Hot Stuff

Day 161- We may have finished the Great Ocean Road drive but we still had some driving to do to get back to Melbourne. Also we were hungry... I found a little food gem while searching online so we made that the goal for the afternoon. After a bit of traffic through Melbourne we stopped for one of Australia's National dishes, the meat pie. And oh what a meat pie it was.

                        

Next stop was the Peninsula Hot Springs. 17 natural hot mineral pools beautifully landscaped in the most stunning scenery. I was excited when I found the hot springs online and even more excited to see that they were near the area we needed to be the next day. The entrance fee was $35 dollars, which gave us access to all 17 pools, the turkish bath, the sauna, the steam room and the many cold plunge pools throughout the compound. 

The most popular hot pool is the one at the top of the hill and everyone squeezes in to get their spot for the sunset. 

Not that we needed much relaxing but Mike checked all his tension at the front desk with his clothes.

The designer who created the place did a fantastic job at giving each pool something unique. This one had a cave. 

This one had massaging bubbles. 

It was a great way to spend an evening after two full days of driving and we left feeling relaxed and ready for a snooze. 

Day 162- We had a rough sleep after listening to fellow campers play loud music all night while doing burnouts and we wanted nothing more than to pull up to them in the morning and blast our music for them to hear but we are adults and we are bigger than that. Also, they were up before us playing music and happily eating breakfast... HOOOOOOOOOOOOW!?

After some coffee and breakfast of our own, we made our way to Phillips Island. Why you ask? Well because Phillips Island is home to the fairy penguins. These cute little creatures come in everynight to to their burrows on the beach. We were excited to see some penguins but they don't come out until night so we had some time to kill. First we hit the local beach on the island to do a workout and swim in the waves. Next we hit up a coffee shop to work on the blog and do some research. The coffee shops don't stay open very late in Australia so we had to move along and we found a great little spot to blog.

This art studio was just what I needed to get my creativity flowing and to get words on the screen. Although when the artist himself showed up he wasn't too please to see us set up in his open house art exhibition. Oops.

After listening to hours of Shantaram(audiobook) in the car we had a hankering for some Indian food so we found a cool spot and ordered up some naan. 

By the time dinner was finished it was time to head down to the penguin parade. We heard it was a little pricey and after reading some reviews online we read that we may be able to see the penguins elsewhere, without paying the fee. The Nobbies Center has set up a splendid walkway for tourists to see the coastline and if we were lucky, we would see some penguins. Oh and did I mention it was free? Cuz it was... free that is... free of charge... As in you don't have to pay... Sooooo that's nice.

We were lucky and not only did we see some penguins but we saw some baby penguins. 

This one was hiding but I fouuunndd him!!! <voice from Isla Fisher in Wedding Crashers>

On our way back to the car we noticed dozens of penguins all hiding in their burrows. At the time we didn't know they were baby penguins until a man told me not to take photos of them. Apparently these are the babies waiting for their parents to come in at night to feed them. The man said that they get really stressed when people get too close and after learning this I felt absolutely terrible. The photo you see below is not zoomed in, nor was I zoomed in when I took it, that is how close I got. (sad face) Sorry itty bitty little penguin if I scared you. 

On the way out of the Nobbies, we were surrounded by wildlife and I finally got to see my first wild wallaby. Again, try that word on for size with an Australian accent. Fun right? 

Oh, and not just one, many!

                            

We also saw these weird birds all over the roads.

We made our way to a BP truck stop for the night.

Day 163- This whole day was spent getting organized, cleaning out the campervan, packing and dropping off our stuff at a hostel. Once we were all settled into our new digs it was time to drop off JP. It was like on the last episode of Survivor, when the remaining survivors walk the beach to remember all the other contestants that joined them on their journey. Mike and I took a minute to reminisce about our journey with JP. After 44 days, 9118 kms, surviving Charlie, too many days without a shower, countless overnights at truck stops, many avoided animal crossings, animal encounters, rainy days, stuffy nights, no personal space, winding roads, beautiful beaches, intolerable flies, incredible scenery, buzzing mosquitoes, countless vistas, pasta dinners and who knows how many times we turned on the windshiled wipers while trying to signal, we were sending JP back to his family. It was a wild ride, one we will never forget and we were sad it had to come to an end. 

We felt like we'd lost an old friend after we left JP so we went to the mall, hoping that buying stuff would lift our spirits. It didn't lift them entirely but it helped. We got home fairly late and our shared 8 bed dorm just wasn't as intriguing as it should have been after sleeping in a van for 44 days. We grabbed some dinner at Pie Face, which is a fast food spot for meat pies and quite tasty. Then we evacuated our room for a fire alarm that went off late night. Mike claims that I did it on purpose to see all the firefighters... I plead the 5th. 

We stayed up a little too late to watch the season finale of Survivor and attempted to sleep the night away. 

Day 164- With a surprise on my mind all night I was unable to fall sleep without thinking I was going to miss my alarm. What's the surprise? I'm glad you asked. 

Just a little something for Mike to wake up to on HIS BIRTHDAY!!!!!! I must say, it took more effort to pull off a few balloons than you'd think. Have you ever put tape on a balloon then pulled it off? Well if not I'll tell you what happens, they pop, and I didn't want to subject our 6 neighbours to such a rude awakening, so I needed to be stealthy. Haha at one point Mike actually woke up a bit and I slid down flat on the floor right beside him, with a half blown up balloon still in my mouth. It was intense. 

