Very sad waking up this morning. It feels like we have done so much. Driving out of Perth seems like such a long time ago - kind of like a dream. We will take away some fantastic memories of our trip (about 3500 of them..) and it was great meeting some of our friends and family - Micheal, Patrick and Lou, Sinead and David. After meeting them all, my next favourite thing about the trip has to be the 3 days we spent on board Kiana in the Whitsundays/Great Barrier Reef. Some of the things we seen and did out there will stay with us for the rest of our lives. It is such an untouched paradise and anyone who visits Australia must have this on their itinerary. If we are lucky enough to make it back over to this side of the world, I would booking another trip, hopefully on Kiana again! All the other things we did Perth, Uluru, Kakadu, Cairns, Sydney, the Penguins, the Crocs, the snakes, the hikes etc were absolutly fabulous (all except that mice night I can see Carol sayign right about now..) but those Islands, beaches and coral is something Ill never forget.

Our last day started with a trip to Neighbours TV sets. We won the quiz last Monday night (all hail the iPhone...) and received a few free passes to the official tour. They were 50 bucks each so we did'nt do too bad! We all congregated in the official office, they were about 14 on this tour. We got to meet Stingray who was in show before but not anymore - think he was killed off. He was a nice guy, stayed chatting to Carol and I about our trip and Ireland for about 5 minutes. Had a quick few pics and we hopped on the bus. We got to see some of the areas used in Neighbours - school, playground etc before arriving at the outside set. We got to see Lou's Mechanics, Greasy Monkeys etc...i would'nt be the biggest Neighbours fan bar knowing a few of the older stars but it was still cool to see the set and learn the logistics behind the show. After seeing the set, we headed towards Ramsey street - or Pin Oak which is its real street name.

We had a few pics there with the different houses and the famous Ramsey street sign. The area is quite small, apparently the houses are not more expensive than neighbouring houses and is under 24 x 7 security. I'm sure if i was a massive neighbours fan it would be more exciting, but we werent bothered. A few people on the tour clearly were big fans and were taking photographs with the most unusual sh*t. The tour ended there and the driver kindly dropped us to our next stop - the Queen Victoria Markets where we would do some souvenir shopping! We spent a bit there, got a delicious Bratwurst for lunch (don't go anywhere else in QVM for food!!!). The tour de France winner Cadel Evans was in Melbourne today on a victory parade but we were a bit tight for time as we needed to home to pack..boooooooo!!!

Sineads apartment was an absolute state while we were packing, glad she wasnt there while we were packing or I may have been going south from the 16th Floor balcony! We finally got packed and surprisingly bags were not overly heavy. Qantas had weigh-in facilties at the terminal which are really good as they allow people to weigh bags before being made a d*** of when they get to check in counter and have to take out anything over weight.

We hooked up with Sinead and David in Melbourne central shopping center and got some Indian food before going for hot chocolate / tea / waffles. The waffles were so nice, warm and served with ice cream. While we were walking into Melbourne central, Carol got shouted at by a girl; when she turned around, it was a girl who use live across road from her in Moate. Small world eh?!

We called into Alex to say good bye, it was great seeing her again. We collected our bags from the apartment and David drove us to the terminal. So sad saying good bye but we get to see them twice over next 8 months when they come home.

So thats it, Australia is over. The blog is over. Its been great sharing our stories with you and if you come to one place, make sure its Oz. It was such an eye opening experience and we feel we have seen so much and done some amazing things. This is definitly a trip I'll never forget.

"Leave footprints, take home some memories"