Our departure from Sydney was not exactly the breath of fresh air one always hopes for when making a flight. As we were flying internal we were told by our shuttle company that they didn't need to pick us up 'til 9am, our flight being at 11am. So we were up and out on time waiting for the bus to arrive. 9.15am…no bus, so I give them a call and am told that the bus is running late but is on its way. 9.25am…no bus. I give them a call, the bus isn't far away will be a few more minutes. 9.35am…a bus arrives, we get on, get to the end of the road and show the voucher - not our bus, so we turn around and go back but our hostel is still in view so we know our bus still has not arrived. 9.45am…still no bus but panic really has set in. Give them a call…"what do you mean you're still waiting the driver picked up two people from your hostel"…"WELL THEY CLEARLY WEREN'T US!!!"…"oh…er…hang on…[hang up]". You have to be kidding me. BEN WE NEED A CAB!!! But of course there are no taxi's around. I get a taxi number from our hostel - which puts me through to an automated service. So we run in the direction of the main road praying for a taxi to appear, in the scorching heat, laden with our heavy backpacks. I see a cab and flap my arms like a senile chicken in an attempt to hail it, thank god it sees me. "Can you PLEASE get us to the airport as FAST AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE our flight is in 55 minutes?!". Yes he will have us there by 10.30am. Breathe, calm down the sweating. Get passports, tickets and money ready. Thank the Lord above that he made Sunday the Sabbath day and traffic is not at its most gruesome - we made it to the airport in 12 minutes. Thank you thank you thank you Mr Cab driver. Run into the airport. Self check-in, ah yes always a joy, never a speedy event. Naturally Ben had problems printing his bag tag. 2 attendants later someone has flagged his bag as having dangerous items inside, but they believe us that there isn't and we finally get his bag through. Security check - luckily no queue but ben having a laptop has to faff about getting that out. I get stopped as usual by bomb detection and while explain my profuse sweating through what we have just been through. We get through with 10 minutes to spare, though I'm pretty sure we didn't exhale until the plane was safely in the air and we were actually on our way to Melbourne! Gotta love a good airport drama!

Thankfully there were no problems on the Melbourne side of our journey and we made it to our hostel at around 2pm. Had to queue a stupidly long time to check in but other than that were very impressed with out hostel. It was fairly new, really big, nice kitchen with plenty of hob space, enough seats to eat at, a bar, the dorms were all 4 bed, clean and spacious, there were lifts to all floors, a book swap, a TV area, free breakfast, free tea and coffee throughout the day and even free pasta and rice. So Urban Central (for anyone who was wondering) in Melbourne is the place to be. Feeling peckish by this point we went for a walk in the hunt for some food and ended up at one of the restaurants in the Crown Casino for a quick bite and decided that we must re-visit to check it our properly as it was HUGE! We then walked to the supermarket to stock up on meals for the week. After skyping the family (oh and Ben went for a RUN!!), finished my epic Sydney blog and got an early(ish) one as were pretty exhausted from the dramas of the day and feeling a bit ill and wanted to be up and fresh for our first proper day on the Monday.

Monday we spent the day sightseeing in the City, though a lot of things were shut as it was a bank holiday. Went to St Andrew's Cathedral, Parliament house, saw the Princess Theatre, Town Hall, Got some sushi, got the free tram, tried to go up the observatory tower but was shut. That evening we returned to the Casino complex and started out being kids with a game of bowling (which we drew ha), played Mario Karts in the arcade then went to the adult game playing area aka the Casino in an attempt to better educate ourselves on the art of gambling in preparation for our trip to Vegas later on. We spent a fair while looking over the shoulders of people who appeared to be experts, we even tried our luck on a slot machine, however unfortunately I think we left pretty much none-the-wiser, though luckily none-the-poorer either as we only spectated.

Tuesday was another morning of sightseeing - saw quite a bit of the city on the free tram, meandered around Victoria Markets, went through Fitzroy gardens to Captain Cooks (English) house, attempted to see a graffiti street to no avail then headed back for a quick turn around as we were headed back to town to catch the train to South Yarra to meet Madison and Georgia who put up our friend Claire when she lived in Melbourne last year. We met them in a funky little bar where we got some $4 pizza and chatted for the evening.

Wednesday morning Dani arrived at our hostel. As she couldn't check in we all got ready in our room after breakfast and then caught the tram to St Kilda where we saw Melbourne's Lunar Park, then went for a walk along the beach to a yacht harbour and then back along to the pier. We then walked up into the town for some lunch. It was a bit windy but a really warm and sunny day (which Dani found out the hard way later that night when the PANDA was released hahaha)! We then walked through some of the quirky little alternative streets and shared a bottle in the beer garden of this cool little bar. We had to head back by the tram after this as Dani had to check in and we had to get ready to head to the Moonlight Cinema that evening. So once we'd got our stuff sorted back at the hostel we got the tram to the Botanical Gardens and eventually found our way to the outdoor cinema where we watched 'Buried' on this big inflatable screen, lying on bean bags, with a picnic and a cask of red wine. Was a little on the chilly side but had a really enjoyable evening and the film was rather clever considering the whole film was literally set inside a coffin.

