Hi all,

It's my last day in Melbourne today, have been here for a week and half and it's been great. Spent a lot of time getting to know people in my hostel (The CLEANEST place in the WORLD) by way of drinking Goon and having sing a longs in the smoking area!

Melbourne is a cool city, spent some time with Cathy wandering around museums and art galleries which was nice, and then wandered around Victoria Market, LOADS of tat that I resisted buying! After a few days I was getting a bit restless so booked a tour down the Great Ocean Road for a few days. In true Selina style I had a late night before I was due to be picked up so the first day on the minibus (There was only 4 of us on the tour) was slightly painful but VERY beautiful.

Our driver was apparantly a wildlife expert, conservationist and orangutan enthusiast...but very nice and very knowledgeable. We had LOADS of stop offs on the first day, walked all over the place! Luckily the weather was great so the walks along the beach and to various sights were gorgeous.

We obviously stopped at the Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch (Perfect Pictures) and the 12 apostles (Of which I think there are 6 left). They were pretty spectacula, and the time we arrived the sun was just setting so it looked even better! We also stopped at London Bridge, which used to be land attached to a rock formation in the sea by more rock, which looked like a bridge until it collapsed leaving two people stranded in the middle of the sea! What made it worse was apparantly these two people were having an affair and it was all over the news! Luckily they were saved by helicopter but I don't know what their respective partners did!

The next day we visited McKenzie Falls (Not quite Iguazu Geez!) and had some pretty strenuous walking up some very steep steps! We had a big Ozzie BBq in the evening and then went out Kangaroo spotting! We were staying in a place called Halls Gap, and they were EVERYWHERE. We found loads on the cricket oval in the middle of town! Got some awesome pics the follwing morning of them boxing (The 5:30 start was worth it)

On the last day we visited Venus Baths and stopped off at Bests Western Winery for a free tasting which was great! (NZ wine was better though....)We also visited a fantastic Aboriginal Centre in Halls Gap, it was the Bambruk Centre and was really interesting. The building itslef was award winning, shaped like a Cockatoo in flight and the whole design of the place was linked to the beliefs and life of the Koori people from generations ago. I didn't know much about Oz history but got a lot out of the visit, had to force myself not to buy loads of books as the backpack is beginning to bulge a bit and has only just been mended!

I got back to Melbourne and have wandered down to St Kilda Beach and chilled out for a few days. Met up with Michelle the other night who's looking fantastic and sends lots of love to the Madhouse. Heading to Canberra on the night bus tonight and then straight to Sydney with a girl from my hostel.

All is good with me, looking forward to catching up with some people from NZ in Sydney and then Mel when I get to Byron Bay!

Sel

xxx