The Great Ocean Road and 12 Apostles are absolutely stunning, but the tour itself was just okay. Our driver, Brett, seems to spend a great deal of time biking and swimming in the various villages along the way and was extremely knowledgeable about the area. We made some stops at view points for pictures, but often we would only have five minutes to hop out of the van, snap the picture, and then climb back in, and after awhile this became too tedious to bother with. Also, we stopped for lunch at a cultural center that basically involved a guy playing three different animal sounds on a didgeridoo and then showing us some hand-fed kangaroo. Lunch was served at 10:30am and we didn't arrive back at our hotels until after 8pm, so this was not a well-planned event.
Loch Ard Gorge and the 12 Apostles were amazing! It had rained all day, but cleared up an hour or so before sunset, so we were able to get some brilliant colors and even a complete double rainbow, so the day wasn't a total loss. It's definitely worth the drive along the ocean road because the scenery is beautiful, but renting a car and doing it yourself seems like a better way to go.