We have bought a hop on hop off bus pass that allows us to travel between Melbourne and Cairns and make as many stops as we like. Our first journey was a nice long one between Melbourne and Canberra which took 9 hours! Some friends of Kate's aunt had very kindly offered to put us up during our stay, so when we arrived they collected us from the bus station and took us up to Mount Ainslie which gives a panoramic view of the city. The city is a big contrast to Melbourne. You can see the major buildings (mostly museums and parliament), the pink ANZAC parade which looks a bit like the mall in London, and the rest is green as there are so many trees.

It was luxury to be staying in an actual house with our own rooms that night compared to sharing a dorm with 6 strangers! The next day we visited the war memorial which gave an interesting insight into the conflicts Australia have been involved in. Definitely worth a visit. We also invested in an Australian SIM card for our phones so we can contact each other and Aussie friends for free! That evening Martin and Amal (our host couple) took us to look for wild kangaroos as we hadn't seen any yet! We saw loads relaxing in the sun and one even had a Joey. They then brought us along to a local trivia night. Unbelievably our team won! I'm not see how as 2 of the rounds were very Australian related however we did learn some interesting Aussie facts, for example Newcastle is the 7th biggest city.

We spent our last day on Canberra with an American girl our age who had moved there 7 months ago who had been at trivia the previous night. We had the most amazing breakfast, a filled croissant dripping in maple syrup, and then visited parliament. Martin and Amal were driving to Sydney that night for the weekend anyway so very kindly offered us a lift and dropped us right outside our hostel. A lovely couple of days living in luxury!