26.01 Australia Day: Fireworks on the Yarra

So to finish off Australia Day we went and took our places on the River Yarra to watch the Fireworks!

View of the City!

The crowds gather on the opposite bank!

26.01 Australia Day: Triple J's Hottest 100

Triple J's Hottest 100 had a live link to Waterfront City at Docklands, so we thought that we'd join the rest of crowd in an intimate gathering, watching what has become our soundtrack to our year in Melbourne.

26.01 Australia Day: Classic Car Show

A massive classic car show was held in the Botanical Gardens for Australia Day! Here's just a couple of examples...

Obviously this is an excellent example of an Austin Maxi, but there are people still running these as every day transport! We've probably seen a handful of these about!

A Holden Torana, anyone else think that its looks like it is based on a Vauxhall Victor - does anyone remember those?!

A Vauxhall Viva! They love their Vauxhalls out here too! We saw a number of classic examples heading to the Summer Nats just outside Canberra on our way back from Sydney!

I know where I'm going to import my classic Mercedes Benz '200' from! There are plenty of good examples of these about, and most are the larger engined versions. In fact you can get any classic car you desire from Australia, even some classic Alfas or British Leyland models that have reduced to nothing but a pile of rust in the UK!

Another pristine example, this time a Citroen DS, and just like the Austin Maxi there are a number of these being used as daily transport!!

26.01 Australia Day: The Parade

Another excuse for a Bank Holiday, Australia Day! This day is also used to hold the Citizenship cermonies! In fact someone we know very well became an official Australian Citizen, congratulations Dan! We celebrated here with a can of VB in a stubby cooler, while throwing another shrimp on the barbie, kicked back and watched some sport (what ever was on at the time)! Actually, we joined in with the rest of the festivities that were happening in this great city of ours...

The Australia Day Parade through the city, showing the amazing diversity of different cultures that call Melbourne home.

Joanna's favourite local celeb John So (second from right) among a number of the VIP guests watching the Parade.

Flinders Street Station decorated for the Special Day, and plenty of national flags flying around the city!

Government House was also open for inspection, so we thought that we'd go and have a look!

24.01 Transformation of Albert Park

A quick drive to Albert Park revealed that preparations are already under way to transform the park into the Grand Prix circuit!

The setting sun shines on the Eureka Tower, sending gold rays of light into the cloud above.

View across Albert Park Lake, looking back towards the City.

This will be the Pit Complex, currently used as a sports hall for a range of different sporting activites.

This is where our Grandstand seats will be for the 2008 Australian Formula 1 Grand Prix, the same spot as we had last year!

Driving up the Starting Grid the wrong way! Can't wait to see, hear and feel 20,000 horsepower at 15.30! I think that means that it starts at 04.30 in the UK!

More to come on the transformation of Albert Park as it happens...

20.01 Skandia Weekend in Docklands

Docklands hosted the Skandia Geelong Week. Racing took place just outside Williamstown.

One of the many yachts taking part in the racing during Geelong Week.

There were a number of support races held in the Docklands Marina.

This is the view from our terrace over the berths. We did take a guided tour on the 'Skandia' yacht, which was very interesting. The yacht was minus a mast, as it had broken off during the Sydney to Hobart race!

One of the many visiting yachts that weekend!

13.01 Melbourne Central City Studios

The Melbourne Central City Studios are a short walk from our apartment block, and this is where one of the many sets have been created for the mini-tv series Pacific, the sequal to Band of Brothers from Steven Spielberg & Tom Hanks.

Part of the set includes this structure, which forms part of a warship! Not sure whether you'll be able to see the city link road in the background in the series!

On our walk past the entry to the studios! Then...

You Yangs!

12.01 Dandenong Ranges: Ramsay Street

On our return journey home from the Dandenong Ranges, we thought that we'd pop in on a certain street, Ramsay Street to be precise! If you look in the Melways, you won't find it under that name, but Pinoak Court!

We drove up and I tried to turn round, and then realised why a Magna had never featured on Neighbours, as it results in an Austin Powers moment! The turning circle of the Magna is probably the same as an old London Routemaster double decker! I've just read that the Mitsuibishi 380 that replaced our model isn't any better - perhaps one of the reasons why Mitsubishi has ceased production in Australia!

Anyway, back to Ramsay Street... it was a bit of a weird experience to be honest. Joanna had been here before, so she wasn't particularly interested in getting out of the car. So off I went to see the security guard (24 hour, 7 days!), who told me that I could take photos but I wasn't allowed if the owners were in their front gardens.

So I managed to take these photos before the camera batteries went flat, and the embarrassment of it all overcame me!

12.01 Dandenong Ranges: Mount Dandenong

We took a return trip to the Dandenong Ranges for the day, where we visited the William Ricketts Sanctuary, renowned for it's beauty, tranquillity and sculptures hidden among the trees & ferns.

Nathan enjoying a nice cup of tea on Mount Dandenong.

Joanna on Mt Dandenong with Melbourne in the distance.

Melbourne emerges out of the haze!

The view from SkyHigh on Mount Dandenong.

'So what can you do Joanna?' Joanna replies 'I can sing the theme tune!'

