Road Trip

It's been a while...

It's been a busy week and a half or so with limited WiFi opportunities so this is the first time I've had the resources to actually write one of these - I can barely remember what's happened.

Okay, so I last signed off after the St Kilda Festival - jheez that seems like ages ago. Since then I've done far too much to go into everything in detail so I will be doing some skimming, apologies.

The week after that was generally pretty chilled and laid back. For the first time since I'd been in Melbourne the weather was starting to show its true colours after a week full of sun. With the standard 'four seasons in a day' kind of weather really starting to live up to it's name. On the whole though, minus the odd thunderstorm and overcast day it was the standard 30ish heat so no complaints.

After spending 4 hours in a classroom obtaining my Responsible Service of Alcohol License, which was tedious to say the least when you have a ridiculously basic 20 question multiple choice paper to complete to gain the licence itself - especially as I could have answered all the questions before taking the course anyway. But its out the way now and means that if I want to work somewhere that serves alcohol, it's now a bit easier. (It's compulsory to have an RSA licence to work in bars/restaurants in Australia)

Then followed a couple of exploration days with some guys from the hostel who had spent too much time at the beach to actually see the city so I took the role of tour guide and saw a few bits that I hadn't seen myself so there's always a bright side.

Then followed a cricket based few days (shock!) which started with a free warm-up game at the MCG for Australia V United Arab Emirates which was probably a bit of foreshadowing for the England game in hindsight with Australia thrashing the UAE. This was followed by another free event at the Sidney Myer Music Bowel which was reasonably impressive in itself. The World Cup Opening Ceremony itself wasn't as great as it could have been but was an event I can say I've now been too.

Friday saw my Welsh friend Kelly go home and surprise her family in Swansea so we thought we'd treat ourselves to the tallest building in Melbourne before she left which was an experience similar to the Shard. She was also ridiculously scared of heights which made the experience a little funnier as well. They also had 'The Edge' - a 3 metre glass box that extends out of the building, I wasn't too much of a fan but again, I can say I've done it. Friday also saw my first ever trip to a casino, I absolutely loved it but there's no need to go into much detail about that...

Then the World Cup started in a non-spectacular fashion from an English point of view with us getting thrashed by Australia in front of 90,000 Aussie's at the MCG but it was still a great experience and atmosphere and a great day out.

Wow, not as much skimming as I expected to do there... Well done if you've managed to read this far I haven't even started the road trip yet...

Sunday saw the start of the road trip. Becca and Emily had already left on Thursday to do the famous Great Ocean Road (Definitely Google it - its worth it) and because of the England game I arranged to meet them at the other end via train as they then worked their way back along it (I don't think that makes sense - I'm tired, sorry!). Andy would love this place, it's full of stacks and arches and various coastal landforms that saw my Geography A-level come out in force and follow in my uncles footsteps of explaining every kind of landform and how they occur etc.

The following day saw us catch the ferry over the (river? Sea? Not too sure, maybe a bay??) and a short drive to Phillip Island which was amazing. More coastal landforms were seen and explained and pictured, followed by a koala conservation which was ridiculously cute, then followed by a trip to a chocolate factory - no words are needed here, it's a bloody chocolate factory.

That evening was perhaps THE greatest thing I have ever seen. Every day at sunset on Phillip Island over 600 (apparently over 1000 in Winter) of the World's smallest penguins come back from the sea after a day's hunting and waddle up the beach to their nests for the night. If anybody can name anything better than 600 penguins struggling to get up a hill for a couple of hours you win, it was awesome and I genuinely can't think of a better way to spend an evening. Unfortunately camera's aren't allowed because they hurt they penguins eyes so this one will just have to stay in my head unfortunately (or Google).

Tuesday saw a fair bit of driving after playing with the kangaroo's at a nearby conservation park and we headed to some hot springs for some relaxation. Who'd have thought that 3 hours sitting in 40 degree pools would make you so much more tired than before you went it??

Tuesday was followed by a nice day at Melbourne Zoo with the girl's friend Becky and the last day of the car was an hour's drive to a kids dream. A maze, mini golf, frisbee golf and games all in one place it would be stupid not to go.

DONE!

Sorry for rambling on so much, again, well done if you made it this far. I'll make sure to not leave blog entries this far apart in the future and will try and get back into the routine of 1 a week again.

As usual all pictures will be up on Facebook and I hope you are all well.

Until next time

Melbourne

I bloody love Melbourne.

With a 5am flight from Perth I decided to use the airport as my bedroom for the night, which meant spending my time getting lost and finding myself in all three of the airport's terminals thanks to a mixture of getting lost and closure's etc. I managed to find the time to skype and relax for a bit though so it's not all bad, also meant that the whole 4 hours were spent sleeping in the classic aeroplane positions which were ridiculously uncomfortable even with the three seats that I had to myself.

The first three days here were straight up exploring and being a massive tourist, seeing the botanic garden's which were awesome and a really nice day of doing nothing with a book which is a nice way to settle in.

