The Great Ocean Road - Part 2

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 

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.

Sunset on the Great Ocean Road. The photo doesn't do justice on how beautiful it was

Carnival at Apollo Bay

Enjoyed some Dooley's Ice Cream at Apollo Bay on the beach

Enjoyed some Dooley's Ice Cream at Apollo Bay on the beach 

Apollo Bay Beach

Until next time Great Ocean Road!

Visit to Melbourne & The Great Ocean Road - Part 1

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.

The main street in Lorne. At the end is Lorne Hotel

Main street in Lorne

Lorne beach

Our little rental car

Lorne main street over looks the coast. So pretty

Dinner and drinks at Lorne Hotel

Beautiful view from Lorne Hotel where he had dinner and drinks

NYE in Melbourne!

Happy 2012 from Melbourne, Australia!

Shane and I decided to celebrate New Year's Eve in Melbourne to ring in 2012!
We got hang out with Matt, Sosan, Aria and Prima. Lucky for us there was a heat wave on New Year's Eve and day and man was it hot! It got up to 40 degrees Celsius!

We didn't have any plans so we ended up doing our own pub crawl around the city, by foot, and went to watch the fireworks. It was quite random but we had fun.

Sosan and I found random balloons

Sorry for the bad fireworks photo! It's the only one a managed to take at the time haha

At the Crowne Casino being served by a bunny, who forgot to charge us for the champagne!

Cheers!