Fare Well Australia.

We had a couple of days to kill before our flight to New Zealand so got in the van once more and took a trip down the Great Ocean Road!

We started off in Torquay to make a visit to the Surf Museum, filled with a collection of history and memorabilia! We then started to make our way to the Twelve Apostles slowing down from time to time to take in the views. Every turn had a new incredible view, it was insane and a great way to say good bye to Australia.

The Twelve apostles were incredible, you can only see 7 these days as the others are now submerged in the ocean. They are limestone rocks that have be carved out away from the main land by erosion, a beautiful site!

We then made our way back to Melbourne to sadly hand the van back and say good bye, but first we stopped off near some trees where a crowd was gathering. Two wild Kola's were hanging out in a tree, brilliant!

I know I've said this about all the places we've been to but wow, Australia really is an amazing place. We've seen Kangaroos, Possums, Big ass Bats, Kola's, Dolphins, Penguins, Turtles, many fish and lots of bugs. We've visited incredible National Parks, Islands, cities, towns and beaches!

Australia - you've been AWESOME!

Moombing around in Melbourne!

On our way to Melbourne we stopped off at Philip Island to visit the little penguins that inhabit the island. It was so good to see this! We visited the tourist centre first to brush up on our Penguin knowledge and then came back at 7pm when the sun started to go down.

Philip Island is one of the only places in the world where humans have been asked to leave for nature. Locals sold their houses which have now been knocked down so the little penguins can live in this area, and they've certainly taken over. There are hundreds off burrows surrounding the tourist centre where the male penguins look after their eggs while the female goes fishing for dinner.

At around 8pm we saw hundreds of penguins coming out of the sea, this took quiet a while. They come out in groups of 10-20 all waiting for the right moment to run up the beach into safety. It was an incredible experience to see but unfortunately we couldn't take pictures as the flash lights disorientate them. However during the day we did see this little fella hiding under one of the walks.

The next morning we made our way to Melbourne and what a weekend we had! We were spoilt by Kara who use to work with Steph. We got to live in a flat for a while which was an absolute blessing - we've started to miss the small things like a sofa!

During the weekend a free festival was being held in the centre of the city called Moomba. There were fair rides, music, BMX comps, water skiing comps (including big air jumps, amazing) and the unforgettable Bird Man comp where people make flying contraptions and jump of the pier into the lake!

Melbourne was so much fun, a great city with lots of art, music and cool places to hang out!

I spy with my little eye, something beginning with D!

We then slowly made our way down to Melbourne, luckily there were many stops along the way. First was a quick look at the blow holes in Kiama. These are natural holes created via corrosion and the elements in rocks near the sea. As waves crash up against the rocks water goes into a hole and blows up through the ground followed by a big booming sound! As it was raining, we had a quick look then hit the road again.

Jervis bay is a really cool coastal town with many things to do, when it's sunny. As it was raining we stopped in a cafe and chilled out eating cake and drinking hot chocolate. We took a quick walk round and noticed you can go on a two hour dolphin tour so we booked in for the next day.

The weather was still a bit grim but that didn't stop us, we rocked up to a big boat and joined a small tour group to have a look around the coast for some dolphins. After about an hour and not much hope suddenly the skipper called on the intercom to have a look outside, two dolphins popped there heads up then went back down - ten minutes later a whole clan of dolphins had appeared including a calf which was born only a few days ago! They stuck around for a short time catching their breath but then went on their merry way. It was really cool to see dolphins in their natural habitat but as you can see by the photo's they were a bit tricky to get on camera!

Those Mountains aint Blue!

The Blue Mountains is a massive national park in land from Sydney, about 2 hours away. The name comes from the mist that forms around the mountains by the eucalyptus creating a blue hugh, don't ya know.

The day we left for the region it started to rain and rain and rain and.. you get the point! After visiting the tourist information centre and hearing you can't really see anything we decided to head to the Jenolan Caves, after making a quick stop at the Wentworth falls - as you can see by the picture below the view was awesome!

The Jenolan caves are a massive collection of limestone caves, we took a guided tour around the Lucas caves and then a self guided tour around the Nettle and Coach House Caves. We were both so impressed by them (they were massive and a bit creepy) we decided to stay and take the night ghost and mysteries tour, oooohhhhhhh!

Once the sun had gone we met up with our group and group leader Gordon. Gordon had decided since we were only a small group of 8 and were up for a laugh he took us to see some spots not normally seen which was a great opportunity and turned into a bit of an adventure - especially when he decided to take us to see the River cave. As there was so much rain it had flooded slightly so we had to take our shoes and socks off and wade through knee deep freezing cold water!

Gordon was a good laugh and we got to see some interesting things, although I was reminded of cheesy horror films a few times 'I've never taken anyone down here before…' 'Now I shouldn't be showing you this, it's been closed of for years!' and so on!

In the morning we headed back to Katoomba and was greeted by the sky clearing and rain stopping, the views were incredible. We took the scenic sky way which is basically a massive gondola with a glass floor.

Then we headed down to the valley via the steepest train in the world (it's in the Guinness book of world records) and checked out the scenic pathway filled with the history of the coal mine and many massive trees.

Once we made our way back up we walked over to Eco Point to see the three sisters, three big rocks which look over the blue mountains. An incredible view.

After a long day of sight seeing we made our way to the next rest stop but as it was our anniversary (three years, can you believe it!) we decided to treat our selves to a romantic meal.

