We spent a fantastic 10 days on Kangaroo Island, staying with my Aunt, Penny, who I hadn't seen since I was about five. We flew to KI on a small propeller plane, with only 4 other passengers! Luckily Pooch and I recognised each other at the airport, and Peter spotted my 'Fillmore nose' as I got out of the plane!

After a drive around Kingscote, the small capital, and a lovely lunch, we returned to Penny and Peter's luxury B&B with gourmet dinners. We were spoilt on our first night as there were no guests, so we stayed in the top room which had amazing views out to sea, as well as our comfiest bed in a long time! The next day we moved into the 'Doghouse', where Penny and Pete live, along with nine border collie puppies! 'Runty' was about half the size of the rest of the pups when we arrived so required lots of attention, which we were all obviously very happy to give! She's still very small, but is a real fighter and will definitely be a gorgeous dog! We were spoilt for our entire stay, with amazing food (3 course dinners!) and company, and lots of dog contact, which we had both been missing! As well as the pups, they have six border collies - Boo, Sasha, Callum, Phoebe and Jack - who were all absolutely gorgeous, and we enjoyed taking them to the beach most days. Unfortunately the brakes completely went on the dog car, but we managed to persuade Pete to buy a new one and were able to take the dogs further afield, to the beautiful long Emu Bay, on our last day.

We managed to fit in most of the touristy attractions during our stay, including Flinders Chase National Park, which is recovering from large fires in December. We visited the Remarkable Rocks (which were actually very cool!) and Admirals Arch, which gave lookouts to New Zealand fur seals playing in the water/fighting on the rocks/sleeping. On the way home we stopped to look at Hansen Bay, a beautiful beach, and went along a nearby koala walk, which was lined with eucalyptus trees. We struggled to spot any, but luckily there was a tour group in front of us so we copied them and managed to get a good view of the koalas. We also went to Seal Bay, a large beach full of Australian sea lions. We went on a walking tour of the beach, getting really close to them. A highlight of our time on KI was going on night drives in the paddock just outside the house - it was amazing how many kangaroos, wallabies and possums there were so close to us.

My cousin Rafe also made it over to the island for a few days while we were there. Despite not having seen each other since he was over in the UK about 15 years ago, we all got on really well, and the tone for the next few days was set as soon as Pooch, Andrew and I picked him up from the ferry - to miss all the ferry traffic we stopped off winetasting at 11am! Sensing the reunion could get messy, we were wisely banished to the doghouse, well away from the guests! The tradition of a bottle of gin to revive us in early evening was quickly set, with lots of empties by the end of our stay!

On P&Ps day off, we went fishing with them off the stunning beach at Min Oil, where they had their previous B&B. As complete novices, Andrew and I kept Pete busy for a fair while, while Pooch got on with catching lots of small whiting and tommy roughs - unfortunately too small for us to keep for dinner! Eventually we were all set up and vaguely got the hang of it! After deciding I would need a shark to make me notice I had anything biting, I got a few tugs on the line, and reeling in realised it was actually a fish, as opposed to many false alarms! After lots of squealing for Pete from me, wriggling from the small tommy, and photo taking from Pooch, the poor thing was released back into the sea! My second catch was slightly smoother, but still plenty of practice required! Pooch & I were pleased to show the men who the real gatherers were, but unfortunately we didn't manage to get any large enough for supper! Just as we were leaving, we caught sight of some dolphins playing in the water in the distance - awesome!

We were really lucky that Pooch gained permission from a local landowner to pass through his land, down to Dashwood Bay, which has a pod of about 40 dolphins living off it. Normally you would have to pay horrendous amounts of money to access them by boat! We were amazed by how close to the shore the dolphins were. On our first trip they put on a great diving and splashing display, while they were fishing. Despite the weather being fairly chilly, we got into the water with them on both visits, and both managed to get a close up view of them swimming past us underwater - amazing experience! They really are cool creatures, and we could have stayed watching and swimming with them for hours, but unfortunately were both freezing after our dips so headed home to warm up! We think that if we had managed to stay in the water longer, they would have got used to us and swum around us for longer before heading off for a tour of the bay (during which we got pretty cold and normally ended up heading back in!)

We were also lucky that Pete managed to get us a sail in one of the locals, Ants, 40 ft yacht - good practice for Andrew for our upcoming Whitsundays trip! Ants was really friendly and it was nice just to be back on the water again, and to see the island from the sea. We sailed out from Kingscote, around the bay, and also over to Min Oil Beach, where Penny & Pete used to live, and we had been fishing off. On our way back in, Ants spotted a pod of about 5 dolphins a small distance away. As he predicted, they came to investigate our boat, but unusually swam alongside us at the back of the boat for a while. They then disappeared, but reappeared at the bow, giving Andrew and I a great view of some dives, and rolling onto their backs to check us out. They then swam off again all too quickly, but it was amazing to see them again out in the wild. We returned to shore as the sun set, and returned home to be met by another awesome meal involving cheese, steak and chocolate - perfect!!

It was very sad to leave KI, we had a brilliant time and it was really nice to get to know both Pooch and Peter properly, but we now look forward to meeting my mum, dad and Guy in the Whitsundays, and Sophie, Jeff, Samuel and Haidee in Brisbane.