After having an awesome time surfing down in Torquay it was back to my favorite city in the world, Melbourne! We were staying in the Melbourne Metro YHA which is really nice as far as hostels go. It is really clean with loads of TV lounges, DVD lounges and a massive kitchen. It is so nice being back in a proper bed and not being either super cold or too warm.

Our first day out in Melbourne we spent trying to find our house that we stayed in for the Commonwealth Games, eventually we found it with a group of Japanese renting it out, i'd be lying if I said I wasn't gutted. It brought back loads of really good memories. The place hasn't really changed alot but obviously the food area has gone and all of the flags are missing. It was quite a motivator for me to get back into the swimming when I return to the island.

We have now dropped the van back and we did so a day early. We did this because there was a chip in the windscreen from a road train that we had overtaken on the Nallobar! It was raining so we didn't bother with the windscreen wipers and therefore you couldn't see the chip. We also parked slightly away from the depot so that they had to come out in the rain and check it over. As we thought they didn't want to be out too long in the rain and they missed the fact that it wasn't clean and there was a hole in the windscreen! A truely cunning plan!

We ventured to the aquarium which was ok, it wasn't that impressive. They had a creepy crawly section on as well which was so rank! There were bird eating spiders, scorpions, and a load of other little critters! The oceanquarium (which you walk through) was really amazing!

On the 23rd we booked on a day trip, it was awesome. We had to be up at 6.30 to catch the bus and then we were taken into the Dandenongs and we had the chance to try some Vegimite, and some traditional australian cakes! We also fed a load of native birds, it was so funny to see the Japanese covered in these massive birds! haha Next stop on the tour was Puffing Billy the oldest steam train in Australia. We didn't book this tour especially because of this but it was still kinda cool! It took us all through the dandenongs giving us some awesome views looking back into the bay of Melbourne. After that it was onto the Warook Farm. We had a tour before settling down to a homestead lunch and a bottle of wine! We then had hay bail ride around the farm with a chance to do many of the activities. We actually milked a cow! Awesome! The milk straight from the udder was horrendous though! The final stop of the day was to Phillip Island where we were going to watch a Penguin Parade. The penguins are famous for going out fishing all day and then coming onto the beach just before sunset. They return in there hundreds waddling up the beach! They are only about 6 inches tall and it was so funny! The whole tour from door to door took 18 hours so it was well worth the money.

The rest of the time we spent just chilling out in Melbourne seeing the sights and generally chilling out. We had a couple of drinks in Transport and saw some really funny street entertainers.

On the 26th we did the Neighbours Tour in the official Neighbours Van, it took us to the High School, which wasn't that impressive, the street and the studios! The street was really cool. We got to see some filming, with Rachel and Bridget walking down around the Ramsy Street sign! In the evening we did the Neighbours Trivia night which was quite possibly the best night I have had in Australia! We got there and you get put on random tables which is cool because you get a good mix of people. Our quiz team was called Hell Yeah and guess what, we actually won the quiz! $500 richer (between the team)
We got to meet Libby, Dylan, Declan and Darcy! Such a good night and a pretty late one, which wasn't good to say that we had a 10 hour bus trip back to Adelaide