Roadtrip to Melbourne

The kids have 4 school breaks a year. Two weeks ago was their two week Spring Break. We have been realizing lately that if our tour ends up being 3 years we are almost half way done! We haven't seen nearly enough of Australia! With an adoption going on we decided it would be a great trip to drive to Melbourne (12 hours) , The Great Ocean Road and work our way back to Sydney - We needed to do all this in 8 days :) Since Matt had some meetings he had to get back to, Isabella is in the midst of her competitive gymnastics season and Jonah's baseball season has also started. We packed a load of adventure in just 8 short days (well the driving days were a little long . . . ) We had an incredibly great time! What a beautiful country this is. Here are some highlights of our trip.



October 1 - Leave Sydney at 6:35 am. Arrive Tourne on the south coast @ 7 pm. Yummy Asian noodles for dinner. We were pretty ready to get out of the car, a 12.5 hour drive can get pretty long for a certain little 4 year old!

October 2 - Check out of the hotel and head to The Great Ocean Road. We stopped at a few beautiful beaches and had a great time playing and walking. We watched surfers at a very famous surf beach. It was pretty cool. We arrived at our hotel called The Sandpiper Hotel in Apollo Bay in the early afternoon.

October 3 - We spent the day in Apollo Bay. As soon as the kids were up Matt walked with them the quarter mile down to the beach where they had a great time making sandcastles and playing in the sand. Later in the day we decided to take a drive to the National Park but we were stopped by a tree that had fallen into the road. We had a great time heading down a road and discovering a nice bush walk and ended up at a pretty isolated and beautiful bit of rocky shoreline and beach called Sandy Beach. We got a few good photos here and headed back up just in time to get in the car before it started pouring rain!

October 4- We check out of Sandpiper, It rains all day! We drove to the National Park and this time the tree was cleared out. You would not believe all the Koalas we saw in the trees on the way in. Amazing! We go over to the Waterfall and drive to Marriott in Melbourne, Dinner in China Town. Swim at the Marriott

October 5 - Sightsee in Melbourne

October 6 - We head to Philip Island. This little island is only about an hour south of Melbourne and can be accessed via a bridge. We stayed in the "Hollywood Hotel" that claims a movie star or two. We had a lot of fun going to the Penguin March - you sit on the beach and watch little fairy penguins come ashore. Unfortunately we didn't realize that unless you were in the first few rows you wouldn't see much. It was fun though as some had to waddle past us.

October 7 - Head to the Entrance - 90 mile beach. This was a beautiful beach . . . . miles and miles (about 90 -heehee) of beautiful beach with almost no people. The kids had a blast playing hide and go seek in the sand dunes and making sandcastles. We knew the kids loved it when Jonah said someday he wants to take his kids there, and Isabella agreed : )

October 8 - Head out, stop in Eden, Go to Narooma. WOW! We watched whales in the harbor from our balcony for several hours! They were flipping and blowing water. The big kids totally appreciated it and we were giggling and jumping up and down with excitement every time we got another glimpse. One time we watched a whale give the tail flip 15 times in a row! SPECTACULAR! This was the highlight of our entire trip!

October 9 - Head back to Sydney, stopping in Jervis Bay. Arrive home at 8 pm.