Sunset at Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

We spent one awesome night at the Gold Coast. The sunset was absolutely incredible. And I stupidly missed its peak by not getting out there early enough. Always get to sunsets and sunrises early and watch them unfold. Don't wait until you see they're nice before going, or you'll be late. Learn to recognize the clouds and future paths of light that will make for a great sunset or sunrise.

Sunset over the main Gold Coast strip shortly *after* sunset had peaked. All the clouds on the left had been brilliant pink and orange mere seconds before. Taken with DJI Phantom 3 Pro.

We stayed at the fantastic Sheraton Grand Mirage Resort Gold Coast! I paid 12,000 Starwood points for one night. As a Plat75/Lifetime Gold member, they upgraded us to a ginormous 1000 square foot one-bedroom suite! It was an incredible deal as a Platinum member. If we hadn't had a super-early flight out of Brisbane the next morning, we could have also enjoyed free breakfast as a Platinum member, which I'm sure would have been great. I wish I'd've taken the time to photograph some of the beautiful grounds, including gorgeous pools. Ah well, there's always next time. All in all, the Sheraton Grand Gold Coast for SPG Platinums is a fantastic value on either points or cash. Highly recommended.

Sunset over the Sheraton Grand Gold Coast. Taken with DJI Phantom 3 Pro.

Long exposure photo taken by Fineas of me flying the DJI Phantom 3 while concentrating carefully on photographing the sunset. I was concentrating so closely, I didn't realize he was still taking a photo and I moved halfway through the exposure. But I kinda like the effect!

Shot taken down the Gold Coast island, away from the strip. Taken with DJI Phantom 3 Pro.

Sunset walk on the beach

Another happy accident photo. This was on my second flight of the evening. My first battery was nearly empty, so I dove for the beach, landed, swapped batteries, and took off again as fast as I could. I failed to notice that when I landed, my camera had buried its lens in the sand, coating it with sand. When I took off again and took some pictures, the red landing lights of the Phantom reflected off the grains of sand, creating a dreamy bokeh lights effect over the whole photo. Or the photo has chicken pox, depending on whether you're a pessimist or optimist. :-)

Lethbridge Airport and the Antonov AN-2 :: Victoria, Australia

The plan was to have Fineas fly the two of us along the Great Ocean Road in a plane. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate. Fineas is only rated for visual flight rules (VFR) and couldn't fly through the very low ceiling of clouds to reach the coast, which was perfectly clear.

Fineas taxiing the plane after some touch and go landings to familiarize himself with the plane and airport

So we spent the day at Lethbridge Airport keeping an anxious eye on the sky. We did have a lovely time chatting with a flight instructor and student for much of the day. As an AvGeek, I really did enjoy the day, despite its disappointment.

Vintage bi-plane Lethbridge Airport

As a bonus, the hangar next door was filled with several beautifully maintained and still quite flyable vintage aircraft, the highlight of which was this Soviet-made Antonov AN-2, the largest bi-plane in the world, I believe:

Antonov AN-2 with very stylish leather couches

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Antonov AN-2

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Antonov AN-2

Great Ocean Road :: Victoria, Australia

The Twelve Apostles were breathtaking. The rest of the Great Ocean Road? Uninspiring. Before I go any further, I need to insert some caveats to quell the howls of protest from the many staunch lovers of the GOR.

First off, we did the GOR in a ridiculously short amount of time. This travel blogger took two weeks to explore GOR, while we did the whole thing in under 24 hours, something every writer I read begged us not to do.

Second, as the driver I didn't get to see as much, as this blogger talks about.

Third, I was driving this:

Audi A4 for which I used Hertz points; photo by Fineas

Which meant that driving was often more fun than looking at the scenery. Looking at the scenery was downright inadvisable at times, as I enjoyed the fun curves and high speed limits of the GOR. Don't get your self-righteous scold face on: the Audi A4 had excellent handling and stuck to my lane very nicely around the curves; I never made any dangerous, blind-corner departures from my lane.

Fourth and most importantly, the short amount of time meant we skipped three things I wish we could have visited: Loch Ard, London Bridge, and The Arch. Reviewing other people's pictures of those places again tonight make me really wish we could have spent the next day doing that instead of sitting at the airport, as you'll see in tomorrow's post.

Victorian Sheep

Tellingly my favorite photos of "the Great Ocean Road" (besides 12 Apostles) were not actually on the Great Ocean Road, they were when we cut across the countryside on our way to Lethbridge Airport, when we found some nice sheep and an amazing tree tunnel:

Tree tunnel that reminds me of the Dark Hedges in Northern Ireland

Lamb trying to nurse

The lamb above made a short-lived attempt to nurse, but its mum was having none of it as she preferred to glare warily at the strangers intruding at the edge of her pasture. Sheep are very easily frightened creatures. I've noted in frustration that 90% of the time I try to photograph sheep, all I get are photos of sheep posteriors as they quickly trot away from me.

Curious lamb and sheep

While these sheep initially trotted away, when they had reached a seemingly safe distance, their curiosity overcame their fear and they turned to watch us.

Bottom line on the Great Ocean Road IMO: it is a beautiful, fun stretch of highway on the way to the Twelve Apostles. Definitely take the extra time to take the coast route. Take more time than we did, make sure you know every spot you want to hit and meticulously plan to hit them. But I bet you'll cut across the peninsula on the way back to Melbourne.

Twelve Apostles, Great Ocean Road :: Victoria, Australia

The Great Ocean Road's Twelve Apostles needs no introduction. My buddy Fineas (an Australian, pilot, and photographer) and I visited a week or two ago. We were blessed with a terrific sunset. In contrast, the sunrise wasn't much to write home about; but that's likely structural, given the way the Twelve Apostles are oriented--the sunrise was at about 4-5 o'clock over my right shoulder. It was cloudy enough, I don't know for sure, however.

Twelve Apostles Sunrise

Did you know that there are only eight apostles left? (The other four were "tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine" and collapsed.) Wikipedia writes: "The Twelve Apostles is a collection of limestone stacks off the shore of the Port Campbell National Park, by the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia. Their proximity to one another has made the site a popular tourist attraction. Currently there are eight apostles left, the ninth one of the stacks collapsed dramatically in July 2005."

Twelve Apostles Sunset

If you walk further down the boardwalk, you can get a view of more of the apostles, but in my opinion, this is the best composition there is.

Fineas photographing Twelve Apostles sunset