Everybody needs good Neighbours...

So we're in Melbourne...it had to happen...here is the review of Neighbours night and the tour:

Since we decided to put our flights back to New Zealand, so that we could have a bit more in time in Melbourne, we thought we would take full advantage of our extra time, and fill it with a bit of Neighbours mania (thanks to a bit of nagging by myself!)

On the monday night we all headed down to the Elephant and Wheelbarrow, paid our slightly expensive admittance fee ($40) and waited for our 'Neighbours Night' experience to start!

On the poster in our hostel it said that the special guests that night would be Ryan Maloney (Toadie), Carla Bonner (Steph), Kyal Marsh (Boyd), and Dr Karl's band 'Waiting Room' would be playing afterwards. To be quite honest, we were a bit gutted as we had seen the line-up for the week before which was Toadie, Harold and Skye (much better) and I had already met Steph before in England. But to give the stars their credit - they were really worth the money!

At first everyone was just waiting around, with the dj stringing us along every few minutes, saying that they would be out in a minute. But eventually the time came, and we were all made to do a roudy rendition of the Neighbours theme tune. As we were at the back of the room, when Toadie, Steph and Boyd actually made it to the front we couldn't see a thing anyway! But there was no need to worry as we were all told quite firmly to sit down at our tables while the Trivia Quiz was in progress, and the stars would come round to us.

To be fair to the organisers, it was all planned very well and as the quiz was going on, sure enough Ryan Maloney got to our table and we all got a bit of a chat with him and all the photos we wanted. All I can say about him is - what a legend!! He was awesome and really up for a laugh.

Next up came Carla Bonner. I was slightly less impressed with her I have to say, although we still got loads of time to take photos, and the lads got a lovely picture of her in the middle of the two of them! But she seemed pretty dazed when I tried to talk to her. Maybe she was drunk, or just uncomfortable being in the public eye.

But the real star of the night, had to be Boyd! He really suprised me as at first I wasn't really bothered to see him - lets face it, his character isn't really the most interesting. But in real life he was a really sound guy. He even made the effort to introduce himself to everyone and find out their names and have a bit of a chat, which was very sweet. Plus he is WAY hotter in real life than on TV, which had to count for something!

Then after the trivia quiz, "Fletch" aka Karl Kennedy took the stage with his band, who were actually suprisingly good! Although I did sometimes feel like cringing as it was a bit like watching your dad dance at the disco (sorry Dad - you know I love your dancing! ;o) ). But you had to give it to him - he really put everything he had into the performance and the atmosphere was great!

After such a great night out, we decided we couldn't leave Melbourne without going on the famous 'Neighbours Tour'. So on the wednesday morning we were all picked up and taken first to the studios (originally called Grundy but I can't remember their new name) where they film the show. This was pretty cool as we got to see the set of grease monkeys and Lou's mechanics shop, and the famous bus stop where everyone seems to leave Neighbours from! Then as we were snapping away, who should walk around the corner but Alan Fletcher (Dr Karl) from the other night! We all got to take some photos with him and get an autograph or two and then we had a chat about the studios, the show, and any gossip we wanted to know about the coming months. I won't mention anything here as I know how annoying it is when people tell you gossip that is going to happen, before you watch it (Louise & Smolla!) but we found out A LOT!! And suffice to say Neighbours is still keeping up their tradition of ridiculously ludicrous storylines - awesome!

After we said goodbye to Fletch (he got called away to filming) we had a look at the school they use for Erinsborough High, and then headed down to Pin Oak road - otherwise known as Ramsey Street. We all got photos outside the different houses whilst the residents came and went (very strange) and the tour guide gave some background on the houses and who lived where etc. This guy was awesome and really knew his stuff. Unfortunately we were travelling on the second bus and so inbetween stops we got an extremely vague commentary from our driver - who I think had only heard of Neighbours that day - which consisted of phrases like "Yeh, that road was used in a scene where a dog got run over by that dude who was married to that blonde girl...err...don't you remember?".

Anyway despite the appalling bus driver, the tour was really good and it was pretty cool to actually be standing outside the houses that you had been watching on TV since you were a kid. Plus we got tonnes of information about what is going to happen in the future, and were able to reminisce about the good old days of Brad and Todd, with the guide who actually had watched the show at least twice in his life!

Anyway, I had better stop rambling about it, as I do get a bit excited about the whole Neighbours experience and you are probably all bored out of your minds! But a great day was had by all :o)

Take care, and I promise not to mention Neighbours again until I get back!

Laura x