The Great Ocean Road

From Melbourne, we were picked up on Friday from St. Kilda (a funky part of Melbourne with the best cakes!) and headed onto the Great Ocean Road.
With 11 of us crammed into a small mini bus we headed off on a 3 day tour - it was soon apparent that we were travelling with some fab people.

On the first day we stopped at Spit Light House which is where Round the Twist was filmed -couldn't get up close but it was cool all the same.
Emma and I went a bit crazy with the many 'Photo' stops and quickly established ourselves as nutters! We stopped at the War memorial which was a big sign for the GOR - lots of tourists snapping away.

Lorne was beautiful and a quaint little town. Shortly after we went through a forest where there were koala's in trees - we saw the back of one!

We stopped at a place called Loch Ard which was some amazing rock formations and where a ship was wrecked. Emma and I were stars - we re-enacted the story on the beach and almost got caught out by the gushing waves. The video will be amazing - we will use it for auditions! I have never see the sea look so powerful; it was truly amazing, the waves were huge with white horses running for miles.
From here we headed up to the 12 Apostles where we caught the sunset, it was freezing cold but well worth the views. The sky tinged with pink creating a magical feel to the rock formations. We took many many photos from every angle.

That night we all stayed in Apollo Bay which was on the beach. As a group we set to peeling and chopping vegetables and prepared dinner. The evening was spent sat around the log fire singing to songs that Marcus played on his guitar - although there was a battle with him and Emma's ipod. Emma won!

The next morning we were up early and headed out for a morning walk where we went to Thunder cave and a blow hole, again it was freezing but the sound of the water crashing through the caves created a eerie still to the morning. We then had the option to re-visit the 12 apostles - but this time by air. I figured I wouldn't get the opportunity again so we went up in a helicopter and for 10 mins flew out to the sea and around the roacks. I had to sit up front which was a little scary - I had to straddle the joystick which I managed to knock when I tried to get my leg over!
After the flight we went up to London Bridge - another rock formation and then to a small grotto, by this time we were so over taking photos but we kept on with the on and off the bus routine.

We then headed inland the Grampians - a national park where we visited a waterfall (the steps back up nearly killed us!) and at sunset we headed to the Balconies where we went on a short walk through the iciest winds, I swear the Cuckubarra was laughing at me and how cold I was. The view at the end through was awesome - across the valleys with the sun setting. Amazing.
That evening we had a BBQ at our hostel - emu and kangaroo was on the menu - lush! we played several drinking games with out 'goon' and then headed outside for marshmallows round the campfire. A good fun evening was had by all.

It was another early morning but this one was all the harder due to the hangovers involved, but we made it and headed out for a morning 'hike'. It wasn't a hike - it was a mountain climb. Iw as very scared and it was very high - I was properly rock climbing, but again the view left me speechless and the climb left me breathless and aching.

We then took the drive up to Adelaide - we didn't stop much, everyone was too tired and trying to recover, but we did stop to take 'photos' of some white kangaroos - quite cute.

An amazing tour with some amazing people, we had such a giggle and it is great seeing different cultures experiencing new things. Em and I were sad leaving the group last night, we wanted a group hug but everyone dispearsed.

(please ignore any spelling mistakes... this was done very quickly!)