Melbourne - Saturday 29

Another silly o'clock flight, so up at 4am.We were met at the airport in Melbourne by Andrew (good friend from Dubai) and took the one hour drive through the city and out to the countryside south of Melbourne to Emerald, in the Dandenong National Park region.It was great to see Kelly and the boys at their gorgeous new home. Despite only just receiving their shipment from Dubai and being up to their eyes unpacking boxes, our guest suite in the 'love shack' at the end of the garden was made to look very homely.After a few recovery zzzzs, we got some food for a BBQ, despite the rain and freezing weather - cos we are in Australia, the land of the barby!Had a great night with some great company.

Sunday 30

A Sunday morning stroll in to town with Andrew and AJ, past the Puffing Billy steam train station and into the local bakery, where AJ was happy playing with his cars and we were happy scoffing pies and doughnuts. Andrew and Kelly suggested we take their car and explore a bit of the area, so we drove the scenic route to the Sky High viewing platform up in the Dandenong mountains to see some great views of Melbourne and the surrounding areas for miles below.We visited Sassafras, which is a quaint touristy village with 'Devonshire' cream teas available at every 10th shop.With the grey skies, we thought we were back in England! Had a look round some of the quirky local art shops and could have spent a fortune, but the 'you buy it, you carry it' theme was ringing in our heads.After a freebie toast-it-yourself marshmallow from a shopping courtyard we headed back out of town and made a circular route past the reservoir and back to Kelly and Andrew's.

Monday 31

We woke up to the sound of rain pattering on top of the love shack, so had a bit of a slow morning catching up with mundane life stuff.Suz has noticed that she has an increasing pain in her hamstring (old injury no doubt aggravated by our re-introduction to walking - as we didn't have to do that in Dubai), so we made an appointment with a local physio for a bit of a rub.As the rain didn't let up we went back for a DVD and a cosy night in.

Tuesday 1st September

Kelly drove us into town to show us part of the city and some of her old haunts of where she lived, worked and played.We went through Toorak, then on to Albert Park and St Kilda past the esplanade.She left us in town where we made our way in to the centre (or CBD) by foot.Walked though the South Bank area, where there are many good bars and restaurants.Felt the urge to be culture-vultures, so went to see some Australian art exhibitions at the National Gallery of Victoria, as well as the fantastic Salvador Dali exhibition.Met up with Andrew after (his) work and took the commuter train with him to Kelly's sister Deanne's beautiful home for dinner.We felt so welcomed by everyone again and had a lovely evening with Kelly's family.

Wednesday 2

We got the bus and train in to Melbourne, which takes about 1.5 hours.We strolled around to get a feel for the life in the city.We have noticed the great examples of late 19th Century architecture and fantastic Art Deco buildings.However, these are dotted about in between some of the less glamorous buildings; it all seems a bit chaotic and it's a pity that Melbourne lacks a dominant architectural style or icon (unless you count the MCG, which appears to be very popular). Later, Suz was on a bit of a mystery tour, as she knew that we had something booked to stay overnight for her birthday, but not sure where.Enter the Westin Hotel.Stephen had booked a beautiful suite with a bathroom quadruple the size of the whole Jucy van.We went to the gym and had a dip in the beautiful pool before heading back to the room, where Suz had a two-hour in-room massage, which was fantastic.In the evening we headed to the hotel's Martini bar and then on to Brunswick St in Fitzroy, which is a bohemian street with lots of little local bars and restaurants - no chain establishments here.Had a bite to eat and then went in to the Evelyn Hotel to listen to some live music. This is a popular venue, where local acts attempt to make it into the big time. There were three bands, all quite similar and were pretty young and seemed like they had come straight from practising in their bedroom and on to the stage.One of the bass players had his back to the crowd for the whole gig.Nil points for stage presence, but he did manage to hang upside-down from the ceiling and still play his one note repeatedly. By the end of their session, it was the audience who felt like hanging from the ceiling.However, it was a good night out and something a bit different to what we have been doing.

Thursday 3

Suz's birthday!Got woken up to lots of balloons and pressies, which was wonderful.Decided to go out for breakfast and selected Degraves, a small pedestrian street with lots of café's, which was a great area for good breakfast and people watching.We jumped on the free city shuttle bus, which took us around the city stopping at various areas of interest.Went in to the Museum of Melbourne (fantastic) and into the IMAX cinema.We thought we were watching a high-definition documentary-style film about space travel, but soon realised we were watching a kids animated film about 3 fly's that go into space. Perhaps the 300 ten-year old school children waiting to get into the theatre should have been a sign.We then went back to the South Bank and along to the Crown Casino.Birthday girl managed to win $110 at the roulette tables and was over the moon, until she realised she had left behind her $200 Prada sunglasses in the ladies!See - gambling doesn't pay, particularly during Ramadan (hmm).We took a taxi to Siglo, a small bar on the rooftop near the old parliament building to meet Kelly and Andrew.It was a cool bar and had some good views.From there we went to an Asian Fusion restaurant called Gingerboy - and tried some tasty little numbers.It was a really great birthday spent with our best friends in the city of Melbourne.

