12 Apostles:: Loch Ard Gorge

the north-western segment of the great ocean rd playes host to the famous natural rock formations called the 12 apostles. the standalone limestone rock structures were once a part of the protruding shore line heads (maybe some of them even had look-outs). the waves of wind and water (both from ocean and rain) took its toll from the sides and back of these heads to wedge out the apostles. we won't see all 12 of them from any point on the shore line. quite arguably, there were never 12 of them. they attained this name as a mere dignified replacement for a more sheepish previous title 'the sow and the piglets'. i like the name 12 apostles:: its more befitting their ipseity in my opinion. besides, who would drive 3hrs from melbourne to see piglets anyway.

one of the first signs we saw after entering the park, or rather the first that we paid attention to, was this one:


no, we haven't seen any, but this was the first sign of seeing one. :)

a few minutes drive from the apostle view point was the shipwreck coast. it is called so, beacuse of the famous loss of loch ard. neighbouring the wreck site, are other formations:: the ever falling london bridge, the blowhole, the gibson steps, and the grotto.

eeh, let me not bother with the tragic story now. you guys can read it here if you are interested. took a bunch of pickies again and posted them here.

Phillip Island:: Penguin Parade

573:: that was the number of penguins that swam out from the ocean and marched to their burrows on phillip island on the day we visited them.

phillip island is a small, well connected island off the coast of melbourne bay. and we probably wouldn't have made the 1.5 hr drive from melbourne, if it weren't for this collegue, who was good enough to mention the pengiuns. and boy, would we have missed it.

sunset time every day this time of the year, a whole bunch of miniature penguins swim to the shores of the island to take a long 100 m walk to their burrows. they almost always swim out around sunset time, which is i guess their way of saying that they are done with their day's work:: fish hunting and fasting/feasting (depending on how their day went). now, if it makes any of you over-stressed, cubicle-dwelling, nerdish workaholics feel any better, the penguins, and not the sun, damn well decide when they end the day:: mostly, after sunset. their biological clock makes that decision for them, brings them home before the last glimmers of sun's rays fade away.

we took a walk through the burrows, on a small wooden padestal walk way, no more than 2 ft high, and had an up-close view of the birds. photography, unfortunately, is not allowed: not because the flashes would scare the penguins away, but because they would come closer and hurt you. you see, penguins are cute to look at but when we approach them within 1-2 ft, they begin to peck us with their beaks and sometimes, quite furiously so: especially near their burrows. so we couldn't take any pictures, but if you feel like you need a peek, check this out.

Surf Coast:: Great Ocean Rd

truely: the great ocean road!! just when i thought california's hwy 1 was unbeatable!!

on the second day of the melbourne trip, we out towards the surf coast. the coast spreads wide from geelong to lorne, facing tasmania. in case you haven't guessed yet, it is famous for surfing. due to the arguable confluence of the indian and the pacific oceans, the waves here in summer are phenominally attractive to surfers and surfing contest organizers alike. though we saw a decent number of surfers in angelsea and torquay, having found little evidence to overshadow santa barbara's surfing enthusiasm, we resigned to the fact that its winter, with unamicable weather, and no contests. the scenic beauty through the journey there was compensating enough nonetheless.

the great ocean road starts at surf coast and for most part, hugs the oceans:: first the pacific and then the indian, all the way till adelaide. much like hwy 1, it passes along numerous cliffs, beaches, and small towns. what makes it even more beautiful is contrast of the colors around:: the ocean is a pale transparent green in some places (near beaches), but mostly it is bright blue: the rolling hills are covered with freshly grown light green moss and bright green trees: the cliffs, since the land is young, display peachy yellow sandstone:: making the view greeting-card perfect. dont believe what i am talking about? check this out, or this one, or this one for that matter.

there have been many beautiful towns on the great rd, like the lorne which hosts the erskine falls, lavers hill which has the johanna beach, or cape otway where one of the famous light houses is located. but the one place with exceptional location and unsurpassable beauty that i have ever come across is appollo bay. this place holds so much beauty and instantly captivating warmth that i felt like settling down here. the calmness of the mountains, the grace of the valley, the beauty of the beach coupled with the glory of the ocean made the place magical. this was taken on the way back when we were approaching it from the mountains. *sigh* some day, i'll return.

after we crossed appollo bay, we entered the otways:: vast greenlands with interspersed rain forests. apart from its scenic beauty, the otways boasts of having the worlds longest tree-top walk. yeah, thats exactly what it sounds like, a walk that takes you from the top branches of one tree to another on a man made canopy. though we did not walk it, we took a bunch of pickies of the otways and the great rd:: you can see them here.

