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Published: December 12th 2011
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So after nearly a day of travelling we finally arrived at our accomodation in Melbourne at around 8.30pm Oz time and it was the worst we had been to yet. The room seemed dirty, the toilet windows were really old and broken and the shower door didnt even lock properly. This was booked through STA!! The kitchen was so busy you couldnt even begin to start cooking in there so clearly we would have to eat out for the whole week. Oh well.
Other than the accomodation Melbourne seemed like a nice city straight away. We were staying 10 mins away from the centre in a place called St Kilda which is a small town/village near the beach. There were loads of cafes, restaurants and bars so the actual place we were staying was great. The good thing about Melbourne is the transport. You can get a tram all around the city every 6 mins so getting to the different places was really easy.
The first thing we did in Melbourne was shopping. Seems like a boring thing to do in a new place but we needed a few additional clothes etc. The 2nd day we had Foo Fighters
planned for the evening at Aami stadium which was extra awesome as they were supported by Tenacious D (as Jack Black put it on the night "the 'D' bring the lightning, the 'foo' bring the thunder!!!). And thy did!!!. Next day we went out for a really nice meal for our 2nd anniversary.
We decided to book a trip down the Great Ocean Road to finish off in Melbourne which was a full day driving down the scenic route. About 500k for the whole day but really worth it for the great views. The coach broke down at lunch time for an hour so we had to wait around for that to be sorted but we spent the time organising our itinerary for the rest of Australia as we still hadnt decided our exact route. We keep changing our minds.
We flew onto Sydney the next day. We were both looking forward to seeing Sydney and not to mention leaving that awful hostel in Melbourne!! We arrived at wake up which is more like a hotel than a hostel so we were really relieved to have a nice place to stay for a few days. First day we
did a tour of the city to see all the main things- Harbour Bridge, Opera House, Darling Harbour. You don't actually realise how big Sydney is until you have walked around it for the whole day. We both had blisters by the end but it was a good day all in all. Unfortunately you will all be pleased to know it rained for most of the time we were here!! Good weather is just around the corner though!
The next day we did a Blue Mountain trip which is about an hour away from the city. We stopped at a Wildlife Park on the way there where we got to feed different kinds of Kangaroos. They were very tame and wrapped their paws around the food cup we were holding so we couldnt let go. Once we got to the Blue Mountains the views were awesome. We had a trip on the steepest railway which is almost a virtical ride down into the rainforest where you can go for different walks to see waterfalls and general greenery. We were on a time limit at this point as we had to fit in lunch too and the other option to
get down into the forest was out of order so we only managed to walk to the Katoomba waterfall.
After 3 nights in Sydney we got on the greyhound for the first time for the short 2 hour journey north to Newcastle where we were looking forward to staying at Simon's (Andrew's step brother who is researching at Newcastle University for those of you who don't know him) house as we had been promised some proper home cooked food!! Greyhound are proper coaches unlike the Baz bus in SA so more leg room and toilets on board which is a good job as we have a few overnight drives planned on this service as a way of dodging some accomodation costs!!
Simon picked us up at newcastle station and gave us a tour of the sights (which was brief!!!). The weather was no better than Sydney at this point so most of Simon's planned activities were rule out. Fortunately the weather did hold just long enough for us to have a walk around a nature reserve but then things took a turn for the worse so we ended up in the cinema of all places. Never thought we
would have weather problems over here but at least it is only wet and not cold.
The next day did bring better weather at last so we drove up to Nelson Bay to take a dolphin spotting cruise for a couple of hours, no good photos though as only saw them from a distance. Later that night was the first of our planned overnighters on the greyhound, we left newcastle at 9.50pm and arrived in Byron Bay at 7.50am the next morning. This wouldn't have been so bad except we couldn't check in till 2.30pm and it was still raining!!
We have been in Byron for a couple of days now just relaxing. It's a nice little coastal village with a cracking beach which we have actually been able to spend some time on as the weatherlords granted about 3 hours pure sunshine for the last couple of mornings before the downpours started again! Still managed to get burnt in those few hours too. One more night here then onto Brisbane for a couple of nights.
In summary everything is great but would be better with the weather we expected (but at least we aren't cold and
at work!!)
And surprise surprise, struggling again with uploading photos but hopefully won't be long.
Looking forward to updating you next time when we have seen some of the better things further up the coast. We've finanally nalied down the rest of the oz trip after much deliberation.
Speak to all soon.
Love Fran and Andrew xxx
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