50%, Twelve Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge, London Bridge, and more!

You read that right. Saturday, April 13th was my halfway point! I am officially over halfway through my study abroad experience. All of us here agree that it both feels as though we just got here and as though we've been here forever. I can guarantee that the second half of this trip will fly by faster than the first half did. This week of class is week 7, next week we have off, and then weeks eight, nine, ten, eleven, and then our study period before final exams begin. And then I'm home. Next week for the break I'm staying with Em's family for the first few days, and then going to Sydney with Nina and her friend from Canada. There'll be posts about that, but this post is dedicated for the last week-ish!

I hope you took the time to watch the video I put together of our trip, and even more so I hope you enjoyed it! (If you haven't seen it, it is included in the post right before this one.) Even before the trip, though, on Thursday Em and I went to a 70s themed party. We met so many interesting people, including a poet who wrote a poem for Matt and me on the spot. We got into a deep conversation about good and evil with a chemistry student who wound up buying us both a drink and then leaving with a "I had a great time talking with you, I'm heading over to the Deck, have a safe night." No ulterior motives whatsoever. Just a nice guy.

Saturday morning, we boarded a bus and left on our Great Ocean Road trip but on by Deakin Res. Our first stop was in Colac for some morning "tea" aka breakfast. The McDonalds here are ridiculous. This one had a separate counter for its coffee, and it looked like an actual small cafe. There was also a pastry counter with fresh pastries. I got an english muffin with strawberry jam (try ordering that at McKum & Go). We got back on the road and headed to our first stop, the Twelve Apostles. The Twelve Apostles are a limestone rock formation near some beautiful cliffs in Port Campbell.

After seeing the Twelve Apostles, we headed to Loch Ard Gorge. In 1873 the Loch Ard left England for Melbourne, and unfortunately met its untimely demise just a day away from its destination. The area it wrecked has therefore been named the Loch Ard Gorge. Another beautiful area, this time with some caves and other rock formations.

For lunch we headed to Port Campbell for some chips. Nina and I decided to explore a bit, wandering out onto a jetty and heading to the grocery store for a post card and some surprisingly cute grocery store earrings. The water was clear enough to see the plant life on the bottom!

After lunch, we headed to another rock formation called London Bridge. The rock had resembled a bridge before collapsing in the early 1990s. People had previously been able to walk out to the (now) freestanding section but obviously cannot anymore. The name "London Bridge" was given to the rock before it collapsed....can anyone say "self fulfilling prophecy?"

Fun fact: Gel (the woman to the right most in the black sunglasses) has a sister-in-law who lives in West Des Moines with her family! Of all the places in the United States, her family lives less than two miles away from mine. Such a small world.

By this point in the day we were pretty exhausted, so we headed to our accommodation at Deakin's Warrnambool campus for the night. We rented out two mansions that each house 21 people and Gel and Jono (both staff from Deakin Res) made us dinner before we headed out to Flagstaff Hill.

I didn't take a ton of pictures at Flagstaff Hill, but I did take some video which I'll add at the end of this post. Flagstaff Hill reminded me of Living History Farms, but it was so much cooler than that. We were given lanterns and walked down a path through the "main town" area before sitting across the town on the edge of the pond. As soon as we were seated is when the sound and lights show began. A fountain came up from the middle of the pond spraying water to make a "screen" that was backlit by a projector and speakers around us provided the sound. This method was used to describe the Aboriginal belief of the Dreamtime (creation). The entire presentation basically told the story of the area, including the whaling business and ending with the story of the Loch Ard. Sometimes the water projector was used, sometimes a screen would come down to tell a portion, and sometimes various parts of the town lit up and different voices came out. All in all it was a super cool experience and we learned a ton!

Nina, Daniel, and I got up early the next morning to see the sunrise and we were not disappointed!

The next morning, we headed to Tower Hill. It's here that I have to stop and acknowledge our awesome bus driver who managed to navigate a stick shift coach bus down some steep cliffs and around some tight switchbacks. Tower Hill is a traditional Aboriginal site where 36,000 years ago a volcano erupted and where today three dormant volcanoes reside. Irish settlers arrived in the late 1800s and effectively stole the land from the indigenous people, deforesting the beautiful area until nothing remained but a painting done before the invasion. Some school children in the early to mid 1900s wanted to restore the area to its previous state, and for the last nearly 100 years conservationists have been using the painting as a guide for what plants and trees to plant. The area is beautiful now and the wildlife have returned and roam freely. On our walk we saw a very very VERY deadly snake, some koalas, some emus, and a wallaby. We also got the opportunity to throw a boomerang and our host showcased spear throwing. The area was absolutely gorgeous, although at night it is allegedly haunted. (I took more videos than pictures, which I will include at the end.)

On our way back to Waurn Ponds we stopped in Lorne for lunch. I already know that I will miss good, authentic fish and chips in America. The kind that come hot out of the frying pan in butcher paper, with salt sticking to the paper.

Tomorrow, Nina and I are going to take a beach day because we've got a mini heat wave of high 80s degree weather. Love you all and as always, thinking of you!

The water projection telling of the Dreamtime at Flagstaff Hill.

The screen portraying some Australian history, also at Flagstaff Hill.

Our guide at Tower Hill demonstrating the spear.

Demonstrating the boomerang.

A koala!