G'DAY FROM 'STRALIA!

MELBOURNE

Well..we arrived on the 20th, flight went ok, our hostel is really nice and clean and we even got free towels when we checked in..PARADISE! we met up with Mark and little Phil (you may remember them form LA!?) was nice to catch up with them!

We've done quite alot since we got here. The first couple of days the weather was really good so we went to the beach in St.Kilda, lovers! The 12th Fina swimming world championships are on here at the moment so we got to see the open water event when we were at the beach, lots of guys in speedos! we weren't looking though of course!!

We did a tour of the Great Ocean Road on Friday, it was very spectacular and we're glad we did it but it was a VERY long day with the worst bus driver ever! he did not stop talking (he has the worst drone of a voice!) the whole way, we left 07:30 and didn't get back until gone 22:30! When we got back to the hostel we met up with a couple of guys we met the previous night, one of which just happens to be the owner of the hostel!! they took us out to this very posh club where we were treated like VIPs all night and didn't spend a penny! VERY cool! I think he may be sorting us out with free accomodation for the rest of the week aswell..its who you know eh!!

On Saturday we went to Philip Island, we contemplated not getting out of bed as we were really tired from the day/night before but after being told we couldn't rearrange it we battled on through and got ready to go! It turned out to be a really good day! We stopped off at a couple of beaches and also at a wildlife sanctuary where we got to feed kangaroos, we wre very excited by this! We sat on the beach in the evening and watched all the penguins come up the shore for the night..it was hilarious! there were millions of them all falling over each other!

Sunday we decided to go and look around the town..we ended up walking a marathon! we did a bit of shopping for some essential items such as a phone charger for Soph who managed to leave hers in NZ, an ipod charger to share as our one has broken and some knickers as we seem to only have a couple of pairs left! On the way back we got VERY lost and ended up walking for about an hour in the wrong direction along the river! it was quite a nice walk though so i suppose it didnt really matter! When we got back we were starving and got a phone call at just the right time!! The guys from the other night phoned us and took us out for a steak dinner at a restaurant in the casino! We've defs hit jackpot! Soph ended up 'accidently' eating one of the guys massive steaks as she thought it was hers!! oopsy!

Monday evening we went to Neighbours night! This is supposedly the 'Best night you'll have in Australia!' We were so excited about meeting Toadie and Boyd however when we got there we were told that the stars couldn't make it! we were so upset! we still got to see Karl Kennedy's band though..very funny!
Today we went on the Neighbours tour..we're such tourists! We went to Erinsborough High, the set and then Ramsey Street which was tiny! We met Darcy who offered out his autograph to everyone..no one really jumped at the chance and so to make him feel a bit better we ran up and acted really excited for him!! hehe..poor Darcy!

We were hoping to leave Melbourne today and start heading up to Sydney but the buses are all full until the 1st! Doesn't matter too much as we're getting free accomodation and Allie and Leah are coming tomorrow so that should be good! We're loving Oz so far and looking forward to making our way up the east coast! Until next time.... BIG love, Soph and Al x x x x

 Well guys i think we owe you all an apology as we haven't written you any of our stories in quite some time so; We're very sorry! It's hard to find the time to sit at a computer when the sun is shining, theres beautiful beaches to hit and aLOT of fun to be had! We havent forgotten about you all though so as its raining for the first time today we thought we'd give this a go!

So Melbourne..We ended up having an amazing last few days there. Allie and Leah came down to see us, it was wicked to be reunited with them! Frank Fishenden did a semester at Melbourne uni last year so we met up with his friends for the rest of the time, they were all so much fun! They gave us a free personal tour of the city and we hit a few uni parties with them! It was good to see a different side of things other than the touristy one!Lots of fun was had!Had an early bus out of Melbourne to start our 3 day journey up to Sydney..haven't seen 6:00am in a long time!!The bus journey was ok..We were both getting pretty ill by this point, just very run down, losing our voices and getting colds so we decided to take it easy for the trip to Sydney! It involved much needed early nights and no alcohol and it did us the world of good! ALong the way we stopped at a few cool places, went on a 10km walk to a pretty lake and just had a bit of time to chill!