This is some of what we saw on New Years Eve in Sydney.

Hello Again!

We have been so busy traveling around, by Train, Plane, Automobile, Skyrail, Bus and Boat, that we haven’t had the chance to update the blog. This means you get about 90 pictures all in one go, you lucky people.

So we got to Cairns and the plan was to relax for five days over christmas, but realising we only had two and a half weeks left before we headed back to the cold UK we decided to fit in as much as possible.

After a short nights sleep our first full day in Cairns was started early, waking up at 3.30 to allow us to get ready before being picked up and taken an hours drive away to the hills around Cairns. We were going Hot Air Ballooning.

We were on the second flight of the morning, so watched the Balloons being filled up with air.

This is us in front of our Koala Balloon.

The balloon then took off.

We chased after the balloon in a bus before it was our turn.

Once the first flight was over we rushed across a field in a trailer before climbing aboard. We got up to over 1000m high/over 3000 feet (which was more than enough for me), and got some amazing views.

This was our pilot Shane.

After the flight we had the enjoyable experience of packing the balloon away.

We then went off to enjoy a Champagne breakfast (it was a bit early for Champagne, as breakfast was served at 8am).

The rest of the day was spent relaxing round the pool.

On the Wednesday we went on another cruise out to the Great Barrier Reef. We got a guided bus to Port Douglas and learnt lots about the area. The boat then took us on the hour cruise to a pontoon at the side of Agincourt Reef. This is where disaster struck.

Whilst walking throughout the main door into the boat Kirstie hit her feet against a small ridge. This hurt her big toe (well the right big toe) but we were in a rush to get onto the semi-sub boat. At the end of the boat ride Kirstie was in so much pain. We got the first aider to look at it and applied ice. We had booked to go on a guided snorkel tour round the reef with the Marine Biologist but Kirstie wouldn’t be able to snorkel for an hour. We had hired a digital underwater camera so decided that I would do the snorkel on my own whilst she recovered.

I got some good pictures of the fish and coral.

I even got a picture of me snorkelling.

Upon our return to Cairns we went to a 24 hour medical centre (costly). The doctor said he thought Kirstie may have broken her toe and told us to get an Xray done. Because Kirstie didn’t want to miss out on our trip on Thursday we hired crutches and delayed the Xray.

We ended up cutting our trip on Thursday short, as Kirstie could barely walk (even with crutches) but still went up the Kuranda Railway and back down the Skyrail.

We got some nice views of the waterfall.

After the train got to Kuranda we decided it would be too hard to walk around the village and took the Skyrail straight back down.

The Skyrail went over the rainforest and we had stunning 360° views. After the rainforest it headed back down towards Cairns.

We headed into Cairns to get a Medicare card so we’d get cheaper medical care before getting Kirstie Xrayed and going back to the doctors. Luckily it wasn’t broken, but she was told she should rest it for a few weeks as it was badly bruised. Not much chance of that happening as only two days later we were flying to Ayers Rock.

Christmas Day came and went, even though Kirstie had decorated the trees in our apartment it didn’t feel like Christmas.

On Boxing Day we headed to the Airport at 7.30am to catch a flight to Ayers Rock. The flight took us over stunning salt lakes and mountains. Around Christmas Ayers Rock is usually about 40-45°c but luckily thanks to Cyclone Laurence passing through a few days earlier the temperature was a much more comfortable 30-35°c.

The first night we went to the Ayers Rock Observatory. We got great views of the stars ,we just had to look up, this was a much better view than usual due to the lack of light pollution.

We looked through telescopes and saw the moon and jupiter close up. Kirstie now wants a telescope should anyone wish to donate.

After seeing the stars we headed back to the hotel for 4 hours sleep before heading out to Uluru to see the sunrise. I’m more used to a different type of Rock photography but enjoyed taking pictures of Uluru (ended up with over 700 pictures in two days). The rock changes colour dramatically as the sun both rises and sets.

We were both happy to be up so early.

We then went on a guided walk in to a waterhole at the side of the rock. It was interesting learning about how the rock formed. There was also stunning scenery and trees all around.

After the walk and a visit to the Cultural Centre we went back to the hotel to get some sleep before being picked up for our second trip of the day.

