The Great Ocean Road

On Monday morning we boarded a bus (again!) with 19 other passengers for a 2 day/1 night trip on The Great Ocean Road which is very comparable to Highway 1 on the California coast.
After a 3 hour drive out of Melbourne, one of our first stops was at Logan's Beach which is where whales come to nurse their young in the winter and surfers come to catch a wave in the summer. Unfortunately for us it is autumn here so we didn't see either of those. It was still beautiful none the less.


From there we headed to Tower Hill which is a sunken volcano home to loads of kangaroos, koalas and emus. This is the closest we got to any of the three.


From there we headed to more spectacular sights like The Bay of Martyrs and The Bay of Islands. The weather was perfect so we had a lot of fun playing on the beach and climbing rocks.



We then raced to the 12 Apostles for sunset (along with what seemed like 5,000 other people). There are only 10 apostles now as 2 have collapsed in the past 10 years or so however they have not changed the name!





After the sunset we headed back to our accommodation where we BBQed up a feast and chatted with our fellow travelers. Including us there were 3 Americans, 2 Irish, 2 Chinese, 1 Malaysian, 3 kiwis, 2 Germans, 1 Swiss, 2 Brits, 2 Israelis, 1 Spaniard, 1 Brazilian and 1 Slovakian so we had a great night getting to know everyone.


The next morning we awoke bright and early for another full day of sightseeing including The Grotto and London Bridge. London Bridge used to be connected to the main land on the left, however a few years ago it collapsed with people on it. Nobody was hurt however two people got stranded on the right side....they were having an affair and the news choppers that filmed the rescue let the world know of their infidelities.


We then headed to Loch Ard Gorge. The Great Ocean Road area is littered with shipwrecks and this area was no different. Where we stopped is the site of where the only 2 survivors of a wreck in the 1880s washed up.


Unfortunately one of the guys from New Zealand cut his foot badly here and had to be taken to the hospital an hour away so the rest of the group hung out at the 12 Apostles and Gibsons Steps for a few hours. Here are the 12 Apostles in daylight.


I hope nobody is worried about Nelly not getting enough social interaction. He is acquiring quite the wolf pack.


After our friend was stitched up we had an abbreviated rainforest walk, grabbed some lunch and then headed to a lighthouse which is famous for being in the show 'Round The Twist'. We had never heard of the show but lots of people were excited. It would be like going to see the Painted Ladies from Full House in San Francisco.


Our final stop of the trip was Bells Beach. If you are like Nelly and have a love affair with the movie Point Break, then you would have waited for 2 days to see it and would be day dreaming about standing on the beach yelling about the "50-year storm" and "cliffs on both sides man, it's not like I'm going to paddle to New Zealand." If that at all sounds like you, then you too would have been heartbroken to learn as you were pulling into the beach that that scene was actually filmed in Portland and the real Bells Beach does not have cliffs on both sides. It was a very bittersweet moment.


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Location:The Great Ocean Road

The End of the East Coast

After our day out on the reef we kept to dry land and took a day trip to Cape Tribulation which is where the rain forest meets the reef. It was named by Captain Cook when he crashed his ship on the reef as he felt this area was when/where all of his "trials and tribulations" started.
Our tour picked us up at our "backpackers resort" and we made our first stop at Mossman's Gorge for a quick rain forest walk.



After stopping for a tea break, we then went on an hour long crocodile river cruise. We saw 5 crocs ranging from 3 months old to 40 years old. This 3 meter female looks fake but she was 100% real! We also saw a python and tree snake on the boat trip.


From there we headed to the Daintree rain forest where we had a BBQ lunch and more rain forest walks.


This is called a strangler fig tree. These are vines that crawled up a tree, eventually killing it. Once the tree decomposed, the shell of vines is all that remains.


After lunch we headed to Cape Tribulation. You can see how the rain forest runs right into the water.


Taking this day trip was a great way to end our 3 week journey up the east coast before spending our last 2 days in Cairns soaking up the sun at the lagoon.


