Thrills on the Great Ocean Road Part II

After our first day on the Great Ocean Road, we had traveled from Melbourne down to Torquay and along the coast all the way to Lavers Hill. So after our night at Fauna Australia Wildlife Retreat, we only had a short distance to go to visit the famous Twelve Apostles.

These rock stacks are definitely one of the most photographed things in all of Australia. They are prettier at sunrise or sunset, but that didn't work out with our drive, so these pictures will have to do! There used to be twelve of these (hence the name), but some have since collapsed into the ocean. Here are my mom and dad in front of the Twelve Apostles.

We drove a bit more and stopped at Loch Ard Gorge to enjoy more scenic views and some playtime on the beach.

We took several versions of the picture below. While Cindy was taking one of us (not this version), a wave came up behind us and got us pretty wet!

After lunch in Port Campbell, we drove back to Melbourne the faster way (not along the coast) and did some souvenir shopping in the Federation Square area of the CBD. Cindy and Justin were able to get lots of Christmas shopping done for Cindy's family. We had dinner at Camy's, which is down a little hidden alley near Chinatown and serves up all sorts of dumplings for a very affordable price. We ordered about a hundred dumplings filled with various things and stuffed ourselves silly.


We got back to St Kilda just in time to see the sunset. We walked along the pier and saw a few fairy penguins come in for the night. It was kind of a chilly evening, so we didn't stay too long before meeting up with Zack (he got back from the US that morning) for some dessert on Acland Street. My family's trip to Australia was winding down!

A Night with Australian Animals

Yes, that is a wallaby hopping past our patio door!

After our first day on the Great Ocean Road, my family and I stayed at Fauna Australia Wildlife Retreat for the night. We were in the Kangaroo Family Unit, which wasn't extremely luxurious, but we were there for the wildlife experience. And we got it! This place has Australian animals all over its grounds, and the owners even leave you a bag of carrots, encouraging you to feed them and get up close and personal with them. So we did!

Wombats look like a mix between pigs and koalas!

Wallaby and baby

There were wombats, emus, wallabies, various birds, potoroos, etc. Most of the animals were in enclosures, but several wallabies roamed free and hopped all over the place! By the way, a wallaby is basically a smaller version of a kangaroo. There are other differences, but you can Google it if you care.

Morgan's a little scared of the hungry emus!

After dark, we went outside again and saw all of the nocturnal animals come to life. Sugar gliders were jumping, koalas were climbing up and down trees, bandicoots were running around, etc. We left a carrot on our porch, and it was gone in the early morning. The wallabies chased each other in loops that passed by our patio door while we ate breakfast.

Picture perfect koala!

And a little more wildlife commentary from Morgan…Later in the morning we got a chance to have some time with the koalas, which were extraordinarily tame, and anticipated the food of their caretaker by coming to the gate like little dogs.  They were all around us, not afraid to come right up and grab the eucalyptus from our hands.  One even bit me!  These koalas were brought from Kangaroo Island, where there is an overpopulation problem, and have been raised and bred in captivity so they can be used for educational purposes at schools, programs, etc.  It was fun to have everyone surrounded by friendly koalas!

Aubree here again...Morgan had been having all the fun holding and petting koalas up until this point in the trip, so it was fun for the rest of us to get the chance to pet the furry friends. They were so funny, climbing up the trees, running around on the ground, and eating the leaves we gave them. The picture below cracks me up; my mom was a little freaked out when Banjo the koala made a sudden move for her branch!

It's just a koala, Mom!

A cute one of Morgan and a koala.

If you're looking for somewhere to stay along the Great Ocean Road, Fauna Australia Wildlife Retreat is good fun. Don't expect anything fancy, but do expect to see lots of awesome Australian animals!

My new Facebook profile picture!

Thrills on the Great Ocean Road Part I

More from my family about their visit last month...It is I, Justin.  I can now add something to my bucket list and cross it off right away.  I have surfed in Australia.   We hauled Aubree and Zack’s surfboards with us on our car trip down the Great Ocean Road on Tuesday, November 15.  We stopped at the first good spot to surf (Torquay), and I promptly volunteered to try it out.  It took some effort to fit into Zack’s wetsuit, but eventually it was on, and I was looking official.  Surfing is not that easy because there are too many variables that keep changing, so it is hard to learn from one’s mistakes and improve for next time.  There is the left to right balance, the front to back balance, the paddling as the wave approaches, and the getting up on the board.  When it all comes together perfectly, it is a lot of fun.  The waves don’t always cooperate, but I did well considering.  I did wipe out quite a few times and swallowed tons of salt water, but I finally got up and rode a wave for a little bit.  I would do it again as falling down is less painful than the time Aubree taught me how to snowboard in Colorado.  Yay for Australia and surfing.

Do I look like a good teacher?

He got up! Time for some fish and chips for lunch!