After a few hours sleep we were picked up and taken to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) which was just as impressive as Uluru.

Again we had a short walk at Kata Tjuta, and Kirstie decided to take a picture of me, taking a picture of a tree.

This is the picture I was taking.

We then went to see the Sunset at Uluru, which again was stunning.

We then flew to Sydney.

I was going to write more but we are about to board our plane to Tasmania.

In the next day or so we’ll update you with everything we did in Sydney including New Years Eve.

Here’s a preview of a picture.

PART TWO:

After two nights in Ayers Rock we flew to Sydney. After being in such vast open space it was slightly odd going into a heavily built up city.

On our first full day in Sydney we went to The Rocks and Circular Quay which have views of both the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

Around here everyone is just taking photos of each other with a backdrop of the Opera House/Bridge, so we joined in.

On Wednesday we jumped on board the City Sightseeing Bus and went round had nice views and a guided tour round the city.

This is one of the buses.

We went to the Opera House, we originally were going to do a tour round the Opera House but it was so busy we decided against it. Also, close up the inside of the Opera House is a big ugly concrete block.

The outside of the Opera House was nice and we had good views of the Bridge.

We went past the Sydney Hospital. Outside the Hospital is a pig statue which people place money in then rub the nose for good luck in relation to health. Kirstie threw some money in and rubbed it but her toe still hurts a lot.

On Wednesday I went out on my own to see the sunset (as Kirsties toe hurt from walking all day and had swelled up).

I saw the sunset behind the Harbour Bridge, and got a few nice pictures of the Opera House with the moon behind it.

The city skyline.

Thursday arrived, and of course, was New Years Eve. NYE is a big thing in Sydney, so we thought we’d go along and see what goes on. But first we went on the sightseeing bus on Bondi Beach, the beach looked great even though the weather was a bit dull.

We headed back to Sydney, got some snacks from the Supermarket and headed to Mrs Macquaries Chair, the best viewpoint of both the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. We knew it would be busy as the viewpoint had a limited capacity of 20,000. We got to the queue at 11.30am a good 12 and a half hours before midnight and were told there was a three hour queue to get into the grounds. As I hate queueing/waiting for anything Kirstie decided to take pictures of my mood as the wait went along.

First, looking at the map to find the way.

Then we got to the queue.

As we moved along the queue, the wind got up and it started to rain, which shows just how bad/long my hair has got in the last three months.

After three hours in the slow moving queue we made it into the park and find a view point.

And then we sat, for what seemed like hours (it was hours).

We got a bit bored.

I started taking pictures to stop the boredom.

Including pictures of the sunset.

As it got nearer to 9pm, and the first set of fireworks, Kirstie started to get excited.

Then the first set went off.

Then back to being bored again for a few hours.

I took more pictures of the skyline.

Then as it approached midnight everyone got more excited until the big countdown. The countdown happened and then the best set of fireworks we’ve ever seen went off all around us.

We then walked back to the hotel (which took an hour and a half) before falling straight asleep. It was a long day.

On New Years Day we headed to the IMAX. The IMAX in Sydney is the biggest in the world, with a screen 8 Floors tall. We saw a 50 minute film called Under The Sea. It was all in 3D and the picture was amazing, and the colours were so vivid.

After a quick stop for lunch, we then went over to Luna Park so Kirstie could get some pressed pennies for her ever growing collection. Getting to Luna Park meant walking over the Harbour Bridge. Despite looking short, the bridge is actually 1,140m long. This is us on the bridge.

And this is us on the bridge with The Opera House behind us.

Further along the bridge we got better views of the Opera House.

You could pay to climb the bridge but it was about £100. We did think of climbing it unofficially but didn’t want to get fined.

We made it to Luna Park.

From the front of Luna Park there was great views of the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

Friday night we relaxed before heading to the airport and flying to Tasmania on Saturday.

We hope everyone had a good New Years Eve, and that everyone is well.

We are now worried about the cold as it feels cold in Tasmania despite being over 20°c, we will freeze back in the UK.

See you all soon.

