Hi All Well I am back in Sydney now after a fun filled week spent in Melbourne and Tasmania! Left Em and Dave and caught a 13 hour bus down to Melbourne. Melbourne was great - stayed at a nice backpackers in the centre of town. The city itself has loads of character - lots of great shops, bustling side streets and victorian shopping arcades housing lots of lovely boutiques selling gorgeous things! I managed to get on a tour to see the Great Ocean Road which was just fantastic - see piccies I have put on. We set off for this really early and as a treat our driver made us traditional billy tea (tea leaves in a metal tin swung around the head a few times to settle the leaves) and we ate Lamingtons on the beach as a mid morning snack! We then stopped off at Bells Beach where Point Break was filmed before heading on to Apollo Bay then the 12 Apostles. Only 7 left standing now as they have crumbled into the sea but more are forming all the time. We also stopped off at London Bridge - part of this collapsed from the mainland 15 years ago, and Loch Ard Gorge - the site of the Loch Ard shipwreck. We arrived there just as the sun was setting which made for great photos. The next day I did the obligatory Neighbours tour! This involved riding the Neighbours bus through the streets of Melbourne to Erinsborough High School (which is actually an English Language School) and then onto Grundy Studies to star spot (none came out whilst we were there!) and then to Ramsay Street. It was really weird - people live in Ramsay Street and they just get paid a fee for the inconvenience of having Neighbours film in their street a couple of times a week. This means they have to move their cars and arent allowed to alter anything in their gardens or on the front of their houses. The street itself is much smaller than you would think - not as big as Appletree Close even! I had my photo holding the Ramsay Street sign outside the familiar houses which was cool. On the way back to the city we watched old episodes of Neighbours - Scott and Charlenes wedding, Todds death. All very moving stuff! We also got to watch the attempts of many stars to make it big in the music charts - Stefan Dennis (Paul Robinson) singing 'Gonna Make You Feel Good' with hairy chest showing and leather jacket on making gross sex faces. Disgusting! The next day off I flew to Tasmania. This was a bit of a last minute thing and I didnt really know what to expect. Needless to say Tassie was freezing! Luckily I had bought hat, gloves, scarf and coat in Melbourne where the weather was already pretty cold. I flew into Launceston and stayed at a pretty rough backpackers - very cold, not very hot showers, mouldy bathroom, smelly tv room! Obviously I expect to much for the 7 pounds I paid to stay there! The next morning I was picked up to start my 3 day tour of the East Coast. Our group was made up of 8 of us in total and Matt our tour leader. Everyone was really friendly despite the fact that not all spoke great English! We started the tour by visiting Cataract Gorge. Beautiful views and although the weather was cold it was sunny which was great. We walked through this before driving onto Evercreech Rainforest where we treked through this building an appetite for a picnic lunch. Matt had so much knowledge of the local area and all the plants that grow there it was really interesting. We stayed at an Adventure Tours house in the town of Bicheno that night and Matt cooked for us and then played guitar - a man of many talents! The next day we were up at 6 to see the sunrise on the beach and then headed onto Freycinet National Park. Here we completed a 3 hour walk up the mountain to the Wineglass Bay lookout then down to Wineglass Bay itself. Again despite the weather great views. After all that exercise we had a barbeque then went to a Vineyard for some wine tasting and then a berry farm to have fresh jams and icecream - so much for burning off calories on the walk! Then onto Port Arthur for the night. Once in Port Arthur we stayed at another Adventure Tours house and Eilidh (lovely Scottish girl on the tour) and I did the Port Arthur Ghost Tour. Our guide Todd was very theatrical although an obvious believer and really spooked us with all his stories. It was really good and pretty scary wondering round old churches and ruins of houses. The next day we all returned to Port Arthur and visited it in the daylight for a tour of site. It was really interesting. Not sure if any of you have heard of this place but its where convicts were sent after they had reoffended when they had originally been sent to Tasmania from the UK for minor offences. We spent the afternoon at the Tasmanian Devil Rescue centre which was good. Tassie Devils are so vicious! We were there for feeding time where they literally just throw some road kill into the pen and they all fight over it. And they eat everything - fur, bone, innards, claws - the lot. I was not really expecting this and the sound of crunching bone was a little stomach churning! The Devils have a jaw strength that would severe a limb in one bite. Look cute but not. Much like me! Sadly almost half of the devil population has died out due to 'Devil Facial Tumour' one of only 2 contagious cancers known in the world. In the rescue centre they are breeding disease free devils to try to increase the population as there is no known cure for this at present. We also got to feed Kangaroos and Wallabies which was good. End of the tour and we were all dropped off in Hobart. An excellent tour which I would definately recommend! Before heading back to Sydney Eilidh, Alan (young lad from Edinburgh) and I climbed Mount Wellington. Another gruelling walk which nearly killed me but was worth it for the views - check out the piccies! Back in Sydney now and enjoying spending my last weekend with Em and Dave before headong onto New Zealand on Monday! Enjoy the photos! Txx