29th-30th August 2012

After the excitement of the Neighbours Tour, fulfilling one of my bucket list items ticked off, I became aware that I had only 2 days left of my time in Australia. Then it was the turn of New Zealand.

Taking a cuppa of San Churros hot chocolate (it’s to die for) at their cafe in Melbourne, I realised that I probably spent a bit too much money in Australia. It’s so expensive here. Everyone gets paid more than Britain here thus the prices and the cost of living is higher. Try telling that to my stomach filled with cheap pasta on a daily basis!

So what to do? That’s on the cheap?

The first day, I spent the morning sorting out the paperwork for New Zealand and making sure I got everything and spent the afternoon doing a novelty that has become the symbol of Melbourne to me. The tram.

There’s a free tram service that goes round the city taking in the sights but I was pretty intrigued by the people in the tram. They came from all walks of life and I enjoyed seeing how they used the tram to get around. I took the full loop. I didn’t want to do much as I feared, my Tonsilitis hit back with a vengeance. This time I was fully prepared. Take that lemsip and cough sweets! So the rest of the day was spent in bed recovering whilst reading my books. I didn’t want to be ill for New Zealand at all!

On my last full day of Australia, I hopped back on the tram to take in the docks. It was freezing that morning.

So I hightailed it to St Kilda, Melbourne’s premier beach to meet up with Vicky, who I met in Sydney and also came to Melbourne in search for a job. The sun came out and became very warm. Catching over a drink, I presented her with my very used East Coast of Australia guide that came in very useful throughout my time here.

It suddenly hit, I’m leaving Australia! For nearly 3 months I’ve been here. I’ve been to the east and west coasts, saw old friends, made fantastic new friends, did the whole campervan experience, saw the highlights of Sydney, experienced the changing environments from the Tropical Rainforest to Maritime Melbourne.

It had been hard at times but you know what, Australia has been bloody amazing for this Pom.

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