We had a whole day of fun planned for Mike's big day and the first task of the day was to get to our tee time. It was finally going to happen, Mike would get to golf. We had a game booked at the golf course across from the Royal Melbourne Golf course where some of the worlds bests go. Yes, across the street at the reasonibly priced public course... Buuuuut on hole #3 you can actually get a look at the high wall surounding the Royal. Pretty sweet right? haha. Oh yea and another thing to mention....it was a stinkin 42 degrees out!

If you look closely on the green in the photo above, you may be able to see Mike's ball on the green, that was after one shot. Yup, how sweet would a hole in one on his birthday have been?! He was off to a good start.

                         

If you look closely within the fallen leaves, you may be able to see Mike's ball in the bush, that was after one shot... Yup, his sweet start to the day was experiencing some adversity. Good thing they were rental clubs! 

After we both had great shots onto the green we were so excited that a jumping high five was the only way to let it all out. The camera always takes 3 photos in a row, which is unfortunate because it captured us missing the high five completely. 

Bahahahaha.

Due to the severe weather, the marshall came over on the 9th hole and told us they were closing the course because of the heat. The temperature had reached a sweltering 42 degrees and it was no longer safe to be in the sun. 

                      

Mike shot a 42 in 42 degree weather! Woohoo. And I got 2 pars! Yay!

We went to the clubhouse to have some lunch and some birthday beers and there was a man who looked like he was experiencing a stroke. He was unresponsive for a short time but it was enough to grab everyones attention and warrant a call to an ambulance. The heat was no joke. 

From the course we got into a cab to take us to the nearest train station. On the way, the car died from excessive heat. After he let it cool down for a bit, it came back to life. The heat was no joke. 

We returned to the hostel to shower up and refresh ourselves for the evening. We had planned Mike's birthday for some time in advance and had pre purchased tickets for the new Star Wars movie so we just needed to feed ourselves before the movie, but first, Mike was drawn down into a basement lounge by some cool music. We stayed for a drink and enjoyed the eclectic atmosphere. 

It looked like my parents old basement but smelt like my grandparents old shed! Mike loved it.

We went to 'Meat and Wine co.' for a delicious and tasty dinner. 

On our way to the movies we saw Grover playing bag pipes. 'nearrrrr..... pitter patter pitter patter.... farrrrrr'. Mike's mom does the best Grover impression apparently. 

Then we took a look at the city lit up at night. I begged Mike to let me take a nap all day but as many of his friends know, especially Tyler, when it's Mike's birthday, he gets his way. And he didn't want me to sleep, so as you can see, I can barely keep my eyes open. 

I LOVED Star Wars and I thought it was highly entertaining. Mike liked it too, at first but then thought it was 'too safe' and seemed like a 'remake of episode 6'. I don't want to spoil it for anyone so that is all I will say on the matter. All in all Mike seemed happy about how he spent his day! Mission accomplished.

Day 165- I enjoyed a well deserved sleep and we headed to the mall to take our best photo of the trip, to be sent home with our Christmas wishes for our friends and family. 

                    

This awkward photo took us 2 hours of waiting in line and $10 dollars. Worth all of it! And yes, I was aware of all the sweating, it's a talent of mine. My face could double as a slip-n-slide. I could blind the sun with the shine coming off my face. My face was used as the cover photo for the musical 'GREASE'. I reflected the camera flash like a laser beam off Captain Americas shield. The photographer was blinded for weeks after this shot. When I went to return the sweater, they said, 'KEEP IT!' The worst part is that we asked for a matte finish on the photo... Annnnnyhow.

We hung out at a cafe for a while before heading back to our hostel, although we got caught in a rain storm and needed to take cover under a historic law school buildings archway. 

                      

We packed, grabbed some dinner and headed to the bus station to catch our ride to Sydney.

Day 166- After a 12 hour overnight bus ride we finally arrived to Sydney. We checked into a dorm room at the Nomads backpacker hostel in downtown Sydney and it was possibly one of the worst places we'd stayed so far. As we walked into the locker room to lock up our camera and ipads, we noticed dead cockroaches all over the floor and the strong smell of chemical. They must had just sprayed some roach kill and we entered the room just as they were starting to drop! Nasty! We returned to the coffee shop with the super fast internet and Mike watched football while I blogged. 

At noon we had somewhere very important to be... it was time to pick up our passports and our India visas fromt he Indian Consulate. We were glad to have our passports back in our possession and to be one step closer to India. We went back to the hostel to take a nap and showered before heading to a little surprise for Mike. But first we needed to return back to Mamak for the best Indian food ever! 

As his birthday was only a couple days prior, his lovely siblings, Pepsi and Phil, organized for him to see The Illusionists at the Sydney Opera House. It was a great gift as we had wanted to go but couldn't afford it, so we were super excited. We had the creepiest cab driver on the way down that questioned us on bike lanes, religion, Jesus and mentioned how relaxed we seemed, as if we shouldn't be. The only thing he didn't mention was his cousin Charlie. We were happy to get out of there and into the safety of the Opera House. 

The room for the show was amazing and so were the acts! It was a magical performance and we left feeling inspired. Look at Mike make this cup dissapear. 

We headed back to the hostel for a short sleep before catching our flight the next morning, back to Noosa, where we were looking very much forward to seeing our friends again.