Great Ocean Road

In order to catch this blog up in as fast a fashion as I possibly can before this study abroad is over I’m going to have to change to elaborated bullet points of the major points to a trip and leave your creative little minds to fill in the gaps. This blogs filler should be a big ol’ bucket of bus-van, 21 person seater.

DAY ONE:
• The trip was through Melbourne Uni, the Outdoors club. For a small price they were offering trip along the great ocean road for Melbourne Uni students.
• The great ocean road is a winding road east of Melbourne along the cliffs of the coast built by returning war vets who had no jobs.
• Starting on Saturday fairly early in the morning with a two hour drive to our first destination
• 2 hour surfing lesson, I stood up almost at first but progressed fairly quickly backwards after that.
• The beginning of the great ocean road is marked by a log ‘entrance way’
• Second stop, huge waterfall (and so cold!)
• The windey part of the road began then, in and our along the headlands. Great views and sights.
• Third stop, wild koalas. Truly wild, not like the Phillip Island conservatory. And a joey fairly fresh out of his mothers pouch climbing amount the leaves.
• There were numerous stops along the way to get out and see some of the best sights from the great ocean road.
• At the waterfall the tour leader, ‘Azza’ (as he proposed to be called) filled the bus-van with sticks.
• That night at a backpackers in Apollo Bay, Azza lit a bonfire with said sticks and we sat around that for the last bit of the night.

DAY TWO:
• The next morning we headed into the rainforest first where Azza gave us a history/biology lesson of sorts about the massively huge and tall trees there.
• Heading back to the coast and the great ocean road we stopped at a few more beaches and overlooks for the views.
• The 12 apostles (or the ‘sow and piglets’ as they may have previously been referred to) were the next stop. What used to be 12 stumps of un-eroded rock separated from the mainland (now something like 8).
• Gorge Beach, where a ship had shipwrecked and the only two survivors washed ashore. We stayed here for a while. The water was absolutely freezing (I did go in), and learned a bit more about aussy footy (like how to kick and handball). Randomly ran into some of Barrys friends who I met in Brisbane.
• London Bridge—it did in fact fall down. A peninsular of sorts out into the sea that used to be like a bridge till the middle fell out. As bill Bryson (and Azza tell), two people were stuck out there when the bridge fell, they were cheating on their respective counterparts.
• Finally there was lunch, and the trip back to Melbourne.

It was good and enjoyable trip, definitively worth the money. The views and sights from the road were pretty spectacular, even the road itself. I would highly recommend it especially for study abroad students at Melbourne Uni who don’t have access to transport out there (and even if you do).

AusTour 17: Kangaroo Island

aka the most unplanned and inefficient part of the entire trip. I had decided to go to kangaroo island on a whim—it was in the vicinity of Adelaide and was relatively easy to get to. What I didn’t decide on was how exactly I would get around such a large island. Most people rent cars or take tours to see the entire island. Me, I didn’t. Regardless of this deficiency I decided to treat Kangaroo Island as a day to relax, to take it slow for once on the trip.
The day began with a 6:45am bus from Adelaide bus terminal to make a ferry at 9. The bus and ferry were run by the same company, sea link. The bus driver was friendly even for such an hour and gave some pretty good commentary coming out of Adelaide and down through the valleys and wine (and olive) valleys. I’m sure it was interesting but I don’t remember much about it, partially and mostly because it was SO GAWD DAMN EARLY IN THE MORNING. Anyway when the bus got to the 45 min ferry line I saw the high and rough seas, groaned and took a travel sick pill before hiding in the centre of the ship away from anything that proved just how much we were rocking. Arriving in one piece and without any spillages, I disembarked to find a place to drop my stuff. Id seen the YHA from the ship so knew it wasn’t far and when I got there I found my key on the counter and let myself into my room. The owner of the hostel sprang up from nowhere after about five minutes and she was really nice and helpful. With my bags stowed in my room of six for one (!) I went ‘into town,’ what I mean by that is I went into the two roads that run parallel to form Penneshaw. The lady at the info desk was entirely unhelpful and arrogant so I left with little more than a map. With it only being about 11am I went into the only café in town, ordered a cup of tea and sat down with the days paper (how Bill Byrson!).
The owner of Kangaroo Island YHA had told me about a track along the coast and out to the ruins of a house. I decided I would walk that, having nothing else to do and no way to get anywhere else. The walk was pleseant and quiet, the sun was warm and the sky clear. I stumbled upon a group of wallabies and spent a while with them (probably most to their distress). It was a very casual wonder up and along the cliffs, in no hurry and stopping often to sit and look out to sea or across the hills. There was no hurry that had existed in the past 10 days, so it was entirely relaxing just to be able to go as fast or slow as I wanted. On the way back I saw some dolphins just off shore and watched them before they disappeared.
Back in Penneshaw I sat on the beach just taking in the atmosphere and basking in the sun for the remaining part of the afternoon. Again, incredibly relaxing atmosphere. After dinner there was a walk around the little penguin’s habitat for incredibly cheap. Unfortunately their colony has been decimated by seals eating the returning penguins so they weren’t nearly as loud or numerous as their Phillip Island cousins. After that I went across the road back to the YHA where I talked with 2 of the 4 other people staying there for a good while in the sitting room before heading to bed to depart the next morning at 11 back to Adelaide.
Kangaroo Island: the Complete Review
Yeah, I didn’t do anything really, but that was good. In the end that’s what I really wanted—not another action packed adventure. It’s definitively worth a visit if you do it right, there are lots of attractions on this quarantined island, they’re just spread out. With that in mind ill have to plan something better and come back to really explore the island.

