Last week in Melbourne

Obviously I'm a little behind with my posts (as you can see from Mathias's blog we are already in Tasmania) but here are the pictures from our last week in Melbourne, and the 2nd week we spent with The Jenkinsesneses

Recognise this street? It's Ramsay Street!! It is a real street with real people living in the houses, they even have a security guard on the street to make sure the geeky Neighbours fans don't poo in the gardens or something like that. It is TINY in real life but it was exciting to see all the characters houses.

 Next we visited Phillip Island where there is a nightly Penguin Parade. I took exactly zero pictures of the penguins as it is forbidden but here is a nice picture of some rocks (consult Google for penguin pics).

 The weather wasn't great during the week so we spent one day at the Immigration Museum where we all passed the test to gain citizenship to Australia (it really isn't difficult) and had fun pretending we were on the ships of olde.

 Hosier Lane in Melbourne is filled with graffiti art that my dad would love...

 And some that he probably wouldn't like so much...

 Then it was off to Healesville Sanctuary where they have a lot of Australian wildlife, so that we could check off any Aussie animals Claire and Elaine hadn't seen whilst we were on the road.

The lesser spotted Crapman

A wombat that wanted to come home with me!!! <3

Tasmanian Devil!

 Mathias indulged in his platypus love whilst we were there.

 Elaine recreated the best moment on the Royal tour of Australia, when Prince George was handed a toy bilby and proceeded to throw it on the floor, because he is the future King and he can do whatever the F*** he wants (here is the video if you missed it).

 On the way home we stopped at a winery. UGH. As an official member of the "Wine tastes like piss" club and also the sober driver, I can't say I enjoyed it much, but these three seemed to have fun.

 We also went to the Botanical Gardens and climbed up the Shrine of Remembrance where we got great views of downtown Melbourne.

 We finished it all off with a meal and a large margarita at a Mexican restaurant and then a night out at the casino.

 On Friday we said bye to these lovely faces until August!

We all look rough because of a heavy night of drinking. Give us a break!

Great Ocean Road

 So, after our drunken weekend we headed out for a road trip along Great Ocean Road and up to the Grampians National Park.

 The road follows the coast so there were plenty of opportunities to stop and take pictures of the scenery.

First time I've seen a wild koala!

 The first night we camped at a place called Johanna Beach. The seas are really rough the whole way along the coast so theres no swimming allowed.

It was a really photogenic beach!

 We spent our evenings playing games! Check out all the fun being had here!

 Our van had its own kitchen so we could have yummy dinners every night.

 Day 2, we stopped at Cape Otway Lighthouse. It cost $20!!! But by the time you've driven there it seems pointless to just drive away so we sucked it up and enjoyed the view.

 We finally reached the 12 Apostles, which is the main reason anyone drives along Great Ocean Road.

 The first time we went to the viewing point it started to rain so we headed back to the van to wait for it to ease off.

Some people get dressed up for the rocks

This one is called the Razorback

This one is called the double penis (probably)

 We headed back to the viewing point at sunset for more pictures. In the end we went to see the Apostles 4 times and if I never see them again I won't be disappointed!

Claire made 5 bean chilli for dinner. It kept the van smelling sweet for the rest of the trip!

 The next morning we woke up and had breakfast with a group of kangaroos (a group of kangaroos is called a mob, in case you were wondering!)

 Oh, those rocks again.

 This one is called London Bridge. It used to be attached to the mainland and you could walk out onto it but one day it collapsed and 2 tourists were left stranded for a few hours on it.

King of the world

 Day 4 we drove to Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve and had a picnic breakfast with some emus

 Then we went for a wander and found a koala, a kangaroo, and this snake.

 At the Grampians National Park we had a little work out session with some emus.

 And Claire demonstrated the official emu stance you're supposed to take if an emu starts to attack.

 We were supposed to go for a hike but it didn't really look too appealing on the map...

 So we chose a different route instead:

 We made it to the top!

 It was a pretty difficult climb over slippery rocks so we were all exhausted by the end and ready to head back to the van.