Bongbong's Adventures in Oz

Once we packed up and checked out of Lorne, we made our way to Queenscliff, Victoria to take the ferry over to Sorrento, then through the Mornington Peninsula and around to Phillip Island.

We stopped by Bells Beach along the way. It's a well renowned surf beach in Victoria.

Bells Beach, Victoria - renowned surf beach

On the ferry over to Sorrento

On the ferry over to Sorrento, beautiful!

Arriving at Sorrento

I really liked Sorrento, even though we were only there for less than an hour. It's a pretty place and reminds me a little bit of Vancouver. We grabbed some lunch from the local bakery, which was very busy and had a line up out the door!

Then we drove through the peninsula and tried to take the scenic route along the coast. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of the drive. From there, it was about a 2 hour drive to get to Phillip Island.

Busy bakery

We found a nice little backpacker (hostel) called The Island Accomodation and stayed in 'The Little Penguin' room haha. We checked in and then went out for some sight seeing. Shane hasn't been to Phillip Island before and this will be my second time (you can read about my first time experience here). At Nobbies, we saw a little penguin sleeping in its little hut which was cool! The last time I saw them was during the penguin parade. So since Shane got to see a penguin in the wild, he didn't want to pay to see the penguin parade that evening.. lol. Then we went into the town center to have a look around, and also got some groceries to make dinner back at the backpackers.

The next day we did a little bit more exploring of the rest of the island and tried to check out at all the points on the visitor map guide. We saw Pyramid Rock, Church Hill Islands, a couple other spots, finished with the Chocolate Factory!

At Nobbies on Phillip Island

A little blue penguin sleeping in its little hut at Nobbies on Phillip Island!

Phillip Island town centre


Cooking dinner back at our accomodation	Shane digging into his lamb chops

Pyramid Rock

Then we made our way to Foster, Victoria to meet up with Sosan and the family, about an hour and a half drive. We met them in Foster because we all wanted to go to Wilsons Promontory (also my second time there as part of the Phillip Island tour) which is about a 40 minute drive. This time I got to appreciate the scenic views on the way because I fell asleep on the bus last time!

The day was quite overcast and cool, luckily it didn't rain on us and we had periods where the sun peeked through. We drove to the most southern part we could by car and hung out at Norman Beach four a couple hours. If we wanted to hit the most southern point of Australia we would have had to hike, which we were not prepared to do and with Aria it would have been a little difficult. So we just had some fun on the beach! That part of Victoria reminds me a lot of Alberta and the Kananaskis area, because it is so lush and mountainous.

When we had enough of the coldness and sand, we headed back to Foster, roamed around the little town, got some dinner, and stayed the night there. Shane and I took off early the next morning because we had to return the car rental. Then we walked around the city, had some pho for lunch, walked around some more and a couple beers at Transport in Federation square before meeting up with Sosan and Matt for dinner at the renowned Lygon Street.

So that pretty much wraps up the road trip section of our trip to Melbourne! It was short but we still got to see a fair bit and fit in as much as we could! ;)

Norman Beach

After sleeping through a hot night, we woke up to a cooler day, thank goodness! We booked another night at the hostel and made our way up the coast along the Great Ocean Road.

The morning started with a cloudy overcast which is a bit unfortunate for photos. We did a quick stop at Cape Patton Lookout at Apollo Bay for a couple photos. We decided to check out Apollo Bay on the way back later. So, the next stop was the 12 Apostles and it really is a beautiful sight to see. With the years of erosion, only 8 remain. Then we went up to Port Campbell for lunch and that's when the clouds cleared out and the sun came out to play! We really liked Port Campbell because it's such a pretty town and they have a cool little bay area right in the town centre. So we got some lunch and sat by the water enjoying the view. Then enjoyed a refreshing dip in the water.

On the way to the 12 Apostles

Port Campbell

Port Campbell Bay

So, Port Campbell was as far as we went on the Great Ocean Road due to the time we had left. We headed back down and made a couple stops at the Thunder Cave and The Razorback, which was really cool. We had some time to wander around the area, and there were a couple of short walks to explore. We checked out the Island Archway, however the archway had collapsed in 2009. While we were there, Shane and I stumbled upon a nice little secluded beach spot, well there was another couple which I think we interrupted their 'alone' time.. oops haha.. anyway it was so serene and peaceful there.

Thunder Cave, there used to be an archway connecting those two.

Thunder Cave

Razorback

At the Razorback lookout

Island Archway. The Archway collapsed in 2009. (what it looked like before the archway collapsed)

The secluded beach we found

At the secluded beach we found

Along the way to Apollo Bay, our final stop before heading back to Lorne, we got to see the sun setting along the coast and it was perfect. We stopped at a lookout for some photos and I must say it was one of the prettiest sunsets I've seen.

At Apollo Bay, we checked out the carnival and had some Dooley's ice-cream. Then we went back to Lorne and finished the evening with some pizza for dinner!

Next, we make our way over to Phillip Island via ferry, Sorrento and Mornington Peninsula.