The Great Ocean Road

We packed our bags as well as the car and off we went to the Great Ocean Road. Our first stop was surf mad Torquay. Here we visited "SurfWorld" the surf museum with all the history of the boards over the years. Also we saw the best surfers over the ages and watched the Billabong movie on riding the biggest wave ever. Really cool.
We headed to danger point for a spot of lunch and then headed to the famous Bells Beach, where all the cool surfers go to catch the best waves. Its also where the Rip Curl Pro surfing competition is held every year.
We drove through Anglesea and made our next stop at Aireys Inlet where we walked around split point Light house. This is the light house from the children's TV show Around the Twist. (Aussie show). We drove to Lorne to spend the night, as it was starting to dark.
Got a room in our first backpackers hostel. It looked really nice set with the forest all around us. We got our room key and tried to find our room. Hannah was scared to death by a huge what we thought was a parrot but found our later its a cockatoo. It came flying out of the trees, landing outside our room and started squawking at us, that is until I said "where's Polly" and it flew away. The room was nice and clean, until we came back from having dinner. We found a huge spider in our room. So as a team Hannah and I caught it and through it out the door.

Boring jobs/admin day

Today we headed into the city with a long list of boring things that needed to be done. So we went to our second home the Melbourne tourist info office to find out where the places were. We started off by sorting out our medical card. Then went to immigration to get our passports stamped for our visas (my god the queue was long, had to wait for about an hour watching the flying doctors on the TV provided).
We bought our sim cards to set us up. (If you have not got the numbers yet email us and we'll email the back. Can't put them on this blog). Set up our Aussie bank account, our bank adviser was from Chesterfield. Moved 7 years ago, small world.
We then went for a hot choc and decided to share a bit of cake. Glad we were sharing, as the lady cut a huge piece(half the cake) and had handed to me.
At home dried our washing and after the long day, put our feet up in preparation for tomorrow.

Healesville Sanctuary

Headed out of Melbourne to the Healesville Sanctuary north of Melbourne. It took 1 1/2 hour to get there. We followed the road through lots of Vineyards along the way. When we got there we saw lots of Koalas, Kangaroo's, Dingo's, Emus, Wallabies, Wombats and snakes.

We went to the sanctuary's hospital a saw a wombat having a check up for his broken leg. Poor little mite. He was hit by a car, but hes well on his way to recovery.

The high of the day was, by far, watching cute Koala's sitting in the trees only meters away and getting to stroke one at feeding time. Got loads of photos and a bit of video. Had a great time.

Get fit in Melbourne

Today we went in search of some trainers, a jumper and a scarf to keep Hannah warm. We still don't have any electricity this morning maybe some good news to come. We found a really nice place for lunch that does amazing chocolate milk shakes. We headed into the city where we bought some trainers and spent the rest of the day wondering around. Then headed home to the great news that at long last we had electricity, which means we now have lights, TV and hair dryers and straighteners for Hannah. We celebrated by doing some washing and watching TV.

Still in the dark

Its Tuesday afternoon now. Things we've done since Thursday having no power are; took Scott to the airport and didn't get lost, had a meal in Melbourne's China town in The Dragon Boat(nice but nothing to shout about). Took the Melbourne City loop free tram and learnt about the sites of the city. Watched Shriek the Third at the Village Crown cinema in the city. We recommend you go and see it. It's really funny, we had a man laughing all the way through really loud.

Sunday we just walked around the city and stop off in a Vietnamese restaurant. We had a really nice but really cheap meal.

Monday we went to the Melbourne museum. They are hosting the Great Wall of China exhibition. We spent over 4 1/2 hours in the museum. We travelled through time from the start of the battling times of the wall through to the present day. It was really interesting to find out why it was built. Then went to the human body section (not Neil's favorite section), then under the water and Aboriginal section. Great fun playing with all the try science bits.

