The East Coast begins

Lots has happened since we last checked in. We left Sydney for Melbourne to watch the F1 Grand Prix. Melbourne was in the middle of a heat-wave at the time (when the Aussies are hot, you know you're gonna have a problem!). It was 39C during the race. Bought a ridiculous overpriced Lewis Hamilton McLaren shirt and also got in the Herald Sun Newspaper. Met up with Sian and Sara from the flat who were also there, which was cool. Hamilton won, so happy days. We made a day of it by getting there at 9am (race started at 3.30pm!). Good job as it took nearly 3hrs to walk around the track!

The only hostel with any rooms available was the only hostel without air-con. It had plenty of fans to turbo-charge hot air into your face though, which was nice. In the basement was a bar (and yes it was as grimey as it sounds) which had a Neighbours trivia (quiz) night. I'm not really a Neighbours fan, but we went for Jonny. To keep him under control when meeting his idols! Toadfish, Elle Robinson, and Oliver Barnes were there. It was embarrassingly empty being St Paddys night, but we had a giggle. Also came second in the quiz (with some help via txt from Casey!), but didn't win anything. Another memorable night in Melbourne, was spending a weeks food budget on one Chinese. Although it was from the Asian Food Festival 2007 winner.

The main reason for going to Melbourne was to drive the Great Ocean Road. We hired a Ford Falcon from Europcar for a couple of days. 2.0 litre automatic, so perfect for the job. Sara fancied joining us, so we headed out of Melbourne towards Geelong and Torquay. We stopped off at loads of places on the way to our hostel in Warrnambool. The lighthouse used in 'Round the Twist', A surfing museum, McDonalds (of course!), a surf pro competition (which had been called off due to no surf!), a waterfall which had dried up, cheeseworld, a wildlife park, and the 12-apostles. Gorgeous views and really windy (bends not breeze!) roads through Cape Ottway National Park. There are plenty of photos below. And a particularly special one when we drove through Peterborough!

We booked a hop-on hop-off bus ticket from Melbourne to Cairns - 3500km roughly. We've go 45-days to do it. Plenty of time. First stop was Canberra, the capital. It's the Milton Keynes of Oz as it was a purpose built city, but had far less roundabouts! We had a day at Capital Hill, had a tour of Parliament House and the War Memorial. I could have spent all day in the War Memorial, it really was an impressive place. The tomb of the Unknown Soldier (with the speech made by the Prime Minister - link) was especially breath-taking. An emotional afternoon actually.

The next stop up the coast is where we are now, Coffs Harbour. We've spent longer here than we planned, as there is no accommodation in Byron Bay until Friday. It's no bad thing, as the beach is a stones-throw away from where we are staying and it's lovely and warm. Jonnys been surfing again. I've been burning in the sun. This area is famous for banana picking, so obviously we had to visit The Big Banana! We went ice skating, which was good until Jonny got a bit too adventurous and knocked himself out. What a legend.