Melbourne

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Aussie Wave!

Melboune is a really nice city. Aussie cities are just so much better than the ones back home!We spent just over a week in there and saw most of the sights. Melbourne is known for being one of the best places in Oz for shopping and the Queen Victoria markets are huge with lots to buy...but unfortunately we could only afford to window shop!There's also lots of gardens to sunbathe in and China Town is the place to go for some nice cheap food.

Melbourne has good nightlife. There's a huuuuge 24-hour casino in the Crown complex. We watched people throwing their money away there (and lost a few bucks ourselves). One woman was putting down $200 on every roulette table and she seemed to lose every time-thousands of dollars! The bars in the city are packed most nights. One night we saw some awesome buskers on the city streets - a group of 4 lads who were better than most famous bands-they were amazing on the guitar.

St. Kilda, a few miles from the centre of Melbourne, is a lovely place. There's a nice beach there and lots of cafes and cake shops (yay!) and a big funfair. Mal Kennedy from Neighbours has obviously gone up in the world as he now works in St. Kilda in 'Greasy Joe's' cafe! In the evening loads of bars open up and there's lots of buskers playing music on the streets. There's also a night market which is a very hippy-place with a lot of stoned people dancing and singing but it's a really good atmosphere!

While in Melbourne we obviously had to do the legendary Neighbours tour. It was really strange to be in Ramsay Street, it looks so different to the way it does on the TV. It really is a tiny little place.

We also went on a trip down the Great Ocean Road. This is known for being one of the best drives in the world. The views were pretty spectacular. We travelled over Australia's longest bridge (3km) before stopping off at Bell's Beach, we then went on to see some koalas on a bush walk. We saw some amazing rock formations at Loch Ard Gorge on the Shipwreck Coast before going to visit the famous Twelve Apostles. It was a good trip - we travelled 650km.

One morning Olly went on a tour of the Carlton brewery, just outside Melbourne. He saw how beer was made, as you would expect, and got to taste some of what they make.

Way back in November, Olly booked tickets to watch the first one day international between Australia and England at the MCG. It was a really good day out. We saw everything - good cricket, bad cricket, cricket legends, awesome crowds (we were in with the Aussies), Mexican waves (click on the vid in the top left hand corner), fights, arrests, and even a solo pitch invasion! Even though we lost we enjoyed it, although we were in the blazing sun for a few hours! On the way home we had to put up with a lot of wise-cracking Aussies offering their opinions on the state of English cricket, drunk young whipper-snappers attempting to 'tonk-a-Pom' (i.e. Olly) with their various inflatables, and the odd person offering condolences with a hug and kiss! Very sweet. None of this would have happened if Olly had taken his flag off!

On our last day we went to Melbourne Museum. There was so much stuff there, we didn't really get time to look at it all properly. There was a really good circus display about bugs you'd find in an Aussie backyard, which was really for kids but we loved it!

We got the overnight bus (as always) to Adelaide where we're spending 5 nights before going up to Alice Springs and Ayres Rock - then we're off to New Zealand at the end of the month!

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Photos

Ramsay St
Pin Oak Court, actually. They use some serious camera trickery because this place was tiny! It was really strange standing outside Paul Robinson's and Harold's houses with the sign.

Melbourne at night
The view along the Yarra river.

St. Kilda Sunset
We have seen several sunsets on our travels, but I rate this at the top.

London Bridge
An awesome piece of artwork by M. Nature.

2 of the 12 Apostles
So called, allegedly, because so many ships were wrecked on this 'Shipwreck coast' that the rocks were supposed to act as some kind of biblical warning to sailors. If they turned back when they saw them, they would be saved.

Libby!
On our Neighbours tour, we got to meet a 'star' outside the office in Melbourne. A pic with Harold outside his house on the street would have awesome - still, not bad.

Erinsborough High school, apparantly
Not that we were that impressed as you might be able to tell by the looks on our faces!

Made-up to be at the MCG
Charlie showed off her face-painting skills!

Ooh-Aah...
Glenn McGrath.

Umm...
Andrew Symonds

Great seats
We had a really good view of all the action.

Sit down, shut up!
This guy was the ring leader of the Fanatics - Aussie equivalent of our Barmy Army - and was sitting right near us. He couldn't stop parading a massive painting of the Ashes around and generally taking the p*ss out of all the Pommies sitting amongst them.

MCG
Pretty spectacular. Not a capacity crowd, but 78,000 is the biggest i've aever been amongst. It was a great atmosphere.

Too easy.
There was a sense of inevitability from the first over of the day.

Captain Cook's parents' cottage
This was taken apart in Yorkshire and built again in Fitzroy gardens in Melbourne brick by brick!

Colouration
The colours in the sky were amazing as the sun set into the ocean.

Fire show
The Crown Enertainment complex has seven furnaces dotted along the front. They go off at 9 every night and kick out a massive amount of heat.

Bells Beach
One of the top six surf beaches in the world. The surf wasn't really up on this day, Dude.

Remember Round the twist?
Well this is the lighthouse used...you know the one - where Bronson never washed his feet!

One of the best drives in the world
one of the views we got on the way along the Great Ocean Rd. The haze is actually smoke from the huge bush fires miles away.

Lace Curtains
If your can zoom in, you will see some weird patterns on the cliff.

Razorback rock
Another of the strange natural rock formations along the road.

The other Apostles
The rest of the rock stacks - 7 and a half to be precise.

Comments

[Mum]

Patriotic to the end!
Glad you enjoyed the cricket (even though we lost!!) and good on you wearing the England flag to the bitter end!! Some very impressive photos, love the sunset and the view along the river at night.You will have to buy the biggest album in the world to put your selection of photos in!. Can't wait to see Ayres Rock. Happy travelling, keep safe, missing you lots. Love Mum xxxxxx