Melbourne 2nd - 6th March 2006 Arrive in Melbourne to a roasting hot day and in our usual style decide to go into town (on the tram) and walk about in the hot sun. We see a lot of the preparations for the Commonwealth Games (which we will miss by about a week) along the Yarra river and then have a stroll around the botanical gardens. Australia certainly does botanical gardens very well and seems to have one in every town. We spend a lot of time on Friday at the Melbourne museum which was a great mixture of exhibits, including a real rainforest and part of the Neighbours set!!! That evening we head to the Telstra Stadium to watch an Aussie Rules Football Game. Well, it was confusing. As we sat down we were immediately confused about who everyone was. There seemed to be three teams of people - one wearing blue, one wearing red and one wearing green. Plus there were a few guys wearing white and even some in luminous yellow. Besides all that the pitch was huge and a funny shape.. Gradually we realised that the two teams were in Red and Blue - 18 on each side, yes 18!! The guys in green (all 8 of them) are the referees - they need so many because the pitch is just that big. The guys in white seem to run on at certain times dispensing water to the players and the guys in luminous yellow seem to run on whenever they like with advice for the players!!!! How bizarre! Once we had worked all that out we then had to figure out the rules. We think we worked it out in the end, but we never did work out how long each quarter was going to last! Despite it being just a pre-season game, it was actually quite an exciting one with the home team just winning in the end. Saturday we headed back into town to have a proper look around - the Cathedral, the little shopping arcades - all very english really, but a bit cleaner and not so busy. That evening we went for dinner with an Australian couple we had met in Vietnam - an Aussie BBQ! It was great. It was the first time in ages we had had a meal at someone's house, which was lovely. It was also really nice to see them again and to see each others photos. They were also kind enough to pick us up and drop us back again at our hostel. Thanks Richard and Jude. Sunday we decided to head to the beach at St Kilda where we enjoyed probably our 100th pie in Oz and had a really nice walk along the beachfront. We then decided to walk all the way back into town through a couple of other Melbourne parks that conveniently all meet up so you don't have to walk on any roads! Had a great meal in the evening overlooking the Yarra River. Very much looking forward to going to New Zealand tomorrow, especially seeing Emma, but also sad to say goodbye to Oz. We've had a really great time here again. Lots of love, Stu & Amy