‘The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul.’-Wyland

I have come to the end of the road Down Under so it seems appropriate that the last thing I did was spend the day on the Ocean Road! Much like the Pacific Coast Highway, of which this is very reminiscent, the Ocean Road is a massive stretch along the Pacific coast. My group traversed roughly three hours of it over the day. The culmination of the drive was the Twelve Apostles! As I am sure you have gathered, especially if you follow my Instagram, is how much I love the ocean, particularly the Pacific. It gives me a bit of peace and I feel deeply rooted to home. I suppose it is because I grew up in California and, a large part, is one of the last fun day trips I had with my mom was to the Pacific. It just feels like it is where I am supposed to be in that moment.

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The day included many stops along the way, which was fine by me! I was able to walk on the beach, eat some ice cream, see koalas in the wild! Yes, so many koalas! As I had petted one the day before, it was so cool to see them in their natural habitat…asleep! I learned a lot about koalas over those two days, the most intriguing is that they eat…oh so much! They eat eucalyptus trees to literal death. You will see massive tracks of white washed trees. They look as if some sort of plague had befallen them but no, just koalas! You can actually track their migratory patterns based on the dead trees they leave behind. It actually makes for an excellent location for a horror film! Koalas tend to sleep very high up so its a bit of hide and seek. But it seemed as though once you found one asleep, you saw all of them!

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I also went to a very cool lighthouse on an unfortunate track of ocean property. Apparently the area is known for the numerous shipwrecks that have occurred. But, my bravery from my bridge climb continued because I had no problem climbing to the top and walking around the very narrow bit of platform. So progress!

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The culmination of the day, however was the last stops to the Twelve Apostles. They are a series of rock formations in Port Campbell National Park. In part of the park you can go down to the beach and get a closer look at the patterns of erosion on the rocks. It is amazing what mother nature can accomplish! I did get wet a bit when the tide got a tad further up than I anticipated while I was taking a photo. It was worth it! The main event, however, was the Twelve Apostles. There aren’t actually twelve rock formations and there never were (crazy Aussies) but due to erosion, it appears as though some maybe created soonish (by natures standards not ours, lol). Maybe one day there will be twelve but there are currently just seven. There was an eighth, but it crashed into the sea a few years ago. You can still see the remnants peaking through the waves!

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The whole area reminded me so much of summers spent with my family on the California coast. I had already been deep into planning my move to the West Coast (I just didn’t know where yet) and my day spent on the Pacific confirmed that I was making the right choice. It was a very moving experience and I felt a shift in myself. It’s so strange to say that being million miles from home actually made me feel closer to home but there you are. Sometimes you need to travel far outside of your comfort zone to realize where you were always meant to be.

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