Neighbours, Ozzie Rules, Great Ocean Road and the City

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July 29th 2009

Published: July 30th 2009

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Ross Ed

torquay beach

famous for its surfing

As I touched on previously, we've now made it to the home of Neighbours, Ozzie Rules, and some other things, Melbourne. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Mildura and I'm a bit sad it came to an end. My last day there was spent earning 9 pound an hour, pruning small stumps of grape vines (see Stef's pictures). This was helped along with an hour lunch break (usually only half an hour) and 5 cold beers. This continued after work where I drank some more beer and half a box of goon. Needless to say, I don't remember much apart from a duvet, the police, and a midnight munchie run for a kebab. A good night/day in my book. I was up at 8 the next day after a few hours sleep, and ready to catch my flight to Melbourne, kinda. Some say I was a bit drunk, maybe my hair of the dog beer in the morning supplemented this, but me and my bags made it to Australia's 2nd biggest city in one piece.

So, we're staying at Stefanie's relatives in one of the suburbs. That night we sat down to a barbie and some more beer, ready for

me and the ocean

our exciting first day in Melbourne. It was Nicola's birthday, so we were planning on going to go on a Neighbours tour, and to an AFL game. Unfortunately (fortunately really!), the Neighbours tour was sold out so we did a DIY one. Stefanie's cousin managed to find the address of the school and street they use for filming. We arrived at Pin Oak Court (aka Ramsey Street) to be greeted by all the familiar houses. It's a real street and they actually only use the outsides of the houses for filming. The indoory stuff is filmed at a studio somewhere I think. So we all jumped out the car and proudly stood infront of all the houses to get our pictures taken (see previous blog), before the security guard hurried us away. Next we were off to the school. This was rather disappointing though, and didn't look anything like it does on the telly. I didn't even bother getting out the car for it.

After the mornings excitement, there was still more to come. We were off to our first Australian Rules football game, Essendon Bombers v Richmond Tigers. It was very entertaining, and great to see one of

aireys inlet lighthouse

remember "around the twist", it was used in that

Australia's most famous stadiums, the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground). The capacity is 100,000 but there was only 47,000 there for the game. It was still a great experience though, even though our adopted team (Bombers) lost.

The next day, it was a 5:30 rise and bags packed, ready for our adventure down the Great Ocean Road. It is one of the most famous driving routes in Oz and some of the sights are spectacular. Along the road, there are huge limestone cliffs and rocks that have been moulded by the wind and rain that hammers the southern coast of Australia. We were staying in a camper trailer thing at a nice caravan park in Port Campbell. We were about 500 metres from the ocean but the sound the waves made throughout the night was terrifying at times! Along with the rain, and freezing temperatures, it was just like camping in Scotland too. We also made a trip along the coast in the hope of some whale watching. It was our lucky day too and we saw a couple of Souther Right Whales chilling in the waters just off the beach.

After our camping trip, we had one day

12 apostles

great ocean road

to explore the city before we head off to Canberra tomorrow. We spent all day, simply wandering about exploring the sights of the CBD. We also got a tram to the seaside again, St Kilda. There wasn't alot there though, so all we did was walk along one street, have a pint, then walk back along. It is probably busy and happening in the summer, but not on a cold winters day.

So our train leaves tomorrow at midday where we'll meet up with our Brisbane friend Mick and take in a NRL game, before heading back to Sydney on Sunday.

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