Melbourne, Victoria and the Great Ocean Road

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Melbourne has been amazing.

It's such a cosmopolitan city but with a laid back vibe too.

We have stayed in 3 or 4 different hostels (on average about 8-9 pounds a night), and eventually settled in a really friendly one where we've met a few lovely people. Our first week was spent exploring the many cafe's, shops, bars, galleries, museums, markets and parks. There's so many that we still haven't found them all. In one of the biggest parks, Carlton Gardens, we took some crackers up after dark and fed lots of Possums - they're curious fellas - or maybe just hungry.

The transport links here are amazing. There is a free tram that circles the city - so living in the centre can really benefit - free transport! There has been so much money spent on the place its unreal. the fountains and little fireworks that go off every evening must cost a fortune to run, but make the city seem a real buzz. It's nicknamed "the garden city", and is said to be Australia's most "liveable city" - its not difficult to see why. There isn't much history to the city, but what it lacks in old architecture it makes up for in modern art and craft.

We managed to take in an Aussie rules game a few weeks back, and saw collingwood beat brisbane - its a strange game, but i managed to follow must of the rules. Its quite rough though - one guy actually broke his neck in the game we saw.

I then dragged Laura to the Welsh Church they have here. Its a really nice little place with Welsh flags everywhere,and I had a personal tour by the ministers wife. Once a month they actually have services yn Gmyraeg (in Welsh).

We also saw Australia beat England in the rugby last night (43 - 18). Was a great scoreline I thought, but Laura was the only one of our group supporting England, so wasn't quite so amused. The stadium itself is great, but the atmosphere somewhat muted. I tried to sing bread of heaven a few times but the aussies aren't really into they're singing. It makes you appreciate just how good the millenium stadium is.

The highpoint for us was probably the Great Ocean Road. Esther and Chris came down from Sydney for 4 days to share it with us. We hired a car and drove the 280km there and back. Along the way we saw waterfalls, coves, cave's, rocks,clear ocean, cliffs, rainforest and much more. We stayed in a lovely pine cabin in a place called Port Campbell for 2 nights, which was at the basin of a lovely rivers estuary. On the 2nd night we cooked fresh fish and had a few beers after a days travelling amongst the twelve apostles (rock formations) and a big rock named London Bridge.

We fly to New Zealand tomorrow for 6 weeks. It's going to be rather cold there, but we're well prepared.

We'll let you know how we get on

more pictures here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/richandlaura

Best,

Rich and Laura

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