Hello all,

Hope all is well....

So here we have another bumper update in true lou wood style.... It's late again, but in my defence after I left Melbourne I've had no decent wifi connection..... So here it goes....... And there loads of pictures to follow. I currently write this as I sit on a bus going through the outback on a 9 hr journey to Ayers Rock - although you probably won't read this until i get a data connection again in Sydney!!!

I arrive safety in Melbourne on the 26th April to find it's absolutely freezing in comparison to what I've been used to over the last few months. I eventually find my way to the hostel after getting lost and opt for an early night.

On Sunday I met up with friends Esther and John who I know from the UK, it's was so lovely to see them. We went on a 13km walk from bushranger beach to shank lighthouse. It was a great walk through the bush and around Mornington Peninsular. We were able to hop onto a few of the beaches too which was great, one of them was made up of volcanic rock, I've not seen a beach like that before. The colours of the cliffs were incredible, beautiful shades of orange and green, it was very pretty to look at. On the way back we headed up to Arthur's seat to have a look at the view, it's was great. The first day in Melbourne was a brilliant and a lovely way to start my 2 and a bit weeks here.

Lots of hostel nightmares over the next two weeks, the first started with the girls in the room packing at 3am and making way too much noise and switching all the lights on, only for this to then be repeated by another irritating person at 6am the same morning - this resulted in no sleep and a rather grumpy me.

I set off in the morning to join the free walking tour of Melbourne's CBD, it was a great way to get my bearings and work out where everything is. Thoroughly enjoyed the tour and it looks like I'm going to really enjoy exploring the city. We went to the state library, federation square, the old jail, the graffiti walls, Parliament House, various park, finders street station and loads of other places, including one of the gothic buildings where one of ghostbusters films were filmed.

The next day was treat day - the first hair cut since I left the uk!!! The fringe is back! Anyway that's quite boring really, I then spent the rest of the day sorting out some stuff for New Zealand. In the evening went in search of food and ended up in a little dim sum restaurant in china town, it was great and cheap!!!

On the 30th April I joined a tour to Phillip Island to see the penguins. We started off by visiting an animal sanctuary which was pretty cool in the morning and then headed off to the koala sanctuary after lunch. This sanctuary was brilliant, they actually have boardwalks that run half way up the trees so you can really a get a great view of the koalas in their nearly natural habitat. It was a very tranquil place, that was until the 400 strong Taiwanese tour group turned up, chaos everywhere, shame really as it was lovely until they arrived and they were to follow us for the rest of the day. Just before we headed off for the main event, the penguin parade, we visited a place called Nobby, an amazing piece of headland, absolutely stunning, but absolutely freezing!!! Sooo sooo windy! We arrive at the penguin parade ( thankfully before the massive tour group) and take our seats to await the penguins coming out of the sea, up the beach and then they waddle up to their houses. We wait.......and we wait.....and we wait, finally a small group emerge at the far end of the beach, all you can really see is their white tummies in the dark. Then a few more gradually begin to appear individually to see if it's safe for the rest of them to come out, after a few false starts, they all start to emerge. Except for one group who kept being cut off by a group of seagulls, they eventually came out. A fantastic sight to see. I don't have pictures as they have banned photography to keep the penguins eyes safe from flashes.

Next day it's was back to the hairdresser to have my hair straightened, again very boring..... In an attempt to meet some normal sociable people (I've yet to met one in this hostel) , I signed up to the weekly hostel pub crawl. And indeed I did meet some great people and had a good night, although paid for it the next day. But it was all in the name of making friends so I thought it was worth it.

The day after I met up with Gemma who arrived in Melbourne a few days ago for lunch in the Italian part of Melbourne in Lygon Street. In the evening I met up with the bods from the hostel pub crawl and we ended up getting a crate of beer and sitting up on the rooftop of hostel freezing cold - all in the name of saving a few quid!

Alice and I headed to Queen Victoria markets for some breakfast and a bit of a wander around, then the rain started, so we ended up getting the free tram around the city, which was a great way to see stuff without getting soaked.

I spent the next day trying to locate the various cinemas in Melbourne to seek out the cheap Monday tickets, to no avail. But did stumble across more graffiti streets. Gemma and I had dinner and will be heading to the cinema on Tuesday.... When it is in fact the cheap ticket night for the one cinema I did manage to find.

