Melbourne

After Sydney, we flew to Melbourne, rented a car, and drove along the Great Ocean Road. We had heard great things about it and were not disappointed. Adam was a champ at driving on the left side of the road and we cruised the coast for two days, staying in a hostel at the far end before heading back to Melbourne the next day.

From beach to rain forest, we were overwhelmed by the beautiful coastline and national parks. We stopped whenever we wanted to swim and take naps on the beach, hit up a lighthouse, grabbed lunch and dinner in quaint little beach cities, saw koalas and kangaroos (!) thanks to a local who told us where to find them, and ended the first day at The 12 Apostles where we watched the sunset. The next day was more of the same.

Driving the Great Ocean Road is a must in our book if you ever go to Melbourne.

This may have been our favorite beach. It's a total mirror!

Excuse my non-pointed toe:

 

Is this real life?

The 12 Apostles, my favorite sunset of the trip:

Day Two:

You can't tell from the angle, but if Adam has reached up his hand and jumped a little, he could have touched this little guy. That's how close we were!

I loved these trees:

We may have stopped at the same golf course (and we may have snuck in the back) to see the kangaroos again on our way back to Melbourne. They are used to golfers walking around, so they didn't mind us getting up close and personal with them. This is still crazy to me.

After seeing things that (we thought) couldn't get more beautiful, we slept in Melbourne that night and hopped on a super early flight to Auckland, New Zealand, where we ended our trip. Pictures to come...