Melbourne-day 5

IWOW! Oh my gosh, today was absolutely incredible. Of all of my tours I had planned this one probably wouldn't have made top 5 before today. Oh my gosh, best day ever!!!! 

First of all, our tour meeting spot was literally two doors down from my hostel (thank you Andrew for calling for me!) We jumped on a smaller bus today, only 24, for the great ocean road tour. The tour guide was amazing and played amazing music the whole time (which of course bumped it to the next level for me!) (oh, and he plays the didgeridoo!) Kinda bummed out because it was still raining this morning, we headed out of Melbourne. We passed a few beautiful vineyards and about an hour out we hit the great ocean road. Seriously, right as we hit great ocean road it was like God opened his arms and said, "here michelle, I want this to be perfect for you". It stopped raining, the sun came out and it was the most beautiful day!  For about two hours straight, on my left i saw views such as these... 

And on my right I saw views such as these... 

So amazing. I kept getting goosebumps because it was so pretty. My neck also hurt because I couldn't decide which way to look!!! 

We made a pit stop for "toilets" and snacks. I saw my FIRST koala in the wild!!! Little did I know, this was soon to be wayyyy outdone! 

Our driver said to keep an eye out for wild parrots and he said you could buy bird seed and feed them. I was like, ha no thanks!! A few people bought seed and started feeding them, then close to 50 parrots came over to the group and were all over everyone!!! I was very happy to just stand back, laugh, and take pics...

 I hate birds, they fall into the same category as fish for me. So terrified. I started walking back to the bus, and I stopped and was like, NO, I'm going to do this! So I got a girl to grab my camera and I grabbed birdseed, besides the sound of me squealing, the picture says it all... 

They got on my HEAD!!! I had tears rolling down my face (not sure if they were from fear or from laughing so hard) and I was shaking for the next 30 mins! 

FIRST time to touch a bird, feed a bird, AND have a bird on my head! 

I felt like the pigeon lady on Home Alone. 

We keep driving down Great Ocean Road and our driver said to be on the lookout for koalas. He pulls over at one point and I walked down the street, they were in almost every tree I walked by. Lets play a game, how many can Koalas can you spot in this pic? 

FOUR!! Isn't that so cool? I seriously was walking down the street by myself just LoLing. We at one point had to stop the car because a Koala was crossing the road, seriously, just like a cow crossing the road in Texas. Haha! I took a video, they are so funny to watch walking! 

Do you know what the number one killer of Koalas is?? Chlamydia..hmmm, Lindsey, you'll have to explain that one to me... 

We stopped and had lunch at a lighthouse, check out my lunch view-- I should seriously go into the postcard business...

I climbed the stairs to the top of the lighthouse and snapped this photo (haha I'm already talking like an Aussie!) 

I had some sort of fritter for dessert, it was cereal with raisins covered in chocolate-- cereal and chocolate, my two favs!! And gluten free! There are actually more restaurants over here that do gluten free stuff, I thought I'd be a weirdo but everyone so far knows exactly what is gluten free! It's awesome! 

We continued down ocean road and stopped at the 12 apostles. Goosebumps again! Not sure if it was because it was sooo cold and it started raining or if it was because of how magnificent it was! It was one of those awe-struck moments where you have to just stand there and marvel. I really wish my family and friends were there to experience it with me, but I kind of liked being alone to just stand there by myself and take it all in. The sky is a lot darker in the pic than it actually was, but somehow this pic looks awesome!! Again, I feel like my life this week has been a series of postcards. 

There were helicopter rides here that our driver said were "the best way to see it", they were 10 mins for $100. I was in line, ready to continue with the whole "no regrets" theme of this trip and go for it, then I started doing math and I chickened out (i was also a bit carsick from the winding road- he was almost as bad as dad driving in Colorado) It's okay because I knew I was going to get to do a heli tour at the Great Barrier Reef and I still got an up close and personal look from the lookout!!! 

Next we stopped at Lord Arch Gorge, our driver told us this cool story about this man and woman that survived a shipwreck but got stuck down here. The man climbed the big rocks to save the lady- it was a cool story, I wanted them to fall in love and get married, but she gave him the boot. Darn. 

This moment was almost at the same level of awesomeness as our "green beach excursion" in Hawaii. 

I'm really glad I wore my expensive brand new boots today- really got to break them in tromping through sand, mud, water, and even Koala poo. I guess that's what they were made for, right?! :) 

I met a super sweet girl, Elicia, who is from Sydney but traveling for the first time alone this week in Melbourne. We buddied up all day and swapped stories about Australia and Texas. We spent the whole ride home (3hrs) playing Texas and Australia music back and forth for each other. It was so fun! I was hoping to catch a nap, but i just couldn't pass up a single second of this day!!! She is staying about 5 mins down the road from me so we are going to go grab dinner together tonight and see the town!! We are actually going to go to a real well known Italian restaurant in the area. So excited! I'm going to invite Faye too! I love meeting all these people from around the world! I feel like we are all just looking to experience new things and learn more about each other's worlds. For example, Faye told me this morning that Facebook is banned in China!!! She was so excited that she could actually get on Facebook here! Wow! The things you take for granted! God Bless America! 

What better of a way to end an awesome day than with an awesome sunset?! 

This has seriously been the most incredible experience ever.