07/12/08

Woke up early to make full use of the free breakfast and then went to the Sony Centre to see if they could fix my camera, the shopping centres don't open until 11 on a Sunday so that was a wasted trip. Went to the end of Flinders street to the pickup location for the Neighbours tour and were greeted by Conor (the Shamrock) from the show a few years ago. He enlightened us on the joys of signing autographs and how he has a rotation of 5 different messages that he writes so he doesn't get caught out writing the same thing to friends, we persuaded him to come up with some alternatives for ours.

Got to the Neighbours set and toook photos of each other outside all the classic places, GreaseMonkeys, Carpenters Mechanics, the Bus Stop, Charlies, Lassiters and the Lake. Everything looks tiny compared to when you view it on the TV. Got back on the bus and drove to Ramsay St., spent ages getting photos of everyone outside the various houses with the Ramsay St. sign. So many cars kept driving up the road, doing a 3 point turn and driving off again, don't think I'd like to live there. On the way back watched the 1999 new years episode where Drew proposes to Libby and Harold looks like he's had a nose job.

Went to the Sony Centre on the way back to drop off my camera, turns out they're the only shop in the Mall that are shut on a Sunday. Got back to the room and argued about who should pack whose bag for ages until we all finally decided to get out of bed and do it. The girls went to the shop and got food for dinner, had to wait half an hour to get a free frying pan and saucepan to cook it. A girl was serving up a massive meal of noodles for 5 people with a 2 pronged fork for turning joints in the oven, it actually took her 15 minutes to serve the meal, was so tempting to go a wack her round the face with a slotted spoon. Another guy spent ages cooking a months worth of meals and putting them in seperate containers, just as he'd finished cooking it he covered it in 3 heaped table spoons of salt. Finally had a really nice Spag Bol after hours waiting around in the kitchen. Apples are well expensive in this country.

08/12/08

Scoffed 2 massive bowls of cornflakes, 3 weetabix and some toast then checked out and went back to the Sony centre, turns out it really is too expensive to fix a camera. Burns, Pat and I walked to the car rental place to pick up the car and drove to greyhound to sort out the tickets. The car is awesome, you can't even tell when the engines running. They have a really weird way of taking junctions in this city due to the tram system, to turn right at a junction you have to stay in the left hand lane, pull out into the middle of the junction and wait on a tram line for all the cars that were going straight to pass you on the right and then wait for another set of lights before actually turning right. To turn left you have to wait for a green light, but then the pedestrians have a green light, so you have to pull out and wait in the middle of a junction for all the pedestrians to cross the road. Whats wrong with a roundabout and an underground.

Got to the coach terminal after 10 minutes of searching for an entrance and turned our vouchers into tickets. You can't book 5 people onto the same coach at once, and there's no way to check availability, you have to just all book individually and hope that you all get on the same coach. First thing we saw as we set off for Torquay was an overturned car in the middle of the street, looked like it had driven up the yellow tram barrier and just flipped on to its side in the tram tracks. Managed to survive the crazy roads rules and got out of the city in one piece, then went to Torquay, the car's a beaut! Stopped off and had a massive sandwich on the beach, then tried to play frisbee in the wind very unsuccessfully, so we moved on to head tennis.

Carried on along the B100, the Great Ocean Road, to Bells Beach then stopped at the massive sign for a few photos, got out of the car and saw there were 6 flies all huddled together on my shoulder. Stopped at Lorne for some drinks, then went to Erskine Falls, not too impressive as there has been piss all rain recently. Went down Gay Street to Teddy's Point to check out the view, on the way Pat we saw our first Kangaroos just sitting around in someones garden, they must have been pets because they didn't move when we got close. Carried on to Kennett River where we stopped and saw 4 Koala Bears chilling out in the trees and 4 wild Kangaroos. Went to Apollo Bay and found a really nice flat to stay in with a cooker and 8 beds all to ourselves. Got a load of food in and the girls cooked us a sweet black bean stir fry. Best shower ever!!

