Bongbong's Adventures in Oz: Visit to Melbourne & The Great Ocean Road

So from my last post, you saw that we celebrated NYE in Melbourne. Since Shane had some time off work, we took a little holiday to Melbourne to visit my friends Sosan and Matt. We got to spend a few days in Melbourne. Hung out at St Kilda beach, and got our pho fix in the city. Silly us, we chose one of the hottest days to have pho, on New Year's day in 40+. We were all craving pho because we were a little bit hung over and I swear it was hotter inside the restaurant than it was outside, I was sweating while eating pho! It was good though haha.

St Kilda Pier

St Kilda Pier with Matt, Sosan, Prima and Aria

St. Kilda

Flinders Street station. Christmas decorations are still up.

Always have to visit the laneways in Melbourne!

Enjoying a beer at Transport at Federation Square

We also planned a road trip down the Great Ocean Road and so the day after New Year's day, we rented a car and started our drive on a hot, 40 + heatwave day. We thought we could get away from the heat by driving along the coast and hitting the beach but it was just as hot!

Part 1 of The Great Ocean Road Trip

Our first stop was Aireys Beach, and Sosan, Matt and the family drove down as well. We got some take away for lunch from Anglesea and met them at the beach and there was a bit of relief there.

Aireys Beach on the Great Ocean Road

When they left to head back to Melbourne we went on our way to Lorne to find accommodation for the night and to chill out (or try to lol). I really liked Lorne. There was a cool vibe to the place, trendy and lots of places to dine and shop and right next to the beach.

We got lucky and found a room at a backpackers (hostel) with some help of Shane's ears at the front desk. Originally, when we called in, they had put us in a 'tent' like accommodation because almost everything was booked out and on that hot day it would not have been fun. So luckily, while checking in at the front desk, Shane over heard reception on the phone with a double bed room available and we snagged that right away. There was no A/C in the room but there was a fan and I had a cooling towel so I just wet that and put over me with the fan blasting. 40+ heat and me do not go well together. We even went into the local grocery store and tried to get some relief in the beer fridge. I just stood there in the fridge and was so happy.

We went to the beach in Lorne, then had some nibbles at a Mexican place on the main street and then checked out the Lorne Hotel for drinks and dinner. It was a nice hotel with a great view of the water and the food was pretty good too. Then we headed back to our room for an early night since we planned to drive to the 12 Apostles the next day and wanted an early start.