Surfing and Koalas — A Day in the Life of the Melbourne Winter Group

Our second social event for the Winter group this year, was an entire day spent out in glorious Melbourne sunshine down at Ocean Grove Beach, learning to surf in waves of up to 2ft, playing some beach football and visiting a local koala sanctuary where we were introduced to some of the animals which make Australia so famous.

This brilliantly organised Friday started with a pick up from our accommodation in the morning, followed by a bus journey with all the other sport lived participants from the premium accommodation. The journey to Ocean Grove Beach (about 60km West of the CBD) took no more than 1.5 hours and we arrived mid morning to 26 degree heat ready to get our surf on. With about 30 minutes of free time before the surfing instructors turned up, we took advantage of the weather and acres of open beach to have a kick around with a football, or for some just lounge on the sand ready to go.

Catching waves with everyone else from the programme together made it a day to remember. For the ones that managed to stand up on their board for more than 2 seconds it was more than enough to make us go home and talk about travelling down again sometime to surf again when we got back to the hostel!

The banter from the water continued and gave us a lot to laugh about while we showered up to an amazing view of the beach whilst having lunch that had been prepared by a local caterer. After the food went down, we moved on to the sanctuary, only a 15 minute drive away, where we were introduced to some Marsupials of the outback, and some very tame and friendly Kangaroos, who were more than happy to allow us a cuddle and a photo. We were also shown Monty (the Python) and for those that were brave enough we were allowed to stroke him. The best part of the sanctuary was being able to stroke the Joeys, and hear "Coffee" the Cockatoo say "hello" back to you!

So what a day this was, for the first time all of the Winter Sport Lived Group were together on a social and it was made a day to remember thanks to the fantastic weather for the surf lesson, and great staff showing us all the animals at the koala sanctuary. It's still one of the highlights we talk and laugh most about since being here, and we are all buzzing for the next one thanks to it being so well organised by Kathy, the Sport Lived Events Coordinator.

Adam is spending his gap year playing football and improving his game in Melbourne. For more information on Sport Lived programmes in the Southern Hemisphere speak to a member of our sales team on 0115 822 9999.