Well, my first Christmas away from home and family was more than dull. Let's be frank. It was terrible. Sydney was rainy, gloomy, and gray. I would much rather have been at home in Michigan in the cold and snow, driving 10 miles under the speed limit because of icy roads, shoveling the driveway, and spending an extra five minutes just putting boots and winter gear on every time I left the house. Oh, I wouldn't have minded the extra ten minutes it takes to get the car running, brush off the snow, and scrape off the ice from the windshield. Had I had a nice sunny day down at the beach in 30-40°C (90-110°F) weather, maybe my tone would be different, but nah.
Christmas Eve wasn't bad, though. A friend of mine had some friends over at his apartment for a nice cookout on his new grill (or in Aussie terms, to have a barbecue on his new barbecue), which was fun, but I left around 10:30 because I wanted to maintain some semblance of Christmas tradition so I headed down to really the only church I know of, St. Mary's Cathedral, for part of their Christmas Eve services. Really, I just wanted to hear and sing some traditional Christmas Carols like our church back at home does for the midnight service, but I arrived at the Cathedral an hour late for that. It was packed, though, and every single seat in the nave was full with spare pews lining the outer aisles, but few spare seats; people were standing and sitting wherever there was an open spot on the floor. I did, however, find a seat next to a very nice Asian woman who reminded me a lot of my grandmothers. She was there for the services, too, unlike many of the tourists poking their heads in, but between songs and scripture, she was all ears and wanted to know what an American like me was doing in Sydney, why I wasn't at home with family, and why I would come to St. Mary's if I was not Catholic. I smile thinking about her because even though I'd never met her before and never will see her again, I sensed that she wasn't spending her holiday with many family members either, and so in some way we were supposed to sit next to each other and be a surrogate family for the next two hours.
The service was very nice and included your traditional scripture readings (albeit all sung on the same note like in all Catholic churches which I do not understand - kind of like the sing-speaking in "Les Misérables"), the classic carols (which when over 500 people join in with the organ in a massive Cathedral is amazing!), and all of those little other Catholic rites or call-and-response songs that seemingly everyone knows but follows no real melody and for an outsider like me is just complete confusion! But I did my best and I wasn't there to nit-pick the service. It was very well done and quite inspiring to share that experience with so many people! It's a good feeling to know that churches still do fill up these days, even if it is just for Christmas.
Midnight passed and the service finally came around to partaking in communion, which I know that since I'm not Catholic, I do not take at a Catholic church. I also know, from my Aunt's church back at home, that serving communion to a few hundred people can take over an hour, so with a Cathedral full of people, I figured it would take until next Christmas! I said, "Merry Christmas," to my surrogate-grandmother and ducked out of the Cathedral. Sydney was empty, and since I wasn't tired yet, I walked down to Martin Place (the Wall Street of Sydney) to see the Christmas Tree they had set up, and then walked up George Street to the Town Hall station where I caught the last train home.
Martin Place Christmas Tree, Christmas Day 2012
Since I've already mentioned how not-great Christmas was, I'll move on to Boxing Day! Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated in most other current or former British Empire countries and commonwealths. It is the day that workers would receive gifts from their employers upon returning to work after Christmas. Nowadays, most everyone has Boxing Day off and there are lots of festivities around the city, the most exciting of which is the Sydney to Hobart (capital of Tasmania) Yacht Race which begins at the Harbour Bridge. All of the boats, ships, and yachts then race out to the Harbour Heads, out into the Pacific Ocean and then follow the coast all the way down to Tasmania. It is a massive event and I was told to make sure to get a good view somewhere near the Harbour Heads, which I was going to do but not after treating myself to a breakfast fit for a king: scrambled eggs, french toast, real bacon, and pineapple - delicious! The time it took me to make and eat breakfast set me back, though, so I caught a bus out to Watsons Bay, the suburb right on the South Head, distraught that I was sure I'd miss the good spots because the traffic was heavy and people were everywhere! But as it turns out, I found a great little spot on the edge of the cliffs at the Gap Park where my view was looking directly north to the North Head, perfect for watching the Yachts come through the Harbour Mouth and turn to head south.
