NSW - New Years Eve

With the heads slightly sore this morning, Sally went for a run. This spurred on Scott, and because it was a nice route along the beach, and the sun was shining, Marc joined in on the 6km trek. It was an enjoyable run, dusting off the cobwebs from the night before, and was done in anticipation of the New Years resolution;) Marc probably should have thought about this a bit more as he has started to show signs of a cold :(

With the day moving on quickly, people started to arrive at the apartment to get ready for the big night, really exciting seeing everyone in their outfits. Marc managed to borrow a white shirt & bow tie from Scott so finally Marc’s outfit was a bit more Bondy. Drinks started flowing from about 3pm, with the girls knocking back a bottle of Pimms…

We took the 5pm ferry into the city and saw our first real sight of the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. This is an amazing sight, which you see on TV so much, then to actually see it in real life, wow! We then docked, the city was buzzing with people en route to find their ultimate spot for the evening. There was a real party atmosphere everywhere.

Scott has a company on the 15th floor of a building with partial views of the bridge and harbour, and this was a prime location for the party. We could see all the people gathering by the harbour below, and it was packed when we arrived – the fireworks weren’t for another 3 hours though. The boardroom was set to the 2007 theme with Casino Royale posters, Bond soundtracks playing and a poker table set up (which we later discovered is a permanent fixture). There was also a BBQ for a bit of food later.

"Bond Pants" adding chips to the table ;)

We then managed to call some of the family to say Happy New Year before things got too rough.

View from the balcony and the crowds below

The first fireworks started at 9pm – for families that don’t stay up till midnight, which was pretty cool. On the bridge there is always a light display and every year it is different. So this year the picture was switching between a question mark and a coat hanger (as the bridge is sometimes know as a coat hanger) and at midnight the main picture will be shown.

The drinks were flowing and most people were out on the balcony or playing poker inside. Even though we didn’t really know anyone it was still a cool party. There were people dressed up as Austin Powers, James Blonde, some guy with Bond branded pants on over his trousers, the dude with the black & white face (Baron Samedi) and of course James Bond…

When 12 o’clock came, the fireworks exploded and the sky lit up – ooh’s and ah’s we’re said and then there was a crashing noise… behind us! Turns out that Pete and Crystal had climbed up onto the marble table that had all the drinks and snacks on, in order to see the celebrations a little better and with their combined weight, the table gave in! It was actually quite a funny situation as the fireworks were still being set off but everyone was instead looking at the two of them, feet in the air with broken glass, plates and marble everywhere!

As the evening went on, Scott kept topping up the glasses with champers, and then later vodka, and finally a strong mix of all the spirits that were available ;) So no matter what you had in your glass to start with it was soon a cocktail J Later on he gave up topping up the glasses and just poured it straight in your mouth and so it was that we all stumbled to catch a ferry home, most people staying at Scott & Sally’s so the floor was crowded – luckily we had the spare room reserved ;)

NSW - Arriving in Sydney

We dropped the car off at the airport in the evening and were met by Scott & Sally. It was so good to see them again as it feels like such a long time since we saw them in South Africa.

We went for dinner (nice Vietnamese meal) in Kings Cross in the city – this is the epicentre of nightlife in Sydney and has loads of clubs, bars and restaurants as well as being the red light district! After dinner we drove to Manly where Scott took us on a walking tour, this inevitably lasted about 3 minutes as we headed to a pub, The Steyn, which has no less than 4 bars and has everything from pool tables, restaurant room, and TAB bar. We went to the bar overlooking the main beach, which was pretty cool. Scott was telling us about Manly Backpackers which he owns with his friend Pete, and that it’s a real party place. It was really busy with the New Years, so we went to check it out, and when Pete went to show Ev & Sally one of the rooms, he didn’t wait long enough between knocking and entering, and walked in on a couple who were romanticising ;) He paused a bit longer before entering the next room ;)

At the apartment we got introduced to Squawk, Scott & Sally’s cockatoo. She is learning new whistling tunes and can’t really speak as yet. However, she does like to practice her tunes, especially early in the morning when she wants breakfast!! She’s quite cute and you can take her out of the cage and she climbs up your arm onto your shoulder - normally to poop. She then tries to fly, but because her wings have been clipped so she never gets very far ;)

Next morning is the Eve of New Years Ev and as the New Years party has a theme – 007 – we went to the local mall to find some outfits. Ev managed to get a real bargain at a Chinese outlet for her Bond dress and Marc bought some (toy) guns and gold spray paint.

