First day in Oz and its bloody raining!

Trip Start Oct 04, 2004
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Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of Australia  ,
Monday, December 13, 2004

Ever since I was young I have wanted to visit Australia, partly to follow in my parents footsteps (they lived here for 3 years in the seventies), and also because I wanted to experience the sun soaked surf life - Newquay just doesn't cut the mustard!

You can forgive me for being a tad pissed off, when we arrived in Melbourne to rain. Now I can forgive New Zealand for the daily down pours, but not Australia. Well it never rains in Neighbours and Home & Away, so why when we turn up?! Especially annoying when we found out it was 39 degrees 2 days ago!

We were picked up by an eager Holly and Tanielle (T) at the airport. You'll hear a lot about them as we ended up living with them for 4 months, so I'd better introduce them quickly. Holly is Dans girlfriend, an Aussie we met in London a couple of years ago, some of you would have met her back in Southend and London, you wouldn't have forgotten her 01. Outside their apartment
01. Outside their apartment
 ! T is Holly's flatmate who we also met in London a couple of years ago. They moved back to Australia about a year ago and moved into a flat, along with another girl Robyn [more about her in later weeks!] Where we were heading now.

We were only staying in Melbourne for a couple of days as we were going to catch another flight to Tasmania on Wednesday. Whilst here the girls put us up in their apartment, it was nice not having to pay the hostel bills, even if I was sleeping in the floor! But wow, what an apartment, I could definitely get used to this; there was a swimming pool, spa and gym! What we didn't know then was we would later actually end up living here for 4 months - who said backpacking was all cheap hostels and tents!

We spent a quiet night out in St Kilda, a now trendy suburb, adorned with fancy bars and restaurants. It was nice to actually have a quite night out, without the pier pressure of getting as drunk as you possibly can! We were tempted to go into a pub that was holding its weekly 'Meet your Neighbours' night. You pay $35 (14 pounds!) for entry into a quiz night, but with the added 'bonus' of having your photo with 3 of the stars! As much as we wanted to see Boyd, Lyn and Stuart, we gave it a miss. Well Harold and Dr Karl Kennedy would be so much better!
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