Eildon Mansion St Kilda

... could see myself lounging here on a hot December evening watching an art movie, sipping a cold one (and swatting at the billions of mosquitos and fliees.)

Arriving back in Bendigo after dark, we were impressed by the dark, dark sky and the billions of bright stars. Stargazing will have to wait for another night, as we were knackered from our day in the city and the hot sun.

A good day, a good weekend in a beautiful city.

... and also the busyness of the streets. Amsterdam was also full of tourists but they were less annoying, and the city was more open with the canals which made it more enjoyable to walk around in. So that's it, I'm back in Melbourne now and could go back and edit this (I didn't read back any of the entries so I bet they are full of things that don't make sense and bits that I've missed out) but I wont, that would take time and now is the time for gaming.

... kann man am Samstag auch wirklich nicht vor die Tuer gehen: 47 Grad im Schatten und superheftige Sturmboen. Wir verbringen den ganzen Tag nur im Zimmer mit Aircondition...anders ist es nicht auszuhalten. Am Sonntagvormittag machen dann Meldungen die Runde das bei den zahlreichen Feuern um Melbourne herum gestern etwa 14 Menschen gestorben sind...Entsetzen macht sich breit... Erst die naechsten Tage wird das wirkliche Ausmass der Katastrophe ...

... a bit more time in Taupo itself.... The next stop was Wellington. On the way w passed through the Rangipo Deasert and got some awesome views of Mt Ngaurahoe - which starred as Mt Doom in the Lord of the Rings. We continued on to Wellington and went up Mt Victoria, which gave some great views over the very pretty capital city. We had four nights in Welly so got to have a good explore, finding some lovely coffee shops (Welly has more coffee shops per capita than New York City) and a ...

... very good Belgian chocolate from the shopping mall), because I also got a lot, and I wasn't expecting that. It was all so much fun, so many people, so many presents. It was kind of like in the old days when I was a child and there was the whole family with all grandparents and aunt and uncle. After that, we all together had lunch, and there was so much good food on the table! But everyone was mostly looking forward to ...

... with friends, to meet so many lovely people through them and through Servas, and to get to see the phenomenal geography of the centre, north and northwest, especially, not to mention skiing, ballooning and skydiving for the first time. I'm quite sad to be leaving a place where I feel so at home, but if luck goes my way, and naturally I am assuming it will, I will be back in a year to live and work for a ...

... sit through an hour long presentation put on by some hippy about saving the red gum trees and marshland. But dinner was free.After that i headed back into town for a good piece of cake from the continental cake shop. There were lots of cake shops- this one was famous i guess. I enjoyed that once again on the pier and returned back to the hostel to pack up....I was going to melbourne the enxt morning.

... as we have yet experienced the joy that is driving in melbourne and the surrounds! set off on sat about 11.30 after not much sleep the night before due to inconsiderate housemates staying up until 4am. drove down the the GOR on probably the coldest and most rainy day that has ever existed in australia, it was freezing and we had to keep getting out of the car to look at rock formations and traips down a ...

... were very lucky that the water was very calm and peaceful for us and not nearly as windy as we expected. We had a lovely lunch in the ships fancy restaurant. It was delicious! We will have the budget all you can eat buffet on the way home. We put $5 dollars in the pokies and came out with and extra 25 1 dollar coins (that will be our laundry money for the trip I think) We decided not to ...