Holiday in Warrnambool

We have been meaning to blog our experiences as a family for a long time now - better late than never. What better time than just after a fantastic family holiday ? When we were planning for a vacation this time - our onlt criteria was wholesome familty fun, we are not of the types who want to tick every box about a holiday destination - we would rather love to have a relaxing, serene holiday and cover as much as we could leisurely. We hit up on Warrnambool almost by accident - we decided to stay on a luxury resort this time , what with string of disappointments on "Low priced holiday resorts" in the last few years. We decided that we will stay in Mantra group of resorts - and almost as a corollary selected Warrnambool, the small, green and sleepy town, 300Km west of Melbourne.

reason ? that was one resort were accommodation was available during the busy holiday season !! our only goal in the holiday was to relax, so we didnt care about whats there to see at all - infact we didnt even bother doing any research on the place, we thought even if there is nothing else , we are at least assured of an excellent accommodation (hopefully :-))

so , on a bright and sunny saturday morning, we set about for our trip to the great south west coast - also known as ship wreck coast - apparently in the years gone by this area has been the host of some 100 ship wrecks mostly in the 18th and 19th centuries. We take the picturesque great ocean road (GOR) - From torquay to Port campbell, around 180Ks of winding road sandwhiched between the ocean and the Otway ranges - full of fantastic look out points and photo opportunities.

our first stop is Lorne - the beautiful small town near the start of the GOR. We have been here before and is one of the best place for family fun. as its a hot day, we plan to have somefun at beach.. Rahul is more interested in building castles than playing in water

- so we also end up doing that...There is a trampoline jumping area near by , and rahul and his dad enjoy jumping, eventhogh they couldnt in anyway match the height of some of the aussie kids that were jumping.. This is also a nice time to have lunch, and Ramya unpacks her delicious lunch packs and we all enoy the lunch under the glorious blue skies..

post lunch, i felt a little tired, and Ramya takes over the wheel from me - the initial deal was that she will drive only for the next 30 min or so when I take a quick power nap - but I should say, she was driving so well, that i let her drive pretty much the rest of the afternoon. that includes some of the most mountainous part of the trip into the Otways..amd Ramya did a fantastic job behind the steering wheels..

Our next stop is the “Twelve Apostles” near Port Campbell - Supposedly the pin up attraction in GOR. i must admit, to this day, i havent figured out the connection between a set of tall and thin limestone rocks standing in the ocean and the disciples of Jesus, but then that’s the least of the concern for the bus loads of tourists that join us to have a photo taken at this , arguably, the most picturesque location in the GOR.. We all take our customary photos at the sight - however Rahul is least interested in either the rocks or the Jesus - he is fascinated with the number of tourist helicopters circling the spot, he shares his excitement with us as he always does..by - 1. Spelling out the word helicopter and 2. counting the number of helicopters flying above...

For the rest of the tourists, 12 Apostles marks the end of the long and tiring day trip to GOR - readying for their trip back to Melbourne..that’s always been the feature of day trips to GOR, doing 600Ks in a day is not the most pleasurable of an experience even for the diehard tourist..However for us, 12 apostles sort of signifies the start of the holiday and not the end..so we are still very excited with Warrnie only a hour away..

Along the way, we come across Allansford - and the huge cheese factory is very difficult to miss in this otherwise sleepy little hamlet. We were amazed to hear that this is the the Cheese capital of Australia and birth place of Cheddar cheese.

We reach Warrnie at around 5:30 pm in the evening - and my expert navigator, Ramya , is ably assisted by our new iPhone through the inner roads to our hotel. For all the criticism that Optus network cops up about its coverage beyond capital cities, it does a amazing job in serving us the page after page of Google maps to guide us to our hotel.
Hotel Mantra Deep blue has been built only an year ago - and that freshness is still very much in the air as we checkin to this resort which is in the edge of the Lady Bay - We check into room no 423, a cozy little ocean facing room.

The first thing that strikes us is the 270 deg Ocean view that we can enjoy from this room - we havent got such fantastic views anywhere before, even when we had specifically booked for ocean view rooms before, all of us are excited about the prospect of staying here for the next 3 days.
We wind down the rest of the day watching TV - We have the Carols on the Domain, the Christmas carols concert in Channel 7. We get some generous helpings of our favorite carols getting us right into the Yuletide spirit.

