Sorry for not writing in my journal for so long. The last week has been crazy with work, travelling, 2 fire alarms, hail storms, and visiting friends. In 7 days, I spent 35 hours travelling due to flight delays and missed connections...and 59 hours working.
My friends from Atlanta came into town this Friday and they were greeted by some insane weather this weekend. For those of you who may not have heard, Melbourne had a "supercell" thunderstorm this weekend. In less than 2 hours on Saturday, the weather went from sunny --> cloudy --> rain --> hail --> swirling winds --> thunderstorms!! The hail came down so sudden...we missed it by about 10-15 minutes! We had gone to the Queen Victoria Market to do some shopping and had planned to go to the botanical gardens in the afternoon. Just as we got back to the apartment from the QVM, it started raining and then we heard some loud noises outside. When we looked out on the balcony...we saw the hail coming down so hard...it was actually really scary!! I had no idea how bad this storm was until I saw the news and realized that some areas actually had golf-sized and tennis-sized hail!! There was flooding all around parts of the CBD and the estimated damage is going to cost about $400 million. A news story describes this weekend as: "A super-cell thunderstorm has left Melbourne reeling, after the
once-in-a-century weather event dumped hailstones the size of lemons onto the
city and heavy rains flooded homes, offices and sportsgrounds." I think my friends and I were very fortunate to have made it indoors before all that hit...needless to say, we did not make it to the botanical gardens. And I'm glad I am on the 14th floor of my apartment building so that I didn't have to worry about flooding! I saw some pictures of flooding around some areas of the CBD...I'm hoping that my client's building is not flooded. It was flooded a little over a month ago and there was a bug infestation after that. I guess I will find out tomorrow. The rain continued through Sunday and Monday...I think it's finally over. We were able to avoid most of the rain this weekend, but my jeans got soaked tonight as I was coming back from the grocery store since it was raining so hard and the wind was blowing the rain sideways.
Despite the weather, my friends and I were able to take a tour on Sunday to the Great Ocean Road. We had a lot of rain at the beginning and end of the tour...but was able to get some sunshine in the middle. The Great Ocean Road is one of the world's most scenic roads and is home to the famous 12 Apostles, which are rock formations that have been gouged away from the towering limestone cliffs
over thousands of years. The 12 Apostles was named after the 12 disciples of Jesus Christ and it was absolutely AMAZING!!!! I would have to say that's one of most beautiful things I've ever seen in my life! I took some pictures, but there's no way it will show how magnificent and breathtaking it really was.
In the same park (Port Campbell National Park), we also saw Lord Ard Gorge where a shipwreck occurred. I'm too lazy to type the story here, so I will "steal" from another website the history. "This Coast is not called Shipwreck Coast without a
reason! Right in front of this Coast the ship "Loch Ard" did sink once
and only two from the 54 people on board survived. They were washed on the shore
here at Lord Ard Gorge. One of them was a young officer, the other a young irish
woman who wanted to live in Australia. Since she has lost consciousness, he
brought her (half conscious) in a cave in the cliffs wall, revived her with some
Brandy and went for help." Story has it that people thought they would fall in love and wed, but they never did.
We also saw the London Bridge. Again, I will steal the story..this one from wikipedia...but will add in a tidbit at the end. "London Arch is a natural arch in the Port Campbell National Park, Australia. The arch is one of the tourist attractions along the Great Ocean Road near Port Campbell in Victoria. This stack was formed by a gradual process of erosion, and until 1990 formed a complete double-span natural bridge. The arch closest to the shoreline collapsed unexpectedly on 15 January 1990, leaving two tourists stranded on the outer part: they were rescued by a helicopter. Fortunately nobody was injured in the event. Prior to the collapse, the arch was known as London Bridge because of its similarity to its namesake." So our tour guide mentioned that when the two tourists (who were a couple) were rescued, the guy physically assaulted the camera guy and they tried to get away in their car when they got back over to the road. Of course, they couldn't do that and people found out later that this couple has taken sick days off from work to vacation here and they were both married to someone else!! How scandalous!!
We also went to Bells Beach, which is know for the surfing. It's famous because it was referenced in the movie Point Break, though apparently it wasn't filmed there according to what our tour guide told us. We also had a chance to see a few koalas, though not up close since they were so high up in the tree. The one that we could see had his booty pointing towards us, so we couldn't see his face. I will definitely have to do another tour where I can get up close to the koalas.
Monday was labor day in Australia, but I ended up working for a few hours and then went shopping around Chapel Street with my friends. With all the rain today and tonight, I wasn't really up for going out tonight with my friends...plus I have to be at work early tomorrow morning. Wish I was on vacation and didn't have to work!
