Docklands Serviced Apartments - Grand Mercure Melbourne

... von den Menschen harpuniert wurden. Als Belohnung durften die Killerwale die Zunge und die Lippen haben, der Rest ging an die Menschen. Die Fahrt führte mich weiter ins malerische Dörfchen Mallacoota. Ein Fischer war gerade dabei seinen Fang auszunehmen, umringt von unzähligen Pelikanen und Möwen die hofften auch auf ihre Kosten zu kommen. Dem zuzuschauen war sehr amüsant. Und plötzlich hatten die Wetterfrösche doch recht, es begann in ...

... black, no light pollution and it was amazing. I have never seen so many stars and he knew loads of stuff about the night sky so could tell me loads of constellations. Pure awesomeness. I also saw a satellite! Went back to Cowes and got chinese for dinner!
23rd June - Today we drove to see all the Forest fires that had happened in February. We went to Kinglake and Maryville. It was so sad. Towns were just destroyed. It really hammered in how powerful the fire ...

... and began the painstaking hunt for work. It had, for a while now, been our intention to stay in Melbourne for the majority of our time in Australia, find work and earn some cash, if only it was that easy.
A week and a half after arriving in Melbourne we moved into a house close to the center of town, sharing a house with another 2 couples; Mark (England) and Virginie (France), and Dermot (Ireland) and Deardra (USA), who were nice folks. We spent the majority of our ...

... our first glimpse of Koala Bears and in the wild too! Then we noticed there was actually loads of them around and even a little baby Koala Bear clinging onto it's mothers back. After much 'ooing' and 'awing' we followed the rest of the road along the park toward the lighthouse. Soon we arrived at a car park at the entrance to a walkway which apparently led to the lighthouse. We couldn't actually see the lighthouse and when we ...

... he won't be fining us but 100 means 100 ok?. I am genuinely relived but am made to do the breath test anyhow as its mandatory with police stops in Australia. I pass, despite having been to the vineyard that morning and he sends us on our way, my heart slowing to under 100bpm for the first time since I saw the car at the side of the road. Lucky, I think so. We arrive at Phillip Island (at the speed limit) and immediately head in land to get to the north of the island where most of ...

... our two buddies from Ireland Beth and Tower. Eileen was going to put us up for the first few days so she met us at the train station and we headed back to her's. Living so far away we don't get to see so much of each other so it was great to meet up with all the family over the week and catch up. We were fed like a king and queen over the week and spoilt rotten. For a couple of smelly back-packers it was fantastic to wake up to a fry up ...

... him. He waved to his instructor to ask what he should do but the instructor - surprisingly- indicated that he should stay right there ("Is the man joking or what, YOU come and stay here")!! Luckily the shark passed right next to Thomas. It was amazing to observe the shark's eye's carefully inspecting the "obstacle" that block its way. Absolute paralysis and breathholding for a few seconds, although ...

As soon as we stepped off the plane, the cold weather hit us - I had to put on 2 jumpers and a jacket to keep warm! The Melbourne winter was more like the winter back in the UK. The Tiger Airways baggage collection area, was opensided so there was no respite from the strong winds in a warm terminal building. We were heading to Base backpackers in the ST Kilda area of the city, unfortunately our shuttle bus took over ...

... in Kodiak before ending in Anchorage.





After Alaska we returned to Oakland for Robyn's Wedding, then to Los Angeles for Jamie's graduation,





and finally after three days in Australia, a month of SCUBA diving in Indonesia.


After diving and before returning to Australia we stopped in Bali to catch up with a successful graduate.

... make it down to the internet room.

Pretty soon Katie wanted to get moving to see a bit of the city after her day in exile yesterday, so we (I) struggled out into the bright sunshine.

Melbourne has a free vintage tram service that does a circle route around the city centre, so we jumped on one to get down ...