Then to finish our day took Hannah to the Melbourne Hard Rock cafe for dinner. Then came home to still no power to the house. We have not had power since Thursday, the day we moved in. Still loving it :-)

Powerhouse

Got up really early today to move Scott's stuff to the new house. Nice warmer than the other. Moved a few things around to make it feel like home. Then popped out for lunch and when we got back the house had no power. Called the power company who said the power will not be on until tomorrow. The day Scott leaves for the UK. So as always we just grinned and beared it by getting ready and having some pots of Calton draught in the city with Scott. (thats beers to you and me). Hannah had to put her make-up on in the car as this is the only place with some light. (the car was parked on the driveway).

Work for a curry

Today we got Scott's house ready for moving tomorrow. Hannah and I cleaned the blinds in the whole house, empited cupboards, cleaned the bathroom. As Scott was at work and couldn't get time off before he moved. We packed up all our stuff and washed for dinner. The only problem was that we had packed all the plates and cutlery into boxes, So Scott said as payment for our days work he's buying us all curry. Deal!

Booked flights to Tasmania, we're going 26/06/07 until 03/06/07. So spending Neil's Birthday in Tasmania this year.

We've seen Nemo

We've been to Australia's largest Southern water Aquarium, Melbourne Aquarium. Its fantastic! We saw Sharks, Sting rays, turtles, baby sharks, funnel web spinders, red back spinders. We Went in the fish bowl glass obveratory and had fish, sharks, driver and other under water creatures swimming alround us. This is where we found out not to eat Flake (Shark) as Aussie eat a lot of it. Had a great day. We were in there for about 3 hours.

We have been having problems sleeping at night, so Hannah decided we needed to swop sides of the bed, as we were on the other side of the world. It worked Hannah had the best nights sleep since we got here. Sounds silly but true.

Thanks for all the comments so far

Thanks again to everyone reading this and leaving us comments. But so we know who is reading our blog, just drop us an email or leave a comment on the blog. Its good to hear from you and what your upto.

Try new things

Monday morning, got up, had a shower, shave. Had my breakfast and put on my suit on, then ran for my bus to work, "I'm late again". Got to the bus stop and realised I'm in OZ. (he he) No really chilled out after a great weekend. Didn't really do anything today apart from checking the Blog and updating it a little. Then we went out for dinner again.

We had a great English dish, Fish and chips. Found out later that the nice tasty fish was Flake. For all of you that don't know, as we didn't Flake is Shark. Tasted great.

Soccer and a barbie with the Aussies

Today we have been asked to play soccer with Scott and his friends. We went to Albert Park, where the Formula 1 race track is and you can actually drive on the track. Scott out dressed us all as his friend's call him "hoops" on a Sunday. With his big baggy shorts, sleeveless T- shirt and head sweat band.
After that the Irish bloke thats leaving had a barbie round at his. He had a great place and one of his friends kept saying it looked like a "show home", its only rented. So our first Aussie BBQ done by a great Irish bloke. We also visited the "Elephant and wheel barrow" pub. The were the cast of neighbours drink, but didn't see any of them. As Hannah said we're such tourists!!

Went for a walk on Melbourne beach

Had a lie in today, Hannah was feeling a bit poorly today, but it wasn't anything to do with the beer, she was only 1/2 pints (or pots as they are out here) all night. She did have some doggy food for dinner last yesterday, a huge prawn on toast. Hannah, Scott and i went out for brunch and then walked along St. Kilda beach. Really nice a bit cold but we still had a drink by the beach. We walked along the pier and saw loads of starfish, some were huge with about 11 arms.Got some really good photos of us and the area.
At home Scott cooked for us(he's a Veggie, not meat in the house). So i had my first full veggie not meat meal and eat it all. Still would have loved some steak or something. Then stayed up drinking Scott's home brew and chatting. Then found that mine and Hannah's beer was off. Well, we've never had home brew before, I thought it was surposed to taste like that. The others were better.

Night out in Melbourne

Friday morning, chilled out, Hannah was up about 05:30, but stayed in bed until Scott went to work, then she fell back to sleep (I was still out cold). We just relaxed and sorted out some stuff. Then about 15:00 went to Melbourne on the train to meet Scott from work. We walked around the city not really having a clue where to go. Then phoned Scott to ask where he worked and walked to his building on the corned of Collins street and King street (they have some fantastic names out here).
Then we meet Scott and we were meeting his friends from work in a "real" Aussie bar, not, we went to an Irish bar for a Irishman's leaving do. We had a great time meeting Scott's English, Irish and Ausie's friends. They were really nice, they started chatting to us and the beers flowed. Got home about 01:30.

