Victor Harbour & The Great Ocean Road 23rd February - 2rd March Stu decides to go for his 3rd haircut of the trip, it's great as he can actually communicate to the Italian emigrant (well sort of and short back and sides can't be that difficult to understand can it? At least I didn't have to resort to hand signals as per Laos and Vietnam). Then we are off on our great adventure towards and along the Great Ocean Road, picking up our Toyota Corolla (pretty naff car I'm afraid Geoff, gear change is slow and awkward and very cheap plastic inside) and driving towards our first destination, Victor Harbour (VH). The scenery once we got outside of Adelaide was simply stunning and reminded us a little of the rolling American plains that we have seen on TV. On the way we stopped in Hahndorf a kind of faux German town where we tucked into Bratwurst and chips for lunch. We arrived in VH and immediately set off on a walk around Granite Island, which was simply beautiful. We stayed there for sunset and were rewarded by seeing several dolphins and seals in the harbour, fantastic. The next day we decided to go back on ourselves and not miss the great photo opportunity that was 'Normanville'. Surely we should move out there right now? We drove for most of the rest of the day to Robe a quaint little town where we stayed in an old inn and splashed out on a fantastic meal, Amy having chilled Kangaroo and Stu having boar fish. Shock horror it's raining the next morning so we drive off to see an old Volcanic lake, (not bad but hardly the highlight of the trip) and have a bit of a walk round. We stop at a beach in Discovery bay which is beautiful and in the evening arrive in Portland which has to be said is a not a great town. Still we book ourselves into a motel and make the most of a night in with a pizza. The following day we drove to Cape Bridgewater which was a truly beautiful spot and have a great walk around the Cape. We even see wild Kangaroos boinging around (like the baggies) and Amy goes nuts through the excitement of it all. In the afternoon we drive to Port Fairy (loads of queer people live here, probably) which is a lovely town with big wide roads lined with massive conifers. Ta is fish and chips which is better than anything we've had at home. We finally join the great ocean road the next day and Stu goes for a great swim in a beautiful bay. The surf is huge (around 3m) and after getting bashed about for a bit and a spot of body surfing we have a picnic taking in the view. We were pretty much the only people there. We drive to Port Campbell and stay overnight in a private cabin and (believe it or not) actually cook for the night. The next day we take in more of the stunning scenery, limestone cliffs, blowholes and it's sunny again. Life is great. We then visited a wildlife park and saw koalas in the wild, once more Amy can hardly contain her excitement (ok Stu enjoyed it too). On the Tuesday (28th) we saw the famous 12 apostles (only about 7 are actually still standing) and once more blue skies reigned as we took numerous photos. In the Afternoon we set off on a tree top walk (yes we had learned to fly, didn't we tell you?) Again more stunning views from a different perspective although the walk was a bit pricey (all of 17 Aussie dorrar each). The next day we travelled to Queenstown stopping off at several more viewpoints on the way (it's pretty much impossible to take a bad photo round here but I'm sure we managed it). The weather's a bit cloudy but improving. We stop for Lunch at Aireys inlet overlooking another beautiful beach. Queenstown is a bit quiet but we had a fantastic meal there, Stu has steak and Amy Chicken Curry. We met a freak in the hostel (obvious trainspotter) who just could not help but tell us about all the great trains in the area before lamenting that kids just aren't taking up train watching (those damn Play stations again). It is fair to say that the Great Ocean Road has been one of the highlights of the trip so far, absolutely amazing scenery. Get there if you can! Lots of love Stu & Amy.