On The Melbourne Great Ocean Trail ....

I am finally home, after an enriching trip. Melbourne is cosmopolitan with colonial-style buildings, but Tasmania is really great! Laid-back, clean air, lots of cattle and sheep grazing, lots of mountains, trees and greenery around .... Really a good change from facing buildings day in day out.

So now I am back, happy but deprived of the three 'C's - chocolate, computer and chilli. Some of you may be incredulous, but yes, I was so deprived of chocolate that I actually suffered withdrawal syndromes two days back.

For someone like me who needs her daily dosage of at least four Kit Kat bars, it was a real torture going without chocolate for more than a week, except for the bar of Kit Kat served on the Emirates flight I took to Melbourne and the occasional hot chocolate I drank down there. The hot chocolate there is really nice - thick, rich and foamy. How I wish our local hot chocolate can be just as thick and rich.

But still, how can these be enough for me? To top it off, we did not manage to visit the Cadbury Chocolate Factory in the end as it was fully booked. *Sob sob* We bought a lot of chocolate though, but my mum said they are to be given away, not for my own consumption. Arrrgggghhh!!!

I have no access to a computer as well, since we were on the road most of the time, so now I have to catch up on all my blog-reading, blog-writing, clearing of mails, replying mails, and meeting up with friends for updates on the wedding coordination for my friend, carolling and movie-watching. Which reminds me, I have yet to find someone to watch "Narnia" with. Anyone interested?

The food is great, but being a Western country, there is hardly any chilli around. So on the second day, I was already starting to crave for sambal chilli. We ate a variety of cuisines from Chinese food to fast food to local fares to Vietnamese food to Subway sandwiches to instant noodles.

Anyway, on the first day, we arrived in Melbourne at 2:35 a.m. and took the Skybus to Astoria City Inn, where we would be staying during our stint in Melbourne. The next day, we met up with our cousin who is studying at the University of Melbourne, and she brought us grocery shopping and wandering around.

We went to a shopping mall, which is a lot like our own shopping malls. There are supermarkets, food courts, fashion and clothing stores, shoe stores, etc. I discovered the few supermarkets in Australia - Woolworths (which is similar to our NTUC Fairprice), Safeway (something like Giant) and Big W (something like Carrefour). We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown (the Chinatown is only one entire street, not as big as the one in Sydney).

The next day, we embarked on the Great Ocean Road day trip. The Great Ocean Road is essentially just a mountainous road facing the ocean, with very beautiful sights and tourist attractions along the way. Never go Melbourne without going for the Great Ocean Road day trip. There are National Parks, reclining coast lines, white sandy bays, sparkling water and wild koalas. A real beautiful sight!

Why do our local beaches not have such sand and clear water?

We stopped here for a breather before entering the Great Ocean Road. This picture was already a more cluttered part of the beach. The other parts of the beach consist of reclining coast lines, white sand and clearer water. But since I was in a moving vehicle, it was hard for me to snap any of those nice views. :-(

The entrance to the Great Ocean Road

We stopped at a pit-stop after entering before going to see the wild koala bears.

Can you see the koala bear?

After the visit to the cute, cuddly but lazy koala bears, we went to lunch at a hilltop cafe before arriving at Miers Point, which is a temperate rainforest. The rainforest had once been destroyed by fire, and there are still traces of blackened wood around. Other than that, most of the trees there are very tall, until we can hardly see the tops of them. And the roots are so long that there are actually cavities under the trees that can even allow someone to creep inside.

Mummy dearest under a tree
(look at the big gaping hole!)

After the visit to the temperate rainforest, we went down to the biggest tourist attraction of the Great Ocean Road - The 12 Apostles National Park. The Apostles are actually limestone monoliths. Through the years, one of the Apostles fell, probably due to decay? I was joking with my parents that the one that fell was probably named "Judas", due to his betrayal of Jesus.

The 12 Apostles (amazing limestone monoliths)

Those monoliths are really amazing! I was only able to capture so much, but the actual scene is so much more spectacular! I wonder how they are formed? Times like this I wish I had taken Geography at a higher level, as there is so much one can learn from natural physical things. Any Geography experts willing to answer?

The limestone monolith

The 12 Apostles (with the lone monolith)

The 2 "lone sentry stones"
(on the other side of the Apostles)

Next stop - Loch Ard Gorge. It used to be called "Shipwreck Bay" due to a high number of shipwrecks. One can see why there were so many shipwrecks, since there is only a thin stretch of water between the two rock formations, and the hole in the middle is not enough for a ship to pass through.

Behind the two rock formations is a whole series of caves where there used to be pirates. From what the guide told us, the pirates would hide in there, then see a ship wreck and go loot whatever they could get their hands on. Which is probably why with the high number of shipwrecks in the past, no one has ever initiated an expedition to salvage whatever chests the ships were carrying, probably because there would be nothing left to salvage.

Loch Ard Gorge - where the most number of shipwrecks occurred

Pirates' hideout

After Loch Ard Gorge, we went to the "London Bridge", so called because part of it actually fell down, as depicted in the nursery rhyme. There was only one case of a couple who survived when they accidentally fell into the water between the two rocks. They made news but refused any publicity or interviews on the basis that they were married - but not to each other! Hmmmm.....

The "London Bridge"

The "London Bridge" was our last stop on the Great Ocean Road. We went back to Melbourne via a smoother way, with a pit-stop in between. Since there was nothing much to see and introduce on the way back, the guide let us watch "Titanic" (the uncensored version). Our motel happened to be the first stop, thus I did not manage to finish watching the entire show, only up to the part where Jack died. Oh.... still so sad!

We had a simple dinner of noodles and salad, then went to bed early since we had to be at the airport at 5:00 a.m. the next morning to catch the domestic flight to Tasmania. Upon checking in and boarding the plane, I started taking aerial views of the land in the plane. Which is why I always have to take the window seat on the plane as I like to gaze out and see the scenery below me going by and soaring into the clouds.

Aerial view of Melbourne

Vanilla Sky

View of the sky from the plane
(Really reminds me of Paradise)

The skyline is really beautiful. This was taken on the Jetstar plane en route to Launceston Airport in Tasmania. Do you know you have to pay for food and beverages on Jetstar, since it is just a small domestic service budget plane? But other than that, the service is comparable to other first-class international airlines.

We touched down at Launceston Airport about 7-plus in the morning. More on the Tasmania trip in my next entry!