Bellarine Peninsula

We had a guided tour of the Bellarine Peninsula today. First stop was the iconic Bells Beach, on the Great Ocean Road near Torquay. Although this picture makes it look pretty deserted there were actually hundreds of surfers here and the carparks were full of people chasing some of the best surfing waves in Australia (or people like us looking at the beautiful lines of even wave breaks from afar).

We then drove back along the coast through Torquay and on to Barwon Heads, where we just had to check out Diver Dan's place from our fave "Sea Change" series from all those years ago. It's a very crowded waterfront cafe these days.... way too crowded for us to tackle this morning!

 More very familiar scenes from "Sea Change" (Pearl Bay) ................

 Next stop was the historic village of Queenscliff - time for great coffee from Saltbush Fine Foods and a chance to check out the ferry terminal for tomorrow's trip to the Mornington Peninsula.

The Bellarine Peninsula produces great wines too (cool climate maritime) and Ros had booked us lunch with Erin, John, Sam and Lili, at one of the best wineries of the region : Jack Rabbit Vineyard

 The vineyard cafe and restaurant overlook the bay across to Geelong, the You Yangs and Melbourne - an absolutely stunning outlook ........

 Lili has a birthday later this month so it was a great opportunity to deliver her presents in person this year!

 But it wasn't fair to leave Sammy out of the birthday fun - so we made sure he had deliveries too.

  

 Sam (and Lili) got almost as much fun out of playing with the gift's box as he did out of the gift itself!

These two gorgeous kids coped really well with our three hour long leisurely lunch, keeping us all entertained with their games and endless energy.

We saw such a range of stunning landscapes today in this beautiful part of our country. We can really see how lucky Ros and Pete are to have chosen it as their new home.