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Published: January 17th 2007
We arrived in Melbourne on 28th December and met up with Becky's parents (It was fantastic to see them and catch up after all these months away from home). Melbourne is a great city with loads of stuff to do and huge open green spaces. One of the main reasons for visiting Melbourne was to catch the 4th day of the Ashes series in the MCG (possibly the best cricket stadium in ther world!!!!). However as everyone knows, England had already lost the 4th test on the 3rd day of the series, gutted!!!!!!!!!! Not to miss out on the stadium however, we decided to take the stadium tour the next day and visit the cricket museum. The stadium has a massive 100,000 seating capacity and amazing facilities.
We had a brilliant New Year at the Belgium Beer Cafe. We sat outside and drank the free bar (included in the tickets - thanks mum and dad!). There was a live band and a bbq - what more can you ask for in Australia!! We had a great night and even caught the fireworks from the city at midnight.
The other must do thing in Melbourne is to visit Ramsey Street.
Yes, we decided to take the neighbours tour and before you all think how sad we are, we actually really enjoyed it. For those of you who don't know Ramsey street is actually a real street and the houses are all lived in. Its a lot smaller than we thought it would be, but it was great fun walking around each house with our neighbours guide, who was trying to get us to remember who lived in each house since the series began.
From Melbourne we headed up to Canberra (via Raymond Island, where we saw numerous koalas in the wild) and took a tour around Australia's Parliament. The building is very unique from the outside with its huge flag pole and flag. Inside, we took a tour and found it very interesting learning about Australia's political history and consitiution. After Canberra we headed along the highway to Sydney. We checked into our hotel and headed straight for Circular Quay. It was amazing to be standing there looking at such beautiful landmarks the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. The Opera House is smaller than you imagine. We took a very interesting tour of the opera house and were
lucky enough to catch a group practising for a performance that night.
That evening we met up with some friends we made in New Zealand for a night out in King's Cross. It was great fun and we rolled home late!! The next day we headed to the botanical gardens and "the rocks" (the first settlement in Sydney) and Torango Zoo. We had dinner in Darling Harbour which was amazing. We loved our time in Sydney and would definetly visit again.
From Sydney we drove north along the coast to Avalon to visit a friend of Becky's Mums. We had a great few days relaxing and exploring the local national park. Mike even got some surf in. From here we ventured into Sydney again to watch the 20:20 match in Sydney (At last!! some cricket!!) even though we lost (again) the atmosphere was great and we really enjoyed it. The next day we dropped off Mum and Dad at the airport for their flight to Cairns. We then picked up our campervan (not a patch on Donald) and drove out to the blue mountains. We had a brilliant time there with Rachael, Steve and the kids, some friends
Becky outside Paul's house
We learnt some great neighbours gossip........someone dies and someone gets married and ........... well email me if you really want to know!!!from home. We saw kangaroos in the wild, visited the three sisters and explored the national park.
We hope you are all ok at home? We love recieving your comments and messages so keep them coming! We cannot believe how quickly the trip is going but we are loving every minute.
Just a few thankyou's before we go. Thankyou Lorriane for a great few days in Avalon and for showing us all around.
Thankyou to Rachael and Steve for a fantastic time in the Blue Mountains, we both really enjoyed it. Have a great year and we are looking forward to seeing you soon!
Finally, a HUGE thankyou to Mum and Dad - we had a brilliant couple of weeks with you and are really grateful for everything you did for us. Hope you enjoy the rest of your "gap year"! Love you both. xx
Lots of love to all,
Bex and Mike xxx
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Jen and Sean
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Miss You
Hello lovelies, at school now and spending my time planning high quality interactive lessons - hehehehe!! We miss you guys so much. Loving the BLOG again - you guys have seen some amazing things - i am very jealous. Take Care. Missing you lots and lots Jen and Sean xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx