We arrived in Melbourne Train Station, after getting the shuttle from the airport, and had to have our first trip on a tram down to South Melbourne. At Bev & Micks Backpackers!! Possibly the worst hostel we've yet to stay in, yet the longest we've stayed too.

We only really intended to stay for a week, enough time to buy a van and hopefully find some fruit picking work out in the country. It didn't really work out like that.

The first proper day in Melbourne we got right to work and went in search of Travellers Autobahn in North Melbourne. By the end of the day we'd put down a deposit on a beautiful little van, a Ford Spectron, that although didn't start when we were showed it, looked really good! It was all good though, we were to pick up the van in a week, when it had been serviced, a new engine put in and loads of other goodies like a new mattress, stove, camping chairs and all that sort of thing. We were pretty pleased with our purchase but it did mean having to find a job pronto.

Randomly, not realising that the Grand Prix was in town, I managed to land a job there with a Greek souvlaki tavern. Working for a guy named Stavros too...perfect! When we went to meet Stavros to collect my pass he also managed to rope Kirsty into the same job but at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show. So there we both worked for 5 days, doing long hours rolling souvlaki, or in Kirsty's case putting lamb/chicken into a box! It was good fun for both us, and ideal not having to buy food or drink over that period as we were free to eat what we liked. Not that that helped Kirsty, who was put off eating any food as she'd been making it all day long.

On monday following our 5 days of work, we decided to get out of Melbourne...in particular our hostel. The hostel where for 10 nights I had been eaten alive by bed bugs (Kirsty managed to avoid them completely, being on the top bunk), and had to deal with cockroaches running around the kitchen!

We slowly headed up to a place called Mildura on the murray river. After the first day driving we stopped in a town called Kyneton and spent our first night in our van! The second wasn't as succesful and easy, as the car started playing up along the way (over revving, speedo deciding not to work...the usual). Annoyingly, we had to turn back for Melbourne, stopping this time on the way back in a old gold mining town called Castlemaine. We spent another 2 nights back in Melbourne, this time at a nicer, bed-bug free hostel whilst our van was repaired.

Take two-We headed slowly up to Mildura again, this time without any hiccups. Our first stop along the way was Charlton, a one-street town, with very little going on especially as it was Good Friday. We camped in a small site where we had our first sighting of a red back spider (which if you didnt know can kill you!!), that was enough for us to move our van as far away from that as we could! Had fish n chips that night and was treated to some chocolate from a sweet old lady camped next to us, who asked if we'd been visited by the easter bunny yet : )

The next two days we spent driving on very dull, dry roads stopping overnight in Ouyen and arriving in Mildura on Easter Sunday...and somehow found a spot in a campsite, where it looked like every Aussie family had come for easter!