With this out the way we went down to the pub on the wharf to meet up with some of Scott & Sally’s friends before dinner. Tonight we went to a Mexican restaurant (with their Mexican friend ;) and soon enough the champers was flowing in celebration of the backpackers being full – the first time this has happened since they took it over 6 months ago. We had to be quite disciplined though, as we wanted to save ourselves for tomorrow night, so whilst we wanted to go out partying we went home at a reasonable hour…

Victoria to New South Wales

So sad to be leaving our cottage, it has been really cosy and not looking forward to camping again after our comfy bed. However, when we awoke we couldn't get out of the cottage quick enough - As Marc awoke from his slumber, and opened his eyes in a daze, he spotted something unusual on the wall above the bath. It was big, hairy, and had eight beady eyes staring straight at us!!! Remember those baby spiders on the ceiling - well we found the daddy!! Needless to say we packed up quickly, and at all times at least one of us had to have our eyes on this beast to make sure it didn't disappear into our back packs ;)

We decided to get as far as possible today and once we crossed the NSW border Marc realised that the fuel was a little low... lucky enough we made it to the next station as the last petrol station we passed was about 50km back!!

After stopping for lunch at Eden, and checking out the beach, we continued on the road and when we finally started looking for a campsite they were all full!!! We decided to look a little further on down the road and came across a place just outside Mystery Bay and discovered when we got there that it was a Big 4... and it was holiday season so it was packed out and cost $37! We are used to paying between $20-$25 so this was steep!

They literally squeezed us in one of the only spaces left, so it was a bit claustrophobic. Still, it had all the facilities of a Big 4 and had a nice pool to relax in after our drive (though there were a lot of kids around). We then had our BBQ we'd been craving and then checked out the beach for a sunset. There wasn't too much going on though, as the rain had followed us from Lakes, so we had an early night.

Next day we headed to Mogo Zoo - we're not normally a fan of zoos as we don't like seeing animals crammed into small cages, but this one was recommended by the nature lovers from Kalimna Woods, so we thought it would be ok, and it was. All the animals had big cages, and they had quite a range from deer to onyx (extinct in the wild) to white lions to monkey island to tigers. We didn't like the tiger enclosure as it was quite small compared to the amount of space all the other animals have, and we quite like tigers ;)

We headed off to Pebbley Beach, which is where Roos bounce around on the beach, but we had to pay $7pp so decided against it. Instead we went straight to Dolphin Point. There were no dolphins, just a nice lagoon and a nice beach for us to walk on for an hour or so.

After we had our little break we headed on to Kiama to see the blowholes. Now this was a blowhole! We were disappointed in WA when we could only hear the trapped air but here there was a real show going on with water being pushed up to 3mtrs in the air!

We decided to camp here before heading onto Sydney in the morning and when we found a place that had a spot open we where they told that the standard camping charge for the holiday season was $60! Just incredible as that's how much you pay for a dbl room at a hostel. Luckily this place keeps its rates at $35 - great - and we got some free pens :) This place was really nice as well, on the cliffs, big plots for tents, with a pool and TV room, and just a 5 min walk from the beach.

For dinner we got the traditional fish & chips and sat on the benches by the lighthouse overlooking the cliffs and ocean, watching the sun set, in traditional Brit style. It wasn't long before a chorus of "Mine!" rang out from the seagulls looking to get their share of our dinner. We then strolled back along the beach in the dark and watched a bit of TV, when we got chatting to this guy from Bournemouth who knows Ringwood pretty well. Small world!!

When we crawled into our tent to get some sleep & Ev kept thinking that someone was taking a lot of photos as the flash kept going off. After a while this got quite annoying so Ev got up to have a word only to realise that there was in fact an electrical storm brewing out at sea! We both watched the lightning for a while - it was pretty impressive - and the looked at the stars above us, before trying to get to sleep again. We were beginning to realise that the rain from the Great Ocean Road was following us all the way to Sydney ;(

During the night we awoke to our tent shaking and people desperately hammering in more pegs as the storm caught up with us. As we were on top of a cliff we had no protection from the winds coming off the ocean and got the full brunt of it.

