So I'm here in Melbourne...land of Neighbours! And...not sure what else right now! Arghh...lol. It's so different from Sydney - to update on my last few days there...

I bumped into Diana and Beth at my hostel reception and it was so surreal to see them here and not surrounded by South African streets or children! Great though! We had a long catch-up over dinner in Chinatown and then drinks in our hostel bar downstairs. The next day Lucy (another roommate!) and I went to visit the beautiful Blue Mountains. We were really lucky as it was the first day in over a week with clear, sunny blue skies...We went on a tour with Oz Experience, and were quite sceptical at first. Our tour guide (known by his work name 'Knackers') was running late for 7.30am and we were grumbling as we'd rather have stayed in bed! Then in drunkenly stumbled this brown, mop-haired guy, with crazy buck teeth slurring his apolgies and I just turned to Lucy and said 'are you serious?!' He was driving us around today?! He apologised on the bus, saying this guy had blocked him in his drive and also offended him by telling him how ugly he was. 'Am I ugly?' he asked us??? The whole bus avoided eye contact and there was a tiny 'nooo...' from the back. Awkward silence. Then he ripped off this wig and fake teeth and just laughed at us, exclaiming how cruel we were! Ahh...lol we felt bad! Apparently the excuse was real though!

Anyway, the day was brilliant! We first drove past the Sydney Olympic site on the way to see Eastern Grey Kangaroos...we got really close! And then up to Wentworth Falls where we did about a three-hour hike getting amazing views over the rock ledges and waterfalls. After a picnic lunch we headed into Jamison Valley, past Katoomba Falls and on to see the Three Sisters Rock Formations...Complete with our own drag-show/fancy-dress theatre-telling of the legend of the three sisters...and their Witch Doctor Father. (Think what obscene prop you could use for a magic wand....)! So funny. And it was all down to Knackers, who was so informative and funny all day. He told us about the Funnel-Web Spiders, one of the most dangerous in the world...which we saw!! Very scary. And mentioned that he'd just spent six months in India learning the Sitar! So since I know something of Indian Classical Music, we got talking and turns out he did a music degree too...! And can play the didgeridoo! After more questions he suddenly asked if I wanted to play, as he had three in the van for a gig later! I was like, we don't need to hold up everyone...but he insisted! So we got a brilliant demonstration and then he let me have first pick on which gave me the 'best vibes'! It left a really strange sensation and was so cool to try it! He said I was pretty good ;) haha

We finished the day walking down the historic Furber Stairs and going up the steepest railway in the road..like a 52 degree incline or something. It was so steeeep! On Friday Lucy and I went to catch a free lunchtime concert at the Botanical Gardens. It was OK except the poor pianist had the worst page - turner in the world and I could actually see him speaking to him desparately about which page he should be at while frantically playing loads of fast notes!! Then before the third piece the fire alarm went off and the fire engine pulled up so that ended things pretty quickly! We just chilled out by the Opera House and had cake and coffee by the harbour...mmm!

In the evening we met Diana and Beth for our final dinner and farewells till next time...they're on the way to New Zealand too so I may catch them there. I spent the last bit of time planning my East Coast trip...I'm now going sailing and diving round the Whitsunday Islands for 3 days and nights, before heading for Fraser Island, a really beautiful, sandy place, for 3 days too. That's next week, after Melbourne!

So here I've been staying in a really small, chilled hostel where loads of people stay for months to work. It was nice at first, cooking and hanging out in front of the TV (like at uni!) but now the vibe is just tooo lazy...lol. Everyone is tired at night and the atmosphere is not so hyper and busy as it was in my last hostel which in some ways is good seeing as I could do with not spending money on touristy stuff...Not that there is much to see. This guy Chris and I have been out to explore the streets, but we just end up walking and chatting for ages and going for coffee - there really isn't anything to see! But it's nice anyway! I also met up with Lucy again as she's come down too - we went for sushi and a window shopping trip yesterday!

Anyway, I'm trying to arrange a Neighbours tour at the moment so better run! Will write again soon!