Ramsey Street, Aussie Rules and 12 Apostles!

For the Easter weekend, we headed down to Melbourne for a long weekend with our friend Darren (who we'd met in Brazil in November). The flight only lasted an hour and a half but we still got breakfast and a hot cross bun!

We dropped off our bags at Darren's house and headed into the city. We parked at the casino and walked along the river. As it was a public holiday, there were lots of street performers out and about. We walked through China Town and into Fitzroy Gardens where Captain Cook's cottage is. We decided to have a look around the cottage (which took all of 5 minutes as it is so small) and then strolled round Fitzroy gardens and came across a Fairy Tree (someone had painted fairies on it).

We then headed into St Kilda's (which has lots of bars and restaurants) and walked down the pier for afternoon tea as the sun was setting. We got the tram back to the Casino and then had trouble finding Darren's car (I mean, how hard can it be to find a yellow 4x4!!!!)

The next day we'd booked to do the Neighbours tour (much to the embarrassment of Darren)!! We had to get the train into the city and boarded it at Batman station!

We were picked up by a mini bus with the Neighbours logo emblazoned on the side!! As we drove up to Erinsborough High, they played an old episode on the bus - we got Madge & Harold's wedding!! We posed outside the front gate before wandering around the outside of the school.

The next stop was Pin Oak Court (aka Ramsay Street). It was smaller than expected and we were given a quick chat about all the houses and who has lived in them over the years. We were then given the Ramsey Street sign to have our photo's taken with it. We drove into St Kilda's on the way back and met Janelle Timmons (Nell Feeney) and got the chance to ask her questions and have our photo's taken with her.

That afternoon, we headed over to the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) to watch an Aussie Rules game - Richmond Tigers v Sydney Swans.

It was an exciting game but we kept having problems understanding the rules - especially with the scoring (you get 6 points if you get the ball through the middle posts and 1 point if you get it through the outside posts which is termed a 'behind' but you also get a point if the defending team pushes it through the posts to prevent a 6 point goal!) We sort of understood that by the time we finished! Richmond lost 72-88.

We headed into St Kilda's again for dinner and ended up in a Thai restaurant and had deep fried ice cream for desert - it was surprisingly good!

The next day we got up early and jumped in the car - we were going down the Great Ocean Road to see the Twelve Apostles! We stopped at Geelong for breakfast and Kate and I had chocolate French toast - a great way end Lent (we'd given up chocolate!)

We were back on the road and very soon the ocean appeared to our left and gorgeous beaches came and went. We stopped at Wye River mid afternoon in the hunt for Koala's but they must have been hiding as we didn't find any!

At dusk we arrived at the Twelve Apostles - they were a pretty amazing sight!

We then carried on to Loch Ard Gorge and the blowhole and then we went to London Bridge before we began the long return journey!

The next day we went to the Melbourne Gaol where Ned Kelly was imprisoned and executed. It was very informative and showed the history of their notorious prisoners and about the first executions.

We went to Brunswick Street for lunch before taking Darren's dogs Hamish & Max out for a long walk where they chased rabbits and ran in and out of the river! Then it was time for Kate & I to catch our flight back to Sydney.

Darren - thanks very much for the great weekend!