The Great Ocean Road

After Melbourne, we headed west along the coast and drove the famous Great Ocean Road (famous for the Twelve Apostles).

On the first day, we drove from Melbourne to Warrnambool. This drive, although only 264km, took us the entire day to complete because we were stopping every few minutes to see the sights. It was a very warm day (+38 degrees), which made touring the Apostles quite uncomfortable. Another difficulty we ran into was the number of mozzies in the area. Look closely at the photo of our car door below to see just how many flies we had to deal with at each stop along the highway. Honestly, these little suckers did take some of the beauty away from this drive!

Anyways, it still was a very beautiful drive that we are very glad we had the opportunity to do. Here are some of the sights along the highway:

 

Here are some photos of the Twelve Apostles:

 

 And here are some additional sights near the Apostles:

On the second day, we headed back towards Melbourne via the Grampions National Park. Here are some pictures from our tour through this park.

Melbourne - Take 2

Following Tasmania, we hopped on a plane and flew back to Melbourne. We spent another three days in this awesome city. This time we toured around the Crown Resort and Entertainment Complex to see some of their Christmas displays, we did a boat cruise down the Yarra river, we had High Coffee at the Intercontinental, and we drove to Phillip Island to see the penguins and the sights along the way.

Christmas at the Crown

Christmas show at the Crown

Christmas in Melbourne

Christmas in Melbourne

Yarra River Boat Cruise

 Finally, here are some photos from Phillip Island:

Tasmania

A week after returning from Ayers Rock, we squeezed in another vacation before Christmas. The trip was broken into three parts: Tasmania, Melbourne, and the Great Ocean Road. This blog update will focus on Tasmania! :)

We spent three days in Tasmania, where we based ourselves mostly in the Hobart area. While there, we visited the Tasman Arch, Port Arthur, Wine Glass Bay, Cascades Brewery, Salamanca Market, and the Bonorong Wildlife Park.

First up was Port Arthur, with a stop along the way to view the Tasman Arch in the Tasman National Park. Port Arthur, a World Heritage site, is a former convict settlement consisting of eleven remnant penal sites originally built within the British Empire during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Tasman Arch

Port Arthur

Port Arthur

Port Arthur

 The following day, we hit the road and drove approximately 200km east to visit Wine Glass Bay. Located in the Freycinet National Park, WGB is located halfway down the east coast of Tasmania. A very pretty beach, which we definitely considered worth the drive.

Here are a few sights we saw along our drive to the Freycinet.

East Coast of Tasmania

East Coast of Tasmania

East Coast of Tasmania

East Coast of Tasmania

The following day, we toured around Hobart. We spent an hour or two visiting the Salamanca Market, we ate at a James Squire pub, visited the Bonorong Wildlife Park, and toured the Cascade Brewery (Australia's oldest operating brewery). All in all, a great tour of Tasmania!

Salamanca Market

All James Squire on tap!

Look at that menu!!

Cascade Brewery

Cascade Brewery

Tasmanian Devil

Ayers Rock

Next up on our list of destinations visited was Ayers Rock (also known as Uluru). Known as one of the hottest locations in the country, we knew we had to visit this remote place at the beginning of Stacy's parents visit (and before summer temperatures really began to soar). Even still, temperatures did not drop below 40 degrees while we were there!

Some of the major highlights of our visit included observing a sunset at Uluru, completing a sunrise walking tour, and visiting Kata Tjuta (also known as the Olgas).

Here are some pictures from the sunset viewing:

The following morning, the guys woke up early to do a sunrise hike around the base of Uluru (the girls stayed back to hangout with Mr. Matty). The temperature was 26 degrees at 5 am when they started and went up to 39 degrees by the time they completed the 10.6 km loop. In addition to dealing with the heat, they also had to deal with all of the mozzies that are well-known in the area (hence the mozzie nets you'll see them sporting in some of the below pictures)

Blair walking the base

Caves along the base

Stacy's Dad in a cave along the base

Mozzies, mozzies everywhere!

Some people are crazy enough to want to climb Uluru. You can see the hiking trail heading up the side of the rock in the pictures below. More than 36 people have died doing this climb. The pictures simply do not show how steep this climb is.

The hiking trail up the rock

The hiking trail from a side angle - to show just how steep the climb is!

One of the final sites we viewed were the Olgas. These "other red rocks" are located about 60km away from Uluru. Not quite as spectacular, but they are known for their fantastic hiking tours. Unfortunately, we arrived in the afternoon and the temperature was simply too hot to even consider doing a proper walking tour. Here are a few pictures that were grabbed on a very brief tour of the area.

Stacy's Dad with the Olgas in the distance