This past weekend I went on an AWESOME trip down to the Great Ocean Road. This trip is done through BSA, and it usually ends up being all international kids on these trips. We took a bus and went to a bunch of different sites. It really was great. To tell you the truth, I didnt really want to go to begin with because I wasnt going to be with people who I even remotely care to share a weekend with especially since 90% of them cant even speak english...but I always think back to when my advisor told me before I left "If you see a bus, jump on it and experience the most you can!"...so I went, because that is a main goal of mine.. to experience as much as I can. In the end, I had a great time!!!!
Anyways, the trip began by meeting over at Rob & Andrea's house at 7:30 am. Since they live right near me, near the dining hall they offered to meet up that way I didnt have to walk up to uni early in the morning for the 8 am departure. It worked out really well. [Andrea is the head of the BSA- and Rob is her Fiance and in charge of the halls.] We got to carpark 4 where we were picking the rest of the crew up at about 8 am. Andrea made sure everyone was counted for, and handed out some information about the trip and we were on our way. There were 18 students on this trip including myself, most were from India, China and singapore. It was basically all of the international students from the orientations that i attended at the start of the semester, along with a few new faces that I soon got to know better. By 8:15 we were checked in and on the road.
9:30am marked our first stop of the trip. We stopped at a town called Daylesford, but only for about 15 minutes. This stop was for the toliets and to grab some goods at a local bakery called "Modern Bakery". We were told it was going to be our last stop until we get to the 12 Apostles for our helicopter flights at 1:00 pm. I grabbed a hot chocalate and a sandwhich and headed for the bus. The hot chocalate was very watered down and really wasnt tasty at all, so after taking a few sips to warm me up I ate the rest of my breakfast sandwhich and decided to take a bit of a nap for the next 3 hours. We stopped a few times for toliet breaks, and another time because of a girl from India who had naseauaand forgot her meds who started getting sick and had to "let it out" if you will...but eventually we got to our destination.
We arrived at the 12 Apostles heliport at around 1:30pm.
Here we were put in groups of 3 to be put on the helicopters to see all of the 12 Apostles by air.
We saw the Shipwreck Coast and the Port Campbell National Park from the air. This included the 12 Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge, London Bridge, and the towering limestone cliffs. As we were in the helicopter, the piolet also gave commentary on the history of the Coast. It was sooo amazing!!
This was my 1st time in a helicopter, and it was amazing!! SO smooth and relaxed. It was great and everything looks soo amazing from up there, I was in awe and amazement the whole time. I had such low expectations that I was in total amazement when this actually was how it was. If you ever get the chance- dont pass it up!
Anyways, at about 2:30 we left and went on to our next destination which was Loch Ard Gorge. At this spot there is an interesting story that goes along with how it got it's name.
I won't tell you the whole story, you will have to come see it yourself one day. But basically 52 people died after the sailing ship, the iron clipper Loch Ard, rammed into the sheer cliffs of muttonbird Island in stormy weather just days from completing a 3 month voyage from England to Melbourne. The Island is near the entrance to the long, narrow gorge. This gorge and its tiny beach saved apprentice crewman, Tom Pearce and young passenger, Eva Carmicheal who were both 18 years old. The stories are all sooo neat and interesting!!!
I wish I could tell them all but it would take hours to type it all and im sure not all of you would be so interested in them...so I'll leave it at that and include some pictuers that will hopefully interest you more.It was now 4 pm, and next on our agenda was a 2 hour drive to our accomadation but not before we stopped at the whale watching to see if by chance we could see any whales. Of course we didnt, not that that is all that interesting to me anyways. What you see of them isnt that interesting and you only see them for a minute or even a second so I didnt really care. My enjoyment was watching the beach,
I could be there for hours just watching the waves (although it would be better if someone I know was here with me). I spendt my time writing in the sand and hanging out by the beach. 
So, now we were 5 minutes away from our accomadation. We stayed in a place called Warrnambool Beach Backpacker it was on Stanley Street. This was a really nice hostel. We had 2 rooms for the 18 of us, so luckily enough we had a room for the boys and a room for the ladies. We unpacked our stuff and made our beds (in a hostel they just give you sheets and you are required to make your bed). Since we had an hour and half until we had to meet for dinner we just hang around. In the common room there was all sorts of different board games, there was computers (for 10 cents a min you could use the internet...but i decided to stay away from the computer), a pool table, a bar... they had alot to offer. It kept us entertained until we had to go. I walked around a bit and found a map... it showed the relationship of size of Australia compared to other countries. I took a few pictures of it. A few weeks ago, Ryan and I had this argument. I was trying to tell him that After being here I realize Australia ia just as big as the US, but he didnt agree and said it was much smaller...well babe, I hate to say this but I TOLD YOU SO. haha. The green is Australia, yellow is the other country.
