26th Jan

We arrived back in Melbourne from New Zealand and things got back to normal pretty quick.

Yep its nice to lay on Nana and Grandads bed and watch the TV in nice quiet surroundings.

We took Hayden and Damien to  Science works,one of those interactive places that kids love.

Hayden had been there before but Damien hadn't.

We walked through the door and the boys disappeared trying all the things on offer. Of course Grandad had to have a go and enjoyed it as well.

The Lego model of central Melbourne was well done and gave us the position of the Botanical Gardens which we wanted to visit later on.

Melbourne has some pretty impressive bridges and flyovers and this one we passed under to get to Science works.

One other thing I wanted to do this time was to find the Footscray cemetery and look for my Great Grandfather and Mothers grave.

We found it with a bit of help from the guy on the gate and this is it. Another piece of the Jigsaw.

While at Debs, it was back to school for all the young ones and a group shot before they headed off.

 We did a trip into the City on the train and did the river trip, out to the Port of Melbourne.

A very interesting trip and worth doing if you are in Melbourne.

 Then it was time to head away and have some quiet time at the beach on the Mornington Peninsular at West Rye.

A nice spot under a tree to keep it cool in the afternoon, but a bit close to the road ,so a bit noisy.

There was a nice beach with warm water, so we swam a bit and finally got some biking done, with a trip down the foreshore and later on out to Fort Nepean on the tip of the peninsular.On the way we passed the beach where Harry Holt the then Prime Minister of Australia drowned in 1967

There is a memorial set up above the beach.

Just to prove we went there on the Bikes.
 From here it was on to the Fort but we had to walk the last 1km as bikes were not allowed.

There were some interesting things to see,I thought so anyway, not sure about Helen though!

The Port of Melbourne was the second most heavily defended Port in the World,the most defended was Gibraltar.

The first shots of the First and Second Worlds war were fired from here and these are the gun barrels that did it.

While we were at Rye we met up with our friends Helen and Brian and took the Ferry across to Queenscliff.

There are some nice old buildings over there and after having a meal and a walk around we headed home.

Well that's enough this time. Next post we head North and the last leg home.

Cheers Helen and David.