We awoke the next day and were planning to head into the Blue Mountains by Sydney, but the storm had cleared and the sun was actually shining and it was hot. So instead, we headed down to the surf beach to catch a few rays and top up the tan. We (well Marc as he's been doing all the driving) needed a bit of R&R. After lunch we headed onto Sydney but not before popping into McDonalds to test out the Yaris's drive-thru-ability ;)

Victoria - Boxing Day

Weather was still a pretty crappy today, and there's not too much to do when there's no sun. Our hopes of having a BBQ on the beach have been dashed, so after a lazy morning we headed down to the harbour to play mini golf again, and book a boat trip. This was a trip around part of the lakes system, and takes us about 40km in, around all the posh lake houses, and then back again.

There are some pretty nice views of the lake islands, on which there are apparently some roo's (we only saw goats), and of the mountains inland. We sat outside to start with but it started raining and with the wind it was a bit chilly, so we headed inside and got chatting to the captain. We started asking about dolphins and he said that he'd already seen some today - and he didn't tell us !!!

Luckily, we were still chatting with him when we got back to the "Entrance" when Flipper and friends reappeared. Captain pointed them out this time, and we all got very excited. The dolphins were in a friendly mood this afternoon and came and swam quite close to the boat. This was really a treat for us as we so badly wanted to see them at the Mornington Peninsula.



After leaving the boat, we headed down to 90mile beach to see what we've missed out on - its basically a lovely golden beach which stretches out for miles on either side, with a few decent waves, and no one around. Perfect for sunbathing ;) Although the wind was a bit strong and the sand whipped you pretty bad



When we got back to the cottage, Marc was chatting with John about wildlife and asking where we could see possums. We thought there must be some around as they had been eating food we'd left out. He then got a bit mysterious and said that he'd come and pick us up and about 8:30 and that we may see more than possums!?!?

So around he came at 8:30 and he told us to pick up our drinks and grab a jumper cos we were gonna be a while. He led us back passed the office and we ended up at his cottage. He then told us to take a seat by the fire and watch his "bird" table on the tree, which he then loaded up with bread and strawberries. And we should also watch the trees cos these things jump...

Intrigued we chatted and kept our eyes open, and after about 10 minutes, John spotted the first sugar glider jumping in the trees. It then came down to the table and we got a good look. These things were a bit tentative, but we were soon called over to hand feed them the bread and straws'.


It was soon after that the bushes started rustling again, as the possums decided they wanted a piece of the action. Then we heard a clatter as the possums jumped down from the trees on to the neighbours roof. This guy came out wandering what was going on, and wasn't too impressed that possums were disturbing his peace.



In all we spent about 1hr and a half here, enjoying feeding and watching all these possums and sugar gliders, hoping that Wally the Wombat would join us. He never showed, but it was still great to see these cutesy animals. John told us that was the reason he brought this place 4 years ago - it may cost him $300 a week to feed all the animals (the kookaburras in particular have expensive tastes in steak), but he's enjoyed every minute of trying to tame these animals so that he can now hand feed them. What a nice retirement....

Victoria - Christmas Day

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas morning came and so did "Santa"... Marc put all Ev's presents into a Santa sack and placed it on the wardrobe in the morning so that Ev could have a "traditional" Chrissy ;) When Marc went to the bathroom, Ev put all his presents on the bed for him to see and so the unwrapping began...

Marc got some running shorts, dvd's (in case we got bored), a bracelet, and "The Kop" Liverpool book and a Steven Gerard Autobiography book.

Ev got a photo frame that she pointed out in one of the shops in Melbourne, some green dangley earrings, Finding Nemo dvd (which we thoroughly enjoyed watching), and a friend for Tigeroo (who we got at the Auzzie zoo) we named the new stuffed cat Chrissy - not to mention the "Dolphin experience" from Mornington Peninsular.

