Hello all, well we arrived in Melbourne on 17th Feb and were there for 4 nights. The first thing to mention was where we were staying, it was absolutely lovely, oaks on collins with our own kitchen and right on the main street.

We arrived in the afternoon and due to the heat headed down to the riverbank, Southbank where there was abudance of bars and restaurants and met up with Vanessa and her friend for a couple of drinks. Initial impressions of Melbourne were really good, you can see it's a thriving place with lots of business and shops and a cafe culture. The next day we spent the day exploring and wondering round the city and we had a walk to Federation Square, a look in some of the shops (the weather is very changeable in Melbourne:) down by the river bank. We also went to St Kilda which we had heard mixed reviews about, you have to catch the tram from the city to go there and it's the nearest beach to Melbourne, however I use the term beach loosely as it's one of those rocky beaches and is literally just a strip, but as it was a nice day again it was a nice way to pass the day. OUr guide (Vanessa) advised that Acland Street was the place to go to for fantastic cakes (at which point I had to hold Iain back!) so we ventured down and it was amazing all the cakes in the window and they tasted as good as they looked. The following night we went to the Crown Casino which is absolutely massive with a real mix of people, some in shorts and t-shirts on 50c slots and some in the roulette rooms with suits and betting$100 bills as if it was the monopoly money we thought it looked like. That night we went for a meal on the front, which was great as on the hour every hour, there are these fire fountains, hopefully we managed to catch it on camera.

We left Melbourne on Thursday morning, pretty excited to be getting to our final destination and the place to be called home for the imminent future.xxxxxx