Days 1 & 2
The weather is warm (30'c+) with blue skies & sunshine. :-) Had a good time in Melbourne - some of the sunny offerings including: St Kilda - home to one of Melbourne's beaches, a Sunday market and the F1 Grand Prix Race track; Observation Deck - 360' views of Melbourne & surrounds from 253m above the city on the 55th floor of the Rialto Towers; Melbourne Central - Shopping & tourist complex preserving a former shot tower with an "Australiana" clock which opens on the hour playing "Waltzing Matilda"; Myers Window Display - huge departmental store who every Christmas have a superb animatronics portrayal of a well-known book in their shop window - this time being "Wind in the Willows", and playing table tennis with an Israeli and chatting to an Aussie in a backpacker bar (the pub had to happen sometime!) ;-)

Day 3 (After flight Melbourne - New Zealand - Sydney)
Today went round the Sunday markets at The Rocks and outside the Opera House, before taking a tour of the Opera House itself. Quite impressive - you don't quite realise how big it is until you get inside. This was followed by a trip to the 360' observation deck of the AMP Tower with its accompanying Skytour - a virtual reality adventure through Australian history. There was a lot of smoke in the air from the bush fires over on the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains are about 2hrs west of Sydney. I enjoyed free night time entertainment outside the Opera House, which included fireworks, acrobatics and a neon light show. Just as well, at 7:30pm it was still about 20'c+. The hostel was like an oven, so I had to escape to somewhere cooler.

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