Sorry it has been a while since i have emailed we didn't have any access in the 10 days that it took to get from sydney to melbourne!! the last few weeks have been pretty busy since leaving sydney. on monday we all loaded into the car and with nothing more than Enrique Iglesias new album for the cd player. we set off (without a map!) to try and find canberra the political capital of australia. we had a rough idea which direction we were meant to be heading in so we went that way and hoped to see some signs (which we did). The car was fully loaded with all our bags and us in, it was riding quite low. After two or three times through the cd, and a stop for food we arrived at canberra where we posted in a couple of good lap times around the city! once we eventually found out where we were meant to be we stopped and started looking round for hostels. We asked in a few different places, but found that we could actually get a nice hotel room for the 5 of us for around 4 bucks more expensive than we could pay to stay in a lovely hostel room, so we decided to do that. We lived in luxury for the night, had a nice chinese and visited a nice little irish bar (o'malleys!) for a couple of cheeky drinks before bed.

We left next morning aiming for a national park named namjee or something like that, but missed it by quite a way (we still didn't have a map!) so we eventually stopped at a garage to see where the next place to go was. after being pulled over by the police for speeding (they are very hot on it out here, but we were let off! :D) We found a nice little town called Jindabyne where there was a lake with several things to do such as watersports, cycling and walking amongst others. We arrived just in time to see england get trounced (again) this time by new zealand (i think they scored 319 or something?!) anyways we didn't stay for all the game thankfully so i didn't get to see them lose again (i was reliably informed by an ozzie fella later on that week!)

next morning we all decided that we were going to stay for another night as we hadn't had time to stay and see much the day we arrived. We rented mountain bikes for 20 bucks, and set off into the tracks around the lake for a days worth of much needed exercise. The tracks were difficult but as we all grew in confidence (and stopped having to carry our bikes!) we started to enjoy it. I am not sure how much we covered but we were out for about 5 hours taking off time to admire the pretty spectacular views from where we stopped to eat (at the top of one of the biggest hills) and then for a quick dip in the lake to cool down from the mid 30 degree heat! (yes mum we did ask if there were any crocks in there before we did it!) The lake (to give you a little bit of information if your interested!?) is man made.They flooded the town which was where the lake now is and rebuilt it all up in the hills. The water from there supplies melbourne with some of its drinking water. you can still see some of the ruins of the old church at the moment as the lake is only at 40% full so that they could finish work on the dam that they are either building or doing work to. The town is in the snowy mountains and is a ski resort in the winter.

