Shawn's Big Adventure: Melbourne

Melbourne! Great Ocean Road & The Twelve Apostles

This place was amazing! The drive was about 3.5 hours from Melbourne with a stop in Apollo Bay for lunch. The views along the Great Ocean Road are amazing.. so many nice beaches and cliffs to stop and take in the scenery. There are a ton of photos in the slide show, as well as some cool videos.

Website: http://www.greatoceanrd.org.au
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Apostles_(Victoria)

How they were formed
The rock stacks are the temporary remnants of a retreating limestone coastline, under constant attack by the sea. Cliff faces are being eroded at the rate of about two centimetres each year.

1. Cliff face erosion

Wave action erodes the cliff face,
leaving harder rock as headlands.

2. Caves & arches
Waves eat away the rock at sea level, forming caves on each side of the headland. The caves eventually meet up, forming an arch.

3. Stacks formed
Over time the arch collapses into the sea, leaving a rock ‘stack’.

4. Further undercutting
Further undercutting by waves, and opening up of vertical cracks in the rock by rain and saltwater, gradually reduce the stack to a low platform or reef.
This occurred spectaculary in 2006 making world-wide news.

Photos

One stop along the way to Apollo Bay.

Read the sign..haha

Anand and Falen

What am I doing?!

I'm taking a Helicopter tour at the Twelve Apostles!
There are 3 videos in the slide show of the flight!

View from the air!!! Pictures don't do it justice. Look in the slideshow for more.

146km drive on the Princes Highway to get back

Map

View Larger Map

Slideshow of all photos...

View Album

Melbourne! National Gallery of Victoria

On Sunday, April 12th we went to the National Gallery of Victoria, they had all sorts of art and sculptures from all regions of the world. They even had a contemporary section (It all looked like Ikea furniture).

Website: http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/

Hangin' out on some steps beside the Gallery.

'57 Bugatti.. it even had a scratch on the fender.

Bugatti Engine

Bugatti race car

17th Century Tibetan Buddah

Christian sculptures

1971 Coloured Beeswax on wood...

Fiber optic ladder with a mirror on top and bottom...you look down and it keeps going down. Pretty neat.

Slideshow of all photos...

View Album

Melbourne!

W e arrived in Melbourne around 9:00pm on Saturday, April 11th. Falen picked us up at the airport and took us back to her place to drop our things off. Then we went out for some awesome Italian pizza and found the Starbucks!!! mmmm how I missed Starbucks!

Shot from the plane to Melbourne

My room in Melbournes at Falens place...so Victorian.

Awesome Italian Lamb Pizza

Ahhh Starbucks at last!

A cool building in the city.

Anand & Falen, We went for some real Sushi on Sunday..along with a little bit of Sake.

After this we went to the Art Gallery....I'm leaving that out for another post.

Rock! Bang!...You had to be there. In the evening we went to see the comedian Kevin Brennan since the Melbourne International Comedy Festival was on!

I'm skipping Monday..it'll get it's own post too..

A cool shot of the city and the train station, we just wandered around the city Tuesday morning before we took off to Sydney. Eureka Tower in the background...hey, why don't we go to the top of that?