Away From Home: Australia

After spending some quality time with Shailen's family they jetted off for sunny South Africa. It was sad saying goodbye to them but we knew that we would be seeing them soon.

It has been great staying with them and we are glad we got the chance. It has also given me a chance to get to know his family better and has been good. It has also been fun getting to know Nishay and Samita who are really great kids :) So now there are just the two of us rolling around in this huge house.

Shailen and his new friend outside Victoria Markets.

The Tuesday after they left Shailen bolted out of bed at 5am and ran for the toilet throwing up. He pretty much remained this way for the next 12 hours and no he wasn't hungover!! This gave us a bit of a scare as we realised we still had not bought travel insurance. But all was well and he was back at work the next day although he had a sensitive stomach for a while after.

That Thursday at 7am two trains and one bus later i arrived at the airport to pick up Penny (a friend from NZ). She was only going to be here until Monday so we decided not to waste any time and headed straight to the shops. By the end of the day we were pretty tired and shopped out after doing the center of the city as well as Bridge Road. For anymore who has been to Melbourne you will know Bridge Road :) It is a street full out outlet stores!

Flinders Street Station in all its glory.

Me and Penny outside Federation Square.

We met up with Shailen after he finished work and headed up the Eureka building which at 91 stories is the highest building in Melbourne and is the second highest residential building in the world! It was only opened in Oct 06' so is still very new. Here are some interesting and random facts we learnt:
- The last 10 stories have a panel of 24 Carat Gold plated windows! (Someone has way too much money!)
- The viewing deck is actually higher than the one in the Sky Tower (NZ). But the Sky Tower is still taller due to the big spike on top.
- Melbourne actually used to be the capital of Australia between 1909 - 1936 before Canberra was built.
- Melbourne has the highest population of Greeks outside of Greece and Cyprus.
- New Zealand's whole population is about the same of that of just Melbourne's!
- The most common surname in Melbourne's phone book after Smith is Nguyen which is Vietnamese. (Interesting random fact! LOL)

The view from the deck on the 88th level is stunning. We went as the sun was setting so that we could see the city both during the day and at night. You can see in all directions and although we looked unfortunately we didn't see NZ. LOL But the binoculars are free which is cool.

View of Melbourne from Eureka Tower as sun is setting.

They have an extra experience which you can do while you are up there called "The Edge". You go into a glass cube which slides 3 metres out of the building (on the 88th level!). You are completely surrounded by glass even under your feet so it is pretty scary. You get into the cube with about 6 people and no staff (makes you wonder how safe it really is then!!). It starts off as cloudy glass and you slide out of the building to theatrical sound effects. Once you are out there is the loud sound of glass breaking and the glass becomes clear.

Penny and Shailen getting ready to go into "The Edge" with the sexy slippers they give you to cover your feet so the glass doesn't get scratched.

At this point i should point out that only Shailen and Penny went on this because i was too much of a wuss!!!! LOL They said that it was neat but maybe not worth the extra $12 it cost to go in it.

Friday consisted of more shopping around the Victoria Markets which are huge and sell everything you could possibly want. We had dinner at this really yummy and cheap Thai place (really yummy prawn spring rolls!!) and then showed Penny the fireballs outside of the Crown Casino that we mentioned earlier. Then off to bed!

This brings us to Saturday. The day of the Great Ocean Drive!

The Great Ocean Drive is along the Southern Coast of Australia between Torquay and Warrnambool. The road took about 15 years to build and was officially opened in 1932. It is the world's biggest war memorial for the men and women who lost their lives during the first world war.

This Arch is the 3rd one to grace this spot. The 1st came down when the road was widened and the 2nd was burnt down in the Ash Wednesday bush fires that swept through the landscape.

It took us all of the day to drive along the coast but when finished we came back inland which was alot quicker. Driving along the coast you get a beautiful view and it reminded us alot of driving along the coast of NZ although their rock formations are quite different and spectacular. Shailen tells me that this coastline is almost identical to the drive along the coast in Cape Town. The same sheer cliff faces and the same turquoise blue water!

Our first stop was at Torquay which is the official start of the Great Ocean Road. But i have to admit our first stop was purely for shopping. With Torquay being the location of the famous surfing Bell's Beach and home to Billabong there was no end to surf shops so it was a good start to the day. Our next stop was at Split Point Lighthouse which is located at Aireys Inlet and built in 1891.

Split Point Lighthouse.

Our next stop was as Lorne for a picnic lunch by the sea. In Lorne they have a tennis court sized areas full of ground level trampolines. I thought it was the coolest thing! Also in Lorne instead of sea gulls there were heaps of parrots just flying all over the place. This seemed very weird to us!

Our brochures told us that the lighthouse at Cape Otway was the highlight of the journey. So our next stop was off this through a narrow forested windy road. On our way we saw some people stopped on the side of the road looking up into the tree. So we stopped and got our first look at a very sleepy Koala!!!!! They sleep for most of the day and are perched out on the very end of the branches. It is a wonder they don't break them! They look so cute and soft but i have been told they can be quite mean and they do have some big claws on them. They eat Eucalyptus trees all day long and are drugged up on them! Anyway we got to the lighthouse and discovered we had to pay so decided not to and turned back. Not a complete waste of time though cause we saw lots more Koala's on the way back and got some great photos. Also met a couple of Kiwi's getting out to look at the Koala's with a beer in their hands LOL

Our new friend the Koala. We actually found one that was awake!

So then it was back on the road and we reached the Twelve Apostles near the end of the day as the sun was beginning to set. It is hard to describe the beauty of the area and wonder at how it became like this and how it is going to change in the future. The wind, rain and sea are constantly changing this area. With only perhaps eight Apostles still standing the last one to collapse was only in July 2005! Imagine watching that! The photos can describe it better than i can so i will leave you to look at those. It really is a must see though. It is absolutely beautiful!

The apostles with the sun setting behind.

You can see the one that collapsed in the front of the picture!

Just to prove we were actually there. I promise no photoshop!

Not too far away we also stopped to see the the Loch Ard Gorge which is the location of the Lace Curtains, Thunder Cave and Blow Hole. The Lace Curtains are a sheer cliff face that is amazing. The blow hole consists of a huge open hole where the water is sucked in from the sea with a loud noise and then sucked out again. There is an eerie story associated with this. There was a ship wreck in this area and 11 bodies washed into the blow whole. At night the whole glowed purple due to wax vestas (phosphorus matches) washed in from the cargo. That is something i am not in a hurry to see! The whole area along the coast is also known as ship wreck coast due to the huge numbers of wrecks that have occured there.

The Lace Curtains.

The Blow Hole.

The Thunder Cave was quite similar to the Blow Hole where huge amounts of water are sucked it and then thrown out. But this is right on the coast and it is quite amazing to watch and listen to the noise. By this time we had ran out of light and had seen everything we wanted to see so we headed off home.