Late last night we flew south to Melbourne. A thing to note...not at any point in our airport experience did they ever ask for our ids, not at the check in counter or security screening or the gate. However, Nelly did get a random screening for explosives (I blame the beard). As he said, "well, they know I don't have explosives on me, but they have no idea who I am."
Such a different airport experience than at home!

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Location:Cape Tribulation/Cairns

Diving...In The Air And Under The Water

The past few days Nelly and I have taken up some adventures that have involved nothing to do with being on dry land. After leaving Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands we headed to Mission Beach so that Matt could sky dive. Why Mission Beach? Because it is only one of two places in Australia where you can land on the beach.

 Coming in from 14,000 feet!

 Safe on the ground! We waited until after Matt landed to ask, but both of us overheard this instructor earlier in the morning telling the staff that his first jump that morning he had to use his emergency parachute because the main one tore. We did not want to know the story beforehand and neither of us acknowledged to the other that we had heard what we did.

From Mission Beach we headed to Cairns where we spent one night and then up to Port Douglas so that we could scuba dive. Our plan was to stay one night however it is such a cute beach town that we are going to stay three. We woke up this morning and boarded a boat named Silversonic to take us to 3 different scuba sites on the Great Barrier Reef.

 This was taken from the first site which was 33km offshore.

We snorkeled at the first site and went scuba diving at the second and third. We swam with reef sharks here!

Then it was time to dive. Nelly and I both went scuba diving in the Whitsunday Islands, so we were well prepared and comfortable in the water.

Here is some of the amazing marine life we saw.

 This big guy's name is Jeffrey. He is a resident here and knows all of the divers. He is kind of their pet.

Overall, it was another A-Ok day!

I'm On A Boat! Again!

Nelly and I just spent and amazing few days on a boat named "Matador" sailing through the Whitsunday Islands with 20 other people. Our original trip was supposed to be on a boat called "Spank Me" however that trip was cancelled due to a lack of bookings so they put us on a different trip a day later (along with paying us for an extra night's accommodation and a free scuba for the inconvenience).
We boarded in the afternoon and headed out for our 1st snorkel sight. It is currently jelly fish season here so anytime we went in the water we had to wear stinger suits. It kind of took the fun out of jumping off the boat on a whim, but better that than a sting!
This is our group on the first night which including the crew there were 3 Americans, our dive instructor from NZ, our captain and deck hand both from Australia, 2 Swiss, 2 Swedes, a Brit, our cook from France, 4 Irish, 3 Germans, a Korean, one guy from Taiwan and our favorites, 3 Mexicans.

To get to know one another the captain made everyone write their name on their left foot and their country on their right. It worked!

The next morning we were up in time for the sunrise in order to get all of the day's activities in. Luckily the sunrise was at 6:30 and not any earlier!

We then headed to Whitehaven Beach where we met up with people from other boats. This beach was picture postcard perfect (except for the fact of having to wear the stinger suits).

Has the news of all of the shark attacks in Australia made it back to the states? This one was quite scary, but luckily no one was seriously injured.

After Whitehaven Beach Nelly and I got to go scuba diving and saw some amazing coral and then we snorkeled and saw even more amazing fish. We spent the afternoon laying out on the boat before socializing on the boat that night.

The sunsets were so breathtaking.

On the 3rd day we woke bright and early again and did some more snorkeling. This was the best site of all and I felt like I was in a fish tank. They swarmed us and literally were inches from our faces. Their colors were amazing as well. There was not much wind over the three days so we didn't do much sailing, however on our way back to the marina the captain made the boys hoist the sail and we caught a bit of wind.

One of the local bars in Airlie Beach gives free beer to everyone that went on a boating trip and groups the tables by boat. The Matador had the best representation of all of the boats that had returned that day.

With a boat named Matador and a sign holder shaped like horns, this only seems natural, right?

And then our friends from Mexico City treated everyone to a great performance of La Bamba with the local singer playing guitar.

It was a great 3 days and we were so happy to be able to spend it with such fun people!

Oh, and not one drop of rain! God is smiling on us!

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Location:Whitsunday Islands