Tall things

As you guessed perhaps already from all the pictures I've posted so far, Melbourne like all things tall. Here are some examples:
Eureka Tower


Melbourne Cricket Ground lights post


Melbourne Central dome 

Melbournian Parks

Melbourne is a city of parks, one of the first surprises for me coming here was just how many parks are in the center. There are more than 480 hectars of parks overall.

Here'a glimpse of the Treasury Gardens, on the edge of the CBD. 

Sundays in St. Kilda

Two Sundays in a row I've been in this delightful neighbourhood of Melbourne, right by the ocean.

There is a lot to be seen, from the pier that juts into the ocean to the old wooden shipwreck lying on the beach, from the chique little restaurants by the water to the nice palms that line the waterfront.

You can see in the distance, to my left the Eureka tower, the one with golden top. One of the newest additions to Melbourne's skyline is supposed to be also one of the tallest and I'm told by the people who live there it has some breathtaking views. 

Footie Match

Not sure any of you actually know, but there is such a thing called Australian football, that in the good tradition of American football has almost nothing to do with what most of the world calls football.

It's pretty interesting that this game was actually invented here in Melbourne and for a long time was only played in Victoria. Only recently there appeared some teams in the other states.

I went to see a match this Friday, St. Kilda vs. Adelaide in the nice Telstra Dome stadium right in front of my house ;)

I have to say the atmosphere was great, people came in great numbers and they really cheered their teams all the way. From the old lady behind me that was cheering 'Come on Adelaide' for a whole 2 and half hours till her voice became coarse to the gentlemen in suit & tie next to me that was taunting the players from St. Kilda each time they made a mistake, the passion was there.
 

Loch Ard Gorge and Bay of Islands

This particular gorge is named after a catastrophe.
Fifty-two people died after a sailing ship, the iron clipper Loch Ard, rammed into the sheer cliffs of Muttonbird Island in stormy weather on 1 June, 1878, just days from completing a three-month voyage from England to Melbourne.

Great views all around, making it a perfect ending for our week end trip. 

The 12 Apostles

And now for the grand finale, the 12 Apostles.

The mighty Twelve Apostles are world-recognised icons of the Great Ocean Road. These giant rock stacks soar from the swirling waters of the Southern Ocean and are a central feature of the spectacular Port Campbell National Park.

Water and wind have been eroding these stones for 20 million years and now some of the apostles have just fallen into the sea.

To finish, try to spot the rainbow in the last picture :)

 

Otway Fly Tree Top Walk

Our next stop was something really unusual.

Imagine you were a bird, flying in the forest, getting to see the trees from all the majesty of your flight.

Now you can do all that here in Victoria by coming here. They have built a series of metal passages through the forest, at the highest point you are more than 50 metres high !!

Now this is something you don't get to see every day!!

 

Cape Otway Lighthouse

We started the second day, Queen's Birthday ;), with the Cape Otway Lighthouse, the longest lived lighthouse in Australia, located in the 84 kilometre gap between, Cape Wickham on, King Island and Cape Otway, known also as the "Eye of the Needle".

On our way there we passed again through some very old forest, big old trees and the occasional cows ;)

The Lighthouse guide was born there and even went to school in the little house and he was an extremely helpful and knowledgeable character. He even started off the light for us!!

Our bonus for the visit was the Koala bear we found in a tree on our way back, as you can see, he was nicely sleeping and couldn't care less about the tourists under his tree that were trying to get his attention :).
 

Erskin Waterfalls

Just outside Lorne you'll find the Erskin Waterfalls. To get to them you have to walk down 250 steps from the road level.

Coming up those steps is another story ;)

Take the time to look at the trees. One of the things that amazed me throughout this trip was the primordial forest that stretches all around. Have a look at the tree stump next to Jin Ha, she was able to stand inside it!!
 

Lorne

After Geelong we continued down the coast all the way to Lorne.

It's a great little resorty town, with lots of nice restaurants.

We stopped in one called 'The Arab' , opened in 1956, good seafood altough there's no arabic cuisine. I guess the name comes from the few carpets hanging on the walls.

But come rain or snow, there are some people who will always surf - you can see these 2 girls happily splashing in the cold ocean.
 

Geelong - The Waterfront

As we start our journey on the Great Ocean Road we make a first stop in the Geelong.

You can see the Waterfront, with a nice and modern steel & glass structure, altough once inside you'll find a merry-go-round powered by good old steam !!

And altough it's nice and sunny in these pictures, don't be fooled there was a mean wind and the ocasional rain as you can see from the last picture.

Eh oui, for all of you Northern Hemisphereans that are enjoying the warmth of the summer, Winter's coming down here