another stamp in the passport

Landed in Melbourne tonight, making it into Australia with no troubles.

First impression of Melbourne is of a beautiful city - we're staying right downtown next to an urban river lined with skyscrapers, green strips of park and walkways. Each downtown building seems to enhance its presence with colored lights, and the blues and greens reflect off the river. Also we're staying in a hostel affiliated with one of the best dive bars I've seen since leaving New Orleans. (I hadn't realized until now, but New Zealand just didn't have many dive bars. It had rough, rural local pubs and seedy pubs in town. It didn't have any real urban dive bars of the kind New Orleans excels in.) Didn't actually have too much time to explore, since we got in after dark. The weather is already better than what we left, so hopefully we'll get a good day tomorrow to see what the city has to offer.