Melbourne, Great Ocean Road, and Grampions National Park adventure!

Sarah and I had a great trip!  The seascapes of the Great Ocean Road were unbelievable; it definitely lived up to its reputation of being one of the most beautiful drives in the world. 

Someday, I am going to come back and tour it on a motorcycle; it would be amazing.

Here is a video from Ted's Lookout!

We flew out of Gold Coast Thursday morning and arrived in Melbourne after lunchtime.  We lost an hour on the way there.  An airport transfer bus took us directly to our hostel, the Space Hotel.  This was both me and Sarah's first time staying in hostel, and well, some things were better than expected, some worse.

Good things:

-- The bathrooms were clean.
-- The rooms were clean.
-- We felt safe.  A key was needed to enter the floor and bathrooms, as well as the room.
-- The front desk staff were very friendly and helpful.
-- We stayed in a six bed dorm share on Thursday night and were placed with four guys: Si from England, two from Denmark (one of the them turned out to not be cool, see below under "bad things"), and Fredrico from Italy.  We had fun hanging out and playing card games with them Thursday night.  Fredrico is going to come to Gold Coast soon and stay with us, so we're looking forward to that.

Bad things:

-- Lets just say that we didn't get the best nights of sleep Thursday and Sunday night while staying in a six and eight bedroom dorm share.  We couldn't believe how loud people were when others were sleeping!!  Especially Sunday night/Monday morning, when people were coming in or out, they let the door slam every time.  Nobody whispered while talking or tried to be quiet while going through their bags.  One guy even played music out loud at four in the morning when he got back! 

-- The Danish guys went out on Thursday night and didn't get back until 4:00 in the morning.  Peirre went to bed, but the other one layed down in Sarah's bed!  She woke up immediately and asked him what he was doing.  He replied, "Don't worry, I won't do anything you don't want me to."  She freaked down and told him to get into his own bed three times before he actually left.  What a creep!  I had to laugh, though, because we were fighting over who had to sleep on the top bunk during the day.  For once, I am so glad that I lost and slept on the top bunk. :)

-- Each person had their own cupboard to keep their things in, but you needed to bring your own lock.  We didn't know that or have one, so we had to keep all of our valuables with us.

Anyway, after we dropped our things off Thursday afternoon, we headed out to explore the city.  Si was in the room when we arrived; he is travelling alone so we invited him to come with us.  We walked down the famous "Collins" street and around the CBD.  Melbourne seemed like a cool place, but I don't get very excited about being in a city.  We ate dinner at a Thai restaurant in China Town and then headed back to play games at the hostel.

Bunyip tours picked us up at 7:00 Friday morning to start our three-day adventure!  We had a really small group - just nine of us plus the tour guide.  There was a girl and guy from Germany, woman from Ireland, a couple from Scotland, woman from the Netherlands, and a girl from England.  Although it was an odd mix of people, it was a great; nobody complained about anything, and we had a lot of fun!

It took us a couple hours to actually get to where the 253 km Great Ocean Road starts in Torquay, known as Australia's most popular surfing town.  Torquay is where Rip Curl and Quiksilver were started by some surf guys back in the day, and Bells Beach has a lot of popular surf competitions.  We had some time to check out the beach and some of the surf shops while Cameron, our tour guide, picked up groceries for the weekend meals.  We had clouds and cooler temperatures most of the weekend which we were a little sad about at first, but it turned out to be fine.



Loch Ard Gorge


Then we started!  The views along the entire road were amazing!  We stopped at many locations throughout the first couple days: the Twelve Apostles in Port Campbell National Park, Gibson Steps, Loch Ard Gorge (my favorite), London Bridge, the Bay of Islands, Bay of Martyrs, Aireys Inlet and historic lighthouse, Lorne, and Apollo Bay.



Twelve Apostles story: there were never "12" limestone stacks, but rather nine.  In July 2005, a tall stack collapsed, leaving eight remaining today.  The apostles were formed by erosion. The harsh weather conditions from the Southern Ocean gradually eroded the soft limestone to form caves in the cliffs, which then became arches, which in turn collapsed, leaving rock stacks up to 45 metres high.  According to Wikipedia (my favorite source ha), the rate of erosion at the base of the limestone pillars is approximately 2 cm per year.  Due to wave action eroding the cliff face, existing headlands are expected to become new limestone stacks in the future.

We also went for a hike through the rainforest in the Otway Ranges to visit a waterfall!

We camped in the Otway Ranges on the first night and then at the foothills of the Grampians on the second night.

We all helped out to prepare lunch and dinner each day.  The food was great!  At night, we usually sat outside talking and then played some games.  Cameron lost an intense game of Jenga. :)

Because of the severe flooding in the region, we were unable to go to Mackenzie Falls and the Pinnacle, two beautiful places in the Grampians.  That was too bad, but we instead did some more hiking in the Grampians, which I really enjoyed.  The views from the top were great, and it was a lot of fun to climb on the rocks.  We spent all day Sunday in the Grampians before heading back to Melbourne early evening.  We stopped at a aboriginal culture center on our way back as well.