09/12/08

Woke up, it was freezing cold. Took ages to get out of bed, finally got up and packed all our s*** away, got out in the car, it was much warmer in the sun. Checked out and headed further along the Great Ocean Raod. Clouds soon set in and it started drizling, the road got much windier for the second half, so everyone in the back was being squashed to the left and right on every corner. Went to Maits Rest and managed to complete a 40 minute walk in under 10 because it was cold and raining. Headed for Otway Lighthouse but it cost money to get in so we gave it a miss, and went straight for the 12 Apostles. Got soaked, Pat and I had mud sprays up the back of our legs like the girls normally have, Coops had to change out of her trousers because she was afraid of ruining them, Pat and I dried our feet and thongs out under the hand dryers, and then we set of for Wornambool, the end of the Great Ocean Road. This was a dump so we spent a few minutes sorting out greyhound tickets and reading the latest zoo mag, before going back down the B100. The first thing we saw when we got back on the B100 was a giant cheese factory and museum, we couldn't resist. Chocolate milk was half price as well, bargain. Drove back to Appolo Bay stopping at the Grotto, Arch, London Bridge, Razorback, Thundercave and Blowhole on the way. Each one was sign posted with a sign that said 300 metres about 50 metres away from the turning, seems like people outside the UK have no concept of distances. Got back to Appolo Bay and managed to get the same flat we had the night before. So the lads and I decided to treat the girls to one of our epic uni style pasta bakes. I think they actually enjoyed it, although it seemed to give Helen a funny tum again. Watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith on the TV and then hit the sac.

10/12/08

was really cold waking up again but the weather was much nicer. Had another awesome shower and then packed everything in the car making sure we stole a 2 knives a fork and a spoon for good measure. Just as we were leaving Apollo Bay I was attempting to overtake some guy and he was having none of it, he pulled over to the right and blocked me off, what a twat. Stopped off at the beach at Teddy's Point and wrote our names in the sand before heading back up to Teddy's Point to get a pic of it from the top of the cliff. Then we visited the lighthouse where they filmed Round the Twist, and spent the next 20 minutes singing the theme song to that, what a show. Stopped off at Torquay again on the way back and used one of the free BBQ's. Had a massive sandwich with a sausage, 4 burgers, tomato, lettuce, cheese and mayo. Took ages to clean it though as we only had knives to scrape it with. Such a good idea to have free public BBQ's.

Britneys womaniser came on the radio for the 5th time of the day on they way back. Got back to the car rental place and the guy said that he'd charge us $35 for cleaning if we didn't get the sand out of the damn car. So we went back to a 7-11 and had to hoover the whole car out. Couldn't quite pack all my stuff in to my bag for the walk back. My blanket, trousers and t-shirt fell right out of my bag as I was crossing the road right in the middle of a tram line. Got back to Flinders Backpackers and got our beds back in the 12 bed doorm. Had another cold shave with no foam and nearly ripped my face off. Wen't to the kitchen to cook but we went down at prime time so couldn't get any pans. I challenged Coops to a game of pool, and won. We stood around at the hobs for around half an hour until a few pans became free and eventually managed to cook an awesome meal, pasta bacon and loads of veg, Helen even ate a load of mushrooms. Went to the room to attempt to sleep at about 11pm to get up for 3:15. Unfortunatley as we climbed in to bed a load of other backpackers, if you can call them that, they've been staying in the same hostel for 2 months, showed up and started playing drinking games. Some loudmouth girl with the shriekiest voice in the world wouldn't shut up about f***ing a duck and variations on it such as f*** a ridgid turtle all night. Later some guy climbed in to bed with some other girl on the bunk below mine and the bed wouldn't stop shaking after that so I ended up just laying there listening to Rage Against the Machine at full volume, eventually some guy came over and appologised for the noise, but still carried on anyway. I got up and went to the bog, but forgot my card so had to use the girls again. Realised that Helen and Coops weren't in their beds so went to try and find what silent location they had found, couldn't find them anywhere so went back to my bunk. Eventually 3:15 came around and we got up and picked our stuff up, turns out Coops was in her bed all night and none of us but Pat had slept a wink. Helen was downstairs in the DVD room.