Hello Everyone,

We made it to Cairns for Christmas, and have been enjoying our lovely hotel apartment (thanks mum and dad).

We are now cooking our first Christmas Chicken together (Turkeys are too large and expensive here).

We just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Christmas, and we hope your day is more Christmassy than ours (it really doesn’t feel like christmas).

Have a great day

Love Jon and Kirstie x

When we got to Hervey Bay we had three days when we just took it easy, did some swimming and sat next to the pool.

We left Hervey Bay to head to Arlie Beach, but as it was a long way we booked a night in Rockhampton to split up the drive. Rockhampton is a city in the middle of nowhere, where there isn’t much to do, but it gave us somewhere to sleep and a close supermarket to get some food. In the two days drive from Hervey Bay to Arlie Beach we traveled over 900km (over 550 miles) and in this time only passed a few towns. The government of Queensland had even put some nice signs up to remind us that there was still a long way to go. We didn’t have cameras out, so didn’t get any pictures but the first sign read ‘Are we there yet?’ and was followed 500m down the road with ‘Still a long way to go’. Isolation is nice and the scenery was good.

We got to Arlie Beach and our Holiday Park was well worth the extra money we spent on staying there. Arlie Beach is on the coast with the Whitsunday Islands just across the ocean. We couldn’t be this close to the Islands and not visit so on Tuesday we took a day cruise to the Islands.

The cruise first took us to Whitsunday Island and to the Hill Inlet Lookout. Before the short walk to the lookout I saw another tree I liked (I’m collecting photos of random trees now).

We walked up to the Inlet Lookout and got an amazing view of the island and the beaches (a photo can’t do it justice).

We then went to Whitehaven Beach which has been voted one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. It’s 7km of pure white sand. The only problem about it is this time of year stingers are about and so you need a full wetsuit on to go near the water, but that didn’t bother us too much. This is the beach.

We then went to Hook Island and did some snorkelling. We bought a water proof camera so we could take some pictures under water of the coral and fish, and almost used up a full camera. We haven’t got the film developed yet, but as soon as we do then some pictures will be up on the website.

Wednesday was a relaxing day spent round the pool at the Holiday Park or in the Arlie Beach lagoon, which is a free to use public swimming pool next to the harbour.

Thursday was our second cruise of the week. This time it was to The Great Barrier Reef, there was no chance of us coming all this way and not go out to see it. The thing that most people (i.e. us) don’t realise is that The Great Barrier Reef is made up of hundreds of Reefs, and that in total The Great Barrier Reef is the same size as the UK. We boarded the Cruise Whitsunday Seaflight boat at 8am and enjoyed a 3 hour cruise to Knuckle Reef (some people didn’t enjoy it as it was a bit bumpy). We were given the opportunity (in exchange for more of our hard earned savings) to go Scuba Diving. This again was another thing that we were both nervous to do but decided as we are never going to get the chance to do it again we should seize the moment and do it.

When we go to the pontoon next to the reef we first went on a Subsea Adventure and then a Glass Bottomed Boat. From these we got a guided tour of the reef. Here is some of what we saw (the quality isn’t great as these were taken through glass).

This is the pontoon as taken from the Glass Bottomed Boat.

After these boats we had a bit of time to grab some lunch before we had to get ready for Scuba Diving.

Now, seizing the moment seemed a great idea when we first talked about diving but 2 hours later and after suiting up and having a 15kg backpack put on us it didn’t seem to hold the same appeal. We walked down some steps into an enclosed dark area under the pontoon. This was the time to try out our oxygen and put our heads under the water before going out into the reef. The enclosed area didn’t make Kirstie feel very comfortable and I found the breathing hard at first.

Scuba Diving is all about breathing and with just over 53 years experience of breathing between us, we thought we’d be fine. However, it’s a lot harder than you imagine. I managed to get used to it and was ok after the first few minutes, but Kirstie didn’t feel quite as comfortable. We set out with our Diving instructor Theunis in the search for Nemo, but unfortunately didn’t find him. We did see lots of amazing looking fish including the Maori Wrasse (although that’s ugly in my opinion) and loads of stunning corals. In case you didn’t realise Coral isn’t a plant it is actually a living/breathing animal.

