The original idea was (me being in Sydney) to fly to Melbourne to go on the Great Ocean road trip I have been dreaming off for years. With everything being perfectly planned out in my head and my bags ready to go so I could roll out of bed and into the plane, nothing could possibly go wrong, right? As I went to check in online the night before, it politely reminded me that an online check in isn’t possible any earlier than 28 days before my flight. Brilliant.

As I realized I booked my flight out of Sydney for the wrong month, my idea of being in Melbourne for the weekend didn’t quite go as planned. After some travel changes, I boarded the plane and yet again, got shocked by Melbourne’s freezing temperatures. At the airport, I then expected a warm welcome by my dad who I would be traveling with for the next months. However, he was no where to be found.

Luck didn’t seem to be on my side after all. However, after a bit of a hassle and waiting in the cold, he finally managed to find me and he introduced me to our tiny silver car that would be my home for the next 5 weeks. In Melbourne, we spent a week wondering around, buying everything that could possibly, maybe come in handy on our trip because, you never know what you will need! We enjoyed the wonderful food and coffee scene of the city.
On Monday, we made it to Torquay, which is known as the beginning of the Great Ocean Road. My 1st favorite experience was probably our penguin rescue operation where we saved two little baby penguins from drowning! After having wrapped penguin number one in a towel and put in a box, we picked up another one that got saved by a different person so we could both take them to the place that they were supposed to go to. Then, after an hour drive with two penguins on my lap we reached their new home where we also made friends with 3 baby koalas.

My 2nd favorite experience was a helicopter flight over the 12 apostles. I got to see this from the front seat!

The weather wasn’t our best friend on our trip up the coast but that didn’t stop us from going on several rainforest walks (one of them 40m up in the treetops), climbing down to the base of waterfalls and up to beautiful lookouts, meeting endless kangaroos and swimming at the most beautiful beaches. Once we reached the end of our Great Ocean Road trip, we made our way up to the Grampians National Park, where we then had two days of rock-climbing, hiking, more kangaroos and more waterfalls.

For anyone dreaming about going to Australia and maybe even doing the same trip I did: DO IT! It’s as simple as that. I know that traveling isn’t always perfect and that it can  involve a lot of planning, money, and stress. I hope I have helped to show how worth it the experience is!