Melbourne - Sydney

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Ahh its great to have little messages from people once in a while! :D thanks to those who have sent them 😉

I cant actually remember where i got to on my Melbourne part of the diary... i have a feeling it wasnt very far. hmm.

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Day 1 Melbourne

We had breakfast on the beach. it was soooooooo good to see sunshine again! especially after the chill of Christchurch!
we then took a tram into town (the tram network is amazing... theres this sort of cage that floats above the streets....kate just disturbed me in the middle there... i had a tram of thought but its gone now) heh, we were told that to get into town we had to catch the no16 tram. so we did. after treking to buy a ticket from the 7eleven store, kate spotted the number 16 and we ran to catch it. 20 minutes later, we discovered we were going in the wrong direction so had to get off and catch a tram in the other direction. generally speaking it took 30mins to get from st kilda to fed. sq on the tram... with the extra 40 mins on top... we were pretty pissed off!

spent the whole day shopping. well, i say shopping, kate called it 'getting her bearings... ready for the shopping to come'. we had a quick look in the cathedral and a very brief stop in Federation square (crazy architecture going on there...) but other than that it was shop shop shop! i also started to crave red shoes. so spent most of the day / time in melbourne looking for the perfect pair. but to no avail 😞

Day 2

We did the Art Gallery. and a little more shopping 😉 the art gallery was cool. there was loads of really old photographs of european citys - some of the more typical views (kate and i started going "ive taken that, but i was standing just a little more to the left/right") and some of the less 'typical' views - ie instead of taking pics of the stupid leaning tower of pisa, it was a photograph of the baptistry. hah, had a wierd moment in the contemp. art sect. kate was asking me about "that artist ... the one in the guggenheim... on the ground floor... the one with all the bits sticking out of the paintings" so i replied "anselm kiefer" then we both walked around the corner, and there was one of his paintings! *freaked out*

i think that afternoon was probably the most productive shopping afternoons, i bought so much :S most of it necessities seeing as my packing wasnt quite as brilliant as i thought at the time. (STEPHANIE *glares*) .

Day 3

On wednesday, we contacted David, Di's Brother who lives in Melbourne. we He gave us a few suggestions of what to see/do in melbourne whilst we were there, and also said that he would like to give us a tour, and invited us for dinner! :D food.
So, on his recommendations we visited the Immigration Museum. which was supprisingly good. loads of stories about moving to Australia... i wont bore you with the details. ask me when i get back and ill tell you more 😉
we then met David outside the museum and went to the city centre and had coffee (or chocolate in kates case!) he showed us all these places - little lanes and precincts we hadnt seen before. when we came out of the coffee shop it was bucketing with rain. good for melbourne, not so good for us! most of Australia is in drout at the moment, david was saying that if things carry on like they are atm, melbourne wont have any water this time next year. (at dinner that evening, sally was talking about the children in her school "harvesting" the rain. - aparently they ran into the playground as soon as the rain started and set down their lunchboxes and any container they could find to collect the water!)
anyway, it was so good to get in a car again! getting in coaches isnt quite as pleasant as sitting in a car!
We went accross the harbour bridge, with wet but good views of the city... we then drove a little way around the bay to a point (which is aparently quite famous) where there are lots of coloured beach huts, and a view of the city. we then were taken on a tour of the actual city, saw the sports stadiums etc and then went and saw this HUGE bat colony. i swear ive never seen so many bats in one place. they were dripping from the trees in thousands! this little park they were in was right near the centre of the city, but you would never think thats where you were... the trees are so dense and ... im not really making sense. david then drove us up to where he used to live, and to this park on a hill where we watched the sun set over the city. v cool.

ahh thennnnn food. such a good bbq - despite the rain! we met Kim and Mark - davids children, and also his partner Sally. they were all so lovely! i ate so much too. ugh so full. its really nice after attempting to cook for myself for the past few weeks to actually have someone cook GOOD FOOD for once! David told Di that we were going to be there at a specific time, so she called up on Skype and we had a chat... then david drove us back to st Kilda.

despite the rain, it was definately a highlight of the trip so far... 😉

Day 4

Kate and i visited the Melbourne Museum. after a failed attempt to shop in a different district of melbourne.

the museum had loads on aboriginal culture, which was v interesting. so i spend a good 1.5hrs looking round that particular exhibit. the others werent quite as interesting, but there was a 'forest' exhibit which was pretty cool - they had all sorts of plant life growing in the museum. it was some ridiculously late hour of the afternoon for eating lunch, but kate and i found this Thai cafe, and the food was soooooooo good. i had to mention it. SO GOOD. aaand i ate the whole thing with chopsticks. :D
i think we shopped a little more.... we discovered Melbourne Central... this huuuge shopping centre (4floors) which we hadnt seen before. so that was the afternoon gone!
we had arranged to meet up with sheena and paul (a couple who had been on our south island kiwi bus) and they also invited us to go see the 'aussie rules football' the next day.

