Saturday, December 29, 2007

Great Ocean Road 17/12/2007

Simply refused to go to there by tour/bus. Convinced i had to DRIVE there or be driven there. Along came the chance to drive there when my father insisted that we could all do Great Ocean Road AND Phillip Island in a day.

We took the road less taken. Started off from Frankston at 7.30am. Drove the car onto a ferry at Sorrento.

E and i, taken by sis. Sis and i, taken by E. E and sis, taken by me!

Bro was a smart-ass and didnt bother peeing in the ferry... shortly after driving off the ferry and when we were on our way, he HAD to use the toilet. We stopped at Barwon's Head.

Its a tiny little old school airport! So cool, really felt like we were in some olden day American movie! HAHA. One plane took off! These planes are for rent to view the Twelve Apostles too!

We stopped by Bells Beach, its a surf beach, but that day didnt seem to be a very good day to surf. The surfers were waiting and waiting for waves that never came.

Pic of E and i! Damned pissed that between my camera and my mom's, there is not ONE family picture at Bells!!!!!!! Geramness

Aussie roads are different! Look at this!

Cars/buses/lorries that are driving slowly are to turn out there and let the (faster) cars behind pass!!!! And people are so considerate! Many of them let E drive pass!

There were also signs with arrows telling people that u are supposed to drive on the left hand side of the road! HAHAHA, a reminder for Americans who drive on the right side of the road?

As navigator in the front passenger seat, i read every single sign board on the road. Saw on tht says Historic grounds or something. We stopped.

Shipwreck! And pretty scenery... wud be nice to go snorkeling there... but kinda scary cuz 5 people died trying to retrieve sunken cargo, what if they want me to take their place in the deep blue sea?

Finally we got to Apollo Bay where we had lunch. Wasted time there. Shit. Sigh. Then it was my turn to drive!!!!! Yayyyy! But my route sucked! Boring winding forest roads.

It was rewarding seeing the tip of one of the apostles though! I was like "Is that it?!!!!!!"

And it was! The 12 Apostles... Pretty pretty picture! Sunny windy day, the best for photography! But the flies ruin everything!

How can rocks look so beautiful?

It was so picture perfect, it looks like we are standing in front of a card board print out! HAHA

On the way towards the Geelong, i had this REALLY straight country road to drive through... i went 130kmph =P Some of the views were magnificent but too much of the same thing gets boring. Which made me wonder at times, why the hell did i wanna drive there so badly?

Aussie roads have taunting signs convincing me that i was too sleepy to drive. They say things like "A micronap can kill". 35km before Geelong, i gave up, i surrendered to those signs, admitting defeat and fatigue and asked E to drive.

I slept for an hour and got up when we got to the city. I had to help look at the map. We took a turn. We were going really fast since time was not on our side. When i look up from the map, I'll never forget the fear i felt at the sight of the stationary cars not far ahead. We were not slowing down. I panicked and yelled at E to stop! Thank god the car is this powerful high tech thing that managed to stop inches away from the red car in front of us.


Made it to the penguin parade JUST in time!

Thankfully it wasn't too crowded, had decent seats. So on time that we didn't have to wait in the cold for long. Those little creatures began to show themselves. CUTE!!!!!! And they are so unafraid of humans viewing them

Stole a picture of this little guy! Forgive the bad photo quality... we weren't supposed to take pix =P

Aussie is full of cool signboards! So cute!
Got such thing wan ar, penguin under ur car? I'd kidnap the cute lil thing!


Maps of our journey!

Took a pic of a travel brochure and edited the regular route to Great Ocean Road =P We used Melway some of the way

and when we drove OFF the Melway map and we actually used THESE kinda maps to know which major towns to head to till we got there!

The right side of the above map in detail:

On the way back, we took the same roads back to Tooradin and from there we headed to Frankston, entirely using the map. Melways are pretty good stuff, and girls (me me me!) can navigate! =p Hehe

More on the driver's side, take a look at E's blog!

Totally unrelated...

Pic of me! HAHAHA, home alone today so i drove to the beach! So damn beautiful and so full of people. Cropped this picture for msn display but it looks shit when its small, so it goes onto the blog! =P


Watched Ps. I love you on the 27th cuz i read the book. Took me AGES to complete reading the book cuz i kept on crying! To my bestfriend its sweet, but to me its sad! Everytime i started crying, i had to STOP reading! LOL

Needless to say... i cried throughout the whole movie. Never have i treated 10 pieces of tissue paper like gold. I dun think the movie is that sad (and its also VERY different fr the movie. BTW its the FIRST movie i've watched after reading the book), i cried cuz i remember crying when i read the book! =P

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hellooo Happy New Year!!

In regards to the keep left sign if there are 2 lanes, the left is for slower drivers eg. learners, heavy vehicles etc .. normally the inner lane is for those faster cars.. its just to prevent congestion..that's what my cousin said his been living in Aussie all his life.. LOL..

-nat-

meL.a.Nie said...

hey hey!!

feeling alrite now?enuf of roar-ing?ok..good!!!

anyway,can't wait to head down to aust real soon in exactly 1 mths' time.

omg,da penguin is so cute.reminds me of Happy Feet.feel like catching them,squeeze n squash them cuz they're SOOOOOOOO cuteeeee...

i have yet to read PS I Love You & i heard da movie's good.how good is it?pls tell me..hehe=P

btw,happy new year & really hope to see ya soon.*hugs*

Sue Lin said...

Happy New Year to u too, Nat! Its usually that way but the one i'm talking about is a one lane coastal road, its kind of a lane for overtaking. So, why's ur bro in Aust but ur not?? Just curious! BTW do we know each other or did u randomly get to my blog? Thanks for the comment! See ya!


Melanie, i know how u feel! I was like that before i came. But... coming to Aust may not be as great as u expect it to be most of the time. U'll find it hard at first, with the prices, public transport and living away fr home for the first time. In short, it aint as easy! But after some time u'll adapt =)

Errrrr... obviously... anyone who read the book before watching the movie would say that the movie aint as good. But its not bad at all. If u havent read the book, i dun think u;ll cry throughout the whole movie like i did. I dun think many ppl wud cry anyways. I'm just too emo

Happy New Year to ya too! =)

Anonymous said...

Oh right.. not sure then lolz..

Cousin u mean? well he was born in Aussie, his 1/2 aussie n 1/2 msian hehe i was only in aussie to study :)

I dont think we know each other i was blog hopping from frens blog n somehow came along ur site i think..(sorry 4 intruding!)

-nat-

soo imm said...

OMG!
the view so breathe-taking!!
I WANT~~~
and you get to drive there!
sounds like so much fun lah XD
oh ya, not to forget,

HAPPY NEW YEAR~!!