Day 34

Today felt like one of the longest days of my life!! But it was worth every penny that I spent on it! It started with my alarm going off at a lovely 5:30am, leaving by 6:15 for the tram. We made it to the touring office in time to get our free coffee and mini muffins (we were very angry they weren't legitimate muffins), and drove an hour on the bus to get to the Great Ocean Road! We had a wonderful tour guide named Kelly who was the most energetic person in the world, especially for how early it was. We started out in Torquay, a big surfing town so naturally the beaches were gorgeous. We stopped at around 10 beaches throughout the road, each one was spectacular. Even just being on the bus was fantastic, and at one point our tour guide even blasted “Down Under” by Men Down Under. My life was officially made.

Some of the first places we stopped were Bells Beach, the Wye River, Cape Patton Lookout. All of them were just gorgeous views of the rock and ocean. At Bells Beach we actually saw kangaroos again too! It was just like those Australian movies, with the rolling hills and the two kangaroos hopping across the top with the sun lit behind them. So gorgeous. We then went inland for a few kilometers and went through some of the rainforest. We went for a walk at the Mait's Rest Rainforest Walk, a short 20 minute loop that had some of the biggest trees I've ever seen in my life! It was gorgeous, with so many plants and streams running through. It really felt like I was walking into the jungle.

We stopped at a lighthouse for lunch, a true Australian barbie which was delicious, and all were able to climb up to the top of the lighthouse and take pictures. What was even cooler about lunch was that the area around it was all natural koala habitat! We were able to ride around in the bus and see upwards of 30 koalas throughout the trip! They were so fuzzy and adorable and I want to steal one.

We ended the trip with the big, more touristy places, like Loch Ard Gorge, the 12 Apostles, and the Gibson Steps. The 12 Apostles is the big one, yet honestly I felt kind of underwhelmed by them. Compared to Loch Ard Gorge, which was massive and breathtaking, the 12 Apostles just looked like rocks coming out of the water. The Gibson Steps were also not as impressive, but I couldn't help but think what a great workout they would be if you did them multiple times every day (86 giant steps). But honestly, I had a BLAST all day because I had the greatest group of friends! We took tons of pictures, including awkward family photos, and it just made the trip 10x more worthwhile than it already was. We got back around 7:30pm, so we were there an entire 12 hours. I would recommend it to anyone and now I'm absolutely exhausted after that entire day!