Checking in for the flight to Sydney. Spent the last day exploring Melbourne including on the free tram and shuttle which helped me see from the gardens to the east to the new docklands developments in the west. Dinner last night with Melbournians, an Italian meal on Lygon street of course. Next stop Sydney.

Out of the city today with 2 Melbournians to the Mornington Peninsula, passing through this pretty town of Mornington. The Peninsula is one half of the almost total circle of land which encompasses the huge Port Phillip Bay and Melbourne itself. The bayside road also passes through Sorrento which was the first attempt at settling before Melbourne itself. We reached a windy Port Nepean at the very tip of the peninsula, site of a WW fort. We also passed Cheviot Bea...

Explored more of Melbourne on Boxing Day and headed a few kilometres out of town, on a tram, to the beach at St Kilda. Sunny and breezy day and kite surfing & kite flying were very popular.

I'm coming to the end of Christmas Day, 'the first we have not been together since your birth', as it says in mum's card. She also said, 'I'm so very glad you are doing what you always wanted to do. My wish from the day you were born was that all your wishes come true'. So I spent the day touring along the Great Ocean Road, built by soldiers returning from World War 1, as a memorial, and a work project. It's a spectacular drive or ride. Saw limestone rocks called...

Being temporally ahead in the Land Down Under, it being just past midnight, and having already been to the 9pm 'Midnight Mass' (which was followed by a beer & conversations about theologically unorthodoxy with Franciscan monks & others), I'd like to wish you a Happy Christmas.