Hello everyone ! Long time no talk again~ I've been on exams and have finally finished so I thought it was time to continue my recap of melbourne (even though like four months have elapsed since then but better late than never right?). Anyhow on the second day we actually booked probably the cheapest day tour to the great ocean road and hoped for the best.
Actually to be honest, I was a little scared it'd be dodgy because a random person had to come collect our money from us - I was half afraid they'd just make off with the money and never contact us but it was all good in the end. I think my one scamming incident has scarred me for life but gotta love Australia, 95% of people are trustworthy :3 We got picked up by a tour bus very very early in the morning.
Our tour guide was actually really nice - she was so cheerful the whole way but kind enough to let us sleep through the boring parts of the journey without overloading us with information. Oh and morning tea was provided. We went with a 1 day great ocean road and 12 apostles tour which was about $85 per person which was quite worth it in my opinion considering lunch, morning tea, transport and a tour guide was all part of the package along with dropping us off where we needed!
I distinctly remember it being super cold that day so we bundled up in as many layers as we could and napped like crazy between stops!
I'd like to say I remembered every stop we made with great geographic detail but..... I've always sucked at geography and I totally forgot the name of this beach. We didn't do much here anyway - it was just a quick morning tea break!
My cute little tam ball :3 she is single guys ;) just putting it out there. Please don't kill me tam.
Le couple :D much cute much cute. Even in matching colours!
It actually took almost a whole day to get all the way to the end of the great ocean road, I remember going last time but we never made it all the way to the end. It was a lot more enjoyable this time and for some reason everything just looked amazing.
Peaceful looking little spot!
It was actually super cold, so cold I was almost grimacing but hey - couldn't miss out on the nice scenery.
We were probably like the loudest people on the bus and usually one of the last few to get back on because we kept taking like gajillion photos every time we got off but the tour guide was fully good natured about it all.
We stopped at this area to try spot some koalas and other supposed Australian wildlife where time got really really happy because she managed to get a bird to land on her palm.
We arrived finally, at the main (well, i guess most famous) part of the great ocean road: The Twelve apostles. Though ironically there aren't actually twelve apostles... but anyhow. Other than squishing between a lot of tour buses parked there, we managed to find our way to the look out and the scenery was absolutely breath taking.
It was actually around sunset when we arrived - we were lucky enough that enough of the sun came out just when we arrived because it'd be slightly overcast the entire day!
Jackie, Victoria, Tam, myself & Justin!
Actually, after this place I wasn't expecting to see much but the Tour guide told us that personally she thought the final stop is arguably on par with the twelve apostles, albeit less well known. The last stop was called Loch Ard Gorge the tour guide told us a pretty interesting story. Apparently, a long time ago a young girl and her family were on a boat traveling to Australia and the great ocean road was known as the shipwreck coast (self explanatory reason).
So, as they neared this place late one night, they failed to see the cliffs and the entire ship was destroyed, with everyone drowning. The little girl however, somehow managed to grab hold on to some floating pieces of wood and got swept by the waves into Loch Ard Gorge where another young boy had also luckily been swept into. He scrambled to pull her out of the water and after a while, they were eventually found by some folk. They recovered for a few months under the care of their rescuers, whereby the girl decided that she didn't want to stay in Australia any longer because she'd lost her entire family so she went back to England and the boy stayed. Yep I totally expected a love story but nope.
We were trying to take some normal photos when Justin asked me to take a photo for him posing next the cave. Unbeknownst to him, Victoria snuck behind and proceeded to photobomb. The result was hilarious but he didn't seem to agree HAHAHA.
We tried re-creating some sort of action photo but Jackie looked a little too happy to be "blasted away" by my non-existent super powers. Actually, I've never gotten so much sand in my boots.
We requested to be dropped off near china town after we got back to Melbourne CBD and we headed to this 24/7 Ramen place that we quickly looked up. Everything seems to taste better in Melbourne - Tam and Justin thoroughly enjoyed their Ramen. Can't wait till I head to Japan and inhale all their ramen.
Finished the day at the same asian desserts place. God I love asian dessert. Sorry if these pictures made you guys hungry!
Thats all for now ! Time to go unwind. Good night :3 I'm loving holidays so far.