The Great Ocean Walk from Apollo Bay to the Twelve Apostles on Victoria's south west coast. Over 100km and six days the walk takes you along pristine beaches, through an amazing array of forests and atop cliffs through a range of coastal scrub. Dedicated Great Ocean Walk campsites provide secluded and very beautiful outlooks from beach front to clifftop. A frequently challenging walk but one best enjoyed by taking the time to sit and take in the wonders of this part of the world, often. But be warned the track can just occasionally turn on you - via big oceans and tides or diabolical weather. And if like we did, you find yourself trudging along a cliff top in 100km/h plus winds with pelting, stinging horizontal rain, if you have prepared well, it is very likely the sun will be shining and all will be well soon enough.

The Milford Track…Awesome, Amazing, Incredible, Beautiful, Brutal. A trek of 67km over 4 days (forget the 54km in the glossy brochure)… Day 1: After a 1hr Boat cruise...prepared, we set off with our packs on the first, easy sunny 8km walking through primordial forest, beside the crystal blue streams and enormous mountains that are the signature of this place for just 2 hrs…welcome to Milford. Day 2: dawns grey and with late heavy rain forecast, we start early on the 20km journey of steady trekking with a total vertical climb of 500m, 400m of which comes over the last 6km with a steep and relentless climb over rough rocky terrain to the second hut…which never seems to come...it is a release after trekking for 5.5 hours when it does…glad the rain never did…we sleep well snuggled in our down cocoons. Day 3: Overnight heavy rain (part of the 7m they get here annually)…another 20km day with a total of 8.25 hours on the trail, the most incredible, and brutal…600m of vertical ascent in the first 4km clambering up narrow rocky tracks, where in the wrong place a slip will have you in serious trouble…reaching the summit of Mackinnon Pass after 2 hours in the fog, only to have it lift to the most beautiful views in the world…breathtaking…then follows a 1,000m vertical descent over the next 4 hours and 7km with more difficult rocky terrain around ledges and down waterfalls…intense…our heavy pack making sure knees and quads are seriously strained…reaching Sutherland Falls (the largest in NZ) by way of a side trip…the power of millions of litres of water crashing 600m to the valley floor in a constant roar like a 747 taking off…super relieved to finally reach the hut, again no rain, a phenomenal day, some soup, noodles and a restless sleep in a bunkhouse. Day 4: 19km in 5.5 hours. Second “easy day”…a flat blue-sky walk, we push ourselves and a boat awaits us…sore, tired, elated at the achievement...at Sandfly Point then our final destination: Milford Sound.

The Light to Light walk can be found just south of Eden in the Ben Boyd National Park. The 34km is fairly easily completed in two days with (at least) one night at the lovely and wildlife abundant Saltwater Creek Camp Ground. The walk is book-ended by Boyds Tower and the Green Cape Lighthouse. Logistics can be tricky as its a one-way walk, so we took two cars and made Saltwater our base. On day 1 we all piled into one car which was left at the start of the walk at Boyds and then after reaching Saltwater drew straws to take our second car to go pick up the first from Boyds (about a 1 hour round trip)... day 2 was a repeat, starting at Green Cape. Boyds Tower was commissioned by Benjamin Boyd and originally designed to be a lighthouse. After the Government rejected the proposal of the private lighthouse, Boyd changed tact and built the Sydney sandstone tower for whale spotting. The tower gave his whaling ships a strong advantage over other whalers in the area. Built in 1847, Boyds Tower is a large sandstone tower on the southern head of Twofold Bay in Ben Boyd National Park. Green Cape is a headland at the southern end of Ben Boyd National Park, forming the northern head of Disaster Bay. The cape was named ‘Green Point’ by Matthew Flinders in 1798. The area began it’s notorious fame in 1802 when eight of Flinders’ crew disappeared when fetching water, in what he then appropriately named ‘Disaster Bay’. There were many shipwrecks in the surrounding waters, the most famous being the SS Ly-ee-moon, whose victims are buried on the cape. The most visible feature on the cape is the 29-metre high lighthouse that is still operational today.