My holiday post #4: Great Ocean Road

Yipee! Going to Great Ocean Road… this is a must go trip for those who plan to go Melbourne… Twelve Apostles is super famous in Melbourne… the history of the place, the nature of mother earth, the magnificent view… OMG! I was anxiously checking my calendar each day. Strike off the day one after another. Just to wait for this particular day to arrive!

And yes, it finally came ^^

We woke up at 6.30am and got ready to walk to the travel agency. Oh ya! We used “Extragreen Holidays” service for this day trip. They have chinese tour guide and the price is quite reasonable However for security reason, we didn’t pay via our credit card. We asked the cute and funny Angelynn bank-in to the travel agency’s bank account and we paid her when we reached Adelaide. Thanks to Angelynn we get to go there

The driver was a china man. He was quite friendly.. with a heavy china accent. First stop at the petrol station.. then the real first stop is at the gate of Great Ocean Road.

It was quite cold over there as it was near to the beach… but niceeee

>> The panorama software I used couldn’t stitch up these two pictures… >.< so I can only upload it like this…

On the way to Twelve Apostles, there were lots of wild koalas… the tour guide cum bus driver stopped for us to have a look… there was one which was quite near to us… however my cam’s optical zoom was not good.. the max is like this only  >.< So that was our FIRST encounter with Koala! A not-to-be-missed protected animal in Australia.

Twelve Apostles was situated quite far from Melbourne city… till noon we had yet to reach there.. so we stopped at Apollo Bay for our lunch… Pei San recommended us to try their fish and chips… so we just tried one out

>> We had one fish and chips + hot chocolate @ $ 13.30… then I saw that we can ordered some ala carte.. so added additional:  2 calamari ring + 2 scallops + 2 prawns which cost $8.60 …. the best part… you got to pay for the sauces!!! @_@.. we didn’t pay for the sauces.. so we just had the most plain fish n chips + vinegar… oh! Vinegar was free

Finally we reached Twelve Apostles!! So tired…. lol… it was around 2pm… and you could actually pay for a helicopter ride to see the Twelve Apostles view… it cost around $90 if you go there by yourself… as the travel agency got some biz relationship with the management.. so we can get it at the price of $70.. which was quite worth it…

but… since we are on a budget trip…we sure didn’t go for the helicopter ride… lol…. we were busy snapping pictures man!

I brought my tripod to Australia… hmmm…this was the first time I brought it out.. cuz it was really troublesome.. lol….

>> Our first shot with the tripod! This is the best after a few attempts…. lol.. btw… I forgot to bring down my remote… so have to use the built-in timer… @_@.. what a waste… bad bad…

>> By the way, there weren’t twelve apostles anymore… one or two years back the 8th or 9th apostles fell down already due to the strong waves splashing on it every day and finally washed it off…. so now… left either 8 or 9 apostles there … so sad… mother nature took over

>> Another tripod shots

>> Shot taken by a tour mate.. he was using canon DSLR… and his DSLR very geng.. a Thai guy..

We took a lot of pictures here and missed the time… so when we walked back to the bus there.. the tour guide and whole bunch of tour mates were waiting for us… lucky we were not the last 2… lol… the thai guy and his friend were the last two

>> click for a bigger view of the panorama

The view and this place were really very very very breathtakinglyw beautiful and we took a lot of pictures here as per Pei San’s bro advice.. lol…I’m sure to go there again for the second time… the second time will be flying with the helicopter!

Next stop @ Lord Ard … there was a story at this place… back in 17 centuries, there was a big ship from Ireland travel to Melbourne… the crew saw Melbourne and expected to reach Melbourne the next day.. therefore the night before they celebrated in the ship… however… the weather turned bad that night… the ship sank and 54 people in the ship died.. only 2 people survived – Jack and Eva…Jack was a sailor and Eva was a rich man’s daughter…. Eva’s family members died in this disaster… she stayed in Melbourne for 3 years and left to Ireland after that… Jack and Eva weren’t together due to their family status…

>> Story telling from our tour guide… lol… so sad….but the view was really nice…

>> click for a bigger view of the panorama

Final stop – London Bridge… there was another story  here… back then… there was one couple pak tor (dating) over here… but so unlucky of them.. they dropped into the sea… it took the rescue crew 6 hours to save them… there were paparazzi and reporters waiting to get the latest news there.. however these two people just sped off with their car once they were rescued up.. so the reporters and paparazzi chased after them… only to find out that they were actually married couple whom were having an affair at that moment…

Don’t ask me the ending as I don’t know about it… lol… I’m interested in the place and view itself only

>> click for a bigger view of the panorama

Phew… there goes our day trip….last stop at petrol station… we were quite hungry at that time… so bought ourselves a wrap sandwich $ 2.50 … reached at Melbourne city 7.30pm… we walked around Chinatown for some Melbourne souvenirs while waiting for Pei San to get off from her work….

Dinner @ Stalactiles – Greek Food…

I ordered appetizer platter + peach drinks and Missy ordered lamb souvaki which were on Pei San’s treat .. thanks to the thoughtful Pei San

>> Anyway, we couldn’t finish our dinner… the portion was just too big… first lesson to learn – Do-Not-Order-One-Meal-Each… better share if you are a small eater

Coming up next is Melbourne City tour! Stay tuned ^^