Some of the sculptures at the William Rickett Sanctuary, with us in various poses!

09.12 Grampians: Great Ocean Road

Unfortuantely when we hit the GOR, the weather wasn't quite what we expected! And we didn't expect it to be such an eventful journey either!

The Bay of Islands!

London Bridge!

Port Campbell!

On the beach at Gibsons Steps!

At some point after leaving the Gibsons Steps we came up behind a 'Crazy Queenslander' (the car was registered in QLD), who was driving a little erratically.

We came across some roads works (road works here normally mean a few signs, reduced speed limit and a lot of gravel!) down a steep incline, so we slowed right down and saw the 'crazy queenslander' disappear at speed round the bend at the bottom.

When we got round the bend there was glass, hub caps and plastic mouldings from a car over the road. We looked to our left and our friend was pointing the wrong way towards a muddy bank down a small turning, with both occupants looking a little shocked!

He had managed to roll his hire car - small marks in the road indicated where the wheels & the roof had hit while it was sumersaulting, plus the glass deposit from the rear screen! Somehow he had avoided rolling straight into the nearby river!

It turned out our 'crazy queenslander' was a Chinese fellow, who had given himself a bit of 'road-rash' on the journey 'round' and his wife a serious bit of concussion! Luckily there weren't any serious injuries, as it took the emergency services about 30mins to reach us! The event did shake us all up a bit though, but fortunately we were joined by a number of other passing motorists!

Moonlight Head, which is at the end of a pretty dodgy unsealed road, plus a couple of bogans driving some old Datsun at full pelt too - not the best thing to see after what we'd come across earlier!

Moonlight Head is well known for its ship wrecks, in fact two anchors lie on the beach from two ships. You can just see one of them in the water, just to the left where the cliff meets the beach/water.

Looking back before the weather came in again!

08.12 Grampians: Mount William Sunset

The highest point in the Grampians is Mount William, so where better to watch the sunset?! It was an 10kms drive up a steep and very twisty road, followed by a 2kms march - Joanna still had her Melbourne legs on her!!

09.12 Grampians: Penshurst

On our way home we decided to head south and join the Great Ocean Road at Warrnambool. On Matt's journey down the GOR on his bike, a sea mist came in and covered the Twelve Apostles to a point where he couldn't see a single rock! So being the good tourist guides we are, we took the very picturesque drive down. We came across a little place that reminded us of home, Penshurst. It didn't quite have the large 'Place', but it did have a few projects in the village!

Looking for a small little residence?

How about setting up a small garage business?!

08.12 Grampians: Mount Arapiles

Having pretty much completed all of the North Grampians tourist sights we decided to head to Victoria's own Uluru, Mount Arapiles. This is a very popular spot for rockclimbers and abseilers! Mount Arapiles is also home to a fire-watch tower overlooking the Grampians and all the way to the South Australia border!

This was our initial greeting to Mt Arapiles!

Looking over the salt lakes of the wetlands. In the distance you can see a fire burning on South Australia border. The fire-watch person said that there were 20,000 hectares burning, but it was now under control. There was so much smoke that you couldn't see the Grampians! The car filled with ash as he had a drink in Horsham!!

08.12 Grampians: Ngamadjidj Shelter

After a picnic stop at Zumstein, and a quick look at Wartook Lake we headed even further north to the Ngamadjidj Shelter to view the Aboriginal rock paintings.

A typical aussie road scene!

Well, this is what we came across as we headed to the Shelter!

These are the painting from the Shelter.

This was the only way to the Shelter!

08.12 Grampians: MacKenzie Falls

Our drive took us further north to MacKenzie Falls!

08.12 Grampians: Reed Lookout & The Balconies

The next stop was Reed Lookout, where you park and take the short walk to The Balconies for views over the Victoria Valley.

The walk from Reeds Lookout took us past some rocky outcrops and there was supposed to be a walk through a stringybark forest, but obviously we had been beaten by bush fires again!

08.12 Grampians: Boroka Lookout

Today was going to be a day exploring the North Grampians and doing all the tourist sights along the way. Our first port of call was the Boroka Lookout, looking back towards Halls Gap and Lake Bellfield where we walked the evening before!

07.12 Grampians: Hall Gap Lake Bellfield

An evening stroll along the very imposing wall that stood high above our campsite formed part of the local dam, Lake Bellfield! As you can see it was certainly lacking some water, and had done so for some time!

07.12 Grampians: Halls Gap Lakeside Caravan Park

In a desperate bid to catch, we have managed to compile the following posts for our weekend trip to the Grampians! I think that this will bring our blogs for 2007 to a close, and hopefully allow us to get back on track with 2008!!

After a couple of hours driving we arrived at Halls Gap, which is pretty much in the centre of the Grampians. We stayed in a campsite called Halls Gap Lakeside Caravan Park, which was situated just outside the town next to the local dam!

First job was to clear the kangaroo pooh with the aptly named 'kangaroo sh*t shifting stick'!

The tents are quickly erected under the close gaze of a 'mob' of kangaroos!

The view from campsite, and the area where the 'mob' collects!

Other spectators take their positions!