The Great Ocean Road

The Great Ocean Road (GOR) is a 243 km stretch of road along the south-eastern coast of Australia between the Victorian cities of Torquay and Warrnambool. The road was constructed as a Memorial to those killed in the First World War. It is one of Australia's great scenic coastline drives.

GOR starts at Torquay and travels westward to the outskirts of Warrnambool. The road forms about 90% of B100 (previously designated as State Route 100), the remaining 10% known as the Surfcoast Highway which joins Geelong to Torquay.

We Conquer part of GOR, on the 29/12/2008, we started our journey from Doncater East to Port Campbell on the GOR, it took us about 4 hour via the inland route.


and coming back we took the GOR route. The journey back was challenging, long and winding road. 

while we are on the GOR we visited :-

God's Wonderful Creations

The Grotto

London Arch 

(formerly known as London Bridge before collapse of land section)

The Arch

Thunder Cave

The Blowhole

Elephant Rock

The Nobbies

The Nobbies (Phillip Island) - a magnificent headland with boardwalks and lookout points offering spectacular coastal views. But there's much more to see than great views - the main drawcard of The Nobbies is the chance to view Australia's largest colony of fur seals, located 1km offshore. Up to 16,000 seals gather at Seal Rocks, with the number peaking during breeding season from October to December. 

Watch the seals sunning themselves on the rocks, feeding their young, wrestling, or flopping into the cool water. From the boardwalks at The Nobbies you can watch their transformation from ungainly land creatures to swift, sleek marine dwellers twisting and rolling in the clear waters. For a closer look, visit the new Nobbies Centre which has just opened on the headland. The centre features state-of-the-art animal viewing technology, via a camera positioned on Seal Rocks that can be steered by visitors to zoom in on their favourite seal. Also onsite are educational displays about marine life, a café and upstairs function centre.

The Blowhole

Ryan's Kinder Concert

This is Ryan's 1st & last Kinder Concert.
Next year he will be going to prep school.

Phillip Island! - Churchill Island, Koala Conservation Centre & Penguin Island

We finally made it to Phillip Island last Saturday. Was supposed to take mum and dad there, but it didn't work out the last trip. planning to bring them in February. for this trip, we were on a 3-park pass (was good value for money, but I seriously doubt I'ld do 3 passes again). Passes are cheaper if you book through RACV - have to be a member though. Our car insurance is with them, so it qualifies. Usually the penguin ticket alone is $20, but with this RACV benefit, the 3 park pass is $28.50 or so and the family ticket (2 adult + 2 children) is about $70 or so. can't remember the exact figure.

the weather was beautiful. Sunny, but not blazing hot, and not pouring rain either.


we started off at Churchill Island


the good thing about going out with others is that we get to take a family pic =)


Elijah and Sarah are lots of fun


and my cousin Irene managed to come along too, so we really had a great time! Hope she's willing to come out together more often =)


Sarah's been great with the kids... and horses... hehe


I think Elijah was keen to see if Irene might someday become a vet...


I don't know what's going on here, but it sure is cute =)


and everywhere that the guy went, the lamb was sure to go. seriously, he said he's been taking care of this lamb since it was young and the lamb considers him to be its parent. hehe.


Noel was amazing, he went up to the goat all by himself as I watched from a short distance (the goat was tied, and Noel seemed to figure that part out, which he was quite thrilled about). So, he spent quite awhile with Mr.Goat, feeding him handful by handful...


and Mr.Goat was happy too


As good as Elijah may be with the kids, credit goes to Sarah for taking a really nice shot =)


We also went to the Koala Conservation Centre (Park 2 of 3). Not that many Koalas, possibly about 10 or so, but you can get really close to some of them


like this


After that, we went to the Nobbies (free entrance) and used the seal camera to take pictures of some seals on the rocks in the distance.
[sorry, seal pictures not scanned yet]

funnily enough, although the scenery was really nice, we were all too busy eating fish and chips (which wasn't very nice) and totally forgot to take a pic. so, I'm copying this off the Philip Island website:


Then, the highlight of it all, we finally went to Penguin Parade... and its not our fault that we don't have pics - photography is strictly prohibited. So, once again, taking from their website:


these penguins are smaller than you think. they're about the height of a seagull ... and seagulls aren't large birds... soooooooo cute...... need to see them again... =)

Plants - 26/10/08

Dad/Grandpa planted some stuff with the kids earlier, so here's a progress report =)

Honestly, I did not remember to water it everyday, but I did see Noel trying to do it today, so ... yes, I went on to water the plants today. Hope I remember tomorrow =) Just bought Noel a little watering can (after the picture was taken) so maybe he'll do the watering for me instead =D


Here's the french beans... looks like I'm supposed to do something with it soon, but I cant remember what... was I supposed to poke sticks in? I've got satay sticks but that may not suffice...


these ones are coming out of the ground... can't remember what its called...


these ones are really tiny, but they're also coming out.


and these are the sunflowers that the kids planted with grandpa during the Royal Melbourne Show