Melbourne and The Great Ocean Road.

Ooooooooookay. I'm sorry for the delay.

We arrived in Melbourne on January 19th. It wasn't a dark and stormy night but it may as well have been. We figured we'd roll in to the city and call up our choice of hostel from our Lonely Plant Australia book (compliments of my lovely Aunt Vic)
NOPE! Australian Open ruined that!! There was not a room or even a dorm bed to be had in the whole city. While wandering around the Southern Cross train station, we met an old man security guard who told us we could sleep in the waiting room if we couldn't find anything else, so we went to this waiting room and found several thin metal benches, a sign that said "LAYING DOWN IS PROHIBITED" and two shady characters in the corner. We sat on the benches and continued surveying our situation and decided we had no choice but to call up a near stranger and ask for help. We called a girl named Ashleigh whom we'd met on Christmas Eve in Maleny. I told her the situation we'd found ourselves in and before I got the chance to ask if we could stay with her she said "come here! it's not much but you're more than welcome"
We took a cab and were enjoying the comfort of her home in less than half an hour. Her boyfriend James who was also at the Christmas Eve party lives in Melb aswell so Ashleigh informed us she'd be staying with him and invited us to stay in her room! The next morning James took as around the town while Ash was at work and we went for a fantastic breakfast at a place called "The Penny Farthing" which I must say, is much more quaint and therefor matched to its name than the one in Victoria.
We spent the rest of the day and the next two or three days wandering around and getting to know (and love) the city.

We deiced the best way to see the famed Great Ocean Road would be by car so we rented a car for 3 nights and took off. It was more stunning than I could have expected. The weather was perfect and we found ourselves pulling over at almost every available spot to take pictures of the ocean and the sky and the beaches and trees. We got as far as Lorne the first day and found a great hostel owned by an Australian named Robbo who loves Canadians. Especially West Coast Canadians. He encouraged us to pay in Canadian and wanted to talk about places in BC Chris and I have never been too and, in some cases, heard of.
The next day we drove to Port Campbell and saw on the way the "Twelve Apostles" (there are actually only six still standing) which are these incredibly tall rocks that stick straight out of the ocean. They used to be attached to the cliffs but the connections have eroded and for whatever reason, these few pieces were left standing. They are just as beautiful if not more on a slightly cloudy day (like the day we saw them) as they are on any postcard at sunset.
We talked to a man from Germany that night in our hostel who showed us pictures of "The London Bridge" and told us we had to go there. So the next day we went a bit further North and saw the incredible rock there which resembles the London Bridge (I guess?) It juts out from the rock and has an amazing arch in the middle that waves crash into. It isn't really a bridge any more because in January of 1989 (if my memory serves) the connecting piece of the bridge fell with no warning at all into the ocean. Luckily, there was no one crossing at the time, but there were two people on the other side who then had to be airlifted back to land. Among many awesome things we saw, there were a few disappointments, but I learned that, in Australia, if you keep your eyes open, you can turn even the most pointless of detours into a great experience. We stopped to check out a place called "Wreck Beach" hoping to see a sweet old ship wreck. The walk down was listed as 1.3 km and there was no one else there. There is absolutely NO way that walk was 1.3 km. It was MINIMUM 3 km and it was through crazy bushes and swamp. When we had gone for way too long, we got a great view of a not so great beach with not a wreck to be seen... so rather than walk the rest of the way only to be disappointed, we decided to turn around and walk back. On the way, Chris' elf eyes spotted an Echidna!
http://australian-animals.net/
Now, I didn't read the write up I posted, but I will assume that if you did, it told you they are mostly blind and rely heavily on their other senses to detect predators. I assume this because, Chris' and my heavy footsteps alarmed the poor critter and caused it to curl up protectively and semi bury itself in leaves. We stayed very still and waited and sure enough after a minute or so it uncurled and carried on doing it's thing. It pretty much looked right at us and was fine. We got some great pictures and a video and were then thrilled that we'd gone on the seemingly pointless mission.
At another "lame" place we went to, we found we had to pay $17.50 each to see a lighthouse (and the toilets were inside the gate.) We are quite happy to give donations, or pay to take tours, but we felt a self guided walk around a functioning lighthouse (government funded and locals don't pay) felt like quite the crappy deal. So we each had a pee in the bushes and got back in the car. On the way back to the main road, we spied some people gathered at the side of the road. We pulled over and found they were watching about 8 koalas (some with little babies on them) climbing in the trees eating leaves. We stayed and watched for a long time and it was such a cool experience. They were unbothered by us watching but totally aware we were there. Our joy was interrupted by the terrifying scream of what sounded like a wild boar somewhere behind us. We were quite divided in what to do... I voted get in the car and leave, Chris voted have a look around. We agreed on a very very careful look around walking heavily and staying on the road. We didn't find anything but heard it several times, always from just behind us.

Turns out that's the sound koalas make.

We were planning to stay in Apollo Bay for the last night, but I hated it there so we went back to Lorne and stayed another night with our buddy Robbo.

Back in Melbourne we had a great time with Ash and James going for dinner and playing cards and going for picnics in the park.

Tonight is our last night in Melb and we fly to Christchurch, New Zealand tomorrow evening. We had a great meal out with our friends Stella and Hemi who Chris knows from couch surfing last year when he was here.

I will leave you now to go watch the 5th episode of season one of Lost. Sooooo getting obsessed.

More soon!!