Next stop in Australia: Melbourne and as quoted by a local....

'If you don't like Melbournes weather, wait 5 minutes and it will change'

Our flight from Darwin only took around 4 hours, and it was one of Richard Branson's finest Virgin flights. We had our own private screen in the headrest in front of us, and complimentary satellite TV. Dom watched Hull City v Liverpool and some Australian Rugby League and Beth watched Sex and the City. Easy life.

We landed around 11pm but there wasn't any strict searches or interrogation as it was a domestic flight. We collected our bags and hopped straight in a taxi to take us to our hostel.

Melbourne greeted us with rain and cold winds, reminded us of good old England. Its about 15degrees!!! Not the 30+ weve been used to!!! But is a nice reminder of home.

We are staying at the Ritz!!! Hmm...well the Ritz for Backpackers (thats what its called)

The room is clean and we have hot showers which are a must here, as its freezing.

The next day we went for a walk round St Kilda (the area we are staying in) and to the beach. But definitely no sunbathing or swimming as its way too cold. Also we saw loads of little jellyfish washed up so maybe it was a good thing.

St Kilda is a nice part of city and lots of cafes and restaurants.

We both enjoyed a nice hot roast beef and gravy sandwich to warm us up...Yummy!! (They were that good that we treat ourselves to another one at dinner time, too....not a great diet but warm and deeeelish)

We went to STA Travel to arrange a bus to Sydney but the girl told us it was a 10 hour journey with a stop over in Canberra. She said its not a very pleasant journey and its the same price to fly....So we looked at flights and found that they were actually cheaper than the bus (so no competition)...Bonus!!

The next day we caught the tram into the main city and went to the tourist information to see what else the city has to offer.

We walked around the city and it's a really nice place, lots of big buildings, great architecture, lots of street art and good shopping (wish we had more money to spend). There are buskers everywhere and guy selling The Big Issue but they had microphones! Not like the ones you get in Hull.

The following day we were woken up by a knock on the door. A guy was stood there asking us if we had booked a trip to Philip Island (which we had) we said yes we had but theyre picking us up at 11am. He laughed and said 'it is 11am' . We stupidly hadn't changed our mobile phone clocks since Darwin so they read 10.30am! Stupid 30minute time difference!!!!!!!!!!

So we literally threw some clothes on and left within 5minutes, The mini bus driver just laughed and luckily there wasnt anyone else on the bus yet!

He took us to the 'Ramsay Street Tours' office to verify our ticket (yes you can do day tours to the Neighbours set...We were very tempted....)

Luckily next door there was a cafe so we managed to get some breakfast before we left.

On our bus we met a few people. A girl from Manchester called Jenny who had been travelling across New Zealand and Oz for three months and who is reluctantly going home next week,

We met an Irish girl, an Ozzie girl who had never been overseas! (Well Oz is such a big place and has so much to offer, why would you?) a German girl and a few others but didnt catch everyones name. There was about 15 of us.

Our Tour Guide was really funny. He had a microphone headset and wasnt afraid to use it. Haha.

Our first stop was The Moonlit Animal Sanctuary. Here Dom and I got to hold a diamond python.

We then went and met a grumpy koala who had just been woken up. Ahh bless him. Our very interesting Guide told us that Koala is an Aboriginal word for 'no water'.

He was gorgeous and bigger than i imagined. We saw a Hairy Nosed Wombat which was like a giant rabbit mixed with a pig (he had a pig snout).Sometimes you get to hold the baby Wombats but there werent any there unfortunately.

We then got to feed Wallabies and Kangaroos !!! They were nibbling nuts and seeds straight from our hands. They were really nervous animals though and anytime you made a sudden movement they flinched!

Next we drove to Churchill Island to see Sheep Sheering. We thought this was very random. We met the Farmer who we will call Joe for now as we cant remember his name,

He had the poor sheep lined up ready to be sheered (although by the look on the sheeps faces you would have thought they were being lined up for execution)

Farmer Joe went and grabbed and dragged one out of the pen and began to shave!! Poor thing. He just lay there and let him do what he wanted, as his little legs just stuck up in the air! He couldnt have done anything even if hed wanted to.

Our next stop was Philip Island and we stopped to watch some surfers at one of Australias most dangerous surf spots. Luckily we had beautiful weather-there wasnt a cloud in the sky!!! So it wasnt too cold. The beach was stunning, if only it had been a bit warmer we could have gone swimming!

