Hello everyone,

Firstly, I'd like to say thanks for all the lovely messages everyones been leaving, we have been reading them but haven't replied because for some reason the ipad wont let me click in the box :)

We eventually landed in Melbourne, Australia on Friday 2nd September. After having spent 9 weeks in a tropical climate, the cold temperature came as a bit of a shock to us, especially as we were still wearing shorts and flip flops! To be honest we were expecting it to be warmer as it always seems to be hot in 'Neighbors' but we were in the far south at the very beginning of spring. After what felt like spending an absolute fortune on a taxi (as we were used to paying just a few pounds each in Asia) we arrived at our hostel which was above an Irish bar. We actually had to walk through the bar with all our stuff to get to the office and as it was a Friday evening it was full of rowdy, drunken men who were like 'wheey backpackers!!'.  We were tired and stressed after our ordeal so just went to bed, with the heater on and lots of blankets. It wasn't quite the luxury we'd been used to and certainly a lot more expensive but we were expecting that.

The next day we were feeling a lot brighter and more excited about being in Australia. After breakfast we got on the tram and went into the city. Although it felt a bit chilly, it turned out to be a nice sunny day. First we went for a walk through the botanic gardens which were absolutely lovely and we had great views of the city. For the rest of the day we just wandered around the streets and shops, as well as Federation Square and the riverside. We noticed just how spotlessly clean and well organised everywhere was. Melbourne is a really nice city. In the evening we took advantage of the cheap backpacker meals at the bar under the hostel and just chilled out there.

On 4th September we left the hostel and headed to the train station where we boarded the train for Lilydale. Here we met up with Kristeen, our new Help X host. Help Exchange is an organisation whereby helpers can go and stay with hosts who provide them with accommodation and food in exchange with work (usually about 3-6 hours per day). The work could be anything from feeding cattle to looking after children, and this could be on a farm in the middle of nowhere or at a house in the suburbs. Kristeen and Russell own a farm near a little town called Yellingbo on the outskirts of Melbourne. It's a hobby farm but still very big (50 acres) with lots of animals including dogs, cats, cows, horses, sheep, alpacas, chickens and geese. The house is also massive, we had our own self-contained apartment on the end but we spent most of the time inside the main house. It also had a pool and tennis court which we made use of. The surrounding countryside reminded us a lot of home with its green rolling hills. Kristeen and Russell were both very pleased with Ryans building abilities and they had him hanging doers, fixing things and building walls. He even built them an amazing new egg box for the end of the drive. He really enjoyed getting back into some work and he had been complaining that his hands had been going soft while we were in Asia! I did lots of different things such as weeding, painting the study, checking on the lambs and helping Ryan. My favourite job was taking the eggs to and from the egg box at the bottom of the drive using the quad bike!! I also really enjoyed bottle feeding two of the lambs every night. They are so cute, they just roam around in the garden (not in the paddock with the others) and run and jump up you when you call them, like dogs! We both got really attached to the real dogs too, three giant white Maremmas, George, Big Max and Sophie, a little fluffy white thing called Little Max who would ride in the basked of the quad with me, and a little jack russell with huge ears called Zoe. As well as spending time at the farm we also got to see some of the surrounding area. On one of the days we went to a nearby shopping mall where we looked around and bought some much needed warm clothes. Kristeen and Russell also took us for a drive out to a small town called Marysville which was almost completely destroyed by forest fires. We past through beautiful eucalyptus forest on the way and a look out onto a lake. On the way back we stopped at some wineries (which the Yarra Valley is famous for) and did a bit of tasting, and to a dairy. On another day me and Ryan were dropped off at the Healesville sanctuary where we got to see lots of Australian wildlife including kangaroos, tasmanian devils and dingoes. On other days we got to see some of the local towns and surrounding countryside. We learnt a lot about Aussie culture during our time there, we even ate Kangaroo sausages, learnt the rules of Aussie football (kind of) and saw our first Huntsman spider. I could talk a lot more about our experiences with Kristeen and Russell but I'd go on for ages. We basically had a brilliant time and I'd definitely recommend doing it! We were there for just over 2 weeks in total, from 4th until 13th September when we boarded our train back to Melbourne city. In the afternoon we had another look around and checked into another hostel. 

The next day we had an early start ready for our bus to Sydney!

Lots of love,

Jo and Ryan xxx