Days 62 - 65

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Our time in Australia is SO nearly over now! We have now given back Sandman and have checked into a hostel for the evening - tomorrow we fly back to Sydney ready to go on to Thailand! SO EXCITED! Anyways, back to the last few days! On Sunday we decided to just drive around Melbourne and see what it was like. On our guide the campsite had given us there were instructions on how to get to Ramsay street so we headed there! It is so tiny you wouldn’t believe, they must use loads of camera tricks to make it look bigger. There was a security guard on the street so all we could do was drive in and turn around so we just had a quick peek! Then we headed into the city and drove around a bit checking it all out; they have a tram system here and a weird way of using the roads where if you want to turn right you use the left lane and cut across all the traffic - We don’t get it either! We checked out Melbourne shopping centre and had something to eat then we headed back to the campsite. Our opinion of Melbourne has improved, there are a few nicer areas and the city itself is quite cool and easy to navigate. On Monday we had to get up really early to catch a bus and a tram into the city for the neighbours tour! The whole day was such good fun - even Andy enjoyed it! There were about 20 people on the minibus altogether and as we were driving to the studio they play classic neighbours episodes (Dee’s death, Steph’s wedding etc.) for us to watch on the TV and the driver was giving us loads of Neighbours facts and figures. First we were taken to the studio where we got to see some of the sets and take pictures and stuff and then he drove us to the street (which we had already seen but I was still excited about!) It was really weird walking along it and seeing the houses from the show; Andy became a bit immersed in it all and wouldn’t stop giggling! Apparently the people who own the houses get paid about $25k a year to have their houses used - and their drives rarely even get stepped on! One of the houses has a gate leading to a back car park and so that gets used eveytime they do a shoot and that house gets paid about $50k a year! Also, they sign 5year contracts with the TV company so if they sell their house (which, due to Victorian law, they can only sell for market value - they cannot cash in on the fact that it is a house used on the television) whoever they sell to has to pay the old owners the fees up until the contract ends. So if you sign your contract and decide to sell the house after two years the new owners have to pay you whatever they get from the television company for three years until the contract ends! The whole situation was pretty bizarre and we were given a Ramsay street sign so we could take photos outside all of the houses so that was pretty cool. Then we headed to a Melbourne We headed back into the city then but that was not where the neighbours day ended! At 7 o clock that evening we caught the Neighbours bus to this bar for a Neighbours quiz night! The whole evening was such a laugh yet very surreal at the same time. There was a huge build up at the beginning and then Stingray, Declan and Rachel came out. They answered some questions from the crowd and then went around the pub signing books and taking pictures with people. Next Dylan came on because he had apparently been in the area, he started talking to the crowd and then said started talking about what it would be like if he were in a boy band. At this point music came on with this compilation song and he had all these dance moves and he was mouthing the lyrics - it was hilarious and I managed to get it on video so if I can get it online you’ll have to check it out. After the quiz Paul Robinson came out with his band and did a half an hour set! It was crazy! He is ok at signing but he obviously loves it, he was acting like he was some sort of rock star. After him Carl Kennedy came out and sang loads of different stuff for about an hour. Some of it was modern like the Kooks and things but other songs were tracks him and his band had made up - like I said, the whole evening was surreal! On Tuesday we woke up with hangovers but as it was our last real day in Australia we got up and headed for the great ocean road. The views along the coast were beautiful full of beaches, mountains and cliff faces. As it was going to be his last time to swim in Australia Andy got his cozzie on and dived into the sea. It was so cold that I was wearing two jumpers so I have no idea how he managed to get into the water but he did. We drove about half the length of the road (it is about 250km long) and then turned back to go home. There are some beautiful houses with gorgeous views of the sea all along the coastline. Some of them are cosy looking B&Bs and others are ultra modern penthouses - I imagine a week in one of those in the summer time would be amazing! On our way back home we spotted a crowd of people all stood along the beach looking out to see so we pulled over to see what was going on. About 50m from the shore line there were two whales swimming around each other and spraying water into the air! We are not really sure why they were in so close and they didn’t seem to really be moving in any direction, they were just swimming around the same spot. After taking some pictures and getting some video footage we headed back to Melbourne. We decided to take a different route inland and it took us up, through and over mountains - the views were beautiful. At points we were overlooking forest which had fog settle around it, it looked like a scene from Borneo more then Australia! Today, as I said, are at the hostel ready for our flight to Sydney Tomorrow!

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