Im sure your all itching to know why exactly we were pulled over by the police... we were happily cruising through South Australia (2 hours from the Victoria Border) when a cop pulled us over for have an "obscured numberplate" (which is only illegal in SA), we have our bikes on the back and have done since we had the van but this cop was obviously having a bad day and fined us $359 on the spot, we later discovered that this is a dollar for everyday we will have been in the country! moral of the story don't drive through SA when they have just lost their chance at the Grand Final in Aussie Rules Footy! We live and learn.

After selling our home, Froane in Melbourne, we put the money in the bank and started to look forward to the next leg of our travels.

We flew to Perth to meet Mum/Jo for a three week holiday (after noting seeing her for a year) filled with sun baking, seeing the sites, and tasting the wines and beers WA has to offer.

During our stay we saw all of the local sites such as Hilary's Marina; Subiaco, a chilled out suburb for shopping and coffee; Trigg Point, which has good surf and was a 30 sec walk from Johns house; and finally Fremantle which has great little markets and the famous Little Creatures Brewery which was definite highlight.

We spent a day bike riding around Rottnest Island which is an Island 30 minutes ferry ride west of Perth. It has some stunning views and beautiful bays, the water was extremely clear, however the water temperature proved to be a bit of a shock. In general the island is still pretty untouched, however there was a subway to our dismay.

A highlight was going down to Margaret River were Australia arguably gets some of its best surf. Right on que the swell built to 10 ft, the wind turned offshore and the clouds parted, to make way for some of the best surf we have seen on the trip. Unfortunately I decided I valued my life and that the first place we stopped was out of my league. However later on that day we found some slightly more sheltered beaches that were just as good and I got some of the best waves of the trip. So other than that Margaret River is famous for wineries which meant that Jo and John were in there element, cheap good wine and great views. All in all we had a great trip down the coast and we owe a big thanks to John for driving us, and putting up with me asking to be taxied between different beaches to get better surf. Thanks John...

In between visiting all of these sights we were spoilt by peoples hospitality, with Marilyns friends inviting us around for dinner every night of the week, i think i doubled my body weight during our stay. However i wont complain as I got to eat a great home cooked Roast thanks to Jo plus her famously good Lemon Flan.... whoopy.. All in all we had a great trip and need to say a big thankyou to Marilyn for helping organise the whole thing and making it possible. Thank you Marilyn...

We are now back in Melbourne, awaiting the arrival of Nick and Con (Soph's sister and boyfriend). Our last week consists Melbourne Cup celebrations, a 4 day road trip down the Great Ocean Road and Grampians then its bye bye Australia and HELLO New Zealand. Dave and I both have jobs lined up and start immediately at Waimarino Adventure Park