Road trip to the Great Ocean road

For the third & final time while in Australia, we “hired a car”. Hols and I planned a 2 day road trip down the great ocean road. So on Saturday we picked it up at 10:00 and headed west for the great ocean road. It took us about 2 hours before we got on the southern touring route and when we finally got there it instantly reminded me of Hwy 1 in California. You literally drive on the edge of a cliff overlooking the coast.

Made several stops along the way to check out the views

One of our stops was in this really pretty town called Lorne. We stopped for some “chips” (french fries) and then were forced to share with some pretty birds

Back on the road to our next destination we ran across a wild koala

We made it halfway on the Great Ocean Road before it started to get dark. We stopped in Apollo Bay for the night and luckily for us a music festival was going on so we had something to do for the night. We couldn’t get a good view of the sunset but i did get to see a very interesting sky. Couldn’t figure out how it was lit up so strangely. The sun was all the way west and the photos I took were taken from the east. I could see the sun setting all the way on the opposite side of the sky, but somehow the clouds were still lit up.

The next morning we got up early and by early I mean 10:00 got breakfast and explored the rest of the Great Ocean Road. We checked out these super touristy rocks called the 12 Apostles and after drove through the country to get back to Melbourne.

On some very positive news, we returned the car, without any problems. Guess 3rd time was the charm!! On some less exciting news, tomorrow is my last day is Australia 😦

It’s not a mini van, it’s a camper..

Last day in Cairns, didn’t really do much. Went back and met with the rental car company to see if we could work something out with the key. No dice; they wanted 550$ for the key unfortunately. After that disappointment, we just chilled at the lagoon until our 16:30 flight. We met up with our Cairns BFF Colin. He hooked me up with some antibiotic drops for my ear, unfortunately he only had literally 2 drops left. I used them last night and now my ear feels so much better. He also hooked us up big time with a car and a trip to Fraser Island, lots of discounts included.
Caitlin 3 – Australia 4

I have also transitioned into a professional backpacker by transforming my duffle bag into a backpack:

We arrived in Brisbane (Brisbin) & headed to a hostel. Brisbane City Backpackers, it was pretty sweet. This reminded me of living on campus in college, except way better. They had a pool, a cool roof top deck with a view of the city, an awesome kitchen that you could cook and keep your food, and of course a bar. For 26$ a night, we shared a 6 person room, with AC.

The next day we walked around the city in route to pick up our new whip.

I have my own University here; CQ University.

&&& here is our new ride. The Jucy Sleeper, equip with bed, sink, cooler, & a mini cook top. I know, it’s really awesome. For about 70$ a day, your completely covered if anything happens to the van, even if you hit a kangaroo with it.

While waiting to load up our camper, some guys gave us a box of stuff including a buncha free beer. Caitlin 4 – Australia 4

We got our stuff and were on our way to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Seriously best zoo in Aussie. Pretty cheap and you can actually interact/ have contact with the animals. I got to frolic in a field of docile kangaroos, what could be better than that?

& here is a million pictures of me with the kangaroos.

After our wonderful day with the Roos we got back in the camper and drove down the Gold Coast to Byron Bay. We were suggested to stay at this place called the Arts Factory, but by the time we got to all the hostels all the camper spots were taken. Soooo we had to drive around until 2:00am looking for a spot, couldn’t find one so we just made up a spot for ourselves in the Arts Factory. We were told by the staff that if we were caught, we’d get fined but we didn’t have any options sooo fingers crossed 🙂