Great Ocean Road

Giz has officially passed the blogging baton back to me, so I guess it's my turn to post.   Good thing too because it's definitely time to finish off my trip report.  

You can read about the rest of our trip here:

New Zealand

Part I (Auckland, Coromandel Peninsula & Rotorua)

Part II (Taupo & Hawke's Bay)

Part III (Abel Tasman & Franz Josef)

Part IV (Lake Matheson, Wanaka, Queenstown & Milford Sound)

Australia

Cairns

Sydney: Part I

Sydney: Part II

Sydney: Part III

Melbourne: Part I

Melbourne: Part II

Now, for the last stop on our trip, the Great Ocean Road.  The Great Ocean Road is about 150 miles of road that travels along the ocean, beginning (or ending, depending on the direction you travel) in Torquay, about 1 hour and 15 minutes outside of Melbourne, and ending in Warrnambool.  The views on this road are stunning.  

We stopped in Torquay for lunch at the Torquay Larder, a cute little cafe with made-from scratch food and specialty food items.  

After Torquay, we continued on to the Angelsea Golf Club, which is known for being a location to see wild kangaroos.  

You don't have to search particularly long to see a whole bunch of kangaroos.  There were about 30 in this shot that I took just outside the main gate.

Next, we stopped off at the Split Point Lighthouse in Aireys Inlet and took some time to enjoy the majestic views all around.

There are a few lighthouses along the Great Ocean Road, the most famous is the Cape Otway Lightstation.  We opted not to visit it since they charge $17.50 per person.  But, now I'm kind of regretting it since it looks like the views there are second to none.

By this point in the day, the sun was starting to set, so we made our way for our hostel, the Apollo Bay YHA.  We practically had the place to ourselves by this point (3rd week in May).  But apparently it books up over the summer.

The next morning, we started off at Maits Rest Rainforest Trail, a quick walk along a rainforest boardwalk.

Gotta love the  driving reminders:

Next, we started the search for wild koalas amidst the eucalyptus on the road toward the Cape Otway's Lightstation.   Definitely like looking for a needle in a haystack.  We were about to give up, but spotted some cars along the side of the road.  Bingo!  

No trip to the Great Ocean Road is complete without seeing the Twelve Apostles.  

Don't bother trying to count all twelve apostles (the limestone rock stacks).  There are only about eight left.

We both agreed that we should have spent an extra day on the Great Ocean Road.  Still, it was a great way to close out our trip. 

We returned Melbourne that evening and caught a flight to LAX the next day.  

I could have done without the 47 hour return voyage to Ottawa, which included spending the night sleeping in  the Chicago Airport and having to fly to Montreal and bus to Ottawa after flights were delayed and sold out.  But, we'll just forget about that part and call it an excellent trip!  

I hope you enjoyed my posts about Australia and New Zealand!  Thanks for sticking them out with me.

Melbourne: Part II

After touring the downtown area of Melbourne, which you can read about here, we wanted to check out some other parts of town.

On the second day, we walked from the part of town we were staying in, Brighton, to St. Kilda (about 6-7 km).  The walk by the Bay is lovely, peaceful and gives you a view of some of the nicest real estate in the city.

St. Kilda is an interesting part of town that, after a period of being dodgy, is returning to its original glory.  

After our walk, we were ready for lunch.  We took our chances and tried Rococo.  We started with a Caprese salad and each ordered a panini.   

Both tasted really good and really hit the spot!  

After spending some more time walking around St. Kilda, we were drawn in by the dessert window at the Acland Cake Shop.

Source

Unfortunately, I think in this case, it looks better than it tastes.  I got a vanilla slice.  The custard was sticky and hard to swallow and the pastry was so hard, it was difficult to break apart.

R wasn't a big fan of his dessert either.  

The restaurant is in need of some updating and the bathrooms were in need of toilet paper.  I got the impression that it was a long-run family business, run by people who lost their passion for desserts and customer service a long time ago.

On a different day, we visited the Queen Victoria Market.  The market has the distinction of being the largest market in the southern hemisphere.  

The market has rows upon rows of household items, clothing, shoes, jewellery, etc. 

Produce

Meats

We stopped in the food court for lunch.

and got some famous jam donuts for dessert

After the market, we quickly made our way back downtown to go watch an Aussie Rules football game.  Melbourne is the hub of Aussie Rules, which is actually more popular in Australia than is rugby.  Thankfully, we were with fans of the sport who could explain how the game is played.

We watched a big game between the Richmond Tigers vs Essendon.  The guys we were with were cheering for (or as they say in Australia, barracking for) the Tigers.  The atmosphere was great, with somewhere around 80,000 spectators.

In the end, the Tigers won and their theme song was played:

Melbourne: Part I

R and I met about 11 years ago. We were both planning to live and work abroad, in London. After an initial meeting at a restaurant a few months before starting the trip, we met for a second time in the departure lounge at the Toronto Pearson Airport to catch our flight to London Heathrow.

We were pretty much inseparable from that point and found a flat together, along with 4 other guys (a mix of Aussies, Kiwis and Italians). I was a bit hesitant to live with 5 guys, but after hearing daily stories about my colleague's four female flatmates, I was quite content to be with a group of guys (despite the Playboy poster that hung in the kitchen).

When we started to plan our trip to Australia, we sent a message to the Aussie flatmates (who are still travelling the world) for advice. This is the first time we got a sense of the rivalry between Sydney and Melbourne. Here's the advice we got from our flatmate from Sydney:

not too sure about melbourne but bring your turtle neck sweater so you can fit in with the other Melbournites when you're sipping a latte writing poetry on your computer wearing a beret.

Alrighty then!

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We flew from Sydney (read about our time in Sydney here: part 1, part 2 and part 3) to the last destination, Melbourne.  We were lucky to have some friends and family in Melbourne.

On our first full day, a friend who has moved from Toronto to Melbourne took us on a walking tour around central Melbourne.  We met up at Flinder's Station and went from there.  Here's just some of what we saw:

This is Flinder's Station:



Across from Flinder's Station:

Melbourne is known for its great restaurants, coffee culture and the uniqueness of the various areas of the city.  I would love to spend more time getting to know the cafes, restaurants and laneways.  This laneway is called Centre Place.

Melbourne has these fancy (I probably am not allowed to walk through here) arcades that look like something out the Victorian era.  This is the Royal Arcade.

This is the visual orgasm that is the Hopetoun Tea Rooms.  

These amazing-looking desserts can be found in the Block Arcade.

Also in Block Arcade is Haigh's Chocolate

They sell high quality chocolate, which we taste-tested for good measure:

Another thing you'll notice is that there is a lot of graffiti in Melbourne.  Sure, some of it is just tags.  But, a lot of it is really impressive.  There has even been some debate around the protection of the street art.

On a separate visit downtown, we stopped in to the Cupcake Bakery.

I think this is their molten chocolate:

and this is the lemon meringue:

View of downtown:

I'll stop there... But stay tuned because there's more to come!