Friday 4

More rain again.There really is four seasons in one day in Melbourne, but unfortunately we seem to be experiencing most of the rainy season.Picked up our hire car and drove down to Brighton to meet one of Stephen's old work colleagues, Alan Peet, now working out the Melbourne office, and his wife Ailsa.We had been invited for dinner and were surprised to find that rather than a dining table in the kitchen area there was a full-sized pool table, which they had shipped over from their stay in San Francisco. Of course, we had to have a few obligatory games of pool before dinner.

Saturday 5

Alan and Ailsa drove us through the town and went to a great location for breakfast on the water's edge.There were lots of people swimming in the sea which must have been freezing, lots of cyclists and people jogging, so of course we felt right at home!We also drove past the over-priced, but very pretty beach huts dotted along the coast line.After dropping the hire car back, we were met by Kelly and Andrew and went to the local shopping mall to have a browse around and for Suzanne and Kelly to have a quick manicure (ah - the small pleasures in life!) In the evening we bored Kelly and Andrew with ALL of the photos so far.

Sunday 6

As it is Fathers Day 'ere in Oz today Kelly and Andrew were out in the morning, so we took ourselves off for a walk though the bush-fire scorched forest and past the huge lake to the town Cuckatoo.We loved the walk through the tall forest and the great lush green scenery on-route.Decided that we would take the Puffing Billy steam train back to Emerald and sat on the rails hanging out of the train, like the school kids do. Ah, the golden age of steam!What's forgotten is the crap that flies in your hair and nostrils during the journey. Kelly's mum was waiting to baby-sit when we got back, so went in to the town for some games of pool down the pub with Kelly and Andrew. Played with AJ and Benji for a while and are thoroughly enjoying our time with them too.

Monday 7

We had thought that today was the day for the campervan pickup, so had some teary farewells before realising that we pick it up on Friday - poor Kelly and Andrew now have us for a few extra days!So instead of picking up the van we decided to walk the 1000-step Kokoda trail, built to honour the Australian army, during WW2, who battled with the Japanese along this trail in Papua New Guinea, encountering abysmal jungle conditions. This is obviously a well known fitness trek, as so many joggers passed us about 4 times up and down while we panted our way, just the once, to the bottom and back.(At least we still have the use of our knees in our forties.) Despite the height of the steps there were no real views, as the whole area was covered in trees.After a drive round to other areas we had a game of ten pin bowling, where Suz thrashed the pants off Stevo!

Tuesday 8

We headed back in to the city, as we wanted to take the architectural tour. However, rather than pay $75 each for someone to talk us through the history, point out the gargoyles and name drop the architects, we picked up an architectural walk book for $10 and Suz was the tour guide for the day.The main city CBD is quite small, so it was easy to follow the routes. In between dodging the raindrops we noticed some really stunning buildings, most of which house banks, offices and also trendy bars and restaurants.We particularly liked the art deco style, although they are quite randomly dotted about the city.

Wednesday 9

We had a lazy day today, as it's raining again. Went to the shopping mall for a few necessities and in the evening we went out to the Hog's Breath Café to try their 18-hour succulent steak that just melted in your mouth.

Thursday 10

We had to get up at 6.30am, which felt like the middle of the night!Andrew dropped us off a bit closer to the city, where we caught the train to the CBD to meet our guide for the Yarra Valley Wine Tour.There were only 5 of us on the tour, so it was all quite intimate.As we made our way out to the vineyards we passed so many of the scorched trees from the bush fires.There were whole expanses on the hillside where you could see the regeneration of the trees and grass and you could begin to understand the scale of it.Our first stop was at a vineyard called De Borteli where we were able to sample cheese as well as wine.We thought that we would be trying 3 or 4 of each out of the list of reds, whites and rose from the region. However, as they continued to be poured, and we continued to glug glug glug, we probably made our way through about fifteen or so good wines.We then gave ourselves a much deserved rest while we tried the cheese platter.Only then did we feel ready to continue with 5 samples of the desert wines.This was all before 11am - which is early even for us!We then made our way to the Graham Miller vineyard, which was smaller than the first, but we tried some really good wines and the guy there was really knowledgeable and able to give us some interesting facts about the production of the wines - yeah whatever - hic!Next stop: lunch at Immerse, where we were able to order food and then sample some wines to go with our selection.(We didn't ask for all this wine - they made us drink it and apparently it's grossly impolite to refuse). Dunch was lelicious and we had a good laugh with our mew nates.The final vineyard of the day was Coombe Farm, where the girl there was telling us how they luckily escaped being burnt to the ground by last summer's bushfires, due to a sudden and last minute change in the wind.She showed us a piece of twisted metal that was once the alloys of a car that had turned to a puddle of liquid before cooling and hardening.Ten or ssho (who's counting) wines later -hic - we all fell ashleep on our journey back to the City.As true backpackers, we had decided to make the most of the City and get out to the nightlife, so we thought we would find a cheap hotel. Then in true Suz and Stephen traveller style we blew a the budget on a swanky hotel.We didn't manage to get to some of the areas we hoped as we were half comatose by then, so had a curry and beers near the hotel.We may have mentioned before about the hardships of this trip!