Really fun last few days traveling to Melbourne. Got to do lots of things I didn't think I'd get the chance to do. 

After posting the blog I walked back to the hostel. Remembering on the way I had loads of hand sanitizer left in my bag from Thailand. So didn't need to buy antiseptic spray. Bit of an improvisation, but saved me a few dollars. 

Got back and packed up ready to leave. Set my clothes and towel out for the next day. Quick dinner finishing off the last of the meat and sauce, saving the noodles as they dont go off. After this I started on the free booze with my room mates. We had a choice of goon (a bit like really cheap white wine in a box, only more disgusting) or an alcoholic punch. 

Worked my way through a few glasses while chatting to my room mates for my last night. Almost sad to leave Sydney, despite the last few days being a bit dull. When it got to 10 we left to go to the special Friday the 13th party we had heard so much hype about. Got there to find a few cobwebs and decorations outside, but it was utterly silent inside. Left pretty quickly and walked back to the hostel (just around the corner) and sat in the room chatting til we all fell asleep at about 11. 

Got up the next day at half 5. Showered and packed up, whispering bye to everyone before walking to where the bus would pick me up. Got there surprisingly quick, proud that I'm finally learning my way around central Sydney, but bit of a pity it was just as I was leaving! 

Found the bus easily and hopped on ready to go. Quick stop off at the office to officially sign on to the tour, then drove out of Sydney. Had a very cool tour guide called 'squatter' - all the bus drivers have silly australian themes nicknames. 

Quite interesting views looking back over the airport at Sydney's skyline at sunrise. Drove for about an hour and a half and stopped off at the little town of mittagong just outside of sydney. Had the most amazing steak and tomato pie for breakfast, then fell asleep on the bus again. Perfect cure for the minor hangover that was starting to creep up on me. 

Fell asleep for quite a while, and woke up at our next stop - Australia's capital city - Canberra. 2 Americans won the worldwide competition for the design of Australia's capital. So the whole city was built according to their plan, apparently the only city in the world to be constructed like this. 

Canberra has a very strange feel to it. All the roads are straight and everything is very modern and clean. Couldn't see a cigarette butt or chewing gum anywhere on the pavements. All the buildings are ultra modern design, so have lots of sharp angles and plenty of glass. So the whole city has a very futuristic and artificial feel to it. 

Basically the centre is set out in a series of compact triangles, and all the residential areas are set in 'satellite towns' quite a way from the middle. There are going to be 7 'satellite towns' in total, but only 5 have been built so far. Canberra has a tiny population - around 340,000. Compare this to the millions in Sydney and Melbourne. 

Our 1st stop was the Australian national war museum. Looks very small from outside, but really most of it is underground. Only had an hour here and barely scraped the surface, you could easily spend a whole day there and still not see everything. Just masses and masses of artifacts and items from the 1st and 2nd world war. Also had a quick look around the shrine to all the unknown soldiers that died. 

After this we drove to the old government building. Getting a running commentary from squatter on every building as we went by. Walked around the old government building, and saw the permanent aboriginal protest out the front against what they call 'white invasion'. 

More driving tour before stopping at a mall for lunch. Had a Chinese (with rice, not more noodles!) which really tasted good. Then walked back to the bus for the last part of our brief tour around Canberra. 

Drove around the hill where all the embassies are. Really interesting to see how many different countries have representatives in Australia. Funny to see how much of an effort they make showing off too - the Chinese embassy was in the shape of a pagoda, the Egyptian embassy had a sphinx outside, and the Americans had bought the equivalent of 3 plots and built a huge compound with a double security fence twice as high as anyone elses. 

Stopped off at the new $1.5 billion government building to have a look around. Basically Australia's version of parliament in the uk or congress in the us. Squatter really showed his colours here - sprouting off endless interesting facts and figures about prime ministers, new laws and all things political. Very cool watching tv later on and seeing clips of the Australian prime minister and politicians talking in the very same room we had been stood in that day. 

Walked through the security gate, only 1 check today as it was saturday so there were no debates in session - usually there are 3 checks, all of airport standard. Was a bit worried about my earring, but didn't set off the metal detector. 

Had a tour round all the different rooms, and looked at all the portraits of the prime ministers. Squatter knew the names and a few stories about them all, very interesting and he made it quite funny. 