For a while there was no excitement other than watching the 14 helicopters flying around overhead like a swarm of flies. But then a series of motor boats rounded the South Head and soon enough Wild Oats XI came streaming through the mouth of the Harbour, sails full, and you quickly realise just how big some of this boats are! I was a good distance away and above the yacht, but comparing the size of the yacht to the size of the cliffs behind her at North Head, you came to the conclusion that there wasn't much difference! (Wild Oats XI, by the way, eventually won the race.) Soon to follow were a few more large yachts and a dozens more smaller yachts, each being accompanied by a speedboat and being followed by locals in their own speedboats, tourists on the Manly Ferry, and patrons out on the tall-ship, the James Craig. Once the yachts made their way past North and South Heads, they were in the open ocean, turned south, and started following the coast toward Hobart, their final destination, almost 1,200 kilometres away!
It was fantastic to watch and be part of such a large crowd, but soon the crowd thinned and I headed over to the Laings Point Reserve, spread out my blanet, took out a few papers and a beer and read in the shade of a tree, with beautiful views of the city all around! Overall, not an entirely bad Boxing Day...though I forget what I did with the rest of the day...
The Great Ocean Road starts in Torquay, about an hour and a half south from Melbourne. Knowing that from this point on, there would be only a few towns with grocery stores, Caitlyn and I stocked up on food for the road. I'd driven to Torquay but Caitlyn hadn't driven in the two years she'd been in Australia, so I let her take the wheel from here on out, which was fine, because being a geologist I like to look at the rocks and coastlines and landscapes which is kind of a hazard while behind the wheel!
It didn't take long for us to get out of Torquay and through the small coastal town of Anglesea before we got a taste of what the next 200 kilometres would be like as the road stretched right along the tops of staggering cliffs, windswept beaches, and some of the most colourful water I've ever seen. Not only was it bluer than blue, but parts were emerald, turquoise, green, and gray and since the coast borders the Southern Ocean, where some of the world's largest waves are created, portions of the coastline were bleached white with seafoam and breaking waves.
Down the road from Anglesea is the town of Airey's Inlet with a magnificently white and red lighthouse you could see from a good distance away. It was late morning and we decided it would be a good place to stop for lunch. This part of the coast was inundated with lava and ash 29 million years ago from a volcano whose caldera was right at this point. Global sea-level rose around 24 million years ago and the basaltic rocks got covered with thick layers of sandy limestones. Now, at the base of the cliffs here the basalt rocks are more eroded from wave action than the limestone above it which forms the rocky cliffs and headlands along the Great Ocean Road.
We spent the next hour driving along these cliffs and beaches, but also into the backs of coves where small rivers flowed into the ocean and up the hills skirting the dense coastal forests. In the little town of Lorne - which seemed to be a sort of more posh holiday town - we turned inland up Erskine Falls Road, not necessarily to see the falls, but because of the wildlife. See, I did a little bit of research before hitting the road because one of the things I wanted to check of my list was seeing koalas out in the wild, and lucky for us, some of the best koala-spotting territory is in the coastal forests of the Great Ocean Road. One of the tips was to drive up Erskine Falls Road and we were sure to see the little furry critters in the trees. Well, we didn't see any koalas, nor did we really get a good feel for Erskine Falls because the path down to the falls was under construction... At least it was a pretty little detour.
Back on the road, we passed through the town of Wye River (another spot the guidebooks said we'd be sure to see koalas) and shortly thereafter, we did stop in Kennett River to find some toilets, which were in an RV/camping holiday park across the road from the ocean. I stopped in to the park's office to see if they could give us some tips on where and how to spot wild koalas. We were in luck! Just that morning the office clerk had seen a few in a tree in one of their camping lots and we were free to have a look around. So after emptying our bladders, we strolled through the caravan park with cameras in hand. We knew what koalas looked like from photos, but had no real idea what to be looking for or in what type of eucalyptus tree they'd be in. But then, just as plain as day, we looked up into a tree and saw three or four koalas lounging around in the higher branches of the tree!