AusTour 8: Newcastle

We arrived at 3:30am in Newcastle. I knew exactly where this YHA was, and without much energy exhausted we got in and passed out. I should mention this is one of the most ‘hostel’ hostels I’ve ever stayed at. It used to be an Old Gentleman’s Club, the ceilings were high, it was spacious and the floors, banisters, windows, furniture were quaint-ornate. Overall the hostel had a very homey feel to it which was very agreeable. The next morning we slept in and practically missed breakfast. After eating we made our way down to the beeches, past the bathes and out to Nobbys’s head. One thing that made me extremely jealous was seeing a Newcastle Uni student reading his reader on the beech—something I haven’t and won’t be able to do in Melbourne. After reaching the farthest point on Nobbys’s head (used to be an island with a light house until it was joined with the mainland) we returned up the beech to the hostel to grab some body boards. The sun had rejoined us after yesterday’s debacle, and the beach was sunny and the waves clear. They were also high and strong. Simply getting out to a point where you could catch a wave was the hardest part, but the ride in was utterly rewarding—ridiculously fast and wild. The water was cold but withstandable, and the body soon got used to it. With that out of my system we headed back to the hostel for showers and a free barbeque and trivia night. I should add that during the time between body boarding and bbqing I headed up to the highest point in Newcastle to catch some pictures as the sun set. Following trivia night and getting ‘best name’ for “Thank God we Left Port Macquarie” we stayed to watch some of the bands in the local battle of the bands. One band was seriously good, but not everyone’s cup of tea, Memorial Drive. The next day we had just enough time to grab breakfast and a short walk through town and up the Queen’s Warf Tower for a look out on the port of Newcastle (‘the giant penis’) before meeting the bus at 11 to Sydney (oh and while waiting we saw Newcastle’s elusive, yet most famous, tram).
Newcastle: the Complete Review
This was a nice town, the atmosphere was relaxed and it was fairly clean. We discovered on the drive out on the bus that there was a whole end to Newcastle we never got to. We’d scheduled extra time in Newcastle for a bit of rest before Sydney, but could have easily eaten another day doing more of the things Newcastle had to offer. It might be worth noting that Newcastle Uni was one of the original placed I looked at attending—from the town, it wouldn’t have been a bad choice.

AusTour 6: Byron Bay

This place was gorgeous and a great refresher after a city atmosphere like Brisbane. We arrived into the small beach community at 630ish after leaving Brisbane at 3. After arriving we made our way to the Byron Bay YHA (our first YHA experience). The feel of this hostel was good, and matched the beach town environment. The only way to describe it would be like inside-out camping, a horseshoe of room surround shady-palm courtyards, decks and pool. Really relaxed and laid back. After a quick dinner of fish and chips (we were by the sea after all) we went to the railway friendly bar (‘the rails’) where we were serenaded by a western Australia artist, Freya Hanly (I urge you to check her out, she was really good). Later that night we made our way to the beach to try and see some stars as the night was really clear. The next day we rented (free) bikes from the hostel and made our way out to the beach and the Cape Byron walking trail. The sun was warm in a cloud free sky and the beech was white sand greeting crystal clear water. Lazily we made our way up the walking trail (past the most enormously huge lizard I have EVER seen) towards the lighthouse. As we ascended, we passed the most easterly point on the Australian continent (marked conveniently). After too many steps to count we would reach the lighthouse at the top for a look out at the wide ocean and back upon the mountain ranges including (the Captain Cook named) Mt. Warning. We (as in i) decided to continue along the trail which included, can you guess…more steps (up and down, even though we were going down). At one point we left a message of sticks on the path for any other weary traveler on the steps to nowhere ‘Boo more steps.’ The last part of the trail brought us through the Cape Byron Headland Reserve before dumping us pretty much where we had started. We went back onto the sandy beech (which squeaked curiously like tennis shoes) where Barry braved the waters. Finally we went to the surfer’s beach on the other side of Cape Byron where we watched the surfers for a good while before returning the bikes and meeting the bus for our next destination Port Macquarie.Byron Bay: the Complete Review
Beautiful and relaxed place. Definitely want to go back. There’s no annoying transit system, no noise pollution (no light pollution) and I wouldn’t be surprised if the sun shone everyday there. The beaches were large and clean and the water was even better. Nature abounds here from giant lizards to some sort of mutant turkey. Singularly the best stop on the trip.

