Melbourne!

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I've made it Australia safe and sound! My last night in New Zealand was spent in Christchurch and was most uneventful, I spent the afternoon walking around the Botanical Gardens (yes more flowers!) and did some souvenir shopping then in the morning I sorted out my rucksack and made my way to the airport for about mid day! I bumped into a couple of Canadian girls I'd met in Queenstown and hopefully they'll be in Brisbane when I am so we can meet up at some point?! The flight over here took about 3 and a half hours and was pretty boring then I caught the shuttle bus to the hostel from the airport! I laughed when a guy helped me off the bus and exclaimed that my bag weighed a tonne...........I said yeah well try carrying it on your back for 3 months!!! The hostel I'm staying at it really nice, its right in the centre of Melbourne and was only refurbished about 8 months ago, it has lovely showers and the rooms are really clean so so far my hostel experience of Oz is a good one! I didn't do much that evening, just wandered out to grab some supplies and made myself some food when I got back. There was a 74 year old woman from Sydney in my room, she was actually from Austria but had lived here for a bout 50 years and man could she talk, once she started I couldn't shut her up! Australia is 2 hours behind New Zealand so by 10pm I was in bed but was rudely awoken by the Austrian/Aussie woman at 5am when she decided to get up and make loads of noise getting ready!

So after my early wake up yesterday I decided to make the most of it and headed out for a day round Melbourne! Its much hotter here compared to New Zealand but so far its been pretty cloudy and it rains from time to time for about 15 mins max then it clears up but its not unpleasant! I ended up just wandering around the shopping centre all day and popped into the library where they had an exhibition on..........shopping!! It was free so I had a look around then just kept walking, I must have walked miles yesterday so no wonder my feet were killing me by the end of the day! I went up to the museum but you had to pay so decided to give it a miss and head to the free ones but by the time I made it down there I couldn't be bothered to go in so might have a look tomorrow! I did walk past a guy near the museum who was sat in a park with his ipod on singing at the top of his lungs.........badly I might add.............I think he was practising for Australian Idol or something, it made me chuckle to myself! They have a festival on this weekend called Moomba but it didn't seem like my kind of thing so eventually I headed back to the hostel.

I've spoken to a few people in the hostel but its not the kind of place that you can make lots of friends and I'm staying here all 4 nights which isn't great although I chatted with nice girl in my room called Lies from Belgium and I think we might end up going out tonight seeing as its Saturday! Other than that I have to say I've been a bit bored since I got here and I'm not sure if I like Melbourne? I'm off to the beach now at St Kilda and will hopefully get to see a few more sights but right now I'm having a bit of a down day so fingers crossed I can pick myself up soon?! My time in Oz is going to be completely different to New Zealand as I'll be making my way around on my own, I'm flying to Sydney on Monday and plan to spend about a week there before heading up the East Coast. I'll be taking the Greyhound bus so it'll be totally different to the Kiwi Experience! I just hope I meet some more people soon coz I'm getting a bit lonely 😞

Right I'm off to check out the beach, hopefully the cloud will be gone by the time I get there?! Hope all is well with you guys, looking forward to coming home now and seeing you all......its keeping me going knowing I'll get to see you soon! I've also managed to add some photos to my previous blogs so check them out, sorry again for the delay but this is the first place I've managed to upload them without the pc crashing!

Solo Simmons signing off xxxxxxxxxxx

PS - I keep forgetting to tell you all that everyone I meet thinks I'm about 22/23, it hilarious when I tell them I'm 29............maybe this travelling malarky is like an anti-aging process?!! Lol!! Doubtful!

Jen - thanks for your messages, its lovely to hear from you, I miss you so much! I will definitely get on Skype on 13th, I'm 11 hours ahead of you guys so we can work out the timings...........even if I have to stay up really late it'll be worth it! All you need to do is sign up and create an account (its free) and you can add me as a contact, my username is snazzycaz1...........its going to be so good to see you all! Yey!!! xxxxxxxxx

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Comments

[Jen]

cool pics
Hey love!! Your pics r amazing!! u look realy well, I kinda thought u'd have let urself go a bit, maybe look a bit rougher, dreadlocks? hairy legs? but u still look like yourself, so I'm relieved! THANKS!!! for the lovely birthday card! made me cry when I read it, then cry even more when I realised u'd actualy sent it from New Zealand!! (crazy girl,really cool u remembered, when ur on the othe side of the world!) Glad ur n OZ safely, hope the rain subsides 4 u, and u get the sun! Keep ur chin up and enjoy it even if it is pissing it down, remember we all love ya!! 11 hours infront!! oh.......wudit be better to chat Sun morning?? maybe if we logged on around 10/11ish it'd be 9/10ish pm with you? I dont reakon the girls will be here til sat afternoon, so even if it's 3pm, that's like 2am 4 you!! Let me know anyway!! Love ya XXXXX

[anonymous]

Love the blog enjoy oz i felt the same about melbourne too its an odd place with 4 seasons in a day, we went on a greyhound too and to the beach so enjoy xxx