The next day we start our day with the breakfast – when we had booked the breakfast along with the deal, we didn’t know what to expect – but we are served with an amazing variety to help our hungry stomachs – I must admit, we were secretly heaving a sigh of relief that we don’t have to spend much on lunch given that we had such sumptuous breakfast to start our days.

Ramya picks up a tourist guide from the reception, and we are on our way to sight seeing. We decide, on the fly of course, to go to Tower’s hill, around 17Ks from Warrnie. Now this hillock was supposed to be a extinct volcano that erupted some 30,000 years ago. We were all excited at the prospect of seeing the volcanic crater. When we reach there, we were told that to reach the crater, we need to walk up a steep hill for 1 hr – Now this didn’t exactly fit our definition of relaxing holiday, so we promptly decide to give it a miss..On our way out of the hill, we are struck by an unusual sight – a Koala at the top of a tree, and still awake !!! – In my 5 yrs in the land of Koalas, I have never come across one in the tree which is not asleep. So we promptly get out of the car and take some photos. And then we saw 3 tall Emus running towards us – rahul was first filled with excitement, which quickly turned into a scare– So we all had to quickly make our way back to the car – We did manage to take a quick photo of the tall and birds – we figured out that they were more interested in the Aussie BBQ going on in the area– We then head back to the car with a slightly relaxed pace ..

Our next stop is Killarney beach – its your ideal sort of the beach that they often show in the TV – shallow and blue waters, sandy coastline and palatable waves – throw the hot sun and mild winds into the mix, it can turn even an amateur like me with a passing interest in waters into avid surfing enthusiast. Luckily, Ramya has some swimming gear for all of us and some sun screen too – so we quickly get into the water…the next 45 min or so was absolute bliss as we take time swimming at the beach and helping Rahul build his sand castles.. I must say, killarney was a killer of a beach.

In the evening, we visit the Family park which is a stone’s throw away from the hotel. Its 20 acres of grassy land loaded with full of family fun for all ages – With numerous barbeque areas, a vast play ground, a lake with some boating on it (whoever said country Australia is suffering from drought ??), lot of kids play areas, a cricket pitch and some adventure fun. Its one of the best family parks that I have seen in Australia, we take our generous share of photos all over the park and also indulge in our own version of Aussie rules football.

The next day, is all about personal indulgence like we have never done !! yes , Both me and Ramya took a luxury package treatment at the Mantra’s Deep water Spa. We have to alternate our treatments as we have Rahul to take care. Rahul, being such a understanding kid relented to his parents wishes perfectly by agreeing to see his favorite Hi-5 in the laptop throughout the day. Ramya had a Yummy mummy’s package treatment – which involved a1 hr facial treatment followed by head and neck massage and finally with a foot massage. She tells me that the experience was very refreshing and invigorating..I then had a Geothermal spa bath for 45 min. The Spa bath was made of heated Natural water from underneath (or that’s what they atleast told me) supposedly rich all sorts of minerals. It was good , though it was too hot for me to be in the pool for 45 min !! I then had a 1 hr deep tissue massage – It was fantastic and a very relaxing experience.

In the evening we returned to the Family park for some BBQing – We prepared some delicious Veggie burgers and spring rolls with traditional india masala and curry. We follow-up the BBQ fun with a drive around the Warrnie roads – the sleepy town that it is, even on a week day, there was absolutely no traffic after 7pm or so, but the green bushy areas all over the town was a pleasant sight to watch..

Whats a holiday without some Retail therapy ??. The last day was all about Shopping– Our first stop was the Founding place of Australia’s leading Apparel brands – Fletcher Jones. They still have preserved the original factory (that was in existence some 50 years ago!!).

There is also a clearance store in the factory where we do some bargain hunting…But what struck us most was this - at the mecca of Aussie’s home grown apparel brand was the very visible “Made in china” labels in the clearance store !! Long live China !!

We then went to the Warrnie’s City centre for more shopping and by the afternoon we were exhausted and helped ourselves with some delicious ice creams.

It was then tome to head back !! We take the A1, the inland route. We are back in Melbourne in 3.5 hrs after one of the most fun filled and relaxing holidays in recent memory..

So until next time, here is signing off …

Deepak.