The Great Ocean Road: Day 5

Thanks to Jetstar cancelling our flight, we had an extra day in St Kilda which we weren't expecting. Rather than trekking into Melbourne again and risk being caught fare-evading like we had done the previous day due to lack of exact change, we decided to spend the day chilling out in St Kilda.

Our first stop was breakfast at the Berkeley Cafe, which luckily was a little more successful than our last St Kilda breakfast experience. We had a typically Australian - long and laid-back - breakfast munching on fruit salad, toast and coffee whilst Dave made use of the free wi-fi and I tried, but failed due to my lack of knowledge of Australian celebrities, to complete a crossword in "Famous" magazine.

It was a lovely sunny day so we decided a walk towards Brighton Beach was in order. Once again, Sydney proved to be the far superior city, this time in terms of beachside walks - the Bondi to Bronte walk is much prettier!

By the time we arrived back in St Kilda, it was lunchtime: we decided to try a vegetarian restaurant along the seafront called Soul Mama - the views were lovely and the food was delicious. Some more 7 apples gelato finished off our lunch nicely.

Our flight was nearing so we headed back to the hostel to say our goodbyes and make our way to the airport. After a rather long detour to Tullamarine thanks to Dave's directions, we eventually arrived with a couple of hours to spare before our flight. Goodbye Great Ocean Road and back to beautiful Sydney...and only a couple of weeks before our next adventure to Perth!

Amigos, aka the best Mexican restaurant EVER..

St Kilda is Melbourne's equivalent to Bondi, and being the Sydneysider that I am: I don't like it. However, we found a little Mexican restaurant called Amigos along Acland Street which has given me a reason to possibly return to St Kilda in the future. It was actually the yummiest Mexican food I've ever tasted (although thinking about it, my experience of Mexican food is limited to Las Iguanas in Brighton and Dave's Ol El Paso fajitas).

We had a delicious starter of corn chips with chilli con queso - a cheese dip with roasted garlic and capsicum served warm. This was pure calories and fat in a bowl, but we still managed to get through it! For our main course we shared fajitas with chicken, chorizo and roasted vegetables plus all the usual trimmings: they were absolutely gorgeous and I was actually really quite sad when they were finished!

Luckily just across the road there was an "award-winning" gelateria called 7 apples, which was beckoning us for dessert. Despite being really full, there is always a reserve space in my stomach for dessert: I had two scoops of different gelato - peanut butter and turkish delight - both delicious, and Dave also had two scoops, although he doesn't have the memory for food that I do and can't remember what he chose (I think one of them was honeycomb?). A yummy way to end a yummy dinner!

The Great Ocean Road: Day 4

So the fourth day of our road trip started by us waking up at hostel Coffee Palace in St Kilda, which wasn't as luxurious as Herb's Hus, or quite as nice, but beggars can't be choosers.

We toyed with the idea of going to the hostel buffet and fighting the other peasants for a share of the no-frills corn flakes and a slice of the mighty-white, but at risk of catching something contagious from the food, residents, or both, thought better of the idea and decided to find a cafe. We walked down the road to the esplanade to try to find somewhere to eat. We stopped at a nice little cafe which, ironically, served worse food than we would have received at the hostel and charged a lot of money for the privilege.

We then walked down to the end of the pier before catching the tram back into Melbourne for a day of shopping to supplement what was already a very expensive holiday. The Melbourne tram system is quite a quirky little feature and it is what Melbourne is known for. The coverage is really good and you're never waiting long for one to arrive.

The only problem is that despite the best intentions in the world you can't seem to pay for them. They don't take cards, you can't pay the driver and they don't take notes so unless you have $3.70 in small change to pay at a little machine in the back of the tram you're well and truly stumped. All the local shops have got wise too and will not give you change unless you buy something. If there is ever a shortage of change in Australia, the Melbourne tram system will definitely be the culprit.

Shopping went as shopping usually does; I managed to keep my money inside my wallet but Lucia succumbed and bought two pairs of jeans which she has needed for ages (apparently). For lunch we had a couple of paninis in one of the lovely little cafes that Melbourne has, tucked down a back alley. The breakfast and café culture are just a couple of the ways Melbourne differentiates itself from Sydney, and it is a quite an endearing little feature.

