Great Ocean Drive, Australia

When we originally planned our trip to Australia, I fell in love with photos from the Great Ocean Drive. It's a famous roadtrip down the coast of Australia, just a couple of hours from Melbourne. There are small coastal towns sprinkled throughout with lots of pockets of nature and amazing views of the coast line.

Day One:

We head out of Melbourne and head to the town of Torquay, load up on road trip food and set out for our adventure. We have no hotels booked, we'll figure out accommodations along the way, staying in places we fall in love with and giving us the freedom to go as long as we want or as little.

Enjoying some samples of Australian wines at the Queen Victoria Market!

We're looking forward to seeing the wild life...Koalas, Kangaroos, oh my!

Our first stop along Great Ocean Road is a light house.

It's official, we're on the Great Ocean Road!

It's way too cold to get in the water (although some people did), so we just spend some time playing around on the beach. This is the town of , it's a great coastal town, lots of restaurants and places to check out.

Really enjoying these coastal views with my honey.

Steve driving on the left side of the road... We have both driven in England and Ireland before, so not a new experience, but it does take a bit to adjust. Plus on these narrow coastal roads. I'm glad he's behind the wheel.

The views are incredible. Pardon me as I took so many pictures and really wanted to share all the views. The Great Ocean Road is a few day road trip covering over 150 miles.

Good night... Found a hotel and crashing for the night at Apollo Bay. Bimba, we'll see you for a fancy dinner.

Day Two:

We continue our drive down the Great Ocean Road and start with a visit to Otway National Park and end with 12 Apostles. I want to do some hiking and wildlife spotting.

Visited Otway National Park and what a treat! Amazing wild life spotting and good hikes. We spotted a few koala! Conner thrilled with the wild life. He's our animal lover. We enjoyed watching the koalas eat in the trees. They sure get high up!

Look at him all snuggled up in the tree. Adorable!

Me. Happy on this lovely road trip. This is our first trip with a car and it's refreshing to be able to lug all our stuff without packing it all tiddy in luggage. We get to go at our own pace. Nice.

The Great Ocean Road also comes with a walk! We hiked various points of the walk, really great views and right through Otway National Park. These were our best hikes.

Hiked to Triplet Falls in Otway National Park. This makes a waterfall in country number four of our trip. Not too shabby. The trees and landscape are my favorites parts. While there are platypus in these rivers, we were not lucky enough to spot one.

I love these fern trees, I really don't know what they are called, but they are huge and similar to palm trees with these large fern leaves. They are throughout and mark the way on our hike.

Lots of reminders to stay on the LEFT side of the road...

We arrive at 12 Apostles. Impressive boulders...

Happy with my boys to arrive here. I googled this sight nearly a year ago and have been wanting to come here...and now here we are.

Hard not to take a bunch of pictures. These are amazing sights. I do have to tell you that it's FREEZING and windy and my ears hurt so bad. We really need to buy some GOOD winter clothing.

Cool map to show us the sights we have already seen and the amazing ones we have left. The beauty of the coastal structures gets better and better as you drive on. Although I really adored Otway National Park. I'm a mountain girl at heart and really loved the green at Otway.

Loch Ard George. So cool. You can hike down to the beach at this sight. We hit Gibson Steps at high tide and didn't get a chance to hike down to the beach. Here we hiked down, saw the creation of waves on the rocks and beaches.

Looks like a cave right?

Tired now and hungry! We found a fabulous pub in Port Campbell, 12 Rocks Beach Bar Cafe. It was the perfect visit!

Day Three:

We wrap up our Great Ocean Drive today. I'm looking forward to the last viewing spots of the Great Ocean Road after a good night sleep.

This beach was right next to the pub we ate dinner at. Lovely...

A panoramic view of the London Bridge. It fell, get it?

A family picture. I really should have taken my hood down. But it was so windy and cold, people!

The Grotto. Another beautiful view.

Creations at the Grotto.

See I'm not the only one taking pictures. Here's we're at the Bay of Islands. 12 Apostles may get the most attention, but this was my favorite!

Bundled up and wrapping up the Great Ocean Road and it was GREAT! Best road trip...beautiful views, lovely small towns to stay in and good restaurants. Off to Phillip Island to see the penguins march.

LUCKY, LUCKY were we to be the LAST people on the ferry arriving at 3:59pm for a 4pm departure. Phew! Taking the ferry to Sorrento, leaving the Great Ocean Drive behind and heading to Phillip Island and wine tastings along Mornington Peninsula.

Calm ferry ride, thank goodnes! I suffer from motion sickness. I've been trying out the patch on cruises thus far, but wasn't prepared for the ferry. With it being 40 minutes I took a chance and got lucky.

Day Four:

Good Morning Mornington Peninsula! We didn't waste anytime. With a rainy morning, we decided a few wineries would be good use of our time...even if it was 10am! What a pleasure these wineries were. We wrapped up our day in Phillip Island with amazing and impressive March of the Penguins.

Green Olive Winery.

Of course, Green Olive Winery, grows olives too.

At 10 Minutes by Tractor we were hosted by an American server from California. It was fun to connect with another American while here. Not a whole lot of Americans, surprisingly, in Austalia. The wines were pretty good too. We spotted a couple more koalas while at Mornington Peninsula. Fun.

Our first stop on Phillip Island was The Nobbies where you can spot whales and seals. We didn't see either, but the views are enough. It's gorgeous, with crashing waves on the rocks. It's a bit of Great Ocean Road all over again. Plus watching the sun set. Not bad.

We looked and looked, but no whales in sight for us. We certainly are unlucky in spottnig whales.

This is called Sea Rock, there are cruises that get you close for seal spotting.

The boys look out at the "blowholes". The waves crash in and water blows out like in a blowhole through holes and cracks in the rock. It's pretty mesmorizing to watch.

Such cool sights.

A look at the sunset, that means we better hustle over to the penguins. The penguins march right at sunset, when dust sets in and there's less threat of predators. We got our fill of wallabies at The Nobbies, at dust they are everywhere! What a treat. We really enjoy the wildlife and let's face it in the US you would only ever see kangaroos and wallabies in the zoo. It's so exciting to see them in their habitat and just everywhere!

Entering the Penguin March. It's quite the attraction. With it being one of Australia's top attractions the expectations are high. It's on Conner's must-do list and Aiden being our penguin lover is happy to be here.

Aiden our penguin lover.

Waiting for the penguins. We're allowed to take photos leading up to the penguins marching in, but zero tolerance for photos after that. So snapping away on a few experiences for you guys The march was incredible. Like clockwork these little, little pengins (They are called little penguins by the way) march out of the ocean in "rafts", that's what the groups of penguins are called and waddle onto the beach. Their buddies, mates, come out of the grown burrows and welcome their friends home. There's a lot of penguin squealing going on and it's amazing! They come in the dozens and soon you see hundreds of penguins UP CLOSE. Marching right up the beach, right along the stands filled with humans and are completely unbothered by us. They just waddle on home. Really a spectacular sight.

Day Five:

The next morning we saw good bye to Australia (for now, we'll be back in a couple of weeks). We'll prepare to depart to New Zealand.

We return to The Nobbies today, what can I say, we loved it. We found penguin tracks.

Lots of tidepools along the shore...

Good bye Nobbies.

I love the look of these Eucalypus trees. I find myself always looking up, hoping to see another koala.

We head to San Remo for the feeding of the pelicans...

Such a treat. Small audience, education about this large bird and then we get to eat fish and chips. The left over parts from the fish and chips is what is fed to the pelicans. So sustainable and fun!

HUGE birds. Off to the airport now...