Now that we were awake and ready for the day ahead we had a fry up - haven't had many of these recently and boy was it tasty... we tried to contact the family again but now there was no reception :( so we decided to go for a walk along the river bank. This was a good idea as we were so full from brunch that we weren't sure when we'd get started on our feast. As we were walking along the riverbank we saw that there were some big dark grey clouds looming in the distance - perfect timing for us as just as we got to the furthest distance that we were prepared to walk the heavens opened up and the rain came a pouring! Turns out that this was one of the coldest and wettest Christmas' since the 1920's - we have been reassurred that normally it is 30+ degrees with glorious sunshine ;)

When we made it back to the cottage we lit the fire (as it was overcast people wouldn't notice the smoke) cuddled on the sofa and watched Finding Nemo. Around 5ish we decided to get a move on with the feast so Marc started up the BBQ - we were hoping for better weather and maybe a barby on the beach but since it was raining and we didn't have an oven we would have to reheat our cooked chicken and do some roasties on the BBQ. This worked well enough and round 7.30 we started our feast.

Don't think we mentioned that we saw an add in one of the tourist leaflets that if you book into the Kalimna Woods you get a free bottle of Champers with the clipping! Bonus, so we opened that up with our meal and popped some Christmas crackers As we were saying earlier we really bought a lot of food and we were so stuffed from the veg, potatoes and chicken, dessert... not to mention the drinks we had on the go as well.

Victoria - Lakes Entrance (Christmas Eve)

For Christmas, we decided that we'd like to take a break from driving and rest in one place for a few days, hopefully somewhere where we could have a BBQ on the beach, whilst getting a sun tan;) We booked ourselves into a cabin in the Kalimna Woods by Lakes Entrance, which is also the location of 90 mile beach. As the name suggests we were in the middle of the forest, surrounded by wildlife, with lakes and beach only 5 minutes walk away. This place turned out to be great and really relaxing, we were hoping for better weather but it turned out to be a lot like England weather ;(

View over looking Lakes Entrance

Our log cabin is pretty cool, with a fire place (for the evenings only as people see the smoke and think there is a bush fire and call the police - fires have been raging for about 2 months!!), it also has a spa bath in the bedroom and a dvd/vhs player with the telly. There are a few dated videos in reception, so we grab a few which include the Christmas smash hit Die Hard...



The owner, John, showed us around and pointed out the little bellbirds nesting and how he could tell what was going on in the forest by the tone of their calls. There were two nests both with little eggs in them and it was just amazing to see how small they were. They were also about to hatch any day now. By our cabin there was a nest that had two eggs in so we watched it daily to check if they hatched...



Once settled, Marc opened up some of the Christmas goodies he brought in Melbourne. Evelyn knew Marc had brought a few deco's after she said "it didn't feel like Christmas" - we cant be having that now ;) So the Chrissy tunes went on and out came the tinsel, star, Santa koala, napkins, crackers and beads, not forgetting the reindeer we picked up before. So despite not being at home, and Christmas having a slightly weird feeling, we still managed to get in the spirit ;)

We decided it best to do our food shopping for Chrissy and spent a small fortune; we probably should have had lunch before buying all the food! No matter what the weather, we wouldn't go hungry;) We then entertained ourselves by playing some mini-golf, which Ev won 54 vs. 57 :) This was a really cool course as there were several ways to play each hole, and each hole had a different theme...

For dinner we decided to go to the only open place around – The Boathouse. This was quite posh and there was barely a whisper in the place. The food was really nice though.

After filling up we tried to call the family but sadly we didn’t succeed and ended up heading home, and began to watch Die Hard... We then headed to bed at which point we noticed that we weren't going to be alone this Christmas Eve. The ceiling was covered with loads (about 30) little spiders. They weren't moving much but thats not the point, they could still come down and nibble on us - it was at this point that Marc requested to have a night light on :)

Victoria - Morinington Peninsula (Christmas Eve Eve)

We had an early start from Barwon Heads as we weren’t sure if we needed to book a ferry. We headed for the 1st one at 8am, and arrived half hour early to be safe. 3 other cars joined us for the trip ;)

But there was another reason for the early start, which only Marc knew. As we pulled up to the ferry port on Mornington Peninsular, Marc pointed out the Moonraker Dolphin Boat.

This turned out to be a big surprise for Evelyn as Marc had booked it as a ride as an early Christmas present - this was to swim with seals and hopefully dolphins. Although I am sure Marc thought the weather was going to be a bit better, we still had a great time.

On this boat they took us out in the bay and you we got to swim with seals. These creatures are so smelly - they eat, sleep and poop all in the same place - & thankfully with your snorkel mask on you can't smell them. We swam around them for a while and it was quite scary when the big ones jumped into the water with you. They were just as interested in us, and they came up really close and you could almost kiss them if you wanted...