This is us Scuba Diving.

And this is our instructor Theunis.

During our journey we have tried to conquer many fears. They (who ever ‘they’ are) say you should face your fears, and then you wouldn’t fear them again. Mainly I’ve done that, Kirstie on the under hand has faced several fears and realised that she really is scared of them. I would quite happily do Scuba diving again, Kirstie wouldn’t.

Anyways, after Scuba time for more lunch and more fresh prawns.

After 4 hours at the pontoon we headed back. I ended up experimenting with pictures of the sun. This is my favourite.

After five nights at Arlie Beach we headed onwards towards Ayr, where we were due to stay on Friday and Saturday.

On the way we got to see another big thing, The Big Mango. Probably the last big thing we’ll see.

We got to the Holiday Park in Ayr and it was horrible, so we got a refund and headed onwards. We ended up in Townsville, which is ‘The Capital of Northern Queensland’. Townsville was pretty much like a ghost town. We found it odd that on the last Saturday before Christmas half the shops were closed and the other half closed at 1pm. Maybe we are just used to a 24 hour society. We found some more people when we drove up to the top of Castle Hill. As we drove we saw lots of people running and walking up the steep inclines. This is the view from the top.

As we don’t really feel in the Christmas mood at the moment we went to Stable on The Strand, a Christmas festival organised by Townsville religious groups. Although it was fun, Kirstie got to decorate a cookie and touch a cow, it still didn’t make us feel christmassy.

Today we drove to Innisfail. On the way we drove to Mission Beach and past land full of Cassowaries. It was important not to speed.

We are now in the Holiday Park next to a river full of Crocodiles, we’ll write soon if we make it out alive.

Hope you are all enjoying the snow back home.

So last time we spoke we’d just made it to Coffs Harbour. Coffs Harbour was a small city with several different things to do. The first first we did was head to the Pet Porpoise Pool, where we saw Little Penguins (they seem to be everywhere over here) but we like them, and our favourite mammal to see, Dolphins. The best thing about the Pet Porpoise Pool was you got to interact with the Dolphins, so we both got to play catch with a dolphin and got kissed by a Dolphin. This is us playing and stroking the nice Dolphins.

The Dolphins seemed pretty happy.

Kirstie also managed to kiss a Seal (I decided to stay a bit further away from it) and she also feed the Seal.

After the Pet Porpoise Pool we went to the Clog Factory, a Holland themed attraction, which was odd because I don’t know why many people would go to Australia to see a Holland themed barn (we only went cos we were passing).

This is us in the Clogs outside the factory.

Next stop from the Clog Factory was the second big thing we’ve seen, The Big Banana. The Banana really was big, as you can see from the pictures of us next to it.

From Coffs Harbour we exited New South Wales, but managed to stop off in Ballina to see another big thing. The Big Prawn.

After the Big Prawn we stopped off at another of the places featured in Ross Nobles guide to Australia (an awesome TV programme). This time it was The Macadamia Castle.

The Macadamia Castle is a Medieval Castle where you can do many medieval things such as play Mini Golf or have a BBQ.

We just picked up some Fudge there, and carried on.

We stopped at Byron Bay, where it was really windy. We just took some pictures and hit the road again.

We left New South Wales, and entered Queensland. The one odd thing about Queensland is that when you enter it from New South Wales the clocks go back an hour, means the sun now sets around 7pm.

Arriving on the Gold Coast we made loads of plans and had a really good time. The Gold Coast has 300 days a year of sunshine, unfortunately our first day was one of the 65 cloudy days, but after that we had blue skies for the rest of our stay.

We went to Seaworld and saw more Dolphins and Seals in some entertaining shows.

We also got to see some Polar Bears, which Kirstie loved so much we went back to see them 3 times.

Friday was our busiest day of Australia so far. We got up at 6am and headed to White Water World (a big water park) to have a surf lesson in their wave pool.

We started off slowly (and slightly off balance)

As the lesson went on we got better and were both standing up on the board.

We even managed to do some surfing together.

And the rule is, if you’re going down, take someone with you.

At the end of the surf lesson we went back to the holiday park for breakfast and then off to Wet n Wild (another water park). It was so hot we only managed a few hours there, but decided to go back again (but earlier in the morning).

