses the Tower Hill volcano and wetland and is 6.14 km² in area. Tower Hill became Victoria's first National Park in 1892. It was declared a State Game Reserve in 1961. Formed some 30,000 years ago in a violent volcanic eruption that created a funnel-shaped crater (later filled by a lake). It was really cool. About five minutes along the road, Andy was driving really slowly and we were wondering where the kangaroos would be when suddenly one just hopped across the road in front of us to join his friends on the othr side! It was brilliant to see. A little further in and I shocked myself by spotting a koala in a tree! He looked really grumpy at us, maybe we'd woken him up with the car engine!

We got out the car to walk up to a magnificent viewpoint. It was spectacular. We drove around to the picnic areas as apparently thats where the emus are, some people feed them. We were looking at the guidebooks in the car, parked up when suddnely this emu started walking towards Andy's open window, we slowly put the window up and he left us alone. They are huge creatures with evil eyes, but I loved them!

We then headed off to Warrnambool for our afternoon showing of HP which was great! We decided that we really liked that hostel in Apollo Bay so I drove us back that way for the night. We then went out to a lovely tapas meal, which neither of us had tried before. We really enjoyed it!

On our last morning with the car we headed back to Melbourne stopping off in Lorne on the way back. The beautiful sight of Erskine Falls was really nice. But we were blown away with Teddy's Lookout. It gave a great view of the Great Ocean Road in all its glory!

We were really sad to give the car back, we had lost our freedom once again, bring on the campervan in NZ! Back in Melbourne Andy found us a cool cheap hotel room in the north of the city which was good as he had a horrible cold so we didn't feel like doing much our first days back. The Road had exhausted us! We did go to the Queen Victoria market for a bit of souvenir shopping. I bought a boomerang and some warm boots for NZ. Andy got himself a warm hoody too.

We did two brilliant things when we got back to Melbourne. The first was the Neighbours night we had booked for ages! It was a great night and I got to meet three of the characters. Dr Karl I'd met before at uni so it was funny to see him again. Libby Kennedy who was exactly the same in real life and a newish actress Natasha who was so tiny! They had a neighbours trivia quiz mixed with general knowledge which I did really well in! People also got up to sing and dance for prizes but we stayed out of that one! Then Dr Karl and his band The Waiting Room performed for about an hr and a half. We were standing front row so that was pretty cool. It wasn't as cheesy as I thought it would be too.

The second thing we did was go to the Tutankhamun exhibition on at the Melbourne Museum. It was a bit pricey but we thought will it ever come to the UK again? I'm really interested in Ancient Egypt too so we thought why not? Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any pictures which was a shame so you'll have to take my word for it - it was incredible. They had set up ten galleries dedicated to him and his family. There was a massive collection of statues, chairs, chests, jewlerry, and information not only on King Tut but on his family too. The only downside is the death mask wasn't there. Researching afterwards I found out it will never leave Egypt as it is too delicate. It was crazy though to see things that were more than 3,000 years old, most in amazing condition! We were really pleased we went.

So that is the end of the Australia blogs, hope you have enjoyed reading them all. Now we are in New Zealand, collecting the campervan tomorrow, so excited! Let the new adventures begin......

Thanks for reading.....miss you all!

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Photos

Jump the lighthouse!
Have you ever?

Comments

[Chris]

love this blog the most. Read in the south of France. We have wifi-skype? Love the pics with dr Karl. Ocean rod looks amazing and all the rock places. Good jumping pic more of these needed. Keep having fun. Xxxxxxx