L0p3z and Neno's Upside-Down Adventure: Everybody needs good Neighbours.....

Yesterday was the day I'd been waiting for. Finally we could go on the official Neighbours tour. We were collected early by the tour guide who gave a quick run down of the history of the show. Even I struggled with some of the characters he was talking about, there are over 300 people so far. He also added some interesting facts about the show, like the fact that its the longest running drama series in Australia and that its been sold to over 50 countries. Then we headed off with a 'classic' episode on the DVD player. It was the one where Harold returns with amnesia as Ted the Salvation Army volunteer. It was funny watching it after all these years, the 90's fashion and hair was hilarious and Hannah Martin is still just as annoying as she was all those years ago.

The first stop is Pine Oak Court which is the real location for Ramsey Street. Its much smaller than it looks on TV and most of the houses are real peoples houses. They get a load of cash and 24 hour security guard in exchange for letting the show shot in the road and gardens of the houses. It has to be the safest road in Australia due to the 24 hour security but in the show its so dangerous, everyone dies. The tour guided outlined who had lived where and the major events that had happened in the street. After a few pictures with the famous sign we head off to the studios for an exclusive (until next weekend when the tour runs again) look at some of the other locations used.

The studio lot is only used for Neighbours now, but in the past other shows including Prisoner Cell Block H were filmed there. It was exciting seeing all the other places from the show, mostly around the Lassiters complex as well as Fitzgeralds Motors and Grease Monkeys. Amazingly all the sets are really close to each other, it's very cool to see how they would have to shoot certain scenes to hide other parts of the set. The show films 5 days a week and is filming 4 months ahead of schedule for Australia, this is about 6 months back for the UK. Luckily they are in the process of filming a dramatic storyline involving a wedding. All the debris from an explosion was on the grass outside the hotel. The guide teased that he knew who it was but didn't tell us. By chance we found a script left on the floor and managed to read some of it. Lloyd was about to steal it but failed to 'act casual' then the security guard looked over. I was gutted as it would have been an awesome souvenir.

After all the excitement we headed to the beach in Port Melbourne and met up with Lloyd's uni friend Chris and his fiancé Krista. They have a lovely place looking over the beach so we headed back and fired up the BBQ again. Lloyd and Chris spent much of the evening reminiscing about Uni days.