Melbourne 4 - 14 February

Our two weeks in Melbourne were amazing, we got to catch up with loads of friends, spent a lot of time sampling the night life in the city, saw some amazing beaches and ate some great grub.

So let's start at the beginning. Top tips for anyone who cannot sleep on a plane:
1. Don't fly to Australia without a stop over. No matter how good the films are, or the fact that there is free food (AMAZING free food by the way!) and drink, 24 hours of flying with only a 1hr gap in between is not fun
2. Don't book a night flight thinking your body clock will allow you to sleep in the flight, it won't. If you fly at night and land in the morning you have to stay awake all day to avoid getting jet lag. We arrived in Melbourne Wednesday morning (Tuesday UK time) and the last time we slept was the Sunday night!!

This was only a minor niggle, as the fun started as soon as we arrived in Melbourne. Hickey's uni friend Danny B met us at the airport at 8:30 (with a 2 x Hickey entendre sign), and in their time honoured tradition we had to neck a silent pint before we were allowed to even say hello.

Danny B showed us around the suburb of Melbourne he lives in called Elwood, which has a huge cafe culture with lots of bars and cafes packed with people all the time. We were wandering around thinking "do these people not work?!" We walked around the big park and along the beach (avoiding all the runners - there are people exercising everywhere you look in Melbourne. It even inspired Hickey to have some early morning runs!). All this walking was thirsty work so we were joined by Sarah and baby Freya, and took advantage of happy hour(s) at a bar called Jimmi Jamz before coming home for a curry and an early night.

The next day we parted ways, as Lorry couldn't wait to see Lucy and Bruce and the boys, and Hickey was up for a well overdue catch up with Danny B. Both days included a BBQ (of course, what else would you expect in Australia!) but other than that were very different. While Lorry's centred around chatting with Lucy and Bruce and playing in the garden with the gorgeous Roo and Giddy, Hickey's centred around sport and booze. Standard!

Beers and a bbq at the park were the first order of his day, followed by wine and boules at the beach, where Hickey was unbeaten. Then followed by a mini bar crawl in St Kilda which is bloody awesome by the way!

Like a typical Brit abroad Hickey overdid it on the beach on Thursday so Friday ("Sunstroke Friday") was recovery day. Lorry spent the morning at Oakleigh pool with the Cooke clan which has 3 amazing, super warm pools with water sprays meant for the kids but very much enjoyed by the adults! The plan was to have a big night out but as it was now Sunstroke Friday we had a tame evening with a meal and a sickening pop quiz. Hickey lost to Danny B but of course blames the sunstroke!!

On Saturday we spent the day with The Bambers in a suburb called Brighton, quite a trendy place with lots of bars, so we took advantage and did a mini pub crawl. One of the pubs we went into was owned by Natalie Basingthwaite who played Izzy in Neighbours. Unfortunately we didn't see her. We went to Brighton Beach in the afternoon where Hickey defended his undefeated boules title, then got a burger from The Royale Brothers, 9th in the list of top 10 burger places in Melbourne.

More boules were played when we got home, and Hickeys run of luck ended. He blamed the surface, claiming that winning on grass is down to luck, and on the beach it is down to skill. Excuses excuses!! When we got back we watched Spurs beat Arsenal. Australian TV show all Premiership games which is awesome, if you can stay awake!

On Sunday 8th we met up with Jim Jamz (someone else we know from Cheltenham who also lives in Melbourne!) and went to the St Kilda festival. St Kilda is pretty buzzing generally, a real tourist hotspot with a beach, theme park and lots and lots of bars, but the St Kilda festival was something else. Everywhere was rammed - even the breathalyser tent!! There were people as far as the eye could see, but photographs could not do it justice. There were a load of live acts and different areas, and it took us hours just to walk around.

We had a few drinks then headed back with Jim Jamz to his house so we could see his kids Charlie and Ava before they went to bed. We had some amazing fish and chips, and spent the night playing pictionary on Charlie's chalk board (with some very questionable drawing skills by Hickey and Sarah), playing charades and remembering the good old Breakout days in Cheltenham!

Monday and Tuesday were spent hanging out with Lucy and co, with more swimming, playing in the paddling pool and running around with Hickey. We went into Oakleigh centre (the suburb where Lucy and Bruce live) and again marvelled at how busy the cafes were during the day time.

Wednesday we visited our 4th Melbourne beach, Half Moon Bay, which is famous for its fish and chips, which we had to sample. When in Rome and all that. Hickey had his first sea swim - the beach is lovely but it does get busy when school finishes as it seems like all of the children in the area are enrolled in life saving classes. There seemed to be hundreds of kids in pink wetsuits running, surfing and diving everywhere.

If we hadn't seen enough people with a Cheltenham connection in Melbourne, Lorry's uncle Kevin, Aunty Carol and cousin Natalie were in Melbourne for a few days, so we spent a couple of days with them while they were here. We went on a 2 hour Yarra River cruise and they did a few touristy things that we did last time.

