After an early morning start on a chilly Saturday Emma and I were picked up for our Great Ocean Road and Grampians weekend. We got in a people carrier and were told that there were only 7 people on our trip…at first I was a little disappointed about this but soon realised that as there were only a few of us we were going to get to know each other really well and really quickly. There were 2 Irish girls called Deidre and Fiona (aka Princess Fiona) an English girl called Heather, an American guy called Brin and a German guy called…..unpronounceable! The tour guide was called Kurt and he was pretty funny in a geeky kinda way…although he did say he would marry me so that I could get a visa to live out here! Ha ha

It soon became apparent that everyone on the bus was absolutely nuts…this was going to be an interesting weekend. The first stop on our trip was the famous Bells Beach… home to umpteen surf competitions…it was bloody freezing but gorgeous. We had a cuppa tea and biscuits before setting off down the Great Ocean Road. It's such a pretty road with lots of bends and beautiful scenery...all I kept saying is that "I'd love to drive this road in an Aston Martin!" I tell ya, the corners would've been amazing in a rear wheel drive beast! The next stop was a random one looking at wild koalas (I mean how wild can they get…they sleep for 20 hours a day!) we saw a few and I am a little koala-ed out really although this was the first time I had seen them "in the wild." We spotted a few but due to the drizzly weather half the group had stayed in the car so we jumped back in to continue our journey to Apollo Bay where we were stopping for a spot of luncheon…. We pulled up at the back car park of a dodgey looking café and had some food and then went for a wander around Apollo Bay. It's a pretty little place and I can imagine that in the summer it'd be heaving with people.

After our lunch we went to a rainforesty type place where we went for a little walk..it was really pretty and nice to see as itreminded me of Cape Tribulation in the cold… really enjoyable as when you're in Queensland half of you is thinking "GOD IM SO BLOODY HOT!"

Our next stop was the famous 12 Apostles…although our guide had great pleasure in telling us that there isn't 12 Apostles and there never has been. There were originally 10 but 2 have collapsed into the sea. The 12 Apostles are a group of rocks formed in the sea and they were breath taking. The views were amazing and the photo's I've taken were awesome as GET THIS EVERYONE…I decided to take a helicopter flight over the 12 Apostles… It was one of the best things I have done and it was my first time in a helicopter. Before getting on the Helichopter as I was calling it you had to be weighed. Emma and I went on with the 2 Irish girls and we were hysterically laughing and made friends with the people at the helicopter centre. I was so scared before I got in the helicopter as I had never been in one but as soon as it took off (is that what you say??!) I wasn't scared any more, it was AWESOME. Our pilot looked about 12 years old which was funny too…maybe I'm just getting old eh?! All 4 of us were amazed by how gorgeous the 12 Apostles looked from the air and our 10 minute flight was soon over…I kept offering him an extra 20 bucks and a beer to stay up longer but it didn't work. Once we landed we were full of adrenalin…it was such an exciting thing to do. I took about a thousand ge-zillions photo's so if you get bored of them I am sorry but I was a bit over zealous but hey ho.. deal with it.

We stopped at loads of lovely look outs including a gorge and Bay of Martyrs. All I can say is that the pictures do not do it justice at all. It was stunning. On the way to the Grampians (the mountains) where we were staying that night we popped into safeway and got all our stuff for din dins…we decided to make Kangaroo and I was nominated to make the mash tattys cos apparently mine is nice (according to Emma anyway!) We also got a couple of bottles of Vino which we started drinking in the car on the way to the Grampians which was about 2 hours by car. The journey in the dark to the Grampians was interesting….kangaroo's hop everywhere…in front of the car etc and Kurt decided to turn the headlights off as we were going along to freak everyone out…and he succeeded! Ha ha I thought Emma was going to poop herself. Ah well the wine was kicking in and we were pretty chilled.

When we arrived at the hostel it was getting quite late 8:30pm ish. When I got out the car and looked up at the sky I saw a million stars…no word of a lie, it was amazing. I have never seen that many stars and so clearly. Anyways, we settled into our hostel and cooked dinner which was yummy, hadn't had kangaroo since Cairns and forgot how much I love it! We sat around chatting and drinking until it was about midnight, we were all shattered from the early morning and long day and we knew the next day was going to be tiring too. After a few interruptions from thee weird country bogen folk staying at our hostel…there was a fight but they were only about 16 and silly little boys! I hadn't stayed in a hostel for about 2 months as we have had an apartment for some time now so it was a bit odd, not only being in a bed by myself (I usually spoon ems ha ha!) but waking up and having 5 other people in your room!!! Mental. Coming travelling has made me realise how adaptable we can all be and how you just get on with it.

After breakfast we set off in the car/people carrier thingy up the windy roads and even from the car the views were lovely. We got out for our morning walk…the views were pretty spectacular and even made Deidre cry! Bless her…I gave her a big squidge and all was fixed. We went to various look outs and took piccies and just tried to take it all in. The next stop was McKenzie falls….we had to walk down a ge-zillion steps to get there but when we did it was well worth it. It was one of the most gorgeous waterfalls I have seen and we took some cool group photo's and even dipped our feet in the ice cold water! We chilled out there for a bit before having to climb back up the ge-zillion steps, which made us hot but glad its winter otherwise we have all passed out due to heat exhaustion! After the water fall is was lunch time and we went back to the place that we had stayed the night before (for the life of me I cannot remember the name of it) We had the most amazing Pizza and fudge (stable diet Mum honest) before setting off to the Winery for some Wine tasting….twice in 2 weeks…think I'm turning into an alcoholic…hiccup! The winery was pretty cool cos you could go in the cellar and have a look about unlike the one I went to the other day. The wines there were ok… no the best but we still had such a laugh. I felt like we were on a school trip because us girls were causing mischief as usual! Fiona had the giggles, we were all moaning cos they weren't filling up our glasses quick enough or with enough wine and Kurt our tour guide even ended up helping behind the bar! It was so odd but amusing.

After the winery it was a 2 and a half hour journey back to Melbourne. Most people fell asleep but I stayed awake and just randomly looked out the window… It was an aweseome weekend away and as it was Queens Birthday Long weekend it meant no work on Monday! Whoopeeee!