It's a miracle! I'm updating my blog! So, Melbourne...

Where to start with Melbourne? Firstly, it's fantastic. Definitley my favourite city in Australia by a long way. It has a very arty vibe to it, there's always something going on. And they make brilliant coffee. What more do you need? I was staying in an area called Saint Kilda which is about 20-30 minutes outside the cbd by tram. It's the nearest beach to the city I think. Not a great beach it has to be said, but I was thankful of it in the heat. When I got to Melbourne it was very very hot so lying on a beach was the only thing to do. Apart from lazing around I really didn't do much in Melbourne in terms of sight seeing. I just spent time wandering through all the little laneways in the cbd where there's loads of cafes and cute little clothes shops. Went out to sample some of the many many bars the city has. It seems like there's some quirky little pub or bar in every corner of the city and new ones are opening all the time. Went to one on a roof top that had a cinema too which was pretty cool.

After a couple of weeks of this funds started to get rather low so me and a Canadian girl called Juanita decided to go fruit picking. We went about 2 hours north of Melbourne to a place called Shepparton. Things didn't look good at first for work as the harvest office told us that a storm over night had ruined the crop and that there would be no work for a week. So feeling prety depressed we trudged around until we found a campsite and pured out our problem of needing work to the lady at the campsite check in desk. Turns out to be one of the best things we did! A few hours later a contractor turns up saying he heard from the lady at teh desk we needed and work and that he just happened to need 2 people to pick apples. Happy days! We ended up working there for 4 weeks picking apples and then pears. Not quite sure how we managed to do it for that long, but needing money was quite a good motivator! Still, we were so glad to be back in Melbourne!

After we got back from the fruit picking we decided to head along the Great Ocean Road. Juanita's friend, Paul, had a camper can so we set off planning to just camp where ever we ended up at the end of each day. Things didn't go quite to plan though. The first night we camped I spent the night feeling pretty feverish and with a really sore throat. In the morning I still felt absolutely terrible so we had to spend the morning looking for a doctor who told me I had tonsillitus. Great! I managed to stick out another 2 days before I decided that sleeping in a van was not helping me get better very quickly. But we did get all the way along the road, even if it was a bit rushed. It's a really spectacular drive. Unfortunately the night before we left I'd also lost my camera so I don't even have any pictures of it to put up. But it was very pretty!

Then it was back to Melbourne to recover and plan my next trip!