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Published: December 17th 2008
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G'day folks,
So since our last blog about Fiji, we packed up our stuff from our 3 month stay in a cabin in Brisbane, and hit the road to make our way to Melbourne. It's about a 2000 KM journey, so we thought we'd take about two weeks to do it and stay 1 or 2 nights at the places we liked on the way.
Our first stop was Byron Bay. We stayed there two nights, and we did the walk to the most easterly point of mainland Australia called Cape Byron, where there were some amazing views of the coastline. We even saw some wild dolphins playing around in the ocean.
We also had the best fish and chips ever in Byron! Two things are just never going to be the same when we get home - 1) the beaches and 2) the fish and chips! The Aussies have set a very high standard in those categories!!
We then visited lots of other nice coastal towns in New South Wales - Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Kiama and others I can't even remember now!
We got to Melbourne on the 1st December, and as with Brisbane
a few months ago, our mission was to sort out some accommodation and some work! We've got the accommodation sorted out. We stumbled across a bit of a gem actually. Hostels seem to be a bit more expensive here, and any cheap accommodation I had found on the net or read about in the rough guide, was all booked up when we got here. We're here for 6 weeks, so we wanted to get somewhere with a short term lease as paying for accommodation nightly works out to be very expensive.
After hours of searching on the net, we found a new hotel complex that opened in August, and they have your normal hotel rooms, and then they have studio's that they rent out on short term leases. We were looking at it on the net, and for the money, it seemed to good to be true. It's only a little bit more than what it would be to stay in a hostel. For our money, we get an almost new studio room with kitchenette, bathroom and balcony. All new furniture, bedding, kitchenware etc. As it's part of a hotel complex, we also get to use the hotel facilities
for free, which include a gym, swimming pool and pool table! The room also get serviced once a week and we get new towels and bed sheets etc.
We thought there must be a catch, but we went to view a room, and it was so nice, we'd have been foolish to say no! The minimum you have to commit to is 5 weeks, but that's perfect for us as we are going to be here for six.
The work front has been a bit more of an issue. It's just a dodgy time to get work - partly because of the economic issues and partly because it's almost Christmas - lots of business are winding down. But we've registed with a few agencies, and all we can do is hope! Ben had one day's envelope stuffing last week (I couldn't do it because they hadn't received my references at that stage - how crazy is that!!!), but that's it. Fingers crossed something will come up soon.
Since we've been here, we've done one excursion and that was a ride on the Puffing Billy steam train following by wine tasting at three wineries at the famous Yarra
Valley. The Puffing Billy is an old steam train from the 1900's that basically acts as a tourist attraction these days, but it goes through the countryside and it was quite a nice journey. There are no windows in any of the carriages, so you can sit with your legs hanging outside of the train!
With the wine tasting, we were bit nervous that it might be full of wine buffs, and that we might be told to spit out the wine (God forbid!), but luckily it wasn't like that at all. At the first winery, we had a lovely roast beef dinner, with lots of wine on the table, then we went to taste a few wines at the bar. At the second winery, we had a 'wine appreciation' session, where we all sat down and the women told us what flavours to look for and what part of the taste buds can appreciate the flavours etc...
Then the last winery was Domaine Chandon, which is a sister winery of the well-known 'Moet & Chandon' in France. We learnt a few things - that you DO pronounce the t in 'Moet', and that new rules mean Champagne
can only be called Champagne if it is made in Champagne, France otherwise it is just 'Sparkling Wine'. So we had a tour of the place, and the guide told us all about how sparkling wine is made, and then we had a glass at the end.
So all in all it was nice day, and good to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city for a while. It helped that our tour guide did a commentary on the coach on the way there, and he sounded uncannily like Alan Partridge. A-ha!
We can't believe it's so close to Christmas, and yet it's so warm! Very bizarre. Not sure what we are doing on Christmas Day yet, but hopefully it will involve doing something outdoors, as we've got to do something we couldn't do in the UK at Christmas!
(Having trouble uploading pics, every internet place we go to either doesn't have a USB port or it's REALLY slow...so pictures will follow soon, hopefully!)
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erin
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happy christmas
hello ben and mazza hope your both well. sounds like your having an amazing time! just to wish u both a very merry christmas love erin x