Goodbye Shelly!
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
We left behind South Australia and hopped forward 30 minutes into Victoria, the last state on our tour of Australia. One of the most scenic and famous roads in the world is the Great Ocean road which we chose as our route to Melbourne. Which we sped along as Shelly had her first viewing that evening.
The Great Ocean road is a 243 km coastal drive along the south east of Australia starting in Warrnambool and ending in Torquay. It was built to commemorate those who fought in World War One and winds around limestone rocks, beaches, rain forests as well as little towns and hills. Scenic photo stops are dotted along the route which include the 12 Apostles, London Bridge, Loch Ard Gorge and the Grotto. These are all limestone rock formations which have been created from the waves and the weather, the so called London Bridge actually party collapsed in the 90s so the amazing rocks are subtly (and not so subtly) changing over time. Luckily we were travelling east against the traffic along the road as the sun was out and day trippers from Melbourne were out in force, sections were queued back about 5-6 kilometres.
The Great Ocean road is a 243 km coastal drive along the south east of Australia starting in Warrnambool and ending in Torquay. It was built to commemorate those who fought in World War One and winds around limestone rocks, beaches, rain forests as well as little towns and hills. Scenic photo stops are dotted along the route which include the 12 Apostles, London Bridge, Loch Ard Gorge and the Grotto. These are all limestone rock formations which have been created from the waves and the weather, the so called London Bridge actually party collapsed in the 90s so the amazing rocks are subtly (and not so subtly) changing over time. Luckily we were travelling east against the traffic along the road as the sun was out and day trippers from Melbourne were out in force, sections were queued back about 5-6 kilometres.
We arrived in Torquay where someone awaited Shelly for a test drive which proved pointless as they didn't think she was worth the money (shocking! Luckily we had an e-mail waiting for us that night in Geelong and Shelly was booked in for her second viewing the next day, this time with some Dutch backpackers in Melbourne which was a little more promising.
Neill and Kylie from our Odyssey trip live in Melbourne and kindly offered us a place to stay while we were visiting Victoria's capital so after a quick shopping trip in Geelong we headed into town for Shellys viewing before heading on to Kylies mums. The viewing went really well and the guys decided to buy her and asked if we could keep her until Jan 2nd, which was perfect as we needed a car to get to Kylies anyway. We had a few nice relaxing days at Kylies, headed into Melbourne for some sightseeing on the 30th, booked our flights to New Zealand and had a pool party/BBQ at her friends for New Year. Unfortunately Neill was working but he treated us to some nice cocktails and food in his work which was great, well worth a visit for its cocktails!
On New Years day we had a BBQ and went to the movies and went to Philip Island the next day after dropping Shelly off in town. We are so happy the car has sold as it was stopping us from making our next plans for New Zealand, I'm sure she will do fine with the Dutch guys even though they have never driven on the left side of the road before!
Philip Island is a small island just outside Melbourne which is home to little/fairy penguins. At night they can be seen coming home after a few days fishing at sea, while dodging the many seals. They stand in the water being taunted by the sea gulls before making a mad dash to the rocks to get to their burrows. It was very cute but also very funny to watch. They get scared off and run back to sea a few times before getting the courage to cross the beach. A viewing platform has been created for tourists so we enjoyed the view with hundreds of people from all over the world. Definitely an experience worth doing!
We've had a great time with Kylie and Neill, we've had a chance to stop and sort stuff out as well as catch up with them and their new life in Australia. We've been spoiled rotten and tonight we get to enjoy our first roast dinner in 9 months! Tomorrow we are heading into the city for a few days before catching our flight to our new life in New Zealand on the 7th - can't wait!!
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