Morgan on the wildlife report…On our way down the Great Ocean Road, we made several attempts to see wildlife.  Some were more successful than others.  Golf course in Anglesea with supposed kangaroos…not so much.  We made a stop at Kennett River, which had “guaranteed” koala sightings, and Aubree spotted the first one high up in the eucalyptus trees.  We were pretty excited, and then some tourists on the same trek tipped us off to one closer to the ground.  We inadvertently discovered that the sound of peeling out on the gravel road in our van made the koalas bellow and grunt, which was a little unnerving, but helped us find a few more.  We were still reveling in wild koala glory when BAM, there was one just sitting on a post on the side of the Great Ocean Road.  We pulled over, and got up close and personal (as close as we thought was okay with one in the wild), and watched another tourist try to get close enough to get his face ripped off by the koala’s claws.  As far as we know, he escaped being maimed by a wild koala.

Yes, this is a real koala sitting on the side of the Great Ocean Road!

So amazing to see them in the wild!

We decided to make a detour to see the Cape Otway Lighthouse, and found ourselves distracted by koalas in the eucalyptus trees.  At first we were excited to see one, and then they were everywhere.  It only took a little looking to see them in the trees.  It seemed to be the waking hour, with koalas walking on the road, climbing trees, reaching out for food, hanging out with their babies (Cindy saw the first little one!), and every cute thing a koala could possibly do.  We spotted at least three dozen koalas, with little effort!  We later learned that this population of koalas is significantly higher than is sustainable for the area, and they were introduced approximately thirty years ago.  Magnificent sights for us, but many of the eucalyptus trees in the area were stripped of their leaves, and the future of this koala population is not too bright.

This guy was just walking along the road!

How many koalas can you spot in this tree?

Just some of many koalas we saw.

This guy was huge!

We didn’t get to see the lighthouse up close (it was already closed for the day), but that mattered little, because on our way back from our detour we saw somewhere near 100 kangaroos in a field.  And not little kangaroos, but big ones!  There were so many, and it was like a herd of deer, or as Justin put it “deer that could box.”  The largest of the bunch were a little intimidating.  Cape Otway ended up being quite the wildlife detour!

Aubree here now: It was awesome to finally see kangaroos and koalas in the wild in Australia! On top of that, the scenery of the Great Ocean Road is incredible. I didn't get to fully appreciate it, because I was driving, but the water is SO blue, and there are so many gorgeous beaches. If you come to Australia (or already live here), I think the Great Ocean Road (with the Cape Otway detour) is a must do. Scroll down past the scenery pictures to check out a rather entertaining video of my brother and dad hanging out with those kangaroos Morgan mentioned! We didn't make it all the way down the GOR on our first day, so the next few posts will be about the cool place we stayed overnight and then the Twelve Apostles and other neat things we saw. Thanks for reading!

Mom enjoying the sunshine and scenery.

Bee-you-ti-full...and only a couple of hours from Melbourne!

Day of Transition

On Monday, November 14, my family spent their final morning in Sydney doing whatever they wanted. Morgan and I slept, my mom and dad packed and rested, and Justin and Cindy explored the New South Wales Art Gallery. Then we headed to the airport for that famed Tiger Airways flight mentioned in yesterday's post. After getting to Melbourne two hours later than planned, we changed our itinerary a bit and headed to Lygon Street for dinner. It's kind of like the "Little Italy" of Melbourne with several Italian restaurants in a row. As you walk by them, people out front offer you free things to lure you in to their place. We chose one that gave us free drinks, garlic bread, and bruschetta. The pasta was tasty, and we followed it up with desserts at Koko Black. I've always heard that the hot chocolate there was delicious, and it definitely lived up to the hype. Yum! Tomorrow I start posting about our trip down the Great Ocean Road. Until then...

Why I Hate Tiger Airways

Here are the reasons why I hate Tiger Airways and tell people to NEVER fly with them:

1. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority suspended Tiger Airways flights for over a month starting at the beginning of July. This meant that Zack and I didn't get to spend our third anniversary together, because he was working in Sydney, and I was booked on a Tiger flight to meet him there. I should have taken the hint and learned my lesson then and there to not fly with them.

2. After the suspension was lifted, Tiger Airways started cancelling some of its routes. That meant that the flights I had already booked for my family from Melbourne to Cairns no longer existed. Thankfully, rebooking on Jetstar was only a bit more expensive, and we got there with no problems. It also meant that Morgan's and my flight to Alice Springs was cancelled. We ended up flying Jetstar to Sydney and then Virgin to Uluru, which meant that we ended up directly in Uluru instead of having to drive there from Alice Springs (that was good). It also meant that we paid double the price of our original tickets (that was bad).

And the one that really "gets my goat"...

3. Several months ago, I purchased my family's November 14 flights from Sydney back to Melbourne through Tiger Airways. Not knowing how many checked bags we would have, I didn't pay ahead for those. I knew I'd have to pay a bit more by not doing it then, but that was okay. We ended up having two, so a few days before the flight, I got online to add the baggage to our reservation. Well, Tiger Airways has no way to add it online except for when you book the flight. Instead, you have to call a phone number to supposedly get it added. The problem is that when you call, all you get is a menu of four options. No matter which option you choose or what button you press (I tried everything), the recorded voice just keeps repeating the menu options. You never get a human being, and there is no way to add your luggage.