Today I took myself on a walk along the Yarra river, I passed a large number of rowing clubs, geese and bits of artwork, it was a glorious day, bright sunshine and no clouds to be seen. Having walked along the river I then headed to the ACMI for the DreamWorks animation exhibition they had there which was very cool, after this I went to the film exhibition and then to the moving image exhibition. The moving image exhibition was a bit odd, but I still enjoyed it, never really seen anything like this before. After this I was taking myself on my own walking tour of the laneways, so armed with my map off I went......and only got lost twice. I love all the little shops and cafés that are off the main streets.

Skate day!!!!! Whoop whoop! AND it's not raining AND the SUN is out!!! (Haven't seen the sun for a while in Melbs) Haven't skated since manly beach, so was very very excited about getting to St Kilda. Wow, the skate/cycle path is awesome! It's by far the best skate track so far, a nice variation of being right next to the beach, nice bridges and then through greenery. There were also quite a few steep hills which were interesting. I stopped for a cuppa and to take the view in, and then decide to skate back to the hostel in the CBD. I think I skated about 20miles.

Unable to stay in my dorm room any longer - I'm now sharing with people that don't speak, although I know they spk English very well as I ve heard them on the phone!!!! I do wonder how some people can actually travel and survive on their own.....oh well, me and my kindle headed to the Irish bar for a quiet beer and some time with people who do actually know how to hold a conversation. Yep, you know where this is going......... A few beers, my first Guinness of the trip and a couple of red wines ( it was very cold) later, and a discussion with an Aussie about the 2003 rugby World Cup final, off to the casino I went and nearly got thrown out for taking pictures haha! The casino is listed as one of the top 10 things to in melbourne, so I felt it would be simply rude not to go.

I paid a visit to the national gallery which was fantastic, I'm not usually into art galleries as such but really enjoyed this (and the free wifi, not sure who I take after there dad :) ) there was a huge array of sculptures, paintings, moving art, fashion displays and other artifacts. I really enjoyed it. I then met up with my life savers today Esther and John who very kindly offered me their spare room. You should have seen my face when I saw my room and bed, it think it was the biggest smile ever! Hostel fever had well and truly set in and this break was very well needed. The last night in the hostel had resulted in some drunk girl failing to use her legs to get off the top bunk and fell off onto all my stuff breaking some stuff. My parting words to my other dorm room mates were good luck what that and slammed the door! I won't even go into the story about the hostel where I had some nutter preaching at me....... Help!!!

So 4 nights of my own room, I might actually get some sleep now and am safe from the hostel weirdos.....for the time being anyway.

Today I went off to explore Brunswick, this is where I am staying now. It's a lovely place with a great mix of people and shops. Sydney road is great, a bustling road full of shops, bars and cafés. In my exploring I got a tiny bit lost and ended up back in the CBD.......2.5hrs later lol. Having worked out where I was I headed back to Brunswick on the tram. I then went out for dinner with Esther and John, and had the most amazing dinner at Ghurkas restaurant and then had drinks in a very cool bar. A great evening.

The next day the 3 of us headed off to a near by port, it was lovely, loads of boats including a couple of the greenpeace boats, it was very busy as it was oz mothers days. We had a coffee then headed off to E and Js friends for lunch which was great. I now have to start thinking about what I need to need to take into the outback.

My last couple of days in melbourne, Gemma and I met up a few times for tea and cake and a trip to skydeck which had some amazing views of the city and a farewell beer, and said goodbye to Esther and John. Always hate the see ya later bit!

Melbourne is awesome! I love the artsy feel to it and the chilloutness (I'm making up words now) and the architecture of the buildings, there is such a mix. What I really loved about it is I could just walk around the streets and explore and guarantee I would find something else new the next day, I could write about this place for days......but don't worry I won't! All in all I've really enjoyed Melbourne, I know that some people who enjoy Melbourne don't like Sydney and vice versa. But I have to say i have enjoyed both equally for different reasons, and will be back to sydney soon to pick up my England rugby shirt and winter wardrobe for New Zealand:)

Convinced it's going to be freezing when camping I have now bought a wooly hat! And with that it's off to the hostel to meet my Gadventures group for the trip to Ayers Rock over 2 weeks.....

Goodbye melbourne........hello outback......

Take it easy everyone

Soon to be in 'Crocodile Wood' mode x