Jan 129 min read

Our Great Ocean Road Roadie Part 4: THE MOST SCENIC DRIVE IN AUSTRALIA

Updated: Sep 20

Hi friends! Welcome to day 7 of our Great Ocean Road Roadie! This was probably the most scenic part of the drive we did and we loved ALL the stops along this part of the Great Ocean Road. It was a very special day for sure. I'm also loving learning more about blogging, vlogging, and video editing and really want to make this my main income/side hustle SOOOO if you're interested in helping me out in any way, please check out my shop of digital prints "here" and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE subscribe to my YouTube channel "here". You can even just leave the videos playing in the background. Anyway, it would mean the world, and being able to do something like this full-time would be epic and one of my dreams come true. Even just manifest good vibes my way! Let's get into day 7!

Day 7: Tanybryn to Warrnambool 2nd January 2024

Ah, we woke up super early and we'd packed everything the night before so we were pretty much ready to go. I was even in the shower at like 6:30am (which is pretty early for me rn) and come 7am, Luke noticed a beautiful King Parrot waiting outside the door. Our Air BnB host had left us a note to sprinkle birdseed out by the big trees and the King Parrots will come flocking but we hadn't seen any the whole time we had been there (but we had seen a bower bird, kookaburras, and heaps of crimson rosellas). We had a hunch that the King Parrots didn't like the dog that was staying next door but she'd left a day prior so I think we got lucky. Anyway, we ran to get the camera and our phones and went outside immediately and we were able to handfeed this wild parrot. It was honestly amazing. I do like birds, but I also like all the other wildlife too. It's amazing! But this was probably one of the most special moments of our trip. Mr. King Parrot stayed around for about half an hour before finally flying off. You do not know how special we felt and he was sooo gentle and very tidy too! We did feel a bit bad about leaving all the leftover birdseed on the porch but it was just a surreal magical experience and a real-life Disney Princess moment. I did have a giant pimple on my face at the time so that really annoys me but it was magic nonetheless and we thought, well, we obviously weren't meant to leave as early as we were planning (so thank you, Mr Parrot, you'll forever hold a special place in my heart). The symbolism of the King Parrot is related to "harnessing the brightness in life; it's a happy celebration of colour, new adventures, and self-development" and I think I'd been looking for signs that I was on the right new path and I think this was it for me. The owl at the first night here also helped. We also learned that when we got home, Luke's parents had gone to a funeral for someone's mum who Luke used to work with and there was a photo of this lady with a King Parrot on her shoulder (the funeral was the same day we had our King Parrot) - so he could have also been a spirit. Nonetheless, this moment was so magical and honestly made me cry.

It was finally time to get on the road so we said by to our new neighbours and hit the road! Our first stop of the day was Gibson Steps which I think Luke enjoyed way more than me. It was cool though don't get me wrong, I love nature and learning new things, but I think I just preferred a lot of the other stops along the road on this day. I also overheard someone say they saw a snake and we'd already gotten down to the beach so I was lowkey jealous because I wanted to see the snake too! But on the way back we did see him. I can't believe he was just chilling and I have no idea why I was so scared of them. Literally, nothing happened the two times I saw one. Beautiful creatures.

The second stop of the day was one I'd been waiting for ALL holiday and that was the 12 Apostles. I was really worried about getting a park but the visitor centre was huge and it was actually on the other side of the road, which I wasn't expecting. I did really struggle with the crowd at first but Luke had warned me prior and I think I was ready for it. We took lots of photos but other people's stuff kinda got in the way. We also overheard a tour group guide talking about how Little Penguins have a colony there AND I WAS LIKE OMG (dw, we did see them but that's for a later blog post). We also bought a cute frame with some penguins in from the shop. It was a stunning spot.

The third stop of the day was Loch Ard Gorge and this one was my absolute favourite of all the stops we did! There was SO much to do! And I loved all the stories to go with + the graveyard kinda got me excited. I was really excited with how much creepy stuff I learned on this trip too - it felt like a bit of dark tourism which was right up my alley. I would go into detail here but we did a bit in the vlog, so check that out AND I encourage you to do some reading too because I think that would really help. Reading is so good and I'm starting to get on a bit of a tangent. No Ashleigh, get back to writing. Ugh, I hate my name, hence why I go by Ash or Ashy. Anyway, we explored most of the walkways around Loch Ard Gorge until we saw that the rain was coming so we thought now would be a good time to gap it to Port Campbell and grab some lunch. We were right, but we did get to sit out the thunderstorm while we were here. It was kinda busy in all the lunch spots, but we found a super cute cafe where we got some coffees (dw, I was strictly back to Almond Milk at this point) and some toasties. Although, we were waiting forever. But they were super busy and the food was good so we'll cut them some slack. I can't remember the name of the place but we did have our first encounter with Duck Man (I think he may have been British - not sure) but there was this guy in the cafe and we assume his dad, who was wearing a rubber duck shirt - so colourful and both of them went up to the counter like 5 times which we were so confused about and just kinda people watching while we were waiting for our food but nonetheless, we discovered later on that he had a lot of kids with him and they might have just been doing different orders but it was stressful to watch and I just wanted to be like "how can you wear such a fun shirt and be so highly strung?" - and I genuinely don't mean that in a judgemental way and I guess I've been called highly strung in the past but ya know. Anyway, it was a yummy lunch and then I needed to use the bathroom but it was just too busy so we went and found some public ones near the water and they were pretty clean - probably the cleanest public bathrooms we'd come across the whole trip. So if you're stuck for a clean bathroom, the ones near the surf club in Port Campbell are okay!

