(Great Ocean) Road Trip!

Note: We hit the road on Feb. 10th for this trip, however with my grief over Sneaky and our move to Noosa, I am just posting about it now. I will try to post a video of our apartment soon, but the internet here is incredibly slow. Enjoy!



So Mars, Fish Sticks (Glen's friend who we nicknamed), and I set off on an "Aussie Must Do" - Drive along the Great Ocean Road, which is an incredibly beautiful coastal drive between Adelaide and Melbourne. After an extremely early start and some minor setbacks (Mars overslept, we had to stop at McDonalds for breakfast, and a call to roadside assistance because the car totally died) we were off to our first stop - The Grampians National Park. We checked into our camper van (!), then set off on a hike to beautiful MacKenzie Falls. To reward ourselves for sleeping in the car and the relatively short hike to the falls, Mars and I stopped in at a spa in the middle of the mountains for a quick massage :) On the way back from the spa, we spotted a HUGE number of kangaroos just grazing in an open field... check out the video! We were so stoked that we were able to get this on film, since we lost the footage of our first kangaroo sighting! Cannot believe how close they let us get... even the animals in this country are chill. After we had of fill of wild 'roos, Fish Sticks picked up grub for a great BBQ, including 2 bottles of wine for us. Fast forward to sometime around 10:00pm. Mars and I have finished both bottles and the one pub in the tiny town is closed. So we walk into the only restaurant that still has its lights on... it is being closed up. We ask the guy bringing the chairs in "Everything here is closed... can we buy a bottle of wine off you?" And, in typical Aussie fashion, he replies "Yeah sure, I can help you out." haha... that would NEVER happen at home. We proceeded to finish the third bottle of wine, and the three of us sat in the car for hours singing along at the top of our lungs to every song that came on the iPod! One of those great random nights that you could never plan or repeat...

The next day we headed out on the way to Melbourne, and encountered a very angry pair of wild emus. As the video shows, perhaps I shouldn't have gotten THAT close... he really snuck up on me! (I'm in trouble when we go to Africa and I see lions!). When we arrived in Melbourne we checked into an apartment, then spent the remainder of the night wandering around the city and gambling (and losing!) and clubbing in the Crown casino. There was a great cover band in the club there that played literally every genre... we rocked out!




The next morning, after heading to the tallest look out point to see the city from above, we hit the road again... this time en route to the famous Great Ocean Road. It was a beautiful drive, with the 2 lane road winding all around the rugged coastline. There was a picture perfect view around almost every corner. We stopped at a bunch of different look out points along the way, including the strange "12 Apostles" rocks that were formed when the arch that connected the pillars to the mainland eroded. Stunning! We finished up the trip with a visit to the Blue Lake... the most unnaturally vivid blue water ever... and nobody is sure exactly why it's like that. Very cool.

We checked off yet another of the list of things to see in Oz... yeah haw! Thanks to Fish Sticks for the driving and the hospitality and for stopping every time we had to pee... you have a lot of patience.












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