16/1/09 This day was spent driving between Canberra and Melbourne, but we actually slept somewhere nonrth of Melbourne rather than in the city itself.

17/1/09 We set off early to Melbourne in order to get as much out of today as possible. The first place we found somewhere free to park was the area of Fitzroy. It's a very interesting place, filled with quirky shops, secondhand bookshops, ethnic restaurants, pubs and some coffee bars. It had an atmosphere quite like that of Camden - quite eccentric. I also liked the way there were a lot of fine old red brick buildings mixed in with the more modern ones - in Darwin there's practically none, because of the place being flattened by Cyclone Tracy in the 70's, and there aren't much more in Cairns. It was around lunchtime by now, and there were lots of lovely places we could have eaten, but we weren't hungry at all for some reason, so we didn't get anything.
After this, we went into the City Centre. Dave dropped me off on one of the main streets, before he went off to find somewhere to park. I knew I had to go on the internet for a prolonged period of time, because I hadn't been on for about a week and I knew I'd have a massive email pileup to catch up on, so we arranged that he'd pick me up at 5 from the same place. I spent ages looking around for a 'Peter Pan Adventure Travel' branch to use their internet (they usually have the cheapest internet in town), but before this, I looked round Federation Square. It was the first day of the Australian Open, and there was a stand set up selling souvenirs in the Square for it. Melbourne has an extensive tram system, and there were crowds and crowds of people getting on and off the stop nearest to me. There was a massive queue outside the visitors information centre as well, which was also selling Australian Open souvenirs. The architecture in Federation Square is distinctive - very modern, but done very well; the buildings there are almost sculptures in themselves! I've got some photos, so you'll be able to see what I mean when we put them up on the site.
On my search for the Peter Pan travel agent/internet cafe, I wandered through Chinatown and the main shopping streets. Next to Federation Square there was the main railway station - very distinctive and Victorian looking (it's shown in the photo above.) I also passed by St Andrews Cathedral, a big statue for the explorers Burke & Wills, and a statue of another explorer, Matthew Flinders. There were more old red brick buildings - I really liked the juxtaposition of the old and the modern; if the modern building had been all concrete then I wouldn't have liked it, but as it was, it worked very well!
After finally finding Peter Pan and using the internet, I went back down to our meeting place at 5 to be picked up. After about 10 minutes later I spotted him in the car on the other side of the street, so I waved, but as he didn't see me I followed him down the street; but I lost him before I could catch up, so I returned to our meeting place. Time went on, and he didn't reappear, until finally he turned up at 6.20! I'd started to think that he'd been in an accident or something, especially after an ambulance went past, so I was incredibly relieved when he eventually arrived! It turned out that when he'd driven past before he hadn't seen me (due to a giant plate being in front of me - see below...), so he'd thought that I'd actually meant 5 hours from the time he dropped me off, not 5 o'clock... This was practically the first time I really wished he'd got his phone going again as well as me, so I'd have been able to ring him!
While I was waiting, there was quite a surreal moment - about three people went past rolling a giant plate along the pavement! It was taller than they were, and they had to go slowly in order for it not to lose its balance. I took a photo of it, as it's not the sort of thing you see every day! About 10 - 15 minutes later, another two people went past holding a giant metal fork on their shoulders. I thought maybe it had something to do with it being the opening day of the Australian Open...
Once finally reunited, we drove out of Melbourne and stayed the night at a small town called Warragul.

18/1/09 The whole of this day was spent on a leg of our journey up to Sydney - we stayed at the seaside town of Batemans Bay. The weather finally turned as we approached, after nearly a week of sun and almost completely cloudless sky, and by the time we found a caravan/campsite to stay in, it was pouring with rain. Part of our tent had broken a couple of nights before, so we slept in the car.