As today was our last day in Torquay, and as it was a hot and sunny day, we decided to go to the beach and have a swim in the Ocean. On the way, we drove to Bells Beach which is the famous surfing beach in Torquay where competitions are held. We parked in the car park at the top of the cliff and looked down at the surfers in the Ocean. In the car park there was a Backpacker Breezer van, so Mam and Dad had a closer look at the van we lived in for 3 months! We the...

This morning we had another trip to Melbourne planned, and headed off to the catch the train from Marshall after breakfast. Our first stop was going to be the Queen Victoria Market for some more souvenir shopping and lunch in the food court…but we didn't realise until we arrived that it's closed on Wednesdays (why?). Plan A scrapped, we moved straight onto lunch at a café next to the market. I tried the 'full breakfast' which was missing a hash brown and fried...

Our day trip today was to Sovereign Hill at Ballarat, which is like Beamish back home - an open-air museum of an old Goldrush town, which was on this site in the 1850s. But first, we had to make a stop at the Post Office in Torquay to send our Australia-themed Christmas cards! The drive to Ballarat took about an hour, and we were all pleased that the sun was shining. When we arrived, we paid our quite steep entry fee (well, Mam paid - thanks!) to get in and were...

Today we had a very early start (6:30am alarm!) so that we could catch the 8am train from Marshall. We arrived at Southern Cross station in the city just after 9 and headed towards our first stop of the day, the Immigration Museum…which we found didn't open until 10am! To kill time, we headed for a much-needed coffee nearby. 10 am…back to the museum! It was well worth the $10 entry fee; it contained interesting exhibits on the millions of people who've emigr...

Today we planned to do the Great Ocean Road in one day with Mam and Dad! We were so impressed with it last time and thought Mam and Dad had to see it too after coming all this way! We set off early-ish and drove through Lorne, where a triathlon was taking place (we decided not to stop there!) and parked up in Apollo Bay for a late-morning coffee and cake. After that, we drove through to the Twelve Apostles, which was quite a long drive but worth it I hope! We h...