Hey again guys.

Ready for the next update.......?? Amy here again, going to tell you all about our travels down the great ocean road and on into Adelaide.

So, after a very strange night spent camping along a random road next to a park in St Kilda (it really was that odd) we headed into Melbourne for the first time (in daylight) on the tram. First disaster was not having enough change for the tram; I mean what stupid system means that you have to pay your $6/7 fare all in coins? Well needless to say we didn't have enough change. So after standing bemused for a couple of minutes, complete with comedy whispers about what to do next (we must have been rather funny to watch) I approached the driver, who very kindly gave me change, but told me that I should have had my own, how the chuff was I meant to know the system would be so utterly stupid that my $10 note was unacceptable!!!! So eventually after arriving into the centre of Melbourne we went and explored the tourist information, you're probably thinking that it doesn't need exploring but that's where you're wrong....all the best bargains are to be had in there. So armed with discount vouchers and maps we headed off to explore Fitzroy Gardens. We went round Captain Cook's parents' cottage (shipped here sometime earlier this century, the date I seem to have forgotten). It was fairly compact but quite cute. We had our pictures taken in the garden (I take great offence at your monkey comment Chloe) and had a good laugh at what some of the other tourists had written in the visitor book. We then headed to the model Tudor village (complete with Shakey's house) but unfortunately you weren't actually allowed in so we didn't get that good a view. Right next to this was the "Fairy Tree" a tree decorated with pictures of fairies. We got the FREE tram to Parliament house but tours were only every hour so we couldn't be bothered to wait. We then wandered through the centre to Melbourne Gaol (pronounced Gay-Ol). Had a good look round, saw where Ned Kelly got hung and got to wander in and out of the cells. We spent quite a while wandering round and then we got to go into the Watchhouse (the old police station). This was so cool, they treated you like prisoners and even locked us in cells (when the door got locked and the lights turned off I ended up with someone sat on my knee because she was scared lol). After about what felt like 5 minutes they turned the lights back on and let us wander around. It really puts you off getting arrested. Now what makes this story even funnier (sorry Denise - you laughed at the museum story) is that following this Sam proceeded to put on Facebook that she's been "arrested and kind of locked up." Now what followed I believe was a very worried Uncle Andrew telling Denise that Sam had been arrested, cue lots of worrying. When I woke up the next morning I had a very strange message asking me what had happened. After I'd convinced Denise that nothing was infact Sam and told Sam off for being silly and putting it on facebook we had a good little chuckle about it. For future reference though if anyone is planning to get arrested in Australia the rules here are slightly different to the UK. Instead of a phone call you get 15minutes on facebook to tell you whole world you've been arrested. Sorry Denise, I couldn't resist!!! Following the arresting incident we went to somewhere called the "Koorie Centre" which had displays of Aboriginal art works for you to view. We then caught the FREE tram (yes FREE) back to Federation Square (really modern new bit of Melbourne, some people love it others hate it apparently) and headed back to our very luxurious campsite. We decided to treat ourselves for tea and so headed to a restaurant in St Kilda that had been recommended to Sam by some Aussie's she met on her Thailand tour. It was a veggie restaurant where there are no prices on anything (not even drinks) and so at the end of your meal you pay what you think it was worth. We ordered a curry platter (eggplant, beetroot (I didn't eat much of this one) and mixed veg curries, rice and some sort of bread) which was absolutely delicious. We get chatting to the waitress afterwards who told us that it was all for charity and that only the chef got paid as they were all volunteers and all the money went to helping people within Melbourne that needed it.

