Melbourne: beaches, barbecues and bromance

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We arrived in Melbourne last Saturday evening after flying from KL via Bali. On arriving at Melbourne airport we were treated to strict sniffer dog procedures on account of Alex looking suspicious, but quickly made it through customs to be greeted by our lovely friends Spud and Alice holding a homemade sign saying 'welcome to Austria'.

We drove to their lovely house in sandringham which was to be our home for the next week. Its absolutely gorgeous, situated on beach road with a seaview and a roof terrace. Our first weekend was spent exploring Melbourne city, day tripping to the mornington peninsula and eating yummy food, including our first shrimps from the barbie.

By this time, full on manlove had blossomed between spud and Alex once more. They do make a lovely, if slightly full on couple, so Alice and I mainly left them to it.

On Monday spud and Alice had to do something called 'work', which Alex and I are currently unfamiliar with. So left to our own devices in the week we visited St Kilda with its pretty beach and cake shops, visited the immigration museum and wandered around Melbourne on the tram, and did lots of window shopping. On Wednesday we all drove out to Philip island for the penguin parade, where the little penguins arrive back from their days fishing to head back to their nests. They are so cute, only 30cm tall, waddling up the beach. We were lucky and saw hundreds of them.

On Thursday night we had a change of pace and went to see Mumford and sons at the rod laver arena. Alice and I are big fans of the band and have followed them for years, so we encouraged the boys to ditch girls aloud and give this a go. The band were awesome live, we really enjoyed it.

We finished our time in Melbourne on a high with a weekend road trip to the twelve apostles along the great ocean road. These were an awesome sight, but equally if not more beautiful was the countless beaches, wildlife and scenery we saw along the way. On the way to Apollo bay where we stayed, we were lucky enough to get really close to some wild koalas, and saw a couple of male kangaroos fighting! We stayed in a beach house with Alice and spuds friends nick and Miranda, and together had another barbecue and drank A LOT of booze.

The next day we were back on the great ocean road, and stopped at Lorne, Anglesey and sheoak falls on the way. Whilst walking to the falls we encountered a rather scary looking snake which slithered right in front of spud! We're not sure what it was but didn't really want to find out! Spud jumped a mile but luckily Alex was there to catch him.

So today is our last day in Melbourne before we head to Sydney. The weather is gorgeous today so we're sunbathing on the roof terrace waiting to take spud and Alice for a slap up meal (or splash up meal as Alex called it, our brains are slowing down!)

Til next time xxx

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Comments

[Dad]

GUD ON YA
Great to read about your adventures in Oz. Bit surprised that you "Culture Vultures!" didn't take the opportunity to visit the set of Neighbours when in Melbourne! Seriously though its brilliant to read your "Fantastic Adventure" embrace every second. xx

[Dad]

Gud On Ya!
Great to read about your continued adventures in Oz. Bit surprised you "Culture Vultures" didn't take in the set of Neighbours when in Melbourne! Embrace every second and carry on enjoying your "Fantastic Journey!" xxx