Melbourne

And so to the end of the road, Melbourne, we arrived in our customary late afternoon slot, and drove to St Kilda, where Tom lived for 3 months previously. Tom and Roz found a good hostel and I found a good hotel over the road, and after a quick change we headed to The Vineyards beachside bar for sunset. Tom then took us to Stoke House for dinner, before continuing onto The Espi for yet more drinks and live music. We heard 'Tantalum', five very made up and glamourous rock chicks, or as the guy in front of us described, "the Pussycat Dolls, with rock". We all agreed the lead guitarist was pretty amazing, and the rest held it together as a band, much like myself Chris and Rob at uni!

Afterwards we went to The Lanes, then Prince of Wales where $3 could buy all the pinball Tom could ever want!

Next day shopping, and a phonecall to Natwest to explain that 'yes there is heavy spending on my account, and, no, please don't put a security stop on it'. Dinner was Vietnamese, very nice before a few more drinks in Fed Square before The Crown Casino. Tom and Roz had never played blackjack in a casino before so we wandered round and found a suitable $20 table. I took it upon myself with my Vegas experience to play the role of Mickey Rosa. As I had explained to them previously the next 3 hours were a blur of 'doubling down', 'splitting' and '3 rum and cokes please'. They both picked it up very quickly and we all eased to green profits ($100 bills y'all). A night well spent!

The next day we met up with Ada and Chris, two girls who Tom used to work with, who took us on a tour of the Yarra Valley vineyards. They were lovely and knew some great winerys to head too. After an afternoon of sampling sparkling wines, reds, whites, ports, we left with approximately 14 bottles of wine, one of which a 3 litres bottle of Pinot Noir which I hope will survive the 3 month boat trip home (given we spent 2 hours this morning bubble-wrapping everything it should do!). We headed to Torquay that night so that we could head to Bells Beach the next morning. In the end this was extremely underwhelming but worth the trip never the less. It was also in Torquay where I sampled my first oyster, and quite enjoyed it....

Which brings me to last night, the last supper, which we had at The Prince. After some deliberation we settled on the 9 course taster menu with wine. This was one of the best meals I have ever had, every course was superb, including wagyu beef, lemon ale palate cleansers and Snickers dessert..... a great way to end the holiday leg of the holiday.

All in all a great trip, photos to hit Facebook sometime soon.

From Gate 9, Melbourne Airport, Liam Out.