Next stop was London Bridge and every time I say or hear that I just want to sing "London Bridge is falling down" etc... LOL. It's also kinda ironic because this one did fall down and I know I shouldn't laugh at things like that but it's just funny okay! The water was gorgeous here! And then after London Bridge, we headed down to The Grotto, which I had put on my to do list and then completely forgotten about. We did want to see The Arch too but I think that one is gonna be closed for a while. When we got to the steps, we saw that there were a lot of people waiting for their turn to take a photo in The Grotto and fair enough, it's a cool photo spot. However, they took a really long time and we could see others getting impatient. I was a bit of a menance and went down when I should have waited but I did take lots of photos for others and I hope they turned out cool. I feel like my stern photographer voice kinda came out and people just seem to listen to it? Yeah idk either, but it works. I gotta bring out more of that side of me at times because I'm a bad-ass bitch! Woo. Anyway, we got our photos and got out quickly but all the Aussies making jokes made it just a bit more bearable and when so many people are looking at you post for a photo, you gotta make a joke out of it, you just gotta! Hehe.

Next stop, Bay of Martyrs (which I really get confused with how to spell). But this was one place where we could finally get down on the beach - which with a nice breeze was so good to finally be able to get down somewhere. However, there were some people swimming in here and I don't think this is a great place to swim. Apparently, this is also a good spot to swim! And our final stop along the Great Ocean Road was the Bay of Islands and don't get confused with the Bay of Islands in NZ because they look nothing alike. But fun fact, one of the rocks here is called Tiramisu rock because it looks like a Tiramisu (hehe I think that's funny). Watch the vlog below to learn more!

So as our adventures along the Great Ocean Road had come to and end (well kind of), we kinda wished we stayed in Tanbryn for at least one more night but alas, we did have such a good time and we also said we'd go back to any of the spots if we could (and we did). Anyway, it was like 4ish by now and we'd made it to Warrnambool finally! I was kinda shocked that it had absolutely everything - I guess when you're from NZ, you expect country towns to be small and have nothing but this was cool. We quickly stopped in at Kmart to grab some socks because I had run out and had to borrow some of Luke's (I took my jandals thinking that there'd be a lot less days of hiking and where I could wear them so hence why I didn't take enough socks). Anyway, stopped for a bathroom break and headed down to our Air Bnb. It was a tiny home along the highway at the back of someone's farm. It was really cute (a little on the pricier side but we were paying for the experience overall - thanks Luke). Anyway, I had a bit of a panic because I didn't think there was a door on the bathroom, which we did find eventually (everything was maximised for space because it was a tiny home). Then because it was so hot, Luke wanted to go for a swim. I had recently gained a bit of weight and my togs weren't doing much for me so Luke lent me his rash top and he wore his wetsuit. We had a quick dip at Killarney Beach which I wasn't so sure about so didn't go too deep but it was a nice way too cool off. Then we quickly came back and washed all the sand off and headed to Kermond's for probably the most delicious burger I've ever had outside of NZ and I love a cheese burger. They even do spiders so you can feel like your 5 again! Spiders take me back to hot Sundays when dad would go and buy Fanta and vanilla ice cream and it was the best treat. I know some people do them with Coke, but it was the best so of course I ordered one. You don't know how good this burger was. The menu confused me a little because of how it was written but Luke had it figured out and was way ahead of me. But I think I ate the whole damn burger really fast and we'd eaten snacks throughout the day so I don't think it was just being hungry from all the walking. BUT SERIOUSLY, if you're there, you must get a burger.

Then it was bedtime, we were kinda tossing up about whether or not to find somewhere to watch the sunset (and in hindsight, we should have) but we just watched it from the Air BnB and it was super pretty to watch. The sunrise on day 8 also woke us up early but we hadn't planned on getting up early - ahh we'll have to go back!

Here are some photos from day 7!