During my stay in Sydney I found some cheap flights down to Melbourne and seeing as I had relatives that lived there I decided to pop down for a few days. So after St Paddys day I packed a small bag and headed for the airport! I was greeted at the other end by my dads cousins Alan and Elisabeth who waited at the coach with a tiny Guernsey flag! That evening I caught up on the Australian side of the family's news and heard that I would be visiting them the following evening for my 2nd cousin once removed or something like that's 7th birthday party. After an amazing nights sleep in my own bedroom with my own bathroom and large fluffy towel-you don't realise what a luxury a towel is until you don't have one but then I guess it's the same with most luxuries! We headed for a nearby nature reserve and I saw an amazing thing…A koala that was moving!!! After the shock of this extremely rare sighting we moved onto the other local wildlife from the platypus to the kangaroos, the Tasmanian devils to the echidna and ostriches! It was then time for the raptor display! Exciting stuff ! We ducked and dodged as the birds seemingly oblivious to our presence soared close enough for you to reach out and touch…if you wanted to loose your fingers that is! Then back to Kelly's birthday party where I was introduced to my cousins who ranged from the ages of 5 up to 45! Several hundred slices of pizza and birthday cake later we left and I enjoyed another luxurious nights sleep! Day 2 was spent driving down to the peninsular where we watched the Ferry arrive whilst munching on our picnic and visited the little harbour inhabited by pelicans and a surf beach which boasted some awesome waves but was completely deserted! Apparently the surf beaches are so plentiful you very rarely saw more than a few surfers in one spot around here! That evening we went to cousin David's who cooked a delicious meal of couscous salad and king prawns while he tried to explain the rules of Australian rules football - I am still none the wiser except that there are 3 sets of posts at each end all worth different points… I am told that you can be an avid fan and still get confused by some rule or other of the game but it doesn't dampen your enjoyment of it! Day 3 was my last full day in Melbourne and I met up with Todd (he was down there on a visit at the same time) and his flat mates in St Kilda. It was while we eating lunch that he received a phone call from a family friend asking us to a bbq at one of his friends houses-as it was good Friday everything in town was shut and so that sounded like a good idea. We jumped in the car and on the way Ben (Todd's friend) explained that the house we were going to was owned by a man that was on the board for the Melbourne Storm Rugby team and so the people there would be mainly rugby league players and their families. A little anxious about whether or not 3 backpackers (only one of Todds flat mates - Taylor had decided to come) would be welcome we stepped inside the most incredible house! Set out inside the huge very simply but stylishly decorated kitchen/lounge was piles and piles of salads and meats and we soon lost any nerves as the wife of this man enthusiastically forced plates into our hands and pushed us in the direction of the food before her niece-Bubbles ran towards us with glasses of very expensive wine! "Drink and eat up she said I know what its like to be a backpacker…you're all very polite! I would have been stuffing my pockets by now!" We were still full from lunch but felt rude not to eat anything so forced some more down. Most of the players were outside but we sat in the lounge with Bubbles, Ben and his wife. An older man wearing a cowboy hat came and sat down wit us . He was an interesting man and then joked with Ben about his travels in London and New York without revealing why he had been there and then mentioned a tv appearance recently which had gone slightly wrong just in an offhand kind of way which we all dismissed, it wasn't until 45 minutes or so later when he excused himself to go to the children's hospital that Ben told us who we had been speaking to. Apparently his name was Ian "Molly" Meldrum and he was music royalty in Australia- he wasn't an artist but used to present a popular show called countdown which interviewed musicians and he had been known to click his fingers for the likes of Madonna and Elton John to come running. The reason he'd had to leave was he was presenting the Good Friday Fundraiser programme from the children's hospital that afternoon! "And you know that hat" Ben said," None of us has ever seen him take it off…who knows what's underneath!"I sat a little bewildered but trying to act cool…how do you react to that without looking too impressed or too blasé? But I didn't have long to wonder before the puddings were bought out…oh so many puddings!!! pavlova apparently was a necessity at any Australian bbq so it would have been rude to refuse! As would it have been rude to turn down more wine or the cheese and biscuits! We hadn't eaten or drank such quality food or drink in months! We were completely spoilt! A bit later Bubbles dragged us outside…"The guys want to meet some Americans she said!" Outside several small children ran around, faces and hands covered in chocolate, and pockets filled with more supples-Bubbles aunt was having a tug of war with 2 of the boys over a box of Ferraro Roches while Bubbles tried to barter with them using 2 easter eggs as leverage! We were asked to supervise the cooking as the man who owned the house had decide seconds were needed and had started up the bbq again! "he enjoys cooking…he just needs a bit of guidance" his wife told us as we watched him flip a lamb chop off the barbecue and onto the floor look around , blow on it and replace it on the heat! Todd's other room mates joined us a bit later as what was intended on being a couple of hours turned into a lot longer! As it grew dark we became some of the few remaining and we retreated back inside to listen to Johnny Cash and continue drinking! Bubbles got more and more entertaining as the evening went on and kept trying to convince us to stay a few more days to come and watch the game on the Sunday. I was gutted that I had non transferable plane tickets. Being that close to the field and watching an aussie rules game in Melbourne would have been an amazing experience! But sadly we couldn't stay so after exchanging numbers we left. On my final day In Melbourne Alan and Elisabeth took me to St Kilda where I explored the now open shops before driving up to Avalon with a few stops on the way. At lunch time we stopped at a seaside town with a restaurant suspended over the sea which was teeming with jellyfish and I again ate like a king before driving the final leg of the journey to the airport. Melbourne had been awesome and I'd been spoilt rotten compared to what usual backpacker life is like but I looked forward to getting home - to Excelsior!