Took the lift up to the roof of the building to see the huge Australian flag on the top - it's the size of a double decker bus and has to be replaced every month as it gets ripped to shreds by the wind. Each flag costs $2000. Also had great views from here down Anzac parade to the old government building, and of Canberra city. 

Quick look around the overpriced gift shop before getting back onto the minibus. Settled down for a fairly long drive to the Australian ski resort of Thredbo, where we would be staying that night. 

More amazing scenery on the way there, there was more rivers and streams on the mountains, so everything got gradually greener and less deserty. Arrived just after sunset and checked into our hostel. Really nice place - a small 6 bed dorm with an ensuite loo. Also had free towels and toiletries, so was quite a luxurious hostel! 

Grabbed another heater and set both on full blast to heat the room up. (it was -3 and the cleaners had left the window open) so laid under the duvet and watched the tv for an hour til dinner was ready. 

Dinner was massive plates of pasta bake, salad and bread. Of which I managed to eat 2 (always take advantage of free food!) stocked up alot on the salad - aware that my noodle diet isn't really high on the nutrition scale, but it's impractical and expensive to buy salad and carry it around with me in the hostels. 

After dinner we sat by the bar and drank for a bit before squatter came out with a ski with 4 holes cut into it at equal length. The game was called 'shotski', 4 people line up and only the end 2 are allowed to hold onto the ski, they lift it and tilt it while everyone drinks from the shot glasses sat in the holes. 

The shot was a very pleasant locally made butterscotch schnapps, which was very warming in the cold mountains. Found out there was a hot tub in the hostel after this so went to get changed into my shorts (not used them in a while!). 

Found the most amazing hot tub and quickly stripped off and got in. So nice finally being warm, although had major pins and needles in my feet as they warmed up. The sign on the wall said that the new south wales health council only recommended a maximum of 20 mins at one time in the hot tub as it could damage your health. Got in at 8:30 and left for bed at 11, so may die pretty soon. 

Breakfast was at 8 so got up ready for then, had toast, cereal and the most delicious pancakes. After breakfast we went downstairs and hired out après ski boots for our alpine bushwalk. Basically like small fleecy wellies with grippy soles. 

Threw our bags on the bus and then drove 2 mins to the Thredbo chairlifts. Never been to a ski resort during the summer, so was a bit of an odd experience, lots of people take the chairlifts up and walk around at the top, which is what we were going to do. 

Thredbo had a very unusual snow dump a few days before - it's still really autumn here, so was quite early. Very cool going from Sydney (still fairly warm - 16 degrees or so during the day) to Thredbo (-3 and knee deep in snow!) 

Had an amazing walk up to a viewpoint, great views from here of the whole kosciuszko national park. Was pretty tiring walk - only 2.5 km or so, but in ankle/knee deep snow the whole way, which is very tiring to walk through. 

Back down the mountian and the chairlift to the bus for a quick drive to the neighboring town of jindabyne. Very nice views over jindabyne lake. Got a very big portion of cheap chips for lunch and wolfed them down (very hungry after our big walk.) 

Back on the bus for more driving, stopped off at a creek after an hour to look at the snowy mountain river. It had been a tiny stream flowing past our hostel the night before, interesting to see it much larger later on. 

Crossed over into Victoria from new south wales (2 different states) and entered alpine national park. More great views along here, and some great commentary about the wildlife and aboriginals. 

Stopped off at the oldest school house in Victoria - built in the 1800's, and looked like a tiny wooden shack. There had been more buildings, but a lot got destroyed in the huge bushfires a few years ago that you may remember in the news. 

Stopped off at a brilliant viewpoint - great views back across alpine national park - amazing to see how green everything is as opposed to the brown and black colours were getting used to.

Eventually got to our accommodation for the night - a small hostel in the town of payneville on the 90 mile beach (the longest continuous beach in Australia). Much more like business as usual here - a small dorm with one toilet between 11 of us. Excellent. 

Didn't stay long as we had booked into the local restaurant for dinner. We had to order a day in advance because there were so many of us (this just shows how small this place was) had a yummy plate of fish and chips (yes, more chips - whoops) the fish had been freshly caught that day and was really yummy. 

Stopped off at a liquor shop and got some booze for that night. Stayed up chatting til about 11 before crashing out into bed. Had a long day the next day so had to get up at half 5 and shower, pack and eat ready to leave for half 6. 

