14 DAY TRIAL // The world-wide famous rocks are one of Australia's choices for a world list of seven of the most extraordinary places in nature, along with 13 other touristic "must-see"s like the Great Barrier Reef, Uluru, the Blue Mountains and so on. The winner is to step into the next stage, competing with the first-place beauties from each nation. So far, the naturally shaped rocks occupy the first rank in the Australia hierarchy.
The Twelve Apostles Marine National Park is the second largest marine park in Victoria, with an area of around 7,500 hectares, offshore to the Great Ocean Road. The park actually covers about 17 kilometers of coastline, including, along with the exquisite sight of the huge Twelve Apostles stones, some of the most stunning underwater sceneries in Australia.
It has been said that the 12 rock formations, only 7 kilometers far from Port Campbell, attract annually more than 1.7 million tourists. Last month, the most debated issue dazzling the local media was that this number would decrease in the following year, due to an official proposal stating that each visitor should pay a one dollar fee in order to get to see the magnificent rocks, as the costs for maintaining them are immense.
Despite the negative opinions of local tourism operators, there's no doubt that the number of people going there would in fact increase significantly, mostly if the Twelve Apostles get the majority of votes in Australia, surpassing the other competitors, and reach the world final.
These days, Aussies are requested to vote for their national favorite natural spot till December 31. The poll will be followed by the second stage, featuring 77 countries and their winners. The final top seven will be announced in 2011, and, hopefully, the Australian rocks will be included.