Melbourne, Wilsons Prom and Yarra Valley

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Hey all!

7th to 15th dec 08

Well thats a week done and the longest I've spent in one place since the journey began! Weather had fluctuated here between cloudless sunshine and sunshineless cloud!! Yesterday saw Melbourne's biggest rainfall for the whole year, but we know what comes after a good bit of rain eh? Im being accused of bringing English weather with me but these Aussies just dont know how good they've got it!

Because of this I havent done as much as I could have but its been nice to slow down after the non stop madness of asia. Have met some really nice people in the hostel so far, though most seem to be irish. Found out on fri that its a mixed dorm im in, not just women so that was funny but the guys are sound. The drink of the hour here is 'goon' which is what they call a box of wine - you know the cheap nasty stuff. I was looked down on the other day for having a glass bottle!!! Im so fancy here... ha ha.

I've been to Queen Victoria Market and got a few bargains, the National Gallery of Victoria that included a great selection of photos from a photographer called Rennie Ellis. Ive been to St. Kilda which is a beach town just outside of the city and managed to get burnt in the wind while watching kite sufers do their thing, Melbourne Zoo for my first glimpse at Aussie animals, Melbourne Museum and the Royal Botanical Gardens. All in all very enjoyable and I really like the city.

15th to 20th dec 08

Arrived in Geelong Monday. Tiss, Ben, Ben's parents (Gill and Bob), brother (Alex) cousin (Victoria) all here already as well as tiss's parent (Leon and Sabina), brother (Andre), and sister (Leah). Had a great evening eating drinking and singing courtesy of youtube!! Went into Geelong centre tues and had a look around. Seems like a nice little city and the waterfront looked good!! Another drink and food filled evening and getting to try a few Aussie dishes as well as shark and emu! Quite tasty! Lee, Ben's mate from Coventry arrived too.

Early start for road trip with Ben Alex Lee and Victoria. First went to Wilsons Prom - a national park about four hours away. Took a dingy and went down the river to the sea and had a splash - beautiful weather and scenery. We had lots of visitors at our campsite - wombats, kookaburras, parrots, possoms, but luckily no spiders!! On thursday we looked round the park and saw emus, kangaroos and redback spiders. It was really cool, you could get pretty close to all of them. We also went to squeaky beach were the sand squeaks -I have no idea why!

Drove up to Healesville and set up camp before heading to a winery for a quick tasting session. Tasted reds whites, bubbles, and ports - It was fantastic. Very wets night sleep!! In the early hours we were joined by Hayley, Ryan and Lyndall who drove from Sydney. We booked a minibus to take us round the wineries and managed to see 5, tasting ALOT of wine at each. Tasting was free at all wineries and often came wine bread, dips or cheese to help the tasting and wine match. We had a tour at Chandon (Brother company of Moet and Chandon who make all that lovely fizz) and had lunch there too. Delicious!! What better way to follow a meal than going to a cheese tasting?? Yum. Lovely goats cheese. And wine there too!! Headed back to camp about 6pm only a little pissed surprisingly! But the drinking and games began... and then the drunkeness... Good nights kip though!

Headed back to Geelong this morning ready for the Hen night.

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