The Spirit of Tasmania

Holly and I made a decision when we started planning our trip: we wanted to take the ferry over to Tasmania rather than fly. It was a little bit cheaper this way, but mainly, we were excited to travel this new way!

We had no idea what to expect when we pulled up to the ferry terminal, but neither of us were expecting the ferry to be as big as it was!

Just like everywhere else we've been this trip, there was a shortage of signs telling us where to go. So we questioningly rolled our suitcases up to the pier guard shack to ask, where a woman barely looked up at us - much less opened her window to hear our question - before waving us through. I guess she thought two girls who could barely manage their rolling luggage couldn't cause too much havoc.

The check-in process continued on in this weird, vague, casual vein. There seemed to be hardly any other passengers checking in and waiting to board - definitely less than 10, which made it feel a bit eery. The security checkpoint was a bit odd two: we heaved our suitcases up on a folding table and unzipped them so a guard could glance inside. Then we walked through a metal detector, and picked up our suitcases and other bags (which weren't even looked at) on the other side of the table. It was so unclear if the security check process was over, we had to ask.

No Internet for you!

If the check-in process was less impressive than we'd expected, the ship itself was more than we'd expected! Not that we had much to go on: I had a cruise ship and the Sydney ferries as my two extremes. And I guess I'd say the Spirit of Tasmania gracefully straddled the two. It had: two bars, a fine dining restaurant, a buffet, a small movie theater, lots of lounge areas, a gambling area, and a tourism desk.

Our room was pretty decent too. At least, it worked pretty well for two small people to share. I'm not sure how 4 people would be expected to fit in there.
We had a meander around the ship, got way lost, went to the gift shop, and them had a bit of dinner. They offered some Tasmania cheeses and wines at the bar, so we settled on that and had a perfect cruising snack!

Holly and I definitely seemed to be in the minority, both in terms of our dinner and our evening's agenda. We quickly realized that most of the passengers promptly claimed tables by the bar immediately after boarding and begin drinking seriously and watching rugby or cricket. And the majority seemed to be 60+. You might say we stuck out from the rest of the crowd.

We headed to bed soon after, since we were coming into port at 6 AM. Unfortunately, though, that did not mean we went peacefully to sleep. We reached the heads at about 10 PM, and from then on, the ship was tossing and crashing around. I'd fall asleep and be jolted awake by a big wave or crash from inside the ship. It was incredibly alarming and most definitely not conducive to seep. At some point in the night, Holly and I both loaded up on Dramamine so we could get at least a little rest.



Rough night notwithstanding, we left the ship smiling in the morning!

Ignore the grumpy-looking lady behind Holly.

We agreed we were happy that we experienced the ferry, but also that once was probably enough!

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Saying adios to GOR and Melbourne

We had bold plans of waking up early in Lorne and doing a couple short hikes before returning to Melbourne where we would catch the ferry to Tasmania. Unfortunately, it was pouring a cold, steady rain, pretty much from the moment we woke up. So we re-evaluated our plans and decided to head back to the city early.

We couldn't resist one stop along the way back. We made a mad dash out to the beach at Angelsea to check out the surf and sea, and then ran back to the car. It was excellent exercise.

Back in Melbourne, the mission was to get to the parking garage by the rental car drop-off without having to make any right turns. If you're thinking that this sounds complicated and lengthy, you would be right. But, with excellent navigation by Holly, we made it! And we were both so happy to have Melbourne driving behind us!

As a reward for our long day of driving and navigating, and to kill couple hours before catching the ferry, we headed down toward Collins Street to find a good lunch. We found a GREAT lunch instead!

We ate at Olio, an Italian restaurant in Block Place in the laneways of Melbourne. We both couldn't decide between the same two dishes, so that settled it: we shared a spinach and ricotta ravioli with Parmesan purée and risotto with porcini mushroom with wine and thyme oil. There are no words for how much these hit the spot.

Dessert was, of course, necessary to complete our meal and mini trip into Italy. We shared a Nutella tart and crema bruciata, a six-flavor creme brûlée tasting. They were both so, so good.

We could have stayed at our table in the cafe for hours longer and wished that we could. But instead, we did a quick tour through the GPO building and then headed back to settle accounts with the rental car company and catch a cab to the ferry terminal. The highlight of our cab ride was the cab driver laughing maniacally when some poor man got drenched by a passing car.

We were sad to leave Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road. There were so many other things we would have liked to do and explore in both places! And who knows if we'll ever make it back to this part of the world together? But, all the sadness was swept away when we arrived at the ferry terminal: the next adventure was beginning!

Sunset at the ferry terminal

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The Great Ocean Road

Of all the things we planned for Holly's visit, this activity might have been the one we were looking forward to the most. And we couldn't have gotten luckier with the weather, traffic, or really anything else about the day!

The Great Ocean Road goes along the southern coastline of Australia. It starts an hour and a half south of Melbourne and continues on for about 150 miles to the west. We only did a small portion of it - from Angelsea to Apollo Bay - and that took most of the day with all the stops we made. And even with this little distance, we saw a huge variety of things!

Our first stop was right outside of Angelsea, where we were just so happy to see the ocean!