Next morning we set off again in the vague direction of melbourne. We decided that we were going to head for the coast so that we could maybe get some new stuff to see other than dusty looking fields with dead trees! on the way we did however see some kangaroos on the way out of the town which was nice. We had seen loads on the sides of the road dead so it was quite nice to actually see some live ones for a change!!! we continued on towards the coast and found a nice little sea side town called lakes entrance. It is a nice little town that could have easily been in england. Everyone seemed pretty friendly, but when shopping for food in the supermarket we tended to get people doing 360 degree turns to look at us once they heard the good old english accent! we stayed in Lakes entrance for a few nights, spending a day on the lovely 90 mile beach playing beach cricket and then another doing a nice wine tasting tour that was recommended to us by one of the locals. That night we actually managed to see engand win a game (against the ozzies of all people) which gave us great pleasure, and obviously merited a drink down the pub :D The next morning we loaded up the car again, and headed on towards Melbourne. On the way we got a little distracted by a little town (i cant remember the name now) that had an island called Raymond Island. This island was a short ferry ride away from the main land, and hosted lots of koala bears running around (well sleeping actually!) we managed to get a few nice pics of all the koala bears in the wild, and had a nice walk around the island which gave us a much needed break from Enrique (god i am sick of that cd!) anyways, we didn't stop for long so once we were fed up with sleeping koala bears we loaded back into the car and headed for Sale, a small town with not much in but a bed for the night. We all got up fairly early in the morning with the intention of heading to Melbourne only to get into a conversation with a nice irish fella who told us that we simply could not miss wilsons promontory, so we detoured slightly again! after another few hundred k we arrived at wilsons prom (a massive national park on the southern most tip of Australia. We were told all the rules on entrance, and paid for our stay in advance. It took us a further 60k to get to our destination from there only to find that there were no kitchen facilities! luckily we had previously bought a little stove, and a pan so we were no reliant on these bits to get the 5 of us through the next few days! We managed pretty well with the best meal being chicken curry with rice..impressive aye! :D We lasted out the full 3 nights spending time on the beach playing beach cricket (to make a change!!), and walking in the hills. We didn't see much in the way of nature, but we did get some good pics of a kookaburra and had the happy experince of sharing the toilet late one night with a huntsman the size of my fist! It was a fairly family orientated park with lots to do including an open air cinema. We went one night to pass the evening and ended up watching flushed from the makers of shrek which turned out to be pretty funny. After a few wild nights along the same vein (including one where we all sat in the car listening to the cricket....England actually won...again.....amazing!!) we decided that we might actually finally head for melbourne (and get there) so we loaded up on thursday morning and actually drove to the city we had aimed for over 10 days ago! Finally, Thursday afternoon we arrived in St.Kilda which is meant to be the central type place for backpackers to stay. We had a look around when we arrived and a few of us opened up ozzie bank accounts in preperation for having a bit of money coming into the account for a change. That evening we settled into our hostel and once again unpacked our stuff, this time into an 8 bed dorm. With information about a bar doing pints for $2 we had a bit of food and donned our best clothes (with one pair of jeans, one pair of shoes and 4 t-shirts to pick from this doesn't take long!) and hit the bar for a much needed drink...as is always the case when cheap drink is on offer it got unintentionally messy..the "just a few drinks, then bed" went a little wrong! A slight problem considering we were meant to be up to go and watch what turned out to be one of the best games England had ever played at the MCG! That morning we all dragged ourselves out of bed, a little tired and feeling the effects from the night before. We made a stack loads of sandwiches, fruit, biscuits etc to take to the cricket and loaded onto the tram towards the MCG. We arrived in good time (even though we had little idea where we were going!) and took our seats 6 or so rows from the front, square on to the wicket. The ground is huge, and i think one of the nicest that i have been to. There was not many people in attendance, but this gradually grew to not even half fill the stadium. This was a shame, but with not many english supporters around anyway i suspect this would have just increased the ozzie majority to make the abuse that we were getting (all game) even loader! It was a fantastic game with occasions where we thought that england had well and truely screwed up all hope of getting close....oz were 170-1 then 250-10, then england were 15-3 in response only to go and win with 3 balls to spare. Collingwood was amazing, and with Glen mcgrath dropping bell right in front of us to take us to 40 odd for 4 we got to give a little abuse back! when we finally won all the ozzies around us got a massive chorus of "your not singing anymore!" and a few other classic english chants (most of which they had been singing at us replacing the word "england" for "ozzie" or something similar...imaginative!) We were on a definite high after the game, and got loads of pictures. We also managed to get one with the leader of the barmy army (attends all the games in white jeans, white St.georges top and big St.george flag) which was cool. Anyways, that is about enough from me i think for the time being. Yesterday i spent around 10 hours sitting in the same chair glued to the cricket to be once again repaid as england won the commonwealth series 2-0. The ozzies were clearly gutted...shame, but we were all very pleased.. today, i am applying for several programming jobs in the hopes that i can spend a few months working to replenish the funds before hitting Perth, Cairns and the east coast before flying out to nz in July. I will be posting pictures from the whole trip, including the promised fancy dress ones from our mates birthday quite some time ago now. We are also planning on attending the obligitory Neighbours night to meet some of the "stars" of the show!! should be quite a laugh with a picture with Harold a must!!