After lunch we went to Crown Casino, the largest casino in the southern hemisphere (it has bars, restaurants, cafes, cinemas, theatres, hotels and just about everything else), to watch Clash of the Titans 3D. This qualifies as probably the worst film I've ever seen and all I have to show for it is a lighter wallet and a pair of 3D sunglasses. Disappointed, we caught the train back to to St Kilda to go out for dinner...

The Great Ocean Road: Day 3

Easter Sunday, we woke at Herb's Hus well rested having spent the night in possibly the comfiest and cosiest bed I've ever slept in. The bathroom was pretty spectacular too - so beautiful, light and airy.

A delicious breakfast followed: muesli with yoghurt, home-made bread and cookies, fruit, and plenty of coffee. Then before we knew it we were back on the road.

Our first stop for the day was Port Fairy - very cute name, but not a lot going on.

We took a quick walk along the riverbank where there were some beautiful houses and hotels, and then jumped back in the car to continue our journey to our next booked hotel in Colac, which is a town on the way back to Melbourne. It soon became clear however that all of the towns along the Princes Highway were completely dead and not worth a visit. Plan B came into action and we decided to head straight to St Kilda, where we had some accommodation booked thanks to Dave's old school friend, Simon, stopping at Melbourne's open range zoo: Werribee.

Included in the price of the entry ticket is a safari tour across the grassy plains of the 225 hectare zoo where you come in close proximity to hippos, giraffes, zebras and the like. The highlight of this was probably seeing a hippo mark it's territory: that is, having a shit, and spraying it everywhere with his tail. Lovely. After this, we walked around the rest of the zoo. Typically, all of the animals were hiding and we barely saw anything but, luckily, we did get to have our photo taken with a very friendly kangaroo, which made Dave's day as he is constantly going on about them.

We arrived in St Kilda at about 5pm and booked into yet another hostel. This time we were in our own double room, which was okay, but a bit smelly as it was next to a toilet, and backpackers seem to have the biggest poos: it must be their bad diet. Simon (Dave's friend) kindly booked us tickets to go with him and his friends to see Arj Barker of Flight of the Concords fame at the Melbourne Comedy Festival.

After a yummy and bargainous $9.50 dinner at a restaurant called Thai Power we headed into the city for a few drinks and the show. Arj Barker is possibly the least funny comedian I've ever come across, I must have laughed once throughout the whole show, and looking back, even that joke wasn't very funny: something to do with snakes just being one long neck...?!

And back to the hostel it was for some sleep and the last day of our long weekend (made a little longer by Jetstar cancelling our morning flight back to Sydney, of course)...

The Great Ocean Road: Day 2

Despite sharing our fairly cold room with a couple of Irish backpackers we had a pretty good nights sleep and got up at 9am after about 10 hours sleep. After queuing for a few hours for the shower (considering the other guests were backpackers and thus have no grasp of personal hygiene they seemed to all be well acquainted with the shower) we managed to check out. On the way out we our our first 'Flamin Galah' since being in Australia, and thought this deserved a picture of it's own...

We headed back into Apollo Bay for some breakfast in a little seafront cafe. As we'd grown a little tired of the 6 existing music tracks on my USB drive when we got back to the car we transferred the songs from Cats onto it so we could listen to that as well. I'm glad to say we now both know all of the songs in the album word for word- in fact I don't know why we're bothering to go and watch it next month- we know the storyline like experts and could pretty much re enact the whole thing in the front room should we wish.

By the second day we were starting to get a bit sick of the never ending sun kissed beaches with the mountainous backdrops stretching into the horizon, and were longing for cold and windy Brighton beach. When we hit Port Campbell we stopped for a while to see the 12 Apostles which is, by all accounts, the main reason people to the Great Ocean Road in the first place.

Essentially these are, or at least were, 12 large rocks poking out of the sea in interesting shapes and named appropriately- 'Razor Back', 'Salt and Pepper Shakers' and the 'Question Mark' to name but a few. I say 'were' because originally there were 12 but over the past few years erosion has taken its course and now they are down to 9. They've stuck with the name 12 Apostles though, I suspect because they can't be bothered to change all their stationary, merchandise and marketing material every time one of them falls down.

Anyway, Lucia and I are now very knowledgeable on the 12 Apostles because we took a helicopter ride over them and our pilot was imparting these useless nuggets of information. It was the first time I've ever been in a helicopter and it was fun- I am considering a career change! The picture below was taken from the 'bird'

We then went to grab lunch in Port Campbell, passing 'Bay of Martyrs', 'Bay of Islands' and the formation known as 'London Bridge' (picture on the left) on the way, which was a lovely little costal town with a lot of character but the sort of place you got bored of after a couple of minutes.

