Make sure you take the chance to explore Apollo Bay before you set off for the day. Choose one of the many cafes for breakfast, then go for a stroll along the three-kilometre stretch of beach. Take the plunge into the bracing waters if you're feeling daring. Lunch on fish and chips on the harbour from the Fishermen’s Co-op, or a famous scallop pie from the Apollo Bay Bakery.
Spend the afternoon driving along Turtons Track through the magnificent mountain ash, myrtle beech, blackwood and thick ferns of the Great Otway National Park rainforest to Beech Forest. Descend through glades of tree ferns and soak up the spray of the Hopetoun Falls, which plummet 30 metres into the Aire River.
Just west of Apollo Bay, the Wildlife Wonders ecotourism experience is a conservation area where visitors can see koalas doze in the treetops, potoroos and bandicoots forage on the ferny forest floors and kangaroos hop along the horizon against a spectacular ocean vista.
And now the moment you've been waiting for. The 12 Apostles. These ancient limestone rock stacks rise up majestically from the Southern Ocean and are the star attractions of the Great Ocean Road. Grab a bite to eat from your overnight base in the colourful and lively seaside village of Port Campbell, then find a position to watch the spectacular sunset over the 12 Apostles. Bucket list, ticked.