As neither of us had seen a Basketball game before so we decided to check out a game in Broadbeach, where Gold Coast Blaze were playing against Cairns Taipans. We chose to support Gold Coast Blaze, and thought we had picked the wrong team as they were behind for the whole match, but managed to win by 1 point, going ahead with only 17 seconds to go. The Basketball was great value costing only $10 each (about £5.60) and despite being one row from the back we had a great view.

On Sunday we went to Surfers Paradise and went to Infinity an indoor light maze, which was amazing in places, and for Kirstie really scary thanks to the enclosed nature of some of the rooms.

Monday was time to head to Brisbane, but first we had to stop off at Wet n Wild so we could go on the water slides. We went on the Speedcoaster, Twister and some other slides.

Tuesday was our day to check out Brisbane, so we went to the city centre and saw the Wheel Of Brisbane.

We took the City Cat speedboat along the river for an hour, which was a fun way of seeing some of the city.

Tuesday evening we went to the Brisbane Playhouse, a really nice venue (kinda like the Theatre Royal) where we saw The Sleeping Beauty ballet, which was good although not worth the 15 minutes of applause the dancers seemed to want at the end of the performance.

Wednesday we went to the Lone Pine Sanctuary where we saw Emus and Kangeroos.

At one point Kirstie almost walked on this Lizard, but luckily it moved quickly (we don’t mind Lizards).

At The Lone Pine Sanctuary we also managed to join a list of people including loads of bands (Taking Back Sunday, Simple Plan, Slipknot, Panic At The Disco, New Found Glory, Daft Punk and lots more) by having our picture taken cuddling a Koala.

Queensland is the only state you can legally cuddle a Koala, and even here they are unionised. Koalas only cuddle for 30 minutes a day, and get one day off every four days, it’s a simple life. The first Koala we went to cuddle decided that it wanted the day off and was going on strike, so another Koala (the lovely Orien) was brought out to us. Orien was happy to cuddle us, and wanted to make sure my tan lines were shown of in the picture.

We are now in Hervey Bay and less than 1000 miles from Cairns, the final destination of our drive round Australia.

We hope that everyone is enjoying the cooler weather back in the UK.

So it’s been just over two weeks since we last updated the site. It seems such a long time ago that we were in Melbourne. In the last two weeks we have managed to leave Victoria and make it into New South Wales and have traveled more than 3000km (1875 miles).

From Melbourne we headed to Phillips Island, which we found after going a tiny bit off course. Unfortunately the road signs are not great, sometimes places are sign posted, sometimes the road number is sign posted and sometimes the road name is sign posted but we haven’t been too lost or gone too far out of our way so far.

The first thing we did at Phillip Island was go off Phillip Island and see the Pelicans being feed on the other side of the bridge.

Then we went to the Chocolate factory where we got to make (and eat) our own chocolate. The chocolate tasted great, but as well as tasting good it also looked really good. They even had a chocolate train set (I’m sure my dad would have loved to have this).

Dame Edna is a bit of a hero over here, so they had a wall of chocolates dedicated to him/her. Here’s the wall and a close up of the wall.

They also had enough reasons for Kirstie to eat chocolate to last her a lifetime.

Here’s a little video of the Chocolate Factory.

After the chocolate factory we headed to the Koala Conservation Centre. This was a great place to learn lots about Koalas. Just 20 years ago Australia was home to over a million Koalas, but thanks to bush making way for homes, and Koalas being killed on the road, there are now only 43,000 left in Australia. Koalas spend upto 20 hours a day sleeping, and were fairly lazy for the other 4 hours (please don’t make comparisons between us and them). We managed to get really close to a few and get some pictures.

The Koalas reminded us of the need to rest, so we relaxed for a bit before going to see the Penguin Parade. The Penguin Parade happens after sunset every night when little penguins return from the sea and go back to their burrows to sleep and socialise (yes they really do socialise). We sat on the beach and watched hundreds of little penguins go past us for about an hour, then we headed back to the penguin information centre. On the way back we got really close to the penguins and saw them waddle, socialise and fight with each other. As we got close to the centre we even had to stop as a penguin was crossing the road (he had got lost and realised his burrow was the other side of the road). Unfortunately we were not allowed to photograph/film the penguins, but we did get a picture of a sign as we left. We had been advised to check under the car to make sure no penguins were under it, but in case we had forgot a sign was there.

