Melbourne (September 26-28)

Well on September 26th, we all got up really early in the morning to catch our 6am flight to Melbourne. Melbourne was most definitely different from any other city in Australia that I have been too. Well we arrived in the morning to the city and checked into the Causeway Inn hotel and then set off to meander through the city. We did some shopping since that’s what Melbourne is known for, as well as walked past several churches, the park, along the Yarris River. It was kind of a bad day though since we had gone from 80 degrees in Sydney to just about 60 degrees and rain! But we managed and stuck through our sight seeing of the city. Well we stopped in Chinatown for some dinner that night before calling it a day due to the cold weather.








September 27th, my family and I took a tour of the Great Ocean Road! We took an Autopia Tour for this. There were a total of around 16 people on the tour, one of which happened to be Desmond Littles from school! It took about an hour drive out of the city to reach the entrance of the Ocean Road, but once we were on it, the wait was well worth it! During the drive we also passed some wild kangaroos! It was cool to finally see some kangaroos outside of a zoo! One of the first stops we took on the tour was to Koala Cove. Here we got to see some wild Koalas up in the tree tops eating away their day! There were also heaps of tropical birds there as well that kept landing on people. From there we drove to a beach to stop and have our morning tea and biscuits under a overhang since it was rainy and windy out. From morning tea we went and saw the 12 Apostles, well the 7 that were left standing anyways!












The Apostles were such an amazing sight to see! With all the wind, the waves were just enormous and came crashing in hard against the rocks, but it made the sights so much more amazing! I got some really beautiful pictures as well! After the Apostles we moved on to see the Arch. However, the Arch had fallen over earlier in the year, so we only got to see what was remained of it. From there we moved onward to see the Gorge, and the London Bridge. That ended our day with the gorgeous sights of the Great Ocean Road, but I have to say that I think this was one of my favorite things I have done so far during my time here in Australia. Touring the Great Ocean Road should be put on everyone’s “To-Do-List”! We arrived back into the city that night around 9pm and then I decided that I wanted to go and take some pictures of Melbourne’s creative architecture at night. My pictures turned out decently but not that great because I didn’t have a tripod, but they will do!








On September 28th, we picked up our rental car and headed off to Phillip Island (approx. 1 &1/2 hours Southeast of Melbourne). Our first stop on the small little island was to the Nobbies. It was just a point on the Island where lots of seagulls were currently mating and watching over their eggs. One of which attacked grandma because she got too close to the nest! It was super funny we were all laughing so hard as it flapped its wings and screamed at her. From the Nobbies we went to the small town called Cowes and did some shopping and walking along the beach. I bought myself some Aussie swimmers! Oh I love them! After Cowes we headed off to catch the Penguin Parade. The Penguin Parade takes place at dusk when all the miniature penguins come in from their day at sea. It was so cool to see hundreds of these cute little guys waddle their way to their nests. Oh I should mention that these penguins only reach the maximum height of 30-40 cm and only will weight at most 5 pounds! Oh so cute. Well unfortunately I couldn’t take any pictures of them because they didn’t allow cameras into the place because the flash scares the poor little fellows. But it was heaps of fun watching them while freezing my butt off!