A great place to live if you're a sports fan. Cricket (MCG), Tennis (Rod Laver Arena), Aussie Rules Football (Telstra Dome) and F1 GP (Albert Park).

Melbourne is the hottest place we've been to so far with temperatures of 41 degrees!

It would be rude not to make the most of being in the sporting capital of Australia so we took a tour of the MCG, fitted in a day at the Australian Open Tennis and watched the Men's Final on a giant TV screen in Federation Square with thousands of other people. The atmosphere was fantastic (shame the French guy didn't win).

We spent a week in Tasmania before returning to Melbourne and watching the Australia Day celebrations (26 January) in Federation Square. We also stayed a few days by the beach in St. Kilda - sorry guys but not quite as good as Bondi or Coogee.

Ah yes nearly forgot! We went on yet another day tour this time to Philip Island (south of Melbourne) to watch the Fairy Penguins return home after a busy day at sea. At about 9.10pm one or two penguins plucked up enough courage to venture ashore and promptly ran back into the sea. This routine continued for 10-15 mins until one penguin was brave enough to head up the beach for the long walk back home. After that the floodgates opened - penguins appeared from everywhere! Great to watch but no photos allowed as the camera flashes make them sick. You'll just have to go and see for yourselves!

As we were in Oz when the F1 GP was on we couldn't resist so returned to Melbourne for the third time. Somehow we survived the 39 degree heat. Let hope the scarlet red cars do better next time.