After our chilling swim we headed off to a disused war barracks made of black rocks. This was home to a colony of very rare birds and some other kinds of seals. We then went in search of dolphins :D The boat we were on was in contact with all the other fishing boats in the bay and if dolphins were spotted we would head for them and if we were lucky enough we would be able to swim with them! We all kept an eager eye out to sea and tried to spot them for a good few hours, shivering in our wet suits as we were wet from the water and the chilling breeze didn't help ;( But unfortunately lady luck was not on our side today.



Once we warmed up, we headed up to the view point for some snaps of the bay, and carried on to the maze – there are two mazes in the area, but this one was closer and quicker to do. The maze itself was a bit disappointing and a bit easy (we didn’t get lost and found the centre without any major dramas), but there was also some gardens to wander around and they had some giant games to play – a mini maze in which you can only turn left, and another you had to jump between barrels and make your way to the centre but by only going from red to blue to yellow in that sequence only. You can tell that many an adult has been outsmarted by their kids and more embarrassingly their partner/spouse/friend/relative. Marc won quiet a few of these challenges ;)


View of Mornington Peninsula Bay

We then hit the road again, after being warmed up by the games and headed towards Wilson's Promontory which is a dedicated National Park. We decided we didn’t have enough time to enter the park for walking and sight seeing, so we stopped at a lovely area called Torra about 100km's down the road. This was a really nice stop, and as there was no rain today we opted for the tent again. In fact the sun started shining!!


View from camp - Wilsons Prom in distance

The park had some great facilities – indoor pool & jacuzzi, tv room, cheap pool, arcade games (Marc attempted the shoot-em-up but the gun didn’t aim properly ;) and it also had a good kitchen. There was a nice view point just above the camp site, so we took a walk up through the farmers fields, dodging the lama and the bull, and got a really good view of the ocean and the surrounding fields from up here.



We then headed down to the beach to sit in the bird hide and check out the wildlife. Needless to say we didn’t have the patience to sit and watch birds, so we went for a wander around and saw quite a bit of wildlife anyway.



This was a really nice, peaceful place, and could have also stayed here longer. It was becoming clear we could have done with an extra week to do this trip, and do it a bit more relaxed with a few more gaps between driving. We’re looking forward to Lakes Entrance and we’ve got the Chrissy tunes playing almost constantly in the car ;)

Victoria - Great Ocean Road

One of the draws to Melbourne is it’s “proximity” to the Great Ocean Road. We thought it was close to Melbourne (to the west), so we planned to do this drive and then head over to the Mornington Peninsula for dinner, or even drive back round passed Melbourne (heading east) over towards Lakes Entrance. However, upon further investigation we found the Great Ocean Road is over 100ks from Melbourne and the road itself is about 200ks!!!

So we decided to set out early and picked the car up at 8:30am. Loading up the car was quick and easy, and Marc just popped inside to pick up a cup of tea and toast which Evelyn was getting from the kitchen. After being no more than 2 minutes, Marc came out to find a parking ticket being written. We didn’t know where to park, or not, so were a bit unlucky that we chose one of the only places you couldn’t stop ;(

A bit disheartened at being A$107 light in the wallet, we began our drive, and made it to the start of the Great Ocean Road by 10am. The drive basically follows the ocean and is mostly a coastal drive, with lots of nice views.

We stopped for lunch in the little town of Apollo Bay which is the only town of note along the drive. We found a nice little café so stopped for a pie (standard Aussie lunch). From here we stopped off on a dirt track that leads to a lighthouse, they wanted to charge a bit for entry so we just drove back, also with our time being short we couldn't really spend the 2 hours walking around the lighthouse. On our way along the road we spotted some koalas, they were quite cute, just sitting among the trees, just chilled.

The drive gets a bit more interesting now as we reached the start of the 12 Apostles by walking down the Gibson Steps, these were quite slippery but we managed to get some views of the Apostels from the beach. This was pretty cool and you could really appreciate the sheer largeness of them by looking up.

When we got to the official viewing point for the 12 Apostels it was raining a bit but this only added to the scenery – the rock pillars come out of the ocean having once been attached to the mainland, but due to weatherential erosion the rocks have collapsed, leaving these pillars. There are also blow holes and rock bridges, which are the beginning of “apostles”. Despite the name, there are not 12 anymore (we only counted 11), due to the collapsing of old ones and forming of new apostles, this number changes constantly.

