The 12 Apostles and other natural beauties in Australia

Hello my friends,

On Thursday we decided to take a tour of the Australian Coast line.  There was so much to see that we couldn't decide on any one natural site in Australia, so we opted for a tour.  We picked Autopia Tours out of Victoria, Australia.  http://www.autopiatours.com.au/ The coolest part was that the tour bus picked us up right outside of our hostel at 9 am.  We all woke up at 8am and got our stuff together and had coffee and our continental breakfast the hostel provided.  I had yogurt, a croissant with jelly, and some fresh, locally grown grapes and berries.  There were only about twelve other people on the bus with us, so it was a nice and small group and a lot more personal than most tours.  We traveled along the Great Ocean Road, pictured above.  It was gorgeous scenery.  Our first stop was Torquay where we enjoyed morning tea on Bells Beach(below). 

Our next stop was Apollo Bay, where we had our complimentary lunch and went swimming.  The water was just right and so beautiful, not as clear as the Caribbean but much clearer than the Pacific.  haha! 

The next part was my favorite.  We spent about an hour and half hiking some trails through the rainforest in the Otway National Park.  The trail we got on at lead right out to the beach at Apollo Bay.  We even spotted some Koalas on our hike. What an experience!   

Next we saw some of the most beautiful natural sites around, the Lock Ard Gorge, the London Bridge, and the Twelve Apostles.  These are all along the coast of Port Campbell.  These are land massess that are in the ocean and have been worn away by the ocean over the years.  You can see the layers of sediment when looking at the twelve apostles.  The apostles are beautiful layers of yellow and red sediment and are really beautiful when the light catches them the right way.  

We ended our tour in Colac, where we enjoyed dinner at the Fusion restaurant.  Pork Belly is a very popular dish in Australia and was included on the menu.  Some of the other menu options included Lamb, Seared Tuna, and Moo Shoo Crepe, among others.  I decided to go with the  Prime Eye Fillet with a mustard crumb crust, sweet potato & jerusalem artichoke bake, green beans
& red wine jus.  It was $34.00.  It was delicious!  With dinner, desert, and drinks we spent about $300 on dinner.  Our tour was $125/person, for a total of $750.  So we spent about $1050 during our excursion.  I had a great time!

~Krista