This post will be all about our weekend trip to Melbourne! On Thursday April 19, after only two days of being back in Sydney to recover from New Zealand, MK, Morgan, Jenna, Chelsea, and myself were headed back to the airport to catch a night time flight to Melbourne!
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria.Yes, Australia has states. Six I think. It's the second most populous city in Australia. It located South West of city and the flight was only about an hour and I obviously passed out. I was sitting in the very last row of the plane. Random fact but they're very big on making you walk out to the plane to get on instead of using one of those connector things from the plane to the airport.
We landed pretty late and luckily caught one of the last shuttles from the airport to the city. Somehow our hostel was literally 3 blocks from the city drop off point so that was pretty sweet. This hostel was definitely not as new and nice looking as our Auckland hostel but it was obviously good enough for the amount of time we would be there. It was also good because there was 24/7 reception and the staff was really helpful with giving us information.
Our first day in Melbourne we decided to do a Great Ocean Road tour. The Great Ocean Road is 243-kilometre stretch of road along the south-eastern coast. The road was built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932 and is the world's largest war memorial. The entire road is along the most beautiful water I have ever seen. This tour was a full day activity and so worth the money.
Our first stop was just a calm little area where we had morning tea and some cookies. So Aussie of us. From here we then went to the Memorial Arch which is the start of the Great Ocean Road. We walked along the beach a bit and even though it was overcast this water was still so blue and absolutely breathtaking! We drove for a bit alongside the road and got to pass through some super cute seaside resort towns like Lorne and Anglesea. After this we hopped out at the Kennett River where we saw wild koalas and a ton of birds! These birds were so beautiful and would land all over your arms and even on your head. There were parrots and lorikeets. We have some hilarious photos of us getting attacked by these birds. Next we went to lunch which was delicious AND included. Obviously I ate fish and chips which is just 1000 times better in Australia then it is in America. We ate lunch in Apollo Bay at a restaurant called Iluka. So delicious. Rainforest time! Our next stop was at Otway's Rainforest (Mait's Rest). Here we took a guided bushwalk through this cool temperate rainforest. Some of these trees were gigantic! It was such a neat atmosphere and it was just so cool looking. At our next stop we were able to get some amazing views of the 12 Apostles. The 12 Apostles are these limestone stacks.... kind of hard to explain. They're just rock and stones but they are SO neat looking. Then came Loch Ard Gorge. This area has AMAZING views. We went down into this area that was like a gorge. There were huge limestone cliffs all around us. It was just so neat. Our last stop was at the London Bridge. Which, coincidentally, has actually fallen down. We had a great day overall and loved the tour. We obviously didn't see the entire Great Ocean Road. I think if I ever come back to Australia I would definitely want to do a few days on the Great Ocean Road and stay over night in some of the seaside towns.
Loch Ard Gorge
Gorge
London Bridge
Wild koala
Bird!
Delicious lunch
Rainforest
12 Apostles
12 Apostles
12 Apostles
12 Apostles
The next day we headed out and hopped on the trolley tram thing that Melbourne has. I can't remember the name of the area that we went to but we were all super hungry so we stopped to get lunch at a pizza place. My pizza was SO GOOD. After we ate we walked around a bit and headed to a craft fair that was near by. This fair has the coolest jewelry and other stuff. It was all so unique and it was so hard to not buy EVERYTHING. We became best friends with this one jeweler. I ended up buying a ring and earrings for myself and a few souvenirs for some people back home! After we left here we walked around a bit stopping in different little shops and we also got gelato. We headed back to the more downtown like area and got to see some of the awesome graffiti that Melbourne is covered with. We ate at this amazing fish and chips shop in this neat alley way. It was delicious. Yes, a very fish and chips filled weekend!
Go to Melbourne and EAT THIS PIZZA
The craft fair we went to
This was this really neat wall with water and you could put leaves on it to write things and make pictures!
The next morning we had to wake up bright and early and head back to the airport to go back to Sydney. Melbourne was AMAZING and I regret not being able to be there for longer. It was such a short weekend. WHEN I come back to Australia I definitely want to spend at least a week in this area. It's much more European-like than Sydney is and has a really neat artistic vibe that fills the street. The Great Ocean Road is also one of the most breathtaking sights in all of Australia.
Moral of the story: GO TO MELBOURNE.
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