Saturday 1 December 2007

Geelong, Melbourne and around

Geelong

We stayed at George and Karen's house in Geelong. We met them on the Margaret River wine tour the previous month and they insisted on us staying, so we did!

We stayed here for 9 spoilt days of luxury, mainly doing nothing but we did go to a few places while we were here.

BBQ

We were all invited around to a neighbours house on the next street for a traditional Aussie barbie. We didn't know anyone except G & K but we were made very welcome.


Me making friends with the guy doing the cooking of course!
Ballarat (Sovereign Hill)

George took us to the old gold mining town of Ballarat and the historic Sovereign Hill Living Museum. Basically its set up as an old village during the time of the gold rush with people dressed up in period costume acting on the streets. The buildings were actually from Ballarat itself but they had been moved to this spot which is situated on top of an old gold mine. You could visited a recreation of a mine, see how a gold ingot is made and actually pan for gold! Its a bit like Beamish for the ones who know what that is.
The main street.
There be gold in them there hills.
Me and Kate on the street. Feeling very hot!

The guy getting ready to pour the gold.

Helicopter Flight

We went to the centre of Geelong for a wander round and there was helicopter flights available on the sea front. George and Karen asked us if we had ever had a helicopter flight, but we said no. The next moment they had paid for a flight for us to our surprise. It was only suppose to be a 5 min flight, but luckily for us we had an extended flight because the pilot had to go and refuel back at the air strip. In the end we had a 20 minute flight which was pretty fantastic!

I'm a VIP of course
Kate with the windswept look.

Melbourne

We all went to Melbourne for the day and had a look in the Crown Casino. A huge entertainment and shopping complex in the centre of the city, but its main purpose was the casino with rows upon rows of slot machines and roulette tables etc. We also had a walk along the Yarra river up to Federation Square where they were having some sort of Polish festival, very busy! We went into some strange arty farty museum on the square. It was all a bit weird so we didn't stay in there long.

The view of Melbourne from the Yarra river.
Kate in Federation Square. It was another scorcher!

Yarra Valley Wine Tour

Yes, yet another wine tour! George and Karen were now back at work so we got the train into Melbourne where we were picked up for the tour to the Yarra Valley which is north east of the city. We drunk lots of course but didn't buy much as we had lots of wine from the previous tours.
Doing what she does best!

Cheers!
Kate thinks we bought all these!

Neighbours Tour

Kate insisted we did the neighbours tour (Whoopee!!!). So on the day we left Geelong on our way to Phillip Island, we parked up in Melbourne and went on a 3 hour tour of the Neighbours sets and outside locations. We even met Dr. K (My Hero!) on the back lot of the studios. Kate told him that she cheered for him when he was on Soapstar Superstar (Kate was in the audience), but not because he was any good. She thinks that might of been a bit mean. Overall Kate thought it was fabulously cheesy! I think it was bonza mate!
The Doc

Kates off with the street sign!

No. I'm off with it!

We would like to thank George and Karen for a fabulous time at theirs and we really appreciate
them letting us stay there. Plus the beer, wine and food as well.
Our excellent hosts, George and Karen. Plus two lovely guests!

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