The following day we got up early again (to pay the parking meter - and then the chuffing machine ate half my money anyway.....arrrgh!) and headed back into Melbourne again on the tram. We wandered around a very expensive shopping centre and then headed over to Melbourne Museum. Now I think this must have to be the best museum we've been to whilst here, it had some awesome science exhibits. First we looked round the dinosaur section, then it was the "Live Bugs" exhibit - they really were real. At one point there was a spider that you could literally put your hand in and touch, needless to say neither of us actually did. Then we went on to a bit about the mind. This was awesome, it was all about your subconscious, different moods, etc and there were plenty of things to play with which pleased me lots!!!!! Then we went round an indoor rainforest, this was quite strange but cool. By this time we were starving so we went and had some food in the overpriced cafe! Then we wandered around the last section about Aboriginal Culture and Melbourne's history. By this time I was pretty bored (short attention span and not enough to play with) so I quickly whizzed round these sections. Sam however, felt the need to read every single piece of writing in the whole chuffing place. Now to what follows there are two sides of the story, I shall write mine now and then Sam can add hers in later.

Sam - We'd been in Melbourne museum for quite a while but it is a very big place and had loads of exhibits to explore. Anyway, Amy came to find me and told me that she was bored, could we go? No, I said, I'm not finished yet, why don't you look round with me? No, she says, I'll look at something else. And off she trots. Okay, so i speed up my looking a little and after about half an hour decide that I should try and find Amy. Which I do...but she's nowhere to be found. I look all around the exhibit we were in and can't see her anywhere. WHat about one of teh other exhibits? Is she there? No. The toilets? No? Ah I know, she'll be waiting in the foyer looking bored. Or the giftshop...yeah, bound to be. No. Hmm...okay, I'll have one more look in last exhibit. No. Right, I've lost her. I'll get them to put a call out (after I've text and tried ringing - no, phone off). She's obviously not worried. So I ask the nice lady at the cloakroom if she can help locate my friend. Hehe! I'm enjoying myself now. And sure enough, Amy meanders across the hall, looking lost/ nonchalent in answer to her call. All good. I tell Amy she was lost but it's all okay as I've found her now. I thank nice lady and away we go...Amy is not having any of this though...I wasn't lost she says, like a spoilt toddler. Honestly, I could have just left her...I had the car keys. Lol. Next time maybe I will do. Then she'll be grateful for a call out, hahaha!!

Amy - After a while just wandering around bored I went to find Sam and told her that I was finished and could we leave, she told me that she'd still got loads left to read so I wandered off in the direction of a school technology exhibit which I hadn't read properly (right next to where Sam was). I comfied myself into a chair and started reading about some cookery coursework (Mum, you'll remember how much work and colouring goes into one of these things) which were actually quite interesting. I then started playing on a game designed by an electronics student. After about 30 minutes a tannoy announcement was made "Please can Amy Warner come to cloakroom" so embarrassed as I was that my name had been read out I had to subtly get off my chair whilst pretending that it wasn't me who was answering the call. I strolled down to the cloakroom (which I actually didn't know where it was) to meet Sam standing there grinning at me telling me that I was lost. Now excuse me, I was where I'd been left, how could I have been lost? To this day it's still an ongoing dispute about who was lost, in my opinion it was Sam as I knew exactly where I was!!!!!!

After this we wandered around an area of Melbourne called Richmond and went in this fantastic tat shop (Hinckley would be proud to have one) which sold bra's for 20 cents (approx 10p). I insisted on looking round both floors of the shop even though it was utter rubbish. Sam got very annoyed with me.

The next morning (Anzac Day) we had originally planned to spend in Melbourne but due to it being Anzac Day (a public holiday) everything would be closed and also we figured that we still had a hell of a lot of km's to do before Tuesday so we set off in search of the "Great Ocean Road" The first stop we made was In Torquay (they stole the name from the English one as they were originally called something else). We once again raided the tourist information (the ladies loved us as we filled in all their customer satisfaction surveys - in return we got a free chocolate Fredo) and came out armed with a treeful of paper. We wandered around the Surf Shops (Torquay is where the world famous Bell's Beach is, heard of it? No me neither till I arrived there) and visited the Analemmatic Sundial (Google it) and also Anzac hill. We then drove to Point Addis (although Sam actually missed the turning) and spotted our second echidna, only this time Sam managed to stop in time and so I ran back and took some photos. The lookout at the top had awesome views but we decided not to do any walks as we wanted to head on to Aireys Inlet to see the famous lighthouse (anyone remember "Round the Twist"). No sooner had we pulled up in the car and Sam was running up the road towards the lighthouse singing the theme tune to "Round the Twist" rather loudly. Now any of you who don't know this was where they filmed the outside scenes of "Round the Twist." We made it just in time for a tour and so got shown up the lighthouse and were even allowed to walk around the time (well I sort of shimmied round hugging the lighthouse). Following this we drove to Lorne and made camp for the night at a very overpriced campsite. They stated that they had a camp kitchen (the reason we chose it as it was threatening to rain) but infact all they had was a very cramped BBQ hut. We eventually managed to get our tea and had a very nice conversation in the toilets with a New Zealand girl who now lives in Melbourne.

