Cairns and Northern Queensland We left a slightly damp and dull Sydney (only Ricky Ponting would be stupid enough to bat first on a green pitch on such a day) to fly to tropical Cairns in Queensland. The contrast was immediate and stark, obviously it was much warmer but the noticeable difference was how quiet and deserted the city was compared to Sydney. It was a refreshing change. Although Cairns is on the coast it doesn't have a proper beach instead there ...

New Year in Sydney We were sorry to leave Melbourne after having enjoyed the Christmas period so much, but on the 29th December we flew to Sydney for New Year. We made the short journey from the airport to Coogee to our supposed luxury apartment that we had pre-booked prior to beginning our trip as a treat midway through our travels. We were severely disappointed to find that the apartment was no more than a hotel room with a microwave. This represented our b...

Christmas in Melbourne On arriving in Melbourne we met up with David's second cousin Annie and her family, Mark, Paris, Oscar and Harpo, who were kind enough to take us in for the Christmas period. That afternoon we headed up one of Melbourne's landmarks, the Eureka Tower for some fantastic views over the city - a great way to get our bearings. It also gave David his first opportunity to take some close up photos of the Melbourne Cricket Ground (or 'The G' as...

Adelaide to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road Happy Christmas! Another early start saw us arrive back in Adelaide at midday to collect our hire car. As the temperatures hit 40 degrees we chose (sensibly) to stay in the relative comfort or at least bearable environment of our air conditioned car and get as far as we could (and yes, we do know it has been snowing at home!) Our first night was spent in the pretty seaside town of Robe where we stayed in one of ...

Kangaroo IslandAfter an early start we arrived on Kangaroo Island tired (and in my case a little seasick) but the scenery and the immediate relax feel made us instantly pleased that we had decided to come here.We made a brief stop on the hours bus journey across the island as the bus driver had to drop off the mail that had come on the ferry from the mainland. Sometimes you forget that there are really places that run like that.After booking ourselves on a bus to...