Koala snoozing in Kennett River
It was awesome! These little gray puffs of fur just lazily walk from one branch to the other, stretching their arms out to reach for a clump of leaves and then pull it toward them with surprising dexterity! And then they eat or sleep, or both at the same time it seemed! Koalas are pretty simple animals, but they were fascinating to watch and with our cameras, we circled the tree looking for the best angle to take a photo. It was odd because we'd been looking for these guys for a while not knowing what to look for, but once we found them it was if we couldn't stop finding them! On our way back to the car we saw some other road-trippers by a tree where another koala was perched right in the crook of some branches just out of arm's reach and this time there were no twigs blocking it from view and he just sat there looking from side to side, just begging to have his photo taken! I've never really had such an incredible wildlife experience before with such a rare animal that even many Australians have not seen in the wild. But it would only get better from here.
Back in the car, we drove a little ways up the Grey River Road right from Kennett River and stopped just a few hundred metres up the road because again there was a koala just chilling out on a eucalyptus branch right at eye-height, and this guy was hungry! Without really paying much attention to us, he kept eating and eating in perfect photographic poise! Caitlyn and I had him to ourselves for a good few minutes before a crowd of people walked up from down the road. Satisfied with our amazing encounter, we hopped back in the car and drove on.
The afternoon was drawing on and shortly we arrived in the small town of Apollo Bay where we stayed at the spacious, clean, and quiet Apollo Bay Eco YHA. YHAs are oftentimes notorious for having run-down accommodation for cheap (I'm looking at you YHA Auckland City Road...), but this was completely different. Everything about it was designed to be sustainable - from the no flush toilets (they flush if you really need them to), to big plate-glass windows that let in heaps of natural light, to the herb garden. And for $50/night for a room with two beds, it was perfect! We checked in but then got back in the car because we wanted to go check out the Cape Otway Light Station at the Australian mainland's second southern-most point.
The road to the lighthouse is a 20 minute turnoff from the Great Ocean Road and winds through Great Otway National Park without any other cars on the road. It was along this road that we came upon not just one or three koalas in a little tree, but an entire colony of koalas. It would be impossible to miss seeing them as there were dozens of them hanging out in a handful of trees with wide branches stretching across the road and back into the forests behind them. We stopped the car and stepped out taking quality photo after quality photo. And these ones weren't just eating (some were) but others were actively calling to each other in these terrible-sounding grunts, groans, and screams. It was soo bizarre! I tried catching some of it on film, but it didn't turn out great. Caitlyn and I sat there looking into the trees, bewildered, and amazed at what we were seeing! You couldn't ever see anything like this in a zoo, and the best part was it was totally free and we had these dozens of koalas totally to ourselves!
If it weren't for seeing these koalas here, our little afternoon detour would have been a bust because the lighthouse was closed for the day, anyway, so back to Apollo Bay it was. Caitlyn took a quick shower and I walked down to the harbour to take some photos at sunset and we met at a little Chinese restaurant where I was introduced to handcrafted beers from the local Prickly Moses microbrewery. The beer was delicious (I had the Summer Ale, Otway Ale, Red Ale, and Otway Stout throughout the course of the night) and I particularly liked, Moses, the echidna on the logo.
The next day was a big day. We had some impressive sights to see and yet we had to be back at the Melbourne Airport by 7pm to catch our flight home. That morning, we couldn't resist trying to blueberry pancakes at the Bay Leaf Cafe right on the main road in Apollo Bay, and we were not disappointed with the homemade stack of pancakes, bacon, and maple syrup. It was a brekkie to die for and I think I can say it was my only culinary winning-pick of our trip since Caitlyn was the one who found all of our delicious meals in Melbourne!
We got back on the road, stopping only a few times to check out a lookout over secluded beaches, but we had a new destination in mind that we wanted to be sure to save enough time for: The Twelve Apostles!
Possibly the crowning glory of the Great Ocean Road, The Twelve Apostles are a series of seastacks, or pillars of rock separated by the rest of the rocky coastline by erosion and wave action eating away at their bases. And the stretch of coast between Princetown and Port Campbell, is home to Port Campbell National Park and one of the most recognizable natural features of Australia. We parked the car at the Gippsland Steps and followed the path down to the beach where, save for a handful of other tourists taking photos, was relatively empty. Empty and beautiful! It was a sunny day with a bright blue sky and we meandered down the shoreline gawking up at the massive seastack in front of us! And surprise! It wasn't until we actually got closer to the seastack that we realised it was blocking another enormous pillar of rock behind it! As beautiful as this site was, we were in luck because these weren't even part of The Twelve Apostles!