1st day in Australia

We landed in Melbourne airport at about 6am, very tried. We went through immigration and they asked us, where we were staying tonight? The man was not impressed when we told him we didn't know the address. We just said that we were staying Hannah brother but he's moving house soon, so we didn't know. We went through customs and had to declare a box of Jaffa Cakes ( a gift for Scott, Hannah's brother). In Oz you have to declare everything.
It only took about 20-30 minutes to get off the plane and get outside. We looked for Scott as he was meeting us at the airport, we couldn't see him, so we grabbed a drink and Hannah got grabbed by a woman with a questionnaire. Nice Aussie lady, after she wished us well on our Aussie travels.
We went outside and it was just like the UK, a bit wet looking and windy, then Scott found us he walked past us, at first they reconise each other (I've never met Scott, Hannah and I got together after he left for Oz). Its been ages since they had seen each other (about 3-4 years). Went back to Scott's house, he went to work and we slept for about 4 hours. After that we got up and watched a bit of telly. The house was a bit cold so we got the duvet, fatal mistake, we slept again. I was the first to go, then Hannah fell asleep too. We were totally shattered. We went out for Thai that night and we thought we wouldn't sleep, but we had not problem sleeping. Not too exciting today, but we enjoyed it.

14 hour flight to Melbourne

So got up early for breakfast, went down to eat and check out. A bit of confusion as the breakfast opened at 06:30 it was 06:35 and it was closed. We asked the reception if breakfast was opening today and they said, very nicely, yes it will be open in 15mins at 06:30. I looked at my watch 06:36, looked at the receptionist and went to sit down. 5 minutes later another receptionist asked us to go have breakfast and come back after to check out. All very confusing this early in the morning.
Got a free hotel shuttle bus to the airport, arriving early, well too early. We had nothing to do but chill out, shop and wait until we boarded the plane. A silly woman tried to board the plane but she kept setting an alarm off, instead of waiting for the doors to open. We had 2 seats on our own, so no snoring fat men, this time.
The flight was fine, just a little long, we tried to sleep, but didn't get much. Hannah got about 2 hours on and off throughout the 14 hours, I got about an hour. The food was good, but Hannah didn't eat the hairy beef (it was the hair from the cow).
The man in front of Hannah kept putting his seat up and down throughout the flight. So when Hannah would finally get comfy, he would jam his seat into her legs. The flight attendant had to ask him to put his seat up straight when the food came around as her dinner would have been squashed up against her. Hannah has decided the next time we fly such a long journey she is going to fly 1st class or get drunk!! ( So we have to save some pennies).
Hannah loved, the front and "under the plane" video cameras coz we could watch as we came in to land.

Emirates Mall

Today didn't know what to do. We were planning on going to the water park, but felt a bit tired so we just chilled out on the rooftop pool of our hotel. About 2pm we'd had enough of sun bathing and it was a bit cloudy, but still really hot.
We decided to shower and go to the Emirates shopping mall. We were told its the biggest and best, plus the worlds largest indoor ski centre is there(with "real" snow, check it out at www.skidxb.com). We decided not to ski as the slopes are only 400m long. So we sat and had dinner, while watching people ski down(well some were just falling down).
We then did some window shopping. They have every shop you came think of and even more. Next, River Island, Debenhams, plus Porche, DKNY and loads of shops you need 10 Platinum cards in your wallet to just get through their doors. Its about 6 or 7 times bigger than Meadow Hall in Sheffield and about 3 or 4 times bigger than The Trafford Centre in Manchester. So loads and loads of shops.
We'd had enough, so decided to grab a taxi and go home. It took about 1hour and half as the Traffic was unbelievable. So many cars in 6 lines of traffic. The traffic was crazy, but not only that the drivers are too. The taxi driver said to Hannah you have to be a little crazy to driver here so her mum would fit in perfect.(Ha..ha..). Only joking sue. The 1 hour and half journey only cost about £7 though. Another bargain. Off to Oz tomorrow.