Same, same but different as the old travellers adage goes. Not sure I like the phrase really but travelling in Australia and New Zealand its hard to escape the analogy. So much familiar and akin to life at home and yet quirks and differences that keep you on your toes. A common language, a different history and some shared views of the world - though not when it comes to cricket! In the cities people still seem obsessed by rising house prices, the best schools, where to eat, work/life balance and talking about the state of the environment. And on this last issue you can understand why, particularly in Australia, where the climate is definitely doing something odd. When we arrived in Oz a quarter of Victoria State was on fire, two days later we had the hottest night in 40 years followed by what we were told was the coldest Christmas on record - just our luck! (I know I'm not supposed to say that but rain on Bondi beach was not what we planned!)

We started our tour of Oz in Melbourne with the gorgeous Chrissie and Ben who put us up, showed us round and gave us better travel advice than Visit Australia! Melbourne, it has to be said, is a very cool city and I´m going to stick my neck out and say probably has the best cafes in the world! We felt very at home here and it was like living the London lifestyle again with nights out, outdoor summer cinema (though granted with added monster fruit bats) and great shopping. Somehow the Christmas shop windows didn´t look quite the same in the sunshine though and despite everything seeming so easy and familiar we couldn´t help comparing everything with home. In a weird way we´d never felt so far and away from home - isn´t there a soap opera in there?! Anyway, even the weather it turned out reminded us of home!

On Christmas day we decided to head out to Torquay beach (also the name of our home town in the UK) on the Great Ocean Road to wallow in the sunshine, check out the surf and eat fish and chips on the beach. What a story we thought. How funny to ring our folks and say we´ve been to Torquay beach for Christmas and its hot, hot, hot...we thought! Well it served us right cos not only did it hail and blow a gale we couldn´t find anywhere open to buy our dreamed of fish and chips and ended up eating a sausage roll and peanuts from a BP garage for our Christmas lunch while fending off an enormous seagull...yep same size as home! Merry bloomin Christmas we thought! Still Oz wasn´t all bad. We went to see the cricket too....! Oh ok!

I jest Oz was fantastic. Looking on the bright side we had Torquay beach to ourselves and at the cricket we saw the whole England team bat...and get out in a day - just like the good old days! The best of Australia for us though was catching up with old friends Chrissie and Ben, and Nigel and Raynel - who we are now proud to share a wedding anniversary with! - and checking out Oz's famed wildlife. Yes, we were the sad poms getting all excited by our first kangaroo, koala and tasmanian devil sightings. They're pretty cool though, hey?! Another memory that will stick with us forever is the sound of the dawn chorus first heard in a beautiful english style cottage midst rainforest, waterfalls and blueberry pancakes! Incredible noise, beautiful birds, hard to ignore at six in the morning! In fact, as 2007 approached what we were enjoying more and more was being in the great outdoors - I know middle age is upon us! Even at New Years we were more excited by the amazing rainfoirest setting for the party and beautiful creek to swim in than getting wrecked. 'Honey, can you pass my orange Kagool!'

In New Zealand we went totally nature crazy camping out for a month in our little tent and half the time feeling like we were in a David Attenborough documentary. Yep, the adverts don´t lie New Zealand is a natural wonderland and from the moment we flew in over the southern alps right to the last days on the beautiful beaches of the north island we were just entranced by this country. It actually got kinda ridiculous as every corner we turned and every place we visited seemed to get more and more beautiful. We just kept turning to each other in the car and going 'oh my god its beautiful...again!' From volcanic craters to majestic snow capped mountains and pristine beaches to beautiful cities, New Zeland has it all. And the wildlife! From rare yellow eyed penguins, little blue penguins, seals, sealions, albatross, kiwis, glow worms and perhaps best of all swimming in the pacific ocean with hundreds of wild dusky dolphins - just amazing. And then there was the sea kayaking, the caving, the glacier trekking. OK, you're probably bored with my lists by now! Maybe just check out the photos! As you can probably tell we liked New Zealand anyway and spent the whole month feeling like we were on one long fabulous holiday. And all so easy too. If anything that´s about the only fault I can find - that it probably wasn´t as big a buzz as travelling in say China or Cambodia. God I´m really picking at straws though hey. Some may be glad to hear though that we haven't gone completely au naturale and still had time for some serious partying in New Zeland courtesy of Amanda's cousin Robbie and girlfriend Paula who were just fantastic in showing us the sights (well bars) of Wellington! Tequila!

All of which leaves us with a dilemma when we get home...city or countryside or somewhere in between, trendy eateries or fish and chips on the beach, family or career, diy on a sunday or hangover til noon, mortgages or landlords, electrical goods or backpacking holidays....mañana, mañana...buenos dias south america