Melbourne:: Week 6

it was the queen's b'day last weekend, well.. not really. her b'day was sometime during the week before or the week after, no one i asked really knows for sure. but nonetheless, monday was a national holiday for being the day of the queen's b'day. (you must have guessed it by now that it is not the current queen we are talking here.) ozzies do not have many public holidays in the first place, this being one of the 3 or 4 (there is this and there are x-mas, easter, and ... whatelse.. of yeah, the day after x-mas). so why not celebrate it in style. and rightly so, we flew to melbourne!!

after an hr flight from sydney, we reached avalon. avalon is separated from melbourne by about 40 mins drive and hosts the airport. you would think that it might be a suburb of melbroune, right? well, no. avalon is a place in the middle of nowhere. it is filled with nothingness except the airport and ofcourse its parking lot. and there is nothing around the airport, just green grass and some intermittent trees. as far as the eye can see. of yeah, and some really healthy grazing sheep too. once we got out of the plane, we rented a car and headed straight to the city.

melbourne is a much smaller city (a town?) than sydney and not as cosmopolitan. but, it is more ozzie. it is filled with ozzie culture, with old churches (well, relatively old) and, for some odd reason, with public parks. the city aligns itself on either side of the Yarra river and, as such, is beautiful. it is also the sporting hub of oz. we went down to the famous mcg (melbourne cricket ground), which was huge btw, and to rod lever arena, where we clicked this.

it is fall in oz. sydney being closer to california-type weather, we did not notice the changes much, but melbourne experiences the snowy weather, and therefore more susceptible to the apparent fall colors. the hues on the trees in almost all the parks we visited (most of them memorial) were pretty cool. it reminded me of up-state newyork. the biggest park had a remembrance memorial, for all the warriors oz lost in ww2.

while we checked out the city for the better part of the day, we took a break from it that evening and the next day, only to return the following morning. like always, we took a bunch of pickies (ozzie for pics, they tend to do this for quite a few words:: oz football is footy, chips are chippies, presents are prezzies, and barbeques are barbies). check them out.

Rain:: Cold

its been raining in Sydney for the last week and a half. i got drenched while getting home from work a couple of days in a row, and now, i have a cold!! :(

pretty bummed out about the fact i couldn't do much last weekend, except lie in bed and watch tv. we gathered a bunch of Indian movies over the last month or so (either borrowing from coworkers or buying them). most of them turned out to be rip offs of some of the hollywood movies we have seen earlier: yikes!! interlaced between the french open, southpark/simpsons re-runs, England-Srilanka test match, and holly/bollywood movies (most of them were outright beat-ups anyway), we saw a couple of not-too-bad ones (or so it appeared):: virudd and iqbal.

next week, weather and health permitting, we'll probably head out to melbourne!! for now, i am kinda looking fwd for that.

Movies:: Luxury theatres

the cinemas here, interestingly enough, have different caders, which is unlike everywhere else i have been. no, not seating caders, i am used to seeing different levels of seating in the theatres back home. but here, there are a seperate set of theatres called the luxury theatres or first/gold class cinemas, which offer a complete "dinner and a movie" package. it is pretty sweet.

the size of the hall is a little smaller than the regular cinema hall. the seating is pretty much like the first class airline seating: guess thats where they got their name. the seats can be completely reclined and you can watch the movie like in a la-z-boy at home. you have the option of having dinner while watching the movie or before the movie. if you go with the former, they serve it to you hot inside the cinema. totally awesome!! you probably will pay through your nose, but who cares about the nose when your eyes and tummy are happy.

pj and i watched a movie in one of these cinemas, called:: govinda's (didn't know if the name is based on the Lord, or the movie actor, or the owner untill we went in). they had an Indian buffet before the movie. it was a very nice experience, dining on good Indian food before lying down to watch a movie. the first thing that occurred to me when i stepped in, was that we should definetly have these gold class cinemas in the US. the entire experience is so nice that people will completely lap it up!!