So after Adelaide we took a nice train ride to the station nearest to Torquay, North Shore/Geelong. We were stopping here to visit Amel’s aunty Felicity who she hadn’t seen in about 6 years so she was to pick us up at the station and we were staying with her for the two nights. So we got off the train maybe twn minutes late and there was no sign of her. So we waited around a bit but still no sign. So Amel rings her dad to try get a mobile number for Felicity, but she doesn’t have one but they come to the conclusion that she must be at a different train station in Geelong, not North Shore/Geelong. So Amel’s dad rings Felicity’s son in the hope that he knows a way to contact her. He suggests paging her at the other station and sure enough about ten minutes later Felicity arrives at the station to pick us up, confusion and catastrophe averted.

Torquay was another lovely, quaint little town. It’s a seaside town mostly populated by older or retired people but we had a great time. We took a lend of Felicity’s Volvo and drove a little bit of the Great Ocean Road as far as Lorne. We didn’t make it to the 12 Apostles as it was too far but we got to see Bell’s Beach and some beautiful scenery. It was so good to sleep in a proper bed too and we slept at least 11 hours both nights.

After Torquay we took the hour long train into Melbourne City where we were to meet Chrystalla, another of Amel’s cousin’s, and we stayed with her for about 10 days having good times!

We arrived in the evening so went straight for some food at Hungry Jacks, worst I’ve ever had. Tasted great going in but wow it was sickening about 20 minutes later. We got an early night for the next day we had nothing planned and achieved nothing but buy food for the week. The next day, this is Wednesday now, the 28th October, we got up early and got on a train into the city of Melbourne. When we got off the train we instantly found ourselves down alley ways that were packed full of cafés and people and it was awesome! We then had no plan of what to do so we wandered around fairly aimlessly. We discovered the musuem so decided to go there… it was international kids day and I think it was policy to poke the kids with sticks on the way in just to make sure they were crying loudly. Very annoying! There was some good pieces though including a little section that included the worlds forth computer, and oldest surviving, intact computer. The kids ruined it though.

We then strolled around different shopping centres and things trying to kill time really as we were meeting Felicity’s three sons, Seb, Raf and Tal, for drinks in Seb’s cocktail Bar, 1806 later that night. We ended up going to see Astroboy in the cinema which was alright.

Then we headed over to 1806 for some delicious cocktails and some nice beers with the three guys and Raf’s wife. Beautiful little bar about ten minutes walk from the centre of town, so good in fact that we went back a few nights later to start off a night out. The premises itself used to be a theatre and the bar is surrounded by what used to be the facade of the stage. All the rigging is still above it and the red velvet curtains hang from the two sides and top.

I cannot remember what we did on the Thursday so it must have been nothing too interesting… But on the Friday we went to the DFO in Essendon then Chrystalla dropped us off at Tal’s house for dinner where we met his six year old son Sigmund or Ziggy as he’s known. In the space of about two hours he had demonstrated his knowledge of CD players beyond just pressing play, he picked out and sang along to loads of Beatles songs, not the kiddy/Ringo songs, serious ones and also immitated any special effects that were in the songs. He mocked and immitated my accent and then put on a dress before going to bed. At the end of the night it had started raining so Tal offered us their spare car that they were trying to sell so we didn’t have to get the train and let us keep it as long as we needed. That was pretty sweet.

On Saturday we went into the city with Chrystalla to the Victoria Markets which were massive. We saw lots of cools things and even found an awesome comic book store. We then went up the 280 metre Eureka building to the 88th floor. The lift up was awesome! Think it took about 32 seconds, travelling at 9 metres per second. It also had rocket noises playing as it went up. Was cool. Up there the views were amazing! You can see the whole city, including the MCG, the massive Cricket/AFL ground that holds over 100,000 people. We saw the Rod Laver arena where they play the Australian open tennis, there was so much! There was also a lot of ANZ bank buildings which was weird.

That night there was another couple of friends staying at Chrystalla’s so we had a big barbie and headed into the city drinking. Had some more awesome cocktails at 1806 then headed to the casino where I won $30! Woo!I then spent Sundaydriving around alone as the girls went girly shopping. Sunday night we went to meet Amel’s old boss from New Zealand, Peter Jones. We had some food and some walks and some nice Belgian beer.

On Monday we went out to the Yarra Valley to visit the TarraWarra Estate winery for some samples! Yum! Some how I drove so didn’t drink much but most of the wine was red which I don’t drink so it worked out. We then had lunch in Healesville and found a brewery afterwards where we sampled so nice ‘White Rabbit’ dark beer while watching some guys put it in bottles and pack it up. Monday night was easy going in front of the TV. On Tuesday it was Melbourne Cup day, the “Race That Stops a Nation”, a horse race. So we decided to go to a pub with a bookies in it and have a little flutter. Before going I looked up the odds etc and found there was three Irish horses in the race so I felt almost obliged to back one. Then someone mentioned one of them on the TV, a 40 to 1 shot. Crime Scene. So we all put a bet on him each way and he came in a nice second which paid us 11 to 1. Myslef and Chrystalla had $5 on him and Amel had 2 or 3. $34 for me! woo! I should now play lotto. Good things come in threes…

The rest of our time in Melbourne was spent chilling out until we hopped on an overnight train to Sydney on Wednesday night…