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Published: August 21st 2008
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It's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry for being so rubbish with this.
We made to Canberra (the capital) this morning after entering our seventh state (one more to go) earlier in the day. First impressions of Canberra are pretty good although it's swarming with police.
We've done so much since the last entry, it's hard to know where to begin.
Some may already know that we've bought a van! We picked her up in Adelaide and despite a flat battery and the odd bit of overheating she's going well. She's an old girl (first registered in 1980) and in the hope that she lives as long as her namesake we have called her Helen (after Helen Daniels off of Neighbours).
Speaking of Neighbours, we visited the famous Ramsay St, Lassiters complex (inc Bishop & Carpenter's General Store) and Erinsborough High!! It was really weird being on the street in person after only ever seeing it on the TV, it wasn't quite what I was expecting, but it was good all the same. There's a security guard there all the time and you're not allowed to walk up the drives or anything as people actually live there.
Ramsay St
Holding the Ramsay St sign outside Harold's house! They're currently filming for christmas so most of the houses had decorations outside, you may be able to see this in the photos....
We originally arrived in Melbourne on 20th July but stayed only a couple of days before heading to Tasmania (or Tassie as the locals call it). Melbourne is officially one of the worst city's we've ever had the pleasure of driving to and around. The signs are shocking (where there are signs) and they have something called hook junctions, where you have to be in the left hand lane to turn right (once all the other traffic has gone) - so strange!!
Tasmania was awesome. Cold (-4 one night!) but awesome. I think Tasmania will have to have its own entry but whilst there Ian turned 27 and he thanks everyone for the birthday messages. For the occasion we had pancakes with bacon and maple syrup for breakfast, not my choice, but they were good! The weather was rubbish and we didn't really do a great deal, though we did visit some caves and see some glowworms which were pretty cool! We ended the day with a birthday chili with all the trimmings and a
nice bottle of wine we bought from a vineyard/winery back in Coonawarra and then some carrot cake.....yum yum! The next day, to honour Ian's birthday bbq tradition, though a little belated, we took advantage of the free bbq's (or hot plates) at one of the national parks in Tassie, where there were more wombats than I'd ever seen before (and kangaroos as the evening drew in), and made our own kangaroo burgers (really good!), though it seemed a little wrong to be eating them in front of so many kangaroos!
Back in Melbourne, we did the Neighbours tour, watched the olympics on the big screen in Federation Square (we got there in time to see Rebecca Addlington win her second gold!!), it's brilliant how much the Aussies hate losing to the British - one headline in a paper read that we'd stolen their cycling gold medal after stealing their coach!! It's hillarious!! We also went to the Queen Vic markets, a really old market held in Melbourne, it's nothing amazing though the food bit was good! We also went to the top of the Eureka Skytower, the tallest observatory tower in the Southern Hemisphere (we were on the 88th
Us and Janelle
Our Neighbours star meeting with Janelle - it was so weird! floor) where you can get in to what's essentially a glass box which slides out of the building (known as The Edge Experience). It was a pretty amazing experience, to look down and see people walking (88 floors) beneath you, though I was a little scared to say the least...Ian really enjoyed it though. We also saw the Federation Bells playing (see photo), basically, lots of bells of different shapes and sizes that chime, apparently melodically, though I'm not too sure about that - pretty cool though.
Continuing Ian's birthday celebrations, we went to the IMAX to see the long awaited Batman where some scenes were IMAX.... I couldn't believe how big the screen was (6 stories high, and apparently the biggest screen in the world!), it was amazing! Afterwards we went to the 'Chill On Ice' bar where you get special coats and gloves before you enter, and everything is made of ice, even the glasses and chairs (though you couldn't sit on them for too long!!) It was a good experience though not as big as I was expecting.
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