#13. My unintended stay in Melbourne

My trip to Australia was not without its travel-related dramas, proving once again the benefits of having travel insurance.

On the way there, my flight was delayed because the plane was broken.  Meaning I missed my flight from Melbourne to Perth and ended up spending a night in a hotel.  On the way home, my flight from Melbourne to Christchurch was cancelled because the Christchurch airport was closed due to snow.  "Oh dear" said the grumpy lady at the checkin counter, "the next available flight is not until Wednesday evening".  Given that it was 5:30am on Monday and I had just flown 4 hours from Perth after leaving my better half behind, I wasn't all too happy.

I must have looked a little forlorn because I was promptly adopted by a lovely family from Bahrain, currently living in Rolleston.  They dragged me along to get some breakfast,  sorted out my flights, booked me into a swanky hotel with them (an indoor pool was on their "must-have" list) and rented a car to drive us all into town.

I hadn't been to Melbourne before (one night in the airport hotel on the way over doesn't count!), so I spent Monday wandering the streets and marvelling at the quirkiness of the city.  A pleasant change from the almost industrial feel of Perth.  Then it was down to the information centre to figure out how to spend the rest of my bonus holiday.

I'd heard a bit about the Great Ocean road and found a small company that did tours.  So we set off on Tuesday morning to see the sights of the Great Ocean Road.


View Australia in a larger map


The first stop was Bell's Beach, one of the world's best surf beaches.  There wasn't a whole lot happening with the surf that day but I can just imagine those big ocean swells rolling in all the way from Antarctica.  Certainly put the piddly surf we'd been seeing in Western Australia into perspective.

This tour provided a few new species to tick off my list of Australian things.  Including crimson rosellas, king parrots and kookaburras.

  

After winding our way around some stunning coastline, we stopped for lunch at the Ottway lighthouse.

where they were a little concerned about the one's proximity to the cliff edge

and had a few problems with the bicycles.

While in Perth, Hamish and I had dutifully stopped and taken pictures of koala in an inclosure, so that I could say that I had seen some.  Well, it turned out that we shouldn't have bothered.  The trees around the Ottway lighthouse were full of koala.  All looking quite sleepy and a bit stoned on gum leaves.  They didn't really do anything but they were quite cute.  Koalas - check.

The penultimate stop of the trip was the twelve apostles. These are giant limestone stacks that have been eroded out of the nearby cliffs by the action of the waves.  I'm not really sure why they are the twelve apostles, there are currently only eight (they periodically collapse) and apparently there have never been twelve, but they were pretty spectacular.  

And so ended my unintended trip to Melbourne.  Not somewhere I had planned to go but definitely a place I'd like to visit again.  Thanks travel insurance for a great extension to my holiday!