Aireys Inlet and Split Point Lighthouse

The next big stop was at Aireys Inlet, where we took a short bushwalk up to the lighthouse we'd been glimpsing from the road. There were several overlooks at the top of the hill, and it was gorgeous in every direction.

Here's a little look around.

And here's us!

As amazing as the views in every direction were, the hands-down highlight was getting to see some migrating whales from the overlook! The placard at the the point said to watch for them in wintertime, and so we did. They were quite far out, but it was still thrilling to see their water spouts and splashes every few minutes!

A bonus pulloff

There were all kinds of pulloffs along the road so the slower cars could allow the faster ones to pass. And we were definitely being a slow car, so we pulled into these a lot. Some of them ended up having amazing views - like this one.

The geologist in Holly got really excited about some of these rocks.

And even I have to admit, they were pretty cool.

Cape Patton Lookout

Our last stop before continuing on through Apollo Bay was Cape Patton Lookout. It was nice and high, so we got great views of the coastline we'd passed and the coastline to come.

Maites Rest with my matey

The farthest point in our drive was Maites Rest in Cape Otway National Park. The road climbs a bit after leaving Apollo Bay, and you all of a sudden find yourself in rainforest. So we stopped at Maites Rest and had a short walk through the forest.
It was amazing how much damper, darker, and colder it had gotten with just a slight change in elevation and with going inland a bit. And it was weird to feel so cold in such a tropical-looking area. We had to put our cold weather gear (ie, hoods) on.

Sheep and Apollo Bay

Our last stop of the drive was to check out an overlook of Apollo Bay. I'd spotted it on our climb to Maites Rest, so we pulled in on our way back.

It was amazing to see such different geographies in the space of 5 minutes!
There were lots of sheep grazing on the hillside, which Holly was a fan of.

Sheep make us smile

Lorne

The view of Lorne from the beach

We ended our day's journey in Lorne, a seaside town between Angelsea and Apollo Bay. When we drove through it earlier in the day, we'd gotten pretty excited about spending some time there; there were some cute little shops and cafes, people walking through the beachside park with their families, the sun was beaming down, etc. The town hadn't really changed when we arrived back cold, hungry, and tired, except for the fact that all the tourists had seemingly disappeared and all the shops were shut. It was a bit weird, and it took us an hour to find a place open for dinner, which makes no sense in a town you can see both ends of from one spot.
However, we didn't have to wait for a table! We also had the beachfront walk between the ocean and the town pretty much to ourselves!

Our lodging for the night was quirky in all the charming ways you'd expect: the proprietor continually grabbed at fruit flies while he told us all about the town, and he personally showed us to our room - which was, generously, 50 degrees that he said would "warm right up". (It didn't.) One unexpected bonus was the giant cockatoo that liked to hang out our balcony. He flew right up onto the rail while we were checking out the view, and probably took great amusement in watching us shriek and simultaneously try to squeeze through the door back to safety.

It was a fabulous day! I took hundreds more pictures, but I can't imagine forgetting a day like this.

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Leaving Melbourne

On Thursday morning, we got up at 6 to leave Melbourne and head down south to drive some of the Great Ocean Road.

Getting out of the city

Not only did we want to spend as much daylight as possible down on the coastline, but I also wanted to get out of Melbourne before the traffic got heavy for the day. There's one reason for this: the hook turn. Melbourne has invented the stupidest traffic system in the world which involves you making a right turn from the far left lane. It's kind of confusing to understand, but this post explains it pretty well.

Here's a car pulled into the "hook turn spot"

I can't over-emphasize how alarming it is to see the car beside you put on its right blinker and then get in the left lane, or if you're the one that has to swerve and then accelerate across all lanes of traffic to get on an intersecting street. Especially when you're not that much of an expert of driving on the wrong side of the road anyway. Rest assured that we mapped our circuitous route out of the city to consist of left turns only - we just spiraled out gracefully.

Morning coffee with the Aussies

Since it was such an early morning, we walked down a block to grab coffees. The only place open at the time was a pretty basic mom & pop shop that did basic breakfast & lunch food. We were the only people in the place at the time, but they said it would be a few minutes for our drinks and carried on making some sandwiches they were putting together. We thought this was a little weird (though, honestly, I don't think anything about Australian customer service will surprise Holly at this point), but it soon made sense. Three giant Aussie guys came in a couple minutes later to pick up their daily sandwiches. They seemed VERY excited to see a couple girls in their morning breakfast spot at 6:30 and promptly pulled up chairs so they could sit at the table where we were waiting. They asked us all about ourselves, and in turn, threw out really subtle statements like, "We've just been to the gym working out" and "If you give us your Facebook info, we can help you out with your traveling." It was sweet and hilarious.

After we escaped with our coffees, I wished I'd taken their pictures for the blog. We both agreed they probably would have really liked that!

The scenic route

We were both so happy to get out of Melbourne without having to make a hook turn or make Aussie boyfriends, we ended up leaving in the wrong direction. Just kidding - we just weren't paying attention and weren't familiar enough with the roads to figure it out.

So we ended up getting to see the sunrise in east Melbourne. Which really made up for a lot!

Then we did our part to help the Melbourne economy and went back through all the toll roads again!
We made it eventually! More pics to come... =)

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