After the housesit in Bowral and a couple of weeks at home it was time for our Melbourne adventure. We had a credit to use on Qantas so flew down and booked the sleeper train for the trip home. The flight down arrived only 40 minutes late which seems to count as pretty much on time these days. We made a point of using up things that needed using and we had a couple of Qantas Club lounge passes to use. It took a bit of effort to apply them to the booking but it...

Enjoyed settling in, unpacking, sorting, making space - and then we were all ready to go for a 7 week sit in a modern high rise apartment in Pyrmont with stunning harbour and bridge views and a lovely old pussycat. This gave us a great opportunity to explore the inner west suburbs that we don't usually see - so lots of buses, lots of shanks's pony and lots of exercise as we flitted from Pyrmont to home every few days. One of the things we've been looking forwar...

Home. Usually it's where we hang our hats, where we've parked our packs and where the electric toothbrush is plugged in. For the first time in a very long time, say 11 years, we returned home today - and what a way to do it. The ship had been threatening to dock in the secondary port, White Bay. effectively the middle of nowhere from a Sydney-sider's perspective. The night before we arrived the information was updated and we were docking at Circular Quay and S...

We were thoroughly overexcited and so happy to arrive in Hobart - Back in Australia after 18 months on the road. This was our first Australian port and unlike most foreign ports, the cruise card was not enough - we all (3000+ passengers) had to traipse off the ship, passenger card filled out and go through immigration control. The whole process bamboozled most people who just could not comprehend why they would have to do this - so anticipating chaos we raced t...

Milford Sound Cruising - in and out to see how far it is. 'Lo and behold, whatever else the ship can't manage, we are actually, definitely going to cruise Milford Sound. Wonders will never cease. The weather has finally cooled down and it was a glorious, grey, cloudy, drizzly and chilly - we even put on jeans and jumpers and our puffy jackets. We went out on deck as the ship approached the coast and spent several hours enjoying the lush greenery, mountain pea...