A little story...

Whilst on our tour in tropical North Queensland in the Daintree Rainforest, our ever so effervescent and energetic tour guide Peter (who finished every sentence with "no worries" or "too easy" decided to tell us of the dangerous flora and fauna who call the areas around Cape Tribulation home. Apparently in the last year 8 people have become Mr (or Mrs) hungry crocodile's breakfast, lunch or dinner. The locals tend not to have any sympathy though as you have to be either pretty stupid or very unlucky to be crunched by a croc. Anyhow 90% of all people killed by salties are drunk. This brings me to an interesting point it is actually illegal in Queensland to be eaten by a crocodile! (Not sure how successful the prosecution service is in getting a case to court!) Secondly it is also illegal in Queensland to commit suicide. (again who makes up these laws!) My theory is that all of these 8 drunks gobbled up as a tea time treat actually committed suicide. If you have read my previous blogs you will have realised my major annoyance with Australia is how ridiculously expensive everything is especially alcohol. Therefore these pissed up people will have just had to spend their entire life savings in order to get drunk and rather than face bankruptcy and the misery of ruin they have decided to end it with the aid of snappy the saltwater crocodile. So if you think you have had a bad day at least you didn't become bankrupt, get killed (and eaten) then face posthumously Not one but two court cases, b*****.

P.S I have just read the excellent "Down Under" by Bill Bryson who happens to share a lot of similar views to myself and in the section about the immeasurable amount of things that can kill you in Oz he mentions the Cassowary (see Mission Beach blog) which did actually kill someone by jumping and slashing the jugular of the poor sap with their massive velocoraptor style claw, so I was right to carry that massive stick!

Right, here's Franki to tell you about our fun fun fun in Melbourne. The Grand Prix was epic by the way. Especially when Jenson Button romped to victory and Aussie Mark Webber finished a nowhere ninth. Have a bit of that Australia! Cheerio.

We arrived in Melbourne on Wednesday 17th March 2010 at 5.05pm, we got the shuttle bus and free hostel transfer into the city and to our first hostel in Melbourne! Really big hostel and a bit crazy when we first arrived as it was St Patricks Day so a lot of people who had a lot of alcohol in them! The rooms were a decent size and clean and there was free tea/coffee, rice and pasta so couldn't go too wrong or could we... when we met our room mate!! We really liked Melbourne, so much going on and to see and do, there was a food festival, film festival and fashion week and the Grand Prix all in the time we were in the city!

We covered a lot of ground whilst we were here exploring and spending time in Federation Square (lots of controversy about the square but we really liked it!) we even got free pasta and popcorn from the food festival! The city has lovely Botanical Gardens and the main centre and greatest chips ever from the famous "Lord of the Fries" takeaway! We also educated ourselves at the Australia Centre for the Moving Image all about film and TV and the Ian Potter NGV Art Museum (pictures to follow of Jimmy's favourites!) We also took advantage of free city circle tram and free tourist bus that the city provides which is a great idea and very handy on a travelling budget! Visiting the local weekend markets at the Arts Centre and Queen Victoria Markets where we had a ham and cheese Malaysian lunch! One of the highlights of our time in Melbourne for me had to be the NEIGHBOURS tour and Trivia night! Super cheesy on both occasions but great fun and has to be done! We got to visit some of the sets and studio and Ramsey Street took far too many photos and met Janae, Dr Karl, Irish Conor and Steve Parker plus Paul Robinson and Dr Karl played in their bands and were actually quite good and played some recent hits! Overall a good laugh but sadly we didn't win and the Quiz! Our last few days in Melbourne were spent at the Grand Prix, highlight for Jimmy and a really good atmosphere I actually enjoyed the racing! Weather wasn't the best but we survived and had fun! We also met up with another familiar face Lauren who I went to uni in Sheffield with and it was good to catch up and see her new life in Oz! Final highlight was our trip to Aussie Rules match! Great game and great atmosphere was really good fun and the MCG stadium is amazing! Overall we loved Melbourne and were sad to leave OZ but excited for our next country on the trip New Zealand... not looking forward to the drop in temperature though!!