Phillip Island

A 45 minute ferry ride (or if one of you engines, say, breaks down an hour ferry ride) is the small (or, say, what you thought was small but really 26 km) island of Phillip Island; Home to some awesome sand beaches, the Phillip Island grand prix, fur seals (on rocks), a wild life park, a koala reserve and the penguin parade. With a weekend we looked to do some of the most well known parts of the island, including the koala reserve and a must see, the penguin parade. On the first day we experienced Cowes (apparently related in some way to the Cowes on the Isle of Wight) and headed to the penguin parade in the evening. The parade is essentially the fairy (or little) penguins heading in from the sea at sunset. They wait off shore for the sun to set behind the island before heading onshore to their nests on the cliffs and dunes. They’re nervous, and timidly run part way up the beach before running back to the waves and trying again. Unfortunately picture taking and camera recording is prohibited, but i managed to get some film so that will be around soon.
On the way back up to the car park you walk up through the dunes where there nests up, a chorus of penguin calls (barking, squawking, singing…I don’t know what you would call it) greats you. Oh, and the stars were so clear it was absolutely unbelievable.
We spent the night in a camper caravan before getting up to go to the koala reserve. We rented bikes in Cowes and rode there as it was a pretty good distance out of Cowes. At the koala reserve the koalas live (almost free), they have large sections of land full of eucalyptus trees. In between two sections there are wooden skywalks that bring you to the level of the koalas. Koalas sleep most of the day, but we did get to see some actually moving about through the trees and along the walkways and even eating. We were also informed that koala poo smells of eucalyptus, which is incredibly true (and it’s incredibly potent).
On the way back to Cowes to meet the ferry we rode through a forest like reserve. Actually we rode through it twice after reading the map wrong and doing a complete circle. Apparently there were really wild koalas out here, but we only managed to spot some wild wallabies and what I think was a kookaburra. It was good to be out of the city again, and into a place that could easily be mistaken as any English country side if one didn’t look too hard. The weekend went quickly and gave us the chance to be tourists again, and see something that is fairly unique in the penguin parade and koalas up close.

Sunday at St Kilda

(What I’m going to attempt to do this week is to go through some of the major events that have happened since being here so I can work on being a little more current, interspersed with some anecdotal/random posts)The Sunday before classes started a friend from AustraLearn, Victoria, and I took a tram ride down to St Kilda—the closest beachside resort for Melbourne. Of course, in typical Melbourne style (or at least the Melbourne I know) it rained for most of the morning before trying desperately to break through to sun in the afternoon. The actual purpose of the trip was to go to the Sunday artist festival but because of the rain not many of the artists showed up, so we did the town, beach and pier.
As you get into St Kilda you’re greeted by a giant face, creepy amusing scary it covers them all and it also fronts Luna Park which looks eerily like Coney Island in New York (in fact its modeled after it)—a mini amusement park. There was also one of those human statue people, interesting enough, took a picture. Getting past that you hit the sand, and your first good shot at the sea. And while it is technically still inside the Melbourne harbor due to two giant peninsulas that leave a singular 5 km straight, the feel is still the seaside. The sand was crisp and the water was…ABSOLULTY FREEZING. Turns out the Melbourne Sea, like everything else in Melbourne in winter, is cold and wet. We made our way along the pier (apparently pretty famous) up to the end where there are supposedly little fairy penguins (we didn’t see any—only a load of dead starfish and a couple of fishermen). There’s a reserve up the end for these little critters, and they’re apparently joined with some sort of, and what can only be described as a, sea otter (rakali). We walked into the café on the end of the pier, partially to warm our hands and partially to see the prices—to expensive.
We went back into town to find something a little more pocket friendly and stumbled upon several very good looking cake shops (identified by crowds of people drooling on store fronts). There were lots of other small shops along the street, all small personal business each with their own little culture. I had no idea what the one pictured to the right is selling but it had an awesome shop front. Taking a hot pie and a cup of tea from one of the delicious-looking cake shops, it was just right for the cold weather and rain, and with that the sun began to come out. Yay! With the sun came more people including a couple of people rollerblading—one of whom wiped out spectacularly. St Kilda’s is literally filled with scenic beauty and hinted with grunge attitude. It would probably be a lovely place to live, though we went in the middle of winter and I can only imagine how crazy this place must get in the middle of summer.