This weekend (April 16-18, 2010), Ali and I met for an adventure weekend in Melbourne. We had three days to discover the beauties of the Great Ocean Road, including the ‘12 apostle’ sea stacks. I’ve wanted to see the 12 apostles ever since coming to Australia was a mere possibility and the fact that Ali was going set the stage for an awesome weekend!
My flight got in 5 hours before Ali’s. So, on my dad’s suggestion I looked for a 1/2 day city tour in the brochures at the airport. What do you know?!!...Grayline does half day city tours of Melbourne! Crazy! For those of you who don’t know, I worked for Grayline for 2 summers during college. I picked up the brochure, booked a spot on the tour, and got a taxi within 15 minutes of departing my flight. The coach tour (normally not my first choice for tours) was great because it was super chill – very nice after the red-eye flight…and it was a place to put the luggage I had with me. The tour took us (me and all the granny’s and gramps) around downtown, and several fringe suburbs. Upscale stores, huge-extremely huge farmers-type market (unfortunately we weren’t allowed out of the coach to shop), creative buildings and sky rises, sculptures, and botanical gardens. The city was an architect/designers dream. My impression was of a super mini-sized New York City with better weather, amazingly creative/beautiful buildings, and more public art. We also drove past the vegemite factory. Haha! I would definitely come back here! …and not just for the vegemite.
After the tour, Ali called to tell me she was on her way to pick me up in the rental car. While I waited, I stopped off at the visitor’s center and loaded up on maps. I like maps. Then Ali was there…it was so good to see her!
The next three hours were a bit trying…all because of a broken rental car and an incorrect map. The car was nothing too major, but definitely stifling. The air wouldn’t work…or rather it did, but it only blew hot air. No matter what. While trying to find the next avis on our way, we found that our map book (came with the rental car) was about 5 years old and didn’t show the new freeway we were on, so none of the exits or road
signs made any sense. I hate being lost. Finally we were rescued by the rental company…and traded out the car. The evening, however, was completely redeemed by the restaurant we stumbled upon for dinner. One of the best meals I’ve ever had.We had a lot of ground to cover in the next two days, so even though it was dark already, we decided to drive out towards the Apostles until we got tired. We found a campground and crashed. The next morning we got up early to watch the sunrise, and as we were leaving the campground there were two red eyes watching us. After getting over the fright, we
quickly realized it was a full-sized koala. YES! A wild koala! It was about 4-5 feet up the trunk of a tree when we came upon it. It continued climbing down and crossed the street right in front of us…giving us a nice view it’s rear end as it crossed our headlights. : )The rest of the day was filled with spectacular views of cliffs, beaches, caves, extinct volcanoes, blowholes, sea stacks, sinkholes, and limestone formations punctuated by fabulous meals and numerous wildlife sightings. The food in the Melbourne and Apostles area would be worth going back for all one their own. Fabulously yummy! And it was amazing how much wildlife we saw!
I already mentioned the koala that morning…we also saw puffin-like birds, kangaroos, bandicoots, a fox, emus, another wild koala, hoards of dragon flies, a ring-tailed opossum, another larger opossum, and sulfur crested cockatoos. Words could never do the sights justice, so check out the pictures under the “Photo” link to the right.After seeing the Apostles one last time at sunrise, we made our way back to the airport. We did only quick scenery stops on the way back, but of course had to stop for breakfast. Soon I was back in Perth. Unpacking and repacking.
The next day I was heading back to the airport bright and early Monday morning for a short 2-3 day project in a beautiful seaside town called Esperance. I flew over with the client and worked for two days, concluding the work a day early. After some intense finagling they allowed me to keep my original flight so that I could stay that extra day and explore. So glad I did! It was a full day, but I managed to see everything Lonely Planet told me I should. I started out with the scenic tourist ocean road loop with gorgeous beaches and a pink lake (that wasn’t all that pink), followed by a trip out to Cape Le Grand National Park. I really enjoyed the National Park. I saw herds of wild emus, packs of kangaroos, huge granite/gneiss outcrops, climbed a small mountain in an hour (wearing my flip flops…cause that’s all I had), then rushed off to
see internationally renowned white sand beaches with bright turquoise water. The color of the water was amazing! I’ve never seen the ocean so blue-green. 
The blue-green contrasted beautifully with the white sand, the vibrant green foliage, and the reddish granite/gneiss outcrops. So beautiful! Did I mention yet that the beaches squeak? Yes, when you scuff your heels on the white sand it sounds like you’re scuffing your sneakers on a freshly polished floor. Very cool. Now back in Perth, I’m exhausted. Time for a nap…what? Work? Hmmm….yes, I suppose I should.
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