My last week in Melbourne feels like ages ago now, but it was a good one! As James mentioned previously, we visited Phillip Island and went up the Eureka Skydeck. My roommate and I also decided to take a trip out of the city and visit Yarra Bend Park which was very picturesque.
On our way back we stopped at Fitzroy Gardens and visited Cooks Cottage which was originally constructed in the UK before being shipped over!
One of my last days in Melbourne it hit 30oC so my roommate and I decided to take the opportunity to top up our tans on the beach before watching the sun set at St Kilda and going for drinks in the cutest bar in the middle of the yarra river!
As a final goodbye, my roommates and I decided to visit the 'Chill On' bar - an ice bar where it was -10oC! It was definitely a very fun experience that was followed by desserts at one of the poshest restaurants in Melbourne, courtesy of my roommate who waitressed there!
My final night in Melbourne was spent celebrating Chinese New Year along Southbank an watching the awesome fireworks go off! It was a very good way to end my time in Melbourne. :-)
From Melbourne, James and I headed down the Great Ocean Road to Adelaide which will be covered in the next blog.
At the end of the Great Ocean Road, James dropped me off in Adelaide. I was lucky enough to be able to stay with the brother of a friend I worked with at the Olympics. Paul and his daughter, Rachel were very accommodating and made me feel at home. :-) The first evening, Paul's son Ceiran and his friend Will took me along to the Adelaide Fringe festival, which Im lead to believe is very similar to the Edinburgh Fringe, just bigger and last longer! During my time in Adelaide, I visited the Fringe a number of times including going to see one of the comedy acts one night which was really good.
My first two days in Adelaide were spent visiting the local sights of the South Australia Museum, National Wine Centre, Botanical Gardens and Glenelg beach.
I then headed off on a two day tour of Kangaroo Island. This was an awesome experience, where I visited Seal Bay and saw hundreds of sea lions lazing in the sun before kayaking at Vivonne Bay. We also took a trip to Flinders Chase Conservation Park to see koalas and kangaroos before staying the night at Flinders Chase Farm. Little did we know that during that evening there was a huge brushfire on the other side of the island which not only cut out all phone signal across the island, but also affected our journey back to the ferry the following evening!
The next morning we continued with our tour visiting the remarkable rocks (they truly are remarkable!!), Cape Du Couedic Lighthouse and Admirals Arch where there were hundreds of seals.
We finished our tour climbing 200+ steps to a lookout before sandboarding at Little Sahara an catching the ferry back to the mainland. All in all it was a pretty awesome trip and luckily the bush fire did not affect us too much!
Back in Adelaide I took a look round Tandanya Aboriginal Centre which was pretty interesting and has some awesome (and very expensive) art! Victoria Square and the Central Market were also visited on my way to Haighs Chocolate Factory where I went on a free tour....amazing!!
My final day was spent on a Barossa Valley winery tour which was so good! We visited 4 wineries in total, including Jacobs Creek and Kies who did the most amazing rose I've ever tasted! Lunchtime was conveniently spent at this winery where a number of us enjoyed some bottles of said rosé whilst stuffing ourselves with a true Aussie style BBQ! Safe to say most of us slept all the way back to the city!
A few days later I moved into the container that was to be my home for the next week. 16 of us in 8 bunk beds, living on site at the Clipsal V8 event in Adelaide. It was an experience but a very fun one at that and by far the best event I have ever worked for Cleanevent! Although the day after the event finished, we did have to spend 8 hours attempting to rake up confetti in 30oC+ whilst all hungover....it was hell!!!
From this event we headed back up to Melbourne which involved me driving a minibus for 4 hours!! For those of you that don't know, I hate reversing at the best of times, let alone in a 13 seater minibus!!
Back in Melbourne I worked at Moomba which is a free festival in Melbourne, and the Grand Prix. At the Grand Prix I was luckily enough to work in the Mercedes Benz lounge which was full of really posh corporate people which meant that a) I had very little to do as they are generally fairly tidy people, and b) I got to see Lewis Hamilton!!!! It was a good few days of work.
Whilst in Melbourne I also managed to find time to catch up with my old roommates Emma and Jana. Jana and I took a trip the Queen Victoria Night Market and enjoyed a couple of glasses of sangria, and Emma and I decided to have a go at beer pong in the hostel bar (which we were shocking at!)
Straight out of the Grand Prix myself and about 20 others headed up to Sydney to spend two weeks working at the Royal Easter Show. This was a tough but fun event and was the last event for most people. It was sad to say goodbye to everyone I had spent the past month or so working with and getting to know but hopefully I will get to see a fair few of them again! :-)
After a final fairwell night out in Sydney I boarded a plane to Cairns where my East Coast adventure was to begin!
I hope everyone back home had an awesome Easter and you are all taking care!
Less than 4 months now til I return to the UK so I hope you're all getting prepared!!
Lots of love
X x x
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