Just down the road from the Gippsland Steps is the Twelve Apostles Visitor Center (which is nothing more than toilets and a cafe) but we walked along the path, under the road, out to lookout points right at the edge of the tops of the cliffs. It was from this point, looking north up the coast, that the classic photographs of the mammoth blocks of stone are taken. Originally, the area was known as the sow and piglets, but it was soon renamed The Twelve Apostles because locals figured that would entice more tourists - and they were right. But don't be fooled by the name: there are more (or less) than 12 seastacks depending on who you talk to or what you consider to be the difference between a seastack and an eroded pile of rock. Nevertheless, this is an awe-inspiring vista that is worth spending some time at! I was hoping we could find a way down to the beach, but there did not appear to be any paths or trails, so after an hour or so, we hopped in the car and continued on to Loch Ard Gorge.
The Loch Ard Gorge gets its name from one of the most storied shipwrecks along this reach of the coast - arguably one of the most dangerous waterways in the world. The Loch Ard was carrying 54 people on board at the end of a three-month voyage to Melbourne from England. On 31 May 1878 mists shrouded the coastline here and once they lifted the Loch Ard found itself in a precarious situation right next to the massive cliffs and while Captain Gibb tried steering the ship away from the cliffs, strong winds and currents carried the ship into a reef and oncoming waves slammed up against the sides of the ship and swells eventually caused the ship to sink. Only two of the 54 people on board survived, an Irish immigrant and the ship's apprentice, both of whom were carried into Loch Ard Gorge (a protected inlet from the treacherous coast). It was hard to imagine such trauma happening in such a beautiful place, but easy to see how an unforgiving ocean, strong winds, and rocky coastline create the perfect recipe for disaster! Caitlyn and I walked along the cliff tops and down into Loch Ard Gorge for a quick gander at the beach but were soon on our way.
The rest of the day involved driving the short distance to Port Campbell where we had a very average fish 'n' chips lunch and beer before heading inland toward Melbourne Airport to catch our flight back to Sydney that evening.
I am always amazed at how much you can pack into such a short vacation if you're willing to put the energy into doing it! I mean, over the course of four days we saw a historic jail, ate at tons of amazing restaurants, visited museums, drove 200 kilometres over some of the most rugged and beautiful coastal scenery in Australia, and saw wild koalas up-close. Four days! It's why I love traveling. There is so much to see in the world with so little time to see it all, but you sure can come close!
After spending a week at a geomorphology conference (and the months before it preparing), my friend, Caitlyn and I decided it was time for a bit of sightseeing. She's been in Australia for a while and hadn't yet been down to Melbourne and since I also had not yet been down there, we found a cheap deal on tickets with EasyJet and the day after my conference ended, were on our way to Victoria where we would spend two days in Melbourne and two days driving the famous Great Ocean Road!
Melbourne (pronounced "MEL-bin" and not "mel-BORNE" as my dad likes to say) was awesome! It's the second largest city in Australia, only a half-million behind Sydney, but has been able to retain a larger amount of it's Victorian charm. A lot of people say that Sydney is the cosmopolitan international city in Australia whereas Melbourne is the cosmopolitan Australian city in Australia, and I was able to see that. The city, while big and having everything a big city must, was so much quieter than Sydney and it just felt more relaxed and easy-going. In fact, it took us a while to figure out why the city was so quiet, and we realised it is because there are no buses in the whole of the Downtown area! It's true! Melbourne has maintained its tram network, the world's largest, which dates back to 1885! And while the trams are noisy when they rumble on by, once they are gone, you don't hear anything but cars going by, which is so much quieter than buses constantly starting and stopping.