Anyways after taking a look at this, I sat down and played the Simpsons board game with a girl from France, and 2 Australians to waste the time. It was a little confusing at first but we figured it out- if you ever played the game Trouble it is EXACTLY like that haha. So, we sat there drinking our hot tea and playing board games until 7:30 rolled around and it was time to move on to dinna.
For dinner we went to a place called "BoJangles". I thought this was so funny because at school my favorite place to eat is BoJangles except there it is a fast food chain in the south...haha. Here is was a semi-fancy sit down pizza resturant.
Dinner took us 3 hours to get through. I guess its under standing considering there were 20 of us, and most of us ordered pizza's...and Large ones at that. I, of course, ordered my normal Hawaiian pizza. But on this pizza, the ham was sheeded.. like you would shreed cheese.. so I didnt eat much of the ham. But, I was starving as we all were by this ponit. Most of us ordered large pizza's and thought we would bring the rest back for a midnight snake or something. But in the end most of us finished our large pizza's.
I think what took the most time at dinner was Caitlyn and her bets with the French boys. She had a bet that she wouldnt be able to finish her whole pizza plus some. And I guess the type of person she is, she wasnt going to brake that beat. So she ate her whole pizza (same size as mine) and then ate 5 pieces from someone else's pizza. She actually did all that and licked her plate clean. The boys were amazed and awarded her $5 for her work. crazy. I couldnt do it. I was full enough with my pizza and felt like a total pig- I'm glad we had to walk a bit to get to the bus.
When we got back to the hostel, we had the rest of the night to ourselves to do whatever we pleased. We had breakfast at 9 am, and were to be on the bus by 10am. So we all changed and washed up for bed, and then decided to play some more games because it wasnt quite bed time yet. I played upwords with Caitlin and a few others who were from Canada and we actually did very well until we decided to not go back ANY of the rules.. haha. Bbut it was a good game, and I decided to call it a night by midnight. Most of us did, but some stayed up playing until 1 am.
The next morning, we had breakfast at 9 and had an hour before we had to be on the bus again. I sat around and talked to some people and asked them where they planned on going and about what Bill Byson talks about what is good and bad in the book I'm reading. We all kept asking each other things about each other's countries it was a very informative conversation and I enjoyed learning different things about different countries. Then someone asked Caitlin if she could name all the states in the US (which people either think there are 48 of them or 52)... so we informed them about the FIFTY states. caitlin wanting to waste time grabbed paper and pen for us both and we tryed to see if we could name all 50 states. It was really interesting because she is from the other side of the country so conbined im sure we would of gotten it quicker. After combining our lists, we both ended up missing the same state...oddly enough UTAH. It was quite thrilling and entertaining to start off the day.
We arrived on the bus at 10, and headed to the whale watching centre to see if we could see any more whales this morning. Sadly, we didnt see any tonight either. We were staying here for 45 minutes so I played on the beach some, but mostly just watched the waves and thought about summertime on the beach. Sadly, I didnt have much of it this year. I took some beach photos and just listened to the waves. It was just very relaxing and calming, something I could do all day if I wanted to.
From here, we took a few more stops to take mmore pictures and look at some more limestone rocks.. I was tired of it, but tryed not to act it. I'm sure Ryan would appreciate these rocks way more than I ever would, probably a big part of why I took so many pictures. By the end it all looked the same to me. Anyways we stopped at about 3 more places and stopped in a town for lunch and then continued on our journey back to Bendigo.
It was a great trip... tiring and exhausting! But I learned alot and enjoyed it alot. I met alot of awesome people from different places and intriguied my mind by talking to them about their hometown instead of it being the other way around. Its really interestinng to hear things from other places that i am not really that use to or know anything aboout. All in all the trip was awesome and for $85 I got my money's worth plus some. These trips are awesome and I am glad that i took advantage of this one. I took a mizillion pictures that im sure you all want to see... so if you want to see more pictures from this trip here is the site:
http://wcu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040210&l=f07aa&id=44100664
http://wcu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040211&l=1b3aa&id=44100664
ENJOY!
It's also really interesting because at the time of going to the Great Ocean Road, I am reading thsi part of my Bill Byson book of when he travels here so its interesting to see what he thinks when im here. But anyways.. its been a long day!!! I hope everyone has had a good weekend and I hope to hear from you soon!!
Love always
Mandi
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