G'day mate! Tracie's down under adventure. Day Five.

[Guest]

Day Five – Yarra River cruise, Ramsay St set tour and the Flower Drum Chinese restaurant.

Today was the day I’d most been looking forward to during my visit to Melbourne, this afternoon we would be going on a tour to the Neighbours Ramsay St set!

We woke up fairly late for us considering we had been doing 6am starts for the past couple of day, but was still out of the hotel around 10ish. As the weather was really nice we decided to head down to the Southgate Arts & Leisure Complex and get some breakfast and then do a river cruise along the Yarra as our pick-up point for the Neighbours tour later was at Flinders St station which was a short walk away from the Southgate Centre where all the river cruises leave from.

We found a really nice café and had a leisurely breakfast sitting outside watching the world go by, then walked down to the riverfront and chose a tour to do, as we had to be back by 1pm for our tour pick-up we decided to go for the down river cruise which lasted an hour and half and took in sights such as Southgate Arts & Leisure Precinct, 19th Century sailing ship “Polly Woodside”, World Congress & Trade Centre, Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre, Crown Entertainment Complex and the Westgate Bridge.





After the river cruise finished we had a look around the shopping mall at the Southgate complex then walked across to the other side of the river where Flinders St was located, also by the station is Federation Sq which houses amongst other things the official visitors centre.



We had a wander around here for a bit and took some photos and then decided to get an ice cream before we headed over to St Pauls church which was the pick-up location for the tour. We hung around wondering how we were gonna spot our bus, but we needn’t have worried as when it turned up, it looked like this!



After a quick stop off at the tour office to pay we were off! On the drive down to the suburb that the street that doubled as Ramsay St was, the tour driver played loads of classic hits by ex Neighbours stars such as Stefan Dennis, Jason Donovan, Danni Minogue, Holly Valance, Craig McLachlan and of course, Kylie! So we all had a good time singing away! First stop was the school that’s exterior doubles as Erinsborough High, which is really a school that teachs English as a 2nd language to children. The tour guide got the Erinsborough High sign out of the bus and we all took turns posing by the gate with the sign:



Once all the photos were taken we headed back onto the bus to go to the studios where all the interior shots are filmed, we weren’t allowed to take photos here, but we did bumped into someone in the car park!



We all stood around and spoke to Damian Bodie who plays Dylan Timmons for about 10-15 mins then it was back on the bus for the big one, the one that we were all there for, Ramsay St! We did get another surprise though on our way there, when we were beeped by another car, who’s driver turned out to be none other than Stephen Lovett who plays Max Hoyland! One of the ladies on the tour got really excited as she told everyone who would listen that he is her ideal man!

After a short drive we were there! Now only a die hard Neighbours fan would understand how exciting this moment was, I never thought I would actually be here, standing outside Todie’s house, and then there’s Sooz’s house, and the Robinsons, and Harold and Lou’s place! It’s a sensory and visual overload, and everyone is very excited! One thing I did notice is the street, well cul-de-sac, is much smaller in real life, with only six houses, on TV they make it look a lot longer! Anyway, the tour guide gets out the Ramsay St sign and tells us we can take as much time as we want taking pics, and we were off!









We spent about an hour and half here taking snaps, apparently the people who actually live there are used to it and don’t mind as long as you don’t do something stupid like trample all over their lawn! They do get paid, but apparently it isn’t that much so they wouldn’t mind if the company decided to move elsewhere! *lol* Anyway, all too soon it was over, and we were on our way back to the city, we hit a little traffic, but was back at our hotel just after 6pm.

Tonight we had arranged to meet my friend Lauren who lives in Melbourne for dinner at the Flower Drum, which is, one of Melbourne’s top restaurants, so much so, that it doesn’t advertise, doesn’t have a website and exsists through word of mouth only. I’d heard about it on the Melbourne Trip Advisor forum so decided to treat my friend to a meal seeing as I hadn’t seen her for three years! So we showered and changed and then decided to walk down to Chinatown as it was only a 10 min walk from our hotel. We managed to find the restaurant, just, it’s hidden away down a side alley! But despite it’s slightly dodgy location, this place is fabulous! You walk inside and are greeted by a host and then whisked up in a evaluator to the main restaurant, which is huge! Loads of round tables with crisp white table clothes and what seemed like 1 waiter per table… the service was second to none, and then food was amazing – unfortunately we didn’t take any pics, it was a bit too posh for that, but trust me, it was out of this world! If you are in Melbourne then go, but you do need to book in advance, this restaurant is popular! Anyway, we stayed for ages, was one of the last to leave, but never at any point felt pressured to go, we had a great night catching up, eating great food and drinking superb wines, a great end to a fantastic day.

Got back to our hotel around midnight and fell asleep dreaming of Aussie soaps and fab Chinese food!

[scottfeltham]

great day,good pics of ramsey street
im always telling everyone ive been there
rideing the bus was fun,watching the old episodes
we chose helen daniels dying one
its great you met one of the actors,all we saw was there cars
scott

[ely3857]

Fantastic day



Jodie

[gail33]

Great photos!