As well as the Koalas and Penguins our Phillip Island pass got us into Churchill Island Heritage Farm where Kirstie got to milk a cow and stroke a horse. We saw other animals as well.

Phillip Island was a really nice place so we had a drive round, saw the Grand Prix where the MotorGP is held (we didn’t get any pics) and see the stunning coastline.

After 4 days in Phillip Island we needed to get a move on and head round the coast so we managed to cover 600km in a day and get to Lakes Entrance. On the way we spent 3 hours at Wilson Promontory National Park, which was full of beautiful scenery. This is the Tidal River.

As well as stunning scenery it had some great names. Home to MIlly Pilly Gully, and the perfectly named Squeaky Beach (my shoes did squeak as I walked on the sand).

After seeing this sign at Squeaky Beach (and noticing we were there at a similar time) we decided to give fishing there a miss.

On the way out we saw this tree, we liked it so stopped for a picture.

After a night at Lakes Entrance we drove a few hours and left Victoria behind and entered New South Wales. The first thing we noticed in New South Wales was the problem they had with distances. These signs are only 3 metres apart but oddly the distances on them are 2km apart.

We spent a couple of nights at Merimbula but didn’t really do much as it was fairly wet and windy. It was nice to relax and watch some dvds (The Bucket List, and our two new Tim Minchin dvds). From Merimbula we headed north not really knowing where we wanted to stop. The weather was dull and neither of us were bothered about stopping to sightsee etc, so we ended up driving for hours (but it’s good to make progress up the coast). It started getting windy, and then got really hot, within 10 minutes the temperature jumped from 24° to 32° and over the course of a few hours got all the way up to 39°. We decided to stop in Nowra so we could get of the road, away from the very strong wind. We found a Big4 holiday park and checked in, got some food and visited the tourist information centre, we found loads to do in the area so we decided we would stay in Nowra overnight then head to the coast to Gerroa and base ourselves there for a few days. The holiday park in Nowra was nice but it was just off the main road and the noise of the bugs outside was so loud we had to turn the tv up really loud to hear it. We got our washing done (thanks to the temperature it all dried on the line within 20 minutes) and Kirstie managed to get bitten by all the bugs.

We stayed at Gerroa for 4 nights, a couple of the days we didn’t do much as the weather wasn’t great, but on the nice and hot days we managed to take some nice drives up the hills (so glad we have an automatic car). First we went to the Illawarra Fly Tree Top Walk. Making our way towards the beginning of the walk we started walking quicker thanks to this sign.

We got to the start of the walkways and I suddenly realised I’d rather be back near the snakes. The walkways are set up to 20 metres above the ground, it’s a long way down from there. At both ends of the walk way are cantilevers, Kirstie walked to the end, but I was happy enough on the more secure (but still high up) walkway.

In the centre of the walkway was a platform which took us up to 45 metres above the ground. I wasn’t looking forward to walking up to the top, but knew the views would be worth the panic. I made it up all the steps despite really not liking it, the views were worth the suffering.

At the end of the walk the information centre gave us some information about our walk.

So we decided to reward ourselves with ice lollies.

We also went to Kangeroo Valley and saw the Fitzroy Falls, a nice waterfall.

Kirstie found a new friend at the falls.

On Friday we left Gerroa after taking a picture of the Seven Mile Beach. It’s odd that it’s called the Seven Mile Beach as everything in Australia is metric now, but I guess Seven Mile Beach sounds better than Eleven Point Two Kilometre Beach.

We went to the Blue Mountains, which we were sad to find out aren’t actually blue. They were stunning none the less.

From the Blue Mountains we drove further north, round Sydney and stopped at Gosford. From Gosford we drove another couple of hundred km’s to Manning Point then onto Coffs Harbour and are quickly making our way to Queensland.

Anyways, that’s what we have been upto, how are you?

