Another week has passed us by.

We rented a car and spent a couple of days in the small towns of East Gippsland where there is a chiropractic office looking for an associated. The towns in the regions are all quite small (3000, 10 000, 20 000) but for some reason seem to lack small town charm. We did however experience some native wildlife - a herd kangaroos hopped in front of our car and flocks of cockatoos flew overhead. We also tried to go to the beach but, like usual, it was raining.

Friday we went to the Melbourne Aquarium which was nice, but not as good at the Vancouver Aquarium (which we went to a few months back). In the evening we walked to St. Kilda pier and saw the Port Philip Bay little penguin colony - they come out of the sea at night and hide in the rocks of the breakwater. We also saw many water rat swimming around by the pier. (The rats were cuter than you might imagine, not creepy like most rats.) On our walk back home we walked though Luna Park, a local amusement park. It was strangely empty.

Melbourne and?

It has officially been two weeks here in Australia, and we now have the hot weather we wanted when we were up at the beaches in Sydney. It was forecasted to be 37 degrees today. I wrote my Australasian board exams on Friday and Saturday, which were ok other than an interrogation of knowledge and practice by a panel of 4 Australian chiropractors - nervewracking!

With all of the studying for the exam, we did not tour melbourne much, other than walking through Fitzroy Gardens, the treasury gardens and JFK memorial, and through downtown (the "CBD"), bourke street mall and chinatown. So on saturday night we ventured ino St. Kilda, which used to be a seaside resort. It is now one of the city's livliest areas, with stylish restaurants and bars. We stopped for tapas before heading to the famour St. Kilda's cake shops (Thanks John, for the recommendation), and then met up with 2 former CMCC students at Red Eye, a night club that is part of a hostel (quiet night's sleep?). Yesterday we visited New York Tomato, a restaurant built into the back patio of a townhouse unit near our hostel, and then took the train to go look at some cars we were thinking about buying - but no luck yet. Today we visited the old melbourne gaol, built in 1841 and the site of the hanging of Ned Kelly as well as over 100 other prisoners. Next up, we're heading towards Lakes Entrance for a few days, and then back to melbourne.

Four Days in Sydney, Finally in Melbourne

After hours of sitting, on Sunday morning, we finally arrived at the Sydney airport. We ended up stuck up in the air for about 3 hours longer than originally projected, including an "emergency" refueling stop in Samoa. This meant, instead of spending 4 hours in the Fiji airport we spent less than one, and, as a result, having no time or oppurtunity to browse the duty free stores. The plane from Fiji to Sydney was an impressive double decker plane - it must have held hundreds of people, half of them sporting those corn row braids you get at any tropical destination.

We breezed through customs in Sydney, found the subway (also double decker!) into the city only to discover it cost an outrageous $14 per person! (And this was only the beginning of the revelation that everything really does cost more in Australia.) It took about an hour (and another $3.90 spent on the bus) and finally we arrived at Collaroy beach and our hostel. Unfortunately. due to rain, we didn't spend the next three days lounging and tanning as originally planned, however we did visit the Taronga zoo, walk up and down Collaroy beach, visit the Sydney Barrick's museum and walk around downtown Sydney, as well as relax in the hostel and enjoy a brief vacay.

This morning we arrived in Melbourne after an overnight train ride. Not a great sleep was had, however we saved money on a hostel which is always important when you have no income. Today we walked around a little bit, discovered the public library (free internet!) and enjoyed the sunny Melbourne (nice change from rainy Sydney).

Flight

The adventure has started - well almost. We're sitting in the airport watching a movie on the laptop and waiting for boarding to start. It was supposed to start boarding an hour ago, but no sign of a plane or any Air Pacific staff yet. Our flight was also supposed to depart at 6:35pm, but we just noticed out tickets say departure at 19:35, so they switched the scheduled departure time without letting us know.

PS - If there are ads on the website when you view this, that means you can help fund our Australian adventure by clicking on them. I think we might be able to make enough for 1 wing on 35 cent wing night.

PPS - That means click on the ads when you come read our blog ;)