Our never ending quest to find a weather forecast in a newspaper continued. All the papers I read could tell me the times that all of the planets were going to rise and fall and what the weather is due to be like that day but nothing beyond that. It also devoted large parts of its forecast to what the weather was like yesterday, which at best is a little pointless because it is usually too late to change your plans at that stage. And anyway, that's not a forecast. It's an observation.

After Port Campbell we went to a hostel in Warnambool which I managed to book last minute at risk of us sleeping rough for the night if not. Lucia was not amused when I told her that we would be sharing a room with up to 8 other backpackers, and even less amused when we turned up and they tried to put us in a room with 16. We decided that it would be better to take a risk with the other hostels, hotels or B&Bs in the town so cancelled our reservation.

We toured around Warnambool for about 30 minutes going into everywhere with a bed, which was either full or way too expensive. We were just about to give up and set up camp in the back of the car when we stumbled across a lovely B&B called Herb's Hus. We spent a couple of hours relaxing, eating the home cooked goodies and watching the rugby (good old Herb had sky sports), before heading out to Breakers which served mediocre and somewhat overpriced food, then going home and dozing in the nicest bed I've ever slept in.

The Great Ocean Road: Day 1

The journey to Melbourne went relatively smoothly: our alarm went off at the hideously early time of 4:45am for our 6:40am flight and before we knew it we had touched down at the airport. Luckily we had managed to score a good deal with our car hire through a friend of Dave's who works at Avis: not only did we not have to pay the discriminatory extra $27 a day for being under 25, we were also given an upgrade - a bad boy Holden Cruze with more gadgets than you can shake a stick at. The road trip began...

Our first stop was Geelong for some breakfast, the first large town on the way to the Great Ocean Road. We had underestimated the power of Good Friday though - everything was shut and the whole town was dead. It also started pouring with rain just as we parked the car...not a good sign! Breakfast was a quick croissant from the only place that was open and then we were back on the road.

The Great Ocean Road actually starts in Torquay so we decided this would be our next destination. Torquay is also the surf capital of Australia and when we arrived, we discovered that the Rip Curl World Surf Championships were being held over the Easter weekend at Bells Beach and apparently all sorts of surf heroes like Kelly Slater were hanging around the town...we didn't see anyone famous, not that I would be able to spot a famous surfer even if my life depended on it...Torquay is a typical beachside town, lots of surf shops and cafes and not a lot else. We did find a gorgeous little hippy art gallery/cafe called Peace Kitchen where we had a delicious "vego" lunch (i.e. vegetarian - Australians shorten all their words with an "o" which is an incredibly annoying habit) surrounded by Avatar-style artwork.

After lunch we drove to Bells Beach to watch some surfing...although the beach was beautiful, it was not worth the $117 parking fine we landed ourselves with. In typical Owen-family style, Dave is writing a letter of complaint...!

Time was ticking and we needed to get to the hostel in Apollo Bay that we had booked ourselves into for the night. We stopped a few times to take photos as the scenery was breathtaking - I can understand why it's meant to be one of the most beautiful drives in the world.

The hostel was comfortable and the best part: there were two cute and friendly little cats there, making it quite a homely place to stay.

We spent a little time settling ourselves in and then walked to Apollo Bay to have a wander round, a drink and some dinner.

With a tummy full of food and red wine, and having been up since 4:45am, bed was beckoning...

Our Kinder Easter Egg

When I was younger, the highlight of my Easter was the giant Kinder Easter Egg that mummy and daddy bought for mine and my brother's chocolate treat. For the past few years though it's been impossible to buy them - Woolworths, Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsbury - you name the shop, we've been there looking for them. So, you can imagine my excitement when I came across one in Target, a cheapo shop in Sydney. Without a moment's hesitation, I bought one and stashed it away for a rainy day.

Today was that rainy day. And oh did it pour. But for all the wrong reasons. It seems that not only is Australian Cadbury's chocolate minging, but so is Australian Kinder chocolate. I took a few bites and just couldn't eat anymore (don't worry though, it didn't go to waste, Dave managed to wolf it down in about 5 minutes) I actually almost cried. Not even the little toy, an aeroplane shaped sellotape dispenser, makes my disappointment any better. Whoever is reading this, please send me a Kinder egg??