Hello,

Since we last wrote a blog we have been travelling a lot across the south of Australia, from Sydney to Canberra and then onto Melbourne.

We spent 2 days in Bondi Beach, where we met up with BeX (Hayley's friend from uni) where we spent 2 nights chilling in her apartment with the girls. We did the typical Bondi thing, beach during the day and a bbq followd by drinks at night! It was good seeing a familiar face and Hayley loved spending time with girls!! I have never been so excited to see a pair of hair straightners in all of my life!!

Next we were back on the Greyhound bus heading towards Canberra where we stayed for 1 night. We were surprised at how small and sparse it was for a capital city, there was literally nothing there! We managed to follow the Lonely Planet trail and visited most of the sights including, Old and New Parliament House, the War Memorial where we spent ages searching for a Lewington among all of the Molloy's on the fallen soldires lists we also visted Anzac Parade. We spent two hours walking around Canberra's centre piece, Lake Burley Griffin before tucking into a delicious chinese! That night we were back on the Greyhound going to Melbourne...

When we arrived in Melbourne we became aware that the Australian Tennis Open was taking place so the whole town was buzzing. Our first day was spent touring the usual city sights, Town Hall, Cathedral, along with various Museums. Mike still couldn't resist the opportunity for one more stint on stage as we visited the Melbourne Gaol where Ned Kelly was hung. Following a sucessful performance on the streets of Brisbane Mike was again chosen by the one of the Actors to play a perverted english police officer, Mr FitzPatrick! He was even given props. I found the whole thing hilaroius especially when he was made to wear his hat and take a bow! It definitely made our trip to the Gaol more exciting!

However the highlight came on our second day when we booked ourselves onto the Neighbours tour!!! We visited the infamous Ramsay Street (which is a lot samller in real life!), and met Doctor Darcy. Mike loved the whole experience although did at first decline Doctor Darcy's offer of a photo op but once he saw how upset he had made the doc he soon stepped up!

Day 3 We decided to hire a car for 3 days in order to visit the Great Ocean Road which is said to be one of the world's most spectacular drives. We have to agree it is pretty amazing however very dangerous! As you will be able to see from the pictures when we put them up...

Our first night was spent in a stationary caravan, which looked awful from the outside but was actually furnished top to bottom in IKEA and was really modern. On the drive to the campsite we spotted our first Kangeroo and Kaola living in the wild which was a little bit exciting but by the end of our 3 days we had given up counting how many we had spotted!

Day 2 delivered equally impressive coastal views along with an 'Irish Town' and a stopover in the Grampians National park in a very friendly Guesthouse where Mike was delighted to see the movie choice for the night was Terminator 2!

Day 3 was a bit more active we got up early and bravely faced the elements (yet more rain) as we took to the mountains and hiked up 2KM of steep terraine to reach the Pinnacle where the views of clouds were incredible! We also hiked to see Mckenzie Falls which were equally spectacular but it was too wet to get the camera out.

That evening we drove back to Melboune.

Our final day in melbourne was spent at the Australian Tennis Open, where Mike did the traditional thing i.e watch tennis and drink beer, where as Hayley took the more sensible option and watched a little bit of Tennis and then visited the pampering tent for a facial and massage and a free goodie bag filled with beauty treats!! I think its fair to say we both enjoyed our day!

So thats it, our Ozzie adventure is over, next stop Fiji....

xxxx