Look a' Meee, Look a' Meee!

After leaving Sydney, we headed on down to Melbourne, which is commonly known as the city that has four seasons in one day (cue shudder from Keith as he remembers the Crowded House “classic”). It was wet and pretty miserable when we arrived, and in true first impression style, we hated it. But as everyone told us it would, it really did grow on us by the end of our four days, and if Melbourne had Sydney’s weather (never say to a Melbournian that you prefer Sydney – it’s a bit like asking a Manc if they support United) it could even be a more liveable city.

On our first afternoon (Sat) we just had a noodle around the shops – Melbourne is a shopper’s paradise – and our hotel was on the main Mall – great if you’re not travelling round the world and have the storage space of a gnat. Boo. We also managed to find a cool pub to sit and watch the AFL in and Keith finally tried some Victoria Bitter, which is much tastier than Fosters by a mile (Fosters is derided down under), and he wants to know if there is anywhere at home that sells it so can you keep a look out for him, please.

Sunday was a day of the obligatory touristy stuff: a morning city tour, which was cool, it would be interesting to come back in a few years and do it again, as there currently doing a major re-development of the docklands area, like Docklands at home, and it really does look cool. We got to go past the MCG, which looks absolutely amazing, and is where England will (hopefully) retain the Ashes in the final test. Melbourne is just so huge, it sprawls into Suburbia from every angle and for anyone that has ever seen Kath and Kim, we even saw the Foutaingate Shopping centre (BTW the geezer, or should I say bloke, who plays Kel is actually a really famous actor over here). In the afternoon, we picked up another tour; this one was down to Phillip Island, which is about 100 miles off the coast of Melbourne, to see the nightly migration of the Fairy Penguins, which was amazing. Every night, just after sunset, the Penguins come on to the beach in their hundreds and travel to their burrows in the hills to feed their young. The penguins are only about 11 inches tall, and we saw them coming in from the sea and managed to track them all the way back to their holes, which was so cool. It was worth standing in the freezing, pouring rain and getting battered by the sea to witness it as the Penguins even walked round our feet to get to their babies.

On Tuesday, it was another early start, and this time we went to the other side of the Melbourne coast, to travel the Great Ocean, which runs from Melbourne, Victoria to Adelaide in South Australia. The drive down was along a pretty windy coastal track and not for the faint hearted as we were pretty high above the sea at most times. We stopped for lunch in Apollo Bay, which if it wasn’t for the glorious sunshine, could’ve been home with the rolling hills. Keith had Shark and Chips to eat, which he was very impressed at as well. We then travelled along to the 12 Apostles (although you can only see 8 from the ground) which is the main highlight of the drive. The Apostles are huge rock formations, just sitting in the sea. They were amazing, and our pictures don’t do them any justice at all. Before heading home, we went to see Loch Ard Gorge, and some more amazing sandstone formations, which were just incredible to see. And to top the day off, we got to watch Finding Nemo on the drive home.

So, you probably think we’ve missed out Monday, but we thought we’d leave the best ‘til last. On Monday morning, we went on a special tour, the Holy Grail of Australian tours. After pulling up at a studio car park, which we were told we couldn’t get into, we were all a bit grumpy, in fact, we felt quite ill. But we didn’t need to worry – there was a doctor at hand. Yep, we got to meet THE Doc, Karl Kennedy, and even managed to have a little chat with him before getting a picture of us together and a few autographs. And he was such a nice bloke as well! (For those of you who have no idea who Karl Kennedy is or where we were, we went on the Neighbours tour!). Next stop was Erinsborough high, which is actually a school for Non-English speaking students in real life, and after that, we went to Ramsay Street, which is so much smaller than on telly. Unfortunately, they weren’t filming, but in a way, that was good as we got to go and stand outside all the houses and get loads of photos. And we also found out what will be coming up in the next few months, but as you guys are behind us as it is, we don’t want to spoil it for you...