Hi everyone! It's Erin here! Sorry we haven't updated you in a long time but as you can probably guess, we have been rather busy!!!!

From Alice Springs, we got a flight back to Melbourne and decided to start with a bit of sightseeing so jumped on the free bus tour around the city. We arrived just in time for the build up to the grand prix, and were very lucky to come across a Ferrari presentation of the new car and we saw Massa and Raikkonen...plus we were given our very own Ferrari to take home (we'll gloss over the fact that it was small enough to fit in our pocket...oh well!!) That day we also went up the Eureka skytower to see some amazing views of the city - we also got to see the F1 track in the distance.

The next day marked the day that Sophie and Nathan had been waiting for for the whole trip (my day was yet to come...more about that later!!) Yes, it was the start of the four day marathon that was the Melbourne Grand Prix. We had a great time over the four days watching the various races and soaking up the gorgeous heat (well gorgeous for some anyway!!! Although it really did help our tans!) The atmosphere on race day was electric, where we sat at turn 10 with an excellent view of the track...but we were crammed in like sardines, sitting on each others' laps as there were SO many people! You couldn't even see the grass. And what topped the day off was a British victory - well done Button!!! After the race we then walked around most of the track taking as many pictures as we could, and ended the night at 'The Who' concert.

That night, after the race, Nathan decided to 'skank' us and go and stay with his new found Frenchie loverrrrr, so we were left to our own devices at the hostel. This turned out to be one of the best nights as we made friends with three great English lads who we got on really well with and I don't think we have ever laughed so much in one night!!

The next day was the day that I'd been waiting for...if you don't already know, I was desperate to meet Karl Kennedy, and the waiting was finally over! We started first of all with a sports tour of Melbourne, seeing the Flemington race course, the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the Etihad Stadium - we could see why this is the sporting capital of Australia. Then, after a delicious lunch, we then boarded the 'Neighbours' bus for our Ramsey Street tour and to meet and greet a star....who Sophie and Nathan didn't know but for those of you who are fans, we met Steve the vet...who turned out to be kind of sleazy really, with his hands all over the girls! I must say that we were more than disappointed though when the bus rocked up to Ramsay Street and unfortunately they were filming, so we weren't allowed to go and have our picture taken outside Harold Bishop's house...boo hoo! But in the distance we saw Toadie and Susan filming a scene...if we squinted hard enough, we could just about see them.

But that all pailed into insignificance when we arrived at a local pub for the Neighbours Trivia Night, which is probably one of the best nights we've had in Australia so far! Plus we bumped into some of our Irish friends from the Great Ocean Road trip, which was a coincidence but made the night even better! It started off with a Q&A session with the great man himself (KK), plus Steve and Carmella and then for the best bit...they came out into the crowd for photos! I don't think I've screamed so much when Karl came over to our table...in fact, I think he was a little scared of me! But we all got our photo with him in the end (mine is going to take pride of place in my room when I get home!)

The rest of the night was taken up with the Neighbours quiz (which wasn't about Neighbours at all!) and then for the finale, Karl sang with his band and he was brilliant!! We danced the night away until 3am and we all went to bed feeling very happy (me more than the other two) and I couldn't stop showing the picture of me and Karl to everyone in the hostel...bet they loved me!

As it had been quite busy over the last couple of days, we chilled out before our final farewell to all our friends in Melbourne. This was a drunken and very very comical night out, as fifteen of us made our way to a club where drinks were only one pound each. I ended up escorting one of our friends home as he had taken full advantage of the cheap drinks and couldn't actually walk by the end of the night. Sophie, however, drew the lucky straw and ended up with an Italian guy...what did I do wrong that night???

On our final morning, we visited the Rod Laver tennis stadium (with the most useless tour guide in the world, who took more time explaining how wonderful the toilets and the disabled access, and didn't know anything abou the history of tennis...I actually ended up answering one of her questions for her, and I know nothing about tennis!) We then boarded our overnight bus...that took THIRTEEN HOURS...arriving for our next adventure in Sydney! Yes, we were knackered when we arrived!!