Day 5

we had to check out of the hostel at 10am. which was a bummer as it meant paying to store our stuff all day. 😞
it took forever to get to the MCG for the football... by the time we had sorted ourselves out, it was 12, and the game started at 2. it took nearly and hour on the tram :S plus we nearly got lost! ugh. the game was pretty good - i dont really understand the rules, but everyone around us seemed to be enjoying it! its a kinda cross between rugby and football (from what i could gather...) but the rules are wierd and the scoring is even wierder! we were right in the thick of it tho... which made it easier to bug people sitting around us with questions about how the game is played 😉 i think they actually hated us by the end. heh heh heh.
the one hilarious quote which i have got to remember to write down... was when this guy was tackling another player, and couldnt get the ball... so one of the blokes in the row infront started shouting "dont hug him... SMASH HIM!!!!!"

its probably one of those "you had to be there" things.

kate and i then had DOUBLE oreo McFlurrys. and my god. they are sooooo good. and so fattening. but so good.

and of course there was the small 15hr bus journey to Sydney. overnight trains in europe are NOTHING compared to the 15 hours of leg-cramping pain that we experienced.
actually, it wasnt too bad... i slept for most of the journey, we watched a cheesy film and there were only 12 people on the coach. plus, it was NOTHING nearly as bad as the plane journey here. nothing can be that bad. :S
besides, in comparison to arriving in Auckland, kate and i were in quite high spirits when we arrived in Sydney!

Day 6 Sydney

We checked into our hostel... kate and i were put in seperate dorms as that was all that was available... my god. when i walked in my dorm room... it was an actual pigsty. NOTHING in comparison to my room at home (which i left behind TIDY may i add?! there were just a few boxes by my desk if i remember rightly...!?!?!) tee hee!
seriously tho... you couldnt see the floor... and there wasnt just one layer of clothing, there were about 5. plus all teh empty fast food packets, used cutlery... rotting food...
and this is meant to be one of the better hostels in sydney. urgh. gross.

kate and i went to the harbour. kate literally ran... i took a little more time. so we consequently lost each other... *rolls eyes* i ended up calling her, and we eventually met up.
we had a wander around the harbour, took a ridiculous amount of photographs of us infront of the opera house and harbour bridge, and lazed around in the sun!
so alls good.
we met up with sheena and paul again in the evening, as well as hannah... and loads of people who were on our south island kiwi bus. which was wicked 😉

Day 7

ahhh today! kate and i checked out of skanky wakeup! hostel, and moved down the road to a much cheaper, and i would say nicer, its not...but it is cleaner, hostel. its a lot smaller too. which is good.

as its a Monday, and the first proper day we had in sydney we decided to go and apply for our Visas for china. which was such a mission! i managed to find 2 addresses for the consulate, one fairly close to where we were, and another which was miles away. so naturally we walked to the closest address, only to be told that it had been moved 7 months ago to the one which was miles away. the really sweet greek guy helped us out tho and told us which bus to catch etc. we then got there at 11:30 and found this huge que and a sign saying CLOSES 12pm. ugh. so we had to rush in, fill in the forms and join the que. luckily we got to the front just before they were due to close...
we had to give in our passports... which im a little worried about... if i loose that im screwed for the rest of my trip! :S but we are going to collect it on thursday. its so much cheaper to apply for the visa here than in the UK. by about 70pounds! crazy.
we spent the rest of the day lying in the sun in the botanical gardens, and planning our trip up the east coast... whilst sitting in view of sydney harbour. 😊 we realised that weve only got 4 weeks left here. so little time!!!!! especially with all the things we want to do!!! 😞
we spent too long in Melbourne. but it was good!

anyway, i had better go. Kates been sitting here patiently while ive been writing this... and taking the piss out of my half of our guidebook!

so, i hope all is well at home... and to answer aunty Di's question, i have been painting but not to the extent i wouldve liked. we had such little time in the good spots in new zealand! photographs have been quicker and easier... 😉

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