Day 1

We arrived at our hostel, Claremont Guesthouse, which was a relief until we realised that we were unable to check in for another 5 hours. So we decided to explore Melbourne. We took a walk along the Yarra river with no clue what we were about to see or where we would end up. We saw the Rod Laver Arena (Home of the Melbourne Tennis Open) on the horizon and we headed towards it. Melbourne is a very sporting city, within a mile there is; the above arena, the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground), the Olympic Stadium (home of Victoria Athletics Club) with lots and lots of rowing on the river and running on the street.

After lagging a bit we headed towards the Botancial Gardens to chill out under a tree. This was the first time we saw the sunshine and Lorna wanted to sunbathe already (how vain?!). We were eager to carry on exploring so we carried on, first stop Government House. We then crossed the road to the Shrine of Rememberance which gave a fantastic view of Melbourne CBD (the pictures don't give it justice).

We then headed back to the hostel after we were starting to fall asleep standing up. We slept for what seemed like hours, but to our surprise we woke bolt up right at 2am. We planned our next day before we went back to sleep at 4am.