April 14th 2006 - The 13th Apostle

Happy Easter everyone! My roommates and I utilized the 4 day weekend to our full advantage by driving down the Great Ocean Road. We left early on friday and did a slight detour (complete oposite direction) to humor our roommates who wanted to see the set for the TV series 'Neighbors'. Neither Laure and I minded, and it made their day. Although I've never really taken to the show, I must admit I have been caught watching it in the absence of anything else. It's very popular in Australia and the UK.

Next it was off to Lorne and regretably, the weather wasn't overly cooperative. We arrived to a very wet little town on the coast. The waves were obscene! I really wanted to jump on a surf board and ride my heart out, but I didn't want to put all of the locals to shame with my incredible natural ability! The next day we decided to head out along the Great Ocean Road. The 12 Apostles were stunning and London Bridge was pretty cool. All in all the fame of the coastline was justified and fortunately, the weather held and we had a terrific day, albeit with an extra 2 hour drive. The great Ocean road was so great that we decided to retrace our steps 3 times; the Easter weekend proved pretty crowded and without reservations we decided to crash in our comfortable place in lorne.

The next day was a fly by GOR and into Hamilton a small town off the beaten path enroute to the Grampians - another National Park in Victoria. We wandered around a random lake and froze our buts off camping, before heading off to the park for stunning panoramas and views. The park had recently been swept with a bush fire and it was interesting to see the devastation and regrowth after only a couple of weeks!