Aussieland Day Four: Melbourne

After a very late night with the penguins, we awoke early with an hour drive ahead of us to meet our helicopter pilot. Yes, oh yes, we were headed to see the 12 Apostles! I should point out that in Australia they refer to them as simply the Apostles because there are no longer 12 of them and there haven't been 12 for decades. And they will get annoyed and correct you. Every. Time.

We hit the road and made our way from the east side of the bay to the west. Most people who head out to see the Apostles drive and make it a day trip or rent a camper van. It takes about 3-4 hours to drive out to them making for a 6-8 hour round trip. You can also take a day trip by tour bus. My husband and I were on a very tight schedule so we opted to take a helicopter instead! It was definitely our splurge of the trip but our helicopter tour was completely private and it only took 2 hours round trip.

We arrived at the rustic Geelong airfield and our pilot came running out to meet us. I set up this adventure entirely by e-mail due to international calling and the time difference. They were flexible, answered all of my questions completely and were just so great to work with- thank you Geelong Helicopters!

We had a great chat on the way there and back with our pilot about all the differences in the English language and what they call things vs. what we call things. He made a few passes over the apostles and made sure we got all the photos we wanted before he headed back.

Currently, there are four apostles and the ocean waves continue to erode the stone around the base until eventually they fall over into the ocean. Our pilot told us in just a few decades there probably won't be any left.

After landing, the pilot pointed us towards the nearest beach and town with some recommendations for lunch. We set out to downtown Barwon Heads and wandered Hitchcock Ave. We ate at an adorable little restaurant called BeachHouse and found this great unique smoothie joint planted on a little hill of grass between buildings. After some wandering we set out to see some of the beaches! We drove to Raffs Beach and although it was a bit cold and windy it was nice to enjoy the sand. There were lots of spots where you could drive your car right down to the beach and have your own little cove to yourself.

By the time we made it back to our hotel we were starving for dinner and decided we wanted one more taste of the amazing burgers over at Dandenong Pavilion. They did not disappoint although there was quite a wait for dinner! When we got back to our hotel after dinner we melted into the bed. Knowing we had an early flight to Cairns in the morning we were asleep within minutes.