The Twelve Apostles of Victoria, Australia Day Tour

The Twelve Apostles of Victoria, Australia Day Tour

Twelve Apostles Marine National Park is named for its most iconic attraction, the towering offshore limestone stacks known, of course, as the Twelve Apostles. When you decide to visit the park you’ll have the opportunity to see several very picturesque sites and enjoy a host of memorable experiences hard, or impossible, to find elsewhere in Victoria, Australia or even the entire world. What you will not see is twelve apostles. There are only seven remaining. So, if seven is your lucky number, I’d go soon: The tide offshore of the Apostles is quite harsh and sooner or later there will be only seven apostles. Then six. Then… well, you get the picture. Interestingly enough even when the area was renamed from The Sow And Piglets to The Twelve Apostles there only ever were nine limestone stacks. But The Nine Apostles doesn’t have quite the same ring and, to my mind, sounds a bit like a 1950s doo wop group.

According to Wikipedia, “The apostles were formed by erosion: the harsh and extreme weather conditions from the Southern Ocean gradually eroded the soft limestone to form caves in the cliffs, which then became arches, which in turn collapsed; leaving rock stacks up to 45 metres high.” If ever you want a demonstration of the epic power of nature you can look to the seven… err, Twelve Apostles. But you can also have a gander at the less destructive, more constructive side of nature.

Twelve Apostles Marine National Park is home to a dizzying array of wildlife, a diversity so great it would be plainly shocking if it weren’t in Australia. Gazing off kilometers upon kilometers of tall, brightly colored cliffs at the dramatically roiling sea gives one a true sense of awe at the power of nature and a feeling of just how small one human is. At the foot of these cliffs, however, you might feel quite large compared to the members of the community living in the seaside caves. This choice beach real estate is home to Australia’s Little Penguins. Little Penguins are, unsurprisingly, the smallest species of penguin. They’re also called Fairy Penguins, and they are adorable, blue, and waddle around the Twelve Apostles Marine National Park as if they own the place. Which they might as well.

Just as the Little Penguins of the park go diving for their fishy foodstuffs, so can you go diving and snorkeling to enjoy the incredible underwater views. The same powerful tidal forces that created the apostles themselves also created underwater canyons and walls home to a huge array of colorful invertebrates, sea stars, sea horses and sea dragons and… Shipwrecks! If diving is your thing, definitely book a Twelve Apostles Day Tour. Just check the weather report, diving conditions are very dependent on the weather.