Next day we awoke to torrential rain and I mean pretty bad. Headed back into the centre of Lorne armed with attractive "bumble bee" coats at the ready. Drove to some waterfalls, even more impressive seeing as it had been raining for most of the night and got absolutely drenched looking at them. We then headed for Apollo bay where we stopped for a quick lunch break, driving quickly on to a place called Maits Rest where we did an awesome boardwalk in the rainforest and guess what it was indeed raining! Drenched again we got back into Noddy and headed towards Otway Lightstation. In the guide book I had read about the possibility of seeing Koala's and so all the way I had my face glued to the window staring up into the tree tops. Eventually as we were nearing the lighthouse I spotted one, cue a very loud shout of "Koala, Koala, Koala" followed by Sam screeching to a halt. I jumped out and took some photos, one of them was so close that you could practically touch it, but obviously I didn't. The lighthouse we didn't actually see up close as you had to pay to even go anywhere near it, so the tight travellers that we are we decided to save our money for something else, so we ran to the lookout, getting slightly lost on the way and took some very hasty pictures, just making it back to the car before the rain came again. To end the day we cruised on into Princetown (a very small place, one General Store, one campsite and one other shop) to stay at the recommended campsite, only it was shut. We then consulted our map book and found another close by so we headed there. To say it was somewhat ramshackle was a total understatement. It was a recreational ground (although half underwater due to the rain) and the caretaker seemed to live on site, in a makeshift caravan/tent combo. We picked what we thought was a spot out of the wind (impossible seeing as it was pretty much blowing force 10 on the Beaufort scale).

The next day was a day comprised of lots of sightseeing. First stop Jacobs Steps which were steps down to the beach where you got a fantastic view of some of the remaining 12 Apostles, then we headed onto the 12 Apostles (only there aren't 12 anymore, so Sam wanted to rename them the 7 dwarfs!!), Loch Ard Gorge, The Grotto, London Bridge (which incidentally has fallen down) and finally the Bay of Islands and Martyrs. At Loch Ard Gorge we did some nice walks, we went to the mouth of the gorge following an information trial about one of the Shipwrecks that had happened there and then headed down to the beach which had some very large waves. This is only a short snapshot of what we did, the scenery was amazing at all of these places and it'll probably be better to look at our photos rather than me waffle on about what scenery was where. The only downside to the day was the weather; if it'd been nice and sunnier then I'm sure our photos would have looked even more amazing. We're both so glad that we chose to drive ourselves though rather than get a tour. We ended the day driving through Port Fairy (very pretty old town with very nice water) and eventually arrived in Mt Gambier. We arrived too late for the tourist information but thankfully they had info outside and so we managed to find ourselves a very very nice campsite. Sam was even more pleased than me due to the fact that it had a hairdryer in the toilets.....simple things! We went to bed fairly early as we had to get up early to pack and drive to meet Auntie Jean what with it being our last day with Noddy!!!!