So we headed to the airport with our two bags weighing less than 25kg each. Stupidly, I assumed that the Tiger Airways employees at the airport would be understanding and not charge us the at-airport fees, because the problem was with their system. Not only are there NO Tiger Airways employees anywhere in the airport (they contract out their work with some other company), there was no understanding. I was polite, nice, calm, etc., but nobody cared. My dad tried to reason with them as well, but it didn't work. With the at-airport charges, our two bags cost us $257.50!!! When you pay for it there, I forget how much each bag costs, but each kilogram over 15kg costs you $20. Yes, $20 per kilogram! Ridiculous. Oh, and of course there was an extra charge for using a credit card. Yeah, like I would have had over $250 in cash just sitting in my wallet for this. So maddening.

The cost of those two bags was more than the price we paid for all six flights combined!! Just to make things even more frustrating, the flight was delayed over an hour. They even got us all boarded, found out something was broken, and made us all get off because the air conditioning unit couldn't be turned on and it was sweltering in there. So we got to Melbourne two hours later than planned and had to change our itinerary all around. It ended up okay, but I'm still mad about the luggage bill.

4. Tiger Airways makes it basically impossible to contact them. The phone number gets you nowhere, they don't have an e-mail address, there are no employees at the airport, etc. Yes, I will be mailing them a letter, which may have to go to Singapore (where they are headquartered). Yes, I will fight fight fight until I get the luggage costs back. And no, no matter how cheap their flights are (and they are pretty darn cheap-you get what you pay for!), I will NEVER fly with Tiger Airways again. Long live Jetstar and Virgin Airlines! When I get to the posts about Uluru, I will tell you why those low-cost airlines are SO much better.

By the way, if you think my experience was unique, just try Googling "I Hate Tiger Airways." I am definitely not alone. I'll admit it; I was one of those sucked in by the cheap prices and thinking that nothing bad would happen to me. Wrong! I hate Tiger Airways!

P.S. If you know any secret to contacting Tiger Airways or have had experience with actually getting money back for something like this, let me know!

P.P.S. Sorry, none of my own pictures to go with this post...I was too upset on that day to take any! I copied the one at the top from somewhere else.

Running on Empty

So the third and final Spring into Shape Series run was held just two days after my sister left town. Having family in Australia meant that for the previous three weeks, I had not run. At all. Well, unless you count running through the airport to catch a plane. But more about that in a later post. Anyway, the fact that I had done ZERO training, coupled with the fact that they changed the course route because of flooding on the original one down by the Yarra River (and we now had to do laps around the Tan at the Botanic Gardens which has an even bigger uphill climb than the original course's hill), meant that I wasn't trying to set any personal records on this run. So I had fun with the photographers again!

I think this karate kick one is my personal favorite. Awesome. So, here are my official (slow) results:

12.7km Races-Sept/Oct/Nov

#1: Time 1:10:10, 29/90 in age group
#2: Time 1:08:16, 20/114 in age group
#3: Time 1:11:39, 44/86 in age group (possibly only a 12km race for the last one-not measured exactly with course change)

So I guess when I train normally, I end up in the upper third of my age group; when I train kind of hard, I end up in the upper 20th percentile; and when I don't train at all, well, I guess at least I'm still faster than half of the gals aged 30-39 out there!

Side note: I think it's "cheating" when people don't run for the entire race. There were SO many people walking up the big hill. Then they had energy to pass me on the downhills or straightaways. Not fair. I say you have to run the whole thing, or it doesn't count! Okay, maybe it's alright to stop for a second to take a gulp of water, because it's really hard to drink while running. I'll get off my soapbox now before I make too many enemies. Anyway, that's what I've been up to lately. Tomorrow's post will be called, "Why I Hate Tiger Airways!" Something to look forward to...

Blue Mountains Hike

Here's a short post from my mom. I think she copied some of it from Wikipedia!

Church at St. Mary's Cathedral

Sunday, November 13 began with Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral.  We then boarded a train for our two hour ride to the Blue Mountains; it was a nice time to nap, read a book, or just rest while watching the countryside roll by.  Once we arrived in Katoomba, we fueled our bodies for the upcoming rigorous walk by eating large quantities of Chinese food.  The Blue Mountains are a series of beautiful and rugged valleys eroded down through an ancient plateau.  We began at Echo Point, famed for the three-pronged formation known as the Three Sisters.

"Three Sisters"-get it?
Yes, I am hunched over and squinty. I thought I needed to duck out of the way of the formation,
and I thought I didn't need my sunglasses at this point. Wrong on both accounts.

We then began a 900 step descent down the "Giant Steps" – a feat for the sure-footed!  We continued to trek for about two hours through hidden valleys, lush rainforest, beautiful gum trees, and spiraling waterfalls.  It was a tiring day but one in which our spirits were renewed and nurtured by nature.  -Sue

Justin at one of the waterfalls.

Heading down the "Giant Steps."