Our train from Geelong pulled into Southern Cross Station in rainy Melbourne a little after lunchtime on Friday 22 June. We were kinda getting used to the rain now, so we just whipped out our umbrellas and carried on walking to our hostel. After checking in, we decided to explore a bit while it was still light. We walked away from the river towards a police station to get some documents certified and then saw a sign for The Block (remember the TV series where p...

We arrived at the house well after dark on Wednesday 20 June. It was cold and raining, so we hurriedly unpacked all the things from the car, got the girls into bed and and then settled down to some leftover soup for dinner. Afterwards, we sat around relaxing in the lounge drinking wine and eating some delicious cheeses with crackers. Everyone was pretty tired though and soon we all headed off to bed.Thursday we woke up, had a quick breakfast and then took a drive...

Our train from Sydney pulled into Bendigo Station a little after lunch time on Friday 15 June. We had barely put our bags down before Moniques sister, Jeannine, arrived to pick us up. We hadn't seen her and her husband, Lloyd and their two girls, Tyla and Mia, since they were back in SA for our wedding, so it was really cool to see them again. While in town, we stopped at the university library and grocery store before heading back to the farm which is about an h...

Our plane landed in Sydney at around 08:30 on Monday 11 June. None of our CouchSurfing requests had come through, so we took our time finding a place to stay. It was miserable and raining so we got a taxi straight to our hostel, where we hid from the rain for most of the day. The hostel was called Maze and it sure lived up to its name. It was the biggest we've ever been in - hundreds of rooms all connected by identical looking corridors - so easy to get lost. Lat...

Our flight got in to Brisbane late on Saturday 2 June. We didn't have any issues at customs so we got through the whole process pretty quickly. As the arrivals doors slid open it was so great to see Jan and Ian waiting for us on the other side - some familiar faces from home :-) Dave & Jan and kids are good family friends from Cape Town who emigrated to Australia a few years ago and they so kindly offered to host us for our time in Brisbane. Dave drove us hom...