Sunday 22nd January - Melbourne

So yesterday we arrived in Melbourne. Gaz drove us safely to the hotel which is located just over the bridge from the Southbank...a great location! We went for a stroll over to the southbank - as gaz has spent some time in melbourne on his travels in the past, he remembered that the southbank was where all the cafes are that overlook the river. We stopped at a nice cafe and had breakfast before walking back over the bridge and taking a look at flinders street station - the oldest train station in australia. Melbourne is really busy at the moment with the tennis grand open and also a poker tournament in the casino. Melbourne has a free tourist shuttle bus that gives you a guided tour of melbourne. A bus arrives every half hour and we werent waiting long before the next bus appeared. It was very busy on board but we managed to get seats at the back of the bus. We got shown around melbourne cricket ground, all around the botanical gardens, over to the docklands etc etc. It was very informative. After we hopped off, we went to the melbourne aquarium. It was very disappointing inside. The penguin tank was over crowded and they looked very depressed. Kids were EVERYWHERE and overly excited - it was very noisy and took ages to get to the front of each tank to get to see the fish. The aquarium is at present promoting a pirate theme of sharks swimming around sunken pirate ships...it was very disappointing to see a small shark tank with a treasure chest in it - the sunken ship was outside in the river with MELBOURNE AQUARIUM written in big writing. It didnt take us long to get around it all - i must say, sydney aquarium was 10 times better! We were glad to be out in the air, away from the screaming kids. The sun was shining so we went for a drink in a bar and had some food. In the evening we went to chinatown. It was good fun walking down the street and seeing all the different chinese restaurants. It was packed! At one point we all jumpe dout of our skin as loud bangs appeared down one of the alley ways. It was firecrackers that had been set off to get peoples attention. 2 people were dressed inside a chinese dragon and dancing around to drums. It was very entertaining and attracted quite an audience. Dad chose the chinese restaurant to eat in and it was a great choice. This was a family run restaurant and looked small front he inside but they took us inside and up the stairs to another eating area. the food was amazing! the best we have had out here on this trip!

This morning we had a lye in and met mum and dad downstairs at 10am. We went back over to the southbank for breakfast. We took a taxi to st kilda to have a look at the outskirts of melbourne by the beach. It was very hot (around 31 degrees) and it was well worth a cold drink in a cafe overlooking the beach. The beach we were sat at was a designated dog beach so there were dogs everywhere playing in the water, rolling in the sand and barking. It was nic to see them having a good time! We walked along the beach and headed through albert park. It was so hot we decided to get a taxi back to the southbank so that mum and i could go up the skydeck (the tallest building in melbourne). Gaz and dad meanwhile sat in a bar having a drink. The views from the skydeck were amazing and we could even see the grand open tennis being played! They had an outside area to the skydeck which was a little daunting as you could feel it swaying a little in the breeze. Mum and i were up there about 20 minutes before joining gaz and dad in the bar. We strolled back to the hotel and are currently getting ready for the melbourne tram car restaurant. This is a 3 course dinner that gaz and i are treating mum and dad to...on a tram car. Apparently this is one of the things to do in melbourne! tomorrow we are flying back to brisbane and will be wishing mum and dad farewell. It will be sad to see them go but then we know it wont be long until we are back in the uk and seeing them again so hopefully wont be as hard as when gaz's parents left us.