A KFC, half a bottle of white wine, half a bottle of red wine, chocolate and a pack of nerds, perfect!

Sydney - the big smoke.

Sydney has always been a place on the to see hit list, and it didn't disappoint. An awesome city filled with big sights, shops, bars and beaches!

We stayed for 4 days in the end as there was so much to see and do. We also had the privilege of seeing Rosie (another Morzine buddy) who now lives and works in Sydney. It was great to catch up with Rosie and hear about what it's like to live in such an awesome city.

We got in all the big sights and took well to many pictures of the Sydney Harbour bridge and the Opera house. We took the ferry over to Manly Beach and chilled out after having some fish and chips.

We also went over to Bondi beach which really is something else. An amazing beach not far from the city. We spent the day with Kate and Ashley, who we met in Bali, which was followed by a night out on the goon (boxed wine)

The following day we met up with Kate and Ashley again but went to Coogee beach, the plan was to surf and then have a BBQ but the waves broke so close to the beach that you can't surf but this didn't stop me from body surfing! It also started to rain but that won't stop us (we're british after all, it's only a bit o' water) and managed to have a burger and a hot dog!

Sydney was everything we hoped it to be; big, beachy, glamorous and awesome!

Road Tripin' to Hunter Valley.

Hunter Valley was the next stop, we thought we'd take our time and cruised down the east coast. We had to stop at a petrol station for the night as it started to get dark, when we woke up we were surrounded by Kangaroos feasting on the grass outside our van, brilliant!

After two days getting to the Hunter Valley region we parked up at a rest stop for the night as we wanted to start our tour early. Hunter Valley is a massive wine region in New South Wales filled with 140 vineyards, many let you have a look around and taste some wine, another activity right up our street.

We started the day taking a tour around the Mount Pleasant Vineyard being taught about the workings of a big vineyard, really interesting but we were looking forward to the tasting. We thought we'd only get a few to taste but after the 5th white we realised we should slow down a bit (it was only 11am after all) We tasted some red, desert and Port wines! Time for some water me thinks!

After the wine we made our way to the olive shop, another tasting treat! We sampled olives, oils, vinegars and sauces which put us in the mood for some cheese, good thing the cheese factory was only next door.

After a lovely cheese board we decided to taste some more wine and went to the Brokenwood Vineyard, we got ourselves a nice red - as you can imagine we're now pro's at this, ha!

On our way round to the chocolate factory we discovered a deli which again had many things for us to taste, we managed to learn a skill of putting at least 4 olives on one tooth pick which I'm sure the counter assistants were very pleased about, uhum.

We finished our tasting day with some chocolate and headed back to the rest stop to start on the wine… it would be rude not to, right?

Byron Bay baby!

After a glorious sleep at Pete Tanya's we got up early to hit the road to Byron with Tanya's sister in tow.

Although we'd now spent 3 weeks in Australia I hadn't seen the Australia I thought I was going to… until we rocked up to Byron! Beautiful beaches, waves, surfers, people hanging out everywhere and a big parry scene, just the place for me and Steph then.

After a hard day of chilling on the beach and me attempting to surf (if you count surfing as me being hit in the face by waves and struggling to get on the surf board!) we hit the town but first we had some fish and chips!

Sunday saw us chilling out again but we started the day with a BBQ breakfast at the beach! After our afternoon kip we headed up to the light house and rewarded ourselves with an ice cream.

The weekend was absolutely awesome spent with some great friends, thank you Pete and T dog!

Daintree to Brisbane… In 3 days!

Yes thats at least 1800 Km (over 1100 miles to us english). Its safe to say that we were pretty tired after that and well deserving the night out with pete and Tanya in Bryron Bay… but we did manage to do a few interesting things along the way!

First we started out in Cairns and Travelled up to The Daintree Village and River were we went on a river cruise to spot some crocodiles and we were rewarded (on our second hour long trip) by seeing an amazing crocodile which out guide said was at least 8ft long. 'It doesn't look very big on the photo' I hear you say… well we were a very long way away! Actually it was a baby croc that was no longer than 3 ft for head to tail but we were glad to see anything!

We then headed up the beautifully scenic ocean road to Cape Tribulation which was beautiful, we didn't manage to see any Cassowaries though!

On the way back down we had a pit stop and a brief dip in the crystal clear and amazingly chilly waters of Mossman Gorge before beginning our mission back down to Brisbane.

The drive was pretty painful at times, especially when our MP3 players both ran out of battery and there was nothing but the God channel or the politics Channel to keep us entertained! We tried the old car games… Eye spy but there are only so many things you can do… tree, road, tree, oh another tree! 20 questions and then Mike came up with a great game… it involved him singing everything we were doing… yes you may laugh but this was 7 in the morning and anyone who knows me knows that Steph is not one for singing that early in the morning… Safe to say it didn't go down very well and was banned for the rest of the journey!

We did have another lovely pitt stop in Bunderberg (great ginger beer and rum). We got tickets to the Mon Repos Turtle Sanctuary where we went after dark and waited around until the baby turtles hatched and made their way down to the sea… we were rewarded with watching 10's of baby turtles no bigger than our hands making their first journey down to the sea to get in to the East Australian Current (EAC dude!) It was a pretty amazing experience!

Then it was back down to Pete and Tanya's for a wonderful home made meal and a wonderful sleep in a real bed again!