Wednesday was our PHILLIP ISLAND TOUR aka the day we get to see teeny tiny penguins! Pick up was at 11.20am and we were on the road about an hour before our first stop at a nature reserve. We were given some pissy little sandwiches for lunch, then a man came out with this rather large snake (yes a real hissy one) so we got a couple of snaps with it around our necks (not tight around mine though don't worry!!). As this was probably our last chance in Australia Ben, Dani and I decided to pay the $10 to go in and pat a Koala and get our picture taken with it. Unfortunately we were not allowed to hold it, we weren't even allowed to be in with it for very long but we got our moneys worth of snaps for sure! We then walked around the reserve, fed a few cute little wallabies and saw a couple of Kangaroos having a snooze in the sun, then back on the coach. Second stop was a Koala conservation centre where we got to walk along platforms and see them in their 'natural environment' or as close to it as it gets! Got a glimpse of a tiny baby one! After the being a little Koala-ed out we made a brief stop at a chocolate factory where we literally just got one free sample, then went to this little seaside town and had a pizza picnic in a little park area overlooking the ocean. Back on the bus we went to see the 'Knobbies' rocks where we were slightly disappointed as it had been hinted at that they were named so with phallic undertones, however they are actually named so because they apparently look like door k*** . Well I couldn't see it but there you go! Here we were told we might see some seals, but we mainly just saw seagulls. We did however catch out first glimpses of the tiny penguins hiding in little holes alongside the hill, so I got a few snaps with my amazing zoom camera! Now we were finally ready to head to the Penguin Parade. I was amazed at how bigger deal they made this whole thing in to. There was a busy coach park, a HUGE gift shop, and even a countdown clock for when the first penguins were expected to arrive! You walk down this boardwalk to a GRANDSTAND seated area, past the 'VIP seating area' (where they pay extra to get the best views) and you fight your way to a seat looking out at the shore which is lit by massive floodlights so that you can see the action after the sun has disappeared! There were hundreds of people gathering to watch the little critters. Around 9pm the first penguins start to waddle their little way out of the sea. A little nervous looking, a little unsure, didn't really blame them as I'd imagine hundreds of ugly humans gawking at you while you hurry your way up the beach would be a tad intimidating. The ones we could see arrive in groups of 10-15 and scurry their way up the beach, past the grandstand and behind us into the bushes to their little dens to feed their babies. Over the course of a couple of hours 2-3000 penguins appear and make their way up the beach. It really was spectacular, and as the coach loads of tourists had to leave we managed to make our way to the front and just before we had to go we saw a little group walk RIGHT in front of us - it was amazing. Unfortunately we couldn't take photos as apparently the flashes from cameras scare the penguins causing them to vomit all the fish they had just worked so hard to catch, and therefore leaving their babies hungry! Comical and slightly annoying that we couldn't snap the evening to share with you but understandable! So after a fun filled day we had a couple of hours drive back and didn't return to the hostel 'til around midnight.

Had to be up fairly early on Friday as Ben and I had booked ourselves on to a 'Yarra Valley Wine Tour' for the day. So we met at 9am and coached to our first stop - Domaine Chandon (where they make Moet and Chandon). We had a little tour of the winery and then a full glass of their vintage sparkling, with a few crackers, cheese and chutney then got to sample a few still wines and glance at the vineyards. It was another scorching hot day which made it even more beautiful. Next was Rochford winery where we were educated on how to taste a wine like a pro, and we sampled a few wines one of which we could choose to accompany our lunch. Had a gorgeous piece of pork belly and a nice full glass of wine for lunch, followed by coffee. After lunch we had the chance to try more wine, a bit of fugde, and then we had to hop back on the bus to winery number 3. This was a smaller winery but managed to get quite a few more tastings in - quite a few red wines and a really nice sweet wine. Last winery was also a cider brewery so we had champagne cider, cider and cider brandy which was pretty potent then we finished the day with some port. Got back to the hostel around 4.30pm, slightly intoxicated and unsure of what to do with ourselves as it was such an awkward time of day. So we met Dani in the hostel bar and thought the best thing to do would just be to carry on drinking (not wine though)! So we saw both happy hours in the hostel, made some pasta in between them, played some pool, got chatted up by an extremely dull kiwi guy who then wouldn't leave me alone so we ran away and hit the sack not long after! Great day!

Saturday I still didn't get a lie in as had to be up and Skype the family before they were off skiing for the week. Went and got Ben up (as normal) after and packed up our backpacks. Then the three of us walked to town to get a few bits and pieces before jumping on the train to Madison and Georgia's house for a a few beers round their pool and a BBQ. By time we got to their house it had got a bit cloudy but we had built ourselves up for a swim so being British we jumped right in! Spent the evening chilling out with our beers, chatting, the lads got back from the races and cooked our BBQ, there were about 12 of us eating - we even had our first Aussie KANGAROO steak experience - cooked rare (naturally) it was really nice! After dinner we dolled ourselves up and 9 of us got a cab to St Kilda where we went out to a bar and had a few more drinks and a dance. Didn't end up having too much of a heavy one as were flying the next day and we had to get a tram back to the city at 1am.

Sunday morning we had to be up and out by 11am, we said farewell to Dani and our pickup collected us at 11.30am. Now I made sure I booked the shuttle with PLENTY of time to spare to get to the airport, so we arrived the earliest I've ever been for a flight - we even had to wait for check in to open we were just that early haha! So we had a nice relaxed few hours at Melbourne airport meandering around the shops, got some food and generally had a nice stress free time before we boarded the plane and waved goodbye to Australia.