We could have probably done with stopping over here for the night, to explore further up the road, but as the apostles were the main highlight, we decided to begin our drive back towards Melbourne. As the weather was bucketing down, we decided to head towards Queenscliffe and catch the ferry over to Mornington Peninsular in the morning, rather than take the long drive around Melbourne. As it was heavy rain, any ideas of camping to save money, were quickly ruled out, so luckily we managed to get a cabin at Barwon Heads.

The guy here was so friendly and helpful, and he recommended a nice chippy down the road. Nice idea, but it was shut when we arrived (7:30 on a Saturday – go figure!!) so we decided on pizza. This was one of the best pizza's we have had, and timed it just right so arrived by the beach with our takeaway just as the sun was setting ;D

Victoria - Melbourne: 3rd & 4th Day

Today was a big day for footy as Liverpool were playing Arsenal in the cup. This was a 5:30am start, and Marc was fairly keen to make the effort and found another reds fan to watch the game with. However, Marc came to his sences and decided to sleep (and so did the other guy) which was lucky as the game was called off due to bad fog. Hopefully the replay will be at a better time ;)



We decided to do some Christmas shopping, as we didn’t think there would be anywhere else to shop before the big day & considering it’s already the 20th December we better get a move on ;)

After splitting up for a few hours, Marc managed to come back with lots of goodies but Evelyn was still empty handed. We had to get back to the hostel as we were booked onto the Ramsay Street tour. This was more for Marc’s interest than for Evelyn as he has actually watched the series ;) We were hoping to get a tour of the sets as well, but that costs extra, so we were just looked at the houses down Pin Oak Court (Ramsay St) and used our imagination.

With all the fires happening in Victoria it became a bit smoky and misty round Melbourne, as the wind had picked up and blown the smoke in the city direction. The tour guide originally had a view point to show us which over looked the city, but we missed out as all we could see was smoke!!

We drove by a school very slowly and it took a while before people realized that it was “the Lassidass school” and when arriving at "Ramsay Str” we were given the road sign to pose with.



There was this dodgy looking security guard, that we later found out was actually a female! The security guard was hired as people pinched a few souveniers, and the final straw came when a couple decided to get jiggy on Harold's front lawn!! The residents were a bit shocked to find the rustling in the bushes wasn't in fact a possum ;)

After all this excitement we got dropped off at Brunswick Str for some lunch and we had a peak around the shop called "Totally wierd shit", but held little interest for us - it was too wierd.

We headed down to Queen’s Market for the night market which was way better than the day market. There was loads of food stalls and a band playing. Pretty new age stuff being sold. We purchased some oddities and in the Christmas spirit we bought a Rudolf reindeer that you stick on your window – a little something for the car to give us some Christmas cheer.

We headed down to Lygon Street (Little Italy) for dinner. After declining several waiters' offers of free stuff, we finally managed to negotiate a bottle of free Merlot, bruchetta and we got an extra slice of cheesecake for dessert so all we really paid for was our main meal… bonus. It was really nice food as well ;)

Next Day, it was third time lucky as Ev finally managed to buy Marc some presents, she was getting a bit worried. We then headed down to St Kilda beach and what a day to go down there… it was about 35 degrees and stinking hot.

For lunch, we first tried the recommended Hotel Espe, which has character and a real hit with the locals, but it doesnt serve food;) After ages of searching, we managed to find a place for lunch with a fan, which was down the cute little street lined with cafes, bars and craft shops. We then went for a swim in the sea… this was really weird as it was so hot yet the water was freezing.

When we finally made it back to the city we went to Hard Rock Café for dinner and had some really cool cocktails, though the food was pretty poor in that the burger and chips which is normally so good, was a burger in a bun with chips - no garnish or salad, and wasnt too tasty. Disappointing for Hard Rock fans. Still, the cocktails made ammends.

Victoria - Melbourne: 2nd Day

The next day we headed to the Queen’s Market for some brekkie, this place was quite lively with guys shouting out things, we assume prices of the fruits, and it had a real atmosphere going, selling the general tat that markets normally sell. After having our fill of walking around the market we headed on to Federation Square & browsed around the museum before making our way to Southbank for some lunch.

