To recap, I took a train home from Bendigo on Wednesday afternoon, I am very grateful for the hospitality and regular feedings I was given at Matt and Kate's place and thank them very much - again - it did take a bit of my will power to not pack Ziggy into my backpack even though I'm sure he would have stuck out just a little.
I arrived at the Westin hotel in Melbourne and decided that instead of heading to the market like I was going to - it was closed anyways - I would have room service and watch a terrible movie and have a hot bath and wait for Paul and Brad to call to let me know where we were going to dinner. It was about 730pm by the time I headed off to dinner at "Blues Restaurant" - which is obviously Brad's favorite place - and though I know that Mum will get mad at me for this... I went outside the hotel to grab a cab and after trying to get 2 and having 1 tell me he wouldn't turn around, I decided that it would a nice walk instead, so a 25 minute walk through the china town area I guessed and passed the Melbourne Gaol and I was walking into "Blues Restaurant" ready for some grub and a beer. By the time I got home I watched a big of sports highlights and went to bed, getting ready for a very early morning to get ready for a bus tour!!
By 6:30am I was up and getting by bag packed, camera's ready, water bottle and clothes, by 7:14am my breakfast had arrived and I gobbled down a few pieces of banana bread and a bit of scrambled eggs with sausage and headed for the lobby where I waited and waited and waited. I was told to wait on the other side of the street by the Express Concierge and by the time I saw the bus I was on the phone with the tour company making sure they didn't forget me!
Settled on the bus finally we headed for one more pickup and were on our way to Great Ocean Road, it became immediately apparent that there were only about 4 of us that spoke English on a 20 person bus, myself, the driver and a couple from Queensland, everyone else was Asian and there were 2 boys that were Swedish if I was correct about the language they were speaking - could be wrong but I know they weren't French, English or german - so while the driver talked away the whole time before and between our short stops on the way it was obvious that most of the people if not all of them did not understand exactly what he was saying, especially since when he said "And on your RIGHT hand side is the Melbourne Art Gallery...blah blah blah (mini history lesson)" they all immediately shot to the LEFT of the bus and started taking photos of what was the Southern Cross Railway station... a little strange if you ask me but that's nothing my headphones couldn't help me ignore.
By the first few stops I had started getting frustrated, trying to get photos with yourself in them while you travel alone and no one around you speaks English was a lot harder then I expected, the one Asian guy I got to take my photo almost completely missed the beautiful scenery behind me and specifically zoomed in on just me and open water... thanks pal! At the other stops it was simply just 5-10 minute stops and I even made a puppy dog friend at one of them.
By the time we got to Great Ocean Road I couldn't have cared who I was travelling with as long as I got to keep looking out the window at the gorgeous coast line with its rock faces, splashing waves, fishermen and surfers and the curving road that I found fun and scenic - one of the other passengers decided that "Fun" was not the correct way and proceeded to throw up in a puke-bag that the driver had handed out as he explained that if you get ROAD SICKNESS this trip was a BAD IDEA, ah the beauty of not speaking English... - and the stops we made gave me a great view for photos and just to see it all. 
We stopped off at a local ground called "Koala Cove" this is where we got a glimpse of a few 'wild' Koala's in the trees around the country roads. I use quotations around the 'wild' part because honestly it was a little bit more as if they were placed there or lured there by Park Rangers of some sort, there were 4 of them, I only saw 2 and they were so close to the road that if they had have tipped and fallen from the tree - which wouldn't actually happen but the cartoon playing inside my head at the time was funny enough - they would fall right onto the road and therefore right onto all the tourists taking photographs underneath the trees. They are wild however and they do come and go, our tour guide and driver "Peter" informed us that at some times of the season - though it varies - there can be as many as 15 Koala's in that immediate area, though today, in the colder months I suppose, there was only 4 but still 4 beautiful Koala's that I got great photos of anyways. Along with the Koala's asleep high in the trees there was a large assortment of birds from parrots, to pigeons, to ducks that would bite tourist fingers as they tried to feed them people food (well deserved) and a few visiting little budgies that would fly through the crowds picking up the scraps. After 20 minutes of getting pushed around by Asian tourists trying to catch the parrots it was time to head for the hills.
We headed up through the forest into the high hills for a nice walk through "Mait's Rest Rainforest" named after Maitland Bryan who was the districts first forest ranger. The walk was beautiful, around 1.5 kms long and by the time we started up and down the windy hills of the rainforest my knee was ready for a cold beer which was great timing because as we boarded the bus Peter the driver informed us that we were heading up the hill another 30 minutes for a hot lunch!
I decided to sit with the only other English speaking people on the trip, a couple from Queensland that were great company and we had a cold beer together, enjoyed lunch and then got back onto the bus and headed towards the 12 apostles.
We reached the 12 apostles with lots of time to spare, spending time walking around and enjoying the sites would come but first we were ready for a helicopter ride! The ride was only about 10 minutes and 6 of us were crammed into this little 130 B4 helicopter but it was worth it to see the coastline from the air. More breathtaking then I could have imagined!
After the helicopter tour we headed for the platforms that look out over the coast, the photos came out amazingly and the views will always by in my memory.
As we stopped at our final destination which were the coves - there was 3 of them including the only one that was named "Shipwreck Cove" since that is what had happened... a shipwreck just at the mouth of the cave.
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