Right then we arrived in OZ after a very long day! A 3:30am start so we could catch our flight ended in us running for the flight and them calling our names out.... in fairness to us we got held up by everyone, customs, currency exchange and the lady serving breakfast.... good banter though eh! After running to our flight we then sat on the plane for an hour and a half waiting for it to take off.... so the delay to Brisbane meant another sprint through the airport, through customs (which most of you will guess is a long slow process) and through the massive departure gate to our connecting flight to Melbourne. Luckly due to the delay we got a free lunch and arrived in Melbourne on time and picked up our hire car. So finally on the road out of Melbourne and onto the Great Ocean Road, first stop Geelong for a rest for the night. After pitching our tent we quickly discovered the Aussies are as friendly as the kiwis as we met some more great locals. The next day we drove to Torquay and after a quick stop at the surf museum, which is packed full of surfboards from legends such as Tom Curren and "Duke" and a quick look round the massive surf shops keeping our money locked in the car, we headed into Torquay centre and found a campsite right next to the beach. Its a lovley little surftown, with golden sands and 12 foot waves, which are a little bit too big for us, it was great to watch all the locals surfing though!

The next day we decided to carry along the great ocean road, and what an amazing road it is. Golden beaches, long windey fun to drive on roads and 25 degree heat. We passes beach after beach some with flat sea and the beach round the corner would have a 5 foot wave, basically if you live in this region you can find surf every day (not like at home). First stop was Airs Inlet, the lighthouse where the classic TV series Going Round the Twist was filmed. We drove through Lourne, stopping to see a waterfall and an amazing veiw point overlooking the Great Ocean Road and ended up in Appollo?? Bay pitching our tent a few yards from the sea and going to sleep with the sound of the rolling waves after watching some AFL. The next day the surf had calmed in Appollo Bay so we decided to crack on and reach the 12 apposoles??. These are 12 (though only 9 can be seen) big rocks that stand away from the shore due to sea corrosion over time, its really pretty in the sun especially when there is a 9 foot wave rolling in behind it. We also managed to catch a surf tow in session, a 12 year old kid was being towd into 9- 10 waves, and doing a bloody good job of riding them. We got back in the car and drove onto Port Campbell for a lunch break, a nice little town with a great little port. We had now driven as far as we planned to so headed back to Appollo Bay, on the way we drove down a road and saw Koalas sleeping in the trees, is was great to see them in their natural environment.

After another great night listerning to the waves, we decided to head back to Tourquey to check out the surf, unfortunately it was messy so we went in for a swim and then a cider. The next day we were up at 5:30am (which was only half an hour earlier than normal in the tent), we figured we would get to Melbourne early to meet Chops mate Stingray. The funny thing was the clocks had gone back, without us knowing, so we were actually up at 4:30am.... BANTER! But we got on the road and headed to St Kilda to watch Stingray play Aussie Rules Footie. It was a great day, an excellent club atmosphere and a lot of fun to watch, afterwards we stayed for the jumper presentation- basically were everyone is christened to the club and given their shirt for the year, there is a lot of passion in AFL especially in the Melbourne region. Sting had to work the next day so we headed into Melbourne to check out the awesome MCG and Tennis centre and the lovely city centre, meeting Sting for a beer after she finished work overlooking the river.

The next day we picked up the new hire car with Stingray and her mate Jess and headed back to Tourquey for a 3 day camping trip to watch the ASP- World Surf competition at Bells beach. We got to Tourquey and there was a nice little wave so we opted to jump in for the evening and had a blast, followed by a BBQ comprising of Kangaroo burgers. The next day we got to the comp early and had an awesome day, a bonus was that we got to see the womens heats after the mens, something we missed out on when we watched the comp in France. It such a great atmosphere and the pro all hang out with the fans after, which makes them so different than other sportsmen and women. This was followed by another BBQ (kangaroo burgers and sauages- Kanga Bangas)
The next day we headed to the beach to chill as we had to drive back to Melbourne to drop the car off. The following day Tim and Chops headed into Melbourne to have another look around and decided the Aquarium looked good, and what a treat, penguins, sharks and some beautiful fish- making us both excited about the barrier reef. It was then back to Stings and time to pack before an early night and a 4am trip to the airport.

We landed in Brisbane and as we had spent a lot of money and it was easter weekend so everything was shut we decided to rest up and spend time at Brisbane Lagoon- an artifical beach and book a car for our next camping trip- 28 days to travel as far south as Byron Bay and then north to Cairns.

Speak soon Chops and Tim xx