Then we went to Nobbies Island... well, not quite, Nobbies Island was a small island made of rocks which Seals lived on,but we went to the Nobbies Island Education Centre which was directly opposite, and got to watch the Seals on Camera (on a TV screen) as the island was too far away to see anything if you just looked out of the window... It was like watching a documentary... So a bit disappointing.

We walked outside and spotted a Little Penguin (thats their actual name) hiding underneath the Boardwalk!!! I got a photo but its not the best !

The sun began to set and the view was amazing!!!

Our final stop was at The Penguin Parade....

The Little Penguins are the smallest in the world and are about 33cm tall.They are not black like other penguins, they are a deep blue so that they are camouflaged when swimming in the sea.

Basically, we went to the beach to see the penguins returning from a hard days (sometimes weeks) work at sea.... Everynight at sunset, they pluck up the courage to cross the beach, back to their burrows on the mainland!!! Its funny watching them, as it took them quite a few attempts as they are so nervous and vunerable when crossing the beach as its when they can be spotted most easily by predators.

They normally cross in big groups (safety in numbers) and we were lucky to see four or five groups of about 15/20 penguins. The smallest group was the last group we saw, when there was about 5 of them !!! It was the cutest thing i think ive ever seen!!!! They seem to be trying to run, but the way they waddle makes them fall over a lot and they dont seem to get anywhere fast!!!!

The penguins that have been out at sea for a matter of weeks, are quite fat due to the food they are storing which makes it even more difficult for them to run!!!

You werent allowed to take photographs but we managed to get a sneaky video.

As we were walking back to the car park, the penguins were walking under the boardwalk so we got to see them closely.

The woman explained to us that before they go into their little homes in the ground, they will socialise for a while. They were so noisy !!! They sounded like cats crying.

It was a great experience. Its one thing seeing animals in a zoo, but to see them in their natural environment is amazing.

On the way back to warm us all up, we stopped for Pizza!!! We were starving and it went down very well!!!

Two hours later, we were back at The Ritz.

Our next day was another busy one.

We woke up nice an early around 11am :-) and caught the tram to Federation Square in the city. We then hopped on the free tourist shuttle bus and headed straight to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

Dom really wanted to go to it as he remembers playing their on the Brian Lara Cricket game for the PlayStation.

The MCG is massive, and has a total capacity of approximately 100,000.

It was built in 1853 and has so much history hosting plenty of international cricket including the first-ever Test and the 1992 World Cup final, AFL Grand Finals, and the 1956 Olympic Games. Also its hosted Australian World Cup soccer qualifiers, rugby league home and away matches and State of Origin, international rugby union clashes and the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

We did the guided tour and our guide was an old guy and he was so informative, he was a big AFL fan and used to be an referee.

We then hopped back on the shuttle bus and headed to Eureka Sky deck which is the worlds tallest residential building.

It is 300 metres high and takes less than 40 seconds to reach level 88 (which is the fastest lift in the southern peninsula).

The Sky deck also has the worlds only 'Edge' experience. This is a little box that pokes out of the main building and is completely glass so you can see everything. We was going to do this but it was an additional cost and when we saw it it didn't look that good. There was also an outside balcony you could walk on for free which was pretty much the same minus the glass floor.

The views were amazing as you'd expect, and especially as we was there for sunset. We admired the views for a good hour while sipping a nice chilled beer.

After that we then had a walk around the city which was so busy and rested at a few places for well deserved beers. As we were about to get the tram back to St Kilda, we saw there was a protest going on. There must have been 100people or more stood with banners and candles. The banners read things like 'Save The Tamils' and 'Tamils are human too' (its something going on in Sri Lanka and people wanted the Australian Government to put pressure on the Sri Lanka Government.)

We always get caught up in protests hehe....

For our supper we treat ourselves to a Donner Kebab and garlic sauce and immediately regretted it !!!!

Weve loved it Melbourne. It has everything you could want from a holiday.... Beaches, shopping, nice people, good food and nightlife.....And so far, Australia has been so easy to travel compared with Asia, its just like being on a city break. It would be good to come back here in their summertime and spend a bit longer.... Theres so much we havent had time to do...

Today we fly to Sydney where we are staying with our friends, Rich and Nada (and little Monty!!!) Hoping Sydney is as good as Melbourne has been..... Im sure it will be.