Great Ocean Road

We were up and out early from Warrnambool to start our long and exciting day south down the Great Ocean Road. The boys were tired after a late night and big day yesterday but we told them they could rest all day in the car, except when we got out to see something. Little did they know they would be getting out every 300m, literally.

The weather on the coast starts cloudy in the morning and generally clears to sun in the afternoon so the coastline view was a bit hazy at the first few stops. The best part is in the Port Campbell National Park where we got out and saw, in order, The Grotto, London Bridge (which has fallen down, seriously, but water is already well on its way to eroding a new one), The Arch, Loch Ard Gorge, The Twelve Apostles (only 9 left now) and a walk through a rain forest. I think if we asked the boys to get out one more time there was going to be nuclear meltdown. Some of the stops were simple look outs 100m from the parking and others were over 1km return walks down to amazing rock formations with huge waves thundering a crashing sending sprays of water about 10m in the air.

Jeff and I went drove to the 12 Apostles on our honeymoon and it was amazing to see them again with the boys. 14yrs ago it was a small look out and now it is a mass tourist stop with a packed parking lot and store! We also saw a boat launch that was about 45 degrees straight down and only going to work at high tide. The tide was out for most of our drive so we got great views of the beaches as well.

After another 1.5 drive on what is likely the windiest roads every, we arrived in Lorne, another popular resort town for those in Melbourne and Geelong. Jeff's friends have all rented a house there the first few weeks in January for years and now take all the kids. Jeff and I were part of that on our honeymoon but we didn't recognize the place much. We sat on the beach for an hour and then had a fabulous pizza dinner before taking on the last few hours drive home.  The cost of living is higher here so eating out is a real treat. A long and amazing day!!

loooong way down if you loose the boat or your brakes!

boat launch, anyone?  Seriously steep and even at high tide nearly impossible

PS. for those of you Starbucks lovers, you may not make it. The European influence is so strong here they really know their coffee so there is already a cafe every 2 doors and they often put the Starbucks out of business within 1yr. I have seen one Starbucks, but that's it.

Heading South

The real reason we needed the rental car was because we had decided to drive along the south coast for a few days and had already booked and paid for a condo at a little resort town in their busiest Christmas season, non-refundable. We headed out of Melbourne by 9am and drove south through Geelong, then inland and due west to Warrnambool (ps, the natives looved doouble 'oo' and dooble consonants in all location nammes). The drive reminded Jeff of the German country side with rolling hills and farm land and me of the Okanagan. 3.5 hours later we dropped into Warrnambool to get the keys to our mansion, it was seriously huge relative to Australia city homes with almost the exact layout of my parent's house. All modern and immaculately kept in a great location (just blocks from the best ice cream shop!) off the main street heading to the beach. I had the best lunch of our trip in one of the many Asian/Indian influence restaruants - a seafood Thai stirfry that was so authentic and filled with double the seafood of any other meal for half the price. Anyway, my love and appreciation of great food does not stop, even on holidays.

We continued 20km up the road by recommendation of Mark to Port Fairy, another popular but smaller holiday destination. Mark even gave us the address to the surf shop to rent wet suits and boogie boards. Suited up we went to the recommended East Beach to give it a go. Gorgeous miles of flour-like sand in a gentle C with waves rolling in just perfect for riding. The beach is quite shallow for a long way so even though the waves come right from the open ocean, they are perfect by the time they reach us. Not quite big enough to surf on but there were some beginners getting the feel of it. The boys are so light that even the smallest wave took them all the way into to shore without any resistance. Jeff and I had to seek out the larger waves and hop on before they crested in order to really go for a ride. The water was very clear.....and cold, thus the wet suits. Warmer than I expected but it does come up from the Antarctic so think Vancouver in July ocean temperature.

Back to our condo for showers and exploring before dinner. We fell in love with Warrnambool! Lots of parks, play structures and board walks with gorgeous beaches and sand, a huge skate park better than Calgary, great food and variety and fascinating history. It is pricey during the holiday season and because it is so far south, it's best likely in January/February to get some really warm days. This part of the south is called the Shipwreck Coast because over 80 ships went down along the rocky stretch and 5 of them are just off Warrnambool. This is also the 3rd largest lava plain in the world, formed by thousands of ancient volcanos leaving rich, fertile soil for growing crops.