Melbourne is perfect for me, in that all of the sports stadiums are within a stone's through of each other - almost literally. 5 minutes away from my hostel is the tennis (which has spent all week being dismantled after last weeks Australian open) with the massive Rod Laver arena. 2 minutes on from that is the 100,000 seater Melbourne Cricket Ground which I have obviously had a tour of already. The MCG is also home to the sports museum where I managed to spend over 3 and a half hours somehow - it's essentially my idea of heaven in there. Another couple of minutes away is Melbourne City's football ground which looks more like the Eden Project than a football stadium, but I'm a fan of it somehow.

I don't know what's wrong with me but I've also had a walking tour since I've been here. As in I had the option to get a bus but I decided to walk... Weird. I really enjoyed it to be fair though, despite it being a solid 4 hours, it was interesting and had the right amount of info which is definitely what I look for in a tour in a weird way.

That evening was spent getting to know my room mates and led to a beach day the following the day. I burned. A lot. A hint of advice to anyone heading to a beach in the 35 degree heat... sun cream. I'll say no more on the matter out of embarrassment. Also had a jelly fish swim pretty close to my leg which I might claim as a near death experience??? (Kind of)

Saturday was cricket once again and managed to get introduced to all the players and fans (40 odd people somehow) there, including an England U19's international playing for Nottinghamshire and Paul Franks who has an England cap to his name which was pretty surreal - especially when they gave me a lift home. Was also told that Alex Hales and James Taylor have both spent seasons playing over there as well. They out 8 sides out every weekend so it looks like I'm gunna have a run out for them on the last couple of days of their seasons which could be interesting...

That evening the Melbourne derby was being played (Melbourne Victory Vs Melbourne City) so I obviously couldn't say no to going there. Atmosphere was impressive and the attendance was 40,000+ and with Victory winning 3-0 the pyro came out which was all good fun.

Finally was the St Kilda festival which was unbelievable. St Kilda is a coastal town and holds a yearly festival for 5 days right on the sea front. I'd never heard of any of the acts but the headliner was a DJ called Hot Tub Time Machine, which was unbelievably good. He essentially went back in time to 1954 and played the best song of each year up till 2015 and I can honestly say it was one of the best hours of my life. I strongly recommend youtubing him or seeing if you can, I loved it.

Anyway, enough rambling for this week. All picture's are now on Facebook. I hope all is well + happy birthday to half of my family for this week!

Lot's of love X

Au Revoir Perth

This week I visited an Island named after Penguins - there is genuinely no way whatsoever that this could end badly.

Penguin Island was by far the highlight of the trip so far. Located off the town of Rockingham, 45 minutes south of Perth, Penguin Island is home to Sea Lions, Dolphins, Birds, Lizards, and of course, Penguins - the smallest kind of penguin in the world I might add.

After having to wake up at 7 (ouch), I was picked up along with 13 others and taken to the picturesque Rockingham, weather was perfect at 38 degrees and there were barely any waves whatsoever which is always good when you're kayaking. After a quick meet and greet we paired up in the 2 man kayaks and went dolphin spotting. Apparently this is usually pretty difficult but we got lucky and met a mother and child after a couple of minutes, so I decided to get my money's worth out of my GoPro...

After another kilometre of kayaking (they use kilometres here and its confusing) we headed past another small island that housed tens of sea lions. We were told that usually they are pretty curious and tend to cause a bit of a splash but today they fancied lying in the sun and played dead - still cute though and we got pretty close so not a problem. I did try and get pictures but I was a bit too shaky and it came out crap.

Penguin Island itself was pretty stunning and ridiculously interesting - shout out to Alfie from Guernsey, our tour guide who knew everything and was a decent laugh - and gave you panoramic views for miles (miles not kilometres). After a really interesting tour and a few tourist pictures (hence the failed attempt of me trying to kiss the rock that looks like a dog) we had a penguin talk from the keepers on the island and watched them get fed - again, standard tourist. 

In the afternoon we had some free time and so I took the opportunity to go snorkelling for the first time in my life... Loved it. After the initial 10 minutes of struggling to understand how you can even breathe underwater without dying it was relatively easy and really enjoyable, will definitely be doing it again soon.

 After a fantastic day out and about I went back to my standard exploring and cricket for the rest of the week. After watching England narrowly beat India on Friday I got the luxury of watching us getting demolished by Australia 2 days later, lovely. Both games where interesting due to the fact I was essentially the sole English fan at both games, surrounded by 5,000 and 10,000 opposition fans respectively. Got given a lot of hefty looks, especially at the Australia game which created a decent atmosphere and a decent day out.

I leave you with two pictures, the first a firework shot from Australia day on Monday because everyone loves some fireworks. The second was the sunset of the city skyline on my last day in Perth on my way back home - stunning.

I am about to upload 100 odd photo's from Perth onto Facebook as I clear memory on my phone etc for the sights that I will soon see in Melbourne.

Hope you're all well! X