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Published: July 21st 2006
Update from Zoe
Hello everyone!
We flew into Melbourne on the 12th July and had a couple of days sightseeing there. Really nice city, was loving the funky little alleyways crammed with cafes and shops. We stayed with Shad, Sarah and little baby Ben for a couple of nights, which was lovely - nice to stay in a home. They live in St Kilda, which is the beachy part of Melbourne, again really nice place with lots of lush cake shops and just a short tram ride away from the city centre.
On Friday night me, Dan and Shad went to watch the Melbourne Demons (Go D's!) vs Richmond tigers - Aussie Rules football. Thankfully Shad explained the rather bizarre game rules to us. Highlights included the gutted Tigers fan saying fair dinkum alot and whenever the referees threw the ball in (always looked like they were going to fall over) or waved their flags.
Next stop was Sydney via a 12 hour train journey, so that was pretty much a day gone and then we checked into manky Maze hostel and swiftly checked out asap the next morning and went to Wake Up - much better (even staying in a 4 bed dorm!)! The next couple of days we saw the opera house - as good as in the pics; sydney harbour bridge, botannical gardens - with bats(!); shops; Manly beach and china town. Also, bumped into Josh (Shuo's friend) randomly walking down the street - very odd coincidence.
We then had an overnight stay in hunter valley to sample some Aussie wine. The YHA hostel there was brilliant really nice owner too, who took us on the wine tour. Am now a wine connoisseur (although can't spell it!) so no more rats piss for me when i get home - unless it's really cheap! Was a really good day and was only slightly rosy cheeked by the end and the bottle of wine with dinner prolonged the wine experience. The next day we borrowed some bikes and sampled some more wineries - lovin the free wine thing, they should do this everywhere! By the end of the bike ride though we did have extremely sore arses, which made for a slightly uncomfortable bus ride back to Sydney for the night.
Early start next day, as we went to the blue mountains for a day trip. First stop was at a wildlife park, where we got to stroke koalas and kangaroos - superb; they're so cute and soft. The blue mountains were fantastic, hopefully the blue colour will come out in the pics (the colour is caused from the eucalyptus oil evaporating - blog is now educational too!). We did a walk past the 3 sisters and got the steepest train back up to the top, quite a scary little ride.
Back in Sydney we had a very tasty meal in china town (jealous dad?) and then got an overnight bus to Byron Bay, which surprisingly wasn't too bad. Today we are going to go and explore the area and try to avoid the shower bursts along the way!
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Kate
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I'm so jealous!
Hi! Just read the last few entries and I am soooo jealous! I'm so glad you are having such a good (and cultured!) time! You look so happy in all the photos. Zo, I promise I will e-mail this week with all the news from the boring UK! Loads of love to you both, Kate xx