After another day and a half in Sydney, we took the train to Melbourne-just a short 12 hour ride away! This entry covers the whole time we were in Melbourne, in an attempt to bring the blog up to date!

Our first day, we met up with Rich, to benefit from his near-local knowledge...Eventually we found our way to the Melbourne Cricket Ground where we took the tour and went around the National Sports Museum. After that we wandered around quite a lot. The first afternoon in search of the hostel we were moving to for the rest of our stay in Melbourne, and the next day looking around suburbs and down Brunswick Street...strange might not be the right word to describe it but it was certainly different! Our new hostel was above a pub, which meant cheaper drinks and meals for us (you can't go wrong with a $10 steak!)

On the Wednesday, Mia and I headed out to see Rich's place in Mentone, about half an hour out of Melbourne centre, near the sea, and then attempted to walk what turned out to be a large amount of the way back to St Kilda right next to where we were staying-it took at least 2 hours. In flip flops!

On the rest of our days in Melbourne we went to the Queen Victoria Market, Prahran Market and St Kilda Market as well as to the World's biggest cinema screen-it was huge! We also went on the Neighbours tour! We got to see the lassiters set, and ramsey street itself-expect pictures soon! We also went to a bar made of ice-we were given ski jackets and gloves, and went in for half an hour (they won't let you stay longer-it's too cold!) Needless to say it was freezing, especially in shorts!

On our last full day, we took a tour out to the Great Ocean Road, which was amazing! We stopped at Bell's Beach for a tea break to start the day where we watched the surfers. Next we saw Split Point Lighthouse (in the TV show round the twist...Mia says it's a real show!). After that we saw some Koalas in the wild-looking very cute and sleepy up in their eucalyptus trees. Next we saw a destroyed line of trees where the Koalas had eaten them all! Afterwards was a rainforest walk, throught tree ferns and GIANT Mountain Ash trees, and then on to the twelve apostles-limestone rock formations in the sea-spectacular to say the least! Then we saw a formation called London Bridge-once two arches attached to the mainland, the attaching arch collapsed in 1990, leaving to walkers stranded! So now it's just one arch, and a sign proclaiming that 'London Bridge is falling down!'

Next stop New Zealand...