Melbourne tram in front of Flinders Street Station
We flew into Tullamarine Airport (Melbourne International) and were able to hop a bus to the city for relatively cheap, and then the bus company, after dropping us off at the Southern Cross Train Station, had other mini buses that drove us right to our hostel, free of charge! Caitlyn booked us a room in a clean hostel, right down near Federation Square, arguably the main central meeting place in the city. The hostel, the Greenhouse Backpackers, was located just around the corner from Federation Square on Flinders Lane, right in the middle of all sorts of alleyways lined with tiny cafés and coffee shops and stores of all kinds. We were super-hungry and Caitlyn, who had planned most of the goings-on of the Melbourne part of our trip, led the way east to a Chinese restaurant, Chin Chin, she heard about and we gorged ourselves on a delicious smattering of menu items. Caitlyn was always on the lookout for restaurants that didn't just offer your everyday generic menu items but something more and unique that you couldn't just get anywhere else. I was glad she'd done her research because we dined like royalty in Melbourne!
After lunch, as full as we were, we walked back toward the hostel and wandered around the lanes and alleys for a little bit, taking in some of the nearby sights including the magnificent Flinders Street Station and St. Paul's Cathedral. It felt a bit odd walking around because it was early December and everything was decked out in Christmas decorations all over the city, but it was HOT! It was such a weird feeling seeing and hearing all the Christmas cheer without the cold and the snow that we are used to back home in Michigan! But our destination was another place Caitlyn had heard about called, Little Cupcakes. After walking past it two or three times, we finally found it and stepped in for a wee coffee and some of the dare I say cutest cupcakes I'd ever seen!
It was still early in the afternoon and we decided we'd walk off our lunch on the way to the Old Melbourne Gaol (jail), an historic building in both the city's and Australia's past. We got there right before the last tour started, and while it was a bit more expensive than the general ticket to get in, it was SO worth it! You get put in a group that is led into the Gaol as if you had been arrested. The men are lined up across from the women and everyone is given an inmate card with the background of a convict and then your guide, the Warden, makes it very clear that you are to follow all rules of the Gaol and address him or her as Sir or Ma'am throughout the tour. It's kind of funny at times, but if you have a good guide, like we did, you quickly become afraid of stepping out of line (though humourous comments were appreciated). The warden checks you for any contraband and then leads you into the holding cells for the inmates, one of which is a giant padded room, and you learn how certain inmates, like the pedophiles, get a separate outdoor space in the yard during physical activity time because otherwise they'd surely be beaten to a pulp by the other inmates. It seems short, but the tour took about half an hour and culminated in a photo op where you get to hold up the inmate clapboard and have your mugshot taken! The tour only takes you through the holding cells, but the other half of the Gaol is in the main Men's hall - three stories of cells just like in the movies, lining a central corridor with walkways around the perimeter and stairways at the ends. In each cell you learn about specific convicts, or about jailed women, or immigrants, or whatever the case may be, but the Gaol is almost most famous for being where Ned Kelly, the famous Australian outlaw, had his last meal before being hanged.
Thoroughly worn out by history, Caitlyn and I headed back toward the hostel, but not without stopping at the James Squire brewhouse (which I thought was just a Melbourne thing, but apparently the first James Squire brewery is along the Parramatta River near Sydney). The beer was good anyway and we were back to the hostel soon enough for a wee nap before once again heading out for more alcohol and food! We got dressed up a bit and Caitlyn lead the way to Mamasita for some delicious late-night Mexican food and drinks in this upstairs restaurant that was well-worth the 20-minute wait for a table! Good food, delicious drinks, and great music put us right in the mood to find a place to go out for the evening. And while we asked around for a good place to find free live music, no one could tell us of anything nearby aside from places with $20 covers, so we went off to find our own adventure.
And find it we did in the form of Cherry Bar on AC/DC Lane where there was a live band covering The Doors in celebration of Jim Morrison's birthday. It wasn't really a dive-bar per se in that it was crowded, loud, and everyone was having a great time! The band played for another hour or so before calling it quits, and we followed suit, headed back to the hostel and crashed pretty quickly into bed.
