A very hot Christmas!

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After a most fabulous week in Sydney I made my way down to Melbourne and I have to say at first glance, it didn't impress me as much as Sydney. Sydney is more of a high rise city whereas Melbourne is more open, which is nice but whereas in Sydney everything seemed to be easily accessible from Central Quay, Melbourne seems much more spread out. I did spend a day there, I visited Victoria Market which I have to say I loved, the food part anyway, and I picked up something for lunch. There were so many fruit and veg stalls. I had a wander down to Cook's Cottage but didn't go in as I wanted to see as much as possible in my day as I didn't think there would be enough to warrant coming back in to Melbourne for another day. I wandered around the laneways which are a lovely feature of Melbourne and then went to the famous St Kilda's Beach. It was a nice beach, ideal for kids and the pier is a nice feature. It had a bit of a reputation until recently for prostitutes and druggies but has since cleaned up it's act and is a pleasant little suburb of Melbourne now. One thing I really enjoyed was getting around Melbourne on the trams. There is free tram that does a circuit of Melbourne and it's one of the really old style trams. Just before Christmas I went to a Wildlife Conservation Park, where I saw a python shedding it's skin. I saw very sleepy Koala's, apparently it's something they do a lot of. I fed a Wallaby that had a joey in her pouch, saw Goannas, (lizards), emus and lots of native birds but unfortunately the Tasmanian Devil and the Wombat were fast asleep also, well it was very hot and they are normally nocturnal. We had lovely Chocolate Fondue with strawberries at a Berry Farm, saw Pelicans on the beach and got some fabulous views over the bay at Arthurs Seat. Although I had a great day at Christmas, breakfast and lunch with the family then dinner with the huge extended family, it did seem strange being hot instead of cold and snowy. I coped though! We had a couple of really hot days after New Year, it got up to 40 degrees but I just jumped in the pool so it wasn't so bad!! By far the bit I enjoyed most was the day out on the boat fishing. I only managed to catch a couple of Garfish, which are used for bait but Jeff caught a beautiful 3kg Snapper which tastes great. Apparently they can get over 10kg so this one was a baby but still big enough to not have to throw it back. No I didn't get a picture so you'll just have to take my word for it.

Well, I leave Australia to return to New Zealand tomorow night and I have to say I like Australia and will definitely come back. I don't know what all the fuss was about?!

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Photos

Barking Owl
Yes, it really does bark.

Melbourne
This is my first view of Melbourne when I cam out of the train station.