Last Monday morning we set off at 6am for Melbourne with our trailer and the back of the car full of Zoe's furniture and possessions from England. It is about an 11 hour drive but with comfort breaks it ends up as just over 12. We wouldn't usually do it in one go and prefer to take the caravan and make a trip of it stopping overnight at various places on the way, but this time we had all the goodies on board so went for it. We drive a couple of hours each then swap so can pretty much keep going but it is a long day so we popped the tent in the back to enable us to stop on the way back. The city was all lit up as we drove in and looked fantastic.
It was our first visit to Zoe and Shaun's home and it was lovely. They live in Elsternwick, a very smart suburb just 8km from the city centre. The tram stops at the corner of their road and goes straight into the heart of the city, but they are also only a 20 minute walk from the nearest beach.
Zoe had booked for us to go to the World War 1 centenary exhibition at the Melbourne Museum, it is the one from the Imperial War Museum in London and was excellent.
 Melbourne is described as a very livable city and it is quite true, we hopped on the tram and were in the city in no time where it was very easy to find our way around. It is also a very beautiful place with a marvellous mix of old and new buildings which should not look good together but they do. 
Over the next couple of days Zoe impressed us with how well she has familiarised herself with the area in a relatively short period of time. She took us to visit Brighton, which is the suburb next to Elsternwick and has wonderful beach huts. She took us to  look at the beachside towns along the coast and then back into the city to the Queen Victoria Markets and Melbourne Gaol where Ned Kelly was hanged. The visit to the gaol was in three parts, a tour of the police cells, a look around the gaol and a re-enactment of the trial of Ned Kelly in the court house. While we were in the queue for the court, a guide came along asking for volunteers to take part in the re-enactment, Ian put his hand up along with nine other people and they were taken off inside. They were gone for some time before we were allowed in and when we entered the court, look who was the Crown Prosecutor!

We had a wonderful visit and left at 10.30 Friday morning agreeing that Melbourne was a very nice place indeed. We had had planned to stop off in Canberra on the way back and had the tent with us but it was pretty cold and Canberra really does get nippy this time of year, so we kept going again on the way back and pulled into Lemon Tree Passage at about 11pm.