The Great Ocean Road Trip

The Twelve Apostles as seen from Gibson's Steps

A koala along the Great Ocean Road

We just completed a three-day road trip on the Great Ocean Road along the southern coast of Australia. Other than a rental car and a guide book, we really didn't have any plans going into it. This made Sara a little nervous after our experience at Lake Taupo in New Zealand. This time it worked out perfectly! The first night we ended up finding a great place to stay in Lorne. It was a grand old hotel out on a point with wrap-around balconies (and a hair dryer). There was a boardwalk by a surf beach to the middle of town. We found a great Thai dinner (sweet and sour pork belly!) followed by huge scoops of ice cream on waffle cones. Yes, we have found ourselves ranking ice cream shops based on the size of the single scoop - this one is #1 so far, second only to Lone Oak in Rochester, NH!

The coastline along the Great Ocean Road has really dramatic cliffs, lighthouses, several famous surf beaches, and bright blue water. There is an unbelievable amount of stuff to see and do along the way. We were glad that we had three days to take our time, but you easily could spend longer. Here are some of our faves:

Sara's highlights:
1) Gibson Steps and the Twelve Apostles - Pictures hardly do justice to the huge cliffs and "apostles" off shore. We loved walking down the steep steps and along the golden sandy beach.

2) Koala spotting - We could have touched a wild koala. We didn't, but we definitely were close enough. They look cute and cuddly, but boy do they have fierce-looking claws.

3) Walking on the rocks - At an overlook between Lorne and Apollo Bay, we decided to scramble out onto some rocks in the ocean. Very fun!

David's highlights:
1) The Anglesea Golf Club - This course has unique hazards not found on your average course . . . Kangaroos! There were dozens of them all over the course, and the little white balls did not faze them.

2) Bells Beach - A small beach surrounded by cliffs and raging surf. It is famous as the site of the top pro surfing event each year.

3) Point Addis Lighthouse - Sitting out on a remote point of land, I thought that this picturesque lighthouse was cool because no mortar was used in the construction. Also, the views from the top were amazing.


*The pictures aren't in order and haven't been edited at all because we are without a laptop at the moment and are just using the iPad, which has fewer functions. David's laptop died last week and despite the best efforts of Jay (a computer genius!) we couldn't get it to boot up. David is off to a computer store in Adelaide this morning - fingers crossed!!!

Kangaroos at the Anglesea Golf Club

Point Addis Lighthouse

The Grand Pacific Hotel in Lorne