Port Campbell Motor Inn

... as the sea has claimed a few of them over time.

You pick up the Great Ocean Road about an hour SW of Melbourne and it winds its way cliffside along the ocean for about 3 hrs. You aren't speeding, so it's probably about 100 miles or so in all. There are several small seaside towns along the way.

It is a very picturesque drive and there are waterfalls, hiking trails through some rainforests, and ...

... called Loch Ard Gorge. We managed to get out to those and spent the day walking around there. The 12 Apostles is by far the most photographed attraction on the Great Ocean Road and that's what it's famous for, is the limestone formations caused by the wind and the waves. We didn't spend a lot of time at the 12 Apostles because there were so many people around. Instead we went to the other site, Loch Ard ...

... alcohol after 10pm. That kind of gives you an idea of how small this town was. It was a good addition to the trip as I definitely felt like I was in an amplified version of Australia (or was it just the thicker accents?), quite different from the city! Arriving back home on Sunday night I was exhausted. Somehow that changed over coffee, and next thing I know me and my house mate Claire are playing poker at the tapas bar down the street. Then we get invited to a 20's themed ...

... chat for about 5 minutes while the other 2 look at me like I'm a leper. I then get the stretch and yawn...time for bed... very smooth.... Makely comes back and we continue to laugh practically in tears at times. Eventually the group from the lounge next door come into the kitchen and we manage to slightly redeem ourselves and hang out for a bit as a game of "I never" continues. Chatting up this tour group of kids that is staying there that night. This ...

... in 1848, and continued to operate until 1994, also making it the longest continuously operational mainland Aussie lighthouse. There's now a solar powered light in front of the original tower - shame really, but the new light is a much lower power drain than the original, so just fitting the lighthouse with solar panels probably wasn't practical. Still, she looks good for an old girl. Next stop was Warnambool, where Jacob went for a run on the beach whilst Kirsty and ...

... bit like Flamborough but more spectacular......London Bridge, Twelve Apostles (only six now....), Thunder Cave. Afternoon trip took us to the fly infested Great Otways Flyway, where you could walk on elevated platforms amongst the tree tops. Val was fine apart from the 47m vertical staircase and Cantilever Bridge which swayed with the usual morons on it. The day was finished off with Fish and Chips back at Port Campbell watching the sunset....very nice

Took a day to take a wee tour down the great ocean road bloody amazin views (that you can probably see from the photos) Also got to take a nice long test drive in the new 3.8 car. Got it maxed out so that it startin beeping at me and tellin me not to go any faster sadly tho it tops out a 185 km REALLY HATE LIMITERS!!!

... the Tuesday my Mum and Stepdad Andrew arrived in St Kilda for a 6-day break from working in the slums in Thailand. Due to this Ciara and I had planned out a fun filled week with plenty to do. On the first night we brought them down to St Kilda Pier to see the penguins - which we hadn't even seen ourselves. They didn't let us down, and they posed for a few camera shots. Very small penguins, and cute. The next few days were spent catching up on everything, and ...

... back up the road to see it closer. It was pretty cool. But the whole time we're thinking about those tourists you see in Banff taking pics of the Moose or Deer, and we roll our eyes at them everytime. haha. Ah well. That was us. We got excited at the site of a sign warning of Kangaroo near the road for the next 7kms, but we didn't see any. We were sad, but the Koala made up for it later. We forgot to mention that in NZ we were pretty sure we saw a Road Runner. We ...