The Great Ocean Road

After a cancelled flight, using the rest of my phone minutes trying to get a different flight, rearranging the plans for the rental car three times, and a fitful night's sleep spent worrying that the new flight would be cancelled too, Rob and I finally landed in Melbourne on Friday afternoon...only to discover (after leaving the one-way revolving doors) that I had left my tennis shoes on the plane.  An hour later, when that plane had taken off again and the flight attendants came back empty-handed, I started to wonder if anything was going to go right for us this weekend.

We got the rental car and started driving towards the south coast.  We stopped in a town called Torquay for a quick dinner and then began our trip down the Great Ocean Road, the largest historical memorial in the world...yes, the entire road is the memorial.  The road winds along the coast, which is notorious for its limestone cliff geology that was once connected with Antarctica but has since been ripped away.  There were no shortage of scenic lookouts along the way and we managed to make it to Split Point Lighthouse before it got dark to see the sunset.  That night we drove a few more hours until we got to Bay of Islands and spent the night there, unaware of what was around us until sunrise when we quickly realized how incredible our day was going to be.  We spent the rest of Saturday driving back towards Melbourne, snacking, chatting and seeing the sites.  Since all of my descriptions for the view would make it sound like we saw a bunch of rocks and water, here is a pictorial representation of Friday and Saturday to better express my weekend:

Split Point Lighthouse at sunset

Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch

Bay of Islands at sunrise; the limestone cliffs of the coast used to extend out that far (originally connected to Antarctica) but have since eroded away, changing the wave energy in the bay, leaving behind these islands and others that have since collapsed

The Grotto; here is where I started really wishing I had my tennis shoes.  Also, the way the bay behind the arch is shaped it creates huge waves that crash up over the 20m dropoff and up to this ledge to create this pond

London Bridge; The sign shows what it looked like until it fell in 1990.   No one was injured, but 2 people got marooned on the island part and had to be rescued by helicopter

The Arch; since it had rained the night before, we got to experience the impressive power of the waves as they continually surged and crashed against the coast.  We even saw wild dolphins playing in the massive swells here!

Loch Ard Gorge; the coast is sometimes considered "Shipwreck Coast" because it was a notoriously dangerous trade route.  Around to the right of these cliffs is the site of the Loch Ard shipwreck.  With the size of the waves we saw, when it wasn't even storming, it was easy to imagine how terrifying it would be to sail along this coast

Twelve Apostles; only 7 are visible from the tourist lookout (two behind me while I took this picture and five here, with only the rubble of one in the foreground).  You need to take a helicopter ride to see all twelve (properly only eleven..).  This is the most recognizable feature of the road and was very touristy.. in other words, pretty cool but not our favorite

Gibson Steps Beach; the backside of two of the Twelve Apostles

Wreck Beach; At a random turonoff at the end of a long dirt road we found this "secret site" on the Great Ocean Road where there were two major shipwrecks (The Fiji and the Marie Gabrielle).  Anchors from both of the ships are still embedded in the rocks along the beach as memorials to those who died in the wrecks

Rolling green hills of the farmland on the other side of the road

We made it to Carisbrook Falls before the sun went down where both of our camera batteries died after we got a few blurry pictures of the wild koala we saw in the tree on the way back from the waterfall!  We stopped at a lookout just past a town called Apollo Bay (which would be an incredible place to live) to watch the sun set over the road we had just driven and take in the sheer fullness of our day.

By the time we got back to Melbourne, found our hostel while driving on the craziest city streets I've ever been on (think trolleys, buses, taxis, cars, bikes and people coming from the pub all sharing the same road, plus one ways and lots of construction) and then finding parking for the night, it was pretty late.  We wandered around Melbourne, all the while wishing we had more than a few hours there,  but still feeling content about the weekend.  We found a pizzeria for dinner and then sat on the steps of the Parliament building and watched the traffic and lights of the city.  Because my camera battery had died I didn't get any pictures of the city, which is a shame since the architecture of the buildings and bridges is incredibly unique and often very colorful.

We woke up really early to drive to the airport and return the car (after lots of cleaning it of course!).  Then, just to round out our trip, our flight was delayed an hour and a half and the airline still hadn't found my shoes.  Once we were airborne and halfway back to Sydney the pilot decided we needed to turn around and head back to Melbourne for some engineering issue.  After waiting an hour in the plane we finally got back in the air and made it to Sydney.

It was an awesome weekend, but also a great test of our flexibility, maturity and optimism in unexpected/semi-crisis situations.  I would prefer to not have to deal with all that rescheduling and chaos again (for instance, in one week when I fly out to the outback!) but it's always good to reaffirm that I can handle whatever is thrown at me :)