February 28th-March 6th
So when I was at St. Kilda Beach for the second day in a row on Friday the 27th I
ran into some other international students. They had developed a plan to tour the Great Ocean Road in a rental van. It turned out that they had space for 12 and only 10 people had
agreed to go so they offered one of the last two spaces to me.
The Great Ocean Road is a 250 km section of scenic highway along the southern coast of Australia with beaches and stunning rock formations all along it. We left at around 10 am on Saturday and drove south from Melbourne, first to Geelong and then to Torquay. Torquay is a famous surf town with some very good surf beaches around. We walked around the Point Danger Marine Sanctuary and looked at the vast beaches on either side. The weather was reasonably clear but not warm enough for swimming which was unfortunate. We stopped at around 3 or 4 more spots along the way to get some good pictures and do some coast line exploring. I am still amazed at how many beaches there were along the way.
That days journey ended at a place called Apollo Bay where we stayed in a hostel. The weather had gotten progressively worse and now it was completely overcast and fairly cold, around 14 C or so. The next morning a few of us got up very early to see the sun rise a the beach. It had rained a little over night so there was little chance of a good sun rise but we decided to give it a shot anyways since the beach was just a short walk away. We didn't really see the sun rise but got some good pictures anyways due to a short break in the clouds. We continued along the road to the most famous site along it, the 12 Apostles. They were originally 12 limestone stacks of rock gradually carved out of the coastline over thousands of years. Now, there are only 8 left due to the gradual erosion of their bases. I was a little worried that I would not enjoy myself that day because of the less then desireable weather but the coastline was still extremely impressive with its large sandstone formations. After we visited the 12 Apostles it was time to return the van to Melbourne. The drive back took around 3 hours and was fairly uneventful, although when one is in a place so different just looking out the window at the land can be interesting.
Classes started on the Monday of that week and I still felt like I was on vacation. Its very hard to get back into classes after not having homework for 8 months or so. I found out on the wednesday that I had a conflict in my schedule and that I had to drop one of my classes. Luckily, it is not a prerequisite for any other class back at Northeastern. The week was supplemented with another trip to St. Kilda and a trip to the Melbourne Auto Expo. We went to St. Kilda at dusk on the Wednesday, this time at dusk, to see some of the Rock Penguins which live in the breakwater. On Thursday Will and I went to the Melbourne Auto Expo which was pretty cool. I got to sit in a few cars that are way more expensive than any car I will ever own. I also got a chance to look at the next generation Toyota Prius which is a very cool car.
Anyways, must make some lunch now and do some homework.
-Greg
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