Oh, and here’s some videos we just posted from our time in Melbourne.

Our last day in Anglesea was spent learning to surf. We had some good tuition and hit the waves (and the waves decided to hit us both back). We enjoyed surfing, although to be honest we spent more time falling into the ocean than actually surfing. We both got wiped out several times and being spun round under the water wasn’t the best experience. After two hours of surfing we went back to our cabin at the holiday park to have lunch (pancakes) then I decided to hit the water again, whilst Kirstie preferred to sit on the beach in the glorious sunshine. We were told that surfing is an upper body sport, I’m guessing that cos at our level you don’t get to stand up too much to use your lower body. The next morning we both could feel the effects of the surfing. I have burnt my hands (friction burns thanks to the board) and Kirstie hurt too. This is me surfing/attempting to surf.

Sunday morning we left Anglesea and headed to Melbourne, we stopped off in Torquay (a lot nicer than the UK’s Torquay) and checked out the surf shops.

We have been in Melbourne for a week now. It’s a pretty awesome city, lots to see and do. We have so many things planned here for our next visit (no idea when that will be). After the first week of our Australian adventure being out of cities, it was weird being in a busy city and having to get used to the roadlaws round here. Melbourne has a ‘unique’ road system (according to them) and a weird/stupid system (according to us), for some odd reason, if you want to turn right at a cross roads you have to be in the left hand left, pull forward a bit then when all the other traffic has gone you can turn right. If that doesn’t make any sense to you, that’s because it doesn’t make any sense at all.

So what have we been upto in Melbourne you may or may not have been asking? Well the first thing we did was visit the Aquarium where we saw lots of fish (as you would hope from an aquarium) including sharks. Here’s some pictures of what we saw.

From outside the Aquarium we had a great view of the Eureka Skydeck, where you can travel up 88 floors and view across the city, it’s a pretty tall building. We didn’t go up it but maybe next time.

We checked out Federation Square which is the meeting place of Melbourne, just across the road from St Pauls Cathedral, and home to the Australian Centre of Moving Image, and an big Art Gallery.

We enjoyed the Australian Centre of Moving Image so much we went there twice to see the bits we didn’t get the chance to see/do on our first visit. There was lots of things to mess about with, I got to do the matrix style videos I posted a few days ago, and we got to do a Monsters film.

Federation Square is full of random signs.

We went to the Newquay Harbour, again nothing like the UK’s Newquay, to take night photos of the harbour bridge and city lights.

One of the best things about Melbourne is it has a free Tourist Tram, and free Tourist Shuttle Bus to take tourists to the best sights, and also giving you a guided tour (it also stopped outside the cheapest car park in the docklands saving us a fortune fortune on bus fares). Every tram stop had a tram every 10-15 minutes so we took advantage of the service and let it take us to all the spots we wanted to see. The tourist trams were vintage Melbourne trams.

On Thursday we visited Melbourne Zoo, thanks to Kelloggs having a two for one offer. Kirstie wanted to see the Elephants that Adelaide Zoo had lacked.

Kirstie was happy to see the Elephants, and I looked like a Gorilla.

Today we had a bit more of a look round Melbourne, and as remembrance day was only a few days ago we visited the Shrine of Remembrance, which had a nice view of the city.

Our visit to Melbourne has been pretty slow, mainly due to the heat. Whilst we have been here Melbourne has had it’s hottest November since 1915. We had five days in a row of over 35°c and it has only just cooled down to a freezing 31°c (I’m guessing it’s lovely and warm back home as well).

We went to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image on Monday, and I did some Matrix style videos, here’s the links.

http://www.acmi.net.au/timeslice/Timeslice.htm?file=ts-20091109-08db4e7a4783c07a5bbbb8692aeb162b.flv

http://www.acmi.net.au/timeslice/Timeslice.htm?file=ts-20091109-326b62e27d6e3b954f9b5fff3e96fb72.flv

They aren’t great but I like them.

We are still in Melbourne and really enjoying it here, will post more soon.

Hope everyone is well, let us know how you are and what you have all been upto.

Welcome to another exciting edition of our adventures in Australia.