We were able to see kangaroos and koala bears many times throughout the trip!  The kangaroos were really cool at first, but by the end of the weekend...I started to feel similarly about kangaroos as I do about deer in the US haha.  But I liked the koalas; they are cute. :)

There is so much that I want to see and do...I think about it all the time.  Even while I'm exploring new places, I am of course enjoying where I am, but I'm always getting new ideas of where I want to go next.  I have always had a sense for adventure, but my desire to travel the world grows every day.  It's the independence and freedom, the awesome people you meet along the way, being able to explore new places, gaining new perspectives...I am completely addicted.  And I hate that I don't have any money... :(

I think about Jake a lot when I am travelling.  There are so many things I would love to take him to.  I always picture how excited he would be to see the waterfall in the rainforest we went to, jump in the waves in the ocean (he would love boogie boarding!), dig up crabs in the sand, camp, see kangaroos and koalas...etc.  I miss him!

Right now, Joost and Dennis (the guys we met at the surf camp from the Netherlands) have been staying at our place since Monday.  They are fun to have around. :)  We're all heading over to Snapper Rocks for the start of the Quiksilver Pro tomorrow morning!  It is the kickoff of the ASP World Tour. We're really excited to watch professional surfers live from all over the world!  Here's the event website: 

 http://www.quiksilverpro.com.au/  It lasts from the 28th till the 9th of March.

I already sent this to my sister and mom, but I just heard the Star Wars theme song, and it made me think of this commercial.  If you haven't watched this Volkswagon Superbowl commercial yet, click below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0

My next trip will be March 10-14th.  I'm going the Caines with a girl from Minnesota, Felicia, and Thorsten, a guy from Germany.  As of right now, we are planning to snorkel the Great Barrier all day on Friday, white water raft the Tully River all day Saturday, and then between Sunday and Monday, skydive and bungee jump along with a few other things.  I can't wait!! :)

Sarah's mom is coming to visit next week.  I think she's arriving on Friday and staying for ten days.  She seems really nice!  We're going to do a daytrip to the rainforest with her next Saturday, so I'm looking forward to that as well!

I forgot to mention in my last post that Sarah and I decided to play basketball at Bond a few weeks ago.  We were placed on different teams, and not even ten minutes into playing, I noticed Sarah sitting on a chair on the other court with her leg propped up.  Turns out she tore her meniscus. :(  She has to get surgery, but would have to pay for it out of pocket here.  Instead, she is going to wait until she gets home when it will be fully covered by her insurance.  I took her injury as a sign that I shouldn't be playing basketball either.  I probably would not have listened to that instinct, but the girls level of competition is pretty bad, and it is against the rules for me to play with the guys.  I think it is good that I start to really focus on my running now anyway.  I love running on the beach.  I've been running barefoot more and more; I think my body is adjusting to it.

I have mid-terms this coming week!  I can't believe how fast the semester is going by!  We've been here for two months, and leave in two months.  That is crazy.  I just found out my final exam schedule, and I am done with exams on April 17th! Yah! :)  My flight is scheduled out of Gold Coast on April 27th, but I am really hoping to go to New Zealand for at least a week before heading home.

 

I've been applying for internships for this summer, and am anxious to find out where I'll be living.  Most of the internships don't start until the beginning of June or very end of May, though, so I'll have a few weeks at home to spend time with family and friends.





Send good thoughts my way for mid-terms! :)  The grading system here is very different from the U.S. and Norway...it is stressful to adjust to new standards and procedures.  Instead of giving out A, B, C...this is their scale:

85+ is HD (High Distinction)

75 - 84 is D (Distinction)

65 to 74 is C (Credit)

50-64 is P (Passing)

below 50% F

I haven't figured out how they will transfer back to Augustana yet.  At first, I thought, "Oh great, I only have to get an 85% to get an HD!"  But the way the grading system is set up, it's difficult to get an HD.  They said they view an HD like an A+ here.  It's hard to explain the system in detail on here, but I'm stressed again about grades.  I am actually the only American here whose grades transfer back as is; everyone else has pass/fail for every class, so they just have to get a 50%. :/  I don't know how that works, but that's life I guess haha.

 There are quite a few phrases and words that Australians use that are different from what we would say in the US.  Here are a few I can think of off the top of my head:

-- Instead of saying "you're welcome" as a response to "thank you," Australians say "no worries" or "that's alright."

-- They say "mate" instead of "friend."

-- My professors in class say (spelt as how it sounds) "ideaer" instead of "idea."

-- They say "G'day."

Alright, that's all for now. :)