So yet another city, but this has to be one of the best yet...home to Ramsay Street!! (Bet you can't tell who's writing this journal can ya!!) Or if you like...home to one of the biggest sports grounds we have ever seen! Melbourne is quite a big place, with loads of really big historical buildings, and like most other cities a river running through it - although not quite as big as the inlet that runs through Sydney!

We spent 5 nights here in total, staying with Claire and Layton, and their little girl Riley. Unfortunately we didn't get to spend much time with Layton as he was working during the week, but he was really cool and he certainly knows how to cook up some good Kiwi grub!! Also one night they introduced us to a place called 'Smorgy's'...it's the best invention yet (they might have them in England but we've never seen one!). Think 'Cafe Tusk' but so much better - it's not just all you can eat Indian, but they have all sorts - Chinese, Cavery, Pizza, Pasta, Salads, Chicken Nuggets, Chips, Jelly, Mr Whippy Ice Cream, Apple Crumble, Fresh Cream Cakes, Fruit, Mouses, and it was all u can eat for about 8 quid each!!! Genius idea!! We all couldn't move after dinner, practically had to be stretchered to the car!!!

While we were at Melbourne we visited the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) it was absolutely huge. They took you on a 2 hour tour, showing you where all the members sit, the press boxes, the library???? bars, silver service restaurants, the private gym, training pitches, the list goes on. Lets just say Fratton Park is not quite so impressive now in comparison!!!!!!!!

We also went on a Neighbours tour, much to Chris' delight. With the tour you get a character meet and greet session, unfortunately Chris missed out on meeting Skye by a day?! But it was good for Gem as she got to meet Dr Karl K! Unfortunately or fortunately depending on who's side your on, we missed out on the monday night trivia session they have at the pub where 5 of the charctaers come down and get on the piss with you!! So we missed out on meeting Harold, Toadie and some others, it's very upsetting. Also if you wanted to know, Max is leaving the series, and Steph ends up with Toadie, but he's paralysed at the moment cos he's been shot by Catchya's kidnapper... it's all going on! Oh and Karl and Susan end up meeting Izzy in England when they go over, and she his baby, although he doesn't know it till he gets back, and Susan lets it slip... anyway moving on....

The day before we left we hired a car for the day and headed down 'The Great Ocean Road' which is a lovely drive. The main purpose of the trip was to see the 12 Apostles, quite a famous landmark in Australia, not that we had heard of them till we got here. It was quite a funny day cos after we stopped for lunch Gem was leaning in the boot of the car and Chris started shouting 'Gem Gem' and there was a huntsman spider in the boot pretty close to her head. No joke it was HUGE, about the size of a hand! So Chris, Gem and Claire all started backing away from the boot! Claire was hiding behind Riley and saying 'I'm a mother and i've got Riley so i'm not touching it?' Chris now known by Claire as 'The Fairy' said 'I don't do spiders that size!' and it was up to Gem to hoof the spider out the car with a leaflet she'd found in the back seat. However it didn't quite do the trick, as she knocked in the back of the car! We found some 'mossie-spray' and tried to gas it out. No such luck this thing was like a tank. Somehow it got in the back seat under Riley's car seat, and we had to move the damn thing and kill it  with one of Chris' canoe's! That got the b*****! In all the commotion Claire managed to get a frantic shot of nothing, while she was fannying around with the camera, and Riley starting crying cos we were all laughing and she wasn't sure what was going on. What a drama over a stupid spider.....

So here we are at Sydney at the moment, and we're off to New Zealand on the 7th Feb, so we'll write another journal then.......

Ta ta for now...