I woke up early because I had a very long day of driving ahead of me. My plan was to drive the remainder of the Great Ocean Road, west from Apollo Bay all the way to its official end point in Allansford, then drive all the way back to the east side of Melbourne and meet my friend Wai Chung for dinner.

The first part of today's drive was a little more than an hour and winded through the mountains in Great Otway National Park before reaching Port Campbell National Park / Twelve Apostles Marine National Park, home to a series of monuments that are all worth seeing. They start with Gibson Steps, a series of steps down the side of a cliff to the beach (the internet says there are 86, I heard someone say 84, but I counted only 81).

After Gibson Steps comes the Twelve Apostles, which are a collection of limestone stacks off the shore of the park. Despite the name, there are only seven, plus an eighth that collapsed in 2005.

Next is the Loch Ard Gorge, named after the wreck of the Loch Ard which was wrecked here in 1878.

The last major monument I stopped at is London Bridge (aka London Arch), a large rock with an erosion-formed arch underneath. It used to be connected to the shore, but that second span collapsed in 1990.

I then proceeded down the Great Ocean Road to its endpoint where it meets the Princes Highway, and followed that along the inland route back to Melbourne. I stopped along the way at a servo (service station) to get Hungry Jack's (Australian Burger King), as there were not many places to stop along the way. By the time I finally got near Melbourne, the traffic was horrible (although I expect it is like that most of the time), and it took me an extra 90 minutes of driving than I had expected. I headed to Seaford, a suburb further south and east than St Kilda, to check-in to the AirBNB where I would be staying the night. I briefly introduced myself to the host Steve before I got back into my car and drove to QT Kitchen in Glen Iris, where I met Wai Chung for dinner. I was only a few minutes late. Wai Chung and I did archery and MasterSingers together at Cranbrook, and he used to live in Hong Kong, where I'd visited him before. He is now in his final year of medical school in Australia.

QT Kitchen brags that they were named Best Vietnamese Restaurant (in Melbourne?) in 2022, so that is how we decided to go there. We ordered the QT Signature Sharing menu, which was a series of smaller portions of what they consider their best dishes: Signature Gua Bao, Handmade Prawn Spring Rolls, Southern Fried Chicken, Homemade Fish Curry, XO Fried Rice, Vietnamese Slaw, and the dessert of the day. Wai Chung insisted on paying, and I promised I'd get him back next time (hopefully he will visit the US or I will go back to Australia!).

The food was delicious and it was nice to catch up with Wai Chung after so many years. At 9pm the waiter came over and basically told us that they were closing and we should leave, so we headed out. Wai Chung was going camping over the weekend, but we made plans to meet for coffee/breakfast on Monday before he goes to work in the hospital. I drove back to Seaford and went right to bed.