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Hi there!
We have spent the last few days in Melbourne, staying with relatives of Jo's (Joe and Julie Morris) which has been fantastic! They have thoroughly looked after us and made us feel so welcome. We were very grateful to be picked up from the bus station after our 13hour journey, which completed our 4000km in total of coach trips down the coast. No more buses!! To be fair though, the Greyhound pass has been fantastic, we got to go everywhere we wanted to and it was cheap too!
On our first day in Melbourne we spent the morning catching up on sleep and emails etc, taking advantage of the free internet as Joe and Julie had offered. After lunch 2 of their kids, Anthony and Ruth, took us to Ramsey Street (home of Neighbours!)...Jo in particular was so excited! We couldn't actually go up the street though because they were filming but that was so cool - Karl Kennedy and Harold Bishop waved at us, and we saw Susan! We hung around watching for a while and took a few photos like big losers, it was fun though. The street looked so much smaller! That evening we had a big family dinner with Joe and Julie, their children plus partners/children and a close family friend which was really nice, good food and good company.
We spent the next day exploring the city: we went to a Pixar exhibition, all about how the films are made from character design to storyboards and animation. It was really interesting, particularly watching the Zoetrope which spins around models each in a slightly different postion to give the appearance of movement. The exhibition was located in Federation Square, a new development located in the heart of the city which we had a quick look round before heading off to find some lunch. By the time we got to the Queen Victoria Market after lunch they were already starting to close despite it only being 2pm, however, we still got a good idea of how busy it could be on weekends! We walked down to the Rialto Tower where we ascended to the 55th floor observation deck from where we could see all of Melbourne and out into the bay. We walked along the South Bank of the Yarra River stopping off at the Melbourne Aquarium which was pretty good before heading to Young and Jackson, a famous pub, where we joined in the tradition of drinking to Chloe, a nude woman in a painting there!
Anthony and his girlfriend Mel took us took the MCG on friday where we went on a tour - a highlight of Melbourne for David. It was pretty impressive, seating 100,000, but Jo didnt enjoy it quite as much as the Telstra stadium...she hadnt realised the tour would focus quite so much on cricket! We also had a bit of a strange tour giude who kept telling the group the reason she was running late was because we were all walking too slowly! Not true at all, she just kept getting carried away about Bill Ponsford whose picture were everywhere, she LOVED cricket. After some lunch courtesy of Joe and Julie's other son, Tim, at the Lexus Centre - training ground of the Collingwood Magpies AFL team, we got to have a quick look at the gym and pool there, but the players training at the time did not seem too impressed with the invasion! Then we headed upto Brunswick Street which is where lots of boutiques, bars and coffee places are located.
That evening we were taken to an AFL game at the Telstra Stadium - Western Bulldogs vs West Coast Eagles, and the Bulldogs, a Melbourne team, got thrashed by almost 100 points! We enjoyed it though, it was so different to any game in England, at first it just looked a bit messy but we soon got into it. it was very long though, we were there for 3 hours and so were very glad that we had seats unlike at the rugby. The roof of the stadium was closed which we liked as it added to the atmosphere. After the game we went for a couple of drinks on Brunswick Street and finally got to bed at 2am, and we had to get up at 5.30am the next day ready for our flight!!
We really had fun in Melbourne and loved being so well looked after by the entire Morris family! Now it's off to New Zealand to stay with Dave's Uncle Graham and family where we are sure the fun will continue. We feel like we are on our way home now, having only 2 and a half weeks left! Looking forward to seeing everyone when we return. Hope you are all well for now.
Lots of love, Joanne and David xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
SEE YOU LATER AUSTRALIA! It's been fun :-)
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