Melbourne
We were in Melbourne from Wednesday 11th August-Tuesday 24th August 2010
Paul, Leah and myself were met at Melbourne airport by Jared Haymes on Wednesday night. I have only met Jared briefly before, but I have known his wife Rachel for most of my life. She used to go to the same ward as we did for church when I was little and our families have been good friends ever since. The journey from the airport to Rachel and Jared’s house was about 1 hour. We arrived about 11pm at night. Rachel was in bed, but woke up when we arrived. It was really good seeing Rachel again. The last time I saw Rachel was in 2006 when Rachel was over visiting her family in England along with her husband and 2 children. She now has 3 children and another on the way.
Thursday 12th August 2010
Jared took a couple of days off work, so that he could drive us around and take us to a few places. Today we went on a drive with Jared, Rachel and their 2 children Hannah and Laura. We drove along the coast and went up to Arthur’s seat. Here you can get a good view over the coast. We stopped up here for a while to go walking. The views were beautiful and the tree’s were gorgeous. We got chips along the coast between us. We haven’t had chips in a long time so that was a nice treatJ They are very different to British chips though, not as greasy and more crunchy.
We went to Jared’s Dad’s on the way back to meet him and his wife Faith. Paul was fixing a few problems on Ron’s (Jareds Dads) computer. Paul always seems to find broken things, no matter where we go. They had a Japanese student staying with them so I was chatting to him a little. They have different students staying with them. I thought this was a great idea. They loved meeting people from all over the world and it helped them to learn a little about the different cultures.
Friday 13th August 2010
Today we all went out as a family. There was Jared, Rachel, Laura, Hannah, Leah, Paul and myself. (Beth there other daughter was at school). First of all Jared asked us did we want to see Ramsey Street where neighbours is filmed. I don’t even watch neighbours but still I was excited to see Ramsey Street. So we drove over to see the street. It is actually called Pinoak court in Vermont. Regular people live on the street. It is only used for the outside filming and they have studios for the rest. When we got to the street there was a big tour bus showing people around Ramsey Street. We just tried listening in on what they were saying. We got some pictures on the street, maybe you will be able to tell me whose house I’m standing outside?
We then drove on to Grants Picnic grounds, where there were loads of Cockatoos, Kookaburras, Roselle’s and many others. We put crackers in our hands to see if the birds would come over to us. I was a little nervous at first but relaxed. They were landing on our hands and we even managed to get a kookaburra to land on us. I was impressed with how brave Hannah was (she is 2 years old). She loves animals and insects. She was trying to give the cockatoos a kiss and hug goodbye.
We then drove up to One Tree Hill. This is up high on a hill, surrounded by tree’s. We could hear Kookaburras everywhere. There were loads of Eucalyptus trees. I picked up a few leafs. I’m going to make book marks out of them.
We then drove on to Mt Dandenong, which is where you can view the whole city from above. We just took a quick look and got a picture together. Jared and Rachel were sat waiting in the car, as they charge $5 for taking your car in, so we just walked up.
Next we went to Kalorama Park, to stop for lunch. There was a beautiful view from here, looking over a lake. We were also able to see lot’s of Kookaburras from here, After lunch we went to William Picketts Sanctuary, where you can see loads of Aboriginal Art and sculptures. We followed a 30 minute walk path that took us around.
Saturday 14th August 2010
Today we went to Philip Island with the whole family. Philip island is reached by a bridge so there is no need to get a boat over. The island is about 30 Km in length. We went to Kitty Miller bay. This was a small bay surrounded by rocks.
We drove on to the nobbies, where we were able to see penguins along the side of the rocks. It is really beautiful here, surrounded by cliffs.
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