In the evening we decided to do a pub crawl and try and find some of the hidden pubs in Melbourne. In the end we only managed 2 pubs (great pub crawl then!) as the first rooftop bar we went to was closed as there was an open air cinema on that night. We only found this out after me and Natalie had walked up all 7 floors - 14 sets of stairs!! It then took us ages to find any of the other bars - they are well and truly hidden!

The two that we did find though were awesome. The Carlton, which was on Bourke St, is a rooftop bar with loads of plants and just generally looks awesome, we were even treated to a firework display. The second was a bar called State of Grace, which was really quirky and chintzy. Out the back, towards the toilets, there was a bookcase with a big book sticking out. You pull the book and the bookcase slides back revealing a basement bar called Fall From Grace, which had huge chandeliers and comfortable armchairs around the tables, and was really cool.

The next day we all went to Melbourne Zoo, along with Lucy and the kids, which was awesome. Much better than Australia Zoo (of Steve Irwin fame) last time. It is huge and there is so much to see. We were there from 9:30 until about 2:30, and could have stayed longer had it not been so unbelievably hot! Lunch was at Victoria market, then the O'Connors went off to do the Melbourne Star (like the London Eye) which they all agreed was not as good as the Eureka Sky Deck, which we did last year.

We had agreed to meet them at the Cookie Rooftop Bar, the hidden away little bar we attempted to go to the night before. It was really busy, with a great atmosphere and a dj playing some awesome house music in the open air. It was nice and sunny when they first arrived, but suddenly it was thunder and lightening and started pouring with rain. We were determined to stay, so put anything to hand over our heads, and styled it out in the rain until the staff bought out some big umbrella's. We didn't so much mind being wet, but were more worried about our drinks getting diluted!

As it continued to rain for the rest of the day/evening we had no choice but to keep dry in bars. We went to quite a few bars, all of which were really cool and individual, and all of which I have forgotten the names of! We called it a night at 11:30 to make sure we were able to catch the last train home, and as usual were befriended by a random. Some old guy who professed to be a millionaire invited us back for a curry at his house after chatting to us all journey. We declined his offer as wanted to be in bed at a reasonable hour before our "holiday" the next day.

Separation Creek 14 -17 February

Ironically, me and Hickey spent Valentine's Day this year at Separation Creek!

On Saturday we loaded up two cars with me and Hickey, Lucy, Bruce and the boys, Mark 90 (yet another Cheltenham buddy) along with enough food and drink for the weekend and headed off for a two and a half hour drive along the Great Ocean Road to Sep. The drive is amazing, with the ocean to the left of you for the last part of the journey.

The house is amazing, built in the 60's with wood from Paddy's wood mill, up high in the trees with a great view of the sea and the beach, koalas in the trees in front of the house, kukaburahs, cockatoos and parrots regularly coming to visit/eat on the deck. It is so relaxing being surrounded by Australian nature and hearing the massive waves crashing.

As soon as we arrived we got in our "swimmers" and headed to Wye River, which is the beach next to Sep with rivers running into the sea. We spent the afternoon swimming and walking over the rocks and generally doing what you do on a beach. In the evening all 7 of us went for a romantic Valentine's Day meal then headed home so the boys could go fishing before retiring with a couple of drinks and an early night ahead of a full day of beachy fun the next day.

Sunday we spent pretty much the whole day at Sep Creek beach, a 3 min walk downhill from the house. The usual beach activities were done - Bruce dug a massive hole, the kids sat in the hole, Hickey sat in in the hole, we jumped the huge waves in the sea, Bruce went body boarding, we walked the length of the beach etc.

Whilst Lucy prepared a roast the rest of us went blackberry picking - yum!! We found so many blackberries that Lucy was able to make crumble for 3 days!! After diner was devoured and the kids were in bed the adults all took part in a Guess Who championship. The people are different to the UK version we play - there was no Herman!! After that we had many a game of s***head.

We were going to go home on Monday but decided to stay an extra day. It wasn't as sunny as the previous days so we didn't have a full on beach day. Instead we did a lot of walking, along the beach to Wye River and back, then later to Wye River but later back along "Paddys's path". Paddy used to use the path to bring wood over from his wood mill in Wye River to build the house in Sep Creek. The path is up in the hills amongst the trees with a great view of the sea, and is a lovely little walk. Rummy was the card game of choice for the evening - our penultimate evening in Australia. I can't believe how quickly 2 weeks has gone!!

Melbourne 17 February

Our last supper in Australia was fish cakes, made by Lucy with fish caught by the boys at Separation Creek, and they were amazing. We made the most of each other's company, playing together, Lorry painting, staying up late drinking wine. Melbourne is such a great city and we could really see ourselves living there, and it was amazing to catch up with so many people, especially people we may not see for along time. Our last night was a mixture of feelings - we were sad to be leaving our friends but really excited about the next stage in our adventure. Malaysia is our next stop, and where the travelling really begins. Bring it on!!