Melbourne - Australia

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Hello again everybody.

Our first stop in Australia (after a brief over night stop in Sydney) was Melbourne. Everyone says that you can experience four seasons in one day in Melbourne and they weren't lying!!

When we arrived we were welcomed by glorious sunshine and 35 degree heat. We thought we had finally left the crap weather behind in New Zealand. Unfortunately though we were wrong! Over the next week or so the weather got worse and worse. On Christmas day we were all hoping for cricket and a bbq on the beach. Unfortunately though we were lucky enough to witness Melbourne's coldest Christmas ever! It rained and was really cold. There were even hail stones in the centre of town!

Melbourne as a place was pretty nice. It was just a shame that we happened to visit when the weather was crap. Put a bit of a dampener on everything.

Anyway, like before I will add the photos now and add captions to explain what's going on!

Take it easy

Chris and James 😊

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Photos

Federation Square
The main square in the centre of town. Home to a few bars, street performers and also a large TV screen when we were getting killed by the Aussies in the cricket!

View along the River
Can't remember what the river was called but this is the view along it!

Erinsborough High - Neighbours Tour!
Sad, I know, but it was quite an interesting trip! You'd be suprised by the amount of twenty-something blokes on the bus with us!

Our Bus and Ramsay St - Neighbours Tour!
You should have seen the looks we were getting off the locals in Melbourne when we were driving round in this thing! They all had a good laugh at our expense!

Xmas day on the Beach!
As you can see, the weather on Xmas day was dismal to say the least!

St. Kilda - Melbourne
Where we stayed in Melbourne. Actually a really nice place with a nice beach. Unfortunately though we didn't get to use it!

Christmas Dinner - Not exactly traditional.
After our Xmas lunch of beef, turkey and ham (Subways!!) we went out in the evening for chinese with Mark and Ally from Oxford.

The Queen in our Hostel!
Because of the Ashes we had loads of the Barmy Army staying in our Hostel. This one bloke dressed up as the queen for the cricket. On Xmas day he even came down dressed up at 3pm and gave us his version of the Queen's speech! The weird thing was he was the absolute spitting image of Gareth Southgate. Even his mates called him Southgate!

Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG)
On our way to the cricket ready to get smashed by the Aussies! As you can see, the weather was still crap!

Shane Warne's 700 test wicket
Celebrations after he achieved number 700 in test matches.

The Smurfs!
A selection of nutters that enjoy dressing up for a day at the cricket!