I went to Melbourne for 10 days and met up with Jill here as we had been apart for 4 months or so! I left sunny and v.hot Perth to Melbourne which was pissing it down and flooded...not to mention bloody cold!

There was bad weather in Brisbane and Melbourne which meant Jills flight was delayed by about 5 hours until conisdered safe to fly...she eventually arrived 6 hours after she was meant to! We were staying at Maze backpackers and below was the Elephant & Wheelbarrow which is where they hold the neighbours night...

The following day we were off on a 2 day great ocean road tour. I didnt have much hope of getting pictures as so far it had not stopped raining since i landed that afternoon. We left at 7am after a sleepless night from a super noisy bar below us, there was about 20 of us on the tour mostly the same age with the odd exception - 50 year old lady who was now enjoying her time exploring her own country she was alright although a bit too motherly telling me about the "dangers of the aussie sun"...i knew this already and she also moaned at us when we choose to stay in the bus when it was thundering down with rain - sorry but I did not want to be soaked for the 2nd time that day...the rocks would still be there tomo when we were going back..anyhoo...The Great Ocean Road trip was amazingly good fun and beautfiul. We also had a fabby tour guide, i cannot remember her name but she was hillarious, we stopped off at a volcano place (im writing this nearly 2 months after i did it and so have forgot the names but i have them written down) and we walked up a huge hill which gave us a really good view from the top, we also saw wild kangaroos and koalas...this wasn't to be the only time we would be seeing this! Yet again on the walk back it started to piss it down just for a change, we then went and stopped off for some lunch in the middle of nowhere, couldnt tell you where we were but there was one shop, one post office, one super market no bar and no atm! We stopped off the the 12 apostles (although only 7 now left and soon there will be none!) we also saw the london bridge, the cave where the man and woman were washed into after their ship sank - how he managed to climb at that cliff i'll never know because there is nowhere to put your hands and feet! The day was pretty much filled with seeing famous rocks, pretty beaches and taking stupid pictures - I had a good day, by 6pm we had arrived at the hostel we were to stay in overnight-was only ayer old and like a hotel, love it, best beds and sleep ive ever had ina hostel. We had a huge BBQ way too much food for just the 20 of us and then we made our way back to the 12 apostles for the sunset and to watch the penguins come into the beach!! I got some lovely pics of the sunset and then just our luck the wind picked up and the heavens opened - again!! It went for peaceful stillness to a howling gail and chucking it down. We managed to stick it out for the penguins coming back to the beach which was amazing to see but by the time we had returned to the bus we were all blue..a hot shower was needed asap.

The next day we revisited some of the sights again which was good and more picture taking time, we also visited some surf towns on the way back and a really pretty beach and finally we goto ur pic taken with the great ocean road sign - spot the tourists!! On the way back to Melbourne our guide put on the Christmas songs and everyone was singing along to the usual tracks, very funny and very weird being in Australia a week before Christmas!

Back in melbourne and 2 new girls had checked into our room - becky and suzanne, becky was a geordie and suz an irish - they were good crack. We had many a drunken night out and hungover day spent with them. We were stating in St Kilda which was near the beach - which reminded me a lot of blackpool so enough said about that! It was quite nice though filled with lovely little cake shops and cafes, I had the best breakfasts and cakes in St Kilda our of all of Aussie land. Myself and Jill then went to the Neighbours tour which was the most cringe worthy thing i have ever done but i loved it, we went to the set and they were filming and i got to see tash (the school girl,blonde) and then we went to the street aka "ramsay street" but i think it was actually called "Pitt St" and we took all cheesy pics with the ramsay street sign, at the end we met up with Stingray - he's no longer in it but still "famous"...we all got our pic taken with him and then it was on to the neighbours night at the pub! I loved every minute of it, we met lucas, steph scully, stingray (again) and his cute brother came along for the crack too! There was lots of games and drinks involved and of course a million pics were taken! The cheesiet day of my life.

The four of us decided to head for the Ice Bar - felt sorry for all you lot back at home we though we would try and sympathise. We paid $30 for 30 mins, 1 cocktail and 1 shot - i choose a cosmopolitan and a jager! We had to put on a thick jakcet, gloves and boots to keep us warm, thank god i wore leggings and not shorts as i had planned it was freezing and -13 deg to be exact. I only stayed in for 20 minutes, i couldnt stay the full 30 minutes it was way too cold and I have no idea how i'll cope once I am back, we then headed back to st kilda, bought a box of goon and the rest is history...The rest of melbourne was filled with crap weather, eating, drinking and feeling hungover. Don't think i would go back to melbourne - didn't do much for me and it was horrifically cold!

Next we were off to Sydney to spend christmas with the ladies...!