Ok so here goes for the second time today so you best all enjoy it as much as we have enjoyed typing this blog! We spent nearly an hour writing you all a lovely story earlier and then the internet crashed! Julie and Karen = unhappy travellers!!

So hello everyone! We have now been fed and watered and feel a little less annoyed by the earlier situation! Firstly apologies for not updating this in a long while, however we have been having a ball! Theres no point lying!

We are currently in Cairns and you'll all be pleased to hear we are currently experiencing 'light' showers ie its tropically pissing it down which makes us a wee bit sad considering we left melbourne at 36 degrees!

Melbourne ROCKED!! We had a great time and completely filled our time with great adventures! Will try and make it short (ish) and very very sweet! So here goes:-

First day was spent orientating ourselves. By this we mean standing in the middle of the road trying to suss out which tram to take! Luckily some kind local workmen took pity on our pathetic attempt at geography (sorry Mel!!) Eventually we made it to Melbourne after a confusing ticketing issue on the tram and yes I think everyone was once again staring and laughing at us! Pride aside we made it! First stop was the visitors centre, where a very nice ozzy lady got us sorted for the following 3 days! We decided to venture to the Eureka tower after having pancakes and coffee for lunch. The eureka tower has a 360 degree view of melbourne from the 88th floor. The views were amazing and we have the pictures to prove it. They will be on here soon, we promise. We also challenged our senses with a ride in the 'EDGE' which is a 10 foot by 12 foot glass cube that moves 3 metres out of the building on the 88th floor. After being moved out and left for about 10 seconds, they suddenly reveal the views of Melbourne. The cube is completely made of glass, including the floor! Absolutely amazing but a tad scary! I left some very nice sweaty footprints on the floor! (Karen) Thursday was also Ladies day at the Melbourne Cup, so naturally we took advantage of this at our hostel and bagged spag bol and a beer for $6 and free champagne all night!! Bargain! Needless to say we slept extremely well! Unfortunately or should that be fortunately we had booked to go to Philip Island the following day. Philip Island is home to the world’s biggest penguin parade. The parade doesn’t start till Sunset so we made a few stops along the way. The first stop was a small, beautiful beach called Brighton Beach which was just a short distance from the city. It had an array of brightly coloured beach huts, all designed and painted by their owners. You can have one of these if you have a spare 100k, needless to say we left empty handed! Next stop was the wildlife park where we were able to touch and feed kangaroos, emus, wallabys, dingoes, wombats and koalas. The kangaroos were extremely friendly and seemed to like Julie and I! Finally we made it to Philip Island and had pizza and beer on the beach whilst watching the sunset! Lush! We then got to see roughly 1,000 penguins waddling onto the beach after their day at sea! So adorable but it was a tad chilly! We did contemplate stealing one but they were very noisy and had a strong odour of fish! Late night and after a little nap, we were up early to go on a 2 day, 1 night trip to the great ocean road. Had an amazing time, weather was perfect, completely stunning. On the second day we took a helicopter ride over the 12 apostles which was spectacular and well worth it. Hopefully the pictures will do it justice (and yes they will follow we promise)

Ok and then Monday and Tuesday were just the cheesiest days so far! Yes it did involves Neighbours! We also did our laundry on Monday morning which was great, we now have a lovely selection of clothes to wear! Yey! Monday night is Neighbours night so we hot footed it to St Kilda to get the best seats in the house! For those of you who watch, we met Declan, donna and DR KARL KENNEDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG! Had photos with all the stars and then watched Dr K and the waiting room, which in all honesty very very good! Played up to date music and definitely entertained the crowd! We even bustled our way to the front with our glass of champers! Also had the pleasure of watching Paul Robinson, who as far as we could tell was rather ‘merry’ Again little sleep, but it was well worth it! Today we got to see Ramsay Street for real! And the school and the offices and the studios! Oh yeh! Also saw Libby’s red car parked at the studio, as duly informed by the tour guide! Ramsay street is way smaller than they make it appear on tele and lots of cheesy photos were taken! Look out for the new facebook profile pictures soon! Took a walk up to the old Melbourne gaol in the afternoon. This was not only educational but socially enlightening and it also cooled us down! Did we mention it was 36 degrees yesterday! Phew its hot!  Had a few drinks along the riverbank, went to the casino and lived it up like true backpackers do!! We didn’t win anything, nor did we make a great loss but we had a go!

After little sleep again we got up for our flight to Cairns. Had an interesting time at the airport but made our flight nonetheless. So we are now in Cairns where the weather is hot and humid but wet! Boo hoo! However, not to be put off we have booked THE most amazing trip tomorrow! We are off to the great barrier reef! But we are going by plane darling! 1 hour flight north over all of the reef to a magical island called Lizard Island, where 8 people will be for the whole day! Food and drink all included and we plan to spend the day snorkeling and sunbathing! This island is so exclusive that you have to fly there, there is one resort which costs a mere $2500 a night! Needless to say we are making it a day trip! Hope you all have a lovely day at work! To top it off the most amazing part about this trip is that we have only paid half of the original price to go! We didn’t even have to bat our eyelashes! We are both very excited and feel an early night is needed! So its been a pleasure, you’ll hear from us soon!

Keep us posted on all news, gossip etc from home. We miss and love you all!!!

J&K xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx