Day 1 of the Tour is done and dusted…and we are excited to share with you the first of our daily blog posts. Today’s post will be relatively short, as we have spent much of the day travelling from Perth to Melbourne and enjoying an evening out in the city.

After saying goodbye to our families, we made our way quickly through security, grabbed some last-minute snacks and received a short briefing from Mrs Taylor and Miss K – who let us know our Activity Groups which we will occasionally organise ourselves in for tours, activities and short trips around the various cities we visit.

The flight to Melbourne was pretty uneventful – we watched movies, played card games, read books or simply zoned out and relaxed. When we arrived in Melbourne, we retrieved our bags and helped Murray the coach driver to load all our baggage before travelling to our accommodation. The weather was gloomy but we luckily managed to dodge the rain for the rest of the day.

Our first impressions of Melbourne: cold, rainy, busy. A lot like Perth city in winter. Initially, the most noticeable difference to us between Perth and Melbourne was the presence of trams. We have mixed feelings about venturing on these tomorrow, as most of our activity group haven’t visited Melbourne before.

While some of us had already scoped out the hotel online, we were all impressed with our rooms at Batman’s Hill, and were relieved to settle in for a moment before heading out into the city.

A slight change to our itinerary meant that we spent some time late in the afternoon shopping and exploring Melbourne’s CBD, leaving the bowling to tomorrow night (Day 2). After a stop back at the hotel, we made our way to Southbank where we took our pick of the many choices at the multi-storey food court for dinner.

After dinner we continued on a night walk through the city, admiring the lights and scenic views along the Yarra River. We walked around at Federation Square, where lit-up billboards and LED screens highlighted the recent celebrations during NAIDOC week. We then visited the steps outside Flinders Street Station and appreciated the mass and beauty of Australia’s oldest train station. Equally notable was the Gothic-style cathedrals and churches, and how much they stand out against the very modern buildings and street art nearby.

Eventually we headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest. While we are exhausted from a long day of travelling and sightseeing, we are also excited to be heading to Melbourne Gaol and the MCG tomorrow. We look forward to showing more of our happy faces in the blog, but for now we hope you enjoy seeing a glimpse of Melbourne through our eyes (well, cameras).

Today’s blog post was proudly brought to you by Miss K’s group – Elijah, Ryan (Gemmell), Owen, Harry, Samuel, Maahi, Sophie, Yujin and Vayda.