We had a really nice time in Robe, which is a lovely town full of nice friendly people. At our motel we met some nice people from Melbourne, who told us what to check out when we get there. We also met Milly, who ran our motel.

One of the best things about Robe was the beach. If you are lucky enough to have a 4 Wheel Drive vehicle you could drive onto and along the beach, we saw some young people try to get their Toyota Yaris onto the beach, they got it five metres on, then couldn’t move, and ended up having to get someone else to pull them out. Being nice friendly tourist type folk, we just laughed.

This was the view from our sunbathing spot in Robe.

We went to look at the cliffs in Robe, where it’s important to stay on the path.

From Robe we went to Beachport and saw the jetty, and sunshine.

We headed to Mount Gambier, where they have a lake, which is blue, very blue. It’s something the locals seem very proud of.

Kirstie and The Georges had a great time by the lake.

We also went to the sinkhole, which varied from my opinion of ‘underwhelming’ to some New Zealand tourists we met opinion of ‘amazing’. Basically it was a hole in the ground, with some plants.

After a night eating ice cream in our cheap but perfectly formed motel room we took the short drive to Port Fairy, and had a relaxing day and night before we headed off for one of the sightseeing bits I had been looking forward to ‘The Great Ocean Road’. But before we hit The Great Ocean Road we passed through Warnambool where we saw my favourite sign so far, a car wash company called ‘Guns ‘n’ hoses’ (we didn’t get a picture of this, or Kirsties favourite sign, which was ‘Merge like a zip’ in NZ). Also in Warnambool we found Cheeseworld, which was surprisingly a world of cheese, with a museum about cheese. They also sold goods other than cheese (exciting I know). You just have to be careful not to break anything in their shop.

We then got to the start of The Great Ocean Road and our sightseeing improved, firstly with the Bay of Islands.

London Bridge.

The Arch.

The Grotto.

We were both happy to be at the grotto, but neither of us received any presents (what kind of grotto is this?)

Kirstie enjoyed taking pictures of paths.

A blue blowhole, which wasn’t as good as the blowholes in NZ as we visited before high tide. The blue blowhole wasn’t as blue the the Mt. Gambier lake.

Following this we got to the bit we had been looking forward to, The Twelve Apostles. Now, there are no longer Twelve Apostles, but they have decided to keep the name. Luckily we knew before we left UK that a few had disappeared into the sea, we braved the wind and had a walk out to see the view. It’s really good over here because you can see these things for free, in England something like this would be owned by the national trust and cost a small fortune to see.

We drove on to the Otway Fly Treetop Walk, but as it was cloudly and a bit wet so we decided to carry on instead of walking high above the rainforest. We didn’t miss out on the rainforest as we ended up driving through part of it.

We stayed overnight in Apollo Bay, which was a nice seaside town where you could learn to surf, but we decided against it due to the cold.

We weren’t sure where our next stop would be, but knew we would head along the coast towards Melbourne. One of our first stops was at the Sheoak Waterfall. At the waterfall we got our first close up of a wild kangaroo. The kangaroo was happy to pose for pictures.

We got to the end of The Great Ocean Road, marked by an arch to celebrate the WW1 soldiers who built the road on their return to Australia following the war. It took from 1919 till 1936 to build the road.

We arrived in Anglesea, and because it was really sunny we decided to stay (originally for one night, but will now spend three nights here).

One of the great things about Anglesea is it’s golf course, not for the golf but because the golf course is full of kangaroos. We went first in the afternoon.

Then again in the evening. At dusk the kangaroos come out to play. Oddly enough we met a group of people from Norfolk also out watching the kangaroos.

Today we went to the beach in the morning, and in the afternoon we went on a bush ride on horses. My horse was called Zach. Zach was more of a follower than a leader, and I don’t think he’ll make it as a grand national or melbourne cup contender, but he was ok for me.

Kirstie got the lovely Jax, who was more of a racer, and everytime we galloped he wanted to speed past all the other horses.

Tomorrow we are staying in Anglesea again, and as we are on the surf coast we are having surfing lessons.

Here’s a short video of Adelaide Zoo, the nice music was provided was Phil Goldstone, taken from Stuck In Conflict album which is out next year!