We woke up early the next morning and headed off to one of the nearby cafés in the alley-ways for a good breakfast place. We found a place, and it was good, but the food was pretty generic, and not much to remember. Caitlyn wanted to do a bit of shopping so we stopped in a few stores and then headed out to the Queen Victoria Markets which are the largest open-air markets in the Southern Hemisphere. Frankly, I was pretty unimpressed; the market stalls were filled with the usual knick-knacks, Aussie t-shirts, and iPhone covers that you can find in Sydney's Paddy's Markets. Maybe the produce was good, but we weren't planning on cooking, and there was only one aisle, off to the side, where local Melbournian vendors were selling their art. Needless to say, we didn't stay long but made our way over to La Trobe street and hopped on one of the free trams that loops the Downtown area.
Back at Federation Square, Caitlyn and I decided to split up for a few hours. She stayed in the Square and stopped into the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and National Gallery of Victoria and I took my camera and headed off to the massive Botanical Gardens. While much of Melbourne is relatively flat, the Botanical Gardens are anything but! Paths wander in and out of groves and parks and plazas and statues of royalty, but I eventually found myself looking up at the the Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne's ANZAC (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) Memorial. Sydney's is nice, but Melbourne's is Grand! I hadn't planned on spending as much time as I did there, but the memorial is so full of symbolism in the carved reliefs high up in the central sanctuary and an outer hall with the flags of each of the main branches of the armed services. You find marvelous views of Melbourne's skyline from the rooftop terrace of the Memorial and down in the crypts are more rooms honoring fallen soldiers and special moments in military history.
Looking at my watch, I needed to get a move on to meet Caitlyn back at the hostel but I still had a bit more of the Botanical Gardens to walk through, and I was going to go a little out of my way to see the Melbourne Olympic Stadium (which I found out is actually the Cricket Grounds and farther than I was willing to walk!). But I did walk along Batman Avenue and I passed the Rod Laver Arena where the Australian Open is held.
The afternoon was drawing on and after rendezvousing, we headed out to the suburb of Fitzroy to have dinner and beers at the Little Creatures Dining Hall where we had delicious pizza and amazing doughnuts!! Fitzroy reminded me a lot of Burlington, Vermont, with its anything-goes attitude, hole-in-the-wall boutiques and cafes, and somewhat bohemian vibe. I think it was in Fitzroy that we decided what we'd do with the rest of our evening and concluded that the best option would be to go to an open-air cinema in St. Kilda, hosted by Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream to see a showing of the sing-a-long version of Grease! Haha.
The trams took us from Fitzroy down to St. Kilda and there was plenty of time before the movie started for us to walk out to the end of the St. Kilda Pier Breakwater where the Lonely Planet Guidebook mentioned we could see tiny fairy penguins swim ashore to their nests in the rocks of the breakwater at sundown. Not too many people were out on the breakwater when we got there which allowed us to enjoy a little bit of fresh air out and watch kite surfers on Port Phillip Bay in front of the Melbourne skyline. We didn't see any penguins swimming ashore, but more people were coming out to the breakwater and soon we noticed tourists pointing between the rocks and shoving their cameras into the holes. Clearly, there were nesting penguins already ashore and we walked right past them! I kind of felt bad for the little penguins, having all those cameras and flashes being shoved in their faces, but they took it like champs and either didn't notice or pretended not to, anyway. I was conflicted because I didn't want to be part of the mob, but these were the first penguins I'd seen in the wild and had to have my own proof, so I briefly joined the mob of tourists, took my photo and left. The sun was actually setting now, so we headed over to the open-air cinema, got our free samples of B&J ice cream, rented some seats (and blankets because it was windy and freezing!), and kicked back to enjoy singing along to Danny and Sandy, Frenchie, Rizzo, Jan, Kenicke, Doodie, and the other guy. I should have known, or realised before, but it only dawned on me that Sandy was a new student from Australia, played by then-breakout-star Olivia Newton-John. Who knew? Apparently everyone else.
Once the movie was over, Caitlyn and I headed back into town to get some sleep before our road-trip started the next morning. But before any good road-trip can start, one must have a good, filling breakfast, and Caitlyn was back on top of things and we found ourselves the next morning having an amazing breakfast at The Hardware Sociéte where I wish I could remember what I had for brekkie because it was to die for! And Caitlyn was in Heaven, too, snapping photos of the light and cheerful café before heading back to the hostel one last time to pick up our bags and then it was off to pick up the rental car for our journey along the Great Ocean Road!
