Tuesday 3rd March
Melbourne
We docked in Port Melbourne this morning and took the shuttle bus into the city. We were dropped off at Federation square which is a civic and cultural centre. Opposite the square is St Paul's cathedral and also Flinders Street station which is a very impressive old building. In the square today they had a couple of formula one racing cars as they were promoting the First Grand Prix of the season which is in Melbourne. We were stopped many times by school children to do various surveys. We did three different ones on smoking, young homeless and violent video games. After completing these surveys and having a lovely cup of coffee we started to explore Melbourne. We walked up Collins Street to the Victoria State Parliament. near there is the Old Treasury Building which houses a museum about Melbourne's past so we popped in there. The Treasury building was designed by a nineteen year old architect and built between 1858 & 1862. In the basement you can walk through the rooms that were occupied by the caretaker and his family of eight in the early 1900's. They have been recreated as they would have been then. They had exhibits about the gold mining and also a panoramic photo of Melbourne in 1862 together with a 2012 version of it so that you can compare them. In the old photo there were very few buildings and only a few of them still exist. We then wandered down to the River Yarra to book a river cruise. We booked on the one o'clock boat but it was delayed as the tide was too high. We thought this was strange until we finally set off and realised how low the bridges were. We had chosen seats outside at the back but had to go inside until we were passed the very low bridges. Our boat only just got under one of them! We sailed down the river to Port Melbourne and on our return we were allowed to stay outside as the tide was lower although we had to duck down under the bridges! It was a lovely trip and by the time we got back we were ready for something to eat so we walked along the river bank and had a lovely lunch by the river. After a walk along the river and over some of the bridges we returned by bus to Port Melbourne. This is a lovely seaside town just 3km from the city. We had time to walk along the promenade and see some of the older houses from Victorian times as well as some beautiful modern ones with lots of glass.

Wednesday 4th March
Burnie, Tasmania
Overnight we sailed from Melbourne to Tasmania. The port we are in is Burnie which is a very small community. The people here are very welcoming and we took the shuttle bus into town. We did a little bit of shopping in town and had a coffee and a walk along the water front. The weather is very changeable here. It's quite windy and that brings cloud,then sun,then more cloud, a bit of misty rain and then the cycle starts all over. Not a lot to see in Burnie so at lunch time when the rain started we returned to the ship.