Tuesday morning was rather rushed due to me underestimating the amount of time it would take me to cram everything back into my bag!!!! Eventually we got on the road and headed North towards Adelaide to meet my Auntie Jean (although now adoptive Grandma) in Hahndorf. We were informed that we couldn't possibly miss the meeting point as it was a German town containing only one main street, but you guessed it, I missed the meet point. Eventually we managed to meet up, made all the more difficult seeing as neither of us had any idea what the other looked like. We then headed to a German cafe and started to get to know each other (for those of you who don't know Auntie Jean is my mum's auntie but I've never actually met her before). We then followed Jean and Bill into Adelaide and said a tearful goodbye to Noddy at the Spaceships office. As the guy was checking the van over to make sure we hadn't damaged it, we actually flustered him so much by asking him to take a photo of us that he set the fire extinguisher off!!! Rather comical! We then got a short tour of Adelaide on the way to Jean and Bill's house. They were so lovely to us and let us do our washing and offered us so much food it was amazing. In the evening Jean's son came round for tea with his wife and son (more people I hadn't met before). The tea was amazing, we had Beef Curry and Chicken Teriyaki and it was so nice!!! We had a lovely chat and then headed to our nice comfy beds.

Wednesday we decided to head into Adelaide on the bus. Now normally this would be a bog standard journey but not in Adelaide as they have this amazing system called the O-Bahn (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPhhbF0Ms7g and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O-Bahn_Busway ). We both sat on the bus like excited school children. Once in Adelaide we headed straight out to Glenelg on the tram, this is a nice seaside town and for the first time in a few days the sun was actually shining. We walked along the Jetty and went in a discovery museum and then headed back to Adelaide on the tram (but only after we'd had an ice cream). Once back in Adelaide we wandered around some of the shops and did some of the historical walk before heading back to Jean and Bill's on the bus. We went out for tea at a sort of sports club but they had the most amazing salad bar. You ordered your food but then for no extra charge you could help yourself to whatever you wanted from the salad bar which also included soup and wedges. For once I resisted the urge to pile my plate high and I'm glad that I did. I tried Kangaroo for the first time and it was very nice. After dinner we watched a DVD of Bill doing a bungee jump and then we played scattegories which was really funny, especially when Auntie Jean did totally the wrong letter for one round.

The next morning Jean and Bill took us on a tour of the Barossa valley and Chain of Ponds in Northern Adelaide. The first stop was a tree near Williamstown called the "Herbig Tree" named after a guy who lived in this tree for 6 years before having about 50 children (http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/dnuttIng/GermanAustralia/e/herbig.htm) and after this we headed on to Angeston for lunch. We had a little wander around before having the most enormous sized lunch. In the afternoon we headed back to Adelaide, via Tonundra and Bethany Vineyard. We then headed in search of a cheesecake shop for tea and eventually we found one. Mum, you would absolutely love these shops as all they sell is cheesecakes, whole of in half. We chose Lemon and it was very nice. We finished the evening playing Scrabble.
Friday we spent relaxing mainly. Took a sort trip to the local library to use the internet but then mainly just chilled out and sat chatting. Made some lovely veggie rolls for tea (which we stole the recipe for) and then had the arduous task of repacking our bags ready for the morning.

Thus ends my blogs entry (just over 3000 words - man I feel like I'm back at uni writing this much). Ok, so hope you enjoy that short overview of what we've been doing. Sam is just writing about our trip to see Uluru so read that one after you've read this one.

Bye xxx

PS - For those of you who don't have access to facebook these are the links to my photos:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=243480&id=530955051&l=0044097e3e
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=243485&id=530955051&l=2c641fb72b
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=243488&id=530955051&l=51d3c81862
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=254531&id=530955051&l=e348ef1eb5
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=254541&id=530955051&l=327fa9cd2f
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=254547&id=530955051&l=863701d151
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=254553&id=530955051&l=7c477b2dd8
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=254559&id=530955051&l=eca722ce58
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=254565&id=530955051&l=ebefedeb89
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=254568&id=530955051&l=a18a91a86c
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=254580&id=530955051&l=3962c8e6df
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=254587&id=530955051&l=534f24f7a6

(And yes there is more to come and these are only mine, Sam has millions more too).