What is the difference between Melbourne and any other Australian city? It's home of Neighbours!

I'm not saying I used to be obsessed by the programme, but I did make my mum trawl around London one Christmas in search of a circular spice rack the same as Madge had in her kitchen. We eventually found the one in Peter Jones on Sloane Square and I still have it to this day.

Luckily Richard used to watch it in the early days too so he was familiar with all the characters and which houses they lived in.

Ramsay Street is a real street in Melbourne but its true identity is Pin Oak Court. We drove to the street to have a wander round and stand where Kylie and Jason had been all those years ago.

Even though I'd looked at it on a map I was still so surprised on how small the cul-de-sac was. In the programme it's also deceptive as the houses are numbered in the 20's but there are only six houses in the real street. Also, on the TV the houses look rather up market but in reality they appear cheaply made and merely average.

There was a car parked at the end of the road with a guy sitting in it. Richard went over and found he was the security guard. The production company provide 24/7 security for the families that live in the street as they get over 200 people a day visiting. We asked if he knew why they'd picked Pin Oak Court to film in rather than the many other similar cul-de-sacs in the area and he explained that there was a car park behind this street which the crew use.

Unfortunately there wasn't any filming on the day we were there, but it did allow us to stand outside all the houses and have a good look around. It was great being there remembering scenes from the programme - looking up at the balcony where Madge stood in the opening titles, seeing the driveway where Lucy appeared from in the first episode, and the Robinson's playing cricket in the street.

We stayed in Melbourne longer than we'd planned because I came down with another throat infection and slept for three days, plus Melbourne exceeded our expectations so we took our time to explore.

During our twelve days there we experienced winter through to summer. It bucketed it down with rain solidly for one day, another it was a meagre 25 degrees, then two days later it was 39.

Travelling around the city was exceptionally easy by using the tram system. We went to the beach suburb of St Kilda a couple of times. The first was on a cooler day and we strolled along the relatively quiet beach front and Richard gazed in the windows of many speciality cake shops resisting the temptation. The next time we went was on the hot day and the place transformed with hundreds of people on the beach and others whizzing around the water on jet skis. We had a rare lunch out and choose a lovely restaurant and had a range of Mediterranean style mezes which were absolutely delicious. I was still recovering from my throat infection so had to watch Richard sip his pints of James Squire as he informed me how they'd been served at the right temperature and tasted exceptionally nice.

We went to the Museum of the Moving Image in Melbourne centre. I was pleased to see displays for Crocodile Dundee, Dame Edna and Neighbours. There was also a feature on Kylie and I'd forgotten she was in the Henderson Kids. I also discovered that Kate Richie, who I see on the front of many magazines over here, is Sally from Home and Away. Looks like she's slimmed down a fair bit from when I last watched it.

To make the most of all the freebies we went to the Melbourne Museum and learned about the city's history and looked around their dinosaur exhibits.

One afternoon we took a trip to the casino which was Las Vegas scale and easy to get lost in. We didn't gamble ourselves, we were contented with watching the mainly Chinese punters putting hundreds of dollars on at a time.

Our journey in and out the centre to the camp site took us through an area called Fitzroy. This was my favourite part as from the exterior the buildings and restaurants looked run down with stucco peeling off the walls, but inside they seemed up market and thriving businesses.

During our time at the camp site we had some amusing nights with other campers who were there for a few days too. One night was like Christmas when a couple of English guys kept popping into the kitchen, giving away free food and other items as they were leaving the country the next day. It started off with tins of beans and then came torches and half a bottle of Smirnoff Vodka. We were all delighted with our freebies until a distraught woman opened the door to the kitchen and announced her tent had been robbed. We couldn't help but think we were someway involved - maybe the English guys were getting rid of stolen goods and there we were sat with them. Then Richard asked her what had been taken and she announced it was a red jacket. Much to our relief we pointed her in the direction of a red coat that had been left on the table all afternoon and carried on enjoying our treats!

Katy