Drove a short way up a nearby hill for a look out point over the 90 mile beach. Then headed back to the end of town to get the ferry across to a little island. The island is locally famous for it's koala spotting, so got quite excited to see them, despite it being about 7am and freezing. 

Walked around for ages in the gum and eucalyptus forest - spotted loads of koalas and got some great photos. Definitely my favorite animal, amazing to see them in real life! 

Quick ferry back - spotted some black swans on the way back, very weird! Had a quick browse through the local bakery and got a nice steak and chili pie for brunch before falling asleep on the bus again. Drove for quite some time before stopping at Agnes waterfall - Australia's largest single span waterfall (I dont know what that means either) some cool photos, and even spotted a few wombat holes on the way back. 

From here our last stop before melbourne was wilsons promontory national park. Australias most southern point. Best part of Australia so far - we drove into the park, and got out the bus. Quick walk through a few bushes to get to an old ww2 airstrip. Now fully overgrown, but the kangaroos love the place as it's got very tasty grass apparently. Spent about an hour kangaroo spotting. Lots of uni students do research here, so the kangaroos are used to people. So let you get very close before they hop off. Some amazing photos, everyone trying to outdo each other on how close they can get before it hops off. Really fascinating seeing them all up close in the wild. 

Left and drove to Melbourne, few loo stops along the way, managed to find a tasty pack of BBQ crisps to keep me going, and then got another pie when we stopped off. Had a look at the cost of sending a few things home - my bags getting a bit full! Was quite funny to see you could send it back by sea mail, which took at least 8 weeks to the uk. 

Got to Melbourne and checked into a nice hostel - 5 of my friends off the bus were staying here, so had a fun night. The hostel was running a bingo competition, lots of alcohol and other things to be won. Didn't win anything, but a friend won a 10 day accommodation pass to a certain chain of backpackers hostels. He had already booked accommodation so I agreed to buy it off him for $100. Great deal for me as the usual price is $28 a night (they're really upmarket as hostels go) And theres loads across nz. 

Finished up and went to bed as I was knackered. Chatted a bit to my new room mates before falling asleep. Laid in, then showered and wrote my blog and packed my bag ready to check out the next day. 

Met up with the remaining 3 off the bus (the other 2 had continued onto Adelaide) and spent the day walking around Melbourne. Did a walk along st Kilda beach, stopping off at the pier to try and spot the penguins that live there. 

Then got a tram into the city centre, spent some time in the memorial shrine, and then got a bus to china town. Massive portion of noodles, rice, lemon chicken, sweet and sour and lots else (it was $5 for as much as you could put on your plate!) then walked down to federation square to have a look around the shops. 

Spent the rest of the day here and caught the tram back at 6. Getting back to the hostel and sleeping til 8. That night was quiz night, so got a team together with a few people and tried to win anything. Didn't get any prizes of course, but we did get 22 points, and 3rd place was 24, so we were quite happy with that. Went to bed fairly soon after the quiz finished. 

Woke up and packed my bag, said bye to everyone then walked out the hostel intending to find somewhere cheaper. Knew of a place that a few people had recommended that was $19 a night. Got utterly lost and wandered around for a while, did find loads of random guest houses and hostels along the way, so went in and asked how much each was. Eventually settled on a really nice hostel, slightly hidden away. It's very new, and has a lot more older people, so is quite nice and quiet. It also does free breakfast and has free wifi. So was really good for $24. 

Checked in and dumped my bag. Then hit the free wifi, been a while since i got on Facebook, so will be nice to have a binge this week. Then cooked some yummy noodles for lunch, with a pasta sauce someone had left on the free shelf. 

Uploaded a few more Thailand photos on Facebook, so be sure to check those out. Also put a photo of the earring I got in thailand up on this blog website, under the "mobile upload" section. 

The hostel has got a free booze party tonight, as long as you come in 'bad taste' themed fancy dress. Planning to break out the colorful shorts from the hawaiian party in Thailand, and a few other things. 

For now, 

Josh xx

Photo is of Thredbo national park sign, and also views of the park itself. Taken from next to eagles nest - Australia's highest restaurant at 1937m. 

Meals - basically I'm Jared Leto's younger, more attractive brother. Which makes you his sister? Lolasaurus Rex!