Great Ocean Walk - finale

Day 4 Cape Otway to Aire River 9.7
Tired, grumpy and dirty I resentfully packed up the tent for the last time and taped up my feet to ensure they would survive another day. I trudged most of the final walk cursing Cheryl for bringing so much stuff she couldn’t share the carrying of the tent. My feet were hurting, my hips were hurting, I was bitten by mosquito’s and feeling a little sunburnt.
Somehow no one else was feeling my pain, or crankiness as they powered on up ahead in soft sand. I spent most of the day miles behind the rest of the group – catching up only when they stopped for a photo op or scroggin break. Jay’s unnerving cheeriness was even getting on my nerves, and I’m sure, had I complained out loud Natasha would have carried my bag as well as hers.
So I sucked it up, ate my final chocolate, took some more asthma medication, had a go at Cheryl for not carrying the tent and trudged on.
We had started insanely early this morning, due to me having to catch an evening plane. We had left our campsite at around 8. Before we knew it we could spot the bridge where we’d left the car, and arrived in record time at 1030 – the last 200 metres was ridiculous – I didn’t think I could lift my boots for one more step.
Sitting down and taking off my boots for the last time – towelling off the repellent and sunscreen we all fantasised about what meal we’d have back in Apollo Bay for lunch. The streak, chips and beer I had was the best thing I’d ever tasted. Glancing around the bistro at the groomed tourists we sat in a corner in our sweaty, unwashed group and realised we didn’t really belong there.

Great Ocean Walk Day 3

Day 3 Blanket Bay to Cape Otway 10.5 (aka the low point)
The beginning of day three came with a decision point – these yellow flags indicated where you could walk a bit inland or along the beach and rocks – this usually required some knowledge of the tides. We opted for the rocks as they were far more interesting than sandy hills. After an hour we decided that these were getting increasingly dangerous and sent the alpha males out to scout ahead – it appeared that there was only more than the same so we backtracked (which is my favourite thing to do). So an hour later, we were on the right track to begin our 10ks walk.
Today was the day we headed for the lighthouse, I was looking forward to having something to aim for. This was probably the least scenic day, and hill after hill followed by 4WD track felt a little unrewarding. It was also the day I joined the blister club. The lighthouse was also unrewarding as it was $14 to go have a look. We had to satisfy ourselves with soft drink and ice cream instead of the beer steak and chips we had been fantasising about.
Cape Otway was a leafy campsite with what looked like a fire pit which we were more than happy to put to use (uber carefully). The guest book in this campsite contained multiple references to Koalas and their nightly goings-ons. At one point in the night I thought Cheryl’s snoring was calling them over.

Great Ocean Walk Day 2

Day 2 Elliott Ridge to Blanket Bay 11.6
We had braced ourselves for day 2, as it was to be our longest day, 15ks according to our fearless leader, although the website seems to think it’s 11.6. I guess we’ll never know. We creaked our way off our self-inflating mattresses (those who had brought them – alpha male thought he didn’t need one), and found all our sore bits from the day before. Three hours later we were ready to go.
Day two was so much easier than anticipated. No soul-destroying hills were to be had, and we praised ourselves on our excellent time, regularly stopping for photo ops and scroggin (trail mix for Victorians) breaks. Lots of sandy paths and mosquito’s, and imagine our surprise when we landed at Blanket bay around midday.
By far my favourite campsite, the walk in site was right on the beach and not nearly as damp or surrounded by trees. We collapsed in our own way – boys sorting out their stomaches and girls sorting out their feet (mostly into thongs). After some tent pitching, toilet discovering, Yoga and swimming (for some) we wandered around the bay and discovered more rock platforms and Koalas.
Some night cold tablets, sleep deprivation and freeze dried apple pie helped me to have the best sleep of the trip and we all slept in late (to 7) before hobbling out to see if the seals had made a pilgrimage to our beach (they hadn’t).