We have discovered a juice chain called Boost where you can chose your fruits and they blend or juice them up, they also have a range of smoothies. Ev has become quiet addicted to them. To help save a few pennies here, Marc entered the spin the wheel comp at brekkie (it was free and you always win) and ended up with a Boost membership card saving us 10% a time ;)

When we stopped off at the info center they told us about a free tram that goes around the city in a loop – wish we knew about this sooner ;) so we hopped on it back to the hostel. We decided to head up the observation deck at Rialto Towers for some views over the city and to catch the sunset. The lift takes only 38 seconds to get up to the 55th floor - ear popping! They had a room booked out for a party & the walls were made of glass so everyone could see what was going on. This was interesting to watch as they all had clearly had loads to drink and soon the karaoke was dragged out.

We got some great views up here, and could see all over the city. We caught sight of the grand prix circuit, which is a normal street around a park, as well as the home of the Auzzie open tennis. A shame our trip was slightly mistimed for us to miss all the sports here. We decided to hang around for sunset, but we got the times wrong and ended up being in the tower for about 2 hours. Quite a long time to walk around in circles. You begin to get dizzy and get a mild case of vertigo ;) For sunset we had some hot chocolate before heading back down to street level.

We went for a wander around and queued (at about 10pm!!) to watch the Wombat Christmas Story being shown at the Myer window display, which was quite cute.

Victoria - Melbourne: 1st Day

Early start for us this morning as we have a 7.30am flight so 5am wakeup :( Marc was obviously not happy about it as he was still suffering…

When leaving Brisbane we got asked by the security what the aerosol can was in our hand luggage – this turned out to be our spray cooking oil! Oops, but the lady was nice enough and let us through... however the "drugs" police stopped us shortly after and did some tests on our luggage & discovered the spray oil :( this guy was not happy & said that if held to a flame it will create a blow torch effect - like we even had a lighter on us! & what about the deo we were carrying? He then asked us which security check we went through, so hopefully the lady didn't get too much of a bollocking. The funny thing was when we later discovered that we actually had Marc's leatherman in our hand luggage too! Surprised they didn't spot that!

We checked into Hotel BakPak (now this was a huge place with 5 floors and a roof terrace) and were quite happy with the room which was clean, though walls were paper thin. After checking out the roof, we went for a walk around town. Melbourne was much bigger that we originally thought but at least it was much cooler here than Bris.

We walked down to the Fitzroy Gardens and saw Captain Cook’s cottage that they shipped over from England and rebuilt. We also had a wander around the Chinese garden before stopping off at the tea garden for a breather and looked at the mini-village that they had there – it’s a replica of Tudor village in Lambeth (our borough in London). There was also a fairy tree, where a children’s book author carved fairies and gnomes into a dead tree stump. This was pretty cool and also painted. Typical us though - we had our tea, then spent about 10 minutes searching for the fairy tree, which turned out to be right next to the cafe ;)

We then headed on past some churches and the beautiful St Patricks Cathedral, before reaching Brunswick Str. This street is well known for its weird & wonderful shops selling allsorts. We soon found a shop that we both liked and wondered round it for a while. They had some really amazing photo albums, but at A$250 it was a bit steep! As we were about to leave the shop Ev spotted some cool ink pens made of glass with a bottle of Indian black ink. When Ev picked it up to have a closer look at the design of the pen, and the ink bottle rolled out of the box and smashed on the floor!! Oops, this was a bit silly of Ev and she told the guy at the counter who hurried to clean it up. Luckily we weren’t charged the absurd amount for it – we did think it was a bit silly having the ink loose in the box with nothing keeping it in place.

We then walked along Lygon Street (known for over 144 Italian restaurants). As it was a little too early for dinner we headed to the library for some blogging. We ended up having dinner in Chinatown. It seems there is a road for every culture, as there is a “quarter” or road for the Arabs, Greeks, Chinese, Italian…

QLD - Last Weekend

The last weekend was also the weekend following Marc's birthday, so we had quite a few things planned for Saturday evening, and covered several of the main Brisbane hot spots...

The night started at Breakfast Creek Hotel, which is something of a Queensland institution. It's renowned for doing the best steaks in Brisbane, and is the only place left which still serves XXXX Gold off the wood (out of a wooden barrel). The 4 of us were joined by Nikki (Sasha's sister) and her friend, and Joel, who we met on holiday in Croatia.

