G.O.R.

So I've never ever seen the Great Ocean Road abbreviated to G.O.R., but I'm gonna start it and then everyone will be talking about their awesome time on GOR(or maybe I'm just explaining so I don't have to write it out for the rest of this post, lazy. I know).....

Also this post may or may not be novel-length because of 5,000 pictures. I edited out at least half, I promise. But there were just sooo many good ones!

Anyways, made up abbreviations and length aside, Friday morning I once again awoke bright and early for an all-day, epic GOR tour. After an epic blonde moment where I didn't get on the bus because in my head I thought I had booked with another company, the day went fantasmicly. Seriously, so good. We headed out of the city for a while, then stopped for a few pics at Bells Beach. A super famous beach where they have some serious surf competitions. And apparently the wind was crap for surfing that day otherwise there would have been heaps of surfers, even though it was freaking cold. Hence the nearby town was where modern wetsuits were invented. I don't care how fabulous your wetsuit is, that water still would have been ridiculously cold.

Bell's Beach

Just a wee bit windy.....

Round 2.

Doesn't this make you just want to hop right in??

Stairs that I was too lazy to actually go down...

Um. So it looks like I"m just randomly squatting on the side of the road. I promise that arch in the background says Great Ocean Road.....soooo it's slightly less random:)

I feel like if you have to read the signs to tell you which side to drive on....you shouldn't be driving.

Where we stopped for morning tea. 

Cool bird. part 1/500....

More cool birds.... if I actually liked birds this would have been wayyyy cooler.

On the side of the road....ya I'd say the views weren't too bad...

lovely.

And then it came time to face my fears.....I was only mildly successful.

Watching other people feed birds/get attacked by them. Amelie is on the left. She was a really sweet German girl I met at my hostel and we hung out/ were each others photographers all day long:)

My turn!!!

As you can tell by face, I'm totally loving this....not.

Amelie kept telling me to smile....

This is as close to a smile as I got.

They freakishly loved Amelie's hair.

Feet+birds.....I know, I'm so brave:)

AWWWWW!!!!!! A part of nature more my style.

Koalas in the wild.....so cool.

This was supposed to be my head and a koala....instead its just awkwardly my head. you're welcome.

SO CUTE!!!!!

Crazy birds....

Super helpful road sign......

Some ocean on the G.O.R. whaaaa????

Hiking through some Victorian rainforest. (Melbourne/G.O.R. is in the state of Victoria....)

More rainforest.

Awesome tree....and then I was told I wasn't allowed to squat in the tree because it was awkward...

And then I just didn't know what to do.

epic treesome. Three trees that have merged. trust me it was cooler in real life.

my feets in the rainforest.

Blue skies, perfect for.....A HELICOPTER RIDE!!!!!

waiting....

Amelie and I before our ride.

Headset and everything. It was sooo legit.

Take off.

Headed out over the water.

So the helicopter ride was a last minute "what the heck you're only in Australia for 1 more week splurge". Amelie and I got to ride in one out over the water to get an areial view of the 12 apostles. Or rather the 8 that are still standing (rock formations out in the water that are made of sandstone? or some other rock that looks pretty however is pretty soft and no match for the waves....hence the only 8/12 left.)

First glimpse of an apostle.

Apostles.

AWESOME!!!!

Amelie and I.

Headed back.

A loooonnnnngggg ways down.

Coastline.

Can you find all 8?

Don't mind me squatting again, or my awesome life jacket strapped oh so inconspicuously.....

The guy just laughed at me the whole time while I posed for these pictures, but honestly
how boring is it to just stand there normally!!!!!

Twelve apostles: the ground edition.

That's the fourth one crumbled in the front....

Me and some apostles.

Lord Arch Gorge.....maybe.

If you scroll through the next three really fast it looks like one jump....however it was in actuality 3 attempts....

awesome sun....and then it started pouring.

But with the rain.....

Comes a rainbow.

The awkward photo a guy from Florida insisted on taking.

The razorback? the ridge? I forgot the name, but some skinny, awesome rock:)

Seriously are you tired of looking at me yet? Because I was definitely tired of posing at this point.

Middle two bumps=salt and pepper shakers.

The gorge looking in.

The half-crashed london bridge.

So this used to extend from the left side back to the mainland, and people could walk out onto it. Unfortunately a couple years ago it crashed....leaving some peeps stranded out on the second arch!!!

And the couple who were stranded got rescued by a news helicopter. And promptly started attacking the camera that was filming their rescue. Later the story comes out that the two were both happily married....to other people and were having affairs. So moral of the story is don't have an affair or a rock formation that is centuries old will crash and strand you in the middle of the ocean and you will get caught. karma.

Sooo....5000 pictures later. I headed back to Melbourne and my camera died:) Still a few more pics to come. Sorry on the super slow updates. It's been a crazy week trying to catch up with everyone and everything that I've missed in the past 5 months.