After dinner on the waterfront seeing the waves roll in on beautiful landscape, we drove 15km down the road Tower Hill Nature Reserve, on a few miles inland where the world opens up into a huge crater created 30,000 years ago and is now a small lake. Around 8pm all the wildlife come out (apparently Hamilton Island is not the only place) and there is a small road down through the crater and around the park. All the animals are wild there and we saw a Koala family with a small baby in a tree, Emus with babies, Brown and red Kangaroos, black swans and babies (out in the lake) within just a few metres of the car.

sunset in the crater 

the boys favourite chair in our condo, it was huge, leather and could spin :)

the ice cream shop had bubble gum ice cream in dark green, this is the proof

suited up and ready for boarding!

gorgeous East Beach in Port Fairy

Tomorrow we are driving home via the coast and The Great Ocean Road. It will be a long day filled with many fantastic landmarks and things to see.

Call ahead, book ahead, pay in advance

With the Christmas festivities over we decided to head out and do activities the kids were looking forward to. We had been trying to rent a car for a trip the next day but not having much luck. We talked about it over the holidays but never made the calls with all the goings on for Christmas, and in a city the size of Melbourne they must have cars, right?  After a very frustrating 1.5 hours researching and calling every place twice, we finally got a car just before they closed at noon.

First stop, Melbourne ScienceWorks and Planetarium (science centre). Great place to run around and get hands on science insight into the body with an entire sports/movement section. We were there for 3 hours and the boys could have stayed longer. There was a huge dinosaur area that looked great but it was extra pay and we didn't have time. The upstairs is like a big city with foam block construction, stores, and more learning about bugs. Biggest surprise was the admission - $20! Even in our old Calgary Science Centre the admission was more and in our new Telus Spark it costs much more!!! Not sure of the cost if we have paid for the extras like shows and the dinosaur part, anyway, great place. 

Jeff was able to catch up with another Canadian friend from his uni days, Jenn, who has married and Aussie and now lived in Tasmania. They were in Melbourne for Christmas and met us at ScienceWorks with their kids. Great to catch up and meet families. A quick stop at another of Jeff's friend's house that was part of a group of gals that came to Canada and stayed with Murray and Di - Sara Hein and her husband Martin and two kids. Everyone from the gang was going there for dinner that night but we just stopped in for appies and a drink.

We really wanted to rent a car to drive to Phillip Island and see the Penguin Parade - one of Victoria's top things to see. It's just over an 1.5hr drive so we headed out and picked up dinner along the way. Jeff had checked the web site before we left so we thought we had all the info. It is an amazing event where the tropical penguins, who spend the day off shore fishing, all come up on the beach around 8pm to next and feed their young in borrows. Apparently there can be hundreds and the event lasts for about 20 minutes. We heard there are now cameras in the burrows so you can watch the young being fed.

part 1 of the miniature Wallace and Grommet display at Science works

part 2 - apparently the Wallace and Grommet house is going to be set up there this month with a topic of innovation for kids!

this gadjet had reflective mirrors and trying to walk that line without looking directly at it was really diffiult

there was a huge 'body in motion' interactive part that was fascinating and fun, with lots of information about the sports themselves 

there was a 20M race track to test speed

even the Paralympic sports were well represented

a lego version of Melbourne and the bay

Jeff and Jenn, seeing each other after almost 20 years!

We got near the beach and saw signs saying 'tickets sold out'. After waiting in a line of traffic to be greeted by a parks official confirming the Penguin Parade was sold out that night, one of only a few nights of the year, and it was posted on the web site. No, it was not on the web site and in spite of pleading our situation they weren't letting us in, and no, we are not going to come back next year. So, we turned around and came home having seen a great sunset on Phillip Island and not much else. Very disappointing and thus the title of this post. Still a great day of fun and friends.