Great Ocean Walk

Day 1 Apollo Bay to Elliott Ridge 9.9kms
Not entirely sure what prompted me to think that a multi-day hike carrying my worldly possessions was a good idea. But somehow a few enthusiastic people and a lack of excuses had me researching an ultra light tent and packing things into glad bags for the 4 day hike.
We started at Apollo Bay, the plethora of cosy looking B&B’s had me thinking twice as we positioned a car 50ks down the track and had our final hot meal and beer before the pain.
The first bit of the walk was along the road and seeing civilisation whilst we all adjusted our turtle-like packs and got into a rhythm was oddly discomforting. The scenery was beautiful and in surprising fashion the weather in Victoria was stellar. We walked along beaches and we walked along rock platforms and we adjusted our packs and we compared weights (lightest Jay at about 9kilos, heaviest probably Ryan at around 28 as he decided to bring beer and whisky....in bottles). I came in around the 14 kilo mark with water and the tent.
Some of the signposts were a little unclear, so when the group stopped for a break and one of the alpha males headed off ahead I followed. Mostly in fear of him getting lost and dying of exposure and also fear that if I stopped I wouldn’t be able to start again. As we walked up and down hills and up and down hills all the while looking at the beach we may have continued across I became less and less sure we were going the right way. By this time we had gone too far to turn back. The day was getting longer and the mosquito’s were setting in, and I was getting slower and slower on the uphill bits. At a few forks we made ill-informed decisions (that oddly-enough turned out to be right) and kept plodding our way towards camp. Hills and more hills awaited our every turn and I’m pretty sure I started abusing the alpha male who had put us in this position. I had images of the rest of our group waiting at the camp site for hours having taken the easier beach-side route. The last and never ending hill was torturous – I didn’t know it was the last hill, so it was seriously soul-destroying. That is, until we saw a Koala – he was on a tree about 2 off the path and seemed to be awkwardly looking for a comfy position. He surveyed us disinterestedly as I attempted to take a pic without a flash and alpha male tried to take a pic with his mobile. At this point I heard children laughing – it wasn’t the delirium that alpha male thought was setting in but the evidence of a campsite not too far away.
Triumphantly we arrived in the campsite and attempted to find our walking buddies. But they were not to be found. It would appear that we did indeed take the only path up to the campsite and we had (slightly) beat everyone else up there, and they looked as beaten as we did (except Jay who had run up dumped his pack and returned to advise the other girls how long was left to boost their morale). Cheryl had even swapped her (20-something) pack with Natasha (15 kilo) to get to the top.
It was a leafy, damp campsite and we were happy to arrive before dark – particularly for those of us who hadn’t put up their tents before. There were loos, clean water...and as we discovered late at night mating wombats and crazy ducks (some weird noise of things moving in the trees that sounded like a toy being wound up).

Final Stop

Our final stop and last long drive was up to Christchurch. The grey skies and drizzly rain cleared as we headed north and tried to gauge how long it would take to get there. It seemed that this was a little longer than expected as we arrived in Christchurch at 4.58 to drop off the car by 5.

Our accommodation in Christchurch was relatively fancy as well with a Rydges special helping out and our first foray into our own queen size beds! Heaven.

Christchurch was pretty cool, very ye olde English with punting (kinda like a gondola) along the Avon river and lots of arty stuff. The arts markets on the weekend were a bit of a highlight as was the sitting in the sun (in a t-shirt) having a long lunch. We also shopped up a bit at my new favourite store which I saw in Napier but was having a sale here.

Home of Chocolate

Another long drive had us off to Dunedin, where I was only interested in doing the Cadbury tour. Dunedin is probably the most grey and dreary place I visited in NZ. It’s a uni town, so lots of cheap pubs, but not a whole lot for a tourist to do. The Lonely Planet says that the best things about Dunedin are out of Dunedin.

We went for the short drive out to the Otago Peninsula to see some seals and Penguins. Which was a pretty drive, but a little disappointing. We were too early for one type of penguin and lots of tourists were scaring the other one off, and there were only 2 seals to see. Much less than we saw on the road out of Kaikoura.

The chocolate was worth it, although the tour was a bit crap the samples were generously distributed and the shop supercheap. They had lots of different types of chocolate that I hadn’t seen before. And people were there buying up the whole shop – they couldn’t stack the shelves quickly enough.

Another location and another below par hostel, the manor house hostel had a policy of no keys which makes one feel a little uneasy, and wasn’t really close to anything.

The long way round

Those of you who have driven from the glaciers to Queenstown will know that there’s no road that looks even slightly direct. Rather than heading over the mountains there is a long drive around them to get to Queenstown. The scenery was rather middle-earth and I felt I should be wearing a long cloak and talking in poorly formed sentences.

The long drive was nothing compared to trying to find our hotel. The fuel light had come on as we entered town and as we lapped up and down Frankston St we were worried that we would run out of petrol before even finding our bed for the night. We’d found a bit of a bargain on wotif.com given the season and were staying in the nicest hotel of our trip. And the view was unbelievable. It would have been great to see some snow – but alas, the season did not humour us.

Queenstown did humour us with some yummy food, despite the 17% surcharge due to a public holiday. We tried some Bluff Oysters, which have been called the best in the world…and I have to say that they are. They were incredibly pricey, but well worth it.

We hadn’t really quite worked out how we were going to get to Milford Sound, but we knew we wanted to go. And it appeared that a 5hour each way bus ride was the answer. Milford sound was pretty and all, but not entirely worth the effort. The ride in seemed shorter than 5 hours and I was amazed that our bus driver talked non-stop the whole way, twas quite the feat.