Melbourne

Australia is big. Very big. Very, very big. I knew that. But still, I didn't realize just how big this country is! Our hosts in Melbourne were my mum's cousin Moira and her family, and they were kind enough to take us out for a drive one day. We drove for about two hours to get to Mt Dandenong, and we were still in Melbourne! Up on the mountain we got a hazy view of the huge sprawl that is Melbourne. As far as the eye could see there were buildings (with plenty of green spaces in between), and all made up the greater metropolitan area of Melbourne. When you arrive in Australia from Europe you need to take your idea of big and throw it out of the window. You need to think HUGE - and then you're close to realizing just how big the continent/island/nation is.

Now that I've got the size issue out of the way, back to Melbourne! Our time spent in Victoria was mostly dedicated to catching up with cousins and grand-aunties and getting ideas about places that we should visit while traveling in Oz. Meeting relations didn't get in the way of our sight seeing though, and we got to see a fair bit of what the greater Melbourne area has to offer.

Our first outing was a drive through the city at night, seeing the bright lights and glitzy glamour of the Docklands, as well as a drive around the Australia Grand Prix circuit - which was held the week we were staying in Melbourne. Just like you can drive around the TT circuit in the Isle of Man, the Melbourne GP circuit is open road for 51 weeks a year. Car racing isn't the only sport that is loved in Melbourne - there are plenty of sports grounds to be found in the city - ranging from the facilities left over from the Melbourne Olympics, to the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) and the Etihad Stadium, home of Aussie Rules Football.

The city's tallest and most recent high rise, the Eureka Tower, provides a great viewing platform to look out over the city. It also houses the southern hemisphere's fastest lift, taking less than 40 seconds to get you from ground floor to 88. And just to make the building that little bit more flashy, the windows of the top 8 floors are plated with 24 karat gold!

Joe, another Ozzy cousin, took us out to Healsville WIldlife Reserve - a wildlife park showcasing Australian fauna that also houses Victoria's largest wildlife hospital. During the bush fires of February 2009 the frontline was only 11km away from the sanctuary and it was feared that the area would be destroyed, but luckily the fires didn't get any closer. Lots of animals that were rescued from the fires were rehabilitated at Healsville, and those that could not be returned to the wild will see out the rest of their days in the comfort of the sanctuary. At Healsville you can tick plenty of animals off your list, including Koalas, Kangaroos, Echidnas, Wombats, Goannas, Frilled Lizards, Dingos and the Platypus. Though the animals are there, you don't see them all, as they can be hiding, or resting, or just couldn't care less about the humans ogling into their enclosure! The animals that you will definitely get to see are the birds of prey. The falconers at Healsville have a few of Australia's top winged hunters - harriers, hawks, barking owls, buzzards, and the mighty Wedge Tailed Eagle.

A good day trip from Melbourne is the Great Ocean Road - a scenic highway that hugs Victoria's south coast from Geelong to Warrnambool. There are plenty of great sea side towns to stop in along the way, but the highlight of the drive has got to be the Twelve Apostles. The Apostles (of which there are now only five left) are limestone stacks that have eroded away from the cliff face. The blue waters and crashing waves make for plenty of pretty pictures.

Plenty of photos to be seen on my picasa web albums

Having finally bought a tent and some more camping gear in Melbourne we were eager to try them out, so we took a train out to Halls Gap in the Grampians National park...