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Published: February 10th 2008
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Melbourne During our stay in Melbourne V's uncle Richard very kindly put us up! It felt like absolute luxury - he spoilt us rotten!
On our first day we had a bit of a tour of the city and a wander round the botanical gardens, and in the evening we grabbed a meal at a local pub.
On the Friday we caught the tram into town for a look round. Unfortunately this involved a trip to the hospital - Sel had stubbed her toe the day before, and heard it crack so we thought we'd better get that checked out! They 'buddy strapped' it to the next toe and off we hobbled!
Phillip Island On Saturday we set off along the coast towards Phillip Island, stopping on the way for a coffee at a really nice cafe by the sea, and for a wander along a little beach full of colourful beach huts! - there was a great view of the city from here... Once on Phillip Island we drove to Cowes to find a cafe for lunch - it was really quite British! With the place names etc. We spotted a restaurant called "the isle of white'
in Cowes - ironic! We had a wander along the beach before driving to the other side of the island to Smith's beach (ha!), which was a surfing beach so was pretty popular. 'The Nobbies' was our next destination - beautiful coastline, and even the odd baby penguin sat in its nest on the side of the hill! Got some good photos here! The main reason for coming to Phillip Island happens at dusk, so at about 8pm we drove to the Penguin viewing area, got ourselves a good spot and waited for it to go dark... we waited... watching the waves lap at the shore... waiting for the first penguin to arrive.... all of a sudden one got washed up on the beach, stood up, shook itself off, had a look round then realised it was alone, so panicked and ran back in the water!! A few more started to appear, and the same process happened! They'd get washed up on the beach, stand up, have a look round, then run back in the water - it was so funny! Once there was a group of 5/6, one would decide, 'right lets go for it' and begin marching up
the hill, past where we were sitting to find their nests where their fluffy, fat chicks have been waiting whilst the adults have been out fishing! The chicks were hilarious too! When it was starting to go dark they began coming out of their burrows, looking down towards the beach for Mum or Dad to get back! When the adults were heading up the hill, the chicks got a little overexcited and pecked at the adults who were on the way past! It was a brilliant day - seeing the little penguins is definitely one of our trip's highlights!
Sunday was BBQ day - Rich had promised us a good Aussie BBQ! So we went to the market in the morning to buy everything we needed. And it really was such a good barbie! We ate so much! ... and washed it down with Pimms!
The Yarra Valley We booked ourselves onto a wine tasting tour! Which took us to 4 different wineries in the Yarra Valley - Yering Farm, Rochford, Yering Station and Domaine Chandon. All were really different and we tried loads of different wines! They taught us how to taste them properly - it was
really good fun! A gourmet lunch was included - Sel had Kangaroo! It was a really nice sunny day - the countryside was very picturesque - reminded me of france! Our last stop was Domaine Chandon - part of Moet and Chandon! We tried a sparkling Red wine - which we didn't realise even existed!
The Great Ocean Road We hired a car for 2 days and set off on a roadtrip along the Great Ocean Road! The scenery was incredible - we stopped at lots of little towns along the way - Torquay, Anglesea etc - are these place names familiar??! We'd booked a hostel in Apollo Bay for the night - a really quiet little village. Unfortunately it was a little rainy and from then on Sel renamed it The Grey Ocean Road! The following day we drove further along and stopped at lots of lookouts - we saw The Arch, London Bridge, Bay of Islands and of course the 12 Apostles! They were all very impressive - even in the rain and low cloud! It was a fantastic 2 days even though the weather wasn't quite up to scratch!
On our last day in Melbourne
we did the obligatory 'climb up the tallest building in the city for a view'! - in this case it was the Rialto Tower. Once the cloud had cleared a bit we got a pretty good view of the city - we managed to spot lots of places we'd been to and could see out to Port Melbourne where Richard's house is. We could've easily stayed longer in Melbourne... but New Zealand was calling.... so we jumped on a plane to Christchurch....!
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