We had our good steaks then headed off to the Casino for a couple of hours to blow a few bucks on roulette. The casino is unlike any you get in the UK, as it is absolutely packed with a fairly young clientele, with a band playing in one room, and lots of big open space. A complete contrast to the often silent, seedy affairs you get back home. It's treated as a more fun night out over here, rather than the serious not-allowed-in-without-membership-and-ID places at home.

We stayed here until about 11ish, then headed off to the Pig & Whistle - a chain of English style pubs - to watch the football, Liverpool vs Charlton, which was won 3-0 by the 'pool. The ladies then headed off home, whilst the boys headed onto the Normanby pub, where we stayed until the early hours. This was a really friendly place, where you literally pull up a chair at any table and people speak to you, have a laugh, and become your best mate over a beer. Again, not something that would happen back home...

We stayed here to the early hours, and at about 4, we thought about going home. But as the sun was dawning shortly, Marc remembered that the Pancake Manor started its breakfast at 5, and as John had already mentioned the Manor (as the girls would be so jealous if we went;) we decided to hold on for a couple more drinks, then head for a Pancake breakfast. This was a great way to finish the night/start the day. Needless to say, neither of us rose until late and we were pretty unproductive for most of the day ;)

Whilst we were recovering, Evelyn took advantage of our last full day in Brisbane and headed into town to buy some souvenirs from the market and have one last wonder around the gardens.


Fig tree


Sweet scented flower

She also did most of the packing, for which Marc was very grateful, though at the time was a bit grumpy from lack of sleep and knowing that we had to be up at 5:30 the next morning for our flight to Melbourne...

QLD - Brisbane: Marc's 30th

Happy 30th birthday!!

After opening up his pressies we headed into town to the Pancake Manor for brekkie. Ev asked the waiter if they do anything for birthdays so when Marc's pancake came out, it came with a sparkler - he looked so embarrassed - bless. Unfortunately the waiter said that we definitely didn't want to hear him sing, so no b-day song ;(

We decided to work off the sweet pancakes with a walk through Chinatown & Brunswick str, this ended up being a longer walk than we had anticipated and with it being so hot, we were really glad when we reached the citi cat to take us to our next destination.

We headed to Indoroopilly Mall for Marc's final pressie, Casino Royale at The Gold Class Cinema - now this is something they should do in England!! You arrive in a swanky lounge where you can order a beer at the bar and relax before the film starts. Whilst relaxing, you can peruse the menu of nachos, pizza, wedges, cheesecake, etc, and decide what you'd like. You place your order at the bar - food or alcohol - giving the time when you think you may become a bit peckish/thirsty and then the waiter will bring this to your seat in the cinema whilst you're watching the film. How cool is this!?! Marc was quick to order one beer now, one in 1/2 hour, and one in the middle of the film, whilst Ev ordered a Baileys for 1/2 time. We decided to go for the standard popcorn as no film is the same without it ;) We were then ushered in the old fashioned way by a guy in a swanky waistcoat and torch.

The cinema only has about 30 seats, all of which are lazy boys, complete with foot rests!! Yep, that's right, they are grouped in twos with a small table between you. Absolute luxury, soon after our drinks arrived and the movie began. Marc had timed his beers perfectly so that when his first was finished his next arrived. The only thing was that Evelyn got the short end of the straw as all the drinks were set on the table from her side so she kept getting the waiter lean across her ;( You don't really notice that anyone else is there, and it is just like being at home (apart from you're not allowed to take your shoes off, which Marc forgot ;) We had an excellent time and will have to do it again before we leave.

Once the movie was finished we headed off to the Regatta to join John & Sasha for a lovely steak dinner. When we got home Marc & John decided to see out the end of the evening and beginning of the morning, by polishing off a bottle of Jim Beam :D and poor John had work the next day!



John & Sasha got Marc a really great pressie as well - 2 tickets for a tour of the XXXX brewery in town with 4 free drinks per person at the end of the tour. Marc and the XXXX have grown quite close since being in Brisbane, so this is quite a fitting present. They also gave him a XXXX t-shirt so when the memory fades (which is getting closer now old age is setting in), Marc still has a souvenir ;)