G'day everyone, greetings from Melbourne, Victoria.

We finally managed to tear ourselves away from the Gold Coast after 17 days there! It was like being on a 2 week holiday, it's the first time we've stopped for more than a few days since our days in Perth back at Christmas and New Year. We really felt at home there and were staying at a great caravan park. We went to Wet n Wild 4 times, Movie World twice and Sea World once so certainly got our moneys worth out of that pass! Jim was champion of the Super 8 Aqua Racer but much to his dismay there was no prize giving or newspaper coverage, it must be the extra weight around his middle that got him down the slide quicker than everybody else! We went up to the Observation Deck of Q1, the tallest building in Australia and it was in the top 20 tallest buildings in the world. Great views of the Gold Coast, Brisbane and even as far as Byron Bay which is 100kms away. Saw the sunset over the mountains and watched as all the lights of the Gold Coast lit up for night time. Was going to toast it with a drink but too expensive! Typical! Ended up going to the local Paddy bar instead. It was nice to feel settled somewhere and not continually on the go. Definitely a place for a holiday! Had a great time there but the time came when we knew we had to move on, even with James kicking and screaming in the back of the van! He's only just got over the fact that we had to leave but he's now got his mind on Sydney!

We drove down the coast towards Sydney stopping at Byron Bay to see the most Easterly point of Australia. It's the first place in Australia to see the sun every morning, but as James pointed out it's also the first place to get dark, not so good then huh! It was very picturesque, we even stopped for cheese sandwiches (our staple diet) but the town itself wasn't anything special, a typical surf town but apparently Russell Crowe and Paul Hogan live there so must have something special. Lots of backpackers with Pot Noodles and in need of a bar of soap! We've now seen the most Easterly and Westerly points of Australia, we almost got to the most northerly and we're almost at the southern tip now so not bad going for 5 months travelling!

Stopped at a couple more coastal towns on the way down Ballina, Yamba (famous for prawns), Port Macquarie - our favourite, a really nice holiday town and Port Stephens - where we went sandboarding down the Stockton sand dunes, awesome! even got sand where the sun dont shine! (thanks James - its like having a parrot on your shoulder chirping away! Trouble is if he typed you'd never understand it so I type and he chirps!)

Drove to Blacktown, a suburb of Sydney 40kms from the city and stayed there for 3 nights. From there we visited the Blue Mountains which were magnificent. And yes they actually have a blue tint to them! Walked for a good couple of hours to see the amazing Wentworth Falls, luckily enough we had a fair bit of rain days before so there were a number of natural falls to see. The views of the mountains were awesome and it made a nice change to see green forest instead of red rock! Rode on the steepest railway down to the base of Katoomba falls and got a cable car back up to the top to see the famous three sisters rock formation. You'd never have thought us two would hike around mountain ranges and gorges like we are but the things we've seen are out of this world and are well worth the walks! Promised ourselves to keep out of the city, we want to save that for the grand finale of our tour so drove down to Melbourne yesterday, took 9 hours. The scenery on the way down is very similar to Northern England, green hills full of sheep and cows, which made Jim peckish! The city itself is very much like London or Liverpool with old buildings, churches, tramways throughout the city centre and plenty of tourists! Guess what, yes they're here too, the flashing orientals!

Going to Ramsey Street to see the famous Neighbours! Hopefully we'll get to introduce our Lou to the real Lou Carpenter to see what he thinks! Going to Ballarat, an old gold mining town that hasn't changed since the late 1800s, they still dress the same and live in the same buildings, etc. Then come back via the Great Ocean Road where we'll see the famous 12 Apostles and London Bridge. Everyone we talk to says its fantastic so looking forward to it. Then last but definitely not least we're gonna hit Sydney!! Will have 3 weeks in around the city before we leave on 24th April to fly to New Zealand. So hopefully it'll be a great way to round off our tour of Australia. Awesome!!

Lots of love

James and Lauren xxx