Dear friends,

Yesterday we caught a tram out to South Melbourne to see Hanae’s flat and her dance school. South Melbourne is beautiful and the houses are very distinctive and quite different from New Zealand. Many houses are old and seem to be brick with a little inside veranda area. The trams in Melbourne are very strange. There is a self-pay machine in the middle of the tram and therefore many people seem to be riding the trams for free. This to me seems odd that an affluent city like Melbourne would have such a poor system! I was told that usually 1 out of every 5 people on the tram actually pay! I agree that it seems strange to buy a ticket when there is nobody checking. Laura said that over the span of a year her ticket has been checked 3 times!!! My straight-laced nature wouldn’t allow me to risk not paying for a ticket, we tried it for one ride and I was freaking out the whole time! Shinji however believes the government should be paying for public transport anyway so didn’t have a problem haha. Then in the afternoon we caught up with Laura and made Japanese curry at her new flat.

Today we got out and about early and went to the museum. My favourite bit (as per usual) was the taxidermy animals. The display was amazing with touch screens that described the species and geographical location of each animal. Afterwards we went to Brunswick Street for a coffee. Many people had recommended that we should go see this street but being a Wellingtonian its charm may have fallen slightly flat as it was kind of like a bigger Cuba Street. Shinji who is a little weak hearted when it comes to shopping wrote it off as a haven for girls with nothing for boys. We then hopped on another tram and went and saw the second building of the art gallery. We watched an interesting documentary on a Japanese hermit couple. Unfortunately we couldn’t afford to see the Modernity in German Art Exhibition, which was disappointing as there seemed to be some Bauhaus pieces I would have loved to have seen.

Laura then picked us up from the backpackers and we took the tram out to St Kilder to see the penguins at dusk. Penguins are Shinji’s favourite animals but he has never seen them in their natural habitat before. When we arrived we got chips and a kebab and walked down the jetty to the rock penguin sanctuary. It wasn’t long till we saw the beautiful penguins. However this wasn’t the only critter we got to see. There was also WATER RATS or as a friendly Aussie block told us they are not actually rats but the cousins of kangaroos. With their white tails they were actually sort of cute!

Tomorrow we catch the plane to Perth and see Mum and Dad….exciting!

Lots of Love

Esmé

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